Having just upgraded the free classified ad system, I thought I ought to try and encourage some use of it.
As a member you're free to advertise whatever you like on the Wight Portal Free Ads. There's general categories that will cover most eventualities, but if you want a specific one let me know.
This new update will allow you to upload images of the thing you're selling.
If you are selling something through classified ads in the Weekly Ad or the County Press, then your advert just becomes one of the many that appear around it.
Unless you are an experienced or natural copywriter and able to write an ad that will stand out, it will probably be ignored.
There's 2 limitations to classified advertising that a lot of people overlook.
- The cost per word.
- Your advert by it's nature makes your prospective buyers do a lot of work.
Here's the scenario, you're selling your car. It's in good nick and only a couple of years old. If you were given an A4 sheet of paper and told to write a detailed description of your car to someone who has never seen it, you could no doubt conjure up some interest and find a buyer. Unfortunately you are limited to 15 or 20 words in the local press, if you don't want to break the bank on advertising, to get interest and inform the reader as to why you car is right for them.
The next problem is your prospective buyer has work to do. They have to phone you to get answers to questions and to arrange a suitable time to view your car. Then has to make the physical effort to find where you are to see it.
In marketing circles it is estimated that an advert has to be seen at least 7 times by a person before it is acted upon. If you study the classifieds in both the Weekly Ad and County Press over a period of a few weeks you will see a few of the same adverts appearing week after week. These are mostly trade adverts and have become that trades winning formulae for creating sales and so they don't change their wording much if at all, because they have the perfect collection of words that get people to buy.
You however don't have either the time or the patience, or indeed the money to experiment with different ad copy configurations. Your car, as in the example, being a one off sale needs to be sold as soon as possible. The more you pay for advertising the less profit you make from the sale.
Combining the advertising media's of both local press and Internet is not new, but is rarely used by the guy who just wants to sale his car.
So Wight Portal in essence is giving you for free the A4 sheet of paper to write your long detailed description along with the ability to show pictures of what you are selling. All you then do from your press advert is send them to your page. No need to try and get all the details of your car or whatever you are selling into 15 or 20 words including phone number, just deliver your prospective buyers to Wight Portal.
Once you have your listing published you will notice an ID number beginning with LB in the right hand corner of your listing page. In your advert in the paper, tell the readers to go to http://wightportal.com and click on Wight Portal Free Ads and then click Search Ads and enter the LB number in the box that appears and click search, they will then be directed straight to your page.
