There has been more and more written about viral marketing in the blogosphere with Glen Allsopp, an authority with his blog viperchill.com, a blog that focus on helping people gain traffic through viral marketing.
What is Viral Marketing?
What is viral marketing? Viral marketing is getting people to spread your message for you willingly. Imagine you just published an awesome post, people love what they see and they start to inform others about it thus driving loads of traffic to your site. If the message continues to spread from others to another person, the message is considered “going viral”.
Word of mouth advertising is powerful
Viral marketing relies heavily on word of mouth marketing. There is no limit on the amount of traffic you will get as you wouldn’t have known how many people are spreading the message for you. Viral marketing is the most effective if you are able to create a “buzz” on the internet. Most people are curious, if they receive the message from somebody they know or trust, they are most likely eager to find out what’s the “buzz” behind.
Advantages of Using Viral Marketing
There are several advantages in using viral marketing:
- It is Fast and effective
- It’s a very effective and fast way to promote your site if you did something right. You will get lots of traffic if you find a lot people promoting your site or blog. The snowball will roll fast once the message starts to pick up in size and speed. You’ll be surprised to find out there is a jump in your traffic stats the next morning when you open up your analytics.
- It is Inexpensive
- There is not much cost involved besides the initial set-up and running costs, people are responsible for it as they are spreading the word for you. It depends on the techniques that you are using, some may be free while some are not, but it will not cost you anything once the message goes viral.
- Unveiled Hidden customers
- You can attract hidden customers. Targeting the right people to buy your products is the most difficult if you are earning an income with your blog. Viral marketing can help you to attract your potential customers. As the message continue to spread on what you are offering, you do not have to find your customers, they’ll naturally look for you when they got the message.
- Reduce negative comments
- There is a higher tendency for people to spread around if they are unhappy about something more than the time they are happy, you can reduce or eliminate negative comments if the message people are spreading is mostly positive. It’s much more difficult to get out of it if a negative message starts to spread around.
How do You Get Your Message to Go viral?
There is no guaranteed technique that will make your message go viral, it takes time, skills, and sometimes a bit of luck but there are some that may increase your chances to make it take off. You may try different ways without much success but you may find one that strikes a jackpot unexpectedly. Below are 10 techniques you can try to generate your viral traffic.
1. Quality content, services or products
This is the basis and the foundation that your potential customers look to buy from you. By providing quality products and services your reputation will be built. If people are happy with your products, they tend to recommend you to people they know. They themselves will become repeat visitors or customers to you.
2. Give something free
People love freebies. However your product must not be a trash, people will start to stay away from you if you provide a trash product. What you decide to give away must be something that is relevant and adds value to people. They have to feel worthwhile to pass the information to other people.
3. Create a video clip
Make a video clip and post it on youtube. Your video clip must be something creative or fresh that can attract plenty of views. Make sure its not something repeated. Be sure to add your URL with the video clip. If your video goes viral, be prepared to see a lot traffic to your site.
4. Write a ebook
Write a ebook and offer it downloadable for free. Your ebook must be relevant and something that relates to your niche. If you want to spread the influence as wide as possible, encourage those who like it to offer it as a gift on their website as well. If your ebook is well written and useful, plenty of people will help to promote it.
5. Make Use of Social Bookmarking Sites
Join popular social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.ico.us or Stumble Upon. If one of your posts is posted on any one of these sites, people can vote or rate it. If it is something good and people like it, people will vote for it. You will see your rankings going up if more people vote for it. More people will see your post if your ranking goes higher.
6. Writing Guest Posts
Writing guest posts on other blogs or websites can gain you lots of exposure. Not only will you attract traffic to your blog, your blog will be promoted if people like what they see.
7. Running a Contest
Running a contest on your site will make people take note of your site, especially if your contest comes with a prize. People love to win things. The price must be something relevant and useful to the readers. People love to take part in a contest and naturally spreading the message across to people they know. This will make your site go viral and drive loads of traffic in.
8. Build a community
As a blogger, you are not alone. Building a community around your niche has a lot of advantages. One of them is helping each other to spread the message virally. One way to build a community is to set up a forum in your site and encourage interaction.
9. Submit Your Posts to Ezine Articles or Articles Directory
Write a post and submit it to Ezine articles or any other article directory. This is one way to establish yourself as an expert and gain more exposure. If your article is good, there is a chance it may end up on one of the social bookmarking sites and your name and URL will also be included in your articles. People choose to visit your site as they like what they read. Your site will go viral if they like what they see.
10. Affiliate program for people to market your products or services
If you have a product to sell or a service to provide, setting up an affiliate program is a good way to go viral. Especially if your affiliates have used your products or services and write a good review about it. There are thousands of bloggers who do not have a product to sell and will be glad to join your affiliate program.
Wrap Up
Viral marketing is a good way to drive traffic to your site. The techniques listed above is not the only ones available. Different techniques used by different people will tend to produce different results. If you have better ideas, feel free to test it out. The idea is to expose your name and your website address to different places and get noticed often. However getting more people to your website will not end there, you need to prepare your website for larger traffic. What’s your objective in getting more people to your website? You need to know your objective clearly so that you know what to do when you successfully generate a viral traffic.
Share your thoughts
What do you think of the techniques listed above? Is there any other method that you have tried with success? Please feel free to share with us.
Lye Kuek Hin is a blogger who believes in the power of providing value to achieve success online. You can visit his blog at FindMyBlogWay.com where he shares little known tips for making money online.
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4 Pings on "10 Powerful Techniques to Generate Viral Traffic"
46 Comments on "10 Powerful Techniques to Generate Viral Traffic"
Hi Lye Kuek Hin
Awesome post.It is very necessary to give something valuable for free.Write now I am writing complete ebook to help my user to get successful in the blogging world.Your post mainly include my all plans and also those one on which I am working.just I want to include blog commenting also in this article as it help me a lot giving traffic.
Thanks For Sharing
-Abhishek
Hi Abhishek,
Thanks for the comments. Writing a ebook and giving out as free is definitely a great way to generate viral traffic. I wish you success ahead.
Hey Lye Kuek Hin,
Great post, I agree with doing a contest – especially if you add FACEBOOK into the mix. Like posting a video on their page or commenting on your fan page or group.. anything that can help it get even more viral.
thanks for all the ideas – they were great
Hector
Hi Hector,
Thats a great idea. The idea is to let as many people know as possible to maximize the viral effect.
I am glad that you like the post and thanks for the comments.
Good ideas to go viral. I am working on my ebook right now and hope that it will go viral. Giving away free quality content is the key.
Hi Dan,
Great, i will be waiting to lay my hands on your ebook. I am sure it will be a hit. Thanks for your comments.
Hi Lye
It’s great to see your guest post here, bro. This is an incredibly useful post and I will use your tips to help grow my blog. I would have liked to have seen some examples added, for instance, how to run a successful competition etc.
Thanks for sharing.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks a lot bro. One great way to run a contest is to invite guest post on a particular topic. You can set your own rules. The post that has the most comments or retweets will be the winner. You will decide. This also put the blogger’s networking on a test.
I come from vietnam, I felt very or messages and
information very useful for me, Thanks for sharing
Hi Mrphantuan Manh,
You are most welcome. I am glad that you find this post useful.
Great article and I am thinking about #3 & #4 as I have never tried this yet
Hi Tinh,
Thanks for the comments. Hope to see you try that out in your blog. By the way, your August report is great. Keep it up.
All great stuff here Lye…thanks for sharing! I’ve created some ebooks but always used it as a “gift” if you will, when people opted into my newsletter.
I think it’s a great idea to create one that is readily downloadable for the purpose of viral marketing. I will be sure to give that a try.
I do agree it has to be quality stuff…sharing some of your in the vault secrets.
Thanks again! (Hi Onibalusi =)
…Thanks again! (Hi Onibalusi =)…
Hi Michelle,
Glad to see you, thanks so much for your support!
Hi Michele
Thanks a lot for the kind words. I will be looking forward to the ebook that you will be coming out. Sure it will be good stuff from you.
Great post Lye! I dnt knw much about viral marketing now that i read your post now i knw! Lol thanks for sharing and keep the good post up!
Hi Samuel,
Thanks for your great support and comments. I hope it will be useful to you.
Only 16 and so much knowledge to share, there seems to be so much I still have to learn and obviously you’re blog is one that I’ll be stopping back at. I never heard about the ebook approach before.
Excellent post, Lye. Getting viral traffic can be tricky at times, but you’ve given some very good tips and advice. Word of mouth is the most desired as word spreads very rapidly on the internet, and taking advantage of social sites can help with this. Thanks for the great read.
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the comments. I really appreciate that. Word of mouth marketing is a very powerful media. That’s why many bloggers are obsessed on generating viral traffic.
Hey Lye,
Anytime. I agree, and it spreads very quickly online… both good and bad.
Really awesome tips. I will go through your guidelines. Thanks for sharing
Contest and guest post are the new and something very different from the SEO term. As the large websites gets a lot traffic of creating such a interesting contest.
Its really good method. The most important thing in this method is content. This brings visitors to your site.
Great round up there Lye Kuek Hin. As everyone knows, quality and relationships always win the game especially in this industry. Having those two alone will definitely take any online business a long way. With contents, going an extra mile to deliver value is very important, because it’s the foundation of your reputation. Whereas to building relationships also build our business’ future.
@Onibalusi: Your blog is getting pumped up man! I guess, we are both waiting for the next PR update
Great contents here as well.
Regards,
Jason
Yeah Jason,
We are both waiting for PR update (I am expecting 5 or 6) – I am suspecting Google is trying to stop PR.
So many good ideas, it is easy for the reader to try the ones that appeal to him. I for one am currently using article marketing and videos, and in the near future I will try guest blogging and writing a distributable ebook.
hey ley..
i like the article really…as some of the tips like videos and guest posts… i had not used yet.. so it will help me really.. thanx for the great post..
regards,
Hey, Onibalusi! It’s me again.
Just thought I’d add something.
11. Be creative and funny. People go nuts for those types of things.
/Nabil.
Exactly Nabil,
It’s really great to hear from you again. Hope you’re having a great day?
I sure am! Hope you’re having a good one as well
Oh man, I love doing videoblog posts.
3. Create a video clip
This is a great way to express your feelings and thoughts in a different way.
Exactly, even if you are not good in front of the camera, it’s get more personal which visitors love!
Interesting article… Well I think all of the above points are true and relevant but one thing has been forgotten and that thing is patience and never giving up.
So many good ideas, it is easy for the reader to try the ones that appeal to him. Very good ideas!
I think your methods are great to generate traffic for your website, I’ll try them!
I’ve found “create a contest” to be the most useful since you wrote that article (which made me try some of the techniques). Awesome
Forgot to say that I’m thinking about start guest blogging
It’s a good way to build a personal brand.
Great article! There are many useful ideas in your post which I am searching for. This article seems to cover most of methods for viral marketing.
Thank you!
I tend to give stuff away in order to get visitors. It draws a lot of attention and it doesn’t have to cost much at all
Thanks for the tips!
What do you buy for all you visitors that aren’t expensive? It would be intresting to see some examples since I too want to do that
Have a nice one!
Hector nice post to get viral traffic. Yes those are not expensive but not easy to get viral traffic unless you provide value
Contests has for me always been a really good way to create qualitative traffic to my sites. Contests seems to make people want to interact better which creates more value for me as owner of the site.
Good post
HI great tip about making a youtube clip
i will upload a clip on my kid brother acting crazy
I can see many useful information in your blog,thank you for your time for sharing so useful information here,thanks again,i will go back to your blog again.
I can see many useful information in your blog,thank you for your time for sharing so useful information here,thanks again,i will go back to your blog again.