WRITING PROFITABLE CLASSIFIED ADS

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Everybody wants to make more money... In fact, most people

would like to hit upon something that makes them fabulously rich!

And seemingly, one of the easiest roads to the fulfillment of

these dreams of wealth is mail order or within the professional

circles of the business, direct mail or E-MAIL selling... For our

purposes, mail includes E-MAIL in as much as the basic principles

are one and the same.

The only thing is, hardly anyone gives much real thought to

the basic ingredient of selling by mail - the writing of profit-

able classified ads. If your mail order business is to succeed,

then you must acquire the expertise of writing classified ads that

sell your product or services!

So what makes a classified ad good or bad? First of all, it

must appeal to the reader, and as such, it must say exactly what

you want it to say. Secondly, it has to say what it says in the

least possible number of words in order to keep your operating

costs within your budget. And thirdly, it has to produce the

desired results in the form of inquiries or sales.

Grabbing the reader's attention is your first objective. You

must assume the reader is "scanning" the page on which your ad

appears in the company of two or three hundred classified ads.

Therefore, there has to be something about your ad that causes him

to stop scanning and look at yours! So, the first two or three

words of your ad are of the utmost importance and deserve your

careful consideration. Most surveys show that words or phrases

that quickly involve the reader tend to be the best attention-

grabbers. Such words as: FREE... WIN... MAKE BIG MONEY...

Whatever words you use as attention-grabbers, to start your

ads, you should bear in mind that they'll be competing with

similar attention-grabbers of the other ads on the same page.

Therefore, in addition to your lead words, your ad must quickly go

on to promise or state further benefits to the reader. In other

words, your ad might read something like this: MAKE BIG MONEY!

Easy & Simple. We show you how!

In the language of professional copywriters, you've grabbed

the attention of your prospect, and interested him with something

that even he can do.

The next rule of good classified copywriting has to do with

the arousal of the reader's desire to get in on your offer. In a

great many instances, this rule is by-passed, and it appears this

is the real reason that an ad doesn't pull according to the

expectations of the advertiser.

Think about it - you've got your reader's attention; you've

told him it's easy and simple; and you're about to ask him to do

something. Unless you take the time to further "want your offer,"

your ad is going to only half turn him on. He'll compare your ad

with the others that have grabbed his attention and finally decide

upon the one that interests him the most.

What I'm saying is that here is the place for you to insert

that magic word "guaranteed" or some other such word or phrase.

So now, we've got an ad that reads: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy &

Simple. Guaranteed!

Now the reader is turned on, and in his mind, he can't lose.

You're ready to ask for his money. This is the "demand for

action" part of your ad. This is the part where you want to use

such words as: Limited offer - Act now! Write today! Only and/or

just...

Putting it all together, then your ad might read something

like this: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed! Limited

offer. Send $l to:

These are the ingredients of any good classified ad -

Attention - Interest - Desire - Action... Without these four

ingredients skillfully integrated into your ad, chances are your

ad will just "lie there" and not do anything but cost you money.

What we've just shown you is a basic classified ad. Although such

an ad could be placed in any leading publication and would pull a

good response, it's known as a "blind ad" and would pull inquiries

and responses from a whole spectrum of people reading the

publication in which it appeared. In other words, from as many

"time-wasters" as from bona fide buyers.

So let's try to give you an example of the kind of classified

ad you might want to use, say to sell a report such as this one...

Using all the rules of basic advertising copywriting, and stating

exactly what our product is, our ad reads thusly:

MONEY-MAKER'S SECRETS! How To Write winning classified

ads. Simple & easy to learn -should double or triple your

responses. Rush $1 to BC Sales, 10 Main Anytown, TX 75001.

The point we're making is that: l) You've got to grab the

reader's attention... 2) You've got to "interest him" with

something that appeals to him... 3) You've got to "further

stimulate" him with something (catch-phrase) that makes him

"desire" the product or service... 4) Demand that he act

immediately...

There's no point in being tricky or clever. Just adhere to

the basics and your profits will increase accordingly. One of the

best ways of learning to write good classified ads is to study the

classifieds - try to figure out exactly what they're attempting to

sell - and then practice rewriting them according to the rules

we've just given you. Whenever you sit down to write a

classified, always write it all out - write down everything you

want to say - and then go back over it, crossing out words, and

refining your phraseology.

The final ingredient of your classified ad is, of course, your

name and address to which the reader is to respond - where he's to

send his money or write for further information.

Generally speaking, readers respond more often to ads that

include a name than to those showing just initials or an address

only. However, because advertising costs are based upon the

number of words, or the amount of space your ad uses, the use of

some names in classified ads could become quite expensive. If we

were to ask our ad respondents to write to or send their money to

The Research Writers & Publishers Association, or to Book Business

Mart, or even to Money Maker's Opportunity Digest, our advertising

costs would be prohibitive. Thus we shorten our name to Researchers

or Money-Makers. The point here is to think relative to the

placement costs of your ad, and to shorten excessively long names.

The same holds true when listing your post office box number.

Shorten it to just plain Box 40, or in the case of a rural

delivery, shorten it to just RRl.

The important thing is to know the rules of profitable

classified ad writing, and to follow them. Hold your costs in

line.

Now you know the basics... The rest is up to you.

Click here for all the marketing ideas and tools you'll ever need!

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Edited & Distributed by the Staff of Computer Expertise Ltd.

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