Words. It's all you've got when you write an ezine ad. But how POWERFUL those words can be! The right words will move your readers to action. With your short ads, the desired action is to click on your link. Never try to sell in a classified ad.

Here are some winning words I've collected over the years. Marshall them and send them into the battle.

ACTION. Start each ad with action words (verbs), like earn, save, get, feel, do, imagine. These encourage the reader to take action.

ADDRESS CAPTURE. Many ads send you directly to a website (a one-time result). Not good. In fact some internet marketers say "dont send people to your website".

AVOID WORDS. These are turn-off words: buy, contract, bad, death, loss, hard, worry, taxes, wrong, difficult, sell, deal, fail, liability, cost, obligation, decision.

AUTORESPONDER. Use one to capture the email addresses, so you can follow up later. If you need a cheap or free autoresponder, just follow the links in the menu.

BENEFITS. List the benefits your service/product provides to people, then write one or more ads around each single benefit. Your readers are all tuned into WII-FM ("what's in it for me?"), so be sure you broadcast on that frequency. To identify those benefits, you could ask yourself...
- Can I save them time?
- Can we show them how to earn more money?
- Can this product convert more of their traffic into buyers?

Here's a great way to express your benefits message:
"If you want ___________, then _____________."
"If you want to solve ________, then ________."

IMPROVE. By tracking results from 2 slightly different ads, you can sideline the poor performer and reprint the better ad. By repeating that track-&-compare process, you develop a stable of proven ads which you can then run in your paid promotions.

HEADLINE. Start your classified ad with a headline. That's 2-3 words at the start of the ad that you've CAPITALISED to grab attention. But dont capitalise too much (it looks like you're shouting at your reader).

LEARN. Like internet marketing, copywriting is a combined art/science. Tom Hua's best selling ebook Classified Ad Secrets is a great way to learn. And here it's so cheap, it's nearly free.

PAIN. Show the consequences if they dont act. "My economic future doesnt depend on you buying my product. Yours may!"

PROBLEM-SOLVING. Can your business or product solve a problem for the readers? Tell them what it can do for them, how it can help them. "Now there's an easy way to..."

QUESTIONS. "Would 60K be alright, part-time?"

RESPONSE WORDS. Some words are "hot", renowned for creating responses. Words like: free, bonus, money, amazing, love, safe, save, new, benefit, gain, money, happy, glad, proven, guarantee, fast, results, discover, how you, how to, now, fun, value, easy, you, your, yours, you'll, healthy, natural, magic, secret, secrets, the best kept secret, comfortable, proud, secure, solution, powerful, you'll love this, hottest new, improved, proven, results, revolutionary, state-of-the-art, fantastic, unbelievable, for a limited time only, must see to believe.

SCARCITY. "The first 50 buyers". "This link will be removed on 30th".

SHORT. Dont try to say everything in your ad. Use short sentences. The goal of your ad is to get them to want more information. Be sure to include a way for them to contact you.

SPECIFICS. Top copywriters wont say "you'll lose weight with this". No, they'll use numbers, specifics. "Jennifer lost 14 pounds in 24 days". The trick is finding those figures in the first place (tip: when liars get caught out, they lose all their credibility). 29% is better than 'nearly a third'.

SPELL-CHECK. Obvious really, isnt it? Proof reading and spell-checking your material is a mark of professionalism. "If they cant even type an ad correctly, how can I trust them to run a business?" --> Puts credit card away!

TARGETED. "Gardeners, here's a..." "Doctors, have you ever..." "Needed: Mothers who..." If you're into niche marketing, targeting is a natural.

TRACKING. To test your classified ads. There are lots of good free trackers. Use 'em.

TWIST. I saw one ad... "56 ways to increase your wealth using just $56". Most of us should avoid attempts at humour, but a clever twist can be a real winner.

To wrap it up, then...
The classified ad is still the most powerful marketing weapon for the new marketer. Even seasoned marketers have kept the classified ad as the backbone of their lead generating arsenal. As John Colanzi says, "Don't take the power of classifieds lightly."

PS !!!
Did you know that some spam filters will delete messages with exclamation marks in their subject lines? So if in doubt, leave them out!!!! Choose word power instead.

Article by Gary Harvey, http://eProfitNews.com © 2002-05.

Stretch your advertising budget. Get CHEAP ezine ads here:
http://eProfitNews.com/cheap-ezine-ads.shtml

Reprinting is welcomed with this resource box.