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Part 1 : Viral Marketing

I. An Introduction About Hotmail As A Viral Marketing Example :

Hotmail was created by Sabeer Bhatia. Sabeer was born in Chandigarh, India, and did
his early schooling at the Jesuit School of St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School in Bangalore.

After a brief two year stint at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India,
he transferred to the California Institute of Technology where he received his Bachelor’s
Degree, and then went on to receive his Master’s Degree from Stanford University. He worked on portable computers for Apple Computer before becoming one of the original employees at Firepower Systems, where he worked on PPC based workstation computers.

Along with Apple Computer engineer Jack Smith, in 1995 he launched Hotmail, the first web-
based e-mail service. A year later it was sold to Microsoft for $400 million.

After the Hotmail acquisition, Bhatia worked at Microsoft for about a year and in April 1999, he left to start another venture, Arzoo Inc, which was shut down when the Dot-com bubble burst. In 2006 he relaunched Arzoo as a travel portal. Currently he has started a new
venture called http://www.BlogEverywhere.com

Hotmail allows each email users to invite others to get free email account. This campaign
is very effective as each new email user are given the authority to invite others to create
a new account with Hotmail. This concept allow Hotmail to create a database of few millions
in a short period of time.

II. About The Microsoft Acquisition Of Hotmail :

With daily addition of 60,000 subscribers then, Microsoft eyes Hotmail as a core resource
that could bring products and services faster. Microsoft initially offered $180 million
but Hotmail executives kept the cards on their chest. After a series of negotiations and
proposals from Microsoft negotiators, the deal was finally sealed for $400 million.

III. Viral Marketing As A Tool In The 21st Century Internet Marketing :

Viral Marketing is an internet based stealth marketing campaign being used in an offline
political and media coverage. Sometimes referred to as “word-of-mouth” and “refer-a-friend” marketing campaign, the use of internet defines new definition to this marketing. Blogs, forums or discussion boards being one of this, the mode of “virus” being transmitted is now more advance and dynamic. This new marketing phenomenon facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message in a geometric progression of 1,2,4,8,16… or in binary 1,10,100,1000,10000…. theory. This Euclid’s Theory is significant as it facilitates the receipt of message in a very fast, efficient and in a relatively low cost campaign. Is this effective as we thought it to be? It depends on a lot of factors. But if your product is digital, it definitely will go a long way. Visit the following domains to see how viral marketing works :

1) http://ViralMarketingGiveaway3.com
2) http://TheSuperGifts.com

The above resources will give you valuable products that you can use and giveaway. Some are brandable while some you need to upgrade your membership to receive a premium service, hence, to make it more viral. But why are they giving the products, anyway?

1) To create list;
2) To profit from the affiliate links inside the ebook; and
3) To make money from branding rights associated with the ownership of the product.

You do the same thing, you give it away and your recipient will do the same thing. Some
product owners, however, are giving Private Label and Master Resell Rights to the giveaway product just to create list. See the process? It is never ending and given a right product,
you will definitely receive more eyeball.

IV. How is it differentiated from the multi-level marketing?

They have different concept. In multi-level marketing, you are offering a product through
downlines in a pay-per-sale concept. Whereas in viral marketing, your downlines are offering free product in a reward-per-lead concept. The reward is thru your opt-in leads generated from taking action. It is much easier to create downlines receiving free product than creating downlines selling products.


V. How To Optimize Effective Viral Marketing Campaign?

As an internet marketer, we should me mindful of the way we want our message be delivered
and executed. Do we need everybody to know about it? Is it a niche product or information
that should be sent to select niche target? What method should I use to send this message?
How do I send it? Should I use safelist? Should I join free-for-all ads campaigns? Etc, etc.
Effective use of viral marketing could be summarized as follows:

1) Give Value : Your product should give valuable information or direct benefits to your recipients. Ebook report titles like “How To Win Friend and Influence People”, “The Greatest Money-Making Secret In History” or “”The Death Of Adsense” offers good information enough. Also, make sure that the digital product is less than or at most 1MB capacity. Just recently, I receive an invitation to receive a free software and I jump to receive the offer, only to know that I have to download a 20MB software.What if your recipient is using dial-up to download the product? You need to consider all these factors.

2) Offer Incentive (when necessary) : If you are gathering a list for your database, it
should be transmitted in a digital form where the recipient could easily download the report
or ebook. You can create added value is an incentive, like giving bonus, lower price to the other promotions or by giving a pay-per-lead Mike Filsaime offered recently to his “Death Of Internet Marketing” campaign where he gave a $1 per lead incentive to whoever send him fresh opt-in lead. A new concept, indeed.

3) Make It Personal : The use of “personalized invitation letters” to bring your message
across should be formal and unbiased. Have you ever received an invitation addressed to you
as “Dear {first name}”? If you are not using an autoresponder you may have done this mistake and if you are not in anyone’s opt-in list, you may have received this invitation. If addressed in a general message board or open advertisements, it could better be presented in a “Dear Friend” or “Dear Fellow Marketer” approach.

4) Avoid Spam : To abide by the Can Spam Law, always send in a “double opt-in” form.