Viral marketing by definition is any type of a marketing campaign that encourages those in receipt of an advertising message to voluntarily pass it along to friends, family and others that may be interested. [unlike a bad "virus" which one would not want to knowingly spread or pass along.]

Examples of successful viral marketing are: hotmail and their simple teaser at bottom of all their emails that stated "Get your free private email at www.hotmail.com."

In its first 1.5 years, Hotmail acquired over 12 million subscribers.

eGroups.com [Yahoo Groups] is a free place on Net with tools for groups to share ideas, coordinate schedules and

exchange documents. It reached 4.1 million users at a faster pace than Hotmail did.

MeMail.com, Canadian publisher with over 300,000 subscribers, has 97% of its new subscribers from direct referrals.

Every time a subscriber passes along a story or joke, attached is a subtle endorsement for MeMail.com brand.

Other forms of viral advertising are based on idea, that people will pass on and share cool and entertaining content, which is often sponsored by an individual or company.

This is looking to raise awareness and use of a product or service. These viral commercials can take many different forms: funny video clips, interactive Flash games, images, or even text.

R.S.S. is not just a gift, but a means to propagate your brand via incoming links. It will provide content to any who wish it, but its true purpose is to infiltrate market, virally.

Viral marketing is usually carried out by email, although it is not same as email marketing.

Email marketing is a message that is sent out by a company to a database.

In Viral marketing a conventional database is not used. The idea is to get your reader to pass your message on to their friends, family or associates. The message then carries a powerful personal endorsement and is much more likely to be read and/or acted upon.

When a viral campaign is properly constructed and executed, you will be rewarded exponentially by spread.

Take case of a viral ebook - which means a book that can be passed from one person to another bringing benefits (profits) for each party in turn.

How is this achieved ?

The basic concept is that book contains links to affiliate products. When a reader of book makes a purchase from a link then affiliate receives commission.

The creator of such a book will allow some of links to be 'rebranded' which means a person (who we will refer to as rebrander) can replace them with his own affiliate codes thus collecting commission. This is obvious incentive for him to pass book around and begin viral progression.

If we want to maximize benefits for everyone and create perfect viral ebook we need to have THREE key factors in place.

1) Wide Distribution

There are many permutations in ways that you can offer an ebook. It can be free or paid, and for either option you can charge for rebranding or offer it free; plus you can have part customization or full customization. On top of that, for a paid book you can offer resale rights and even right to grant resale rights.

Let's keep it simple. What we want is widest possible distribution so that we get most commission from affiliate links.

So we will have a FREE book and FREE rebranding rights.

2) Quality Affiliate Links

It goes without saying that your book should contain good content on a topic of interest.

But will readers click on those affiliate links ?

The answer is 'NO' if you copy poor example of many authors, for instance:

- have you ever opened an ebook and been faced with a barrage of affiliate links ?

- or seen affiliate products which have nothing to do with theme of book ? For example in a book about hypnotism you get a link to a web hosting company.

So what is best way ?