Viral Marketing is marketing that has a life of its own - multiplying it's recipients as it spreads - rather like a virus actually.

Viral Marketing is the creation of a message or ebook that is self-perpetuating and hence distributed exponentially after its release. Each receiver likes the email or message so much that they pass it on to one or more of their friends or family.

The Internet is full of many classic examples, the most famous one being that of the (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email company - Hotmail.

Hotmail was a (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email service provider so it could control the format of all its outbound messages from every Hotmail account. They came up with a viral marketing campaign that has yet to be beaten and saw their traffic skyrocket and eventually lead to Microsoft buying the company as a result of their exponential growth. So what did they do? Simple. To the footer of each outgoing email they attached a signature file that read: To get your (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email account go to "www.hotmail.com".

As more and more people received emails from existing Hotmail account holders so the word spread about their (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email service - unheard of at that time and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can copy this format by adding your own signature to your own emails. Include a short advert about your company and add your web site. Make it about 3-5 lines.

In more recent times there was the Jib Jab email - providing a very humorous, but cruel, musical cartoon lampooning the USA presidential candidates. It spread like wild fire around the world and even appeared on international news programs. It was so popular that the servers were bought down several times.

Have a look at the reports on the "Butterfly Marketing" to see a similar recent campaign. Mike Filsaime himself received numerous emails telling him to buy the product. This was not only superb marketing - and Mike is the genuine, successful marketer as well as being a nice guy - but also viral marketing powered by a great product and good affiliate programming.

So how do you start your own viral marketing campaign? Get yourself a great message, mp3, ebook, article or set of pictures. At the bottom of the email, in the ebook, were put your company details and web site. Put your own links in the ebook or on the mp3, put a great resource box on the article - so that they are passed on as your product takes on a life of its own.

What kind of subject should you choose then? Humor is the number one - but also great poems and stories work well. Have a look at "Interview with God" for a great poem that built up a web site business purely on viral principles. Of course, Morgan the owner works very hard marketing it now, but people telling people about the web site was how it grew so very quickly.

Viral ebooks are also very popular - try and make the information unique, catchy and of interest to many. Put your contact links inside of it and encourage people to share it. If you do it well then people will pass on your ebook and thus details of your web site and products as well.

Articles are also viral marketing tools - write a good informative article with a catch headline - make it the right length and submit it to article sites. If you do it right - then others will publish it on their web sites and in their ezines. As more and more see your article and read your resource box - then more people will see your web site and products.

When used properly, nothing can match the power of viral marketing. It is so effective because it is based on personal opinion, much the same way as an editorial carries more weight than an advertisement because it's coming from a trusted source. You trust your friends and colleagues to send you material that is interesting, useful, and pertinent to you personally. Trust will always be more powerful than flashy design and expensive ad campaigns, and when information comes from someone you trust, it is much more powerful.

Lee Lister

Lee Lister is Management Consultant and Program Manager with more than 25 year's management and consultancy experience and more than 20 year's program and project management experience in projects for Banking, Finance, Insurance, Leisure and Government bodies. She also have more than 10 years bid management experience ranging from bids for medium companies to large international and infrastructure bids.

British born, Lee received her BA(Hons) Financial Economics from the University of Essex. She went on to work in or for a considerable number of countries within Asia and Europe as well as Australia and the United States. While building a name for herself through helping company restructure, change management and project management consultancy, Lee became a well-known figure for her skills in analyzing, problem solving and trouble-shooting. She has consulted for many major industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, leisure and governments from many different countries. Some of the companies who have benefited from Lee?s expertise are Hewlett Packard, Siemans Nixdorf, Electrolux and the Philippines government.

Whilst working in the Far East she became a recognized expert on preparing and evaluating large World Bank Proposals (infrastructure projects within developing countries). These accomplishments called upon the skills of bid and project management, risk assessment, contract negotiation and supplier management and required dedicated work to very tight time scales. This expertise was acknowledged by an invitation to be the principle speaker at an International Business Development Conference in Washington, USA. She has also consulted at very senior level in several countries.

She owns and manages two companies, Biz Guru LLC in the USA and Biz Guru Services Ltd in the UK as well a considerable number of profitable web sites. She works almost entirely via the internet, visiting clients on site during major consultancies and training. Her Internet skills span from when major companies first started to consider obtaining their own web sites. During these years, she has kept up to date with the rapid changes on the internet, including the dot com boom and the resulting bust ? which her own web based companies survived.

She regularly consults, writes and lectures on business, bid management and marketing and has published numerous courses and books.