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Real Estate is one of those very interesting industries that seems to be the same just about everywhere in the world and one of the underlying principles of real estate is that it's all about location. It doesn't matter whether you live in the middle of a city or on some tourist strip along the beach, it's all about location and buying the worst house in the best street in town is always better than buying the best house in the worst street.

Location can play a big part in advertising too and that was something that Steve and I noticed yesterday. We had another one of those 600 kilometer round trips that we seem to have to do every few months and, once again, we were looking at billboards while we were on the road.

On one particular stretch of road that consisted of a long straight with a slight curve at the end we passed three billboards. Two were on the driver's side of the road and the other was on the passenger's side of the road. One of those that were on the driver's side of the road was located slightly before we reached that bend in the road I mentioned.

I have no idea what the first billboard on the driver's side was advertising nor do I have a clue about what the billboard on the passenger's side was advertising because they were in rather dull colors and really not in either the passenger's or driver's line of sight. However, the board just at the curve definitely was in everyone's line of sight and just to add to the impact the background was yellow and the printing was in big, bright red lettering.

Man that billboard sure did stand out and I'm certain that everyone who travels that stretch of road sees it and remembers the message that's on it. That means that it definitely gets the message across because it's in the right location.

And there's a lesson in that location and the design of the billboard for us. You really couldn't help but see it ... it was right there where everyone naturally looked. It was yellow and that's a color that's always going to draw the attention of anyone who isn't blind.

The text was in red ... and on something the size of a billboard that text really did stand out. And text was the only thing on that billboard; there were no graphics, no pretty pictures, just plain attention grabbing text. The first word on the board was also going to grab everyone's attention because, no matter what your outlook on life might be, the word SEX in huge letters is always going to grab your attention.

So where are you placing the advertising on your websites? What are you using in those ads to grab people's attention? Are you using simple things like words that people can't ignore or are you using graphics and images that people can just skim over?

Perhaps you're thinking that billboards situated along the sides of highways has little bearing on advertising on websites but think about it for a while and you might change your mind. Drivers on highways are rushing to get to their destination and their focus is (or should be) on the road ahead of them. Somehow billboard advertisers have to grab that attention and they only have a few seconds in which to do it and get their message across.

Surfers who hit our sites are rushing to see the free porn and that means that we have even less time to grab their attention with our advertising so we need to get a good location for our advertising and we need to use methods that will make those surfers stop and take notice of our marketing message.

Lots of people use images and graphics on billboards and on web sites to tray and get their message across but surfers just don't see those ads. However, there are always a few words that will stop people in their tracks and encourage them to read the message that you have for them.

Find those attention-grabbing words and combine them with the right colors and you're well on your way to getting your advertising message across to all those surfers who are racing through your site looking for some hardcore action.

As I said last Friday, this is really going to be a crazy week for us; yesterday wasn't the only long trip we have scheduled this week. On Friday we're off to see some of our kids who live in the next State and we're definitely looking forward to that trip because it will give us a chance to have a break away from work.

With Easter coming up that's something that you should be thinking about too. Even if all you can spare is just one day away from the computer you should take it. You may be surprised at how refreshed you'll feel when you come back to work.