By Guest Blogger Sherry Tingley

The word “viral” reminds me of a virus of some kind that spreads quickly through your family and makes everyone deathly sick and vomiting every thirty minutes. It means contagious and quickly spreading. It means it’s everywhere you look.

Well, that’s exactly what viral marketing is. When you begin to comprehend the magnitude of people accessing the Internet, numbers rapidly flip into the billions and, frankly, I’m not comfortable with those kinds of numbers.

Nothing in my real life uses billions. The only thing that closely resembles that is perhaps the number of cells in our bodies, but no other tangible thing in my existence brings that number into reality.

When President Bush used the number 21,000 troops to be deployed to Iraq, it seemed incomprehensible to me as well. I was slightly relieved when my son had pointed out to me that a troop is one person, so my visions of 210,000 people being involved were erroneous.

My lack of knowledge in the military arena is obvious, but my entrepreneurial side that exists somewhere in my brain is blinking like fireworks on the fourth of July.

You see, the ability to become a “viral” marketer is within my reach. Thank goodness the spread of the marketing virus is a pleasant experience and not one that nauseates me.

In a very short time, the “viral” part of my written word shocked and delighted me at the same time. Now when someone says, “Google me,” I can say it right back at them and guess what? One month ago, I had 30 links to my name and thought that was fantastic. Imagine my surprise to find out that now I’m up to 590, in many different languages and on many different websites.

This was because I did only three things. First, I desired to succeed in marketing on the Internet. Second, I read what other people were suggesting to do to accomplish the Viral Marketing challenge, and third and most importantly, I sat down and started writing articles. Just a few to test the waters…and now I see what an ocean I’m in.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to ride the Viral Marketing wave since I am now enjoying the aroma of the ocean.

Sherry Tingley is an online marketer with several successful businesses. She offers free e-books on her website to people who want to learn how to market on the net. She has her own article directory for others to post their articles. She has learned the ’secret affiliate weapon’ from her friend Ewen Chia and will share that with you at her website, Global Home Business.

Are you looking for marketing services such as social media optimization, search engine marketing, pay per click program management or consulting, or search engine optimization services? Feel free to contact me.