Viral Marketing for Beginners

Viral Marketing for Beginners

Checking the del.icio.us popular page today, I noticed this page, which had already been tagged 923 times and rising. No knock against the person who wrote it but...it's just a list of a half-dozen or so AJAX tutorials.

I mean, can viral marketing really be this easy?

A killer, comprehensive resource like the SEOMoz Ranking Factors page gets 882 del.icio.us tags, and a links page listing seven AJAX tutorials eclipsed it easily in a few days (although SEOMoz's Web 2.0 awards had significantly wider appeal).

And, of course, it's been Dugg.

So what's the lesson here? I guess that getting Del.icio.us and Digg traffic by writing about AJAX is easier than your sister on prom night. I suppose the other lesson is get linked to by Scoble.

Here's something that's both inspired by, and a commentary on, that post. It's a short list of the best viral marketing info I've come across online.

First, a quick rundown on what makes an idea viral by the guy who essentially invented the term, Seth Godin.

Second, Todd Malicoat (stuntdubl) has an excellent post on viral marketing from an SEO perspective(commonly referred to as linkbait).

Third, Graywolf has some good ideas on how to get Dugg even if you're (gasp!) not writing about AJAX.

From what I've heard, Digg traffic doesn't have much commercial value, since Digg users don't tend to buy anything, click on ads, or do anything else that might make you money. They arrive, read your stuff, and then move on (possibly knocking your site offline in the process if you weren't prepare for the influx of traffic). Tech-recipes breaks down what you should know about Digg traffic.

Finally, CopyBlogger has a great free PDF ebook on viral marketing with blogs.

With blogging, going viral doesn't necessarily mean big bucks. The financial benefit of going viral typically doesn't lie with selling to or otherwise monetizing the traffic itself, but rather with the increased exposure that might result in a large number of sites linking to you (especially bloggers).

That boost in incoming links can then nicely translate into your site ranking higher for those keywords that actually will bring in paying customers.