What is Mike Filsaime's Viral Friend Generator?

Mike Filsaime has created a new product called Viral Friend Generator. Like seemingly everything else that Mike touches, Viral Friend Generator has caused a great deal of controversy and won a number of supporters. Surprisingly though, not many people know what it is.

So what is Viral Friend Generator? It is the next step in the evolution of "tell-a-friend".

I'll pause for a second to give you an opportunity to collect yourself.

I know that "tell-a-friend" sets off alarms in most people's heads. And it should, based on how it has been used in the past. But Viral Friend Generator has a number of features that make it very different from the "tell-a-friend" programs we're all familiar with.

First and foremost, everyone has to opt-in in order to receive emails about your program. There is also a "do not email me again" link in every message that ensures that folks who do not want to receive your emails never receive another email from you.

Viral Friend Generator allows you to increase your traffic. The "tell-a-friend" feature of the program normally allows users to triple their traffic. Now, that comes at a price -- the reason that people tell their friends is that you are incentivizing them to do so (i.e. you are paying them). But in the end, you end up with more traffic than you had originally.

You determine what your traffic is worth. You decide what you want to pay your customers for referring others. You set all of the rules for what it takes for your affiliates to be paid. It sounds complicated, but it takes about five minutes to set up.

Tell-a-friend programs have a bad name, and often rightfully so, for a lot of reasons. But if you have a quality website, with quality products, and you send quality emails, you will not have spam problems because of tell-a-friend.

But Viral Friend Generator is still tell-a-friend with new bells and whistles. Before you invest in it, consider what you are doing with your online business. If it's right for you, great. But keep in mind that you are putting your website and your reputation on the line when you use it. Before you buy Viral Friend Generator, I suggest you learn more about it.

For me personally, the jury is still out. Yes, I am using Viral Friend Generator. But only very selectively. I'm not sure that I'm comfortable enough with the product to really use it. To do so would risk ruining my online business and I'm not yet ready to risk that because of some new "tell-a-friend" features.

Michael M Thomas is an executive for a Fortune 500 company by day and an affiliate marketer by night.

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