The real question is – how can you save some money? There are a few ways. First, if you know that you are going to be buying a lot of ads over the next year, you can always sign a contract and get a bulk-buy discount. A better choice is to limit your ad purchasing to the area where you are most likely to sell. That is, when you buy a newspaper ad, you typically buy the entire circulation of the paper, but if you know that your buyers come from say, four zip codes, you can buy ads in just those four zip codes and save a bundle in the process.

Attention: THE FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS GRAB THEIR ATTENTION! Only if you are able to do that quickly will you be able to get possible customers interested in what you have to sell. Conversely, if you fail to grab their attention they will never see what it is you are offering because of the headlines, stories and full-page ads you are competing against. So you must first grab their attention.

Here are some examples:

1. "Amazing Techniques Relieve Back Pain Immediately!"

2. "Make Your Computer As Easy To Use As A Telephone!"

3. "Save 50 Percent On Office Supplies — Today Only!"

4. "The Lazy Man's Guide to Riches!"

When writing your attention-grabbing headline, remember that the benefits most likely to get attention are saving money, saving time, making money and better health.

Interest and Desire: Once you have gotten the reader's attention, you use the body of the ad to sell them. You do so by making a compelling offer that describes as many benefits as possible in simple and interesting terms. Explain how what you are offering solves a problem the customer has. The body of your ad needs to be well written and clearly explain the benefits of the product while keeping the reader's attention.

Action: Finally, you need a call to action – you must ask for the order. Give customers reasons to buy now, and make it easy for them to do so. It might be a coupon, a toll-free number, an e-mail address, an on-line order form, a fax order line or some other method that makes it easy and simple to order. You can take the fear out of the purchase by offering guarantees, testimonials and otherwise showing the customer that he is going to lose if he doesn't order NOW!