6 Ideas for Viral Marketing

Here are six ideas to help you start your viral marketing campaign:

 

1. Purchase the branding rights to a viral E-book. Allow people to give away your free E-book to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the Internet.

 

2. If you have the ability to set up a forum or other bulletin board, you really have a great tool. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own website. Some people don't have one. Just include your banner ad at the top of the board.

 

3. Do you have a knack for web design? Create some templates, graphics, etc. and upload them to your site. Then, allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site. Make sure that you include a link back to your site in the copyright notice and require them to keep your copyright notice in tact.

 

4. Write an E-book. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free E-book if, in exchange, they give away the E-book to their web visitors or E-zine subscribers.

 

5. Write articles that pertain to your product or service. Allow people to reprint your articles on their website, in their E-zine, newsletter, magazine or E-books. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.

 

6. You can easily find products on the Internet that will sell you a license allowing you to distribute the product free of charge to other people. Look for those products that provide "branding rights". That is where you can include your own name, website, and contact information.

 

Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-books

It is a well-known and widely accepted fact, that E-books - FREE E-books - are one of the best weapons in a viral marketing campaign arsenal. Here are four good reasons why this is true today and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future:

 

Reason 1

E-books are cheap to produce and don’t take long to set up. If you have articles that you have already written about the subject you are promoting, you can simply combine these articles into an E-book. If, on the other hand, writing isn’t your forte, you can use re-brandable E-books that have been produced by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search for “re-brandable E-books”. You will get a lot of hits and have many to choose from. One way to distribute these E-books to visitors to your website is to give them as a free gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If your E-book contains material that people will want to share with their friends and family, they will pass it along to them - they will pass it along to others - and you will make money. 

 

Reason 2

E-books are capable of reaching a large audience. The only limiting factor is the enthusiasm or the participants. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that your E-book contain something that people will want to share like timely information or humor. Remember that people like to know something that the rest of the world needs to know. They will pass along something that makes them look like they are in-the-know. 

 

Reason 3

E-books are a way to sell other products other than the one you originally targeted. For example; if you are selling garden products, your customers could also be interesting in E-books about lawns, trees landscaping, etc.

 

Reason 4

E-books are effective in building your reputation. It is an implied recommendation if you give a quality E-book and users willing pass on to others.

 

What an E-book Can Do for You

An E-book that includes your marketing message and a link to your website is a proven technique in viral marketing. This method uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the distribution of your message by willing participants.

 

This is the basic principle that was used by Hotmail to get established. When the two founders set up their free email system, all the messages that were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which identified Hotmail as the origin. People who sent emails to their friends advertised the free email site. 

 

Using viral E-books as a marketing method is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s even quicker if you use re-brandable E-books that have been written by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search. You will find many re-brandable E-books that are available on whatever subject you are interested in and that apply to your e-business. One method of distributing the E-book is to offer it to visitors in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to their friends and family it will promote your business for you. 

 

E-books are capable of reaching a large audience and are limited only by the enthusiasm of the participants. 

 

E-books are fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your own E-books by combining articles that you have written or have gotten from public domain sources, such as directories.

 

A common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a portion of a larger work that you have prepared such as the first three chapters of a large E-book could also be used as a viral E-book.

 

What Works & What Doesn't in Viral Marketing

Stop with the enforced e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info to a friends or family in order to be rewarded or win looks skanky in today's ultra-permission-based world. Especially when you tell visitors nothing about their friend's or family’s privacy in the space directly next to the e-mail form. 

 

A true viral campaign gets forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the glory of the content, not because you bribed them with points or something else. 

 

What absolutely will not work:

 

Suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and family will not work. Adding a line at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Please feel free to forward this message to a friend” is more likely to get it deleted than forwarded. 

 

What absolutely will work: 

 

Offering something worthy of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information or offering an incentive for sharing like additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or premium service will work. 

 

Relevant or timely information, research, or studies that are included in your e-mail might encourage the recipients to share with their family and friends. Interactive content like a quiz or test, especially if it’s fun, will inspire forwarding.

 

Jokes and cartoons are almost always forwarded to everybody the recipient knows. Why? Because they are entertaining and entertainment is meant to be shared.

 

A really cool multimedia experience is always going to achieve a lot of pass-along. Rich media is new and the novelty and tech factors alone are often enough to make the e-mail recipient eager to share it.

 

Oops! Almost forgot one really important thing - You can craft a brilliant e-mail following all the rules, but if a consumer visits your site and has an experience less that what was promised, you are going to achieve viral marketing, alright - the bad kind. So be certain that your product or service is ready and is as advertised.

 

Not Attaining Spirituality Leads to Suffering of Modern Man

We have the common person who is so caught in the circle of ignorance, poverty and illiteracy that he does not have any time to learn the moralities of life. But then, how can a man know about religion, God or focus on soul when he is on an empty stomach? Yet, it is the poor who still have some vestige of humanness and goodness in them. Even today, they consider a guest as a messenger of God and treat him as such, sharing magnanimously whatever little they have. Many city dwellers must have experience to selfless concern of a poor when in trouble. There is so much wisdom in their words, though they are illiterate perhaps, struggle for survival teaches them invaluable lessons. 

 

Where will these mindless pursuit of transient think lead? With these, man cannot be happier or peaceful. Today everyone complains of degeneration of values and corruption in all lifestyles. However, nobody seems to be prepared to break away from it and make a fresh beginning. Corruption has become a chronic future of our times, so much so that pupil has started treating it as a normal future. They no longer show righteous indication against corrupt practices, fights in justice of express any shock when cruel or inhuman acts are committed against their brethren. They choose to remain apathetic or give vent to important rage in the comfort of their drawing room chairs. However, there can be no hope for man if the present trend continues and man remains insensitive to the needs of others. Unless there is a revival of spiritual and moral values, this trend will continue and man will become very shallow. 

 

Modern man has dug his own grave by rejecting the moral and spiritual values upheld in the ancient scriptures of the whole world. Bible, Adi Granth, Ramayana, Bhagavad Geeta all contain pearls of wisdom which man has disdainfully rejected. Money has become God. It is to the sound of money that man responds and not the chiming of bells in the churches, temples, etc., which were once considered the above of God. 

 

Today, Faustus has universal significance. The people of today’s age have temptations all around. Everyone falls prey to these temptations. However, it is only after a certain time passes do they realize that uselessness of these materialistic things. Due to this, people of today commit so much sin, evil and corruption. The future of humanity is really in the hands of those who can bring about a reawakening of man’s higher consciousness. 

 

Optimistic Attitude = Happy Life

Living is an art and the most complicated art as it is based upon the scientific application of the good principles of living, which govern the behavior and attitude of a human being. Life has various aims for various people – to some it is just an empty dream; to others it is a zeal and pleasure. Life may be fulfilling of one’s duties. Life may also be an adventure. Some live just for enjoyment. They like to eat and be merry without caring for tomorrow, which they think may not come. For them life is not a serious journey through years, it is a light comedy; at least that is what is they wish it to be. In real life, however, very few people can enjoy so easily as life is not just a bed of roses, it has many thorns too. Life is a comedy as well as a tragedy. In fact, these are two faces of life to be faced as they come and go. 

 

Most of the people are always grumbling for one thing or other and they are dissatisfied with life; some people complain of lack of money while others suffer from ill health. Even the richest man may have something to feel unhappy about. Life has become so complicated that only children can enjoy pure laughter, all other have some worry or other. Everyone is busy and over busy all the time. Except in villages where nature continues to play a dominant role in the routine life of man, everyone is in a hurry to do one thing or other. 

 

An optimist is definitely a much better fighter in the battle of life than a pessimist is. Optimists are always positively inclined. Brave is the man who takes comedies and tragedies alike as they come and go. In fact, that is the attitude of life that can bring maximum success to a man. One should always remember the basic principle of Gita, “Do your duties and leave the result to God. “The greatest of men have practiced this principle and tasted real success in life. The point that you have to remember is keep your expectations low, only then you can feel the satisfaction and content after achieving success. This attitude keeps the mind free from cares, worries and botherations. Therefore, it is advisable to live life to the present, learn from your pasts, and look forward to the future with a positive outlook. 

 

Spiritual Deprivation of Modern Man and Its Consequences

Man has become too preoccupied in the pursuit of material things. Money is the end in itself and not a means to an end. This excessive urge for materialistic gains has made him ignore the spiritual and moral aspect of life. He considers them obsolete and unproductive. Today, man is motivated to do something only if he is assured of reasonable profit. He has no time or inclination to pause for some time and ask himself where it is leading him. Such is the present social environment that even a child cannot remain unaffected by it. It is so easy to console a child with a promise of a gift and divert his mind from something parents have no patience to deal with. 

 

Life has become so mechanical. A child, until he becomes an adult, is pressurized every moment to excel and become skillful so that he does not lag behind in his studies. He is not given any lesson in the art of living. The total stress is on the art of how to earn a living. Therefore, from a very tender age, young minds become warped due to the obsessive preoccupation of the adults with security. Undoubtedly, there are certain basic physical needs cannot be met without money, hence the need to prepare for a means of livelihood. However, man is not merely a creature who will be content with getting food, shelter and clothing; he was also a soul, which needs to be nurtured. 

 

Nevertheless, today it is a pity that the spiritual aspect of the personality is totally ignored. No wonder that the youth feel so restless, demoralized and disillusioned! We have already seen how the young in the Western countries are turning towards East for solace and spiritual comfort. They experience a sense of ennui and feel impatient with the preoccupation of their parents with work and money. It is largely due to the disillusionment of such people that men like Rajneesh, Mahesh Yogi, who promise salvation and spiritual regeneration, have such a large flowing but escaping from the realities of life is not the solution. 

 

The present education system and the attitude of the parents are largely responsible for the state of affairs. It is a fact that today education is important in inculcating spiritual and moral values and parents in urban areas are too preoccupied with their own lives to pay attention of the growing children. Consequently, children feel a lack of sense of direction and fall easy prey to drugs and other vices at an early age. Thus, there are many consequences if one does not attain the spiritualism right from childhood. 

 

When Things Go Wrong—Are They Failures or Opportunities?

Many people try new ideas and when they don’t go well for them, they give up and feel like failures. Others, after trying new ideas and failing refuse to give up and continue to try and many of them succeed, and those who don’t just enjoy the experience and turn their hands to something else. 

 

Why do some people choose to make the most of the experience no matter what the result may be and others rate it a failure if things don’t go well? The answer is an optimistic attitude to every experience in life. Successes are achievements enjoyed today and failures are learning tools for future experiences. There are no failures; they are simply steps towards future successes. 

 

Learning to laugh at our mistakes and to dream big dreams are two very important characteristics that optimists develop that enable them to look at something that some may call as a failure as a learning opportunity. When we take our selves too seriously, we are more likely to think of our failures as permanent and they often attack our sense of self-worth. When we can focus on our other successes and see this as a setback that we can laugh at and continue to dream of success next time we maintain our optimism. 

 

So how do we deal with failure so we can see it as a learning tool for the future? 

 

1.  Challenge what you think of success and failure. It’s our perception of them that makes us see failure as negative and success as positive. Failure is simply part of the journey to success, the ultimate destination. 

 

2.  When you feel a failure because of a poor result or outcome, set yourself goals immediately, deciding how to continue your journey to success. The old, but familiar saying of “climb back on your horse immediately after you fall off” is based on this concept.

 

3.  Look at a failure from the perspective of the big picture, not the small picture. You may have not achieved the outcome you wanted, but you did achieve. Make a list of all the things you learned and gained from the experience and celebrate those things. They are achievements, it is not one complete failure, but many small achievements and they deserve to be celebrated.

 

Failure is about opportunity and embracing failure as opportunity helps to eliminate failure from your vocabulary helping you to stay optimistic and find success in everything you do.

 

Who Are Your Companions?

If you want to be optimistic and practice positive thinking, you must look carefully at the people you are spending your time with. Do you spend most of your time with people who are optimistic and cheerful or do you spend most of your time, with those who are negative and who tend to be pessimistic when things don’t go well?

 

Optimists help us to feel optimistic about things. Even when facing a major problem, optimists can dream of a better tomorrow and continue to put their efforts into achieving their goals and dreams and don’t allow failures to interfere with them. By being around each other, people with an optimistic outlook on life don’t usually allow negative thoughts and feelings be expressed around them. 

 

To be optimistic does not mean you deny feeling emotional about things that affect you or your world. Optimists don’t smile all the time, neither do they never cry or feel sad when things don’t go right. Optimistic thinking is simply remaining positive and accepting that failure is part of succeeding. This positive attitude is the gift that optimists can give each other. 

 

Optimistic people are often more successful than pessimistic people because they are willing to take risks. Because failures are stepping-stones to success, risk taking becomes easy for an optimistic person because they believe that ultimately, they will achieve success, even if there are a few hurdles to overcome along the way. 

 

Optimistic thinking about failures also helps people to problem solve, and being around optimistic people mean they are likely to be successful in their work places and family lives, because they can see a problem as something to be solved, not relegated to failure status. 

 

Many people wonder if optimism is something that is learned as a child, and whilst it is true that some people are naturally optimistic, most people learn to be optimistic because of life experiences. Therefore, if you are naturally pessimistic, being around optimistic people will help you to learn how to be optimistic as you learn from them and watch them as they react and respond to difficult situations. 

 

Anyone can find their experiences and reactions to things will improve with a little optimism infused into their lives. Dream big dreams and be around people who dream big dreams. The majority of them achieve their dreams because they push on until they achieve them. Many of the multimillion-dollar companies began as the dreams of optimists and those who shared their dreams shared their successes, or went on to create their own success.