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One of the most efficient ways of spreading the word around about one's products is the viral marketing technique. It takes the form of a few different internet marketing strategies that have proven their success. They actually take advantage of the great connection which exists among all internet surfers. When you read these techniques, I'm sure that many of you would have encountered at least one of them one place or another.

And bear in mind: if you want to be a really successful internet business person who wants to earn money online, you have to take advantage of at least one of these simple strategies. Having said that, let's get on with it.

THE PASS-ALONG TECHNIQUE

Have you ever received a mail with a funny video? A mail that shows you something very funny or very unusual. After seeing that, your immediate reaction is to pass it along to your entire group of friends for them to see that cool video, or picture, or letter, whatever. Well, this is the main purpose, as it encourages you to do just that. There are many ways of spreading it. At the beginning, the main one was the e-mail. Nowadays, Instant Messaging is very popular because all of us are more likely to trust a link sent by a friend than one received in our e-mails.

THE UNDERCOVER TECHNIQUE

This one is actually trickier, because you don't get the impression that something is actually marketed. It takes the form of an out-of-this-world piece of news, picture, etc. The publicity is made somewhere in the background, and it doesn't have a direct connection with what you are viewing.

THE WORD OF MOUTH TECHNIQUE

Also called the 'buzz' marketing technique, it takes the form of a gossip, or a piece of news that is bound to create that buzz it borrows its' name from. The information within this viral is very controversial, it makes people discuss the issue with others. This is most effective when there are celebrities involved, because everyone wants to know what happens to Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Robbie Williams, etc.

THE 'REWARD' TECHNIQUE

Each time a person is signed up for a certain e-mail database, he gets a reward for referring it to others. This is a great way to dramatically increase the referrals database. It is even more efficient when it prompts for action, like participating in online contests.

Now, these viral marketing techniques, in order to be efficient, must have an efficient way of transmission. As mentioned earlier, the IM is probably the one with the most potential. This is mainly because a person's IM list contains only friends, or at least pals. Receiving a viral from a pal makes it much less look like spam and much less annoying. Also, other methods of transmission are word of mouth, word of e-mail.

The publicity gained through an efficient viral marketing campaign is very valuable, because as we all know it, publicity is the essence of commerce. Good internet business owners have managed to pull extraordinary results with very little investment. Without these techniques, that kind of publicity would have cost a fortune. Although it's annoying to some, viral marketing has a lot of qualities and makes efficient internet marketing possible to anyone, without the need for a very fat bank account.

Just try an experiment. Make up a good joke, or find one that's relatively new, and send it to your entire group of friends. You'll see the results. It's absolutely amazing how that little piece of information will go from computer to computer. Now, if the joke is really good and you didn't forget to mention a certain link, you will notice a boost in your traffic that will make you jump for joy.

Of course, this is not the only condition for increasing your sales, but it will certainly help. Your 'virus' will go on and on with no end in site. Whether you use only one of these strategies or all of them, make sure you design a quality content that will make people laugh or interested in any way. These viral marketing techniques are not a secret these days, and their efficiency has long been acknowledged.