Posted by Kevin Njoroge on February 19, 2010 under Traffic | 
While the term Viral easily depicts a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, Viral marketing doesn’t involve using a computer virus to market your online business. It’s called that because of the similar effect it has, a tendency to spread and infect people….in a good way!
Viral marketing is a marketing technique used to build public awareness of one’s product or company and is a perfect way to trigger a domino effect in your online business.
Oxford dictionary defines domino effect as “a situation in which one event causes a series of similar events to happen on after the other”
To paint the picture,let me give you one weird example and from an even bizarre source.
I came across this in the washrooms (I warned you)when I was in campus and some funny guy had written on the wall…
“People who write on walls are jerks”
…and what do you think followed?
This guy forgot that just by expressing his feeling about people who write on the walls, he became one of them. The next person to visit the washrooms with a pen in hand responded…
“Just like you”
And the next? “Just like you” . It went on and on and I guess it still does and will continue for as long as the the next person to respond remains relevant and the painter doesn’t show his head there with a can.
That was a weird example of a viral effect but let’s now go back to viral marketing in the context of your online business.
Viral marketing basically refers to letting people spread the word about your online business to others when they come into contact with each other, who then let others know and so on and so on…
You can use many forms of media (videos, websites, pictures, games, emails, free stuff) to reach out to the public with the help of the user.
In a nutshell, you ride on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family, and they will do the same, resulting in it spreading like a virus.
The motives can be as simple as just being nice by forwarding a nice email or there could be some monetary incentive like you’d find with an affiliate program.
Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost and the results can be extraordinarily high.
For business owners, using Viral marketing techniques is a good choice to get their product out there quickly.There needs to be effort at first to get the ball rolling, but once it starts, it gets bigger and hard to stop.
Here are a few ways being used to implement viral marketing by online business owners.
Giveaway and resale rights: This as a viral marketing technique is hot right now. Basically, you create short informative reports or videos on a topic relevant to your online business and pass giveaway or resale rights to the users of such products.
If the products are worth their salt, they get passed along really fast as free bonuses to other products or as freebies on squeeze pages.
Rebranding rights: This works like the former but instead of giving people resale and giveaway rights, you give them the opportunity to brand the products with their affiliate links before passing the product along to their friends and family.
If the people they referred then purchases the products recommended in the products, you credit them with the sale and they earn affiliate commissions. You can also develop rebrandible softwares.
Wordpress themes: If you are proficient with php, you can develop wordpress themes and give them away for free. You can then drop your url right at the bottom of the themes.
Personally, I discovered webdesignlessons.com blog from another site that used their free theme (I can’t exactly recall which site that was) and even though I later dropped their theme myself for another one that matched my preferences, I still visit the blog from time to time. So? The darn trick works. Period.
These are just some of the ways being used by internet business owners to create a buzz about their products or services. There are many more and I will share them with you on this blog in the next posts.
One last thought, have you ever come across an email or video that get sent from one person to the next, then the next and before you realize, it gets sent back to you for the second or even the third time?
Personally I have several of them in my inbox. I can send one of them to you if you like. (just kidding… but yeah, I can send one to you).
What if you had your URL or a graphic branded with your website URL in one of those viral videos and emails?
So, get creative and get viral marketing working for your online business.
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All the best,
Kevin
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Posted by Kevin Njoroge on October 19, 2009 under Traffic, affiliate marketing, blogging, list building, make money online |
Forums are an excellent source of targeted traffic and in fact forum traffic is one of the most laser targeted. This is a good idea because like we said in the Ebook “Easy Internet Profits: How To Make Money Online For Beginners“, the traffic to your website should be laser targeted if you are to make good money online.
Forums are actually useful across two platforms:
First, forums are a great way to know what people in your niche are looking for or want to know but that’s another topic for another day. Today we are going to look at the second way to use forums to build your online business which is:
Getting backlinks and free traffic to your websites or blog. Now, to drive traffic to your website or blog using forums, you need to find forums related to your niche and become an active member of the forum(s). Two to three forum posts are not enough and I am going to reveal to you another secret why you will want to become an active contributor of a certain forum if you keep reading.
You can easily find forums online on almost any niche you want, some free others fee based. You can find them easily by searching over at Google or any other search engine using the search phrase “Niche+forum” e.g. Pet training forum.
Now, before firing your forum marketing, you need to read the rules and regulations of the forum you just joined to stay out of trouble with the forum moderators. It’s also a good idea to introduce yourself to the other members and to get a general feel of the forum before posting. Get to know the tone of the forum members as well as the forum moderators.
You’ll also need to create a signature file which is where traffic to your website will come from. The signature file appears at the end of every post you make in the forum. By including the link to your website, interested members of the forum can click through to your website.
Your signature file doesn’t have to be so big; just your name, a statement or two and your website link are enough. It must however have a clear call to action e.g.
Need to shed those extra calories starting now?
Visit Weight Loss Solutions for time saving solutions.
Discover right here and right now how to shed those
extra calories eating as much as you want.
Visit Weight Loss Solutions for simple weight loss solutions
Once you have read and understood the rules of the forum and have a good feel for the tone of the community, it’s time to start contributing to them.
Spend some time to develop a good relationship with the community. By that I mean that you should contribute something. Don’t post junk or spammy comments that don’t make sense in the context of the thread you are posting in just for the back links to your website or get advertising credit. They will only get deleted by forum moderators in the very least not to mention that you could get your account deleted.
Instead, ask your own questions, respond to other people’s posts by offering solutions and answers to their problems and questions as well as offering useful links to free resources that other members of the community need.
your long term goal is mainly to build your credibility among other members of the forum community. Be seen as a reliable source of useful information and an active member of the community. Again don’t be afraid to learn from other members of your forum. Don’t get stuck with your own problems when you’ve willing members of the forum community to help you out.
Another powerful strategy is to introduce a free report as a solution to a problem that was posted. It could also be a piece of software, audio file or even video-as it best fits the given situation.
You can even offer some free (but useful) gift to the members of the community for their own purpose if the forum rules permits you to. This could be a set of articles,an autoresponder series etc.
If you are an internet business owner, there is one forum you must be an active member of and that is Rusell Brunson’s ConquerYour Niche forum.
ConquerYourNiche is one amazing forum where you get rewarded simply for participating in the forum. Rusell Brunson allows you to earn FREE advertising credits so you can get quality traffic just for posting in the forum! There is no other forum like this.
Everytime you post, reply, or even READ a post, you can earn advertising credits. So, if you participate in forums a lot, your earned credits can soar and your ad can be displayed multiple times. The best part: it’s totally free to join as well.
Forum marketing is one very reliable source of targeted traffic to your website. If you can take the time to participate in forums, you can gradually accumulate links back to your website and get some search engine love and some free traffic (free is good huh!).
So get your forum marketing campaign rolling and get help for those obstacles to your online business while you generate free qualified traffic to your website or blog. ConquerYourNiche is a nice place to get started.
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All the best,
Kevin
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Posted by Kevin Njoroge on September 24, 2009 under Traffic |
For the umpteenth time, traffic is the life force of an online business and ongoing traffic generation is crucial to your online business.
Some marketers go ahead to state that traffic generation should account for 80% of your effort in building a successful Internet business.
As important as traffic is to your online business, the quality of the traffic is equally important as it determines how much money you make online in the long run.
The traffic you drive to your Website must be highly targeted. It’s better to get only 100 targeted Website visitors than an avalanche of untargeted Website visitors who hit the close button before the first page finishes loading.
The term targeted imply people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer or say.
Now, how do you determine the quality of traffic to your Website. Well, there are several things that will help you increase the chances of generating targeted traffic:
Your keywords: The keywords and the language you use to describe your online business is important as they will determine how your business is perceived by others.
Your keywords and language should give your prospects an idea of what your online business is all about and how it is of importance to their goals and objectives.
If someone comes to your Website with a perceived image of a “dog training” related Website only to find weight loss related resources and products, high chances are that he/she will simply click away.
You will thus end wasting your time and effort. Therefore, your keywords and the description you give online for your Website should define your online business in no uncertain terms.
Understand your target audience: Develop a clear profile of your potential customers are.
Who are they? Dog trainers, pet owners, expectant mothers, golfers, photographers, collectors …?
What are they looking for online or what do they want to achieve? How to cure a slice? (for golfers) ho choose the right toy for their children?
What are their hobbies and how can you help them make it much more enjoyable and satisfying to them?
Where do they hang-out online? Once you develop a clear profile of your potential customers, find out where they hang out online. Is it in forums, blogs, chat rooms etc? Then get your message across to them.
Focus your attention on these small crowds to address their needs, problems and attainment of their desired lifestyle. Focus on driving targeted traffic to your website and your sign ups, sales and profits will shoot through the roof in record time
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All the best,
Kevin
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