(500 words)

Writing a classified ad to sell your product isn't as hard as you might think, if you spend time researching effective copy writing strategies.

Here are a few to try NOW!

1. Never try to sell expensive items from a small classified ad. Use two step method. Request reader visit your site for free information or email an auto responder address for more details where you will respond with longer ad copy to effectively sell your product.

2. Study how other marketers write their sales copy. This is a no brainer. Simply study ads in newsletters you are subscribed to. Or surf to a few of free classified ad sites and study ads placed there. Don't copy their ads word for word but use them as an effective design to write your own adverts.

3. Advertise in right Newsletter. That's right. This is basic stuff. Don't place your ad for cooking lessons in a Sports Trivia Newsletter. Or High Tech Ebooks on Java-Scripting in a Romance Writers Newsletter.

4. Target several appropriate publications. Subscribe to publications and study their classified ads for several editions before placing your ads. Practice writing adverts following their basic ad writing guidelines.

5. Advertise in more than one publication at a time. Why? You want to pull in as many interested readers as possible in order to make sales.

If you're operating a business, eventually you will be required to write a business document. It could be a business letter, a business proposal, a business plan, a marketing strategy, copy for your web site, a white paper, a job description, an inter- office memo, a Board report, a press release, or…?

There is good news if writing is not your strong point. Writing is a skill that can be learned. With practice, almost anyone can learn to write an acceptable document.

Why is good writing important? First, some people will judge you by your writing. Why risk losing customers or investors because of a poorly written document?

Secondly, good business writing is easier to read and easier to comprehend than poor writing. Clarity is always a goal when writing business documents. Flowery prose is best left to those who write fine literature.

Many written documents show dramatic improvement when a few common writing errors are corrected. Try this test. Find a letter or document you have written, and go through it making changes listed below. You could be surprised at improvement when you follow these basic guidelines.

Use Active Voice Write in active voice instead of passive voice. That is, rather than writing, "The computer that belongs to my brother," say, "My brother's computer." Rather than writing, "The merchandise that was delivered yesterday," say, "Yesterday's merchandise delivery."

Many people find that by making this one change, they can improve their writing substantially.

Tip: Use MS Word's Spell and Grammar feature to help find passive sentences. It's found in Tool menu.

Use Tenses Consistently Changing tenses through a document is a common mistake. Decide which tense you want to write in, then stick to it. "Tense" refers to past, present, or future.

Past Tense: We did it this way. Present Tense: We do it this way. Future Tense: We will do it this way.

It is jarring to a reader to encounter tense changes such ones in this paragraph: