Viral Ebooks
If you already have a newsletter or ezine you can create free reports that are closely related to the subject of your opt in list as this will mean that the people reading them will be more likely to subscribe. These reports only need to be 20 to 30 pages long but should be high quality to ensure that readers will circulate them.
To motivate people to actually promote your viral ebooks its a good idea to allow affiliates to customise them so that they can earn commissions from people who buy any products that are recommended in the content. You can either include recommendations for your own products or other people's products.
Each report that you create will contain details about your website and will encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter or ezine to get more information that will benefit them. Its best to write a short introduction on the first page of the report that explains what your opt in list is about and you can also include details at the end of the report.
By far the most popular and reliable format for viral reports is PDF because its compatible with all types of computers and the documents always look exactly the same for all senders and receivers regardless of the hardware or software used which is important if you want to reach as many people as possible.
If you don't have a newsletter or ezine you can start building your own opt in list by offering a free report on your website using a squeeze page to collect leads. When people subscribe your auto responder will instantly send the instructions for downloading your free report.
There have been some very successful examples of people using this strategy recently and the one thing they had in common was that the subject of the report was controversial and really attracted attention. Because the subject matter sparked a massive debate on the forums it increased the viral nature of the report which made it more successful.
But as well as being controversial it also works well if your report is about something different and unique such as a new marketing strategy. The most recent example of this was the seven dollar secrets ebook which was a huge success because it offered a new way to sell products on the internet.
Articles
Writing articles and submitting them to article directories can generate a massive amount of free traffic for your website if done correctly. Once you submit them your articles will keep sending highly targeted visitors to your website over a long period of time which can result in a steady flow of subscribers for your opt in list.
The secret to maximising the amount of traffic you generate is to target long tail keyword phrases that have less competition than the most popular keywords in your chosen niche. For example, instead of using a keyword phrase such as "weight loss" which has a lot of competition, its far better to use a keyword phrase which has less competition such as "fast weight loss tips".
So the first thing you need to do is find keyword phrases that are related to your website (using a keyword research tool such as Good Keywords). You are looking for keyword phrases that have around a thousand searches per month in Overture (which is only a fraction of how many times it will be searched for in Google).
Then you need to write an article which is highly optimised for this keyword phrase so that it ranks first on the search engine results page. The best article directory on the internet for achieving high rankings is called Ezine Articles and its the only one you need to use for this strategy.
The title is the most important part of the article and it should contain the keyword phrase as this will quickly attract the search engine robots and get your article listed in the results pages for that specific keyword phrase so that whenever someone searches for it your article will appear at the top.
The keyword density of the article is also important and you should include the keyword phrase you are targeting at least three times in the actual content of the article. Just remember not use it too many times as this will actually harm your rankings due to keyword stuffing.
The resource box should include a brief description about your website and what you are offering and you should also use the keyword phrase as the anchor text for your link. You should aim to write at least 300 words and create an interesting article that is of high quality and easy to read.
Download free ebooks and software here: http://www.marketingoasis.com/direct/freemonthlygift/
This article was written by Simon Akers who is the editor of the Marketing Oasis newsletter, a free internet marketing ezine packed with tips to help you succeed and increase your profits: http://www.MarketingOasis.com