What is Viral Marketing, and is it dangerous? In a technical world where even a whisper of the word "virus" can send people scampering to shut down their computers for fear of contracting some sort of off beat mega virus that will cause major havoc with their files, viral marketing may sound sinister, but it really isn't. At it simplest level, viral marketing is a type of techno word-of-mouth. It's a type of marketing that encourages others to pass on your marketing message free of charge.

By offering a free product, service or even a great joke, you can get people all over the world to promote your product or services by emailing your message to their friends, talking about it on their favorite blog sites, websites, and more. Best of all, it's a great way to reach thousands of people every day ' for free!

How do you get started? The strategy is simple: give away free services; attach a simple tag line on the bottom of every message sent out to advertise your 'free' product; watch as others forward it to their mailing lists who also sign up for their freebie, only to send it along to their email friends. Before long you have the biggest mailing list of potential customers you'll ever need.

A viral marketing campaign is simple to implement if you follow these simple guidelines:

-Give something away for free (services, products, etc) that's too good to pass up - this is what draws attention and entices people to pass your message on.

-Provide easy transfer to others ' simplify your message so it can be forwarded with ease. If it takes too much time and energy, people won't do it.

-Exploit human wants and behaviors ' the key to viral marketing is to make people think they're missing out on something unless they follow through with spreading your message. Everyone wants to be part of the newest and greatest. Build on those common motivations to build momentum for your project.

-Uses existing networks - learn to place your message into existing communications (blogs, chats, etc.) and watch your response multiply

Use others' resources - use other people's resources to spread the word about your product or service. Offer a free article to a variety of affiliate programs with your website link attached, or use well-placed press releases to quickly (and inexpensively) market your project. Using others' websites to generate traffic on your own is a very simple and inexpensive strategy that enables you to reach thousands more people than you may have otherwise.

Viral marketing is a specialized form of business marketing that enables virtually anyone to get an unlimited amount of exposure for their business, website, service or product. The key is to generate enough excitement, that anyone who reads your message will feel compelled to pass it along to everyone on their email mailing list! You just can't buy advertising like that!