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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
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.makingprofit.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-BOOK

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 java, 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/> Subscribe to the "Articles To Boost Your Success Online"! Like a free weekly internet marketing course by email!
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