Doing this is simple if you know right formula.

Unlike with press advertising, people looking in Yellow Pages are ready to buy right now. While on surface of things that’s great news, challenge is that you need to ensure that your prospect sees your ad first and acts upon it ... amongst sea of competitor’s ads.

So you don’t need to sell them on idea of needing your type of product or service, all you need to sell them on benefits of your particular business.

Sell them on reason why they should call you and nobody else.

Getting your ad noticed first ISN’T about being creative by using thick borders and attractive graphics. You see, many people mistakenly believe that if they include huge logos and thick borders their ad will get noticed first.

There’s two challenges with that:

First, if everyone has same idea of using a thick border and big bold graphics, your ad won’t in fact, stand out.

Second, even if your ad does get noticed first, it doesn’t necessarily mean your prospect will read ad and act on it.

The key to writing a sizzling Yellow Pages ad is to sell your services in print.

It's about standing out from every one of your competitors by offering your readers solution to their problems in a way that your competitors can’t match. And projecting that "uniqueness" in your headline.

If you like, your Yellow Pages ad is your silent salesperson. It needs to attract attention, create interest and desire and incite action.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The nuts and bolts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier we talked about uniqueness. Before you put pen to paper writing your ad, take a few minutes to consider what your prospects really want to achieve by doing business with you.

Write a list. Next to each point then list how your product or service helps them achieve their goals. Then next to these points, prove your claims.

Why is it unique?

How (specifically) do you deliver these results?

Is it 43 point checklist?

Is it a unique secret formula?

Is it a money back guarantee? These points now form basis of your ad.

The most important part of your Yellow Pages ad is your headline. If you have a hard hitting headline that projects a strong benefit and relates to needs of your prospect, half work is done.

Some headlines that help you do that include:

"How to xxxxx"

"6 reasons why ..."

"Before you xxxxx here are 6 vital factors to consider"

Once you’ve got a strong headline, it’s then time to work on your body copy. Your body copy should expand on benefits you've mentioned in your headline and show specific ways you'll help your prospect fulfil their needs.

Your ad then finishes off by telling your reader what to do. You MUST spell out your instructions. "Call us NOW on 939 9897 for a copy of our FREE report titled 'How to Write Powerful Ads'."

It has been proven that by writing 'Call us now on xxx xxxx' you'll get more responses than you would if you simply listed a phone number.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 13 ways to spice up your Yellow Pages Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1) Write as you speak

The answer is that from a tax point of view, it is advantageous to trade through a limited company as long as income is drawn from company by owners as dividends from their shares and amount of dividends drawn is restricted below 40% band rate (i.e. œ31,063 for tax year 2002/03). That way, owners have no further personal tax ("income tax") to pay. Moreover, dividends are not subject to national insurance contributions. This is excellent news of course. But, if dividend income falls within higher rate bracket of income tax (i.e. above œ34,515), they will be taxed at 22.5% on excess, which of course will increase tax burden. The company profits are subject to corporation tax rates. Those are lower than income tax rates.

The most catastrophic scenario is when director takes his reward from company as salary. Then his/her salary is taxed at income tax rates (like a sole trader's income). That is because, unlike sole traders, tax system treats companies as separate from their owners because a company is a separate legal entity. The problem is that income taxes are higher than corporation tax rates. On top of that, they will be subject to employee and employer national insurance contributions, which of course increase tax burden and render his position worse than even an unincorporated business ("sole trader"), because NIC Class 1 on payroll are higher than NIC Class 2 paid by self employed.

In contrast, a self employed person ("sole trader") is taxed at income tax rates on profits from his business, which are added to his other sources of income. As it has already been mentioned, income tax rates are overall higher than corporation tax rates. On top of income tax, national insurance contributions class 4 are payable on business profits within a specified band (7% on profits between œ4,615and œ30,420). National insurance contributions Class 2 are also paid by self-employed people, although those are lower than those payable by company directors on their salaries.

To illustrate above, let's take a simple example. We have a limited company and a sole trader. They both make œ60,000 profits each in tax year 2002/03. We assume that company director takes a salary equal to amount of his personal allowances (untaxed income) of œ4,615 and balance as dividends. The company will pay corporation tax at 19% equal to œ10,523 and nothing else. The sole trader will pay income tax œ16,542, National insurance Class 2 œ104 and National insurance Class 4 œ1,806. Total œ18,452. The bottom line is that person that has incorporated his business into a limited company will make a tax saving of œ7,929 compared to a sole trader! Isn't that fantastic?

Somebody might be wondering: why is this entire happening? The official explanation is that, this government, to help economy grow, encourages people to leave as much profits within their businesses to be reinvested, instead of being taken out and spent.