SEO Tycoon

**Bookworm-SEO** · 08-27-2006, 03:57 PM

Anyone here have experience with viral SEM campaigns? I've done a couple and am interested to see how other people have done it. Those who share good advice/case studies etc. can expect a link to their blog/seo site from an upcoming blog post at Montreal SEO.

On a related note, anyone have an idea what the value of viralsem.com is? I picked it up the other day on a whim, but have no plans to develop it.

**rex_b** · 08-27-2006, 05:53 PM

could you explain more about viral sem , as I'm not really understanding

**GeorgeB** · 08-27-2006, 07:12 PM

Yeah how can you have viral search engine marketing. That doesn't even make sense (to me

).

Do you mean viral marketing that results in a lot of backlinks hence improving your SEM? Like linkbaiting?

**Pearse** · 08-28-2006, 03:27 AM

It's very possible. Difficulty depends on industry IMHO. There are some industry that just have more viral potential than others. We are currently working on some things that will hopefully spread like wildfire. We'll see though.

**Dactyl** · 08-28-2006, 04:11 AM

I think he's talking about linkbaiting, but I don't see (if thats what he means) how thats viral SEM, because your marketing your link worthy material to other websites, not search engines, in hopes they link to you and links are picked up by SE's which inturn increases your rankings.

**A.N.Onym** · 08-28-2006, 07:54 AM

Quote:

in hopes they link to you and links are picked up by SE's which inturn increases your rankings.

Well, that's SEM

But yes, SEM is the outcome of the viral marketing. It can be any marketing, but online, good viral marketing results in some SEM results.

Btw, I have an article on viral marketing on my blog in the sig (not allowed to post links yet).

**Dactyl** · 08-28-2006, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A.N.Onym

Well, that's SEM

I know thats SEM, my question was, is that viral SEM?

**GeorgeB** · 08-28-2006, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A.N.Onym

Well, that's SEM

But yes, SEM is the outcome of the viral marketing. It can be any marketing, but online, good viral marketing results in some SEM results.

Btw, I have an article on viral marketing on my blog in the sig (not allowed to post links yet).

lol stop trying to coin a new phrase

It's viral marketing, always has been. SEM is just a side effect that's always been there. :yes:

**Bookworm-SEO** · 08-28-2006, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgeB

lol stop trying to coin a new phrase

It's viral marketing, always has been. SEM is just a side effect that's always been there. :yes:

Lol alright, guilty as charged. Though I could play devil's advocate and say you could do viral marketing with your main goal being search engine attention. That's essentially my meaning here.

Anyways, I'll give an example and hopefully you'll get the idea and share your thoughts.
I got a positive response to an interview request for a blog of mine. The interview was with a bigshot media darling. I turned the thing into a contest, asking people to submit questions. The best questions would be included in the questionnaire I sent to the interviewee. Result: plenty of comments (the blog gets 0-2 comments/post; the contest entry got 19 posts, plus the follow up comments), one-way links from relevant blogs and sites, and some free publicity. Of course, I mentioned it to a few blogging buddies who linked to it at first from their blogs, but then I got responses and links from other folk I had never met before. The only thing lacking was an email campaign (didn't feel like annoying people, and anyways, my open rates for the newsletter are weeeeak).

Nobody's answered me as to what viralsem.com might be worth, incidentally.

**Bookworm-SEO** · 08-28-2006, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearse

It's very possible. Difficulty depends on industry IMHO. There are some industry that just have more viral potential than others. We are currently working on some things that will hopefully spread like wildfire. We'll see though.

I'd love to hear about your campaign once it's launched !

Incidentally, you can all check out gamekillers.com for a great example of a viral campaign.