Keith Caston's Blog

Viral Marketing Using Folksonomies (Tagging)

kcaston — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:00:32 +0000

Today we are going to talk about folksonomies (tagging) as a viral

marketing tool.

Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging, social

classification, social indexing, and social tagging) is the practice

and method of collaboratively managing tags to categorize

content.

The fairly new consumer phenomenon is called “tagging”. Tagging

is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational

structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people

to file away content under tags, but, even better, share it with

others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created.

Here’s how tagging works. Using sites such as del.icio.us – a

bookmark sharing site – and Flickr – a photo sharing site -

consumers are collaborating on categorizing online content under

certain keywords, or tags.

For instance, an person can post photographs of their iPod on

Flickr and file it under the tag “iPod.” These images are now not

only visible under the individual user’s iPod tag but also under the

community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are

generating and filing under the keyword. Right now Flickr has

more than 3,500 photos that are labeled “iPod.”

You can also use Digg.com. All of digg’s content is created,

submitted, and judged by its audience. If your page, blog or online

article is good enough to be “dug” by digg users, you could

receive literally hundreds of unique visitors immediately. The best

thing about digg is that it is so popular that many submissions can

instantly dominate some keywords on search engines like Google.

Another site is Technorati.com. If you have a blog, Technorati

should become one of your favorite search engines. Because

many Technorati Tags are beginning to dominate the search

engines. You can easily add your blog to technorati’s tagging

system. Just like digg, even if you only happen to get a small

amount of traffic from technorati it will increase your site rank in

the search engines.

There are many sites that can help you with “tag syndication.”

Web applications like TagCloud integrates RSS and tagging

while wikipedia.org is method of allowing social webpage and

content development. All these methods and many more have two

great things in common

Tagging is catching on because it is a natural complement to

search. Type the word “blogs” into Google and it can tell if you

are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to

read blogs, or just what. Large and small sites alike are already

jumping on the tagging train. They are rolling out tag-like structures

to help users more easily locate content that’s relevant to them.

Here are some other sites that you can visit to start using tagging

as part of your viral marketing campaign.

A1-webmarks

http://www.a1-webmarks.com

All My Favorites

http://www.allmyfavorites.net

Ambedo

http://www.ambedo.com

Blinklist

http://www.blinklist.com

Socialmarker

http://www.socialmarker.com

And that is a very short list. There are literally hundreds of sites

that you can use to increase your visibility through tagging. I especially like to use socialmarker.com, because it allows you to instantly add your information to multiple sites without visiting and manually submitting to each one individually.

Start Your Viral Marketing Campaign Today!

Viral Marketing Using Mobile Devices

kcaston — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:25:08 +0000

Mobile devices, mobile phones and PDA’s are one of the last

great frontiers of viral advertisement opportunities. However, we

have become experts at filtering everything, our air and water, our

e-mail and pop-ups, and our mobile devices as well. We are good

at filtering.

The very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our

Blackberries is annoying. Mobile devices are the ultimate opt-in

medium and, therefore, a great way for marketers to connect with

users, if that’s what the users want. “WANT” is the key word here.

How should marketers approach the medium?

There are three main ways to achieve this. They are:

1. Offer exclusive content. Anyone can offer ringtones. It’s the

unique content, such as exclusive mobile images of new brand

concepts, that drives interest and calls them out in other media

like e-mail campaigns, newsletters, websites, etc. So a wireless

campaign is most effective when it offers exclusive content for

wireless devices.

2. Make it useful and timely. Think about what would be handy

and helpful to have on a mobile device. Last year, for example,

Food Network enabled Sprint customers to download shopping

lists for their Thanksgiving dinners. There was a lot of “Sprint-envy”

going around among non-sprint customers.

3. Clearly define objectives. Usually, one of two business

objectives drives successful mobile experiences: incremental

revenue of brand intimacy. On the intimacy factor, a text message

usually takes priority over almost any other form of communication.

Why? Because we haven’t yet been saturated with mobile spam,

and this is what causes us to prioritize wireless messaging over

voice.

Mobile marketing has been out there for a while but we marketers

have new territory to explore. Video offers fantastic opportunities

for engagement. Consumers already bypass their filters for highly

useful or entertaining content and will do so for rich exclusive,

compelling content.

Start Your Viral Marketing Campaign Today!

Viral Marketing Using Forums

kcaston — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:02:54 +0000

Forum marketing has been touted as a kind of free, organic, viral

marketing. But because so many marketers go into forums purely

with the intention of marketing products or services, their actions

and attitude unwittingly causes the exact opposite of the desired

effect.

Forums aren’t marketplaces, but when used as such, the

marketers’ actions become offensive and will only inspire the

wrath of fellow members and marketers, not to mention

moderators who can ban them from the site with the click of their

mouse.

In order to be effective, this kind of marketing carries a certain

degree of commitment, responsibility and respect.

The first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main

topic of the forum. Not only does that mean visiting it regularly, but

it also means developing a good relationship with both other

members and the moderators, as well as taking an active interest

in helping others. Of course, it also means abiding by and all rules

that exist.

By doing this, you can develop a reputation and, since it is human

nature to work with a trusted colleague, business will naturally

develop from this.

This type of marketing has already suffered some abuse and

because of this, many forums have recently developed stringent

rules designed to protect their members from abusive or overly-

aggressive marketing tactics. One forum grants .sig files only after

a member has created one hundred valid posts and another has

disallowed ads in sig files altogether.

Marketers must respect that the purpose of a forum is to be a

platform to exchange ideas on a given topic. It is not there to

advertise products and services. By focusing on the topic and

posting questions and answers, your reputation will grow and this

creates the potential for sales naturally.

Start your Viral Marketing Campaign Today!

Creating Viral Traffic Using E-Books

kcaston — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:44:29 +0000

An ebook that includes your marketing message and a link to

your website is a proven technique in viral marketing. This method

uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the distribution of your

message by willing participants.

This is the same basic principle that was used by Hotmail to get

established and grow into a household name. When the two

founders set up their free email system, all the messages that

were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which

identified Hotmail as the origin. People who sent emails to their

friends advertised the free email site.

One of the best reasons for using viral ebooks as a marketing

method is because it is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s

even quicker if you use rebrandable ebooks that have been written

by others.

Finding ready to go viral ebooks is pretty easy. Just use your

favorite search engine and do a search. You will find more than

enough rebrandable ebooks that are available on whatever

subject you are interested in and that apply to your e-business.

One method of distributing the ebook is to offer it to visitors in

exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to

their friends and family it will promote your business for you.

Ebooks are capable of reaching a large audience and are limited

only by the enthusiasm of the participants.

Ebooks are fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your

own ebooks by combining articles that you have written or have

gotten from public domain sources, such as directories.

A common approach is to use material that has private label

rights, including articles and reports that have been written

specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a portion of a

larger work that you have prepared such as the first three chapters

of a large ebook could also be used as a viral ebook.

Using ebooks as a part of your viral marketing campaign is one

of many techniques that will have a cumulative effect on your

business, by attracting more customers, subscribers and targeted

visitors to your website. Start using them and you will soon find out

that this is an excellent way to increase sales and awareness too!

Start your Viral Traffic Campaign Now!

Getting A Viral Buzz- Viral Marketing

kcaston — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:00:34 +0000

Getting a “Buzz” On. No not the one you get after a couple of cocktails! I’m talking about a viral buzz.

I’m not sure if you have noticed or not but viral marketing has matured quite a bit over the past few years. There seems to have been a shift to the web not just being seen by agencies and brands as another tick box for any ad campaign, which is significant enough, but now being the medium where a campaign is launched to create a buzz before a new product even hits the market.

Have you ever noticed that before a movie is released you will see clips and trailers which are used to generate excitement and activity before the movie hits the theaters? That’s buzz. Plain and simple buzz works! Just like it works for movies and big businesses, it can work for small and start-up businesses, as well.

The planning stage of a viral campaign will set out objectives and develop the viral theme for a buzz. There are three core components to any viral campaign and businesses of any size can use them.

They are:

1. The creative material: The viral agent that embodies the message you want to spread in a digital format (image, video, text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be eager to share with their family and friends. Keep in mind when you are creating content that people are much more eager to share, something that is either fun, entertaining or informative rather than an advertisement.

2. Seeding: Distributing and placing the agent online in places that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct viral material downloads or links on specialist viral third-party web sites in order to create awareness and spread before users get to the campaign destination site.

3. Tracking: Measuring the spread of the campaign to provide accountability and prove success. It is absolutely vital that you know what is or is not working. The only way to get that information is to track the results of your seeding.

Lessons have been learned, trends have been developed and there is definitely some science involved in creating a buzz successfully. The buzz technique is here to stay and, if used strategically, it can make a difference to the success of your business.

Just take some time and create a solid viral marketing plan using the steps above and it won’t be long before you get your buzz on!

Unleash the Viral Traffic Dominator and watch your web traffic and online advertising skyrocket, guaranteed! Click here to Unleash!

Viral Marketing And E-Mail

kcaston — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:44:27 +0000

The main objective of an e-mail campaign is branding, in order to achieve greater branding success and maximum exposure for your offer you should do your best to craft your email message in a way that it encourages your readers to pass it along to others. Producing a message with a quality offer or an incentive forpassing it along is what viral marketing is all about. Just suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and relatives is not viral marketing. A message at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Feel free to forward this message to a friend” is nowhere close to viral marketing at its best.

On the other hand, if something worthy of sharing, such as a valuable discount, vital information, additional entries into a sweepstakes, an added discount or premium service, a joke/cartoon, or a hilarious video, is included in the e-mail, viral marketing happens naturally and quite successfully.

The bottom line is that your message must be perceived as havingvalue. Relevant or timely information, research, or studies are all good examples of content that might be viewed as potential pass-along material. Interactive content like a quiz or text can inspire forwarding, especially if it is fun. Personality tests, fitness quizzes,or compatibility questionnaires are all things that have been passed on by many people many times.Why? Because they are entertaining and entertainment has value.

A good video is always going to achieve some pass-along value.

After all online video is hot! It is a bit more of a time and money

investment but the messages have a great appeal and rich media

has the advantage of being new. The tech factor alone is often

enough for the message to be perceived as valuable.

Email is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing tool. If your email

message is “viral” in nature, your customer can quickly and easily

forward it to friends and family, spreading your message to an

ever growing list of potential customers.

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Viral Marketing: A Review

kcaston — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:50:36 +0000

As we dive in to the wonderful world of viral marketing
I want you to keep something in mind; a true viral campaign gets
forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the
entertainment or quality of the content, not because you bribed
them with a reward or something else.

E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions
are placed on it. Still… it does work.

Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective
tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good
newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers
to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message
about your product of service out there and being talked about.
Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and
services.

Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does
encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a
bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special
events like having an expert available to answer questions on a
given day at a given time.

Ebooks: Share your ebook with your visitors and let them share
copies of the ebook with their own visitors and other contacts.
Include a nice blurb or ad for your most popular product with links
to your website.

Software: Share a trial or “lite” version of your software with
your visitors and just like with your ebook tell them that they can
share copies of the software with their own visitors and other
contacts.

Templates : Design your own website or other templates,
include your own marketing information on them and give them
away as free downloads or as an electronic package. Grant
permission for recipients to pass them along.

Articles : Write articles about your niche topic. Include your
website and contact information in the byline and grant permission
for others to publish as long as they keep the byline in tact. Then
people can use your contact on websites, in ezines, newsletters
and other places where once again, viral marketing will speed the
spread of information about your business.

Video Clips: This is one of the hottest types of viral marketing.
Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up
and increase traffic.

Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are
an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign
going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from
you.

Keep in mind that viral marketing is just one basic component of your overall marketing plan. It should be linked with other strategies such as setting up squeeze pages to collect subscribers. When you take the time to combine viral marketing with other essential business building strategies it can help you increase awareness about your business, generate traffic
to your web site, build a huge and solid customer base, add to your sales and go a long way in contributing towards your success.
Click here to get started!

The Highest Converting Traffic Ever…

kcaston — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:53:53 +0000

Viral Traffic Dominator is a new site that says it guarantees more CONVERTING web visitors and online advertising with very little effort or cost. So I decided to put it to the test…

My first impression was the site looks professional and clean, with an attractive look and feel. It is easy to read and understand. Joining the site was easy and painless–they do offer 2 upgrade options but they are not required to gain the benefits.

The Members Area is very well laid out and intuitive–I could figure out what to do after only a few minutes and was able to get up and running in less than 5 minutes. Inside the site, you create links and ads–the links you simply enter any URL links you use into the generator and it transforms them into “Viral Traffic Dominator” links. You create ads for anything you want to promote using the Viral Traffic Dominator Ad Generator, which is very easy to use. You can create as many links and as many ads as you like. And they are organized in a logical way–links are displayed in the order you create them but also your 5 most recent links appear on the main page for quick reference. Also, since the link generator is the tool you’ll use most, it is also right at the top of the main page when you login. Very smart!

After you’ve created at least 1 link and 1 ad you can start to generate traffic. Just use and promote the new Viral Traffic Dominator link instead of the original source link you had. Every time the Viral Traffic Dominator link is clicked, the page loads followed by a cool slide-up ad window at the bottom. It displays an ad PLUS an image with your affiliate link that goes back to Viral Traffic Dominator. So if anyone clicks the Viral Traffic Dominator image they see the site, and if they signup they become your referral. It’s a great viral feature because you can build referrals without even trying to just by using the site.

Now every time the ad window displays (your Viral Traffic Dominator links get clicked) you earn credits that get YOUR ad displayed in the ad windows when other members’ links get clicked. So the more clicks, the more times your ads get displayed.

And this works virally–meaning as you make referrals into Viral Traffic Dominator (either by promoting it or just using it and visitors click the Viral Traffic Dominator image on the ad window to join) you also earn ad credits on THEIR link clicks. And this works up to 5 levels deep. So you can create a massive amount of free ad views and web traffic by referring others to Viral Traffic Dominator also.

I didn’t get to test the full effect of a big downline yet (I just got the tool) but I can tell you the rest of the site works exactly as stated–my links got clicked, I earned credits, and my ads got displayed. Viral Traffic Dominator even tracked my results so I know how many clicks and how many ad displays. That was an impressive unadvertised extra feature.

There is one more benefit and feature which might be the best of them all–downline emailing. You can email your downline with offers, promotions, or whatever you like, and here is where Viral Traffic Dominator really shines. They took time to make the emailing often enough that it’s valuable as a user, but no so often that it’s a burden to your downline. But the best part about this feature (and actually the credit earning too) is that it tells you exactly how long until you can mail again. Now THAT’s cool.

Overall I have to say I am impressed with Viral Traffic Dominator. It is simple yet powerful, and delivers on its promises. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to increase traffic and advertising.

See it and join here:

http://viraltrafficdominator.com/aff/4635

Make Money Fast Investing In Real Estate

kcaston — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:08:20 +0000

Even in bad economic times, fast money can still be made in Real Estate Investing. You need to choose and investment strategy that best suits your needs and your ability to make these deals happen. There are several different ways to go about investing in Real Estate in a down economy.Flipping Houses: Buying property and reselling quickly, hopefully for a great profit. Usually, people think of flipping houses, or the buying and selling of a home fast, as the only way to make money flipping real estate. However, some investors specialize in other types of real estate such as land or strip centers.Some confusion arises over the process of making money flipping property. People who specialize in finding bargain real estate, obtain a purchase contract, and then sell the contract before taking title to the property are known as “Bird Dogs.” These beginning real estate investors get started with no money down by:

Finding a seller under stress with a bargain property
Securing a sales contract
Selling their contract for roughly $500 to $5,000 to a seasoned real estate investor.

Buying Foreclosures:

A foreclosure property is a home in foreclosure — when a notice of default has been filed in the public records. It means the owner has stopped making mortgage payments and the lender has given notice that unless the payments are brought up to date, it will sell the property to the highest bidder.

Lenders can foreclose for other reasons, but the most common reason lenders file a notice of default is when a borrower is at least two payments in arrears.

If the home owner does not bring the loan current, the lender will take the property away from the owner. The final step the lender takes after a certain period has passed is to try to auction the property at a public sale.

Not all homes that fall into foreclosure go to public sale because owners have the right to make up back payments up to a point, the time which varies from state to state.

Real estate investors and home buyers see profit in buying foreclosures because they can often buy the property for the amount owed, picking up the home owner’s equity for free.

REO’s:

REO stands for real estate owned, and it refers to homes that have been foreclosed by mortgage lenders and are now owned by the financial institutions that foreclosed. Foreclosed homes may also be listed as “bank owned.” REO homes are typically priced lower than prevailing market price, and sellers may offer incentives including favorable mortgage terms for financing the purchase of an REO home. In spite of today’s market fluctuations, licensed contractors and investors can buy a damaged REO property for pennies on the dollar, rehab it, and rent of sell it at a profit. “Flipping” is not recommended unless you’re experienced and knowledgeable about home renovation and local real estate markets.

If you are new to Real Estate investing, it is important for you to educate yourself on the techniques. Attend any investment conferences or seminars that are in your area. Locate your local Real Estate investment club. You can locate these clubs by searching “Real Estate Investment Clubs” and specifying your location. Buy books and tapes from established Real Estate investors such as Robert Allen.http://bit.ly/CNBSS

MSN Real Estate – Home Buying & Selling Tips, Rentals, MLS …

Real Estate News – Latest construction, mortgage & housing market…

Find Homes and Apartments for Rent and Condo Rentals – MSN Real Estate

Real Estate News – Latest construction, mortgage & housing market…

Real estate investing – MSN Money

Find a REALTOR®, Real Estate Agent, Realty Broker, Real Estate …

Real-estate investors’ 10 big mistakes – MSN Money

Record NYC real estate deal now on the rocks – Real estate- msnbc.com

Affiliate Marketing versus Multi Level Marketing

kcaston — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:57:23 +0000

The benefits of affiliate marketing is more pronounced today than before. This is one of the main reason for the immense popularity of affiliate marketing programs among so many thousands of internet marketers.

Latest web technology has enabled the affiliate marketers to get their statistics and income figures the moment they make an affiliate sale. It is now possible to use companies like PayPal for payment and receipt processing. This has highly curtailed the time that an affiliate marketer needs to wait for his payments to be collected from the merchants.

Both the affiliates and the merchants have now realised that affiliate marketing is effective for both of them. The merchants perceive affiliate marketing as an opportunity to advertise their products at a much lesser cost. On the other hand, the affiliates see affiliate marketing as a uncomplicated way of earning profits online by doing something which they like most, and that is web publishing.

Just as the popularity of affiliate marketing has gone into overdrive, similarly the outlook of people has changed for the better about affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is no longer considered as a secondary method of marketing by the merchants, or as an additional income source by an affiliate marketer. For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered as a main source of profits and revenues.

We now need to analyze what type of affiliate marketing will work best for any person? Are there any differences in affiliate marketing programs? Are the paybacks from these programs the same? Which are those affiliate marketing programs that work better than the others?

There are actually varieties of affiliate marketing, and the types will depend on how you are going to classify them. The primary classification of affiliate marketing programs falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

1. Pay Per Click (PPC) – PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant’s banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant’s site. However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.

2. Pay Per Performance (PPP) – PPP affiliate marketing is well liked among merchants and is also the most rewarding type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant pays the affiliate only when his referral converts into an action – that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant’s site or when the visitor becomes a lead. This means that the merchant saves a lot on his own direct marketing efforts. On the other hand, this type of affiliate marketing becomes financially most rewarding for the dedicated affiliate, for commissions in PPP affiliate marketing usually comes in the range of 15% to 20% of the actual product sales. And, in the case of e-products or e-goods, the affiliate commission can go as high as 70 – 75% of the saleprice.