Free Viral Tell-A-Friend Scripts and Why You Should Not Use Them?

The recession has meant that business owners are tightening their budgets and cutting costs wherever possible. Here is a warning, some things should not be used just because they are free and viral tell-a-friend scripts are one of these.

I'd never knock anyone for trying to save money in their business but there are just some things with a free price tag that may end up costing your business so much more.

Here are the fundamental flaws to using a free tell-a-friend script and why you should avoid it:

1. Script Updates

This is an issue that affects the WordPress plugins scene and is not exclusive to free scripts but it is a major concern when security, your website, and your integrity are at risk.

You see, you download the script, you install it and it works great. You start getting visitors to your website like never before, and then, SNAP, something breaks. You now need to contact the developer for some quick support and when you visit the homepage you discover that the developer has discontinued support due to 'a lack of time' or 'new ventures'.

What happens if your main source of revenue is from your website and the tell-a-friend script needs an update that is NOT forth-coming and it ends up causing a misconfiguration of some kind, taking your website offline.

No matter what way you look at things, if your website is attacked due to a vulnerability in the script or your email address book is used to send out mass spam email, or the script causes your site to develop errors and not load properly, you will only hurt your reputation.

2. Security

Security is one of the major concerns of computer owners and Internet users alike. Having a website that is safe and secure from any type of attack may become a security risk due to using a tell-a-friend script. Here's the problem, even some high-profile and heavily promoted paid-for scripts have vulnerabilities that could leave you and your email address book open to attack; you can 'Google it' for more information about the security issues and I recommend that you do.

3. Reputation

Yes, your integrity and your reputation is explicitly tied into your website and service. If you are attacked by hackers or spammers that use a vulnerability in the script, then your customers may turn to you for an explanation.

I'll leave this with you, but if you do use a free viral tell-a-friend script then make sure you thoroughly research the offering before installing it onto your website.