Let’s take a moment to address items 1 and 2 because, in my opinion, they are the most important. I know for a fact that most people don’t give them a thought. You post your ad on a classified ad website and you expect that every person that goes there will read your ad, right? NOT, the great thing about a good classified ad website is they are indexed by the search engines and they send people to your ad. OK, in some cases someone will stumble into your ad, but are they your target audience? You know, target audience are the people who buy the products not just look at them. Now that I have told you what I think lets get to, what I think, is the best way to address each item.

Item 1 and 2:
Just think for a moment what would you search for if you where looking for your product? Just for fun do a Google search for 1X6 VG Fir (that’s a grade of wood)
A wood worker ( target audience ) looking for high grade fir ( product ) would use this search phrase (find your ad) to find what he was looking for. The first ad is a link to Craig’s list the #1 classified ads website using 1×6 VG fir in its page heading, no surprise there. Look at #2 its a smaller classified website with a well written ad. Before you ask, yes I did write it for a member of FreeADad.com, the website that I work for. Ok, so the ad is kind of full of filler but I had about 5 minutes invested in it with out really knowing what to say, but I do know how to say it.

The key is in the key word placement, and that was done for the search engines the rest of the ad was done for the person reading the ad. Remember they have to find it first in order to read it. Now that you have a clue on how to write it let’s move on to #3. FYI  - yes it’s just that simple!

Item #3 Where do I post my ad? Well that’s a loaded question! I think that there are 3 major factors to keep in mind when looking for an ad site.
  1.. Cost for the amount of time it will run, and can it be flagged by the general public?
  2.. Is the website big enough to be indexed by the search engines, not just abandoned by the webmaster or owner.
  3.. Will they allow ALL types of outbound links? This is really important if you want to pitch a sales page or affiliate link.

Item #4 Is there a market for the product? Don’t be fooled. Just because you have a product, it doesn’t mean that there are people that want or need it. Do some research, any research it better than none.

Item #5 What are you really selling? No, I didn’t ad this one as a joke. I’m dead serious that you think about what you are really selling! Are you really selling a product or are just trying to get people to your website? Is your service really that great or are you just hoping to get a adsense clicks? If you don’t know what your goal is than others wont ether.

I will be writing more on this subject so stay tuned!