For the purposes of my testing I used a 336x280 Large Rectangle text advert with white background and no border.

It was not a precise test. I ran the site with a "Basic" theme for two weeks and then changed to a premium "News" type theme for the following two weeks. All traffic was from organic sources, none of the traffic was from paid sources.

Analysis of traffic sources:

• Search Engines - 70.59%
• Direct Traffic - 13.68%
• Referring Sites - 15.73%

When changing from the Basic theme to the premium News theme there was a decrease in Adsense earnings which may not come as much of a surprise. What may surprise you in the degree of difference.....{+}

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One of the greatest benefit of using classified advertising sites is that they are often completely free to use.

Some sites allow you upgrade your account and get more options. However, free classified advertising can be often be used to generate healthy profits.

Here are four tips to help you to write successful classified ads:

1. Have a compelling headline. This is the first thing targeted visitors will see. Your headline will undoubtedly be the deciding factor which determines whether your advertisements get seen or not. So be sure to invest your time writing a quality headline. Use "power" words in your headline such as "secrets", "discount", "limited time only". These words are proven to get the click throughs.

2. Provide good quality photographs and pictures in your copy. If you sign up for US Free Ad's premium service, you are allowed to add pictures to your advert. Relevant pictures make your advert more appealing and attractive.

3. Use bullet points in your adverts. People searching through adverts tend to skim sales copy, so bullet points help them to read your copy easily. If you post long paragraphs on your advert, people are less likely to read it and will probably click away.

4. Be sure to use a "call-to-action". This tells a visitor to take an action that you want him to take, such as to click through to your website, to buy your product, or to sign up for your newsletter. Writing a classified advert is really easy once you grasp the essentials. Once you have a profitable copy, you only need to spend a few minutes each day reposting it to the classified ads sites.

Here's a list of the most popular classified ad sites:

http://www.craigslist.org
http://www.usfreeads.com
http://classifieds.myspace.com
http://classifieds.yahoo.com
http://www.oodle.com
http://www.adpost.com

As well as providing you with the opportunity to sell your products, classified adverts can also drive traffic to your websites and, of course, get you backlinks.

Have you considered using classified advertising?