Panthic Radio

Should you consider a .ws domain?

“I have been advised by experienced marketers to use .com domain names for all my websites. But I have also been approached by people representing Global Domains International (GDI) telling me that their domain .ws is exploding on the Internet and that I should use it instead of .com. What is your opinion?” — Bill Zimmerman

“Exploding” is marketer’s hype, perhaps to press full advantage out of GDI’s multi-tier affiliate marketing structure (5 levels), “with the potential to earn commissions on unlimited levels as a GDI Master Affiliate.”

However, percentage-wise, few average people are really aware of .ws as a domain. Maybe in a few years more people will associate it with the Internet. The advantage, of course, is that you are much more likely to be able to get the domain name of your choice — since there just isn’t much demand for .ws domains. Yes, major corporations have bought .ws names to protect their brands, but they don’t advertise using these domains. If you do decide on a .ws domain, check out the prices at GoDaddy.com (currently $9.99 per year). Based on recognition value (reflected by domain resale values at Afternic.com), a .com domain is best, followed by .net.

Viral marketing

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

The term “viral marketing” is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm. More