You've had a cold.

You've heard of computer viruses.

But did you know there are actually good viruses to catch?

Well actually, viral marketing is not a virus at all. Have you ever been given a pen with a company's logo on the side? Why do you suppose they went to all the trouble of getting the logo posted? Simple. They know that when that pen gets used you will remember them and tell other people about them as well as returning to their service yourself. It becomes a form of "word of mouth" Internet Marketing that is extremely affective.

Let's look at viral marketing pros & cons as it relates to Internet Marketing in this article.

Did you know Internet "word of mouth" advertising is not always good to do?

For example, you don't want to do it if…

• Your web creative is not ready for prime time.

• You are not ready for the automatic traffic it will generate.

• It is obvious that your piece is nothing more than a marketing campaign.

Basically, if your going to be successful with viral marketing on the Internet you need to carefully develop your project or find that you are building a bad reputation as your viral marketing campaign spreads across the Internet.

However, if done right, there are many more reasons to do viral marketing than not to do it.

Now the question becomes how exactly does one do viral marketing the "right" way.

Probably my first recommendation would be to take your time and develop a well planned out product both on your web creative (website, blog or what have you) and your viral marketing piece as the image you create is essential to your success.

Also use resources like article/video directories, blogs/forums and affiliate marketing to spread the word of your offering to your target audience.

Of course, you need a viral marketing item in-order to create a viral marketing campaign. This can be any of the following…

• Video

• Article

• Joke

• Interesting fact

• And the list goes on

The main point here is it needs to be an extremely useful item to your target market audience. That way they will pass the information on to people that they believe would be interested in reading your information. Trust me, almost nothing beats having someone send your viral marketing product out to their friends with their stamp of approval on your package.

Those are just some of the viral marketing pros to be had when performing "word of mouth" viral marketing. Here's to your success.