It sounds like a sickness which of course thought of as a bad thing, however, in the world of marketing being "viral" is definitely a desirable quality. When you think about how viruses operate in your computer or in your body, you know that once you get one it just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. There's virtually no stopping it.

Now just apply that same rationale to online marketing, considering that exponential multiplication is exactly what you would like to see happen. Imagine writing an eBook or report and giving away copies to several of your friends, who in turn give it away to several of their friends?, you get the idea. It will spread across the internet like a weed! Before you know it your work will have been exposed to hundreds of people.

Before writing your report or eBook make sure to carefully plan your strategy, making sure that your piece comprehensively explains the dire need that your potential reader is sure to have for the product or service that you are trying to sell. Include your affiliate links and watch what happens! With the right marketing approach you will see growth from places on the internet that you have never even heard of before.

Like anything else, viral marketing has a downside. Affiliate links and codes are often stolen and modified in an effort to rob you of your commission. Fortunately, just as is the case with any virus, there are remedies. There are a few options available to combat this issue. You can either purchase cloaking software or you can simply use a redirected link. If you need help with this just email me and I'll be happy to show you how this is done.

Cloaking does two things; it hides the enormously long affiliate links that are assigned to you, and it conceals your affiliate code from would be thieves.

Even with this downside the advantages to viral marketing clearly outweigh the disadvantages.

So how do you make it viral?

Let other people spread your report or eBook around the net for you. A well written article, report or eBook spreads like wildfire on the net. You will want to offer your piece for free, it'll spread faster. Give it away to your website visitors. Set it up on an auto responder to deliver automatically, then put a link at the resource box in your article marketing. Put it in your sig files when you post on forums or in your emails. Send it to ezines and ask them if they'd like to use it as content. Make sure to grant permission for anyone to use your report as content for their own website or blog, or as a free gift to their visitors. However, make sure to make it clear the original content can not be altered in any way. The more you give away the more it will be passed on, which of course means the more your links will be clicked on, the more sales you will make.

Because this marketing approach works so well for me, I use it almost exclusively to market all of my affiliate links as well as my gpt (get paid to) referral links. I've often had people tell me that they don't think they can write reports or articles. I have a simple solution for this. I belong to a PLR (Private Label Rights) membership club. They have thousands of articles written on just about any subject that you can imagine. You are permitted to use these articles, and claim them as your own in any way, other than selling them. Although the PLR club that I belong to hosts excellent articles, I would not recommend using them without altering them. Although you're allowed to do this, the same article may be already published on the internet. I use these articles as a starting point, a way to get my creative juices flowing. In fact even though I do like writing, I use this method anyway because it jump starts my writing. I'm able to write 3 to 4 times as many articles or reports in this way. It's well worth the $25 that I pay for it. That translates into an enormous profit to me. Check my blog if you'd like more information on PLR sites and using PLR articles.

Don't be afraid to jump out there and become a webmaster or an author, or better yet both. Information is a hot commodity on the internet. When marketed virally, nature takes it's course and it spreads.

When this viral effect kicks in, the only thermometer you'll be using is to make sure your pina coladas are cold.