How To Use Viral Marketing To Grow Your Opt In Email List

If you have read my article called "What is Viral Marketing" you should already have a fairly good idea of it's potential.

In this article I'm going to discuss how it can be used to grow your all essential, opt in mailing list.

As you already know, Viral Marketing is a great way to get the word out about your product or service, so you can see a huge surge in sales.

But what about subscriptions to your newsletter? Can they too be effected by this type of Marketing?

YES they can.

But how? This depends on how difficult and successful you want to make it. Not that these two factors necessarily go hand in hand.

The most basic form of using viral marketing automatically, is probably a tell-a-friend script. I'm sure you've seen them, you've probably used them as well.

All you have to do is type in someone's email address into a form, and the website will usually have text pre inserted into the form telling the person how great you think the website is, but you could always add your own instead.

Your friend receives an email which to them looks like you are telling them about this fantastic new website and hopefully he will sign up to the newsletter to find out more.

This can be manipulated in other ways. For example what if you did a questionnaire, then, to get the results of the questionnaire, not only does the person have to sign up to your newsletter, but they have to fill out a tell-a-friend script for three friends, telling them about this questionnaire. Then, those three friends sign up, take the questionnaire, and oh look, they have to sign up to the newsletter to find out the results, oh well, lets tell three more friends each.

This has a huge snowball effect, and should see you exponentially growing your opt-in mailing list.

This isn't too hard to create either. Just go down to elance.com and ask a programmer how much he would charge for such a thing.

However, you must remember that you must start your marketing efforts with some fuel, and that fuel is people. You have to start with at least a few people filling out this questionnaire for this to even begin. 0 people telling 3 friends each still equals 0.

Another way to grow your mailing list, is to pay people for every subscriber they send your way. This isn't exactly the type of marketing I've been discussing throughout this article, but it will grow your opt-in list quite well if you pay enough and enough people start doing it. I think that 10 cents per subscriber is fair.

If people start sending you more subscribers than you can afford to pay, then you can always stop it for a while. But remember this, is you treat your subscribers well, then you have a life time value of them, which is worth far more than 10 cents.

Hotmail.com used this form of marketing in a small way that produced big results. At the bottom of each of the emails sent, they included a small line that said something like "Get your free email account with hotmail.com". This meant that every time an email was sent from hotmail the recipient would read this and perhaps think, "Hmm free email account huh? Better check this out. This resulted in hotmail's huge growth in a relatively short period of time. Eventually Microsoft brought hotmail.com for an obscene amount of money.

By Stephen Warren, the creator of http://www.marketershandbook.com, the completely FREE guide to marketing online, with useful articles and links.

---

How to turn your Newsletter into a Web Page...in 45 seconds!

Do you place back-issues of your Newsletter onyour website?There are... Read More

5 Tips for Catching Errors in Your Manuscript

What is your worse fear as a self-publishing writer? For... Read More

Subscriber Incentives: Are They Effective?

Peter Boulder of Pepper and Rodgers Group tells a story... Read More

5 Ways to Make More Money With Your E-zine

Have you been publishing an e-mail newsletter for at least... Read More

How to Make Your eZine Work for You Long After Its Published

If you publish an email newsletter, do you convert the... Read More

Section Ideas to Include in Your Newsletter Design

A good newsletter template is not only consisted of a... Read More

You Can Publish an Ezine

Publishing an Ezine can be scary to the newbie. But... Read More

Is It a Newsletter or Just One More Commercial?

When I purchased my very first computer, not too long... Read More

What Ive Learned From My Subscribers

As editor/publisher of Book Promotion Newsletter, I am fortunate in... Read More

Finding the GOLD with Ezines and Google!

HiHow'd you go with your product search?Here's another way to... Read More

Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-15 Tips to Boost Your Profits

In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest,... Read More

The Magic Button That Earns $3,546 or more

Ever wonder how a "guru" earns $3,546 or more just... Read More

Want To Start a Publishing Revolution?

Calling all publishers, editors, journalists and freelance writers. It's time... Read More

Writing Effective Newsletters

It's obvious but true that your newsletter can only be... Read More

Why Arent You Writing Ezine Articles?

I'm amazed!Everywhere I go on the Web, people are desperately... Read More

A Blog, 5 Minutes a Week and These 5 Simple Steps Equals Your Own Online E_ZINE

One of the fastest ways to gain "Guru" Status online... Read More

How To Make Your Subscribers Stick To You Like Super Glue

One of the biggest obstacles to building a good sized... Read More

Who Should Offer an Ezine?

If you are a professional, consultant, coach, speaker, seminar leader,... Read More

3 Money-Making Reasons for Displaying Your Newsletters on Your Website

Seeing is believing. Unless your website visitors can experience your... Read More

Top 3 Steps to Success Building the Relationships

Marketing is a broad business subject that encompasses a range... Read More

Making Money Online With Web Publishing

Who doesn't want to make money online? Internet is here... Read More

Why Do We Publish?

WHY DO WE DO THIS?A major "character" in Mark Salzman's... Read More

Self Publishing At The Speed Of Thought

Publishing, both electronic and hard copy, from articles to books,... Read More

Newsletters ? Keeping Your Customers Informed

Many businesses use email newsletters to introduce themselves to new... Read More

8 Effective Ezine Publishing Tips To Put You Ahead Of The Game

1. Swap sponsor, feature, or solo ads with other ezine... Read More

Ezines ? An Excellent Approach To Internet Marketing

What is an ezine? An ezine is an abbreviation for... Read More

Create Your Own Ezine Traffic Machine

How would you like to reach millions of people with... Read More

How To Develope Content For Your Ezine Without Having To Write Your Own Articles

Do you struggle with creating content for your ezine? You... Read More

Learn How to Choose a Great Topic for Your Newsletter

Since you're going to write your newsletter on a regular... Read More

Writing, Publishing, Self Publishing, Website Promotion, Blogging, Internet Marketing

Are You Ready For The Publishing Revolution?Writing has traditionally been... Read More

The Plain Truth About Branding for Newsletter Publishers and Web Designers

Branding, or brand marketing as some now call it, is... Read More

Talking Pictures Are the Go!

A Tokyo day care company has begun marketing a "talking... Read More

3 Things You Need to Do to Turn Net Information into Cash

Although we are in the information age, very few people... Read More