Going Viral - 7 Tips to Increase Your Website Traffic - Internet Marketing Australia

If your not familiar with viral marketing, it simply means word-of-mouth advertising and can translate into mega traffic for your website if its done right.

First off, there are a couple of things to keep in mind before you launch a viral marketing campaign.

Viral marketing is all about building your business by reaching people who are interested in your niche without having to pay for it. When it's all said and done the end result is that you want people talking about your website or product.

Viral campaigns often start out small and build up steam along the way and can take several weeks or longer to produce consistent long term results. Your campaign may also be a flop, but if your prepared to learn from your mistakes your next one may be more successful.

Perhaps the single most important tip in using viral marketing is to consider how you go about it. Building relationships with other marketers or niche site owners has always been a way to significantly improve how many people see your message. If a about a promotion and that person already knows your name or is familiar with your website you stand a much better chance of getting that person onboard to promote your product, etc and produce a viral effect.

Building a relationship can be as simple as leaving comments on a blog, sending emails asking questions or offering suggestions that may help them improve their marketing.

Just a half dozen marketers who you have a relationship with and who promote, or make a recommendation about, your product, gift, etc, initially can give the boost it needs to take off and create the traffic, links, buzz, etc., that your looking for.

Use relevant forums and groups for a couple of reasons. One - they are a great source of information about the problems that people are looking to solve and they give you the opportunity to create a solution that you can then promote within them.

Don't under-estimate the power of these. They are filled with people who want to talk about what you do - either good or bad. If something goes truly viral you'll see tons of traffic from these sites.

Make sure your promotion leads to one central page on your site then use other sites to promote it. You can use free classifieds, web 2.0 sites, video sites, etc.

Viral marketing does not have to cost much. Free offers such as ebooks, software, etc tend to do well as do give away products or services.

Be extremely careful to tie in your viral efforts with what your website or niche is about. For example don't offer a dog training course if your website is about knitting. Your viral campaign will end up a flop before it gets a chance to hop.

The final tip is to make sure that you make it very easy for people to share your info virally. If you can share the wealth with others so that they get some benefit from helping you in your promotion. That sharing could simply be in the form of an offer to promote one of their products later on down the road.

There are more tips to be aware of before you start a viral marketing effort but if you follow the ones above you should get off on the right foot.