MAKING SPACE COUNT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12975, 30 November 1907, Page 5

MAKING SPACE COUNT.

• An American paper eaye:—Jf you are paying your loosl newep*p«r one hundred dolhre c year fox epa** are you satisfied to get a hundred doUare , worth of good out of it? Or <bo you want * hundred and ten dollars' worth P Why shouldn't youP The newspaper can do certain things for you. It can put jonr copy into %ttraotive display and circulate tout advertising among a certain percentage of your rightful const ituency.

But it reete with you to get the maximum good for tie space you pay for. Take * copy of tJhe paper md p*ste a piece of white paper over your advertisement. That is your field—your forty-acre lot. What will you do with itP You hare leased it vt co much per. What sort of seed will you sow ? You might attract attention by sowing a variegated lot of seed in em eccentric pot tern —i little in each corner and a little in the middle. But would the plot then produce a profitable crop? Or. on the other hand, you might sow the seedthickly «41 over tihe face of the plot and choke the growth, of the whole crop. Study that white apace in its relation to tho possibilities of business in your store end try to aim at a com-mon-cense way of using the epac© advance those possibilities. You will make mistakes, of course, but you will learn. Don't attempt to crowd too mndh into your space—don't try to get a full-rage cd. into a half-page space, md don't write platitudes just for the eako of filling irn epace. That's one of Bie -worst faults of the retail advertiser—writing platitudes.

When you get to the point in writing an o.d. where you cannot think of anything specific to siy and are tennpted to write '"Prices always the lowest" or "Give us a call before buying elsewhere"—quit. Go out into your stock *nd take a look around. Study the goods you are advertising md see if yon cannot discover something about them that you have left' unsiid—some reason why γ-eople should BUT them. Talk with your assistants about the goods—perhaps you'll get an idea from t&em. This brings us to a vital point which you must observe if you wish to write good copy for your advertising. You must devote plenty of time to it. Jf your copy must be on a certain day, begin preparing it two or three days before. Then if you get into difficulties you can lay it aside for a few hours and oome back to it with fresh faculties .i.nd perhaps en accession of ideae. But if you wait until the printer is howling for copy you will not write a good ad. once in & hundred times, and the once will be only an accident. If you cannot write your ao/vertiflements well yourself, employ someone who can.