Viral marketing is the well-known name for pass-it-along marketing, better known in the form of word-of-mouth marketing such as referrals.  So can this form of marketing really work in a niche?  Absolutely.

Although there are some forms of marketing that are not so well-suited for niche marketers, viral marketing is not among them.
Viral marketing may be one of your most effective marketing tools if you’re a niche marketer.  You may be wondering now why I would say that.  Let’s examine it for a moment.

Niche marketing is usually most successful when you find the least-served sub-market.  For instance, say you’re interested in marketing art supplies, something you know a good deal about.

Well, that’s a pretty broad market.  You’ll want to look at smaller, less-served groups within that market.  So you narrow it down to calligraphy supplies, a much less-served market.

And, as is a well known fact, people with common interests tend to like to network, share ideas, information and connections.  This is where viral marketing can be very effective in niche marketing.

Here’s how it works.  You set up your website and start driving traffic to it.  Then you put together update mailings, a newsletter or other such mailings and offer an area for people to sign up for them.

When you send these out you include a great offer such as a freebie or attractive discount along with an invitation for people to pass them along to their friends, knowing that most of the people who have visited your website will know at least one other person who would be interested in your products.

Viral marketing is a great, nearly free method of advertising.

As with any marketing method you’ll want to track the results of your campaign to see which offers are responded to the most and which ones your recipients may want to see, or see more of, which you can do by providing a method for them to send you feedback and ideas.

Article marketing is such an effective free marketing opportunity and one that you don’t want to squander by making mistakes that are completely avoidable.

There are mistakes that will make your submitted articles useless and they will never be downloaded and reproduced. You will have wasted valuable time, effort and energy that you didn’t have to waste.

Mistake #1: The first mistake that many first time article marketers make is not realizing just how important the headline or title of the article is.

The title is the first thing a web surfer sees and what will determine whether he stops to read the article or not. Titles must be attention getting and they MUST contain relative key words.

If these criteria aren’t met, the article is of no use no matter how great the content of the article is.

Mistake #2: The first line of the first paragraph must continue to hold the reader’s interest in order for him to continue reading the article. Web site owners and ezine publishers know this rule and you need to understand and abide by it.

Start with a sentence that will continue to hold the reader’s interest after the title has done its part.

Mistake #3: Writers write. Writers just love seeing their thoughts in print even if it’s only in a word document on their own computers.

Remember that less is more when it comes to marketable articles. Write all you want to about a subject, then cut those thousand words into pieces and make three articles out of them.

Articles of 300 to 400 words are best for article marketing purposes.

Mistake #4: Not putting all of the allowed links into your resource box is a big one in the mistake department. If you are allowed three links, use three links.

This can be particularly difficult to sort through, especially if you’re fairly new to it all.  There’s also the added complication of people you know giving you advice, however well-intended it may be, that’s simply not in the best interest of your business or marketing venture.

Below is a short list of some of the marketing tactics that simply don’t work well enough to be worth your time.

Contests – Although they may seem like a fun way of attracting potential customers to your site, the truth is most people just aren’t interested.

There’s also the fact that many people are leery of web contests because of the potential for scams and viruses.

Then there are also the potential legal issues involved in running a contest, which could be very costly and time consuming.  All-in-all contests are simply not the way to go.

Banner Ads on General Sites – Most banner ads you see are on general sites and not worth wasting your time or money on.  They simply won’t pay off.

The only banner ads I’d recommend are those that are linked to search terms on major search engines.  These will generally provide you with the kind of results you’re looking for.

Free Trials – These are only effective if you have a truly great conversion campaign to support them.  Most people will take the free trial and never buy after that unless you have a solid conversion campaign to follow through with.

This can be a very time-consuming process and may take many months before you ever see a profit.

There are many other marketing tactics out there that are not worth giving a second thought to.  However, don’t be discouraged by this.

There are an equal number of effective marketing methods that will provide you with the traffic you need to see a profit in your venture.

Just remember to do your research before you jump in to a marketing campaign to save yourself from spending time and money on a method that’s not suited to your needs.

It may even be THE best if it is done right. Where blogging posts fall off the front page of an active blog in hours, articles remain visible for days or weeks on websites that download and post them…..and your resource box with them.

Like a fisherman, the more lines one has in the water, the more opportunities an Internet marketer has for success and articles that are downloaded and reproduced on many websites puts a lot of lines out in the Internet fishing hole.

If you can write (or have written) articles and post (or have them posted for you) in article directories or repositories, you have the opportunity to get your articles downloaded and posted on websites or downloaded and included in ezine publications.

These articles provide several opportunities for you:

1.Reproduced articles are free advertising! Your resource box is included in each reproduction and in that resource box there is a link to your website. The article itself, if it is well written, is the best advertising you can get paid or free.

2.Reproduced articles help establish you as an expert in your niche market or field.  As the author and the holder of the copyright on a well written and informative article, you will become known as a guru…the go-to guy or gal in your field.

3.PageRank improvement is another side effect of article marketing that is so valuable. Each time your article is downloaded and reproduced another link is on the Internet for the search engine spiders to count. PageRank improvement will bring a lot more traffic to your website.

4.A better bottom line is the result of more targeted traffic to your website. More traffic will equal more sales and that will make your bottom line very happy.

Writing articles that are designed to attract website owners and ezine publishers are written much the same way that other articles are written but with a few very significant differences. Website owners and ezine publishers look for articles that:

1.Have attention getting headlines that also have key words in them. Website owners and ezine publishers are well aware of the notoriously short attention span of the average Internet surfer.

They know they have about 30 seconds to convince a surfer to actually read an article. If the headline isn’t attention getting and if it doesn’t have key words, the surfer will…well….surf away.

2.Have an attention holding first line. This same notoriously impatient surfer reads the headline and then his eyes automatically go to the first line of the first paragraph of an article.

If the surfer is attracted by the headline and his attention can be held through the first sentence, there is an excellent chance that he will read the remainder of the article.

3. Are short. Articles submitted to article directories must never be more than 300-400 words. Remember that notoriously short attention span? If you want readers to get to the all important resource box, hold those articles down to 300 to 400 words.

4.Follow the rules: Each article directory has its own rules and regulations regarding submissions. Some limit the number of links that may be included in the resource box; others have stringent requirements for other aspects of the articles they accept. Be sure that you always follow the rules to the letter.

Article marketing is an effective marketing tool and can provide excellent results if the articles are well-written and follow the rules.