ertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't he

April 1st (April Fools Day) is a day when people like to play pranks. Google, much like everyone else, enjoys playing pranks on this day. The introduction of GMail on April 1st was so shocking that people took it for a joke. Hotmail - the world's largest web-based email provider - was only offering a free 2 MB inbox for it's users at the time. GMail stepped up Yahoo's 200 MB inbox to a whopping 1 GB with the added bonus of an infinitely growing inbox (today your GMail inbox would be over 2 GB and growing).

The joke was on us though. Google continued to humor its users and indulged employees to come up with more and more practical jokes that would create a buzz and eventually spread the word about Google. Things like the Google Pigeon Rank, Google Gulp, Google Mentalplex, Google Lunar Jobs, and this year the Google TiSP are actually attracting more business to Google!

So what lesson is there in all of this for your small business? It's actually quite simple. Google is using a form of marketing that's both cheap and extremely powerful, when applied correctly. It's called viral marketing.

Viral marketing spreads from one consumer to the other, completely eliminating the need for paid placement of an advertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't he

r it's users at the time. GMail stepped up Yahoo's 200 MB inbox to a whopping 1 GB with the added bonus of an infinitely growing inbox (today your GMail inbox would be over 2 GB and growing).

The joke was on us though. Google continued to humor its users and indulged employees to come up with more and more practical jokes that would create a buzz and eventually spread the word about Google. Things like the Google Pigeon Rank, Google Gulp, Google Mentalplex, Google Lunar Jobs, and this year the Google TiSP are actually attracting more business to Google!

So what lesson is there in all of this for your small business? It's actually quite simple. Google is using a form of marketing that's both cheap and extremely powerful, when applied correctly. It's called viral marketing.

Viral marketing spreads from one consumer to the other, completely eliminating the need for paid placement of an advertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't he

cal jokes that would create a buzz and eventually spread the word about Google. Things like the Google Pigeon Rank, Google Gulp, Google Mentalplex, Google Lunar Jobs, and this year the Google TiSP are actually attracting more business to Google!

So what lesson is there in all of this for your small business? It's actually quite simple. Google is using a form of marketing that's both cheap and extremely powerful, when applied correctly. It's called viral marketing.

Viral marketing spreads from one consumer to the other, completely eliminating the need for paid placement of an advertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't he

ll business? It's actually quite simple. Google is using a form of marketing that's both cheap and extremely powerful, when applied correctly. It's called viral marketing.

Viral marketing spreads from one consumer to the other, completely eliminating the need for paid placement of an advertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't he

ertisement to get your message across, and develops into a hush-hush form of promotion. This means that while you won't hear or see their ads in any magazine, newspaper, radio, television, or billboard, the word on the street is Google. They have street credit!

I have to admit I can't help but admire the way Google thinks. I'm actually one of their devoted followers when it comes to "pushing the envelope". I just had to add a post on my blog the minute I saw this year's Google prank.

I know a lot of you may think Google just does this for kicks, but if you look closely you'll notice it's more than just that. They actually take the time to make you believe it, placing things like FAQs, installation guides, scientific explanations, etcetera . . . on their web site. Why go through all that trouble? Well, that's their opportunity cost for marketing their business this way. Google likes to be serious, but they're telling us that, by putting up these jokes, there's a lighter - more childish - side to Google.

You too can market your small business without spending money on advertising by doing what Google does. All it takes is one person to notice your business and if you hook them in, the way Google does, they'll bring the customers right to your door. If you don't believe me, just ask yourself this 'How did you hear about Google?'