Classified advertisement is a category of advertisement particularly tuned to meet the common mans advertising needs. The main advantage of classified advertising over the traditional one is that it is cheap and anybody can post an advertisement. Thus, private tutors and parents of children who need tutoring can find each other through classified ads. In the print media, such ads are classified into different categories to make it easy browsing for the pursuer.

The main categories one would usually find in the classified ad section of a newspaper are real estate, rent, automotive, pets and situations vacant etc. Certain magazines and papers like “Freeads” and “Admag” are dedicated entirely to listing classified ads. These ads are also found in the yellow pages section of many popular publications.

Sometimes these ads are found to be frugal in their use of words and phrases while at other times they are descriptive in nature. There might be ads that make quote very general information that gives a general idea about kind or class of product or service without going into details. At other times, these ads may be in rich detail and list out specifics about the product or service thereby allowing the ad browser to make a more informed decision.

The cost of an ad is calculated based on the number of words or letters used, the type and size of the font used, the space occupied by the advertisement on a page. There are additional factors that contribute to an increase in the price like the inclusion of graphics or highlighting of the ad space or even the positioning and placement of the ad box on a page.

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 huge popularity of the internet and the enormous resources that it gives access to has given rise to online advertising solutions that are giving the traditional classified advertising promoted by newspapers and the print media, a run for their money.

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.

The advantages in ease of use and access to these web based advertising options have increasingly overshadowed the archaic and cumbersome process of advertising through the printed media. As the enormous resources of the internet and its access and appeal to the common man increase day by day, the threat that it poses to traditional forms of advertising increases proportionately.

Tags: Advertising, business, business ads, business advertising, business classifieds, business promotion, f, free ads, free advertising, free classified ads, free classifieds, Internet Marketing, marketing, online promotion, Small Business, work at home

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 8:55 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.