Your Killer Ad - Some Killer Facts

Your Killer Ad - Some Killer Facts

Copyright [C] 2003 Shahnaz Rauf www.snzeport.com

No. This is not another article about attention
grabbing, interest generating ads.

Just the other day I was on the verge of sending out
my weekly Newsletter, when some intuition kicked in
and made me click again on a featured profile. Whoops!
the website was offline and I was left with absolutely
no way of contacting that client, because the email
address was centered to the domain name. Well I
stopped that feature just in time to wait for the
client to get back to me.

But have we not all come across non working ads even
in major ezines with hefty ad rates? I come across
such fatal mistakes in the world of online advertising
almost every other day. So I figured that this is a
very critical issue. Even some of the seasoned
marketers are making these mistakes.

So here are a few do’s and don’ts:

1. Remember to make your links clickable by adding
`http://` and `mailto:` tags, also please do test them
out prior to using them.

2. Some mail programs tend to break down long
affiliate URL’s and I have seen ads even in big league
ezines with non clickable links. So if you have a long
link you may consider using some kind of redirection
service.

3. Be prepared. If you are giving an auto-responder
address, make sure your auto-response is set, ready
and working. If you are giving out a press release –
be prepared to deal with any queries and the media; Be
sure your sales page is ready and you are set to
deliver on orders as soon as they arrive.

4. Be your own `first customer` and test out your
response. Make sure it is perfect in every sense.

5. If you are advertising through articles, make sure
your resource box includes a clickable link or mailto
address. Also if you are posting this to various
article directories that require an introductory
paragraph... make sure you write up a sizzler, don’t
just let it fill up with the first words of your
article...this is a blooper even seasoned authors are
making.

6. Just before the run date, check your website and
check everything is in order.

7. Before any major advertising make sure your webhost
is capable of handling the large volume of visitors. I
have seen too many websites with the message ‘website
offline because it has exhausted bandwidth limits’.

8. Test your ads in low cost ventures before going for
the big league.

9. Advertise to targeted audiences.

10. Make your ads powerful, hypnotic, at the same time
believable, realistic with down to earth honesty
shining through.

11. Always use the people angle in writing up your
ads, "What`s in it for your audience approach". This
applies equally well to your profile ads, articles,
site summaries, press release or any write up that is
going to serve as your ad.

12. Be prepared to beat your own drums...Tell them how
good your product is ,how well liked, how many times
published or appreciated etc., don’t be modest here.
But keep it believable, provable... don’t step into
hype.

13. To save time, write and save your ad templates and
save them in an ‘ads file’. So when needed you just
need to copy and paste. Here besides the usual 5 line
60 character ad, you may also prepare your 40 word ad,
100 word profile, a solo ad, an article resource box
or others as required.

I hope these precautions help make your online
advertising a purely profitable experience.

------------------------------------------------------

Shahnaz Rauf is a freelancer actively seeking writing
projects. She is also The Editor of The Monster
Twister - a Newsletter helping ordinary web owners
achieve extraordinary heights without losing their
shirts. To Subscribe
mailto:themonstertwister-subscribe@snzeport.com Or
visit http://www.snzeport.com

----------------------------------------------------