With a click of "SEND" button, Internet e-mail enables people to quickly and easily refer things to their friends and families. These e-mail messages often spread rapidly through Internet and to far-reaching corners of world.

Many smart marketers have learned to harness power of viral marketing with "eBooks," Internet's digital equivalent of paper book. Two stand-up comedians from San Diego, California say they were surprised when they accidentally discovered this powerful phenomenon.

Steve Roye and Paul Stoecklein were trying to think of ways to Promote their new web site (killerstandup.com) when one simple idea caused an unexpected result.

"At first, we didn't know what we had," says Roye. "And when it finally dawned on us, we were shocked to discover that nobody else was doing it."

VIRAL MARKETING STRATEGY:

The idea is very simple. Roye and Stoecklein created a second Website called FreeJokeBooks.com http://www.freejokebooks.com/

FreeJokeBooks.com offers free downloadable joke books and humorous tales in form of executable files. Created with help of a compiler, eBooks look like individual web sites. These eBooks circulate via email and feed traffic back to both web sites through hyperlinks.

1. Create an award that other web masters may apply for. Web awards are sought after for credibility they give to site. Most web masters will proudly display awards they have won. You could create an award graphic and supply each winner of your award a simple HTML code to display award they have won.

The code could be as simple as:

Of course displayed award links back to you.

There is a simple, free cgi script you can install to help with your awards application. Fast award will help weed out duplicate and broken submissions to make your review process easier. Find this free script at: http://amusive.com/scripts/

Once you have your award set up, submit your award to: http://www.award-it.com/join.html This award site will give you plenty of submissions from people interested in your award.

2. Create a free ebook and offer all who download right to distribute it on their site or ezine. If you do not have ebook software, you can have an ebook created for free at : http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/

Once you have your ebook you an distribute it at software sites such as: http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/ http://www.freewarehome.com

Don't forget free ebook directories such as: http://www.ebook2000.com/cgibin/links/add.cgi http://www.ebookdirectory.com/

3. You could distribute your own screen savers. Just incorporate your site's name and web address in this screen saver. You could create a digital file with your logo and web address and incorporate this file into screen saver with other images.

Here is a screen saver creator that will allow you to create as many screen savers as you wish to give away. These screen savers are distributable as .exe files. It is completely free and it is acceptable to use this software for business purposes. You can even create games with this software. http://www.flashwiz.co.uk/body.asp

If you create a free screen saver, you can submit them to software sites and screen saver sites such as: http://www.wulfert.com/input/submission_saver.html http://www.taynet.com/formmail/addition.html