In this issue

You are probably familiar with viral marketing.  Normally this takes the form of a game or screensaver.  The marketing company launches it and does some marketing to get it started, and when people see it they are so impressed that they email it to their friends. If everyone who gets it sends it to a few people the message quickly spreads - like a virus!  

This type of viral marketing can be very successful and the message can very quickly get distributed to a lot of people.  However it is like one of those summer colds, you get it, you pass it on and pretty quickly it is over and things get back to normal. 

However there is a form of viral marketing which has a much slower growth but lasts for years, continuing to grow and spread the message.  This is by targeting web sites rather than mailboxes.  It goes by a variety of names and formats, such as advertising application (AdApp), or syndicated material, but the basic concept is this.

1. You have something useful which people would like to include on their web site, for example a calculator or a news feed.
2. The 'useful thing', which for the sake of readability we will call a freebee, includes a link back to your own web page
3. A webmaster visits a site with the freebee, finds it useful and includes it on their own site - including the link.
4. The more places that have the freebee the more likely webmasters will find it and use it and the more links back to your site.

So it is the same basic principle as the regular viral marketing scheme, but it works in slow motion because it relies on webmasters finding the freebee instead of it being mailed to them.  However once they have it, they keep it on their web site giving you exposure to site visitors forever. 

AdApp

An advertising application or  AdApp is a tool or function of some sort.  Let's take an example.  We have a currency converter which is available free for anyone to include on their site.  We didn't do any marketing simply relying on webmasters to find it on each other's sites.  We now have about 500 web sites which include the converter on it somewhere.  So with some programming work, but virtually no marketing effort:

• The advertising part of the tool gets about 40,000 impressions per month - for free
• It is a demonstration of our capabilities so it works on two levels
• The links back to our site generate a lot of traffic
• The links back to our site improve our position on Google
  (I will explain why next month in our upcoming issue on pagerank).

This type of tool will continue to spread and generate traffic as long as the gadget is useful to people.  Here are some other examples.

• Time clocks showing times in different parts of the world,
• Paint calculators telling you how much paint to use
• Financial calculations - mortgages etc

Syndicated Information

The classic example is a regular daily or monthly syndicated column.  There is nothing here that a newspaper editor would not recognise, except that the content is free, the only payment is the link back to your site.   

If you have a news source, you may be able to create a news feed.  This would apply to portal sites or trade associations. On our associate site http://www.bobsguide.com we have just started a syndicated news service.  This works with the news on the web site and the daily newsletter to maximise our distribution of news stories.   

Other information to syndicate would be prices, industry standards and so on.  Each industry will have its own issues. 

Be creative

If you want to include a freebee on your web site, or you want to get some ideas, or advertise your freebee then check out http://www.freesticky.com.  

A few rules

• People will only include your freebee on their web site if they think it will enhance the site and bring visitors back.  So a large advertisement with a screensaver download is not going to do it. The branding and links needs to be discrete and the functionality or information content needs to be useful. 
• As far as possible keep the content on the hosting web page, with a pop-up if you have to.  People don't like pop-ups much but sometimes they are the only way.  But if people have to go to your site to get the information or the function the whole point is lost. 
• Keep colours neutral. You don't know what the site it sits in will look like. If you can, give the webmaster a choice of colour scheme.  

How about 'tip of the day' or a glossary for your client's industry.  It will take time to create of course, but every industry needs one. Not only does this type of offering help in traffic generation it also sets the company up in peoples minds as an expert in the industry and therefore works at several levels.

Don't expect fast results, there will be a slow burn initially, but over time you should see the traffic patterns building.  And of course - if you need a hand with the programming I am on 020 8400 6115!