Viral Marketing: The Infection
Viral marketing is a way marketers can take advantage of pre-existing social networks to get a message out there using self-replicating viral processes which are very similar to the process a physical virus or computer virus would spread; it is like the plague online.

Viral marketing is a low cost compared to something like direct mail, and the excellent targeting and great response rates. The strongest point when marketing virally is the ability to reach tons of interested people for next to nothing out of pocket. It is a fantastic alternative to this classic method while avoiding spam mail; by encouraging your readers to spread the word for you in a positive way.

6 Ways of Infection

1. You can carry out your viral marketing campaign by creating e-books, reports or articles and distribute them to targeted recipients, giving them for free.
2. Offer high quality products that spread your marketing message. Write well-researched reports and e-books on your niche and add your URL on these reports. Bear in mind that many people like getting free reports and e-books. These e-books will provide very powerful information on your topic, and people who read them will visit your website. Further distribution of your reports and e-book will result in more traffic to your website as well as increased awareness of your business or brand.
3. You can also offer a free service or product on your web site that spreads your message to an increasing number of people who hear about it. Send out news releases concerning the free service or product available on your site. This in turn will generate huge volumes of traffic to your website.
4. Setting up an affiliate program that encourages links to your products can also be helpful. If you can afford it, provide attractive financial incentive for other sites to pass on your marketing message. You can also install a ‘Recommend it” referral system on your website so that other internet marketers will pass on your website address to their lists. By having your own affiliates promoting your website, you drive a lot of traffic to your website.
5. Use traffic exchange programs where you exchange website links with other internet marketers. When you add your website link to another site, some people may be interested in it, and they may bookmark it or pass it on to other people who may be interested in your niche.
6. Write good quality articles and encourage other webmasters to post them for free as content on their sites. If you’re an expert in a niche, write an article on that niche and give it away for free to complementary sites to post on their site as free content. Write high quality articles and distribute them online for free with reprinting rights. More directories, newsletters and e-zines will publish your article with your resource box and URL. With little effort, your URL will be distributed all over the internet, and this will lead to a huge flow of traffic to your website.

Use the power of viral marketing to spread your marketing message all over the internet and drive high volumes of traffic to your website.