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VIRAL MARKETING

Any discussion of viral marketing brings up two authors – Malcom Gladwell, “The Tipping Point” and Seth Godin, “Unleasing the Idea Virus”. Really, these authors are incredible thinkers – you should seek out and buy their books, read them for yourself to get the most out of them. But I’m not so in love with their books that I let them go on all points

Let’s take Tipping Point first.

Gladwell is talking about social epidemics. While some of this is applicable to marketing, his book is mostly applicable to the society and social interactions.

Viruses all go past a point of no return. This is where they have gotten a large enough base where the majority become infected. This is the point of critical mass, the threshold, the tipping point.

Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.

We are living in a philosopher’s paradise. Ideas can now be spread and influence people without physical limits. And the best ideas act like mercury – very hard to corral and control. The finest ideas are the universal solvant – unable to be held in any container except itself.

The tipping point is when an illness of a few becomes the epidemic of the many, the moment of change where a minor occurance becomes a major trend.

Epidemics have an exponential (bell curve) life span. This is the same life span of trends and fads. “The Tipping Point” studies the upslope of that Bell Curve progression.

THE LAW OF THE FEW

Word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication. Rumors are the most contagious of all social messages.

A tiny minority of people create the surge which tips the epidemic. Gladwell names three necessary types:

Connectors

are people specialists. They know lots of people, have an extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances, of making social connections. They have mastered the “weak tie”; a friendly, yet casual social connection. They manage to occupy many different cultures and subcultures and niches. They spread the message

Mavens

are information specialists. Once they figure out how to get that great deal, they want to tell you about it too.

They solve their own problems, or emotional needs, by solving other people’s problems. They provide the message.

Salespeople

have the skills to persuade when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. They translate and communicate via the nonverbal and are practically more charismatic than those around them. Emotion is contagious. “Senders” are very good at expressing emotions and feelings. They are far more emotionally contagious than the rest of us.

Another point, which gives us all hope as marketers, is that any of us are connected to the rest of us by six or fewer other people. So any of us could create the next “big thing” which goes epidemic.

THE STICKINESS FACTOR

Messages have to be packaged and translated into a way that fits into our emotional makeup. Those we adopt into our lifestyle are “sticky”.

The multiplicity of messages through the Internet is both a blessing and a curse. But it only works if you surround yourself with your own niche. For everyone is a niche unto themselves. Now they may have and be part of greater and lesser networks – replete with mavens, connectors, and salesmen – but you really still have to be true to yourself.

That being said, you are free to adopt any new message that comes along which improves your quality of life.

Now, from the reverse view, in marketing you are trying to get out your message that you have a widely applicable solution to a fairly (or very) common problem. And that this solution is readily available.

There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible/sticky and compels a person into action. All you have to do is find it. In order to be capable of sparking epidemics, ideas have to be memorable and move us into action. Content of the message matters too.

The key point where a new message “sticks” with us is where it is translated into an emotionally useful tool. A message is converted to a package which is then translated by a “salesman” so that we can emotionally “grok” what is coming our way, accept it, and use it. (Note: The word “grok” comes from a viral product, Heinlein’s “Stranger In a Strange Land”. Worth looking up.)

A very few individuals can control their emotional states. This takes quite a bit of personal training (which anyone, actually, can master on their own). We respond to the emotions of people around us. Practically, studies have been done which show what we hear and say are a small percentage of the communications we actually recieve. Gladwell’s book mentions several examples and studies of this area.

When you get a point across emotionally, you can appeal to the subconscious and activate patterns and habits the individual may not even know are there. This is what Madison Avenue has paid psychologists to study for years. They want to (hopefully, but in vain) find key push-buttons which will make selling easier. Push-button societies went out with the Internet’s rise.

There are really only a handful of “buttons” which work in very general terms. Ciladini and Maslov have working observations along this line – as I’ve covered elsewhere in this book.

Otherwise, our emotions are like our politics. (And just review the elections of 2000 and 2004 to see how similarly unlike we are to each other – it’s been an even split in elections on our emotional values.) We have assigned our loves, hates, fears, exhilerations, sympathies, et al. to many and varied associations. In the Americas, you cannot find two or more people who have exactly the same responses to anything – even being faced with sudden death. You do find that people will more or less react in similar fashions. But the differences are broad enough that it is impossible to actually “fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time.”

As the Internet and its choices become more pervasive, we will see more and more fragmentation and realignment of our emotions with our various attitudes.

CONCLUSION

Starting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few key areas. Your resources ought to be solely concentrated on the Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Or at least getting your idea in front of them.

You have to define your niche and the people who move in it. You need to study what is out there, what solutions are being proposed. You have to find ways for people to get this data. You have to find connectors (specialized article directories, online radio shows, key forums and blogs) within that niche. The Mavens and Salesmen will take your concept from there. But be very willing to give out free samples for people and to reach out to many, many, many sub-niches (nichettes?) in an emotional way they will understand.

“Those who are successful at creating social epidemics do not just do what they think is right. They deliberately test their intuitions.”

The answer is yes and no. Of course there are many individuals who’ve created a considerable amount of wealth in a short time period, but let’s be realistic, that’s not going to happen to most of us. Today, many online marketers claim to offer “easy” strategies to earn income, when the truth is like any other way of making money, it takes WORK. The only difference is that with this type of work you don’t have a clock to punch and the most physically demanding task required is typing. You have to understand that most people (including myself) are generally lazy. We all want something for nothing, we dream of having the lifestyle of wealthy people, but few are willing to do what it takes to actually make it happen. Marketers know this, and they simply capitalize on this truth by creating advertising that appeals to our greed, and many of us led by laziness and sheer desperation fall victim to such claims–because we want to believe them. I know because I’ve done it!! I mean, who wouldn’t want to make money by barely lifting a finger?? Well I’m here to let you know if you think it’s that easy, you’re kidding yourself.

Now obviously I’m not stating that all claims of wealth creation online are false, however I do believe that too many marketers oversimplify the task. The truth is that there are thousands of ways to make money online; the hard part is finding a strategy that works for you and sticking to it. Lots of people end up spinning their wheels for months jumping from idea to idea or quitting if desired results aren’t achieved with a short time, and eventually give up after pulling their hair out and become discouraged. Don’t pull your hair out, find something that you have an interest in; for example if you want to become a drop-shipper, only focus you efforts on drop-shipping research and strategies. Adequate research is the key to making it online. Once you find your niche, conduct research on it. I also strongly encourage finding others who are in the same field, as it will benefit you to seek the guidance from vets who’re making money already; you can have all the motivation in the world, but without any direction, you’re left turning circles.

Lastly, don’t just stop at one source for information-which is how a lot of people set themselves up for disappointment. Instead, use different sources related to your topic in order to provide yourself with a solid foundation; once you have a starting point search other resources as well in order to develop a well-rounded strategy to start your business. For more articles and free information on how to earn a living with online income you can visit: .e-wmn.com.

How to get started

First off, some points about money. People pay money, a valuable, in exchange for a product or service you provide – another valuable. It’s really barter, with a commodity called money. People buy things which will improve their lives, which gives them some benefit they feel they need. You aren’t really in it for the money, but to provide better service to people so that they can improve their lives. That’s a perfect fit – they want to spend money to improve their lives and you are more than happy to accept money to enable them to do so – with your product and services.

Money is really just an indicator of how much you provide real service to others – and how valuable they think that service is. We’ve gone over how you can increase your income by giving it away, as well.

Now, down to the brass tacks of what to do when and why.

Before we start -

Don’t quit your day job. Rome wasn’t built in a day, God took seven to create this world – so don’t figure you are going to become a millionaire overnight. I’ve heard some talented people got rich in 90 days, but we’ll take the conservative approach here.

Until your Internet activities start bringing income to you, that day job will be providing the seed money for your online business.

Consider all your online activites a second job. This is much better than going to get a second job at some company. Then you are spending 60 hours a week just working for a fixed wage – away from your family and giving a large proportion of it to the government and insurance companies with very little return.

So your online business is your second job. Set it up with a specific workplace and a schedule. Treat it like a business, not a hobby. Show up on time and ready to work – not late and hung over or taking constant breaks for food – or having the TV running so you can “catch the game”. Arrange for your spouse and kids to keep the noise down – or set up your garage so it is comfortable all year round and you can easily work there with no distractions. (Remember, setting this up as an actual business means you can deduct these expenses from your “day job” income tax.)

Work out your finances. See if you can get by on only 80% of what you currently earn in income from your day job. Means you are going to have to set up a budget and find out what you are spending your money on. Or – you could simply have your check deposited directly, 80% going into your checking account and 20% going into your savings account (preferably) or another account.

What you do with that 20% is to set half away for savings – never touch this for anything except, perhaps, a real emergency. The other half (10% of your income after taxes) goes to investment. This is what you are allowed to spend on your online business. But the idea again is that you are investing in your own business – not just blowing it on nice stuff for your home office.

Once you have your home business set up, you are then – an only then – ready to really start in on Internet Marketing, Sales, and Delivery.

Why do most people fail online? Why do they never make any money? It’s because they think about money first and about their customers last. They create a few pages, stuff them with affiliate links and ads and then they wait for the money to roll in — usually they wait forever.

Here is a simple formula to build a successful money-making online business:

* Carefully research several niches before choosing a theme for your site. You should be passionate about the subject and there must be a hungry market for it.

* Start building valuable content for both, your site visitors and the search engines.

* Build more content, distribute articles, participate in targeted forums… this allows you to establish yourself as the expert in your field, to win the trust of your audience and to attract free, targeted traffic from the search engines.

* Add new marketing strategies. Publish an e-zine to build your customer base, to establishes yourself as the expert in your niche, to gain trust…

* Once you have a site of at least 40 content pages with at least 50 unique visitors per day, start monetizing: Add affiliate links, Google AdSense, sell your products or services…

It just doesn’t make any sense trying to monetize your site, as long as you have only a few visitors. Who do you want to sell to? Instead, focus on building more content, driving traffic, building your list…

Follow the “Content – Traffic – Trust – Monetize Traffic” formula and you can’t fail:

* Build valuable content for your visitors and optimize it for the search engines.

* After some time, the search engines will start sending you free, targeted traffic — traffic that will steadily increase.

* Provide valuable, problem-solving information. This allows you to build a relationship of trust with your audience and they will be more than happy to buy your products, follow your recommendations…

* Ok, now and only now it’s time to monetize traffic: Place your affiliate links and Google ads, sell your own products…

Monetization comes last in the process of building your online business.. First, you should create valuable content, you generate traffic, you gain the trust of your visitors and only then it makes sense to monetize your site traffic.

The internet is wealth creating resource. It has made millionaires of countless individuals who have found ways of providing products/services via the internet. This site is for e-marketers and future or home-based business owners. Here you’ll find ways to make money on the internet as well as work-at-home resources to help get you started. First, let’s start with the most common ways of making money online. Below are the 6 most common ways used today to earn income on the net:

Buying and Reselling/Ebay

Drop-shipping

E-trading

MLM (Multilevel Marketing) and Direct Selling

Affiliate/Referral Programs

“Out of the box”

1. E-bay Selling – Buying and selling products is one the most common ways of making money online. It can be very profitable if you find, make or channel a product that is in demand for example: e-books/information, electronics, furniture, office supplies, apparel, etc. The key is to out-think the competition, since the creation of the Ebay phenomenon thousands of sellers have monetized on the opportunity. It’s important to find a product that you’re familiar with in order to be an effective seller; for example, don’t sell computers if you don’t know what “processor speed” is, you’ll just set yourself up for failure. If your having trouble finding a product try going to WWB, they offer products as well as information/ tools on how to find niche products and sell them on Ebay. You can also go to the Ebaystore to set up an inexpensive storefront if you don’t want to build your own.

Drawbacks to Ebay selling are:

Finding/making a profitable product

Can be time consuming (Plan to spend 20-30 hrs/week)

Very competitive market

2. Drop-ship- Drop-shipping is very similar- however the advantage to drop-shipping is that you don’t have to worry about moving the products yourself. With drop-shipping you’re really working as a third party in the sense that you find vendor’s who’ll drop-ship, and when you make a sale, they deliver the products directly to the customer for you-thus, no inventory or overhead costs? It can also save you the money and hassle of running to UPS every month to send/receive shipments. Another perk is that you don’t have to buy the product before you sell it! You simply take the order and give it to the manufacturer for shipping, and you receive a check, without having bought a thing. I know I make this sound pretty easy but in fact it takes an adequate amount of information gathering in order find hot products. The first thing you will need to obtain is a drop-ship directory in order to find vendors who drop-ship, it will cost you anywhere from $55-85, but the money you spend will more than pay you back in safety and time. The only source I recommend for directories is WorldWide again because their the only vendor directory provider that’s Ebay certified-there’s a lot of fakes out their posing as drop-ship providers who are really just “middlemen” trying to collect a commission.

Drawbacks to drop-shipping are:

It can be extremely time-consuming finding reputable vendors with profitable products that will work with drop-shippers.

Backorders and returns can be a headache if you’re with a bad vendor.

3. E-trading is a trend growing more in popularity everyday. Right now the biggest e-trading market is Forex (Foreign Exchange Market) which has a higher turnover rate than the U.S. equity market. Foreign currency trading is a VERY lucrative market and involves simultaneously buying and selling currency online. Transactions take place OTC (Over the Counter) or via internet/phone, as there is no centralized location for trade such as with the stock or futures markets. Not only does Forex offer trading tutorials and conferences for you to learn to trade, but they also allow novice traders to get a taste of the market by allowing you to begin trading with as little as a $25 investment. Forex trading time is short in nature as it does not require long periods of holding before trading as with stocks or bonds. Actually 85% of all currency transactions last around a week or less. A great benefit of trading with Forex is that you aren’t charged commissions or exchange fees. They also offer “real time” price quotes. Go over to Forex.com to get more information about the currency trading market and how to get started.

Drawbacks:

Plan to have an investment of at least $250 to see the big bucks.

The market can be very sporadic and due to the short term nature you will need to stay informed (daily, even hourly) of trends and economic changes that will cause value fluctuation.

4. MLM and Direct Selling business opportunities in my opinion are the most misrepresented and underestimated income opportunities on the web. Most of this is due to false and misleading claims about products/services and income potential made by shady distributors and sales associates. Multi-Level Marketing or (MLM) companies are organizations that provide a product or service and market it by “word of mouth” advertising or paying independent distributors to sell the products as oppose to paid advertising i.e., radio, TV, newspaper. These distributors sell the products and receive commissions; however the majority of the money is made by “referring” or bringing in more distributors, who then bring in more distributors, and so on. The key to these businesses is to find established and legit companies with good commission structures and not spend time and money on small, “fly by night” corporations. Direct Selling is really in essence MLM (even though they try hard to distinguish themselves) except the products that are usually sold are “higher ticket” or more expensive products. Direct selling allows you to make more money with fewer recruits because you have higher commissions. Both of these opportunities are for people who desire and motivation to “run their own business”, because once you recruit people in under you, you have to teach them how to do the same, it’s called the process of “duplication” which involves duplicating the work habits of successful individuals and teaching others to do the same. Income is unlimited and residual, so even when you retire from the business (realistically anywhere from 2-4 years) you’ll still receive checks! An initial investment is required for both opportunities in order to purchase the products and/or start-up kit so if your not looking to invest anywhere between $50-250 for an MLM or at least $500-2k for Direct Selling maybe these businesses aren’t for you.

Drawbacks:

With so many un-established companies on the internet its hard to discern what companies are paying real people real money, so do your research before pulling out your credit card.

There is a high drop out rate in MLM’s due to lack of adequate training from the recruiter/upline and or motivation on the recruits part, so choose your upline carefully because some members will recruit you then leave you on the corner.

Direct selling is bit more challenging due to the type of products/services being offered. It’s more challenging to sell due to the fact that a lot of people who are looking for a business are doing so because cash is tight, so most of them don’t have a grand to invest in order to start (believe me I know).

5. Last but not least we have Affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are perfect for people who don’t want to sell their own product, don’t want to talk to people on the phone or in person, and/or don’t want to spend a lot of money. An affiliate is someone who advertises a company’s services/products on their site by placing banners/ads of the company’s site on their website. When the organization makes a sale from your website link, and in some cases even a referral from the affiliate’s site, the affiliate receives a commission. Affiliate marketing is inexpensive to start because 99% of the companies don’t charge you to become an affiliate, and why should they? I mean after all you’re bringing them visitors, which turns into more sales revenue. You don’t have to have your own site to be an affiliate, but it is necessary if you’re looking to attract more visitors and make more money. The key is joining a good handful of affiliate programs so that you can create multiple streams of income, that’s how top affiliates earn thousands/week.

Drawbacks:

It can be challenging finding quality affiliate programs to join. Many companies claim to “have the best” program.

If you don’t have traffic, what’s the point? It’s better if you actually KNOW HOW to bring traffic to websites. Many affiliates make money due to the fact that they don’t know how to market their programs.

Not enough??? Well try thinking out of the box. Most successful online marketers created income by simply finding a need or a solution for a product/service. For example, while vacationing in Colorado a few years ago I came across a guy who’d made millions simply by creating a website/lead capture page that surveyed people who were searching for real estate. The page, he stated, basically was a questionnaire collecting information about their requirements: price range, number of rooms, location, etc. After receiving the information from the site, he then sold their information as leads to mortgage companies and real estate agents in those local areas! This can be a very profitable business venture because real estate agents are always on the hunt for warm leads. You can even apply this to any other business where leads are sought after.

Don’t let drawbacks discourage you!! All of these strategies are viable and the most commonly used ways to make money online. You just have to have believe that you can be successful-besides what business doesn’t have its drawbacks? See you at the top!!!

We’re going to be looking at the process of creating a web site and how to make money online with your site. We’ll take you through the steps of choosing a domain name, web site hosting, designing your pages with web site templates, adding content and making money online with google adsense and affiliate programs.

STEP 1: CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME/WEB SITE ADDRESS

To begin the creation of your website you will need to come up with a domain name or website addresss. Try to get an address that has specific keywords for what your business or website is about. This will make it easier to remember and will also benefit with keywords searched for on search engines. There are a lot of additional domain extensions to choose from .com .co.uk .co.nz .net .biz .tv etc.. A new domain extension is recently available .ws (WorldSite or WebSite) Try this domain name extension as there may be more names available than the .com’s.

Top 5 Tips:

* Make the address easy to remember.

* Choose an original domain thats reflects what you are about.

* Include keywords in the domain for what your site or business is about.

* Decide what domain extension to use (.com .ws etc.) a local or international domain.

* Buy multiple domains if required. Similar wording for the domain names.

STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR WEB SITE HOSTING AND EMAIL ACCOUNTS

Once you have your domain name, you can signup with a hosting account web server. There are many hosting account deals out there on the web. Search around for something suitable for your website and business. It can sometimes be best to get a hosting account that is within your country. There are even hosting deals called ‘resellers accounts’ where you can create hosting for unlimited domains plus divide and sell webspace!

Top 5 Tips:

* Search online for an appropriate hosting provider.

* Choose hosting that is within your country.

* Check details for MB allowance, email accounts, databases etc.

* See if the hosting account has an easy to use control panel.

* Decide if you want to run a ‘hosting resellers account’.

STEP 3: THE DESIGNING OF YOUR WEBSITE BY YOURSELF WITH WEBSITE TEMPLATES OR USE A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER!

If you have the skills you can design your website yourself by learning HTML or use web design software. Otherwise hire a web site designer to create your site. If you design yourself, there is a range of software available that is freeware and shareware, although we recommend buying Macromedia Studio 8 as a professional web design package.

You can take shortcuts in your design by using web site templates. Pre-designed sites that have navigation and colour schemes already created. These can save hours of time, lots of money and make your websites easier & enjoyable to design. 1000′s of free and professional templates are available on the internet.

Top 5 Tips:

* Create the website yourself or hire a designer.

* Choose suitable design software.

* Surf the internet to get ideas and learn from other websites.

* Use free or professional website templates.

* Search for free scripts and tools.

STEP 4: ADD SITE CONTENT AND PROFIT WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE!

Google adsense is a great way to earn money online and add content to your web site. Google makes it easy for website designers to display relevant Google ads on their site. Because the ads match your keywords and content, your visitors have will be interested in the links, plus you will profit from the links they click on. It’s as simply as that. You can also make extra money by referring others to the program. The first time they make $100US, your account is credited with $100US. Additional to this you can be credited $1 for every download and install of the Firefox web browser.

Top 5 Tips:

* Use text ad units for best results.

* Blend link colours to match your site.

* Place the google ads amongst content.

* Have links for referral signups.

* Place ads on all your pages and websites.

STEP 5: MAKING MONEY WITH AFFILIATE PROGRAMS!

Affiliate programs are a great way to make money online. You simply have links to products and services on your website. Once a visitor makes a purchase through your link your can receive some great commissions on sales or even simply by people clicking on your links.

Top 5 Tips:

* Signup to a selected few good programs.

* Create your own affiliate program for your products.

* Signup with Google Adsense to create profit fast & easy.

* Create multiple streams of income on different sites.

* Use your mailing lists to advertise your affiliate programs.

Stay tuned for the next part where we’ll look at promotion of the website you’ve created..

Thefirst strategy to make money online is building a list.