Classy Ads

☘☘Even More Craigslist Symbols☘☘

2009-03-08T19:41:00.015-04:00

Anyone else notice the lack of symbols being used lately? Are they causing denied ads or ghosting?

Wikipedia's Nice List of Symbol Codes

Multiple Gmail Accounts w/o the Work (or the Money!)

2009-02-03T20:26:00.006-05:00

One of my clients mentioned this to me a couple days ago, so I tested it out. It's working with craigslist, if you already know any other sites this works with-- drop us a line.

Gmail is a catch-all email address. This means that once you register your email – mine is JollyRancher08@gmail.com-- they reserve a few other emails for that name too. That is YOUR gmail name. I can send email to

jollyrancher.08@gmail.com

jolly.rancher.08@gmail.com

jolly.a.rancher08@gmail.com

joll.y.r.ancher.08@gmail.com

JollyRancher08+1@gmail.com

JollyRancher08+2@gmail.com

JollyRancher08+3@gmail.com

It will all be mailed to my original account.

The periods can go anywhere. I already had a craigslist account with JollyRancher08@gmail.com, and I was able to register again with JollyRancher.08@gmail.com. Interesting, right? You dont have to use gmail's forwarding service.

Google explains the reason why here.

Title Examples

2009-02-02T11:11:00.003-05:00

If you have any experience at all with BP, you know the same title, or near to it, will get you—not rejected like Craigslist—but ghosted. I urge you to sit down right now, and type out at least fifty different titles. If your product is worth selling, it won't be that hard. FOCUS on everything you hae to offer, DON'T stray away. For example, don't say the word FREE unless it is %100 Free. (This will just bring people looking for Free stuff-if you don't have it, they will leave, I've been guilty of this many times.) Title's I've used (for IAHBE) with success :

***Own a Home Business?***
For Small Biz Owners
Entrepreneurs – This is for YOU!
***Experienced Entrepreneurs Only***
You Don't Have to Post Ads-You Have Other Options
The IAHBE Can Help You SELL
Local Home Business Owners – Grow Your Business
HEY Small Business Owners – Need SALES?
Local Home Entrepreneurs Dream Membership $30
$29.95 -- The Only Thing You'll Ever Need to Expand Your Business
The Classified Ads Just Don't Work For Small Biz Anymore
Already Own a Home Business? Expand!
Money Back Guarantee - $1000 in Free Bonuses ---Yes, IAHBE Can Help You
Get the Tools You Need to Sell Your Opp with IAHBE

5 Ways to Make More PVAs

2009-01-31T14:33:00.006-05:00

Basic non-genius methods that you could have thought of yourself. :)

Friends and family. Obvious, I know. Most likely if you are already reading this then you've already tapped into this resource. Just remember to state clearly what you'll be using the number for. Just one family may have three or four phones counting cell phones.

Buy them. This is done easily enough, there are a lot of sites out there selling them from $5-$10 each. You could post a project at getafreelancer.com and have them made for you sometimes as low as $2.50-$3. Posting the project is free ($5 dollar deposit refunded when the project is closed.) and the site takes a portion (3$ of 3%, whatever is greater) of the agreed price.

Payphones. This takes time, effort and gas. The http://www.payphone-directory.org/ can help you find payphones and their numbers in your area. Use a cell phone or laptop to type in the payphone number then hang out by the phone and wait for the code. Remember that in some public places –beaches, hotels, some parks, they will have two or three payphones in a line.

Pre-paid phones.This is expensive, but I needed an account to fill a posting order right away. I walked over to Dollar General, bought a tracfone for $10 and activated the free 30 minutes on it. This would be best only if you can find a great deal on pre-paid phones. (You can sell the phones on eBay after you take the number and make some money back.)

"White Text"

2009-01-27T20:06:00.009-05:00

OK...I know I've been gone for a little while. I tend to do that from time to time without any explanation whatsoever...

Just logged back in for the first time in weeks to find the hits on this blog have gone WAY up! 600+ hits this month...awesome! You must all like me better when I'm quite for a while...

--not that too many of you left comments (ahem) but I thank those that did. :)

I wanted to address “white text” as I see that I didn't explain it very clearly in 15 Tips for Posting on Backpage and I recently got a couple emails for links to examples.

Click Here to see a live example on Akron's Backpage - Highlight the entire ad with your cursor and you can see the hidden text that I used.

This is what I used :

This is a white text example. See? I blend in! Visit http://theclassyads.blogspot.com/

Change "See I blend in" to anything you want. As long as it's different for each post. Thats why alot of people just use "Ad#34389038" randomzing numbers as they go.

This does not work for Craigslist, just Backpage.

Getting Flagged?

2008-12-11T19:45:00.003-05:00

There are several reasons this could happen.

The #1 Reason of All
You violated Craigslist's (or Backpages) terms of use. Read them, abide by them, and odds are you will be fine.

Other reasons:

Viewers – Your ad is in the wrong category (a biz opp in the job section), is offensive in some way, or someone else is advertising the same product. People are picky, some just flag for fun. It takes a couple flags before an ad is removed but anyone with sufficient knowledge can flag your ad down by themselves. Remember that there are alot of people trying to protect Craigslist from scams and feel it is their right to flag you. Respect this and review your ads if you have problem.

Craigs – Craigslist has a list of possible spam words that it doesn't like, words that could make your listing *appear* as spam or in the wrong category. You will also loose ads if you post the same thing too many times, though generally if you do that you ad will never air in the first place.

Competitors – You can pay someone or a group of people to scan CL ads and flag all your competitors. Usually if someone can afford this, they are also mass posting on the site. This will result in a competitors' ads showing up all over the place while yours are gone. I believe now there are also programs that will mass flag your competition for you.

I have found that scam programs that advertising mass amounts of cash in very little time, or something for free that really isn't free at all are flagged down aggressively by viewers. If you have a legit program or small business that you are representing fairly, I'd take a good look at competition in your area or all over the site.

There is no way to assure that your ads will stay up, and for how long. I recommend taking these measures of tweaking your ads:

Change your title: Make your new set of ads completely different than the old, especially the titles. If you are advertising something very specific, check a thesaurus and dictionary for ideas.

Take a different approach: Look up similar services online for different angles you can take. The best route is the less commercial an ad seems, the better. Images are nice, but plain text will be taken more seriously. Professional ads are not a problem, but large obviously amateur photoshop images will never send the right message.

Change your website: Use some forwarding services to hide your URL. It may be that getting your ads taken down. If you have an affiliate site, I always recommend registering a domain name and using it to forward to your gateway.

Stop for a while : If there are suddenly tons of flags going up, hold off. Wait a couple days and then try again, maybe you caught a competitors eye and they are trying to throw you off of Craigslist. Maybe people are sick of seeing your ad/company. (Happens mostly with affiliates)

Getting the point? Change, change, change. Figure out what works and what doesn't, like I said there is no “real” surefire way to avoid flagging but you can defiantly cut it down.

More Symbols for Your Listings

2008-12-02T18:28:00.005-05:00

Okay, these I just outright stole (I can be bad) from other ads and made a list for myself to use. Copy and paste, my friends.
Eventually I will add the codes as I find them. These will not work on Backpage.com

█
▓
▒
░
►
◄
★
█►
◄█
❶
❷
❸
█▄
▄█
█
☻
▄
☛
☚
•
☎
☻
♦
◘
◙
♂
♀
☼
✔

Wow.

2008-12-01T11:10:00.002-05:00

Wash. Man Pulls Off Robbery Using Craigslist

Sounds like my husband when they talk about using a getaway innertube...

How to Post on Backpage Video

2008-12-01T07:44:00.004-05:00

Nice step by step video for beginners.

Handy Page for Craigslist HTML

2008-12-01T07:08:00.004-05:00

Who knew? I never took time to read the FAQ, now it seems like I should have done that a long time ago. It's useful to know the only supported colors by the giant, as well as other things.

Craigslist's Personal HTML Help

Backpage and Craigslist FAQ

2008-12-01T06:59:00.003-05:00

I'm currently working on my own version to post, and these are the references. Backpage's is very good, lots of answers for you there, including information about HTML.

Craig's is a little more vauge but also a good read for any poster. And this page is interesting- Craig's Fact Sheet. The sheer number of users on the site each month (50 MILLION) is insane!

The Land of Emails

2008-11-20T06:35:00.004-05:00

Gmail. Gmail. Gmail.

If Google owns it, can Craigslist afford to ban it? Supposively a cannot afford to block a brand like that, no matter how much spam appears on their classified ads from it's users. Gmail email accounts are so popular they are being sold on freelancer websites.

Gmail is also popular because it has forwarding so you never have to actually log in to get mail. All your emails from posting can be forwarded to one address, making it easy as pie to active backpage ads.

I only have 10 gmail accounts, then they forbid me from making anymore. If you can get them, and in large quantity, go for it. There are tricks and even generators to get accounts, and as said, you can buy them. But until GMX is banned, that is where you will find me.

GMX.com let me create 5 separate accounts. I had a question to my blog before to explain the emails, and all I could think of was to branch it like this.

I have 5 accounts with GMX.com, and 10 emails under each account.

Each one is labeled in an easy to remember format and all have the same password -arosen100, arosen101, arosen102 and so on. So it kind of goes down like this
Login Email : rose100@gmx.com
-- rose101@gmx.com
-- rose102@gmx.com
-- rose103@gmx.com
-- rose104@gmx.com
-- rose105@gmx.com
-- rose106@gmx.com
-- rose107@gmx.com
-- rose108@gmx.com
-- rose109@gmx.com
Login Email : Arosen110@gmx.com
-- rose111@gmx.com
-- rose112@gmx.com
-- rose113@gmx.com
And so on...
All of the underneath emails I can use, and they all go to the same inbox (login email). Like 10 different names for one email account, but backpage will think I am 10 different people.
I have kind of sworn off Gmail GMX is ever banned I'll be back.

I use all emails twice a day, meaning that I post 100 ads, because there 50 emails. I only have to log into FIVE to activate all my ads. This technique can be used over and over, so far GMX hasn't banned me.

Timing and Tracking

2008-11-20T06:17:00.006-05:00

When do you get the most clicks?

I post in the morning because I assume everyone else is like me. Since I market to the people who are posting on the site, those who obviously already have a home business or affiliate program they are trying to sell, I look at the ads I'm competing with before I post.

In the morning there are generally only a couple ads, and I actually READ them, not scan them. If you're marketing to people who don't advertise on BP I would still advise the morning. It's easier to compete with 10 ads then 50. Yes, eventually your ad will be lost at the bottom, but all my clicks all come in the morning anyway.

One way to find out the best time of day (or night) to post is to track your ads. I use Statcounter.com, the best free service for tracking I've found. I post the same amount of ads every day in the morning. I watch my stats throughout the day. I receive the most clicks early Tuesday morning, every week. If your hits are low, switch to every afternoon, night, etc. I recommend going at least a week at a time to really get a feel for your audience's tendencies.
I have my own domain name, and can change my affiliate page at will so it's easy for me to install a code. Good affiliate programs will already give you tracking for your gateways. If you only have an affiliate gateway/page, and no way to track it, then get some URL direction for it. Create seven different short addresses and use one each day. Compare stats.

Free URL redirection services that offer tracking:

FireMe.to
HOTShortURL.com
SimURL.com

Google “URL Redirect tracking” to find more.

Since we're on the topic of tracking, the above strategy works just as well for using different ads and directions. First find out the best time to post, then post away during that hour using the same ad for a week. Pitch the ads that don't deliver. Run only the ones that provide the best results and ALWAYS keep improving. Your ad isn't perfect for everyone, it never will be! Nothing is perfect for everyone of the thousands who browse the classified.
Play around, you don't have to strictly follow the guidelines. You'll find some ads give good results in the AM, others only late at night. Just follow the clicks...they will take you where you need to go—to the sale!

Posting Ads Using Temporary Email Services

2008-11-18T11:21:00.004-05:00

This worked a while back, not sure if it still does, though it feels like too much work now with GMX around.

Symbols for Your Craigslist Listings

2008-11-07T15:16:00.004-05:00

Haven't spoke in a while, but you guys have been emailing me! I love it. I got this question earlier and investigated - How do people get those symbols in their ads, like the hearts and arrows?

Answer:

Ascii code. I won't dive into what exactly it is, because I'm not sure how it works myself, but after searching around I came across this webpage full of cool symbols for your titles. The codes arn't listed, but you can easily copy and paste them. One step closer to the click!

Sneek Preview of Our Posting Website

2008-10-30T18:57:00.017-04:00

2008-10-29T18:29:00.003-04:00

Check Alexa.com

You don't have to do it often, but check at least once a month. Alexa will tell you what pages on Backpage.com are being visited the most-hence the most traffic high place for your ad. Right now if you were to post only a couple ads you would place them on :

Dallas
Houston
Miami
New York
Phoenix
Minneapolis
Ft. Lauderdale
Orange County
Los Angeles

For Craigslist, you would use the following

South Francisco Bay
New York
Los Angeles
Seattle
San Diego
Chicago
Washington DC
Boston
Phoenix
Portland

This is only where the most people go and will then obviously have the most ads that consumers have to browse through to find yours. Your best bet is to try these cities and if you have no hits, try others. My highest traffic bringers are the ads I post in Raleigh, NC and Canton, OH. Both have a low volume of ads to sift through but a decent about of viewers. Actually anywhere I post in Ohio bring lots of hits.

Find your best city and stick with it, but you don't have to forget about the others.

Free Copy of Classified Ads Techniques

2008-10-21T06:42:00.003-04:00

Here

.Zip File

General background of classified ad sites, along with a list. Good started tips and advice included, completely outdoes the article I was writing!

Can Craigslist Improve Your Business?

2008-10-12T17:05:00.001-04:00

Can Craigslist Improve Your Business?

The answer to this question is yes and no and maybe. It all depends on the way in which the business owners utilize Craigslist. Savvy Internet marketers who are able to identify the target audience and create sales copy which entices the reader may find advertising on Craigslist to be incredibly profitable. Conversely Internet markets that do not do their research and take a spamming approach to advertising on Craigslist are not likely to see significant financial gains.

There is certainly an opportunity to gain financial benefit through advertising on Craigslist. Advertising for all products and services is free on Craigslist making it cost effectively.

Additionally, Craigslist already receives extensive traffic with approximately ten million visitors generating four billion page views each month so there is no need to drive traffic to the website. While Craigslist offers so many advertising benefits, these benefits may be wasted if the advertiser does not do his research or evaluate the competition.

Research before Posting on Craigslist

Advertising on Craigslist is similar to advertising in other forms of media. Despite the existing heavy traffic flows to the website, successful marketing campaigns require extensive research. This research should provide the Internet marketer and his staff with insight into where post the advertisements to most effectively reach the target audience, how to word the copy of the advertisement to make it most appealing to the target audience and which relevant keywords should be included in the advertising copy to make it likely for members of the target audience to find the advertisement easily when searching for products and services offered by the company.

Research of this capacity can be conducted either online or offline. One of the most effective forms of this type of research is to have members of the target audience fill out market surveys. The answers provided by the participants should give the marketer a good idea of what the target audience is seeking. Incorporating this information into the marketing campaign can make it noticeably more successful.

Evaluate the Competition on Craigslist

The search feature on Craigslist gives an Internet marketer an excellent way to evaluate the competition. Studying the competition is important because it can help you to learn how you can be more successful. This increased success can be a result of determining successful aspects of the competitor’s marketing strategy and implementing these strategies as well as determining faulty aspects of the competitor’s marketing strategy and avoiding these strategies.

To get a good idea of the competitors who are advertising on Craigslist, use the search feature to search for keywords relevant to your own products and services. You will likely receive search results including advertisements from competitors. Next, carefully analyze these advertisements to determine how your can not only create better products and services at more affordable prices but also write more engaging advertising copy. Many wise Internet marketers have the reasoning skills necessary to properly analyze the advertisements for competitors but they often falter when taxed with the dilemma of creating better advertisements. This is when the services of a professional sales copywriter with search engine optimization (SEO) skills becomes a vital part of the equation. This writer can use his SEO training as well as his knowledge on the subject of writing advertising copy to effectively entice members of the target audience to either purchase products or services or at least investigate these products or services further.

Advertising on Craigslist

2008-10-10T15:30:00.001-04:00

Advertising on Craigslist is worthwhile for just about any business offering products or services. Whether these products are offered through ecommerce websites or physical stores, the business owners can see financial gains through advertising on Craigslist. Firstly unlike other advertising opportunities there is very little risk involved in posting on Craigslist. With the exception of job postings and housing postings in specific markets, advertising is free on Craigslist. Users are asked to agree to the terms of service of the community and are expected to follow specific guidelines when posting advertisements but there are no financial obligations to those placing advertisements on Craigslist. This means those who post advertisements do not have to be concerned with whether or not the advertisement they place will meet their expectations in terms of sales generated.

Reaching Potential Customers on Craigslist

Another reason why posting advertisements for products or services on Craigslist is so worthwhile is the likelihood of reaching a large audience of potential customers. A review of the Craigslist fact sheet reveals pertinent information regarding the amount of traffic the website receives. According to this information Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views each month with ten million people using Craigslist each month. From these statistics it is clear that advertisements placed on Craiglist are likely to receive at least some attention from potential clients.
With so many visitors using Craigslist each month the advertising possibilities are limitless, however, there are no guarantee any of these visitors will be interested in your products or services. Like any marketing campaign, your advertisements on Craigslist must be intriguing, informative and in a location where you will reach your target audience.

Finding Your Target Audience on Craigslist

We’ve already discussed the number of visitors using Craigslist each month but the key to taking advantage of these numbers is to target your advertising in a way aimed at reaching your target audience as opposed to a wide audience of individuals who have no specific interest in your products or services. It is much more worthwhile to reach a small audience of those with a keen interest in your products or services than to reach a much larger audience of those who are not interested. Those who have an interest in your products or services are your target audience.
The key to reaching your target audience on Craigslist is placing your advertisement in the most appropriate locations. Craigslist has a specific section for businesses to advertise their services. This section is broken down into a number of categories. Those who are in the business of computer repair would be wise to place their advertisement in the computer section as opposed to the automotive section because individuals looking for computer help will naturally migrate to the computer section. It may sometimes be appropriate to place an advertisement in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as it does not cross the line to spamming the section.
If there is not a specific section for the products or services offered by your business there are a couple of options. Business owners can place an advertisement in the section for small business advertisements where it might be found by those doing a search in this section. Alternately the business owner can contact Craigslist to suggest the addition of a new category. They might be willing to oblige if they believe this category warrants an addition.

The Difference between Advertising and Spamming

Advertising on Craigslist is one thing but spamming is quite another. Placing an advertisement in an appropriate section of Craigslist is acceptable; however, placing the same advertisement in nearly every section of Craigslist websites for a number of different geographical regions is considered spam. Spam is ineffective for a number of reasons. First of all potential customers who see a particular advertisement in a number of different locations are likely to recognize the spamming techniques and be less inclined to patronize this business. Also, if Craigslist detects the practice of spamming they may delete all of the postings and could potentially ban advertisements from the individual in the future.

List of Font Popularity

2008-10-06T11:33:00.004-04:00

From Annabella's Html Help

FONT POPULARITY RESULTS

A conducted survey of the most popular fonts people have on their computers. I typically use the font Arial in my posts, so I was glad to see that roughly 99% of users had this font installed.

Now you can check the estimated amout of customers that have the font you're thinking about using.

According to this chart, you wouldnt want to use (also one of my favorites) Juice ITC for your ads as only roughly 23% of folks could see it.

To get around this, you can always type in Adobe or another paint program and use an image instead.

Thanks Annabella

How to Set Up Your Desktop for Fast Posting

2008-10-06T09:24:00.005-04:00

This is how I setup my desktop, everything I need is right there, and I can move quickly from window to window.

Basic HTML for Posters

2008-10-06T08:54:00.003-04:00

HTML for the Ad Poster

I'll make it nice and easy to copy to Notepad to use as a reference.

Bold Text
Italic Text
Underlined Text

Colored Text

Big Text

Bigger Text

Really Big Text

<center>In the Middle</center>

Link

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/">Text Link</a>

Show an Image

<img src="yourimage.jpg">

Link an Image

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/thepageyouwanttolinkto.html"><img src="yourimage.jpg" border="0"></a>

15 Tips for Posting On Backpage

2008-10-06T08:22:00.009-04:00

I'm not by any means an expert, but you may find my own methods of interest.

I post over 100 ads a day, by hand, they don't get ghosted, and I don't use a proxy or change my IP address. (I have a static IP from my provider, if you know how to change this at will without calling them I would love to know)

1. The key is time (for me) is time. I post 20-30 ads at a time, wait an hour or so, then post again.

2. I use many different email addresses. I am promoting two things, an affiliate program and my website. I have 50 emails. Each address posts two ads, then I log out, and log back in. (Bonus : GMX.com will let you have 10 emails that all forward to one. So I only log into 5 accounts and can see all my posts.) Visit The Land of Emails to learn more.

3. I use white text. I place an html command to make any text after it white (or the color snow). I personally hide “Ad# 9393” and so on. I just hit random keys for my ad number. Don't forget to close the font tag () This causes ghosting because it tries to make the rest of the page white. While I do this, I have about 10-20 different ads I run also.

4. Sometimes sites will notice this. It happens. It doesn't work on Craigslist. Other colors you can use are #FFFFCC, #FFFFDD, #FFFFEE and yellow. Yellow will definately be seen, but it still looks alright because it's an ad number. (this is now explained with an example - here)

5. I registered. This never caused me a problem. I have 50 backpage accounts, I post two ads in each. This eliminates the need to check my email at all, as the ads go up quickly without confirmation.

6. I have different titles. Don't use the same title and just add @,$,%,^ and so on. It will get caught sooner or later. Be creative!!

7. Use a picture. This is as easy as taking a snapshot of a couple words. Backpage can't SEE pictures for what they are―so if you post the same one multiple times, under different names, how do they know? Upload one picture 10-20 times to photobucket, they will call it picture1, picture2, and so on. There you go. Grab some free "click heres" and other buttons.

8. Wait. Recently it takes up to 20 minutes for my ads to show. At first I thought they were ghosted- but they always showed up eventually.

9. Don't appear like a spammer. Please, people, quit posting “Make $10,000 Every 5 Minutes!!” It's unreal and misleading. Be true to your ads, that will bring more sales and less disappointed people.

10. Change your url. I've used short url and tiny url with success. If the server catches your domain to many times it will delete your ads.
11. Pay attention. If they same ads keep getting flagged--use a new one. If you have a good product it shouldn't be hard to write plenty of good things about it.

12. Post in relevant categories only. This lower the chances of flagging highly. For most of you, this mean in the biz opps category. Don't post work at home or affiliate pages under jobs.
13. Know your audience, if you are consistently getting hits from New York and none from Akron, stop posting in Akron. It's a waste of time.

14. Learn some HTML. (head on over to "Basic HTML for Ad Posters") Improve and vary your adds with color and size. Centering ads looks better than off to the side. Smaller ads that don't use the whole width of the screen are easier to read.

15. This is the most important -- Be SMART. Follow the guidelines here, if something doesn't work CHANGE IT. Make your ads different. Trick the sever in to believing that you are not spamming, and then....DON'T spam.

You can Be SMARTER than the backpage bot.

Testing Your New Classy Ads

2008-10-06T07:51:00.001-04:00

How do you know if your ads a flop? Maybe they are where the majority of your traffic is coming from. Perhaps you have a nice healthy balance.

Whether you pay for your ads or only utilize free sites, you are still spending your time. Your time is valuable, don't spend any on something that isn't working. In short, you are paying regardless. You need your ads to give you results, starting yesterday.

Always run at least two ads. Test them relentlessly. Keep the one that preforms better, alter the second. Test again. Repeat this process indefinitely for an unbeatable ad campaign.

Make sure you test the pros and cons of using images. I find I usually get more traffic with some good old formatted text than with images. Sometimes though, in picky cities, only a great image will do the trick.

If you have a decent hosting company, keep track of the ads you post in different cities, and check your reports to see the referring sources. I like to post a lot, with tons of different ads, so I keep track by posting my ad “freeebooksD.jpg” in cities beginning with D. With “freeebooksA.jpg” I do the same thing and so on.
Then switch it up, cities are different and may respond differently to specific ads. If you have one that you really think is a killer, but isn't working, move it to a new place and test it there.

If you're finding that no matter what ad you post, a particular city never clicks your link, abandon it for now. Again, don't waste your time. You can always go back with new ads later.
You can use different pages too. Use a couple different landing page urls, with the same content, and track the traffic to each. Give each page a different ad and watch as some pull in visitors, and perhaps some don't see a single hit. This is slightly time consuming but I've found it very effective at weeding out my ineffective ads. Unfortunately, if you are working off an affiliate link you may not have this option.

Tiny and Short URL work for testing my affiliate pages. I don't make any claims that they will work with your affiliate tracking.

That's about all the testing I've been known do...how do you test your ads' effectiveness?

Writing Classified ads is Indeed a Small Art

2008-10-06T05:58:00.001-04:00

Craigslist, Backpage, and USAads are spammed with ridiculous promises each and every day. You can write ads quickly and deal with a few hits a day, and if that's fine with you-then you don't belong in this blog.
Or you can really think this out, really get a feel, and the really get some traffic!
You need to make your own ads stand out, and the in the mist of all these scattered letters and dollar signs, get a reaction from your potential customer.

Consider...

Who are you selling to?
Age, Gender, Profession? You can't write the same ad for aging women as you would for professional athletes. Who are these people, what are they're problems-and how are you going to solve them? At least one of them. Make your ad their long awaited solution, that they may or may not have known they were looking for. Remember young men and women may be roped in with fantastic promises (keep them, be true) while an older group might need proof, or a guarantee.

Okay you have an average person in your group, they see your ad title, click on it, then what do you want them to do?

Join the mailing list, make a phone call, buy a product, download free materials? Identify the step and write your ad around it, to your targeted audience. Be clear, direct, and confidant.

Click Here to Witness the Amazing Benefits of XXXX!
An Easy Call Will Lower Your XXXX Bill Forever!
Mailing List Subscribers Receive Massive Discounts – Register Now!
Click Now to See Real Proof That XXXX Does Whatever!

Obviously, make sure there is always something for your potential customer. Joining your mailing just because you want them to won't work. People are naturally thinking “What's in it for me?” Above we are offering proof, discounts, and an opportunity to save money. That's always a big hit-saving money.

Use a Call to Action Phrase

These are words that entice the buyer to do just want you want them to, they add a sense of urgency, and work on some unconscious level too.
Some Phrases (I avoid Click Here and Buy Now but to each their own)
Free XXXX (Make sure you let them in on what they're getting free)

Click Here
Call Now
Register Now
Buy Now
Contact Now
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Sign Up Now
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Learn Some HTML

Once you have your good ad copy, make it look great.

Get your hands dirty, learn some HTML it by heart. You don't want to waist time searching for tags all the time. Or open notepad and keep a copy of your favorites.

You don't have to get too deeply involved, but it's best to learn changing color, size, position, italic, bold, underline and font. This part is all up to you. Don't overdo it, or your ads will look flashy and spammy. Utilize white space as well.

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I use green because that's the color my site is in, and denotes money to me. I have a great love of centering everything. I am a firm believer that an ad should be in one spot on the page, not written across the length of it.

Test Everything

Even tips in this article—test it all.
I found I received more subscribers to my mailing list immediately after the layout was changed from red to green. Why? Do other people think of money too, or do I simply look more trustworthy now? A little research on color theory tells me that the color blue is the most common and is associated trust and reliability. Maybe I'll change my theme to blue this winter and see how I fair.

Test your ads over and over again. Keep changing, make a list of your best conversion ads. This is an ever on-going process as the seasons and times change. If you are receiving an enormous amount of clicks and no sales, maybe look at your sales copy.

No one is an expert at anything overnight.