More and more webmasters have at one time or another run into the dilemma of how to increase the flow of traffic to their websites. During the past few years, many methods have been developed to solve this predicament. While most of them would work, there are plenty that won't even make a small impact. Trust me; I've tried an awful lot of them. It always seems as though those methods you would think would be the most effective are the ones that perform the poorest (don't ask me why).



One of the methods that has spawned many success stories in driving traffic to websites is viral marketing. Viral marketing makes use of the tendency of a person to share something that he or she finds informative, entertaining, or amazing.

Many companies bank on this behavior to spread their products and increase the popularity of their company and/or their website. Viral marketing makes use of many mediums in enticing this behavior. It might be in the form of an interesting story, an addicting flash game, an amusing video, or many other methods that may capture a person's attention.

This ingenious form of marketing is typically low cost and is a wonderful tool for any company to utilize. The benefit greatly overshadows the cost or efforts to initiate this marketing scheme. And truth be told, any website can greatly benefit this method of marketing.

?Tell A Friend? Script

One of the easiest methods of viral marketing is the ?tell a friend? script. This is a simple programming script that you can incorporate into the html of your website. Generally, ?tell a friend? scripts are installed on pages where a form is placed so that a person can easily send the information to any of his/her friends or family members.

The basic concept of a ?tell a friend? is not difficult to comprehend. It's simply a script wherein a person may input his (or her) name, e-mail address, and recipient's e-mail address to send information to the intended recipient much like an e-mail with an attachment. As the recipient receives the e-mail he (or she) wouldn't think of the mail a spam mail because he/she would see the sender's name as someone he or she knows and trust.

A ?tell a friend? script greatly eliminates the chances of being blocked as spam because the information used is input by the sender. This allows for an effective marketing method. It can be quite sneaky, but nevertheless, it is very effective.

When the e-mail is opened, the sent information contained inside will be read, viewed, or played. Along with this information would be a brief description of the company or site that sponsors the information sent. This allows for the introduction of the site, the company, the products, or any combination of the three. There is usually a brief explanation as to why the recipient is receiving the message as well (for example, so and so thought that this information might be beneficial to you).

This simple process can be repeated over and over again. Because of this, it's important to make sure that the content on your website is of enough value for people to want to recommend it to others.

As more people use your ?tell a friend? script, more and more people will know of the existence of you, your company, and your site. People who read the information contained inside the e-mail who liked what they saw would then click on the link to visit your site. This drives traffic to your site, resulting in a greater number of potential customers.

?Tell A Friend? Script Availability

The ?tell a friend? script is very simple to install. Thankfully, it doesn't require a complicated method of programming. In fact, you can copy the script and simply paste it on the intended page. Finding one is even simpler. All you have to do is go to a search engine and type ?tell a friend script? in the search box, press enter, and make your selection from the thousands of choices that pop up.

With the ?tell a friend? viral marketing strategy you can drive traffic to your site, which could potentially spell huge profits. This is a simple harmless script that offers great benefits for low cost paired with great creativity and foresight. Think about this: a new restaurant opens up in town. Your friend has dinner there, then raves about how great it is. Naturally, you want to check it out. Using the ?tell a friend? script on your site is very similar.

It is imperative that you have patience when using a ?tell a friend? script. If the information you choose for your email message doesn't get the mileage that you initially expected out of it, it may take some time before it gets spread or shared. You might even want to tweak the information on your site and in your email message. Sometimes you have to try a few times before you hit the nail on the head, and put something together that is very effective. But trust me when I say this: many people will see your information. As a result, there is great probability that they will visit your site, which in turn will increase your traffic flow, and profit potential.