ViralURL is one of the older and more unusual marketing platforms in the online advertising space. Rather than being simply a safelist mailer or traffic exchange, ViralURL combines link cloaking, URL tracking, email marketing, banner and text advertising, viral list building, and a downline system into one platform.
The service has been online since 2007, making it one of the longer-running programs in this particular corner of internet marketing. ViralURL is currently associated with Add2it.com Marketing Pty Ltd, and the current site identifies Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer as the executives behind the business.
What makes ViralURL particularly interesting is that the same visitor can potentially create several different forms of value. A marketer can use a ViralURL link to protect an affiliate URL, track the visitor, build a ViralURL downline, and potentially generate advertising credits and additional traffic from that activity.
That makes ViralURL worth looking at from more than just a “how many visitors do I get?” perspective.
What Is ViralURL?
At its most basic level, ViralURL is a link cloaking and tracking service.
Affiliate marketers can cloak their affiliate links so that the underlying affiliate URL is not displayed directly. ViralURL’s own explanation focuses heavily on protecting affiliate commissions from what it calls “link stripping,” where someone sees an affiliate URL and replaces the affiliate ID with their own.
But link protection is only one part of the system.
ViralURL also uses its own Viral Widgets and viral marketing structure to turn visitors into additional opportunities. When someone visits a cloaked URL, the system can expose them to ViralURL and potentially bring them into the referring member’s downline.
The current membership structure allows members to email their downline at different depths depending on membership level, with higher levels increasing both the depth and frequency of those mailings.
That is where ViralURL begins to look much more like a marketing platform than a simple URL shortener.
How ViralURL Works
There are several interconnected components.
1. URL Cloaking
Members can cloak an unlimited number of URLs, including affiliate links.
All six primary membership levels — Free, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Elite — include unlimited URL cloaking.
Members can also display referring URLs associated with their cloaked links. The allowance increases substantially as you move up the membership structure, from 10 referring URLs on the lower levels to 100 on Gold and above.
2. Viral List Building
One of ViralURL’s more interesting features is its ability to build a downline through the links you promote.
Free and Silver members can email their downline once every seven days and can reach five levels.
Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Elite members can email their downline once every five days and can reach seven levels.
Gold and higher memberships also gain access to random members in their downline, which adds another layer to the system’s list-building capabilities.
This is an important distinction from a normal safelist: ViralURL isn’t simply giving you access to somebody else’s mailing list. Its system is designed to help you build your own ViralURL-connected marketing audience over time.
ViralURL Membership Levels
ViralURL currently offers six primary membership levels.
Free
The Free account provides the basic ViralURL infrastructure without a monthly membership fee.
Free members receive:
- Unlimited URL cloaking
- 5 Viral Widget types
- 10 referring URLs per cloaked URL
- Downline email once every 7 days
- 5-level downline email depth
- 50 Mailing Credit login rewards
- 100 Mailing Credit traffic rewards
- 1,000 Mailing Credit referral rewards
- Matching Mailing Credit rewards
- Up to 60% commissions on upgrades
- 1 banner and 1 text ad displayed on other members’ Viral Widgets/site
The Free account is therefore considerably more useful than simply being a URL cloaker.
However, its mailing capabilities are limited compared with the paid levels.
Silver
Silver costs $7 per month for members upgrading from Free.
Other payment options are:
- $17 every 3 months
- $27 every 6 months
- $47 annually
Silver retains the basic features of the Free membership while adding 2,000 text-ad credits and 2,000 banner-ad credits each month.
Silver also allows members to stop receiving emails from other members.
Interestingly, Silver still has the same five-level downline email depth and seven-day mailing interval as Free.
Gold
Gold is where ViralURL’s mailing capabilities take a significant step upward.
For a Free member, Gold costs:
- $22 monthly
- $57 every 3 months
- $107 every 6 months
- $187 annually
Gold members can:
- Email their downline every 5 days
- Reach 7 levels
- Show up to 100 referring URLs per cloaked URL
- Receive random members in their downline
- Save 5 previous mailing templates
- Display 5 text ads and 5 banners on other members’ Viral Widgets/site
- Make text ads bold, italic, underlined and/or colored
- Advertise on top of emails sent to downline members
Gold members who do not have the optional Credit Mailer upgrade can email 3,000 random members every three days.
With the Credit Mailer upgrade, that changes to 1,300 Mailing Credits per day instead.
Platinum
Platinum costs $29 per month for a Free member, with lower upgrade costs depending on the membership path.
The listed rates are:
- $29 monthly
- $74 every 3 months
- $134 every 6 months
- $234 annually
Platinum retains the seven-level downline structure and five-day mailing interval.
It also provides:
- 10 saved mailing templates
- 5 banner ad displays
- 5 text ad displays
- 2,100 monthly banner credits
- 2,100 monthly text-ad credits
- 0.2 credits for banner/text ads shown through Viral Widgets
- 0.4 credits for text ads shown on member sites
- 0.4 credits for banners shown
- Random downline members
- Advertising on top of downline emails
Without Credit Mailer, Platinum members can email 6,000 random members every three days.
With Credit Mailer, they instead receive 2,300 Mailing Credits every day.
Diamond
Diamond is available as an upgrade from Gold.
For Gold members, the listed rates are:
- $17 monthly
- $47 every 3 months
- $87 every 6 months
- $147 annually
Diamond provides many of the same core features as Platinum but adds more saved mailing templates and extensive email tracking statistics.
Diamond members can save 20 mailing templates, receive extensive email tracking statistics, and receive 1,000 banner and 1,000 text-ad credits monthly.
Elite
Elite is the highest primary membership level.
It is available as an upgrade from Platinum or Diamond.
For Platinum members, the listed rates are:
- $17 monthly
- $47 every 3 months
- $87 every 6 months
- $147 annually
Elite increases saved mailing templates to 50 and provides extensive email tracking statistics.
Elite also provides 5,000 banner credits and 5,000 text-ad credits every month, the highest recurring advertising-credit allocation in the membership table.
The upgrade structure is unusual because ViralURL uses different upgrade paths. The site specifically notes that the total cost of reaching each membership level is the same regardless of which permitted upgrade route is used.
The Credit Mailer Upgrade
One of the more interesting additions to ViralURL is the optional Credit Mailer upgrade.
This is separate from the six primary membership levels and can be added by members at any level.
The Credit Mailer upgrade provides:
- 1,000 Mailing Credits when signing up
- 300 additional Mailing Credits every day while upgraded
There is an important exception for Gold and higher members.
Instead of receiving their normal random-member mailings every three days, Gold and higher members receive the corresponding daily Mailing Credit allowance.
That creates a different choice for marketers: use the random-member mailing system directly, or receive a predictable daily supply of mailing credits.
ViralURL Advertising Credits
ViralURL also operates banner and text-ad exchanges.
Members can earn credits when ads are displayed through their sites or Viral Widgets and then use those credits to display their own advertising.
For example, the current membership table shows:
- Banner ads displayed on ViralURL’s site use 1 credit
- Banner ads displayed on another member’s site use 0.5 credits
- Free members receive 0.2 credits for banner ads shown
- Gold and higher members receive 0.4 credits for banner ads shown
Text advertising follows a similar structure.
Members can also install ViralURL advertising code on their own websites and earn additional credits by displaying other members’ advertisements. ViralURL’s documentation specifically describes this as an exchange: displaying other members’ banner ads earns credits that can then be used to display your own banners.
That feature is particularly interesting when ViralURL is viewed as part of a larger traffic-recycling strategy.
How We Use ViralURL
This is where ViralURL gets particularly interesting for our overall traffic strategy.
We don’t look at ViralURL simply as another place to send traffic.
The bigger opportunity is to use it as infrastructure inside the traffic system.
Brad Stephens’ approach to ViralURL was essentially to keep it working behind the scenes rather than making it the centerpiece of the strategy. Traffic could be sent through pages containing ViralURL banner and text advertising, allowing those displays to generate credits. Those credits could then be recycled into additional advertising and traffic throughout the system.
That’s an important distinction.
ViralURL doesn’t necessarily have to be the destination of every visitor. It can be part of the machinery that turns traffic from one source into additional advertising inventory elsewhere.
Brad also pointed out that free ViralURL accounts can be relatively slow to build credits initially. His philosophy was that the effort required to earn credits gives those credits additional value, while downline and pass-up leverage can increase the overall effect.
For our purposes, that makes ViralURL more interesting as a traffic-recycling and credit-generation component than as simply another safelist.
The key is to look at the entire chain rather than judging a single click in isolation.
Is ViralURL Worth Upgrading?
That depends heavily on how you intend to use it.
The Free account is useful for testing the basic system, particularly the URL cloaking and tracking features.
However, the major marketing advantages begin appearing at the paid levels.
Gold is an important breakpoint because it moves the downline structure from five levels to seven, shortens the mailing interval from seven days to five, introduces random downline members, and adds substantially more advertising functionality.
Platinum, Diamond and Elite are aimed more toward members who intend to make ViralURL a significant part of their ongoing marketing operation.
The Credit Mailer upgrade is also worth considering separately because it changes the way mailing resources are supplied.
The important thing is not to assume that paying for a higher membership automatically produces more leads or sales. The additional tools give you more ways to generate, distribute and recycle traffic, but the results still depend on what you promote and how the system is incorporated into your overall strategy.
ViralURL Pros
- Long-running marketing platform
- Unlimited URL cloaking
- Affiliate-link protection
- Link tracking
- Viral downline building
- Up to seven levels of downline email access
- Internal mailing system
- Random-member mailing options
- Banner advertising
- Text advertising
- Advertising-credit exchange
- Website advertising code
- Up to 60% upgrade commissions
- Optional Credit Mailer upgrade
- Multiple ways to earn advertising credits
- Multiple membership levels for different marketing needs
ViralURL Cons
- The system has a substantial learning curve.
- The membership structure is more complicated than a typical safelist.
- Free members have considerably fewer mailing capabilities.
- Building meaningful credit balances can take time.
- Higher membership levels become substantially more expensive.
- There are many different features and credit types to understand before the system becomes intuitive.
The dated-looking interface has also been noted by some current users, although the underlying feature set remains extensive. Community reviews generally highlight the combination of cloaking, tracking, mailing and viral list building as ViralURL’s major strengths.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ViralURL a safelist mailer?
ViralURL has safelist-like mailing functionality, but it is better described as an all-in-one marketing platform. Its features extend into URL cloaking, tracking, advertising exchanges and viral downline building.
Does ViralURL protect affiliate links?
Yes. URL cloaking is one of the platform’s primary functions and is available even on the Free membership.
How many levels deep is the ViralURL downline?
Free and Silver members can email five levels deep. Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Elite members can email seven levels deep.
How often can members email their downline?
Free and Silver members can email their downline every seven days. Gold and higher memberships reduce that interval to every five days.
Does ViralURL have banner advertising?
Yes. Members can earn and spend banner advertising credits through ViralURL’s advertising system.
Does ViralURL have text advertising?
Yes. Text ads are another part of the internal advertising-credit system.
What is the Credit Mailer upgrade?
The optional Credit Mailer upgrade supplies Mailing Credits instead of relying solely on the standard random-member mailing allowances. It starts with 1,000 credits and adds 300 credits per day while the upgrade remains active.
Final Verdict
ViralURL is difficult to categorize because it does several jobs at once.
It is a link cloaker.
It is a tracker.
It is a mailer.
It is a viral downline builder.
It is an advertising-credit exchange.
And, when used correctly, it can become another component in a larger traffic-recycling system.
That’s what makes ViralURL particularly interesting to us.
Rather than judging it solely by how many visitors a single advertising campaign produces, we can look at what happens to the value of a visitor as that visitor moves through the system.
A visitor can click a cloaked link. That visit can be tracked. The visitor can potentially enter a ViralURL downline. Advertising can be displayed. Credits can be generated. Those credits can purchase additional exposure. And the process can be connected to other traffic sources.
That is the kind of leverage that makes ViralURL worth studying.
It isn’t necessarily the easiest program on this list to understand, and it isn’t something I’d recommend judging after five minutes of playing around with a Free account.
But for someone willing to learn how the different pieces fit together, ViralURL can function as a powerful piece of traffic and list-building infrastructure.
And that’s ultimately how we look at it: not necessarily as the destination, but as another machine that can be plugged into the larger traffic system.
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