In the beginning, e-mail was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Seven of those ways are:

1. E-mail: It was first but it's still here and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still… it's an oldie, but does work.

2. Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website and keep your subscribers up to date and informed of your newest offerings.

3. Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product or service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services all the time.

4. Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time, just be careful of the content you allow in.

5. Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

6. Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic, just keep them on target and not distracting.

7. Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

Of course, these are merely suggestions, but used in the correct way can have a dramatic effect on your visitors. Like I said, though, be careful with the video. That would apply to the flash games too, as those can take attention away from what you are trying to accomplish if not used in the right manner.