Squidoo has a new tool that makes it super easy to set up a very distinctive looking web page in a hurry…
Look at what I just created in about 5 minutes: http://best.bookwise-team.ever.com
I got that new web address courtesy of a new service at www.ever.com. Now it may seem the same as the sort of service that’s been around for ages - you know, where you get a web address like “http://flyto/yournamehere”.
But it’s not. It’s a very neat marketing ploy by Squidoo, the website where anyone can rapidly build a web page (which Squidoo calls a “lens”). One great advantage of having lenses at Squidoo is the high ranking that you can rapidly get in Google.
OK, back to ever.com. On the home page, you select the first term from a dropdown list (”best”, “smartest”, “biggest” etc) and you select a keyword. If no one else has this combination, then you can have it!
Then the fun starts. Fill in a few boxes, and ever.com builds a web page for you. But actually, it’s a Squidoo lens! To actually use this lens and then edit it (which you really have to), you need to open a free account at Squidoo.
I set up my first lens in this way in 5 minutes, and then spent another couple of minutes editing it. It’s not very polished yet but I just wanted to put it up real quick and then tell everybody about it!
Not a bad use of time to get a high ranking in Google. OK, it might take you a little time to find your way around the Squidoo editing system, but once you’ve learned it, you’ll find lens building very easy - especially starting off with the “ever” system.
You can get your free Ever websites here: http://www.ever.com
There are many different methods to putting together a viral marketing campaign. These methods include those that will have a small cost for the advertisers while others will cost nothing more than some time to make the promotion work. One of the more simple viral marketing tools is using a signature line on your emails. Almost all email sources will allow the addition of a signature line to an outgoing email. It can be part of every email that is sent even replies. It becomes a tool when instead of simply signing your name you use it with a tagline to interest the person who receives the email in a product or service you are offering. Therefore the way to make it work best is to write a catchy line and then underneath that put a link to your website.
Other viral marketing tools that are used a lot is the submission of articles. What you do is send an article you have written to a website that accepts them, being certain that you write on the topics they are looking for content about. Do this on sites that allow a space for the author, you, to put something in about yourself. In this area you can do a short bio on yourself and put in a link to your own website. This will bring traffic to your site simply by being on someone else’s. Again, it promotes what you are doing without you have to do much work except to keep your website interesting to others.
Probably the most common method of viral marketing is the one where the campaign uses word of mouth to spread their advertising message. This is done by promoting to a number of people, often beginning with people you know, and getting them to then forward the message along to others. To compensate them for their efforts discounts or some free items are promised if their contacts sign up at the website being promoted. This is one of the viral marketing tools used most often and can be incorporated into the advertising campaign of both big and small companies. It is notable for the large number of people that opt into the program.
What exactly is meant by viral internet marketing? The definition of this latest type of promotional campaign is simple; it is the use of an approach to advertising that allows for the message to be sent out by persons who are doing no more than passing it along and by this method increasing the potential exposure of that message. One message passed along form one person quickly multiplies until it is soon being sent by hundreds and then thousands. This is the best kind of campaign since it costs virtually nothing to get out the promotional message of a company about its products or services.
Other phrases for this kind of campaign include social networking, word of mouth, network marketing, or leveraging the media. These phrases are more commonly used when the promotion is being used offline. But when we are talking about internet promotions the phrase used is viral internet marketing. The best example of one of these campaigns is the subtle one used by Hotmail. They do nothing more than put an advertisement at the bottom of each email that is sent. This allows for those who receive the email to sign up for a free account. There is no pressure, no encouragement needed. The offer is there if the person in receipt of the email wants to use it. Yet, it brings in new subscribers daily.
The best thing about viral internet marketing is what it offers to those using this tool. It gives them a quick way to get their message out to potentially thousands of people at a low or no cost option. It can be used by large or small companies looking for large or small advertising campaigns. This method uses the internet, and sometimes the greed, of the average person to do the work for them. No new expenses are incurred since the internet is already in place and being used by the company wanting to promote their service or product. Lastly, the people doing the promoting for them are not asked to make a big time commitment. This also encourages them to get involved. Due to the ease in which one of these programs can be begun this type of marketing tool is steadily growing in popularity.
One of the best examples of a free viral marketing campaign is to look at Hotmail. The use of this worldwide email service allows ads to be passed along without even having to get the permission or cooperation of the subscriber. Hotmail has an advertisement at the bottom of all outgoing emails. This promotion is to get more people to sign up for free email accounts. So, every time someone uses Hotmail to send an email they are promoting the website. The statistics show that with this method one subscriber will, over time, potentially refer ten people to the service. If this is the case then by the fourth generation of referrals ten thousand people have been referred. That is an incredible amount of traffic for doing no more than putting a small promotional ad at on the bottom of outgoing email. It is an unobtrusive and subtle marketing plan.
ECards are a great example of free viral marketing. When someone wants to send a greeting card by email, whether it is for a birthday, a get well card, season greeting or other special occasion card they go to one of the free services. These services will send a card to the receiver which can only be accessed through a link to their website. The card does not come directly to a person’s email account. They can only pick up their card by going to the services site and accessing it that way. A large percentage of people, when they are getting their card, will put the site into their favorites to keep for future reference. They will often also send their own eCards, either in response to the one they received or because there are people they want o send a greeting to. This continues to bring traffic to the card site.
There are many forms of viral campaigns you can try. One of the best ways to determine if this is the answer for you is to surf the net and check out what others are doing. This will give you an appreciation of the various kinds of free viral marketing promotions that can be tried and so allow you to judge whether this is the approach you want to take in your ad campaigns to promote your product or service.
