Viral Marketing - 3 Reasons Your Free Report Hasn't Gone Viral

For those of you unfamiliar with viral marketing, the concept is simple. Produce something that can be passed easily from one person to another and then encourage them to do so. This can be a free report, audio, video or anything else that can be passed along easily. If all goes well, people start passing your message around. He tells two friends, she tells two friends, they tell two friends kind of thing. As you can see, if your virus catches on, you'll be able to get your message in front of exponentially more people than you could ever do by yourself.

To keep things simple, I'm going to focus on viral reports as the medium of the virus. They have been around for a long time, and are the easiest to develop. But just because they've been around a while, doesn't mean everyone knows how to create a free report that gets spread around like a virus. Later in this article I'm going to go over 3 big reasons free reports fail to become viral.

But first...

I want to make sure you understand WHY viral marketing is so powerful. It might not be immediately understood why getting your message spread around like a virus is so important. In simple terms, it is because it can bring more traffic to your website, can get more people to subscribe to your email list and produce more sales for your products or affiliate recommendations.

So, this is big: don't produce a report that you want to go viral without a link back to your website, a link to promote your list and links to your products or affiliate recommendations. I know this might be obvious, but if you do get a report to go viral, you want to make sure it works to improve your business. The last thing you want si to get a report spreading all over the web that doesn't do anything to bring more traffic, get more subscribers or put more money in your pocket.

And while I'm talking of the obvious... make sure you let them know they can pass it along! You don't want them wondering if it's alright to pass it along. You want them to act.

OK, what are the 3 biggest reasons reports don't go viral?

Reason 1: Wrong Topic. In order for a report to be spread around, it must be something MANY people want to know about. Forget about "niches" for viral reports. You want a BIG, HUNGRY market looking for information. The topic must apply to a lot of people... or else why would someone send it along to their friends?

Once you have your HOT topic in a big market, make sure the title grabs the attention of the market. You need to immediately convey this is something they MUST read.

Reason 2: Poor Quality. Ok, you got your hot topic and get people to download and read your report. The information inside MUST be of high-quality. Yes, this is a free report and shouldn't be expected to give away everything, but it still must be of value all by itself. If it isn't, why would anyone want to pass it along?

So, make sure your free report is "valuable" as a stand-alone report.

Reason 3: No Backup. Even if you create a high-quality report on a HOT topic in a crowded, hungry market... it doesn't mean the report will go viral. Why? Simply, because people are lazy and need a GOOD REASON to take the time to send the report along.

One of the best reasons I can think of to get people to pass along your report is to let them brand the report with their affiliate links. Then they'll pass the report along because the more exposure the report gets, the more likely they are to make money.

But if you really want to get the report spreading like a virus, you should go one step further and provide guidance and resources to help people promote the report. Don't just say, "Send out an email". Give them a email they can cut-and-paste. Give them report graphics. Give them articles. Give them everything they need to make spreading the report as easy and as profitable as possible.

Then you'll have a highly successful viral marketing campaign that spreads quickly.

Edward Lomax is the author of Viral Marketing Outbreak, a high-value, low-cost report explaining how to use viral reports to quickly increase traffic, subscribers and sales. This invaluable resource answers 18 of the top questions about viral marketing and reveals the "Fast Forward Technique" for going viral quickly. For Details:

http://www.viralmarketingoutbreak.info