Knowledge isn't power - action is. Well, appropriate action is. More on that in a second.

Anyway, the actions required for success are usually pretty simple. The question is, will you do them?

The answer is usually "no." Why?

It's usually one of two things:

A. You are afraid that the action won't work.

Yes, there is a lot of bad advice out there and you've probably been bitten more than a few times by following bad advice.

B. You go into an "I already know that" trance.

Have you ever heard someone give you some great advice and your immediate reaction is, "Oh, I already know that."

What's the next thing you do? You hit the "off" switch for your brain and slip into a little trance of non-action.

I hope the following information will prevent you from doing that with this short action plan:

• I've created and promoted websites that have been ranked in the Top 100 of all websites in the world (yes, including porn and Yahoo). One of my sites reached #36 in the world 6 weeks after its release.

   

• I've sold millions and millions of dollars over the Internet - most of it on a zero-dollar ad budget.

   

• I wrote what some credit as "the first ebook" which was downloaded over 1,000,000 times (when I stopped counting).

Step 1. Create a Linear Path

Have you ever put two bones in front of a dog? What does it do?

Well, if you've done this before you'll know that the dog goes crazy. He sniffs back and forth between the two bones in utter confusion.

If you give a dog one bone what does he do?

He plays with it and then he buries it.

Humans are just like dogs.

If you give them too many bones to play with, they won't play with any of them.

If your website has too many options, your surfers may click on a few things, but each click will lack commitment. Why? Well, my theory is that your surfer is wondering in the back of his mind what those other clicks are all about. So, he's in a hurry to get back to your main page and find out.

So, he clicks on a few links and then he leaves.

Get rid of it all. Strip each of your pages down to one thing and one thing only

Create a linear path to the result you want.

I know – you're about to say, "But what if my visitor doesn't want that 'one thing?'"

Well, you have to ask yourself - would you rather have some people do one thing, or all of them do nothing?

Test this out for yourself. Time and time again I have seen singularly focused linear web pages "out-pull" hodge-podge-links-going-everywhere sites on the order of 100 to 1.

What is that "one thing" your visitors should do? Well, it could be ...

"Purchase my product," or ...

"Sign up for my newsletter," or ...

(If you want to turn your site into an epidemic) it could be...

Step 2. Use Turbo-Charged Tell-a-Friend

It's fairly common for people to have a "tell a friend" script on their sites, but most are going about it the wrong way.

Turbo-Charging your tell-a-friend action is simple. First, you create a linear path to it. You make it the raison d'etre for the page. Give them some great information and then ask them to tell friends.

Next, change the way you're asking people to tell friends. Don't just put it there on your site as a mild suggestion. Create a compelling reason for them to do so.

It could be a reward of some sort of freebie, or ...

It could be access to a private members-only area, or ...

It could be nothing at all.

Huh? Ponder this for a while ...

Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer once conducted an experiment where she asked her students to cut in line at a copy machine.

First she compared the following two approaches:

Case A: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"

Case B: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush."

It should surprise no one that 60% of those asked in Case A said "yes" and 94% of those in Case B said yes.

In Case B, we have a more compelling reason. Case A is not very convincing at all.

Here's where it gets interesting ...

Case C: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies."

A shocking 93% of those asked in Case C said "yes."

" ... because I have to make some copies" is not a very compelling argument, but notice the response.

The conclusion here was that simply using the word "because" induced those asked to comply.

Try using this same approach on your Tell-a-Friend form and see what happens.

A worthy test might be:

"Tell a friend about this website because it's Tuesday."

Or ...

"Tell a friend about this website because they will thank you for it."

Write to me and tell me the results.

Step 3. Embody Buzzworthiness

Is that a word? My spellchecker and dictionary both say "no." Please allow me to enter it into our lexicon.

I think it's a useful word to describe the most important factor of all in viral marketing.

Why do people buzz about a website?

In some cases people tell friends about websites because they will get paid to do so. Affiliate programs, MLMs, etc. all bribe people to tell others their message. The problem here is that people can smell a bribed disingenuous referral a mile away. This is why you rarely see mega-buzz success based on bribery.

Sometimes companies will offer other incentives like freebies, etc. to incentivize referrals and again the result is much the same.

The greatest viral marketing successes employed no such heavy-handed tactics. They were just buzzworthy.

Take Napster for example. Napster is one of the most downloaded pieces of software in the world (millions upon millions of downloads) and they never bribed anyone to tell others. They were just ... Well, buzzworthy.

Here's another example. How long do you think it took the average citizen of Planet Earth to find out about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center?

I would venture to say that within the first 24 hours anyone living in an industrialized nation knew of this event.

Why did people tell others about that?

It, too, was buzzworthy.

The nature of buzzworthiness is an elusive thing, but you get the idea ... Here are some hints:

Be very cool.

Be very new.

Be very newsworthy.

Be very important.

Be very useful ...

Just be very.

The more very you are, the more buzz you will get, and that will serve as the trump card that will beat any other hand in the viral marketing deck.

About The Author
Mark Joyner is a #1 best-selling author, one of the first online marketing pioneers, and has sold millions and millions of dollars in products and services over the Internet on a zero dollar ad budget. His clients pay him $2,000 an hour for his consulting services and he recently distilled his consulting lessons into an easy and fun 36 day course you can start right now for free at: Simpleology.com.