Use Video

Unless you have been living in a cave, you have heard of You Tube. If you spend
any time online, it is hard not to have heard of it. Millions of people every day view
video clips that are stored in the YouTube library. YouTube and Google Videos take
advantage of the fact that people are now spending more time in recreational
internet surfing than in watching television. It is another example of not only how
people want to be entertained, but also that people want choices. The public has
gotten used to being able to choose the entertainment they want, and not be forced
to take what is pushed at them.

If you are creative enough, or cutting edge, or wacky enough, you could quickly be
the next hot video. The videos that have the most chance of going viral are ones
that deal with current events, especially if you can beat the major news outlets,
videos dealing with business issues, and humorous videos.

Steven Colbert was a great example of this when clips of his Comedy Central show,
The Colbert Report, were released on YouTube. Despite the objections of the
Comedy Central network, when the show was still new, Colbert allowed clips from his
show to be posted on YouTube. Within a short period of time his clips went viral,
and viewership of The Colbert Report soared.

If you decide this is a method you want to use, make sure you have a fresh idea,
and not a rehash of something that has already made the rounds. You don’t need
network quality equipment to produce a decent video. While you do want decent
quality production, the biggest key is great content.

Make your video, and at the end of the clip place a 3 – 5 second promotional slide
with the URL for your website so viewers can look for more useful information. Make
sure the landing page you send them to matches the tone of the video. If the video
you use is quirky and humorous, and the landing page is serious and all business,
your visitors will only stay for a few seconds before leaving for more entertaining
sites.

Once your video is produced, and looks the way you want it to, upload your video
onto YouTube and Google Videos. These sites offer services that allow website
owners and users of social network sites like MySpace to place video viewers on
their site. If your video goes viral, not only will potential customers be able to see
your video on the host site, but also on all of the personal sites that pick it up. The
amount of traffic that could flood to your site is huge.

Get a Referral

An added twist to the idea of giving something away for free to your customers is to
require them to refer someone to you in exchange for what you are giving away.
Simply provide a space where they can enter the email address of one or more
people that they have to fill out before receiving the item you are offering. This is
especially effective when your free item is something the person can download
instantly.

This technique not only puts your message in front of the eyes of potential
customers, it also helps you build your own mailing list. You can send an email the
people that were referred saying “Your friend (name) saw this, and would like to
share it with you. By having the ability to use the friend’s name, it helps to establish
your credibility. This will decrease the possibility of person receiving the invitation
tagging your message as spam.

Like many of the techniques listed, this will only work if your visitor thinks what you
are offering is of enough value to make it worth giving you information about a
friend or family member. Friendships are built on trust, and most people will not be
willing to risk that trust on a worthless gadget.

Do not expect in instant flood with this method. It usually starts as more of a
trickle, but that trickle increases the longer it flows. Over time, the referrals will add
up. If each person that takes advantage of your free offer refers two or more
friends, it will not take long to have quite a list of potential customers, all at no
additional cost.

Give Freebies

One of the best early examples of building a business by giving something away is
Hotmail. Hotmail gave away free email services and email addresses free to anyone
who signed up for one, and a lot of people did (and still do). Today millions of users
have Hotmail addresses.

What made hotmail successful was one of the early successes of viral traffic building
on the internet. At the bottom of every email that was sent through one of the free
Hotmail accounts was a message telling others how they could get a free Hotmail
account. Every time a Hotmail user sent a message, they were helping spread the
name of Hotmail.

How did Hotmail make any money off of free accounts? They did it by offering
premium services to their customers such as additional storage space, and the ability
to send emails without any advertising attached.

Hotmail became successful enough that in 1997, less than 2 years after it was
created, it boasted over 8 million users and was purchased by Microsoft. It is still
one of the top web based email services in the world.

While you may not be able to achieve the same amount of buzz that Hotmail was
able to generate, it does demonstrate the power of getting your message out be
attaching it to something that people are willing to share with their friends, family,
and co-workers.

Do not discount the fact that people love to get things for free. If it looks
interesting, and it is free, people are more than happy to give it a try. While it is
easy to get them to try your offer initially, it is a different challenge to get them to
continue using it once the novelty has worn off.

Repeated use is critical for your success because multiple exposures will cement your
companies name in your customer’s minds. People are more likely to buy something
from a company they have heard of than from one they have not heard of. They
might not even know how or why they know the name, but that sense of familiarity
will make them more susceptible to your message.

What ever you are offering has to be functional, easy to use, and add value to the
user. You customers have to feel that it is worth their time and effort to pass the
information along. Then, and only then, will they be willing to tell their friends and
family what they have found.

Provide Quality

Provide Quality

Providing quality content, products, or service is by far the best way to build your
reputation, and build repeat traffic to your site. Research has shown that on
average, when someone has a positive experience they will tell two other people
about that experience. On the other hand, if they have had a bad experience, they
will tell seven other people. That act of telling others is how the viral traffic
generation techniques start. If your customers never tell anyone else about you and
your site, you are back to doing all of the marketing on your own.

To build returning customers to your site, you need to establish a reputation as an
expert in your field, very entertaining, or someone who has unique insights. That
does not happen if all you are offering is cheap, recycled drivel that you found on
someone else’s website. Make sure that what you offer is your own work, and
something that is different from what can be found on every other website.

As your reputation as an expert increases, other websites and bloggers will start to
pay attention to your website. They will begin to talk about what you are doing, and
will even give links from their website to yours. Suddenly every one of their readers
becomes a potential customer. The higher the quality of material you produce, the
more often your site will be linked to. Each link to your site is an avenue for new
visitors to your business.

If you do not think you have the ability to create something that will touch people
like it needs to, you may have to spend the money and hire someone else to do it for
you. Fortunately for you, there are a lot of service that will put you in touch with
freelance writers, site designers, and program designers. If you have an idea about
what you want, chances are there is someone available to do it for you. If you are
willing to take a chance on a freelancer who has not yet established themselves, you
can often find one that will work for a low wage in exchange for the experience the
job will give them. Be careful though; often times you get what you pay for. Make
sure the work you get is up to the standards necessary to appeal to your audience.