Automatic Ad SubmissionWritten by Bob Osgoodby
Did you know there is software available which will allow you to automatically submit your ads to web sites that accept free ads, and to newsletters that do likewise? This software will submit any number of ads you wish, in any frequency you desire."Wow - what a great idea!", you might think. I can submit my ads to thousands of these sites with a single keystroke. "What a time saver!" Some people send out a dozen or more like this everyday. Is this doing them any good? Well maybe yes, and maybe no. Let's first examine different types of web sites that accept free ads, and why. Many web sites that accept free ads, do it purely to collect email addresses, which they can then sell as targeted lists. They don't really care if your ad is ever seen. In fact, many have a high limit of 300 ads. When next one is submitted, oldest is dropped, and process continues. With thousands of ads submitted hourly, how long do you think your ad will remain on their site - a minute or two - hardly worth your time. The flip side is you will suddenly find a lot more unsolicited email arriving daily from those who bought your address. If you like receiving unsolicited email, I guess this is good. Other web sites do care if your ad is seen. So what is their motive? They are trying to build an advertiser base, and hope you will purchase a paid ad from them. Ads submitted to sites like this usually have a life of a week or more, and can be renewed indefinitely. Their goal is to attract people to their site and hope that you do business as a result of your ad.
| | How important are headlines?Written by Bob Osgoodby
Studies show that you have less than five seconds to get attention of a reader. Think about your daily newspaper. Most people scan paper. If headline gets their attention, they will probably read rest of article. If it doesn't, they probably skip over that story, and continue scanning until they see something of interest.The first thing that should be seen is your headline. If you look at your Newspaper, headlines are usually short, in a larger type, bold print, and give a good idea as to what article is all about. The same holds true when writing an advertisement. If your headline is weak, your ad probably won't get read. Your headline can make or break your ad campaign. Probably most difficult copy to write is for a classified ad. You only have four or five lines to get your message across including your headline. If you can put your headline in bold print, that will make it stand out. If you can't, consider adding special characters such as ## your headline ##. We are conditioned to read letters and numbers, but not special characters. This will help your headline to stand out. Another trick is to use white space. A headline that is centered on first line of ad is more noticeable than one that is buried in rest of text. If your headline is short (3 or 4 words) consider using ALL CAPS. Notice I said - consider. Never put your entire ad in all caps as we are not conditioned to read something written that way. Also, many people take offense to something written in all caps. That is considered as SHOUTING, at least on Internet.
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