What we are talking about is literally most powerful traffic generation technique available on internet. Viral marketing is so powerful that it makes search engines look small and insignificant in comparison. Even link exchanges, as powerful as they can be, wilt into oblivion in comparison.

What you do with viral marketing is create something, anything, that visitors will want to give to other people. This thing, whatever it is, contains a link and perhaps a short advertisement for your website, ezine or ebook. So far so good, this is just good marketing. The viral part comes in because people who receive these items want to give them to other people, who in turn want to give them away also.

So you see? What you get is an explosion of marketing for a very small price. It's actually kind of like an avalanche, in that you throw a snowball down a slope and it just grows and grows until whole mountain of ice and snow is tumbling down.

One very cool viral marketing technique that any web site can take advantage of is greeting cards. I'm sure you've run across these all over web. You select a graphic (a drawing, photo or other image), perhaps a sound file and add some text. This is sent to one or more people via email. These people open email and click on a link to view their card. They, of course, have option from here to visit your web site and perhaps send additional cards to other people (or back to sender).

If your cards are good enough, you can find this technique alone will generate an incredible amount of traffic. Of course, you have same problem with greeting cards that you have with your web site - you have to get people to it to begin with. Once you do that, however, you will find that it becomes more or less self maintaining. The more traffic you get more you generate. Just make sure that all of your greeting card pages are listed in search engines, well displayed on your page (and perhaps all of your pages) and advertised elsewhere as much as practical.

What's viral marketing? Simply put, it is using various means to get other people to refer your site to their friends and acquaintances. Why is this important? Simply put, most powerful technique for getting visitors and sales is a personal referral.

I'm sure you have run into this phenomenon in your life. I know I have. One day years ago when my back was killing me, I asked receptionist for name of a good chiropractor. She gave me name of Dr. Tam - and I've been seeing him now for over seven years (and have exceeded a hundred visits).

When I needed to go to a medical specialist to get something checked out, I went to place suggested by my doctor. I trust Dr. Frischer, so naturally I trust that he will not recommend a quack.

When my car needed to be fixed, I asked one of my mechanic friends if he knew of a good place to get it fixed. He sent me to a little shop in hills - it was a bit of a drive, but car was fixed correctly and at a reasonable price.

I can go on and on about this phenomenon, and I'm sure you can also find hundreds of examples from your own life. The point is simple. When people trust someone, they tend to trust their referrals as well.

That's why it is absolutely critical to include a "tell-a-friend" form on your site. If someone likes your site, you want to be sure that you've made it easy and convenient.

What is a tell-a-friend form? Simply out, you provide a simple for to allow your visitors to send your web site URL to their friends. You can include a link to a page with a form, or better yet, you can include form directly on your pages.