Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Classified Ads - A Way To Advertise For All

By Alex Wu

Classified ads belong to a distinct genre of advertisements that cater to the advertising needs of the common man compared to other general forms of advertising that are prevalent. It is characterized by its cost effective nature and availability while compared to the usual modes of advertising. People can advertise for anything and everything and sell anything from puppies to used jeans.

These ads are distinct in their appeal to the common man who wishes to advertise, because of their accessibility and due to the fact that they are relatively inexpensive. The term classified ad is used to denote those ads that are categorized into different heads which making them easy to browse through. Some common heads under which these ads are listed in newspapers and other printed media are automotive, real estate, kennels etc.

There is a general variance in the appearance of these ads in printed media and publications. Usually these ads are found to be minimalistic in their use of words and sentences while occasionally they tend to be detailed and lavish in appearance and style. The reason behind this phenomenon can be linked to efforts at cost cutting as the cost of placing an ad depends on a multitude of factors like the number of words or sentences used. The color and size of the font that is used, the space occupied by the ad and sometimes even depends on which part of the page the ad is located on. Including pictures or drawings to increase the appeal of the ad might escalate the costs even more.

The income generated from the business of classified advertising is huge in its magnitude and is touted to be a 100 billion industry worldwide. The revenues are not entirely from the paper publications but also include television advertising, radio as well as the internet and new media.

The classified ads industry generates an annual income close to 100 billion dollars worldwide. This is not just from the ads displayed in the printed media though. There are television channels that air classified advertisements during non prime time slots. Cable television operators also make a quick buck out of selling local precuts of the cable network in the neighborhood. Radio stations also air advertisements in between programs that are sometimes funny and ear catching.

The classified advertising business that is focused on print media is increasingly facing competition from the emergence of web based advertising portals like craigslist, gumtree, sulekha etc. These sites allow the posting of detailed ads which are more specific and do not depend on short monosyllabic sentences to convey their meanings compared to the print media publications.

Free websites that charge nothing for posting an advertisement on their portal are viewed as distinctly more advantageous than newspaper classified ads, as they offer instant reach to millions of users and are indexed for browsing and easy searching across a variety of criteria. The revenue for these sites is in turn generated from the clicks that are made on other ads that are on display as well as the traffic they generate for other websites.

These low cost online advertising solutions enable anybody to become a seller or buyer and reduce geographic distances considerably. A person sitting in India can offer to sell his services to someone in America and get paid for the same through sites like these. - 16890

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