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February 3, 2008
There are a couple of ways within the viral marketing concept in which you can boost your website promotion online, the good being - the most of these viral methods discussed here are absolutely free.
First Tip: Email Signature
You can put this this simple, free marketing tool to work to your advantage. Most people do not how to maximize the full capacity of their exposure potential. Signatures are an excellent viral method, if effectively used.
As you already know, most email programs will allow you to create a signature that can be attached to every message you want to send. Make sure to add the signature to all your outgoing emails.
Include a catchy phrase tagline and add a separator like a dotted or squiggly line between the email message and your signature. It will set it off from the text and also decrease the chances of being overlooked.
Make the tagline catchphrase short, appealing and effective. Sustain from writing a long paragraph because people won’t take the time to read all that text. Here’s an example of an effective tagline:
Gifts Galore Shipped Right to Your Door…
www.giftsgaloreforyou.com
Second Tip: Customized Screensaver
This is viral trick is that is often underestimated. It might be very useful if you have a site that is geared towards entertainment.
The idea behind this is to create a simple but original screensaver that promotes your site and offers free downloads to your visitors. Picture thousands and thousands of people flashing your site’s address across their computer screens.
You may ask, now, “Why would someone want to download a screensaver advertising my site?” . That’s why you have to make the screensaver appeal to them.
The good side of this viral marketing tool is that your visitors will do all the work. Original screensavers may bring lots of fun so people will enjoy telling their friends about it. In no time, your site will start getting instant exposure…
For this strategy to be effective, it is important to create a screensaver that is related to the theme of your site.
For example, if you have a site about gardening and you offer a screensaver with pictures of various birds, it may not generate substantial interest because that’s not what your audience came to your site for. Make sure to offer screensaver that relates to what your site is about.
Third Tip: Tell a Friend- Script
This is a plain form allowing your website visitors to tell other people about your site by sending an email. Try using this viral method on your site and you will be surprised at how many people will use it.
There are some nice and fancy tell a friend scripts out there that you can install. Some can also send the referrer a “thank you” message by email. This is yet another opportunity to add a marketing message about your site.
Fourth Tip: Participate in Forums
Forums and message boards can be useful to you in a couple of different ways:
1) Many forum administrators will let you to add a signature to your posts. The more frequently you participate, the more frequently your link will be displayed throughout the forum pages.
2) Majority of forums are indexed by the search engines- if your site is found by the search engine spiders then it may help your rank in some of the search engines.
Try participating in user forums that relate to the theme of your site. If your site is on knitting, then try finding forums that cater to arts and crafts, etc.
Post as much helpful messages as you can. If you manage to build up a reputation of a forum member that people can go to for advice and suggestions, it will enhance your credibility and people may be more inclined to visit your site.
Fifth Tip: Write Articles and Allow Free Reprints
This is definitely one of the most widely used and effective viral tool online. Webmasters are always after the quality content to enhance their sites, so why not give them what they want.
Write articles on topics you are interested in (and preferably related to your site’s content) and submit/trade articles with as many sites as you can. ArticleCity.com is one of the mayor content providing websites that allows webmasters to reprint their published articles.
All you need to do is submit an article you’ve written to their site and if it’s accepted, you’ll quickly find your work of art in their directory.
Make sure ,for authorship articles published on your own website, to provide instructions for people who might want to reprint it. Either tell them to contact you or explain how to properly publish authorship work.
It will not only bring in additional hits, but it will also help building your credibility.
If done effectively, with viral marketing strategies you can really start bringing in the traffic.
Filed under: viral marketing |
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January 18, 2008
Viral marketing stands for word-of-mouth marketing. It like ZEN philosophy put into practice… Grass grow by itself… or even more like AIKIDO philosophy – based on using your partner’s energy to control him and get him where YOU WANT. Now, what it mean in terms of web marketing? Just give it a thought… instead of spending big bucks on TV commercials, newspaper and banner ads, you end up spending nothing – while your fans do all the dirty work for you. Almost too good to be true. Except for the fact that it does work.
Introduce a viral marketing strategy and your campaigns will suddenly get a life of its own – starting spreading with a geometrical progression, like a virus. Everyone wants to see it, yummy yummy, and then they cannot help their desperate need to share it. You can bet it is immensely powerful, having 500-1000 times greater impact than regular advertisements.
So, What’s the Trick?
Consider yourself privileged, for a magician rarely gives away the secrets this easily. But not this magician. And not just one trick, but SEVEN!
Prepare for takeoff:
1: EMOTIONAL INDUCTION - goes after evoking a feeling
The crucial trick of the trade is to try to create an intensive emotional response. You must have an opinion as a starting point, and then build upon it to express the idea with loads of commitment and dedication. You goal is to have people:
- be filled with strong favourable or disfavourable emotions.
- be angry and motivated to do something about it
- pass by the rational filter and go for the powerful GUT RESPONSE
- get into empathy with people, put yourself in their shoes and STEP FORWARD
Set the FIRE in the Belly. If you approach is passionate enough, the fire will spread. If done properly, The Fires of Hell will be an aqua park in comparison to the Blazing Viral Campaign of Yours.
Remember being neutral equals being invisible. In words of Dylan Thomas – Rage rage against the dying of the Light, no time for trying to please everyone – no point either. Supporting several target groups
Viral marketing is about emotions, and nothing but the EMOTIONS.
2: Pull a rabbit out of your hat – do something surprising
Self-explanatory. Want people to notice you campaign? Then, you gonna have to do something absolutely different – and I am not talking about sex change interventions. Drawling about your products being great, actually being the best on the market? Hopefully it is not your best shot, for everybody else is doing just that. On today’s market –second best is category which does not exist. And the consumers are very well aware of this inbuilt lack of objectivity. DEJA VU approach is something that is almost direct and immediate disqualification in terms of public ever hungry for new and original content. NEVER fall so low to become a copycat. Consider suicide as a more honorable alternative.
3: Trying to make an advertisement – COUNTERPRODUCTIVE is the word for you
Try it and you will have fallen prey to the Law of the Opposite Effect. It is one of the biggest and unfortunately most usual mistakes companies make when they think viral marketing is about the community of shared advertisements - it is certainly not. Traditional marketing may be about promoting your product, indicating how good and useful it is in answering your needs, putting it on the centre stage. Viral marketing is everything but that.
What is on the centre stage is a good story. When BMW started with series of BMW Films, the focal point was not the cars -but the story. You could easily introduce any other car brand in the story; it would still be a great a great story. Viral marketing is targeted at the common spots. Within this framework you need to be skilful enough to discretely and indirectly implement the object focus of your viral campaign.
4: Sequels-Follow up You Cannot Afford to Miss
You have just introduced you campaign. Everybody thinks it was original content-wise, unexpected and their emotions have reached a peak level - you are the Master of Complete Attention.
So…What’s NEXT?
You can stick to the most favorite do-nothing strategy most companies nowadays stick to, and secure yourself a fast train ticket to the Land of Oblivion. Days of Glory are shortlasting, if nod fed on the Milk of Sequel. And Sequel Milk comes in many forms:
For instance, a sequel may include extra movies similar in concept to the initial one - as was the case with BMW.
- It may include «behind the scenes » look
- Bloopers
- A blog on the process
- Additional materials, goodies and related…
Always keep your presence and let it be your credo.
5: Sharing, downloading and embedding – Everybody’s invited
Viral marketing is all about sharing. The greater capacity for sharing, the more effective your campaign. That implies that you need to allow people to:
- Download content in most common formats such as MPG and JPG
- Allow users to easily embed content on their own sites
- Forward it to their friends, either using a link or by sending the content directly
- Publishing it on numerous social networks such as Digg, YouTube etc.
- Allow users to add it the bookmarking sites
Note: Make sure not to overdo it. You certainly need to avoid cluttering up your page with millions of share me, dig this etc. icons.
6: Connect through Comments
Another vital element is connecting with your audience. Remember that you already have their attention, that they are excited and now they want to talk. Comments are one of the more effective ways for this…
However, bear in mind that the best viral marketing campaign is one that generates intense emotion. This means that some people will like it very much - while others might get very angry as well. You must include both groups in your comments, and you have to welcome both opinions. This is a bit tricky, since you absolutely must, at the same time, prevent individuals to wage war against each other.
And remember, it is considered a cardinal web sin to delete comments from people who just have a negative opinion.
7: Say NO to Access Restriction!
We have already pointed out that viral marketing is all about your campaign getting a life on its own – spreading with geometrical progression, like a virus does. In order to do that and become “viral”, it needs to be free.
NEVER RESTRICT ACCESS
Do NOT bother people:
- to register to become members
- to download software
- to enter special codes
to do anything so that they will be able to get the right link.
Viral marketing has nothing to do with exclusivity. It is about getting it out there for everybody to have and share and comment.
Viral marketing is a tool used to pass on a marketing message to others, while generating a potentially exponential growth in the message’s visibility.
Filed under: viral marketing |
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November 10, 2007
If, like many people, you want to start making money using the immense power of the Internet, you need an excellent website. Far too many people entering the online business, though, want to cut corners by designing their own website. This can be a grave mistake, and contributes to many online failure stories. If you want to be a success, you need to hire a web design company because:
1) A web design company can provide you with consulting services. The professionals at most web site design companies have seen a number of businesses come and go. They can teach you a great deal about what it takes to be successful online – if you are willing to listen. This sort of insight alone is often worth the cost of hiring web design services.
2) A web design company can prevent legal problems. If your customers buy your product online and find their personal information stolen because your website was not secure, you could be held liable for any financial damage these customers suffer. Building a website that is one step ahead of scammers is no easy task. Hiring professionals helps ensure that you do everything possible to keep your customers safe, and that sort of effort can help keep you lawsuit-free.
3) A web design company can build you a great-looking web site. It may be shallow, but many Internet surfers judge websites by appearance. They may not trust an amateurish website, but for the average person, it is very difficult to determine what may be seen as amateurish. Sometimes, tiny details – such as images that are slightly off-kilter – may be enough to convince a potential customer to go to a competitor. If you don’t want to lose even one sale, you owe it to your business to hire a web design company.
4) A web design company can save you time and can give you more control. You can have your web design company create a web page that you can then update yourself with new content regularly. Your new content will take far less time to produce than an entire web site, but will give you lots of control over what appears on your website. Plus, the task of creating your website – a task that can take hundreds of hours – can be outsourced, so that the time spent can go towards developing your company,
5) A web design company means you don’t need technical expertise. Creating a website can require photography or imaging skills as well as knowledge about how to create, upload, host, and secure content. Professionals know how to create website that looks exactly how you want it to look. While you might be able to figure this out yourself, it can literally take months to master – and that time can be better spent making a profit.
You want a web design company that creates a website that has a high return on investment (ROI), and that’s why you want Ciplex. The professionals at Ciplex create visually stunning websites, but they also create websites that get results and show measured profits.
Article source: http://www.webdesignsketch.com/blog/if-you-want-to-make-money-online…
Filed under: online business |
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October 25, 2007
Many people have heard that the Internet is an excellent way to make money, but many are confused as to the exact way to make cash through the Web. One of the simplest and most effective ways to make money online is with a web site. Once you have an online web presence, you can use that online web presence to sell products or services of your own. You can also use it to sell products and services as an affiliate. This means that you are the seller for someone else who has developed a product or service that they want to sell. In this case, you get a commission or percentage of the profits. You can also use a web site to sell advertising space to other companies, making money each time a sale is made through one of your links. You can also make money online by using a web site to promote an actual brick-and-mortar business that you own. For example, if you own a restaurant, you can use your web site to take web orders or to encourage customers to call you or to make reservations.
Making money online is relatively simple. However, with lots of competition and millions of web sites, your web site needs to stand out if you want to make real profits. An excellent way to make sure that your web site actually gets results is to hire a web design company who can help you create a web site that is effective as well as professional. With a web design company, you will have a functioning web site that actually works and is designed in such a way that customers feel more comfortable dealing with your online business.
Today, many customers are wary about doing business online. Amateur web sites and scammers online sometimes gather financial information about customers and then use that information for identity theft or to clean out banking accounts. If your web site looks amateurish, your potential customers may falsely believe that you are one of these scammers, and not a legitimate business. Having a professional-looking web site can mean the difference between no orders and a decent profit. Hiring a web design company, therefore, can be an excellent investment. In many cases, you can earn back the money you’ve spent on a web design company with increased profitability for your business.
If you want to make money online, start by looking at web sites that you visit regularly. How do these web sites make money? Then, brainstorm ideas that you could use to make a profit online yourself. Consider how much time you’re willing to invest in your new online business. Do you want your business to make money for you automatically, while you are at work or relaxing? Are you willing to put in time to make your business grow faster? Do you want a fully automated business that simply brings you extra money with no effort on your part? Do you have products or services you could sell today through your web site? Are there affiliate programs or products that you are aware of that you could sell as the retailer online? Could you combine a few ideas to make more money? For example, could you sell advertising space as well as affiliate products or services?
Come up with a solid business plan around your most promising idea or around the idea that most appeals to you. Work out how much you can make, realistically, per month and per year. Use this as a guide for determining how much are willing to spend on web design services. Then, contact a quality company such as Ciplex to find out how much you can expect to spend on web design services.
Article source: http://www.webdesignsketch.com/blog/hire-a-web-design-company-make-money-online/
Filed under: online business |
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