I’m sure you have heard the term “viral marketing.”  Not really quiet sure what it is or what it means?

One thing is for certain “viral marketing” has nothing to do with computer viruses.  It is a term to describe marketing your business with information products that can get passed around the Internet, such as videos, eBooks, podcasts, special reports, forwarded emails, and more. Below I will touch on some viral marketing tips to help you better get your business out there on the web.

When done correctly, these viral marketing tips can be very cost-effective and easy to implement.

To get started, take a moment and think about your target market and what they would find helpful.  To get the most out of your viral marketing, try to create something that your target market would enjoy so much they would want to share it with their friends.  Hopefully, the people they share it with will also share it with their friends, and so forth.

For example, if you sell food related items, you could create a special report on creating gift baskets.  On the cover page as well as the last page of your report, you could include your logo and website address.  You could also use this same report as a “freebie” to encourage sign-ups for your newsletter.  Once people sign up for your newsletter, you can send them a link that will allow them to download the special report.  You can let them know that they can forward the report to family and friends. This is when viral marketing comes into play.

By doing this, you will increase the size of your mailing list, and if the people on your mailing list find your special report to be helpful, they will send it to other people. Since your website URL is on the report, the people who received the report as a forward may become curious and visit your site, which will increase your website traffic.

The key is to keep everything very helpful and light.  If you created something that was blatantly advertising your business, some people may automatically disregard the product and will decide not to send it to anyone else.  This defeats the whole process of viral marketing.

Some other viral marketing tips and ideas are as follows:

eCourse:  An eCourse is similar to a special report, except that it is broken down into several days and each day a new “lesson” is delivered to the subscribers’ email.  Ecourses can work great as this process allows you to be able to contact your subscriber several times which in turn gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with them and gain their trust..

eBook: An eBook is longer than a special report, and it is something you could potentially charge people money for.  However, if you want to use it as a promotional item, it can definitely work very well.

Top 10 List: Some people do not have time to read an eBook and just want the “Cliff Notes” of a particular topic.  A Top 10 list can serve this purpose.  For example, depending on whom your target market is and what type of products you sell, you could create a list of creative ways to save money on your next vacation or share tips on eating the right kinds of foods for healthier skin.

These viral marketing tips are easy to apply and anybody can start implementing them today.

No longer does someone need to be skilled in a certain area or have a big investment in order to “set up shop,”  A person can take the skills they already have and for a nominal fee, put a website up and start their business.

The benefits of having a web-based business are amazing.  Thanks to the Internet, people with disabilities who were once unable to work, mothers who stay home with their children, and even children themselves, are now able to start their own businesses.  With the power of the Internet, they can reach global markets in ways only top companies could have in the past.

It is no secret that people who do business over the Internet are also more likely to feel most comfortable marketing their business online. This can be a big mistake, as they could be missing out on lots of local clients. There could be someone in your neighborhood right now looking for the type of product or service you offer.

If they don’t know you exist, they can’t hire you.

Here are some tips on how to market locally:

Networking can be a very scary prospect, but it can also be very profitable. Start out by joining a few local groups and getting to know the other members.  This doesn’t have to be a formal networking group.  You can join a church group, a booster group for your child’s school, or even a group centered on your favorite hobby. The point is, the more people you meet, the more likely it is that you will find someone who needs your product or service.

Another “gutsy” way to market your business locally is through speaking engagements.  Many groups that have regular meetings are always on the lookout for someone to come in and act as a speaker for one of their meetings.  If you design websites, you can give a speech on designing a simple, but eye-catching website.  You can contact local networking groups, your Chamber of Commerce, local churches, and local schools in order to find out about the possibility of speaking in front of the various groups.

You can also market your business by sending press releases to your local media, hanging up flyers around town, distributing promotional materials to local businesses such as coffee cups, magnets or calendars to local businesses, as well as paying for ad space in your local paper.

Your local neighborhood may be filled with people ready to hire you, or perhaps refer you to someone who is.  It would be a huge waste to ignore the potential waiting for you in your own backyard.

Everybody knows the phrase, there are multiple ways to skin a cat, but not many entrepreneurs believe that there are multiple ways to earn an income. Robert Allen was probably the first person to coin the term, “multiple streams of income” and it is in fact a brilliant strategy to get rich and stay rich.

Creating multiple streams of income has become a reality for entrepreneurs all over the world because of the opportunities that the Internet has created and here are just some of the many ways to help you get started building your income portfolios.

1. Google AdSense

Google’s AdSense program is probably one of the easiest ways for anyone, even a complete newbies, to start building a passive stream of income. AdSense is a pay-per-click advertising network that pays you every time a visitor to your website clicks on an advertisement. Apart from placing a simple piece of code on your website that AdSense provides, the only other “real” work you have to do is create relevant content and drive traffic to your site.

2. Create An Online Directory

Online directories make great bait for search engine spiders because of its ability to create lots of content very quickly. You can place AdSense on your directory and watch your income grow, but an increasingly popular way of building a passive income with an online directory is by selling text links.

Selling text links is like selling advertising space except that instead of displaying banners, your directory displays links. You could offer a monthly, yearly, or even a permanent option to build this type of income.

If you don’t want to create a directory but you already have a website, you might consider creating a category where you place links to other websites for a fee. The higher the page rank of your website, the higher the fee you can demand.

3. Get Paid To Review Products

Another increasingly popular way of creating a new revenue stream is to become a paid blogger. You simply start a blog and get paid to review products, review someone else’s blog, or review just about anything an advertiser would want reviewed. Services like ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost.com caters to both bloggers and advertisers who are interested in this business model.

4. Create A Membership Site

If you have information that you think people would be keen to pay for, consider starting a membership site. Impose a low monthly subscription fee and offer information that is exclusive to this community. If you think your information is worth a higher subscription fee, then raise the price. Prospects will pay if they know the information is made exclusively for them.

5. Selling Domain Names

Buying and selling domain names is a great way to build your income fast if you know what you’re doing. There are folks making a full-time income doing this, but there is a learning curve required to achieve optimum results. There is money to be made in selling domain names so learn the trade if you’re interested.

6. Affiliate Marketing

Probably, the most popular business model for earning an income online, affiliate marketing is a really simple way of creating a new stream of income online on a very low budget. Affiliate marketing is about selling someone else’s product or service for a commission, without having to deal with customer payments and product deliveries on your end. Amazon.com is a perfect example of how affiliate marketing works and is definitely a great business model to get into.

7. Teleseminars

If you already have a subscriber base, then consider selling them your expertise via a series of paid teleseminars. Offering paid teleseminars is a wonderful way of helping your customers and prospects learn more about your products or services. You can monetize your paid teleseminars even further by recording them and selling them in different audio formats, or even have them transcribed to be sold as eBooks.

8. Special Reports And eBooks

If you could record a teleseminar and sell it as an eBook, imagine what you could do with the rest of the intellectual property you own. People love consuming information, and packaging solutions to a problem in the form of special reports and eBooks is a revenue stream that can truly last you a lifetime.

9. Create A Tips Booklet

Very much like creating special reports, but a tips booklet can be shorter and more succinct. I mentioned people loved gaining access to exclusive information, but even more of them love reading a list of tips for quick solutions. David Letterman uses this to his advantage with his Top Ten List and it has now become a favorite segment of his show. You too can use this to your advantage by creating a booklet of “The Top 10 Ways To …” or variations of that to build yourself a nice stream of income.

Creating multiple streams of income isn’t rocket science and is very achievable. All it takes is a little ingenuity and lots of determination to succeed.

Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say.

1.    Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times.

2.    Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you.

3.    Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4.    Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them.

5.    Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.

6.    Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that.

7.    Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8.    Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments.

9.    SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.

10.    Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.

Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want.