If you wouldn't mind indulging me a moment, I'd like you to think about a virus. What does a virus have to do with anything of interest to you? Well, a virus is something that enters the body as a microscopic germ and spreads until it virtually takes things over. Doesn't that sound like the perfect internet marketing campaign? How would an internet germ get through? You can start a viral marketing germ with a free tool, service, template or report, and if conditions are correct it can spread like wildfire. This article will share a few ideas about how offering a free product can perform wonders for your online business.

It is a well known fact that everyone loves free stuff. If the free stuff is something useful like a tool, template, service or valuable information, then so much the better. But many of us have a large section of our hard drives full of things we've downloaded for free and will never use. The original idea seemed good and we probably exchanged our email addresses for these bits of hard drive clutter, but something about them just didn't pan out. Maybe they weren't what we expected.

So if you're going to give away something free, and your motive is for it to create a viral marketing effect and be passed around the internet, you're more likely to be successful if you give away something that's really useful. What can people within your market really use? If your free giveaway is just some gimmick or even worse just an attempt to sell another product, it isn't going to get passed around.

But even if you do offer a true quality giveaway, what will make it go viral? You could have the greatest free tool which anyone can use, but what is going to make anyone take the time to pass it on to a friend? Can you simply ask them to? Maybe, but what if you gave a real reason to pass it?

Are there any affiliate links in the product? It may seem like this only applies to an ebook or report, but sometimes a tool will have a link to the author's web site. A free template will usually have a link somewhere around the copyright notice. What if these links were to an affiliate program, and what if the person who passed your free offer on could replace the link with their own affiliate link? Wouldn't it motivate someone to pass on a nice tool or template if they thought they might make a little money from it?

If you want someone to perform an action for you, you've got to show that person what is in it for him/her.