This is a much better ad. It follows all three of our rules. It has an attention grabbing headline. The body of ad talks not about product, but end result of using product. And our entire ad targets potential customers for our product. See difference?

It's just as easy to write a powerful ad as it is to write a weak one when you know and follow these three simple little rules. And remember, you will improve as you write more and more ads.

I wish you all best in your classified advertising campaigns. I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

Do test new adverts by running them for a few weeks initially. Monitor their performance proactively, change them and run more tests until you are happy. If tested adverts contain offers that are unlikely to change over time, select longer advertising periods, to take advantage of any discounts. Select longer periods too, if you are prepared to wait for 'right' price or customer.

Set fair and reasonable prices. Include commas for prices in thousands, full stops for prices in pence, and state clearly tax arrangements. Attach any conditions of sale, like ‘or very near offer’. Check your price and conditions. You may wish to set a slightly higher price if you foresee haggling.

Think carefully about your most likely customers. Which emotions will motivate them to buy from you: happiness, love or jealousy perhaps? What do your customers need? Do they seek fulfilment, a sense of belonging, or security? What associated benefits are they seeking from items or services you are selling?

Describe sales offers in ways that will interest your potential customers greatly. Use simple, factual words that they will search, or browse, for. Enter unusual abbreviations in full. Avoid slang, legal and technical words, and jargon. Use as few ‘noise’ words as you can, words like 'but', 'and', 'to'. Create short, logical, punchy sentences with correct spellings and punctuation. Use plain, positive English that stimulates curiosity and demands action. Your only goal remember, is to make buyers contact you for more information.

Create captions that will grab attention of your most likely customers. Use advertising ‘power words’ to fascinate them with what you have to sell. Make your customers stop in their tracks and want to read your description. Avoid unsubstantiated hype though, as well as extensive use of exclamation marks.

Leave any selection of advert types and classes until after you have drafted your description and caption. Often, most cost-effective categories become apparent once these are in place.

Now you’ve established contact arrangements, sale locations, prices, conditions and classes, check your adverts again. Read them aloud to yourself. Show them to objective friends. Will your captions entice? Will your descriptions fascinate? Change your adverts, if necessary. Repeat this process until you are happy that your adverts are attractive, credible and effective. Use your full character or word allowance. Balance this suggestion with needs for accuracy, brevity and clarity.

Lastly, check for competing small ads in various different media. Who are your nearest competitors? Are your offers competitive on price and availability? Change your adverts again, if needs be. Effective small ad creation is a highly iterative process, you see.

Do experiment and aim for uniqueness. Small ads should be 'right first time', competitive and successful. Yes, and fun too! Good hunting.