Tell a friend scripts are incredibly popular viral
marketing tools - and for good reason - they flat out work.
However they also have their limitations, making selecting
the correct script difficult.
Here then is a list of the problems I myself have
experienced together with the solutions and hence the
features you should be looking for when shopping for the
perfect tell a friend script.
1) Spam
Arguably the biggest problem of all is the risk of spam
being sent by one of your site visitors, or worse, a
hardcore spammer abusing your script around the clock.
Innocent individuals can get frustrated, spam complaints
can be placed, your domain and/or IP can be blocked and
your hosting account can be closed without warning.
The best you can expect is to be told to take down the
script you spent all that money on buying and time on
setting up.
The worst doesn't bare thinking about.
So look for a script that actively controls spam. Perhaps
those receiving emails can complain to you directly so you
can take action. Perhaps you can ban entire IP addresses or
email addresses from accessing your script in the future.
Whatever happens, look for spam control as a major element
in your search for your ideal script.
2) Duplicate Content
Most tell a friend scripts have a general lack of
customization features which means your form is likely to
look like everyone else's who is using the same script.
This means your page is unlikely to show up in the search
engines as it looks to them like hundreds of pages all over
the web are identical (or close to).
So either learn some HTML so you can customize the form
yourself (effective, but slow and slightly old-fashioned)
or find a script that gives you a large degree of control
over how your form will look on your site.
3) Popups
With the fight on popups gaining pace every day it's a
wonder to me that some tell a friend scripts work by
popping up on your site when a visitor clicks the link.
Clearly these popups are going to be blocked by 90% of all
the browsers out there so nobody is going to actually see
your form even if they want to use it. And yes, whilst
there *are* unblockable popups out there, they require
adding considerable code to every page of your site where
you want the popup to appear, the installation of which
rapidly becomes a long and boring process.
4) Motivation Of Your Visitors
You need to make it *easy* to give your visitors a *reason*
to use your form. By doing this you will greatly increase
the use of your form and hence it's effectiveness. But you
also need to make it foolproof so people don't just email
themselves to get to your thankyou page and download
whatever freebie you're offering.
The script should easily track referrals and allow you
flexibility in what you offer to your visitors and how they
get it.
5) Statistics
As any seasoned online marketer knows the key to success is
to track everything possible on your site. Knowledge really
*is* power, and the more statistics you have on how
visitors interact with your form the better you can make
it, and hence the more new visitors you'll generate.
So look for a script that offers a reasonable level of
statistics to really make the most of your investment.
That's it for your list - happy shopping - and I hope you
enjoy all the new visitors you're going to generate!
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