5. Start with "I tried it." Happy quotes from customers work far better than having ad copy say same thing. "I haven't been sick for years," "I work just 2 hours a week and still earn cash," "I cut expenses in half!"

Testimonials work. Get them from customers, friends, experts known in industry, or celebrities. Many times you can offer a free product or service in exchange for a testimonial from an important person. Others actually appreciate it if YOU write comment for them, then get their approval to use it.

Here are a few more tips to make writing an effective ad quick and easy: keep sentences short-- only two words? Fine! Also, start sentences with actions words: save, buy, learn, enjoy.

When you mention a feature of your project or service, link it with benefit it will give customer. People aren't necessarily impressed that your new potato chips have a nifty new ridge design. They DO care that ridge design provides added flavor and crispy crunch. The line should read: Nifty new ridge design adds delicious flavor and crispy crunch!

Give people several ways to buy or contact you. I like to include a web site address, email address, and phone number. If many of your customers order by mail, include your mailing address. Often you can limit address to just your street location and zip code.

STEP 3: REINFORCE YOUR HEADLINE WITH BODY COPY

Keep your body copy brief. Include a few power words to reinforce benefit promoted in your headline. For example, "Quick! Easy! Immediate results guaranteed!" could be used as body copy to reinforce sample headline in Step 2.

End your body copy by telling reader exactly how to respond to your ad. Keep it simple and make it easy. For example, "Call 1-800-123-4567 for FREE information TODAY!"

STEP 4: REVISE AND TEST -- OVER AND OVER AGAIN

Keep trying to increase number of responses from your ad. Test different headlines, different body copy, different media. Test even minor changes in your ad. I've seen ad responses jump dramatically after simply enclosing headline in quotation marks. I've also seen ad responses to a different ad drop after making same change. The only way to know if something works is to test it.

Test only one change at a time or you won't know which change produced new result. Be sure to code each version of your ad so you can track results from it. Whenever a new "test" version of your ad produces better results than your standard version, make it your new standard version. Continual testing enables you to gradually increase response rate and profitability of your little ad. I once built response to a recruiting ad printed on a postcard from 3 percent to over 20 percent this way.

Use this simple four step procedure to create your own small ads. If you already use small ads, apply this procedure to your existing ads to increase their effectiveness and profitability. The results will surprise you.