An ad "incubator" is a two part system: consisting of a process that you follow to develop your raw ideas, and a "test site", where you put your ads in front of prospects and have them tell you if your ad is good enough to merit more work...

Or if it just needs to be scrapped...and the next idea be tested.

In this issue, let's push further into the subject, and talk about the different components that make up a classified ad.

There's the headline...the body...the call to action...the timing of the ad insertion...and the location of the ad.

Before we look at each of the components, lets take a minute to go back and consider a point covered in Part 1 of this series.

Refining ads. You have an idea for an ad. Your instincts tell you it's really good. So you write a few variations of the basic ad idea... and you let them ALL incubate in your "cooker" for a few days, until you've decided which of the ads is the best of the lot... and merits putting through your refinement process.

So you name the ad, create a tracking sheet for it, and post it to your test site. Then you let the ad run AT LEAST a week, and carefully track the results.

Then you start the refinement process... While the ad is running, you should be working on the next version of the ad. This version should be the same basic ad... changing only ONE component of the ad.

This is a CRITICAL point! One that most people who tinker with ads don't seem to be willing to acknowledge. It's a verifiable fact... changing ONE word in a headline...from lower to upper case... can sometimes TRIPLE the pull of the ad. ANYONE who is making any REAL money with classifieds understands the importance of this fact.

But how do you identify which changes make the ad better...and which make it worse?

Here's how... You NEVER test more than one component at a time! If you're testing headlines...you leave the body...the call to action... the timing of the placement...and the test location alone. You don't do anything to create a false reading of your results.

Here's the reason why... If you change the headline...and, at the same time, change the location of the ad from one classified system, or from one category to another, within the SAME system...then you've made it impossible to accurately determine which headline is better.

Now let's look at the components of the ad.

1.The Headline.

Your headline should focus on the single most attractive benefit your product offers.

You can have a great product...and a truly great salesletter, extolling all the benefits to be had from owning your product. But none of this means DIDDLEY...if no one knows about your offer! And NO ONE is going to read your salesletter...if you don't have a KILLER headline!

Think of it this way... Your salesletter is the AD for your product. Your classified is the AD for your salesletter. And your headline...is the AD for your ad.

In most online classified forums...you have space in the subject line for 5-8 words...max! The success of your whole marketing campaign hinges on the choice and formatting of those 5-8 words.

2. The Body.

The first step in writing the body of the ad, is to write out EVERY possible benefit your product offers, and then identify the top 3 or 4.

Once you have this done... Then distill these benefits into ONE sentence each. Then, take a red pencil and strike through EVERY unnecessary word.

Here's an example... "Because you are paid directly by your CookieCutter customers, once your system starts producing...you can receive checks everyday!"

In the body of your ad, this could read... "Make DAILY cash!" or... "DAILY Cash!" or... "Get paid, EVERYDAY!"

Hopefully, you get the point.

3. The Call to Action.

"For FREE details by return email, send a blank email to mailto:yourautobot@yourdomain.com"

or... "For A FREE report, CLICK HERE."

You get the drift... This part of your ad is CRITICAL. And usually gets the least amount of your time and attention.

Ironically, in the ad forums where you are limited by the number of words or lines you can use...(such as ezines, you have the ability to configure your contact information as hyper-text... So that the prospect can just click on your link, and either retrieve your autobot...or go to your webpage.

On the other hand... There are the more structured ad forums such as AOL, Yahoo, and Excite, where you aren't as limited to the number of words or lines you can use. But you ARE limited in your ability to configure ACTIVE links in your call to action.

In some forums, you can use html tags to create a link. You should test EVERY forum to see if this is possible. Your pull will jump dramatically when you are able to use active links in your call to action.

In the situations where you just can't get an active link to work, then use MORE WORDS to explain to your prospect EXACTLY what he must do to access your information.

You might say something like this...

"For full details...just copy the url below, and paste it into the address box at the top of this page...then hit your "Enter" key.

4. The TIMING of the ad.

In offline marketing...most of the pros take the summer off, and vacation in the Bahamas. (They do, don't they???) While they're laying on the beach, they're mentally working on the fall campaign. (???)

Why? Because in the summer, a huge portion of the population is out

of it...either mentally...or they're literally out of town. The heat makes you drowsy.

Offline...summer is a BAD time for trying to make money with classified ads. But the fall quarter is a GREAT time to be in the business. Everyone is back in gear...mentally and physically. And they're ready to do business.

You MUST factor TIMING into ALL your marketing efforts.

In general... Summer is worst...Winter and Spring are OK, but Fall is best.

The days of the week affect the pull... If you were to chart the pull of your ads on a DAILY basis, you'd see that Monday is OK...Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday are best. Friday and Saturday are lousy. And Sunday is good.

So in order to do a really accurate test of your ads, you should let each test run at LEAST 7 days.

Always be aware of how the timing of your ad effects it's pull.

5. The Location of the Ad.

Here's a news flash.... It's better to have your ad be number 1 in a list of 100 ads... than to be number 20...or number 30. So how do you get (and maintain) a good placement in the list.

In some forums, (Yahoo is an example), you can re-submit the ads at regular intervals. The newly submitted (AND re-submitted) ads wind up in the TOP of the list. So you re-submit your ad as often as the system you're advertising in, allows.

It's critical that you learn how each of the ad forums, in which you

advertise, works. And learn how to use their peculiarities to your advantage. If you master the foibles of each forum, then you have the edge over all those who haven't!

Each ad forum has a personality.... Once you've been in the business awhile...you'll begin to see the patterns. The free ad forums will produce more hits and fewer sales. Certain ezines will produce a very high percentage of sales in relation to number of hits.

In general, the free ads are a great deal of work...for little return.

And for some reason, the paid ads are usually where the serious buyers are.

OK....let's wrap this up.

• The Headline
• The Body
• The Call to Action.
• The Timing.
• The Location.

Each are critical...and MUST be carefully considered.

In order to master all the components, you're going to have to make a commitment. But if you'll make that commitment...then over time, you can develop a profession that will allow

No more time clocks. No more bosses. No more DOING WITHOUT.

Is it worth it? That's for YOU to decide!

I wish you success.

Gary White

Contact: Gary And Nancy White

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