Classified ads are all about the headline (since that's pretty much all there is room for). Learn to write compelling headlines, and you stand a much better chance of the ad being profitable.
Here's a resource for headline templates:
100 Good Advertising Headlines (by Victor Schwab)
When you're first starting out, an often recommended tactic is to take headlines that work in other markets, and modify it to work with your product/market.
For instance, the headline of an ad that was a "control"* for many years was: "Do You Make These Mistakes In English?" You could take that and modify it to so many different things.
- Do You Make These Mistakes In Weight Loss?
- Do You Make These Mistakes In Business?
- Etc.
That one is cheesy, but there are 100 listed in that link I gave above. Here's another example.
"For golfers who are almost (but not quite) satisfied with their game — and can't figure out what they’re doing wrong."
Could become:
"For body builders who are almost (but not quite) satisfied with their results - and quite figure out what they're doing wrong."
BTW, I found that headline here:
9 Headline Templates That Have a Prayer
There are a lot of good resources for writing ad copy, but my favorite is
The Gary Halbert Letter, which has been recommended before by someone else in this thread or another. I have not only read every single letter in his archives, I have followed damn near every exercise he gave to people wanting to learn copywriting.
If Gary Halbert weren't dead, I would hug the man. Maybe even kiss him. His letters have helped me that much.
*
A control is an ad or marketing piece which is so good, future marketing pieces for the same product must beat its results in order to see continued use.
