Undervaluing Viral Marketing

Undervaluing Viral Marketing is as much of a mistake as overvaluing viral marketing. Most people who do one or the other simply do not understand how it really works, and how it can benefit you best.

I have been involved in several book projects which leveraged the power of viral marketing, with the power of joint venturing. In other words, a group of authors collaborated to produce a viral book, and then each of them used their established distribution channels to promote it. The power was far reaching, and I have seen direct and trackable benefits from that effort.

Now, I have also encountered people who refused to participate in this type of venture, feeling instead that the book should be marketed for a price. They failed to realize that when a book is promoted as a viral marketing tool, with many people distributing it, it gains power to bring in business. That is worth more than the price of the book. If a similar book were charged for, it would have to be distributed directly, and the marketing of it would eat up a great deal of the profit from it. Further, it would not work as effectively as a viral marketing tool.

If you have the opportunity to participate in a viral marketing collaboration, consider carefully before you turn up your nose and demand compensation. In a collaborative effort you may have to actually give very little - write a few paragraphs, or even a page or two. You'd do as much to produce an article for article marketing. In return you get advertising power that is at least equivalent to that of an article, only it will reach a different market than an article would. And the power of that advertising is worth quite a bit in dollars and sense.

It just amazes me that some people will demand payment for every effort they make, and then turn around and cry that you cannot market successfully without spending money. With viral marketing (if you do it right), you take the time, and it compensates you in the end as though you had spent a great deal more money than you could have earned in the time you took to do your part.

That's worth doing free.