Viral Marketing. Case Study: A Comparative Analysis.
There is a lot of buzz going around these days on how artificial link building techniques will be increasingly penalized over the time to come. And no this is not just referring to Google, Yahoo too also seems to have begun devaluing links coming paid directories for example (they simply don’t have a Matt Cutts to help raise the webmaster rage). Anyway it is easy to notice that the only off site SEO promoting techniques that can be considered 100% white hat are those that fall in the viral marketing category.
The problem now is that viral marketing although very simple in concept is extremely difficult to implement. To help you in your quest I will show you 4 real life examples of viral marketing strategies that worked.
One of the most successful webmaster forums around the web, the key to DP’s success relies on offering a marketplace, generically called B/S/T (buy sell trade). This, in conjunction with the fact that new users have to reach 50 posts before posting there, brought an enormous success. Another interesting twist is the fact that this forum openly allows its users to sell the spots in their signature and there is quite a strong market for this sector alone.
A forum dedicated to forum webmasters, this site excels at offering the community a few invaluable mechanisms for creating buzz around new forums. The Launch Team sub-forum basically highlights 3 or 4 new forums monthly which receive quite a lot of new users and quality posts. The Exchange sub-forum allows forum webmasters to exchange posts and occasionally links in an easy manner. The viral mechanism which triggers traffic is the fact that before you can join the Exchange, you must be an active member for the Launch Team crew.
A humor website, which also boasts a forum, this is the classic example of a site achieving fame due to its content. The excellent editorial crew managed to create an unique sub-culture due to such goodies like “Horrors of Porn” and “Awful Link of the Day”. The forum is one of the very few which only allows paid members and the strange part is that there are a lot of them.
4)Bloggst
Not exactly a very popular forum, but still impressive with 300 members in less than 2 months. The viral marketing used by Lars initially included a referral contest program and a lot of buzz from fellow bloggers, including an entry in the very influential about.com. What kept visitors coming though were the emerging post exchange and favors sub-forums as well as offering free exposure to members’ blogs via RSS.
It is important to remember though that creating a successful viral marketing campaign does not rely solely on creating these services. Someone used to say that creating a website was like creating a mall in the middle of Sahara. A successful viral marketing must also be seeded. If you write great articles submit them to social bookmarking sites, if you have a new killer feature write a press release or buy some reviews in some high traffic blogs. These methods should not by pointed at creating backlinks, because that would be like using a cannon to break an egg. It is the viral aspect that matters and which can have the long term effect you are hoping.
AdWords Exploited By Malicious Hackers
A security consultancy group has recently discovered that some ads promoted through the popular AdWords program were actually attempting to infect the reader with a backdoor program and install a keylogger. The exploit in use was in fact rather outdated, but the hackers relied on the users not patching up their systems to be protected.
To see how the security team discovered this exploit see the clip below:
The real threat to the user was the fact that the malicious page was only a hop. After attempting to install the malware the link redirected the user to a legitimate page. Also the response from Google has been swift, but not totally convincing. They banned the offending account, but something tells me that there are more of this sort of malicious sites out there. AdWords ads have just lost a great deal of trust.
E-commerce Turns To Bloggers. The Tale Of Testfreaks
Quite often you get bombarded by online ads that you do not wish to see nor to check. This leaves a potential gap between the marketers and buyers. Testfreaks.com is an innovative concept that tries to bring e-commerce closer to the online community. Now that sounded a bit hype didn’t it? Well it isn’t. Although still in its beta phase, the website relies not on marketers’ words, but on those of the consumers. The entire site functions like a gigantic talking corner where opinions and reviews from forums, blogs and of course professional sources are all gathered.
Let’s take for example the section for digital camera reviews. We open the link and the first item in the list is Canon EOS 30D. The first thing that pops in your eye when you open the page for the product is the manufacturer’s description. That was expectable I guess. However as soon as you start scrolling down you will see why this site is a must visit. More than 50 comments and reviews can be found,coming from just about any source imaginable: direct comments, photography magazines, gadget sites and forums all helping the interested reader to find out the truth about the product he is searching for.
Note: This is a sponsored review via PayPerPost
Google Is Turning Into A Tyranny
In case you weren’t aware the entire webmaster world is on fire. The reason? Matt Cutts has posted on his blog here that paid links will be penalized from now on and that the Google algorithm will change in regards to this issue.
So where is the problem? Well, the lack of transparency is the biggest one. In the Google fashion we have been accustomed to there is absolutely no mention on how this penalty will take place. Best case scenario: the links are disregarded completely (similar to the nofollowl tag), worst case scenario: the sites involved in the trade suffer an overall penalty. And the catch is: absolutely nobody knows the answer.
From Search Engine Optimization To Search Engine Marketing
Well, vacation is over, back to hardcore marketing.
It is mazing to see how much effort people put in getting their websites in the first page on Google, yet how little they think of what will happen after. The basic idea seems to be that once you are on the first page traffic will come and users act like little robots and click whatever is in front of them. When you put things into this light it is obvious that this is not the case.
So how should search engine marketing be conducted? How can you make the readers click your link? The description tag and the content itself will be the snippets showed. with the content itself you won’t have to deal with. With the description though you can play. so what rules should the description respect?
A Testimony Of Faith
It is Easter. The malls are overcrowded again and bunny costumes are all over the place. This is not however what Easter is about. It is easy to forget that Easter is a celebration of faith and hope.
This might seem a bit awkward coming from an SEO marketer, but today I’d like you to do something else. Forget SEO, forget Google, forget keywords, forget budgets, forget SERPs and concentrate on what is really important. Go out, enjoy the fresh air, meditate a bit, be happy and free.
Faith does not come by reasoning. You may or may not believe that there is a God. No logic can give you the answer to the most important of all the questions. What you need is a leap of faith. Take this step, even if only for one day. Let the questions aside and simply believe. You owe it to yourself and the centuries of history that precede your existence.
May this Easter engulf you in peace and happiness.
