And the Buzz Goes On – How to Use Viral Marketing

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of how you can use viral marketing to help get a buzz going about your small business, let's start with a definition of exactly what "viral marketing" means.

According to the Wikipedia, "Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.

Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even text messages."

If you've ever had a hotmail, yahoo or G-mail account, you've participated in a viral marketing campaign every time you sent an email to someone – because the company inserted a small (and usually discreet advertisement) at the bottom of all of your outgoing emails – inviting the people you were communicating with to receive their own free email account.

So how can you put a viral marketing campaign together for your own business – and more importantly, do you even want to?

Let me answer that second question first, okay? YES! You definitely want to take the time to brainstorm your own viral marketing campaign – even if you don't someday want to be as big as hotmail, yahoo or Gmail.

Why? Because according to a recent survey done by Forrester Research, people are almost 65% more likely to trust a review posted by a peer – or even a complete stranger – than they are to trust the marketing or sales information put out by the company.

Don't believe me? Check out Amazon.com and I-tunes. Why is this the case? Because as consumers we tend to think that the average "Joe Blow" has less of a personal agenda when posting his review about the latest "Dixie Chicks" album and so we give it more weight.

And, by the way, this is a normal reaction – it's one that's kind of hard-wired into all of us. People have always shared the things they like – or hate – with their friends and family members. Back in the 50's and 60's, our grandparents used to talk to their neighbors over the "back fence," call each other on the phone or tell their friends during lunch. The difference is, these days we use the Internet and cell phones.

What's interesting though, is that with the popularity of the Internet, our trust - and believe in "social proof" – has become even stronger.

By creating your own viral marketing campaign, you'll be doing more than getting the word out about your new affiliate product. You'll be gathering social proof – and that will help your sales to go through the roof.

So how do you set up your own viral marketing campaign? The first thing to do is to get back to the basics.

Here's the real "secret" to making a lot of money with affiliate products. Have the right product, with the right message to the right people in the right time.

So start with your affiliate product. Make sure that there's a hungry audience for whatever you're selling.

Then make sure that you're sending out the right message – an in the right way. If you're marketing a product to teens, you'll want to make sure that it's something they want – and you'll have to reach them where they're hanging out. That might be on MySpace, twitter or even Friendster.

What's the right message? Maybe it's a special report. But it could just as easily be a video. Or an audio mp3 file. Match your message to your audience. And finally, make sure that you're getting your message out at the right time – when your audience is ready to buy it.

Make your viral marketing campaign stand out from the crowd – because that's how it's going to get passed around and become viral. By understanding the basics – who your audience is, what they want, how they want to get it and when they want it – all you have to do next is to create something that your audience loves – or hates – or finds interesting enough – to pass around to their friends. And because your product comes with an implied endorsement – social proof – those people will pass it around to other people – and the buzz goes on…and on…and on…and you'll start hearing the "ka-ching!" of your cash register going off a lot more often

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Affiliate Marketing Basics: Let’s Talk About Traffic

Affiliate Marketing Basics: Let’s Talk About Traffic

When you’re just getting starting in Affiliate Marketing, one of the most important things you need to learn about is traffic – specifically what it is and how to get it.

Why?

Because although it’s become somewhat of a cliche these days, the truth is, “the money is in the list” – but that means YOUR list, not the list of the people whose products you’re selling – at least not if you want to be successful.

Here’s why. As an affiliate, your job is to find people who want to buy the products you’re promoting, right? So to do that, you need to write an ad (or hire a copywriter to write it for you), and send people to a Website where they can buy the product.

BUT – there’s a serious problem with using this method. Do you see what it is?

Anywhere from 60 to 95% of the people you send to the sales page probably aren’t going to buy the first time.

1. Most people want to be certain that they’re making the right decision, so they usually need to see or hear from you between 5 to 12 times before making a buying decision.

2. If you’re paying for the ad and sending people to the seller’s Website, the ones who don’t buy disappear forever. (And neither you nor the seller will benefit.)

3. Of those who do buy, if you’re only sending them to the sales page, YOU still lose them forever because you have no way of knowing who they are.

Here’s the solution:

1. Write your ad and send prospects to a well-written squeeze page – YOUR squeeze page. (A squeeze page is a single page Website that has one purpose – to convince prospects to give you their contact information. Squeeze pages should be simple – no flash, no links, and if you use a graphic or photo, keep it simple and make sure it relates to the purpose of the page. How do you convince prospects to give you their contact information? By giving them information that is what they’re expecting to find and that’s useful to them.)

2. Offer them an incentive to give you their contact information. (This could be a free report, a free newsletter, an audio or video product – just make sure it’s related to the niche or affiliate product.)

3. After they’ve opted in to your autoresponder, send them to your affiliate sales page.

4. Follow up with them on a regular basis – mixing good information, free bonuses from time to time and additional affiliate products.

Lather, rinse, repeat. (Once you’re making money from your first affiliate product, move on to the next and then the next and the next.)

The best thing about this is that you can set most of it up on your autoresponder, so you turn it into a “system” and it runs “almost” on autopilot. (There is NO SUCH THING as a business that runs 100% on autopilot – and don’t believe anyone who tells you differently.) Any business – real business – takes work and effort. But by setting this system up this way, your autoresponder does the majority of the work, and you will only need to do simple updates and make sure you keep fresh information flowing.

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5 Easy Ways to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales

5 Easy Ways to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales

Once you've written your E-Book, got your Website up and integrated your shopping cart, you can sit back and start waiting for the money to come rolling in, right?

WRONG!

These days it's getting harder than ever before to be able to get people to notice you – and just because "you build it" doesn't mean they're going to come.

So what's an author to do?

Actually, thanks to all the tools that are available to you – including Web 2.0 – marketing your book – and ramping up your sales – is not as hard as you might think.

In fact, here are a few ideas to get your juices flowing. Add them to your sales plan, and use them as a jumping off place to help you make even more sales.

Create a long-term plan before you write even one word of your first book. The truth of the matter is that you're probably never going to get rich from writing one E-book. So before you start writing your first book, start thinking about your second book. And the first product that will tie into your first book. And the second. And then the third.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Come up with as many different income streams as you can and plan to build them into your plan. For example, can you create a workbook from your E-book? What about recording some audio files that go into further details or give more information. What about doing a joint venture with other experts in your industry?

Sell more books at one time. If your book covers any one of a number of popular subjects – self-help or development, home improvement, business, religion – there are probably corporations, organizations or niche markets that are always on the look-out for inexpensive gifts or bonuses for their employees, clients or associates. Your book could be just the ticket. Although you might have to go down in price – what do you think sounds better? Selling one or two books at a time or selling box loads of them?

Once you've built up your credibility as a published author, it's time to take things to the next level. Have you ever dreamed of attending seminars or workshops as a presenter? What about having a speaking career and being flown all over the world speaking to people in your niche market? If you don't like traveling or crowds, consider putting together teleseminars or holding intimate bootcamps.

Create joint ventures. This is the fastest and easiest way to leverage your expertise and start raking in the cash. Find people who are in similar – but not competing industries as yours. Explore ways for you to provide value to both of your customers while you're cross-selling or upselling. For example, if you own a restaurant, what about creating a special Valentine's Day promotion with the local florist. Offer free drinks or desserts to any of the florist's customers who bring in a special card (that you've provided to them) when they come to your restaurant. And your joint venture partner (the florist) gives you roses or carnations that can be given out to any women when their companion gives you the special dessert card. See how simple that is? Real value that makes your customers happy, and builds loyalty and trust – and positions both of you as the first people your customers think of when they need flowers or want a romantic restaurant or a place to eat during a special occasion.

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
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Viral Ads Unleashed: Does Viral Ads Unleashed Really Work?

That's the exact same question I asked myself when I first heard about it. It sounded great, it made a lot of promises about how it would send waves of targeted traffic to your website, and increase profits, while lowering advertising cost.

And if you're like me, I was a bit cautious, because I had heard all of this before. And to be completely honest, I didn't believe a word of it. But since I routinely test new products, I decided to give it a try...

And guess what?

It works!

I mean, I was really shocked. After I joined, I just knew that I was going to have to delete my membership because so many other products and services had failed to live up to their hype...

But Viral Ads Unleashed is different.

Here's how:

It uses the power of viral advertising to explode many different traffic-generating sources that sends customers to your website like clock work.

By using this strategy, you'll build a strong, personal, and professional reputation online, while creating plenty of visibility for you and your business...

And it drives a ton of new visitors to your website, resulting in a huge increase in profits!

Well, it did for me.

What I like most about it is that it advertises your sites in many different ways all rolled up in one package.

I've never seen anything like it, so in my book, I give it a thumbs up!

Go watch the video and see for yourself at Viral Ads Unleashed.