| Free Classified Advertising - A Complete Waste of Time? |
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With the profusion of free classified advertising sites on the internet you would think this method of marketing is highly successful and easy. Regretfully this is not the case. For many this exercise is a complete waste of time. For a small minority it is highly profitable. Learn why.
It is very easy to fail with free classified advertising! The number of free classified websites is overwhelming, anyone can sign up for free and start posting ads. Some marketers use software to automate the process and swamp the internet with cheap, spammy adverts promising ridiculous rewards for little or no effort. Your classified ad easily gets drowned in the sea of competition. On the other hand, free classified advertising represents an amazing opportunity to make money online. Without any overhead expenses, the only thing it costs you is time and effort. That last word, 'effort' - that's one of two keys to successful free classified advertising. Anyone can throw up an advert claiming this and that for their product or service. A very small number sit down with pen and paper and craft a carefully worded advert that 'hooks' the reader and impels them to take further action. So let's elaborate on the first key to online free classified advertising success - effort! Why should people buy from you? You have to really think about what you are offering. What makes it different from the next person who is offering the same product or service. So you need to find an angle. You need to switch on the thinking apparatus and isolate the main benefit of your product or service to the potential client. Then zoom in on that benefit and make a headline out of it that makes someone browsing the internet stop in their tracks. Actually, this is not as difficult as it seems. Here's a short cut to getting a good ad. Logon on to a variety of sites that feature free classified advertising. Go to the specific category that fits your product or service and start scanning the ads. As your eye moves down the page there will probably be at least one ad that engages your eyeballs so you stop, go back, and read it again. That's what you are looking for! If the ad had that effect on you then probably it will have the same effect on others. Gather a handful of such adverts, compare them, and craft your own advert. Obviously you are not going to copy one of these adverts word for word. Rather you will use them as a pattern or blueprint for creating your own ad. Here is another point to keep in mind. Your headline should hook the reader, NOT sell them. This is where many classified advertisers fail. A classified ad is simply too short to provide enough information to sell a prospective client. As soon as you get this principle firmly rooted in your head, the headline should 'hook', not 'sell', you are well on the way to exploiting the huge potential of free classified advertising. I mentioned earlier there are two keys to avoid wasting your time on free classified advertising. We covered the first, namely effort. The second is putting your advert in the right place. What are the best of the best when it comes to free classified advertising sites? After all, you surely want to place your ad on sites that attract millions of visitors a month. Check the resource box below for an important link that will help you. |
