Writing Powerful Effective Solo Ads

By Steven Boaze
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004

Everybody wants to make more money... In fact, most people would like to hit upon something that makes them fabulously rich! And seemingly, one of the easiest roads to the fulfillment of these dreams of wealth is writing effective solo ads and using them correctly

The only thing is, hardly anyone gives much real thought to the basic ingredient of selling by email - the writing of profitable solo ads. If your online business is to succeed, then you must acquire the expertise of writing solo ads that sell your product or services!

So what makes a solo ad good or bad? First of all, it must appeal to the reader, and as such, it must say exactly what you want it to say. Secondly, it has to say what it says in the least possible number of words in order to keep your operating costs within your budget. And thirdly, it has to produce the desired results whether inquiries or sales.

Grabbing the reader's attention is your first objective. You must assume the reader is "scanning" the page on which your ad appears in the company of two or three hundred solo ads. Therefore, there has to be something about your ad that causes them to stop scanning and look at yours! So, the first two or three words of your ad are of the utmost importance and deserve your careful consideration. Most surveys show that words or phrases that quickly involve the reader, tend to be the best attention-grabbers. Such words as: FREE... WIN... MAKE BIG MONEY...

Whatever words you use as attention-grabbers, to start your ads, you should bear in mind that they'll be competing with similar attention-grabbers of the other ads on the same page. Therefore, in addition to your lead words, your ad must quickly go on to promise or state further benefits to the reader.

In the language of professional copywriters, you've grabbed the attention of your prospect, and interested them with something that even they can do.

The next rule of good solo ad copywriting has to do with the arousal of the reader's desire to get in on your offer. In a great many instances, this rule is by-passed, and it appears, this is the real reason that an ad doesn't pull according to the expectations of the advertiser.

Think about it - you've got your reader's attention; you've told them it's easy and simple; and you're about to ask them to do something. Unless you take the time to further "want your offer," your ad is going to only half turn them on. they'll compare your ad with the others that have grabbed their attention and finally decide upon the one that interests them the most.

What I'm saying is that here is the place for you to insert that magic word "guaranteed" or some other such word or phrase. So now, we've got an ad that reads: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed!

Now the reader is turned on, and in their mind, can't lose. You're ready to ask for their money. This is the "demand for action" part of your ad. This is the part where you want to use such words as:

Limited offer - Act now! Write today! Only and/or just... Putting it all together, then your ad might read something like this: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed! Limited offer. Send $l to:

These are the ingredients of any good solo ad - Attention - Interest - Desire - Action... Without these four ingredients skillfully integrated into your ad, chances are your ad will just "lie there" and not do anything but cost you money. What i have just shown you is a basic solo ad. Although such an ad could be placed in any leading publication and would pull a good response, it's known as a "blind ad" and would pull inquiries and responses from a whole spectrum of people reading the publication in which it appeared. In other words, from as many "time-wasters" as from bona fide buyers.

To give you an example of the kind of solo ad you might want to use, say to sell a report such as this one... Using all the rules of basic advertising copywriting, and stating exactly what our product is, our ad reads thusly:

MONEY-MAKER'S SECRETS! How To Write winning solo ads. Simple & easy to learn -should double or triple your responses. Rush $1 to BC Sales, 10 Main Anytown, va 75001.

The point i am making is that: l) You've got to grab the reader's attention...
2) You've got to "interest them" with something that appeals to them...
3) You've got to "further stimulate" him with something (catch-phrase) that makes them "desire" the product or service...
4) Demand that he act immediately...

There's no point in being tricky or clever. Just adhere to the basics and your profits will increase accordingly. One of the best ways of learning to write good solo ads is to study the other solo ads out there - try to figure out exactly what they're attempting to sell - and then practice rewriting them according to the rules I've just given you. Whenever you sit down to write a solo ad, always write it all out - write down everything you want to say - and then go back over it, crossing out words, and refining your phraseology.

Generally speaking, readers respond more often to solo ads that include a name than to those showing just initials or an address only. However, because advertising costs are based upon the number of words, or the amount of space your solo ad uses, the use of some names in solo ads could become quite expensive. If i were to ask our ad respondents to write to or send their money to The Research Writers & Publishers Association, or to Book Business Mart, or even to Money Maker's Opportunity Digest, my advertising costs would be prohibitive. Thus we shorten our name Researchers or Money-Makers. The point here is to think relative to the placement costs of your solo ad, and to shorten
excessively long names.

The important thing is to know the rules of profitable solo ad writing, and to follow them. Hold your costs in line. once your solo ad is written, now is the time to use it wisely

know the basics...grab their attention... the rest is up to you.

About The author
Steven Boaze (Chairman) is The Owner of The Corporate Headquarters Boaze.com Which houses and controls four companies (Web Development Technology - (www.webdevelopmenttechnology.com)) (Boaze Publishing - (www.boazepublishing.biz))
(Business Marketing Guide- (www.businessmarketingguide.com))
(Ezine Remedy- (www.ezineremedy.com)) Steven is also the author of "Hidden Secrets To Business Marketing" Ebook along with numerous articles on Marketing and Advertising published by Boaze Publishing.
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