What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make

What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make When Writing Classified Ads?

by: Kim Thomas

All sales begin with some form of advertising whether it’s word of mouth or printed media or even electronic. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers. It must cause them to also react to the advertising in a positive some way. Your success or failure reverts back to the ad itself. Generally, you want your classified ad to do one of the following:

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to immediately go to your website or store with the intention of buying your product or service.

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to write or send for more information about your product or service thus leaning to a future sale.

However, the bottom line in any ad is quite simple:

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Why? In the 3 or 4 little lines classified ads allowed you to write, you don’t have enough time or space to actually sell your products or services sufficiently.

What you need is to write a cliff hanger or encripted messages to entice your prospects to call or to click on so they can be sent to somewhere else where you will do the proper selling later on.

Usually an offer of free report works best.

Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in their thinking, and does not persuade the reader to act immediately, is not a highly successful ad.

The กad writerก must know exactly what he/she wants the reader to do, and if the ad does not elicit an immediate action, it is an absolute waste of time and money.

Respond to the readers subconsious mind by using strong emotional words in your headlines such as;

Discover Secret Private Sex Money Love Breakthrough Home New Free Power Revealed Magic Fear

Research reveals that these types of words in a headline instantly attract the attention because they are strongly connected to our emotions. I have tested many of those above with astounding success. A personกs unconscious mind can *SEE* and *RESPOND* to these keywords passing by fast on a screen or in a newsletter.

The secret is to target your classified ad to the audience interested in your product or service. You will be wasting your time and money if you don’t know who your target audience is.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of classified ad sites and ezine directories which are categorized by subjects and/or interests. Define your target audience and then submit your classified ad.

How fast do you scan a list of links? Watch closely and youกll see the same thing happening within yourself. Our minds somehow magically see what we are most interested in and weกll back up and say ก I thought I saw that ก and we proceed to click on that link! Our inner minds are tuned to instantly spot what we desire most at the time.

Using emotional words along with targeted keywords will make your headlines and ads pull the maximum response possible!.

Here are some more of the emotional trigger phrases for you to use in your classified ads

STOP Act now!

Send your name

All sent free to introduce

Amazing literature

FREE

Ask for free folder

Bargain lists sent free

Be first to qualify

Booklet free!

Catalog included free

Complete details free

Current list free

Dealers write for prices

Description sent free

Details free!

Extra for promptness

Act now! Don’t hesitate to discover how you too can make your sales skyrocket by exposing yourself to our high quality free or low cost advertising resources on the Internet and at the same time get your hands on this amazing formula for writing classified ads by going to http://www.salaciads.com.

About The Author

Kim Thomas is the site owner and webmaster for http://www.advertisingexposure.com. Here youกll find free or low cost advertising resources.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 21, 2003

by Kim Thomas

Marketing Tips Advertising

Marketing Tips Advertising

by: Sue and Chuck DeFiore

Typical methods of advertisingnewspapers, radio and television are effective if used properly, but there are other, less expensive ways to get your companyกs name out.

Local or cable television is an inexpensive alternative to the traditional forms of advertising. Even if you have no experience advertising in this medium, there are companies who specialize in lending a helping hand. Even if finances are a concern (as they are for most of us), youกll be surprised to discover a 30 second spot television ad can cost as little as a few hundred dollars.

Many areas have public auctions on local stations that will advertise your product, if you donate up to a certain dollar amount. The number of advertising spots will depend on how much you donate.

Remember also to send press releases to your local television and radio stations. Many times they will come out and do a story on you, if it is of interest to the public.

We volunteered to do resumes for people out of work and sent releases to all the radio and television stations. One of the three major networks in our area, sent someone out to interview us, and we were on the 6 and 11 oกclock news.

As for radio advertising, check your local stations for rates. Youกll be surprised at how low some of them are. Again, if you send press releases to the stations, sometimes they will call you as an expert in your area, or for an interview. We sent releases to all the stations in our area when we started our support group, and this generated three times the number of people we expected for our first meeting.

Since most major newspapers are expensive to advertise in, check with the smaller local papers. You can advertise in many of these for as little as $25 a month. You could also offer to write a column for these publications, as an expert in the area, if appropriate.

We all need to advertise in one way or another. Which medium you choose will depend on your particular business.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our กhow toก Home Business Solutions Digest, itกs like having your own personal coach: mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 17, 2004

by Sue and Chuck DeFiore

The Best Of The Best In Postcards

The Best Of The Best In Postcards

by: Florie Lyn Masarate

There are some learning in life that people have to go through with in order to learn the lessons that come with it. This may sound dramatic but it really helps people in getting things right and knowing the best of the best.

This is also true in printing. People getting printing materials that tend to be informational or is into marketing certain products and services are clearly becoming an expert on what they consider the best not just in presentation but also in contents.

Take, for example, small printing materials like postcards. People receiving them have always been amazed at the development that these cards have undergone through the years. They started simply with the just some words and contact details, but now even graphic designs are being put into them. These cards are becoming marketing tools also, as they are handy and easy to give out to potential clients. Not only that, postcards is now sent through emails. Just look at what postcards have become. Other than these things what are the highlights that postcards must have?

Postcards are better off without an envelope. You know why? Because people being busy bodies always on the run, are likely not to have time to open these envelopes to look at what it contain. There are a lot of things that people have to do in a day, letters to read and reading your postcards will just add to the trash mails that people ignore most of the time. The tendency is for them to throw it away without even bothering to read what it says. So giving them postcards sans the envelope, you get assured that somehow, and even in a fraction of a second, they have seen and read what your postcards say. Having seen them first, before throwing them away is something that you cannot have done with an envelope. And the next time you send them that same card again, they will remember having received one before throwing it away again.

Promoting one thing at a time in your postcards and sending them time and time again helps, a lot. This is making them aware of what you are marketing, may it be a product or s service. Having them sent over again to potential customers is not necessarily wasting time and money. It is making them aware of what they are missing and what they should know about. Do not mind raising some tempers, at least they remembered you having sent them more than once. Repetition and persistence works, in time.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

About The Author

Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she received a subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She got her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 03

by Florie Lyn Masarate

Writing Effective Emails

Writing Effective Emails

by: Graham Jones

Sometimes email messages can get quite long, especially when you quote much of the material that has been sent in previous emails. Also, emails often get long if you have a lot to say or you need to give a comprehensive overview of a particular business situation.

Most people tend to find that the letters and emails they receive that are short are the ones they responded to most positively and had the best feelings about. Long letters do get a positive response — however, almost invariably, long communications are only given a positive rating if we have a very close and warm relationship with the person who has written to us. We rarely feel positive towards acquaintances and people we do not know, who send us long letters or emails. This has important implications for people using email in business. The vast majority of your emails at work are going to be sent to people you do not know or have only the slimmest of relationships with. Hence anything other than a short email is likely to lead towards a negative feeling in your reader. Play safe; keep it short!

This is all very well in theory, of course, but in practice, particularly at work, you need to include a lot of material. The answer is to treat the email as though it were a covering letter. Then attach the main text as a separate word processor document. All email programs can attach files to them, yet vast numbers of emails are sent without using this facility. The advantage of putting your main material in an attachment is that your recipient immediately views your message in a positive light because it is short and to the point. You should summarise the content of the attachment in a sentence or two — in that way your reader can gain all they need to know, without having to open the attached file. However, if they need more depth you have provided it for them.

One technique you can use for shortening your email is to write the main message in your word processing software, with all the detail you need. Then take a break, do something else and later on, read through your text. Now try to summarise it in a few sentences – that summary should be the main part of your email. Trying to summarise something you have just written is difficult as all the detail will still be in your mind. That’s why taking a break can help you as you leave your mind uncluttered and make summary writing much easier. Your summary email, together with the word processor document as an attachment is much more likely to please your recipient. This means there is considerable value in taking time to construct your email properly, rather than just dashing something off.

Another way in which you can be sure of keeping emails short is to avoid ‘quoting’ vast amounts of previous emails. One of the benefits of the ‘reply’ button on email programs is that you can quote the previous email. In this way the recipient can easily see what you are responding to. However, since many emails go back and forth between various people, the message can quickly become very long indeed — even though most of it is material from previous messages. The answer to solving this is to only quote what you need to send someone in order to make your reply understandable. By all means, press the ‘reply’ button to quote the original email, but then go through the quoted text and delete everything that is irrelevant to what you are going to write about. Doing so is seeing the message from your reader’s viewpoint — they don’t want to wade through the original text (their own!) just to see which point you are commenting on. It is much easier from their viewpoint if your reply is clear. In other words, only use selective quoting — not wholesale quoting of emails as is the most common practice.

An additional reason why some emails are so long is because the author is trying to cover various topics. They are almost ‘brain dumping’ everything they can think of that is important or relevant to the reader. Meanwhile, the poor recipient has to work their way through this mess to try and find out what is important. Good communication, particularly to people we don’t know, is focused communication. That means, in essence, that each email should be about one topic and one topic only. A hint to this is given in the email software itself where you have to type a ‘subject’ for your email.

If your emails are about more than one subject – stop! Each email should only be about one subject. Your recipient will react far more positively if you sent four separate short emails about four subjects than trying to cram all the material into one, inevitably longer message. Also, when these separate messages get replied to, the quoted material is shorter. Hence, think always, one message — one email.

About The Author

Graham Jones is the author of Effective Email an ebook priced at £9.99. For more details or to download a copy now go to: http://www.effectiveemail.biz.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 23, 2002

by Graham Jones

Life After Press Release Distribution?

Life After Press Release Distribution?

by: Carolyn Moncel

A few weeks ago I was participating on an online message board. One of the members was a new business owner who was very excited about sending out her companyกs first press release. The question she posted to the group was important, but also a common one echoed by so many smallbusiness owners charged with handling media coverage inhouse for the first time: กNow that Iกve distributed my press release, what do I do next?

The answer to that question is a simple one: You follow up with the media. Following up with reporters by phone or email where appropriate, can be more important than sending the release itself. Why? Because maybe the reporter didn’t receive the fax sent, hasn’t read his email yet, or the headline for the release sent via wire services just didn’t engage him enough to want to read the release in the first place. Or maybe the release wasn’t sent to any one reporter in particular, which is always a nono.

Fear is the number one reason why most people avoid making contact with the media. In fact, most smallbusiness owners worry that they won’t know what to say to the reporter once they call, or that they will catch the reporter at an inopportune time and anger him or her. However if youกve taken the time to target the right reporter, study their news beat and the types of stories they prefer, and adhere to their deadlines, you should have nothing to fear in picking up the phone and calling a reporter.

There are basically two approaches one can take to follow up. First if you are confident in telling your companyกs story, you can just call up the appropriate reporter and tell him or her about your news and ask permission to send over the release. If there is interest from the reporter then send the release over immediately. The second way is to send the release to the correct reporter and then follow up with a phone call or email base your follow up method on what the reporter prefers.

One word of caution: Always remember that reporters are very busy people so try to give them two days before following up. It takes them a while to get through all of the messages that they receive. However, if you have a breaking story to report and you want to alert the reporter in advance, or you have an event taking place any particularly timesensitive news, then give the reporter a call the next day after the release has been sent.

So you have the reporter on the phone what exactly should you say to him or her? Itกs easiest to start with the one sentence you should never utter: กIกm following up to make sure you received my news release.ก Consider this the second commandment just right under ‘thou shall not forget to ask a reporter if he or she is on deadline before pitching a story.ก Itกs also always a good idea to do a little preparation prior to making your phone call.

Here are some tips:

Do make sure that the press release sent is available in two forms fax and email. The reporter may not have received your release, and if he or she has an interest, they will want you to resend it. The faster you can resend it the better the chance of coverage, so have the fax version ready in the fax machine and the email version ready to go once you hit the กsendก button.

Do prepare two alternative story ideas in case the reporter rejects the one offered in your release.

Do purposely leave out a couple nuggets of information so that you can offer them up to the reporter during follow up.

Do take time to listen to what the reporter says during your conversation. Your follow up call should not be a monologue but rather a dialogue. If you listen closely, the reporter will indicate interest and what your next directives should be. For example, youกll discover whether or not you need to conduct a second follow up.

Do make note as to whether your release has been forwarded to another reporter. If this turns out to be the case, then prepare to contact the new reporter with your story idea, but follow these steps again.

Do accept กNoก gracefully. When a reporter says กnoก to your story, accept the fact that he or she has a good reason at least at that particular point in time. Therefore, you should never try to push a reporter into running your story because you will run the risk of alienating that reporter forever. He or she will remember you and each time you try to pitch a new story, you will be punished. Simply say ‘thanks,ก tweak your release and try again later. The timing or story angle may be wrong. Again, if you are listening closely, sometimes the reporter will tell you why the story will not be covered. Perhaps he or she wrote a story on a similar topic recently.

Last, it never hurts to prepare a little script to help you concentrate on the specific points youกd like to make to the reporter. Practice what you are going to say so that it feels natural during delivery. Below is an example of what you can say once you have the reporter on the line:

Hi, John. Iกm Carolyn Moncel from MotionTemps, LLC. Are you currently on deadline and is this a good time to talk? Great! I know that you like covering stories about running offices more efficiently and my company specializes in helping other businesses get their offices organized.

To kick off a new service that we’re offering to our clients, we’re sponsoring a contest called กChicagoกs Most Disorganized Office,ก and the release that I sent to you has all of the details.

Oh, you didn’t receive it? Shall I resend it and to which fax number? Oh, youกd like it by email instead? Can I please verify your email address? You can expect to receive the release in five minutes.

In case you’re interested in covering the story, I thought Iกd provide you with some additional numbers and sources, which might help to flush out your story. Would like me to fax that to you now also? Thanks for the consideration. Can I follow up with you again? If you have further questions, just give me a call at 8778150167 or email me at [email protected].

Now, what happens if you get the reporterกs voice mail? Actually you can use the voice mail to your advantage because it allows you another opportunity to leave your contact information, pitch your idea and offer up alternative ideas without interruption. You can use the same script as above with a few modifications.

The bottom line here is this: the media will never know about your company unless you tell them. You can’t wait for the reporter to call you because it will almost never happen. That type of response is reserved for hard news stories and extremely rare circumstances miraculous rescues, scandals, extraordinary acts of kindness and most business stories just don’t fall into any of those categories. As the business owner the onus is on you to tell your companyกs story to the reporter, and you do it by following up.

About The Author

Carolyn DavenportMoncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at [email protected] or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.

This article was posted on May 30, 2003

by Carolyn Moncel