Viral marketing is simply a marketing campaign that will result
in the multiplication of you or your link. As it continues it
grows and grows with your links being spread all over the
internet. The more links back to you, the easier you will be
found. Here are a few ideas and resources that you can use to
get the ball rolling....

1. Create an award that other web masters may apply for. Web
awards are sought after for the credibility they give to the
site. Most web masters will proudly display the awards they have
won. You could create an award graphic and supply each winner
of your award a simple HTML code to display the award they have
won.

The code could be as simple as:

SRC="http://www.yoursite.com/award.jpg"

Of course the displayed award links back to you.

There is a simple, free cgi script you can install to help with
your awards application. Fast award will help weed out duplicate
and broken submissions to make your review process easier.
Find this free script at: http://amusive.com/scripts/

Once you have your award set up, submit your award to:
http://www.award-it.com/join.html This award site will give you
plenty of submissions from people interested in your award.

2. Create a free ebook and offer all who download the right to
distribute it on their site or ezine. If you do not have ebook
software, you can have an ebook created for free at :
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/

Once you have your ebook you an distribute it at software sites
such as:
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/
http://www.freewarehome.com

Don't forget the free ebook directories such as:
http://www.ebook2000.com/cgibin/links/add.cgi
http://www.ebookdirectory.com/

3. You could distribute your own screen savers. Just incorporate
your site's name and web address in this screen saver. You could
create a digital file with your logo and web address and
incorporate this file into the screen saver with the other
images.

Here is a screen saver creator that will allow you to create
as
many screen savers as you wish to give away. These screen savers
are distributable as .exe files. It is completely free and it
is
acceptable to use this software for business purposes. You can
even create games with this software.
http://www.flashwiz.co.uk/body.asp

If you create a free screen saver, you can submit them to
software sites and screen saver sites such as:
http://www.wulfert.com/input/submission_saver.html
http://www.taynet.com/formmail/addition.html

4. You could give away email. Everyone.net will allow you to
give away email with your domain. It is a web based email and
you will be allowed to rotate your banners on the service page.
http://www.everyone.net/

Also Bigmail will also allow you to give away email with your
domain in it. The email is web based and you are allowed 20%
of
rotating banner space. http://www.bigmailbox.com

5. Create a top 100 site. If you wanted you could create your
own top 100 business sites list for others to join. Each person
who joins will send traffic to your site in their attempts to
be
ranked higher on the list. Which in turn brings them more
traffic. Not a bad set up. Simply go here:
http://www.topsitelists.com

6. Give away free guest books. Each guest book that you give
away will have a link to your site on it. If you gave away 50
free guest books to 50 web masters to use on their site, you
automatically have 50 web sites linking to you. Everyone who
signs one of those 50 guest books will be exposed to your web
site. The multiplication possibilities are endless!
http://www.guestbook.nu/referrer.html

7. Provide free digital postcards. Your visitors will be allowed
to send digital greeting cards for all occasions and just for
fun. Every time one of your visitors send a digital postcard
from your site, the receiver of the postcard will be given the
location of where they may pick up their postcard. They must
pick up their postcard at your site on a post office page that
you create and they will be directed to your site to send
postcards of their own.

On top of all of that each post card sent and received from your
site will have a link to your site and will state 'This is a
free service provided from (your name)'. The multiplication
possibilities are endless! http://www.allyours.net/postcard/

8. Add referral scripts to your site. You will be surprised at
how many people will recommend you if they enjoyed your site.
If
you wish, you could use free ebooks you created from above as
a
free gift to those who recommend your site to others. This will
increase your recommendations. You can get a free referral
script form: http://www.letemknow.com

9. Start a web ring. You will always have other web sites
linking to you if you do this. A web ring is simply a group of
sites that have chosen to link to each other. Each web site
displays a graphic that allows the visitor to tour other sites
in the same ring. Get a free web ring at:
http://edit.webring.yahoo.com/h/create_ring.html

10. Finally the most obvious, but sometimes over looked- Always,
always ask your subscribers to forward your ezine to those they
think might enjoy it. Very often they will.

About the Author
Pam Renovato is the web master of http://thefreeadnetwork.com
She invites you to take a look at "Sprouts from Internet
Business Valley" which will enable you and your customers to
stop searching for resources and start promoting. More info
at:
http://thefreeadnetwork.com/sprouts.html