Generally, if you are seeking to increase your affiliate sales, you will be told that classified ads won't work. But it is possible to make your affiliate sales grow through careful employment of classified ads.

When you are putting together a classified ad, don't succumb to the urge to make it fancy. The ad is intended to promote visitors to your site and not direct sales. With that in mind, let's look at the structure of your first classified ad headline.

The first priority in composing your headline is to employ key words that pull your readers in. Employing words that people will pay attention to will get clicks for your site from the ad's readers. To get the most clicks from your ad, use words like "cheap", "free", "proven" and "shocking". It is also important that you know which ads are doing well and bringing responses, so be sure you track each ad you submit.

A template for the URL you should use if you use more than one at the same site would be www.yourdomain/?=trackingcode. (A number of three of four digits- long enough to leave room for expansion, short enough to be remembered- should be used as the tracking code.) Record the tracking code for each of your ads somewhere, so you can tell which hits come from which ads. Use a different number, preferably randomized, for each tracking code. Thus, each code is different. Always use the same tracking code for its assigned ad.

Composing the first line of your ad is the next major task. Quite a few people have concluded that an ad becomes more interesting if you include a clear positive result of your product in the top line of the ad. This benefit should make the reader recognize right away that they have come to the right place. A good way to do this is to tell the reader exactly what solution your product offers them.

Line number three should detail some especially important trait your product possesses. This can be a unique selling point. The purpose is to draw the reader into clicking through now to find out the details and price of the offer. Don't add any extraneous material to your ad. With classified ads, the more words you use, the less likely you are to close a sale.

The more words and diagrams you include in your advertisement, the less likely it is to result in sales. So do not write heavily worded ads, or you might waste a lot of time and effort.

Once you've completed your advertisement, you must get it to where people will see it. The criteria here is to find places that will allow free classified ads that get large amounts of traffic themselves. The sites Craigslist.org and Yahoo! Classifieds satisfy both of these important criteria.

These sites require you to put the ads in the correct topics to list the ads without payment. This rule absolutely cannot be violated. If your ads are wrongly posted, they will be removed- and your registration could be as well. And always read the terms of service before posting to these sites.

Your overall success and profits will be greater when you follow this proven method of advertising using free classifieds. Just use this system of advertising and you'll see sales jump and your affiliate promotions become better-known overnight. So get to work on your ads and watch the clicks and money roll in.

Edward Brancheau helps people save and make money through his website, bankofgreen.com. Advertising helps build business and make money and a secret to advertising is classified ads. For an orginal version of this and other advertising articles, visit advertising articles.