Are You Viral?

Are You Viral?

By Denise Hall (C) 2003

No, I'm not asking if you have a cold. Or if you're spreading a
computer virus.

I'm talking about your business. Do you have hundreds of
visitors to your website everyday? Are you making lots of sales?
Can you afford to quit your day job?

If the answer to these questions is "no" maybe you need to
revamp your business plan.

A fellow ezine publisher recently asked me how I get new
subscribers to my newsletter.

The key is to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE! And when you're done,
PROMOTE some more! I can't stress that enough.

You don't have to be an ezine publisher to use these resources.
They pertain to running any internet business. Everyone needs to
get VIRAL!

What exactly does that mean?

It means spreading the word about your business every possible
way and everywhere you can. It means making your name and your
website known to the world! There are many ways to do this.

Advertising in ezines gets good results because they have
targeted audiences. Subscribers are reading the information
provided so they can learn. They're also looking for quality
money-making opportunities, good advertising resources and tools
to help them with their businesses.

There are many directories available to find quality newsletters
and ezines. This is just a small sampling:

http://ezinexchange.com/index.html?m=56364207
http://www.freezineweb.com/more-directories.html
http://www.ezineworld.com/index.php3?refid=1208

Banner exchanges are a good way to advertise, too. We all see
banners displayed at just about every website we visit. If a
banner catches our attention we click on it, don't we? Get the
point?

A banner exchange means your banner is displayed on other
websites in exchange for displaying their banner on your
website. It's a free service.

Here are a few sites that offer banner exchanges:

http://freeautobot.com
http://www.adtactics.com/index.php?ac=itsallfree2002
http://QuickPayPro.com/x/qpp.cgi?adminid=1946&id=40550&pid=0

This website is just FREE banners for you. No exchange is
necessary. Check it out here:
http://www.unlimitedbanners.com/?a=gifts_n_things2002

Many websites offer banner displays for a fee, also. If you
don't have your own website you may want to buy some banner
displays as an alternative since you can't display other
people's banners.

Banners get attention, and you want attention! Here are some
good sites to visit for paid banner ads:

http://QuickPayPro.com/x/qpp.cgi?adminid=1946&id=40550&pid=4597
http://www.autohtml.com/a.cgi?id=itsallfree2002

Most duplicated websites come with banner URLs and information
explaining how to use your banner for exchanges. However, if you
don't have a banner for your business or newsletter, or if you'd
just like to have a different one, you can make them here for
free:

http://www.addesigner.com

Do you have a knack for writing? If so, consider writing
articles to submit to ezines. Most publishers accept guest
articles from their readers. At the end of each article you can
add a resource box containing your name, business name and
website URL or newsletter subscription information.

Other sites to submit your articles:

http://www.MakingProfit.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articlesubmission
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/I_Need_Content

Submitting your site to search engines and directories is a
MUST! If you don't, you're losing potential customers because
they can't find you!

But please submit your website only once every 30 days or so.
Otherwise, the search engines think you're SPAMMING them.

Here is a good way to put your search engine submissions on
autopilot:
http://www.worldwidepromoter.com/?itsallfree

Other types of advertising include safelists, classified ads,
FFA (Free For All links) pages and ad or message boards. This
website contains several suggestions:

http://www.mylinksite.com ons_of_offers

Startpage programs will also produce traffic to your website.
They can be joined for free and you can purchase more credits if
you'd like. Here are a few good ones:

http://PowerFulHits.com/?ref=200
http://QuietSurfer.com/?ref=1880
http://freetrafficboost.com/g.o/itsallfree2002
http://www.magnetichits.com/default.asp?userid=its_all_free2002

Some people think startpage programs are a waste of time. But
you never know who might see your website!

Exchanging links with other website owners will also bring
traffic to your website. This is similar to banner exchanges but
these can be either banner or text links.

Each time you visit a site or read an ezine check to see if the
website owner participates in link exchanges. Send them an
e-mail and swap links with them.

Take advantage of every opportunity you find to send feedback
and profiles to ezines that you read. Publishers normally allow
a 2 or 3 line signature file with your submission.

If you're an ezine publisher ad swaps are a great way to gain
subscribers and visitors to your website. Similar to link
exchanges, you simply trade ezine ads with other publishers.

The internet contains millions of websites. Becoming viral means
linking to as many of them as possible. The more you link to
other sites, the more visitors you'll receive. This will also
give you higher rankings in the search engines.

In a nutshell, if you don't make your website well-known, you'll
be invisible.

You don't want to be invisible, do you? Of course not!