Hotmail.com is an excellent example of a company who was successful at viral marketing. Their tactics was simple, but the results were tremendous. First, they gave away free e-mail addresses with tags attached at the bottom of every message sent out: "Get your free e-mail account at: hotmail.com". Then, they patiently stood back, while users spread the word about their satisfaction to friends and family. From there, the results grew exponentially and are continuing to grow today.

Below, are six key principles that should be included in your Viral Marketing strategy.

Give away FREE products or services

Free products or services are excellent when you are looking to attract new customers, because it establishes trust. Complimentary products or services could also serve as basis to offer upgrades. So, not only do you get others to spread the word, but also you make money. For example, Constant Contact Inc. (constantconstact.com) set out to improve the quality of e-mails by offering HTML content for businesses and associations. They knew many would be skeptical about purchasing such service, so they offered a 60 day free trial. As a result, Constant Contact Inc. is a leader in e-mail marketing and is trusted by more than 185,000 customers worldwide.

Easy ability to transfer message to others.

A contagious virus is easy to spread and usually affects everyone within range. The same affect must hold true for your campaign. By making your message simple and easy to replicate, others will be more receptive to spreading it. Also, try not to say too much or you will overwhelm potential consumers. Keep it short and simple. Your message should be able to be remembered after hearing once.

Scales easily from small to large

Your campaign should begin relatively small then scale to large. The reason being, if you start of too large you may not be able to accommodate your customers in an efficient matter. Starting small allows you the chance to build your organization and maintain your progress, as your company grows and expand.

Exploits motivations

An effective marketing strategy should be built on common emotional motivations and behaviors, such as the desire to be popular, loved, accepted. Once you appeal to these emotional factors that are viewed as necessities, others will view your product/service as a vital aspect in their life.

Utilizes existing communication networks

Relationships are created and maintained on a continuous basis. Since the creation of the Internet, people have been able to extend their networks worldwide. An opt-In mailing list is an effective viral marketing tool. By having a mailing list, you can keep your core audience updated. This approach not only allows you to reach a large quantity of people at once, but also builds creditability. Another great method of viral marketing via the Internet is with e-zines and newsletters. If your newsletter contains information of value, such as tips, hints, news or tutorials, you will find that subscribers will forward it on to others; but be sure to ask them to as people do need a little prompting, even when it seems obvious.

Maximize use of available resources

I advise you to use as many resources as possible. If you are an Author, give away free articles. If you are a musician, give away free music downloads. If you are an athlete, give away free autographed memorabilia, and e.t.c. Include a press release, and your results will increase even more, because of its ability to be replicated and then shared with the masses.

1. We have to admit that people will continue uploading copyrighted content and there's no way to stop them. It's just impossible to sort through all of the videos and even if the guys at youtube somehow did it, there are plenty of other sites that will host them.
2. Now we have to admit that youtube profiting from other peoples' videos is wrong. Viacom, Fox, or any other company (even a homemade project) deserves to be paid for their work. It's stealing money from the people who made the videos. Let's face it, you're not going to pay for an arctic monkeys music video from itunes when you can see it for free on youtube (I'm just as guilty as you are).
3. Maybe people don't want exposure. You know, it may sound crazy, but it's still their right. Suppose someone wanted a small business and not some crazy internet phenomenon. Whether it can bring them more profit or not, it's not our choice to decide.

Now that that's out of the way, my proposed solution:

Force Youtube to pay companies like Viacom based on how many hits their content gets. I realize this raises more questions like "How much should youtube pay per hit? Should companies like Viacom then be able to tell youtube how to advertise on its videos pages? And how does this solve the problem of people who just don't want more exposure?"

Well, i thought about this for a while. Then i saw the "channels" page on Youtube which got me thinking "what if they had (for example) an NBC channel? Then NBC could control the ads on their own channel." Other videos would remain the same but company channels would have different control of ads. The regular text ads could stay up and still benefit youtube, but during the video there would be NBC ads benefiting NBC. A win-win i think.

I still haven't thought of anything to help people who don't want exposure. I guess you could still report your videos to youtube that you don't want up there, but that's about all i can think of. Hopefully that won't be much of a problem.

Note: While i was writing this article, I hadn't heard of the Youtube Partner Program. After looking into it, it sounds like a great idea. What they really need to do is expand on that idea and incorporate big time companies like Viacom (with their own channels like i talked about earlier). I think that would be the best solution and I'm glad Youtube at least took a step towards ending the conflict. We may see a world where all the world's videos are on one site and no one is angry about it. Someday.

Launched with shackles and blindfold attached. As YouTube is a generations form of self expression free from (some) censorship the highly controlled and stylized content of Hulu was outdated before it had even been launched.

Access was granted to a few thousand "industry insiders", none of whom included the few thousand journalists called to a special news conference. Also excluded from the lucky ones, are anyone outside of the US.

What a future we see. If you live in America and are affiliated with NBC or Newscorp with a propensity to write good reviews then you can watch old TV shows on the Internet!

Just goes to show, money isn't everything. In fact, when it comes to the Internet, and grabbing those previous advertising dollars. Money doesn't mean anything.

YouTube: law suits are coming

Cuban also said YouTube would eventually be "sued into oblivion" because of copyright violations. "They are just breaking the law," Cuban told a group of advertisers in New York. "The only reason it hasn't been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue."

Sorting out the intellectual property rights issues of video on the Web is a thorny issue. That's what Cuban had in mind when he made his comments about why it didn't make sense to buy YouTube.

The site has become so popular with its mix of amateur and professional video that people view 100 million videos there a day. YouTube.com, has provoked a frenzy of consternation among executives of record labels, TV networks and movie studios. For millions of Internet users, the site that opened to the public less than a year ago provides a daily fix of odd and interesting video clips, from White House speeches to frat house pranks.

Risky business?

There have been rumors that YouTube has been looking to sell itself for $1 billion or more, although the site's rising popularity has pushed up its operating costs to an estimated $900,000 to $1.5 million a month which makes buying YouTube a risky endeavor for investors.

Copyright holders may seek Digital Millennium Copyright Act changes if suits against YouTube and its users, as well as other such sites, don't stem the flow of copyrighted material online, HDNet Chmn. Mark Cuban said on his blog. Sites like YouTube now seem to come under the law's safe harbor, but if infringing material continues to proliferate someone "might get mad and try to change the DMCA," Cuban said: "If the lawsuits don't work, then they will give the politicians in D.C. lots and lots of money to get the DMCA changed, again."

YouTube, the giant of dwarfs

YouTube, which has nearly one-third of the U.S. Web video audience, three times that of Google Inc., or twice that of News Corp's MySpace, has been working on signing licensing deals with music companies and TV networks to ensure they are paid when users view their content.

YouTube recently unveiled its first deal to distribute music videos legally from a major music company by agreeing a deal with Warner Music Group, home to pop stars James Blunt and Madonna.

YouTube now offers advertising through banner ads, promotions and sponsorships. It has said it plans to roll out a range of different advertising options over the coming year.

If YouTube overcomes its copyright hazards there is no reason why it could not become a very interesting candidate for a takeover. Set aside the possible copyright infringement law suits, YouTube may well become a multi-billion booming business.

The big question that economists these days are asking their selves is if it is possible to produce a profitable site based on hosting 'user submitted video's'. The amounts, that for a site as Grouper were paid, are more based on the numbers of users that can be reached and less on the potential yields of the site itself. So happens that News Corp paid 580 million dollars to obtain MySpace.com, although the social-networking-site at that moment had 12 million visitors per month. At the time of the take-over there was criticism about the amount that was paid, but this month Google announced to pay 900 million dollars the coming four years to put search and advertising-services on MySpace. YouTube has approximately 16 million visitors per month.