Free Internet Marketing Lessons

by Ron Knowlton

Catching a virus on the internet can be a very scary
thing - unless, of course, it's a marketing virus - in
which case it's really a very, very good thing!

Why? 

Because it can spread and spread and infect everyone.
And that's good if it's your marketing message that is
the "virus" doing the infecting!

The "virus", if you can really call it that, is
really just a form of word of mouth advertising. 

It starts with one or two people and spreads from
there - just like the flu - from one person to the
next and on and on it goes.

In this case our "virus" is a brief message from the
sponsor or advertiser imbedded in a free ebook or
javascript or software or . . . it can arrive in a
variety of different ways.

The magic of this message, though, is that it is easy
to spread to others who spread it on. And they spread
it not because they like the advertising message, but
because they like the product received (which, of
course, includes the advertising message). 

And so the virus spreads and spreads and spreads. But
nobody gets sick.

In fact there are smiles all around. Perhaps the
biggest smiles are on the faces of the savvy marketers
using this marketing tactic - because of all the free
publicity they are receiving!

But is this form of marketing only reserved for the
"professionals" with big advertising budgets?

No, not at all!!!

Let's take a look at how it could work for anyone
doing business on the internet.


1) ARTICLES

If you can write an informative (and hopefully
interesting) article or report, you can place the
"virus" (or your marketing message) at the end of the
article. This is usually called a "resource box". (See
my resource box at the end of this article.) If you
reprint this article then others will not only read
the article, but likely read my resource box at the
end of the article as well.

And if you really like the article (hint, hint) you
might even email it on to a friend or two. Or publish
it in your newsletter or on your web site. And then
others will read the article and I get a little bit of
recognition and maybe my advertising message (resource
box) gets read!

The beauty of this is that there are places where you
can "post" your articles where publishers and
webmasters can see it and then use it if they like
your article.

Writers don't get paid. But on the other hand, they
get free advertising, which may be just as valuable!

A few of these places to post articles are:
http://www.ezinearticles.com; 
"Ideamarketers" at
http://www.ideamarketers.com; 
"Find Your Dream" at
http://www.findyourdream.com; 
"Free Content" (mailing list) mailto:freecontent@yahoogroups.com;& nbsp;
"Article Announce"(mailing list) at: 
http://www.web-sources.net/articlesub.htm; 
"Publish In Yours" (mailing list) 
mailto:publishinyours@yahoogroups.com; and
http://www.writebusiness.com. All places where
newsletter (ezine) publishers and webmasters can see
your article and then use it in their publications or 
on their web sites. 


2) E-BOOKS

If you're even more ambitious, you can create an e-
book and give it away for free. Of course the e-book
contains your name, the name of your site, and
promotes away...at anything you may be selling or
promoting. Just place your advertising message or a
link to your web site on each page. 

The recipient of the free e-book is happy too, of
course, because they receive free information of value
to them. Can you see how well this could work for you?


3) FREE SERVICE 

Then there's the idea of a free service (with, of
course, this good virus attached). 

Some people are doing this with free autoresponders
and free e-mail service.

How it works is - anytime someone sends out an
email, the advertising message, of course, is attached
at the end (Hotmail does this, for one).

One service you can start immediately is offering free
email service using your domain name as the extension
(such as: "jim@mydomain.com".

This is a great way to advertise your domain name!

Everytime someone uses the service, they see your
domain name, plus they also see your brief advertising
message at the end of the email.


4) FREE SCRIPTS

You also may want to consider free scripts.

Write a script in javascript, cgi or perl (for
example) 
and then make it available to others. Then you just
include your advertising information in the comment
lines in your script - that you specify must be
included each time the script is distributed to or 
used by someone else. (It works kind of like a 
resource box - giving you credit and providing a 
short advertising message for you.)


5) AWARD

Give out an award to other web site owners for web
design, or superior web content . . . whatever kind of
award you want to design. 

This one is easy to do if you can design and create a
cool-looking button.

Then the recipient of the award can place the button
on their web site. Of course if someone clicks on the
button where does it take them? To your web site, of
course!

When someone receives the award, just email them the
code to place on their site announcing the award (your
button).


6) COUPONS

Offer coupons that can be freely distributed. Give
a fantastic discount on a product or service. Then
visitors to your site can print out the coupons and
also distribute them to friends. 

Each coupon, of course, not only includes a discount
for a product or service, but also your brief
advertising message and can be reprinted and spread
and spread.


7) SOFTWARE

Of course there's always free software (if you
have the knowledge to program and write your own). The software would include your advertising message (of course!).


As you can quickly see, there are dozens of ingenious
ways to spread this virus. This marketing technique,
by the way, is known fondly as "viral marketing".

If you haven't caught this virus yet, it may be
time... because this one's spreading like wildfire!
And some people are getting awfully sick (grin) :-)

______________________________________________
Ron Knowlton is a former journalist and the founding editor at <http://www.soaringprofits.com/> "Articles To Boost Your Success Online!" Subscribe to the Soaring Profits Success Ezine! Like a free  monthly internet marketing course by email! Eight great lessons each month! Subscribe: <http://www.soaringprofits.com/spsubscribe.htm>!