For those of us who put our bikes away for the winter, the time has come to dust them off and get ready to ride. When bringing a bike out of storage, a mini tune-up is necessary. Pay special attention to the following four areas: chain, derailleur components, brakes, and wheels.

~~Chain~~
If you have been using an oil-based lubricant, consider switching to a wax-based product. The only advantage to an oil-based lubricant is that it needs to be applied less frequently, but in every other way, wax-based is superior. For instance, oil collects trail dust and other things abrasive to the chain, whereas wax sheds abrasives. A recommended wax-based lube is White Lightning.

If you’ve been using oil-based chain lube, whether you want to switch to wax or not, you should remove the chain and clean it with a solvent to degrease it before adding fresh lubricant. Depending on your typical riding conditions, using a solvent to degrease the chain needs to be done once a year at a minimum.

~~Derailleur Components~~
Lubricate the pivot points using a good petroleum-based lube. I use Tri-Flow. Next, lubricate and adjust the derailleur cables, which might have stretched over the winter. Adjust so that shifting is crisp.

~~Brakes~~
Again, lubricate the cables. Use either petroleum- or wax-based lube depending on how dusty the expected typical riding conditions will be. Adjust the cables, which might also have stretched over the winter.

Check the pads: is there plenty of rubber; do the pads hit the rims evenly? If using fluid-actuated disc brakes, check the brake fluid level in the reservoir.

~~Wheels~~
Spin the wheel slowly checking for true. The wheel should not wobble at all. If it wobbles a little bit and you have the tools and skill, you can make minor adjustments using a spoke wrench. But if there is substantial wobbling, take the wheel to a shop and have a professional true the wheel.

Check tire pressure, which is bound to be low after a winter of storage. Inflate to the manufacturers recommendations that are stamped on the tire.

Now give the bike a once-over. Is the seat adjustment still a good fit? Is there excess play or tightness in the bearings of the wheels, crank, pedals, and headset? Also, for full-suspension bikes, check the suspension joints.

From this once-over, you will be able to determine whether it is time for a major tune-up. This could range from a few adjustments to cleaning and/or replacement of some parts. Opinions differ on how often a major tune-up is needed. It depends on how much you ride, and how much maintenance you perform yourself.

Whether you do the major tune-up yourself or take the bike to a reputable bicycle shop, every now and then the following maintenance is necessary for optimal performance and safety: repacking bearings and adjusting wheel axles, headset, crankset and pedals; replacing cables; truing the wheels; making overall adjustments, such as to the derailleur and brakes.

Kathryn Mosely, personal trainer and bicycling enthusiast, has written extensively on subjects related to recreational sports. For inspiration and insight, visit Acer Bike and Alta Fitness – for a world of bike information.

They were fierce hill tribes in what is now Scotland, and we called them Picts. The name seems to mean “The Painted People” for they were known to love bright body art and multi-coloured clothing. They were artists, prolific carvers of stone and from the carved standing stones still found in the region around Loch Ness, we can see that the Picts were fascinated by animals, carefully etching their likeness into the surface of the stone. And they left us a mystery.

For all the animals depicted on the Pictish stones are lifelike and easily recognisable, except for one. This exception is a strange beast with a long elongated beak or muzzle, a head spout, and with flippers instead of feet, somewhat like a swimming elephant. This Pictish beast is the earliest known reference to the belief that took hold in the Scottish Highlands at least 1,500 years ago, that Loch Ness is home to a mysterious underwater animal. The Loch Ness Monster.

Columba stood for no nonsense, even from a monster. He had ordered one of his monks to swim across the loch to fetch a boat when, halfway across, the beast appeared and rushed at the swimmer, roaring in a most frightening way. The Saint himself jumped in the loch crying out at the monster “Go no further, nor touch the man! Go back!”. Thus commanded, the monster fled. The great Columba converted most of Scotland to Christianity and apparently converted Nessie too, for it is said that until he went out on the waters and soothed the beast, she had been a murderess.

In Scottish folklore, large animals are associated with many bodies of water from small streams to the largest lakes, often labeled Loch-na-Beistie on old maps. These water-horses, or kelpies, are cousins of the Irish Pooka and have similar magical powers but often malevolent intentions. They are dragons under water, lurking with ravenous intent, waiting for the onset of darkness in the long Northern nights before they come forth and devour the Innocent.

The monster, sea serpent, kraken and other mythological creatures have formed a part of folklore since the beginning of time. Around the world there are reputed to be sea serpents or monsters in many bodies of fresh water. Nessie in Loch Ness, Morag in Loch Morar, Shielagh in Loch Shiel, Lizzy in Loch Lochy, Champ in Lake Champlain, Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan and, quaintly, Wally in Lake Wallowa.

While research has been conducted at many of these lakes, Loch Ness is the icon for monsters and Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster is, without doubt, the grandmother of them all. It is to Loch Ness where myriad researchers have flocked with their cameras and sonars, webcams and mini submarines, their hopes, fears and dreams of solving the mystery of Nessie.

She is reported to have an elongated neck that quite often protrudes from the water with a small head, diamond shaped flippers and three distinct humps on her back followed by a tail. Sone say that she lives under or around Urquhart Castle and many photographs (mostly fake) have been taken of her in the vicinity.

The sedimentary rocks which cradle Loch Ness are some of the oldest in the world. The sandstones were originally laid down in warm seas when Scotland was located in the latitude where Australasia is today. As the continents drifted northwards the land became squeezed into the dry centre of the super-continent Pangaea.

400 million years ago, the Great Glen side slip fault was created. This Great Glen, almost cutting Scotland in two, is home to the black waters of Lochs Ness, Oich, Lochy and Linnhe

As the continents began to break up and cluster around the north pole, great Scottish mountains, which would have been Himalayan in size were gradually worn down to the stumps which you see today. Scotland was still in the grip of the ice twelve thousand years ago, but the main advances were over and the land was beginning to rebound from being depressed into the mantle. The surface of Loch Ness would have been at a similar elevation to sea level.

Anything living in the Loch today must have arrived from the freezing North Sea up the River Ness after the final retreat of ice.

Many scientists and zoologists will admit to half- believing that a large aquatic animal does in fact exist in Loch Ness. There are numerous theories as to her identity, including a snake-like primitive whale known as a zeuglodon, a type of long-necked aquatic seal, giant eels, walruses, floating mats of plants, giant molluscs, otters, a “paraphysical” entity, mirages, diving birds and most popularly, a plesiosaur. Nessie was even given a scientific name “Nessiteras rhombopteryx” named by Sir Peter Scott so that Nessie could be added to the British Register of officially protected wildlife.

The name, translated from Greek means “The wonder of Ness with the diamond shaped fin”. Over the years many have noted that if you rearranged the letters of Nessiteras rhombopteryx, it can be made to read “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S”.

This may mean something – or it may mean nothing at all.

Nessie is either there, or she’s not. I like to think she has outwitted our efforts to trap her, pin her down, categorise her, tame her and turn her into tea towels. And one day you may get to see her yourself. Long may she live in the loch !

Susanna Duffy is a Civil Celebrant, grief counsellor and mythologist. She creates ceremonies and Rites of Passage for individual and civic functions, and specialises in Croning and other celebrations for women. http://celebrant.yarralink.com

Acquiring the finest available seats for the popular London musical shows is often difficult, unless you know the secret. Whether you are here on holiday or for just a special day out, viewing one of the various splendid theatre shows will definitely leave you with fond memories of your journey to the Capital. As an evening of family fun, musical productions have been an exceedingly popular selection mainly because of their alluring and attractive features. The stunning clothing will charm children and grown ups equally, and the collective dream can take all of the family on a fantastical exploration through the introduction of the performing arts.

Numerous renowned musicals in London sell out long before the performance, so planning in advance is well recommended. A number of packages may be available to tourists which contain somewhere to stay with tickets for a musical show in London. By being told about the packages on offer, some fantastic offers can be had by those bright consumers that set up their outing some time ahead. Start by picking a production or by selecting a specific time in which you will be in the London area, but make sure to pay a visit to one of the wonderful theatres to catch sight of the greatest stage performances available in the world. Get the best available theatre trips online.

Enjoyment of one of the many first-class West End musicals is a classic and enduring way of enjoying the active London performing arts scene. Long known for talented performers, theatre in the Capital is a beacon around the country of what good theatre can be. Watching theatre at its best live on stage can be a delight for all the family, or an exciting evening with that special someone. With a plethora of performances, there is certain to be a way to bring even more culture into your life through theatre patronage. Whether or not you favour a quirky, entertaining romp through a musical production or a gripping and loving tale, the theatrical contribution within London is definitely amongst the greatest the UK and the world has to offer you.

For knowledgeable tourists with a love for theatre, London theatre show and accommodation packages are on hand to make sure that your visit to the West End is complete with a night of superb amusement in one of the many historic musical theatres. By buying tickets ahead of time and reserving your attendance early on it’s viable to acquire the best seats to some of the most exciting events and performances currently on.

You may well relate life cover with somewhat elderly individuals, who have a household they very much need to safeguard fiscally should the unthinkable transpire. However the advantages of taking out life cover are not restricted to those people with young children. For a good begining point visit this site is a helpful place to begin with.

Try to remember that the following are case studies and therefore should not be seen as concrete financial help. When you find you very much need concrete fiscal direction we would strongly suggest that you speak to a financial adviser as every individuals situation and needs are different.

The newlyweds – Joanne and Mike

Joanne and Mike work full-time and have just got married. As Joanne and Mike start their brand new life as one they reason that right now could well be a great time to coordinate their collective finances. Particularly Joanne and Mike really wish to make certain that they would be sufficiently able to get by monetarily if something happened to either of the couple.

They’ve been informed about life insurance cover which will easily supply fiscal support to the sole survivor when and if either of them were to suddenly expire. As a base to their fiscal foundations, Joanne and Mike take out a life insurance plan that covers the couple for twenty years. The couple carefully select an amount of cash which would defiantly pay off their not paid home mortgage as well as providing them enough to cover their daily living costs.

Buying a first household together – Amanda and Richard

Amanda and Richard have just sold off their old homes and decided upon a family house with each other. Now that the couple have a combined economic commitment, the couple really want to make absolutely certain that they have the best fiscal foundations already in place to build their future on.

They know for certain that life cover brokers offer up life insurance cover that provides money to the remaining survivor when and if either partner passes away. Their collective home mortgage could well be their biggest expense, therefore, they begin building their collective financial base with a life insurance plan to cover it.

With life insurance cover very much in place, Amanda and Richard can have peace of mind that an essential bit of their fiscal future could be safeguarded.

Paying off un-paid debts and making up for the abrupt loss of your main earnings may well be commonly at the very front of a great number of individual’s minds when they arrange life insurance. So why don’t you take a little second to acquire a fast quote on the internet today to see how much your life insurance cover premium could cost?

When it comes to samurai swords, there is quite a bit of terminology for the new collector to understand. But we want to make it easy for anyone to find a good quality samurai sword that will last a lifetime, no matter if you’re looking for one of the very sought after Paul Chen Katana swords for battle or just a quality sword to hang over the mantle.

The first thing to consider for your new samurai sword is the type and quality of the blade. If you’re looking for a you want to be sure and choose a full tang blade, which all of our authentic samurai swords feature as well as all of our battle ready swords. The term “full tang” means that the blade and the part of the sword under the Tsuka (handle) is one long piece of steel. If you get a sword that is not full tang then you’re basically buying it to hang on the wall and nothing more.

The next thing to consider when choosing a sword is the type of steel that the blade is made of. There are basically 3 types of steel, 420 J2 (Stainless steel), High Carbon, and Folded steel. If you are looking for a battle ready sword you’ll want to stay away from the 420 J2 Stainless. High carbon steel is very high quality steel; however folded steel is the strongest. Actually it’s not that the folded steel is a different type of steel, but how the blade is forged.

A folded steel blade is typically made from high carbon steel. The difference is that a folded steel blade is just like it says; the steel is folded over and over again until the smith believes that it is adequate.

Some people say that a good high carbon steel blade can be just as strong as a folded steel blade. The smiths for the Thaitsuki Nihonto Swords claim to have mastered a form of forging high carbon steel blades that is just as strong if not stronger than many of the folded steel blades.

When choosing a sword samurai sword there are basically 3 different styles to consider, the katana sword, the Wakizashi sword and the Tanto sword. The Japanese Katana Sword is the most popular among collectors and martial arts students alike.

The katana sword was the first and is still the most popular of all samurai swords. The blade is typically 29″ long with an overall length around 40″

The Wakizashi sword is the shorter companion blade of the katana sword. We first see the Wakizashi sword during the Muromachi period (1568-1603). The Wakizashi was about 18″ long and only allowed to be carried by a samurai. Carrying both the katana and the Wakizashi was popular for the next few hundred years.

The smallest samurai sword would be the tanto sword or dagger. Originally tanto swords were 12″ in length or less but it’s not out of the ordinary to come across a Tanto that is 15″ long.

Samurai sword collecting is a very popular past time for many Americans. Something that is becoming even more popular is martial arts that make use of samurai sword for fighting and cutting exercises. The most popular and affordable authentic samurai swords are the Paul Chen Swords. You can find a decent Paul Chen Practical Katana Sword for under $200. However for less than a hundred more you can get yourself a Paul Chen Practical Plus Katana. If you’re looking for something a little more pricy the Paul Chen Bushido Katana or the Orchid Katana will last a lifetime and can take quite a beating. The Orchid and Bushido also come in a Wakizashi and Tanto.

In conclusion, the most important thing when buying your sword is that you know what kind of blade you’re getting. If you want a functional sword be sure that you’re not getting one that’s only made to hang on the wall. If it’s not clearly stated on the page for the sword, don’t hesitate to contact the store to ask any questions you might have.

At Japanese Swords 4 Samurai we have a samurai sword expert waiting to answer any questions you might have.
Want to own a real Japanese Samurai Sword come and check out our store.
You can find us online at www.japaneseswords4samurai.com

Acquiring a car seat for your baby is definitely one of the central options many parents will have to make in their baby’s life. Every mother continually wants to look after their daughter and do whatever it takes` to guarantee their kid’s welfare. Plus, the UK law states the permanent use of baby car seats. With a lot of car seats on the market to acquire, it can certainly be a very tough decision. Nonetheless, equipped with a modest amount of advice you can certainly find the correct baby car seat for your kid.

A rear facing car seat will be the very first seat your child will want. Rear facing seats offer significantly more protection for a baby’s head, neck, and spine than forward facing baby seats. Rear facing car seats are safest until the child has reached the maximum weight for the seat or until the very top of the baby’s’ head is above the top of the seat in question. Choose from a large selection of baby & child products including; car seats, baby cots and pushchairs from leading brands online.

The next round of baby car seat is a forward facing seat, which can be used by children aged from 9 months to 4 years of age or when the child weighs anywhere between nine and 18 kilograms. This exact kind of car seat includes a strap that connects between the kid’s legs to avoid them from sliding out of the seat. Your kid should also keep this baby seat until they have reached the seat’s maximum weight or when the top of their head is higher than the top of the seat.

For a seat that can be used both rear and forward facing, the Britax First Class Plus seat is a first-class choice to acquire. Britax baby seats are always highly rated and what’s more this seat can be used from birth to 4 years old, and follows the rear and forward facing guidelines as described in this article.

The bumper seat is the final round in baby car seats. These in general do not have a harness and are used with a car’s seat belt, which fastens around both the child and the seat. Loads of bumper seats include removable backs, which allow for a significantly better fit for smaller children, and can even be taken out as the infant gets older. Booster seats with side wings give a lot more protection in an accident because they protect the infants head. Maxi Cosi baby car seats sell a seat with all these virtues. Their Rodi XR won the Practical Parenting magazine’s prize for the finest Multi Stage baby car seat for two-thousand and seven/eight.

Car seats are a critical part of being a parent, and there are many baby seat brand names to acquire. When your child’s welfare is your most important priority, then Britax and Maxi-Cosi are outstanding selections.

Today’s contemporary dining-room furniture is sophisticated and subsequently elegant. Featuring further attention to detail, home furnishing designers bring fashion, diversity and of course, quality to customers like never before. If you are pondering over an update to your present dining-room decoration, its safe to say options are bountiful. Find an extensive range of home items including; dining area furniture, blinds and coffee tables from leading companies on-line.

Ultimately, your initial goal will be to settle on how much space you have. Compact dining rooms are inclined to house round tables to guarantee accessibility and ease of movement within the space. You never like your relations or guests to feel crowded and circular dinner tables are usually far more accommodating. If your own dinner room is large with plenty of flooring area, rectangular tables are typically just right. Exactly as you do not wish the furniture to overwhelm a particularly tiny area; neither would you want the dimensions of the room to divert from the magnificence of your dinner table and dining seats. With interior furnishings, it’s all about proportion.

You must also need to mull over whether or not you will include any items of furniture you already own in addition to your newer choices. If that is the case, you may want to make certain each object merges seamlessly and coordinates well together. When you should have a up to date curio cabinet, for example, you might also want to consider a glass dining-room table with chairs which may look well together with the cabinet. Keep in mind it’s wholly about the look you’re aiming for – if it seems correct then it is definitely correct. If you fancy the style of anything a little more classical there are certainly a number of stunning wood dining room sets that let you to retain that traditional feel, but also allows you to integrate modernised and simplified furniture combined with a touch of contemporary flair.

You will be thrilled to discover the many seating and table top choices. Drop leaf dining tables are just the thing for people that like to entertain guests; drop leafs enable you to enlarge your table top space as you call for it and also easily fold it in or slide it through hidden grooves when it is not needed. Dining seating might well be another excellent way to characterise your own distinctive look. They coordinate well together with dining chairs and might also grant a touch extra seating room compared to their chair relations.

Finally, you will want to give contemplation to your focal pieces. An empty corner is immediately lifted with a small feature table and possibly a lamp or plant. China cabinets, buffets and serving tables are just a limited number of options that might improve your dining-room furniture.

As you conclude your research and so settled on the design, dimensions and the overall appearance you desire to create, you will discover exactly how simple it can be to get that perfect dinner table and dining chairs that are just what you’ve been searching for.

Why a phone scrambler? The Threat…

If someone is actively targeting you, attempting to gather information or whatever purpose, it is almost guaranteed that your cordless and cellular telephone conversations are being listened to using some type of ‘ spy equipment ‘.

And it is likely that there will be an effort to tap your hard-wired telephone as well – (more on that in a bit).

If you are using a digital cordless phone with spread spectrum technology, you can be fairly confident that the signal between the handset and the base isn’t being monitored.

However…

Once your cordless phone sends a signal from the base down the telephone line, you no longer have a digital spread spectrum signal.

The Solution With this in mind, you may wish to install a phone scrambler, on your line to secure your sensitive cordless and regular phone conversations. Doing so will prevent any casual listener from monitoring your conversations.

And depending on what type of telephone voice scrambler you use, it may prevent even Big Brother from making sense of youre telephone calls.

Once available only to the military an government agencies, the very best units (such as the STU-III), costing just a few thousand dollars each, are available to the commercial market.

Phone scramblers may be divided into the following broad categories:

Frequency Inversion The simplest form of scrambling – it inverts the high and low points in the signal.

If you are simpy trying to keep someone from listening in on your conversation on an extension, this type of phone scrambler will work but anyone who puts any effort into defeating the frequency inversion will have little trouble doing so.

Rolling Code This one takes frequency inversion and add an additional function so that the pivot point around which the frequency is scrambled is continuously changing.

This makes decoding of the signal much more difficult.

By using a rolling-code phone scrambler you will secure your conversations against any casual listeners, criminal eavesdroppers, and local investigators and law enforcement agencies.

These units are in about the same price range as the basic frequency-inversion ones.

Digital Encryption Digital scramblers are the most secure and the most expensive. These units are used by the military and government agencies – and they start selling for 1500$ +.

If you are concerned about having your phone calls intercepted by government agencies or are afraid of industrial espionage, digital encryption is the answer.

But for most of us the sensitivity of our conversations does not require this level of security and the associated expense.

Please Remember…

It is important to remember that you must have a phone scrambler on each end of the conversation – and that scrambling your voice on the telephone line does not defeat an eletronic listening device that is placed to intercept room audio.

Before we get started here, let me tell y’all that what you’re about to read is the absolute truth. The absolute, unvarnished truth. I swear it on every one of my Elvis and BTO CDs. Now, let’s get right down to it, y’all just focus your eyes on the following sentence:

I was the inspiration for the male lead in a published romance novel.

Okay, okay, scoff all y’all want. I’m not shooting the bull here, I’m shooting just as straight as Annie Oakley. And before I give out the name of this book, I need to tell y’all a little about its author and how it all came about.

Trish Jensen is the author of the book in question. Those of you who read romantic fiction might know her name, as she’s the author of several highly popular romance novels, her two latest being “Stuck With You,” and “Against His Will.” Let me also add that Trish (www.trishjensen.com) publishes with Leisure Books, a large New York based publishing house. So Trish is a major league romance author, she’s the real deal, a veritable BTO of publishing acumen, and she also happens to be a wonderful judge of character, if I do say so myself.

Trish and I met out in cyberspace several years ago because we both frequented a popular writer’s online group at that time. She writes humor, and I try to, so we became friends. I give Trish a whole lot of credit, she gave me lots of encouragement when I first began writing, and I credit a lot of whatever has happened since directly to her. Friends like her don’t just come along everyday, and I’m very proud of her and her accomplishments.

Now, in order to fully disclose, I feel that I need to tell y’all something else about Trish – she’s a yankee. Yep, I know some of y’all may be in shock over this, and I fully understand, but she’s still a good person. The best thing about Trish is that she realizes that the true utopia of the United States is right here in the South, and on account of that just about all of her books are set here. She’s so good at writing about us that I sometimes wonder if she’s being totally truthful about never having lived here. There’s some Southern blood somewhere in this girl, for sure.

Now, about the book. A few years ago, when Trish was just starting out, she wrote a romance novel called “Send Me No Flowers.” She even had to use her maiden name, Trish Graves, on the book’s cover because of some kind of contractual thing regarding her name with another publisher. Anyway, Trish starts writing this book, and the lead male character happens to be a South Carolina sheriff who’s honest, good looking, and who has women falling all over him. She named this character Rob Townsend. And when Trish considered all of his qualities, she felt that there was only one true role model for Rob, only one living person out there who could fully capture his essence, and that was moi. Me. So the book got written, and you can get on the internet and probably find a copy out there somewhere if you look really, really hard. And if y’all still don’t want to believe me, just take a gander at the dedication to the book after you get your hands on one. Read it closely. Ahem. Case closed.

Y’all might wonder why I’m finally “outing” myself as the male lead of a romance novel after this much time. Well, I’m doing it cause Trish has been a little under the weather here lately, and sometimes I think you need to acknowledge dear friends who’ve been kind to you. And in this case one who’s always been kind to me. Odds are that she’ll probably get a look at this article, and I sincerely hope that she realizes just how special she is, and why I’ll always think so fondly of her. She’s a great writer, and an even classier person. I could go on and write even more about her, but I’m scheduled for some plastic surgery in just a couple of days, so I’ve gotta start packing – after all, one never knows when they might meet the editor of Playgirl Magazine somewhere out there in the literary world…

About the Author

Ed’s latest book, “Rough As A Cob,” can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.

It’s a horrible word isn’t it….marketing? No, only joking, I mean “viral” of course. Mention viral and one tends to think infection, illness and disease – or for the geeks among us, computers messed up. But viral marketing is nothing so negative or unpleasant, viral marketing is good!

What is Viral Marketing?

As the name suggests, it’s a way of spreading your marketing message from person to person, rather like the flu virus is passed on. You give the germ to, say 5 friends/colleagues/family members, who in turn each pass on the bug to 5 more (5×5=25), who then spread it to another 5 (25×5=125) and so on until after just 8 levels, you reach the staggering figure of 1,953,125.

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

1. Give away free e-mail addresses and services, 2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every users email message sent: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com” and, 3. Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates, 4. Who see the message, 5. Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then 6. Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates

What makes marketing ‘Viral’?

A viral marketing plan usually has some or all of the following basic elements:

1. Provides a product or service free
2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others
3. Allows easy growth from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours
5. Uses existing communication networks
6. Utilizes the resources of others

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

1.Provides a product or service free

“Free” is the most persuasive word in marketing. Most viral marketing campaigns give away a product or service to get peoples interest. Free email service, free software, free information etc. Then, when you have their attention, when you have their trust, sell them something. Hit them with a sales pitch first, chances are they won’t be interested.

2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others

Viral marketing works so well on the internet because quick communication has become so easy and cheap. Your marketing message must be simple so that it can be passed on without loosing its effectiveness. The simpler and shorter the better, remember the hotmail example: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.”

3. Allows easy growth from small to very large

To grow rapidly, the necessary infrastructure must be available. The best viral marketing makes use of the resources of others. This was the only weakness in the hotmail example, the service required its own mailservers. Not a problem with the resources of Microsoft behind you, but for mere mortals like you and I, best to plan on spreading the message using others recourses, see number 6.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours

What motivates people to use certain products or services on the web, and to recommend these to their friends? The practicality of a product, sure, but more than that – the desire to be popular, thought of as cool etc. Greed also motivates, hence the power of the word ‘free’!

5. Uses existing communication networks

Most people have around 5 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family and work colleagues. On the internet, nearly everyone has email addresses in their contacts list, and favourite websites stored in their web browser. Utilise this fact in your marketing campaign. For example, when you give away a free product, ask the recipient to provide the email addresses of others who may be interested.

6. Utilizes the resources of others

Get your message into other peoples emails and onto others websites, that way their recourses are being used, not yours. And once your campaign has enough momentum, sit back while your customers do the marketing for you.

Conclusion

Viral marketing costs very little, in fact if you go to the right places it can be free. Given that, and the huge potential benefits, you marketing campaign really should catch the viral marketing bug!

How can Viral Marketing work for you? Find out here: www.gosurf.ws

www.FreeViral.com/?r=70263
www.ViralMailing.com/index.php?referid=jonrendle