7 Essential Elements for Profit-Pulling Ads

Written by Lynne Homewood


Advertising will make or break your business. It is crucial to your success that you learn to write great ad copy. Here are a few simple concepts to get you there.

1. The Headline This is THE most important part of your ad, especially when using online advertising. The point ofrepparttar headline is to grab a potential customer's interest and then enticerepparttar 100602 reader to go on and readrepparttar 100603 rest of your ad. The best headlines tend to be those that emphasizerepparttar 100604 benefits torepparttar 100605 customer, ie. what your product or service can do for them, WHY they MUST have it - right now!

2. Formatting If your ad is takingrepparttar 100606 form of a webpage, or any other ad that allowsrepparttar 100607 use of HTML/formatting, take advantage of it. Make sure your headline stands out fromrepparttar 100608 rest of your ad by using a larger font, bolding, italics (careful here: make sure it is readable, some fonts aren't), or a different color. Remember to ensure thatrepparttar 100609 overall look is business-like.

Some ad sites (like AOL) allow you to post a graphic along with your ad: definitely do so! It will really make your ad stand out compared torepparttar 100610 ads of those who haven't bothered and makes you look much more professional.

If you're advertising to safelists or using any other type of email advertising, use interesting characters to make your subject line stand out, some examples: >> << <= => /// $$$ ~~ :) ;) Also, make sure you can actually READrepparttar 100611 most important part of your subject line - it would be awful if you were to createrepparttar 100612 World's Best Subject Line, only to have most email clients cut offrepparttar 100613 'best part' so it's never even seen!

3. Focus Don't try to sell with your ad. The point is just to getrepparttar 100614 potential customer interested enough to click onrepparttar 100615 link to your website or autoresponder: that's all!

4. Unique Selling Position (USP) Whether you're a reseller, selling your own product, or are a member of an affiliate program, you need to find something UNIQUE about purchasing from YOU. Why should a person buy a product from you, when they can buyrepparttar 100616 exact same thing from thousands of other people, atrepparttar 100617 same price, withrepparttar 100618 same guarantee, etc.? If you have your own website, offering a bonus of some sort is an obvious solution here. If you DON'T have your own site yet, it's a bit harder. However, what you CAN do is tailor your advertising to a unique AUDIENCE instead. For example, write ads aimed at different target markets: moms at home,repparttar 100619 elderly, students, retirees, entrepreneurs, disabled persons, etc. Emphasize what your product can do for THIS person, in their particular situation, and you may give someone an idea they hadn't thought of, to your advantage!

2005 Super Bowl Ads... Winners & Losers

Written by John Jordan


Well, Super Bowl XXXIX is history. Too bad forrepparttar folks who consider themselvesrepparttar 100601 always-pullin'-for-the-underdog type. The Bandwagon team won.

But, as far as Super Bowls go,repparttar 100602 losers played well. For those who care,repparttar 100603 Eagles actually coveredrepparttar 100604 7-point spread. T.O. isrepparttar 100605 deal, too. At least onrepparttar 100606 field, anyway.

They had a chance late inrepparttar 100607 game, but poor field position and bad clock management did them in. Scoring from 95 yards out with 48 seconds left? That's a tall order.

So is getting/maintaining ad recall 48 hours afterrepparttar 100608 final gun. Whose $80,000 per second ad was worth it? Who would've done better by writing me a fat check for $2.4 million?

Read on, and find out. True to school yard rules: Suckers Walk. Losers are up first.

Losers: Sorry, Donovan, but your three picks lands you in with GoDaddy.com, Quizno's, and Silestone. I don't care if you were ill.

GoDaddy.com had a decent concept that quickly went bad. OK. Boopsie talking to a Senate subcommittee on C-SPAN about indecency. Good start- if they cut out any hint to last year's halftime debacle. But... they couldn't resist. Sorepparttar 100609 buxom wench wearing a GoDaddy.com t-shirt has a near wardrobe malfunction. One ofrepparttar 100610 craggy senators has to hitrepparttar 100611 oxygen mask.

This ad was supposed to run again, but Fox pulled it mid-game. Good idea. I bet their stomachs were in as many knots as Donovan McNabb's.

The Quizno's ad was mediocre at best. This talking baby concept is tiresome. As cliché as it may be, it's still 80% less annoying than those whack rodents in pirate hats from a couple of years ago.

The one stinky Bud Light ad was one thatrepparttar 100612 ESPN crowd really dug -repparttar 100613 parachute-less pilot heading outrepparttar 100614 door forrepparttar 100615 six of Diet Bud. Dumb. The desert island one with Cedricrepparttar 100616 Entertainer was iffy, too.

Speaking of stinky... what was up with Napster’s ad? Ugh! It could wind up doing more to shut them down thanrepparttar 100617 Supreme Court.

This bad concept was in stark difference to their introductory spots featuring Flash animation based around their logo. Those were well-designed and entertaining. This one was as fat and ugly asrepparttar 100618 seven shirtless blops they decided to show with a letter on each of their overdeveloped beer guts to spell N-A-P-S-T-E-R. It was done in house and, boy, did it show.

The manufactured “reality” ofrepparttar 100619 game and its atmosphere was lame and no one bought it. An ad taking place atrepparttar 100620 Super Bowl should be INrepparttar 100621 Super Bowl- done real time. And... trying to take on Apple’s iTunes on price? That wasrepparttar 100622 second dumbest decision of this ad. No wonder it finished dead last in likability and recognition.

Now... Silestone. Valiant effort of an ad featuring Chicago sports legends. Voice over was good. It was shot nicely. But, it was a little too jumpy inrepparttar 100623 cuts to getrepparttar 100624 whole picturerepparttar 100625 first time through. The quick cut style hurtrepparttar 100626 name recognition ofrepparttar 100627 line of counter tops.

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