As you begin marketing and promoting your online business you are going to run into some unbelievable advertising opportunities. Generally speaking if ad offering sounds too good to be true--It is.

There are companies that will tell you they will get you listed in top 10 search engines or place your link on millions of sites or they will get you listed in top 10 returns of search engines. This last one sounds similar to first, but there is a big difference.

Google searches over 3 billion pages during their searches. The companies that tell you they will get you listed in top 10 of major search engines would have to defy all principles of math to do this. They could not work with more than a few companies in order to achieve this and honestly, there is no way they can get you listed in top 10 of search engines placements at all unless they make up their own search terms and people search on that specific term.

Stay away from companies that tell you they are going to place you in search engines for a fee, for most part they will do nothing more than use a site software submitter. You can get your own software for this or use an online service and submit your site yourself for a lot less than what most SEO companies charge for this service. Guaranteed traffic-- They work fine for free sites or if your goal is to build a database of names, but if you are selling a product or service, you will get hits, but not many sales.

Mass email -- Any company that tells you they will send your ad to millions of people for $20 or $30 is simply taking your money. This might sound inviting, but do not waste your money. They are either using site submit tools or sending your ad to millions of harvested email addresses. The companies who tell you they are going to submit your site to millions of pages will most likely do what they say, but you will not see any return and may even get you Spam complaints.

Mass emails are a complete waste of your money regardless of what product you are selling. There are many sites that will tell you they will send your ad to double opt-in lists of people. We have tried over a dozen of these services and have barely received a hit, much less sales. The problem is you lose control over your ad when you use mass email companies. There is no way to verify ad was sent and if you could verify it was sent, there is no way to tell it was sent to numbers they promise. Plus, you run risk of being accused of Spam.

Solo ads-- These are by far one of best methods of promoting your product and service. They are targeted, you can verify numbers and you can subscribe using a unique email and verify ad was sent on day and time it was supposed to be sent.

1. Write for eye. Print ads are visual. Therefore, craft ads with eye in mind.

Eyes are kind of picky, though. So, here’s a checklist of what eyes like and don’t like:

* A catchy headline that encourages them read more.

* Art, such as photos, illustrations, clip art, shapes, etc. Eyes like art. When you create ad, create words AND visual at same time. Words and visuals should work together.

* Designed in an interesting, intriguing, attention-getting manner. Eyes like that. Remember, graphic designers are your friends. If you don't have training in graphic design, I strongly urge you to hire a graphic designer to create your ad. The results will be well worth it.

* White space (blank space in ad). Eyes like white space. Eyes don't like print ads stuffed with words and/or art. Those ads look way too difficult to read and comprehend. So eyes will skip over those ads and find other open, clean ads to look at. (And if they do, you might as well have never bought ad in first place.)

2. Write for busy eye. Nobody is reading a newspaper because they want to see your ad. (Okay, your mother is exception.) People are reading paper because they want information. Reading your ad is an afterthought. So, they aren’t going to spend a whole heck of a lot of time on it.

A common mistake is asking print ads to do too much. To be successful, print ads must: * Capture attention of your potential customers, * Encourage those potential customers to remember what you want them to do, * Then persuade them to actually do it.

That's a lot to ask for one little print ad.

Print ads should have one message and one message only. The more "extras" about your business you start throwing into ad, more convoluted ad is going to become, and less likely your potential customers will act upon your ad.