Viral Marketing With Contests

Viral marketing is all about getting other people to spread the word about your website for you.

What better way than to give people something for free?

Better still is a contest. Everyone lives or Contest. There's something exciting about the possibility of winning a great Prize.

This article will show you an incredible Way to get a ton of visitor's and, more importantly, Subscribers.

Setting up your contest is simple.

First, you need to find 3 or more partners. Each of your partners needs to have a significant mailing list of clients with a similar common interest to your own list. Invite each partner to join your contest. Explain that he will need to provide you with a brief description and image of a product that can be given away for free to every one that joins the contest.

This giveaway will be given to everyone that signs up for his email list. So, your partners will need to provide you with a link to a page where contestants can sign up for the list and receive their gifts.

Next, you will need to prepare a single page on your website that describes the details of the contest and gives a description of each partner's gift and a link to sign up with that partner's mailing list to receive the free gift.

Also remind your visitors that he must be an active subscriber to all the mailing lists at the time of the drawing in order to win.

You must have a great grand prize. If you want, each partner can contribute an item to make one great package.

Finally, you will need a sign up link for your mailing list, the contest's main list.

Have each of the partners promote the contest to his list. This will generate your initial traffic.

You can also advertise your contest throng ezines, classified ads, pay-per-click search engines and forums.

To generate even more traffic create a page that is displayed immediately after someone signs up for your main contest mailing list. On this "Thank You" page you are going to install a simple tell-a-friend script that will allow users to email their friends with a link to the contest. These types of scripts are available freely around the Internet.

In order to stimulate these referrals offer a free gift to everyone that completes the referral form. This gift can be a simple download such as an ebook, report, or useful piece of software.

Once your contest is over, usually a couple of weeks will do, randomly choose one of the subscribers from your main contest mailing list. Verify that he is a current subscriber with all of the other partners. If so, contact the subscriber and award the prize!

Be sure to send an email to the entire list announcing the winner and congratulating him. Be sure to make an offer of some sort in this email as well.

A contest can be an excellent way to stimulate your mailing list's growth. With just a couple of partners you can get your contest under way with no cost and minimal effort. Each of the partners wins by increasing his mailing list.