As relentless as the common cold, a slew of brand new viral marketing campaigns are marching across the world entertaining recipients and creating new channels to market for those brave enough to give them a try. But what is viral marketing and how should your business be using it?When people think of viral marketing, it tends to conjure up images of email junk and underhand marketing techniques. Yet for all these negative connotations, it is a marketing tool that should not be ignored. With that in mind, I have taken a closer look at what viral marketing actually is and how it can benefit your business.

Despite the country slumping further into recession, it seems we won’t find any sympathy from our old friends, Google. The Internet giants last week announced plans to increase the service fees it charges to its online merchants using their Google Checkout service – leading to fierce criticism from angry vendors.

It is not so much eMarketing’s best kept secret as its most under used asset. Despite the variety of benefits of sending out newsletters, a remarkably large number of online businesses are still not utilising this promotional avenue.

A couple of months ago I received a telephone call from one of my clients telling me that their website had been copied by a competing company – I thought I’d follow it up this weekend and to my surprise, the copycat website is still live.

To some their life would be empty without it, while for others it is something to avoid like the plague.For those who are already au fait with the likes of Facebook ,X and My Space , you will know how easy it can be to spend hours on end joining obscure groups or seeing what that shy, yet strangely attractive, old school friend is up to nowadays.

Whilst The British Retail Consortium (BRC) this week warns that high street spending is down, it seems that there is no stopping the rise in online shopping. The BRC reports that March’s figures for high street spending were the worst since July 2005, when bad weather hit sales. The results have confounded expectations that this year’s early holiday period would boost the High Street.

We’re a nation in love with e-shopping! Come the London Olympics, online stores will also be going for Gold. Right now, we’re shopping for England (and for Scotland, Wales and Ireland) when it comes to buying online – out-shopping our European neighbours. Online sales in Britain raced ahead to £12.8 billion last year, placing us in gold medal position in the e-shopping league.

John Willman, Business Editor of the Financial Times approached me for comment on the relationship between British business and Gordon Brown’s Labour government.

What’s going on with British business? Can the UK economy really be struggling? With PwC’s global survey of CEO’s revealing an upbeat picture the FT asked me for my views.