How to Get Free Classified Ads

The Real Purpose of Classified Ads

Your initial purpose for using a classified ad should not be to get a direct sale. Instead, use classified ads to test your advertisements. For example, AOL has a classified ad service for $6 per ad. You can reword your ad serveral times until you get one that really brings in responses. Then you can repeat that ad in 100's of other places, knowing that you are spending your money wisely.

If you do not test, you stand to lose quite a bit of money. The advantages of classified ads are as follows:

Easily trackable with measureable results
inexspensive
Instant Response
Easy setup

Likely, you will be required to pay for all of your ads, however, it may be possible to place free ads if you are giving something away. Many local newspapers and "dandydimes" or "quickquarters" will let you place a free ad for giving away things. Call and check, then write your classified ad to match their requirements.

One technique is to enter everyone that replies into a drawing. You may get hundreds of people that you now know want that item. You give away your promo item, and then follow up with everyone else and try to make a cash sale.

FFA Classified Ads

FFA or Free For All means that anyone can post to their classified ads, and it is free. Unfortunately, these ads do nothing but spam your email address with marketing offers. We recommend that you stay away from ad services like these. They are ineffective, do not get read at all, and instead give you tons of junk mail.

Instead use a paid service like aol or compuserve.

Where to Place Your Classifieds

A common mistake that people make is to see that a website gets a certain number of hits and assume that means their ad will get read that many times. Each classified ad website will have sections, and each section will get a certain number of hits. Ask how many hits the section you want to post to gets before you spend any money. If a computer site gets 100,000 hits a day, but you sell flowers ... and all of their searches are computer related, your ad will probably not do too well.

Newsletters are one of the best places for your classified ads. Usually newsletters are targeted, and read from top to bottom, so you'll get more reads and they will be targeted customers. See the ezine advertising tutorial for tips on finding ezines. Here are two untested sources for placing ezine ads though:

http://www.dominis.com
http://www.newsletteraccess.com

You can also do a google search for "yourindustry ezine" and see what their ad policies are. Example: "cowboy ezine" or "cowboy newsletter".

Here is a list of classified Ad sites that I recommend:

yahoo ads
Aol.com - but you have to be a member, 2 months free trial period is good enough to test your classified ads. AOL is a great place to post your articles too, so if you do the trial, make sure you upload some articles.
citynews.com - $10 for a statewide ad.
Usfreeads.com - free ads and an upraded pay service.
livedeal.com - free local ads, $5 to post in other categories

How to Write Classified Ads

The FTC has a set of rules to follow that you should read

Here are some adwriting tips especially for classfied ads:

Give out free information or guides to increase response ( not in the ad, but mention it )
Use good words like "free, save, guarantee"
Use multiple postings in various categories instead of longer posts in 1 category.
Make it easy to respond
Write a separate ad for each item, do not mix several items together.
Put exactly what you are selling in the title, make, model, color, etc.
Setup different versions of your ad for different categories
Use short and complete messages, list why they want it, what you are offering as a benefit, not a fact. Say we can save you $100 per month on insurance, not we sell insurance.
Focus 90% of your time on your title. Bad Titles do not get read at all. Classified Ad Titles are similar, but not exactly the same as Search Engine Titles
Write short ads with the purpose of generating a lead, not making a sale
Track your ads with promo codes or using other sales tracking methods
Test out your competition, respond to their ad and see their offer
Once you have a profitable ad, repeat it in 100's of other locations
REPEAT: Your purpose is to generate intrest and get them to respond, not make a sale.
Don't say "I am the best" say why you are the best. What do you do to help them?
Use the main service or benefit in the title
If you are searching for someone or something, put that item in the title.
DON'T USE ALL CAPS, many ad services will reject the ad, and it is hard to read. Instead use Title Case for Titles, and normal case for everything else.

Using Classified Ads to Sort

If you place a long distance number in the ad instead of something easily responded to, you'll get less respondants, but they will be more qualified.

Autoresponders and Classified Ads

A common classifieds technique is to give them an email with an autoresponder. The autoresponder can have a much more detailed letter that is sent automatically to anyone that emails. This is also a sorting method, because you won't have to deal with anyone until they have at least seen your ad, responded to it, and read your auto response message. If they contact you again, you can bet they are pretty qualified leads.

Caution About Classified Ads

Make sure you use a disposable email, because you will get harvested, and spammed no matter where you post. Yahoo has a great service that can block emails or filter them easily.

You can setup an autoresponder, and hope it gets spammed so that your ad goes back to the spammers. Although, there are better things to do with your time!