NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: 16-0

Enough said.

In your face Don Shula.

It's the most wonderful time of the year???

So once again it’s the that time of year where the holidays sneak up on us as swiftly as a pack of rabid ninjas & we must trudge thru the cold & snowy weather to the malls & stores, where we end up fighting traffic & people while mumbling grievances instead of singing about peace & goodwill to others. This is supposed to be a really fun time of year where you give presents to family members & loved ones & sit around sipping spiked cups of eggnog until grandma inevitably starts dancing & takes her wig off… Oooooh awkward…Anyways it should be a time that bring us back to the wonderful people in our lives & refocuses our attention on the people we love & instead we end up getting bogged down with the chore of dealing with all the details that make so many of us think of the holidays as more of a nuisance than anything else.
I of all people love to shop & spend money but I have my limits too & can’t deal with the crazy shoppers this time of year bumping into me with no regard as I walk thru the mall hoping to find that perfect gift for that special someone… And the traffic is the absolute worse! After all, who doesn’t want to sit in traffic for two hours to get 1 mile down Rte. 9 to The Natick Collection this year instead of being with friends & family? I know I can’t think of anything that could be better or less stressful!
Well guess what everyone? There is a whole other way to do the dreaded task of holiday shopping now! Was I relieved when I saw that we had put together this very cool thing called a gift guide. It’s linked to our website & it’s a collection of the “best of the best” places to fit all your shopping needs. How kick butt is that, really? It even makes shopping online easier, what more could you possibly ask for???
So really don’t be silly & check it out, seriously what do you have to lose? Or is it that you’re a sucker for punishment & truly enjoy the rude people, crying children & packed parking garages? You’re really doing yourself a disservice by not taking a look, but that's just my not-so-humble opinion.
So just do it & now you’ll have so much more time to drink that eggnog & make sure Grandma doesn’t end up in the neighbors yard doing snow angels-AGAIN!
Keep it classy this holiday season my peeps!
Leah

Boston Red Sox win the 2007 World Series!!!!

The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies to win the 2007 World Series! Another spectacular weekend for New England sports fans and another unbelievable story for the Red Sox as Jon Lester, a 23 year old cancer survivor pitched an outstanding game 4 and fellow cancer survivor Mike Lowell was named MVP.

Free tacos for all, free furniture for some and free agency for MVP Mike Lowell. Before the Red Sox had even won the game there was talk about Mike Lowell and whether he would remain with the Red Sox. Boston fans that traveled to Colorado made their opinion heard by chanting "Re-sign Lowell, Re-sign Lowell" and also "Don't sign A-rod" (he may have the best numbers in the MLB, but he's still a Yankee).

Like a broken record, the only song stuck in my head today is "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys, a remake of a song that helped Boston rally to win the first World Series in 1903.




If the the Red Sox winning both games in Colorado and sweeping the World Series wasn't enough, the New England Patriots dominated the Redskins for a 52-7 victory on Sunday and remain undefeated. It doesn't get any better than that... except that there was frost on my car this morning, which means it is almost Snowboarding season and I can't wait for fresh powder.

Congrats Boston!

-Justin

What a weekend for New England sports

This was such an unbelievable weekend for New England sports. The Red Sox overcome a 3 game to 1 deficit to win three straight games and move on to the World Series. Saturday night J.D. Drew finally came up big with a Grand Slam to begin a rally for a 12-2 win. Sunday night the Sox came up big again with an 11-2 win over Cleveland, although the game was much closer than the final score makes it appear. Champagne was spraying, Papelbon was dancing an Irish jig and Ortiz had his goggles on before the game was even over.

On top of an amazing weekend for the Red Sox, the undefeated New England Patriots crushed the winless Miami Dolphins Sunday afternoon. With a halftime score of 42-7, the commentators were hoping for a mercy rule to put a stop to the beating. Many New England starters were pulled from the game for the second half allowing Miami to put a few more on the board but falling very short of a victory, New England won 49-28 to maintain undefeated status at 7-0.



It may still be 75 degrees out, but the leaves are changing and my mind is starting to drift towards my favorite winter sport: snowboarding. Now is a great time to buy a used board if you are new to the sport or are just looking to upgrade your current set up. Check out the Want Ad's Winter Sporting Goods section.

If you’re looking for some new gear check out ProBoardShop.com,
they are having a 50% off sale and have all kinds of new boards like Burton, K2, Forum, Rome, Ride and a whole lot more. They also have a full line of clothing and accessories at great prices.




I also recommend purchasing a Powder Passport which is good at 16 mountains in New England and you can buy them for 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days. You don't have to use the days consecutively so you can save a lot of money and you don't have to commit to one mountain like a season pass.

Go Red Sox!

-Justin

I am back by popular demand!
So since my blogging debut I’ve gotten some comments from fellow bloggers & coworkers. At first it was mostly on the fact that I wrote too much or just “rambled on & on” (See Neil’s blog) & lately it’s been “So when are you going to write another blog”? … I believe someone actually said yesterday that mine was “The Best” (Thanks Jayson!).
So with that being said all I have to express to the naysayers is that I can’t help it if I’m incredibly entertained by the notion of talking about myself. You would do the same if you were this extraordinary.
I’ll keep it short & sweet & to the point this time though-you know it’s not ALWAYS ABOUT ME…
We are now on myspace.com so friend us, add us to your favorites, leave a comment-whatever you want (within reason of course-let’s keep it clean for the kids, this is a family publication after all)!
Have a great weekend my peeps-
Always Keeping It Classy,
Leah

Jeep owners!

I found a really good deal going on at 4WD. Until the end of October if you purchase 3 Pro Comp tires you can get the 4th free. The deal includes radials, Xtreme All Terrains, Radial Muds, Xtreme Muds and Xterrains. The deal ends October 31st.




They also have a really great deal on the SmittyBilt XRC 8,000 lb winch. This is a 4.1 hp winch with a 5/16" x 92’ galvanized aircraft cable with replaceable hook on sale for only $299.99. So if you get bogged down in mud, sand, snow or just want to winch your way up a mountain, take a look at this deal.




Enjoy,

-Justin

Grass Drags and Water Crossing

This weekend the Want Ad attended the New Hampshire Snowmobile Association Grass Drags and Water Crossing. The event was held in Fremont, NH and featured a variety of events and vendors.
The main event, the snowmobile drag racing, consists of modified snowmobiles racing across a field (nope, no snow, just grass) and some reaching speeds well over 100 mph in a 1/8 mile track. If you think snowmobiles racing across grass seems out of place, another event was a snowmobile race around a pond (nope, no ice, just water). Snowmobiles are able to glide across water as long as they are constantly moving or else they sink like a stone and that happened plenty of times. The event also featured ATV racing and both dirt bikes and snowmobiles jumping off ramps as tall as a house. Take a look at a few of the video clips the Want Ad took at the event:



The Want Ad had a booth set up in a great location and we were able to meet a lot of great customers and snowmobile enthusiasts that were thrilled to recieve a free copy of the Want Ad and the new Powered. This was a great event that could make any warm weather lover left craving a blizzard.

Happy buying and selling,

-Justin

Blastoff! New Powered Cover launched today!

Today marks the arrival of our new WANT AD Powered cover. We hope you like it!

Also don't forget the Fremont Grass Drags are only 3 days away. Make sure to stop by our booth to say hi and to pick up a free copy of the New Powered!

http://www.nhgrassdrags.com/

Cheers,

Eric

Now it's your turn...

So now you've heard from a bunch of us. (Some might say "too much" from one of us.) It's amazing how chatty some people get when they realize people are listening. Anyways, I'll keep it short and simple - now that we've opened this line of communication, I want to know what you think, and what you're pondering about us. So, go ahead and send me an email: nkelly@thewantad.com

I can't guarantee everything will be answered - some stuff might be things we need to keep to ourselves (corporate spies are everywhere) but we'll try to answer as much as possible in future blog posts.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WANT???

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WANT???

Well I’ll tell you what I want. I want to aspire to writing a blog comparable to the “bloggy” goodness that are Graphics Guy Matt’s blogs! But here is my question… can you blog about another person’s blog? And if so how many times can you say the word blog in your blog when referring to someone else’s blog?
Confused? Yeah, me too.
Well I guess you can blog about someone else’s blog because that’s what I’m doing here.
I’ve been urged for months now to contribute to our new Want AD blog link & in the beginning I jumped at the chance to share my well intended if not sometimes odd thoughts on work & life in general. But when it got down to it & I sat in my corner cubicle of the department staring at the walls I’ve covered in posters & pictures & private jokes between other employees & myself I was stumped. My writer’s block was the size of the Great Wall of China. Completely uninspired which is kind of a first for me. I was disappointed with myself considering I always seem to have plenty to talk about, lots of strong opinions & a wealth of useless knowledge to share with the world. But what do I write about? Why would anyone want to know what little old me was thinking anyways? Well I’ll tell you why because I’m a big deal… well not really but I do have a big if not fragile ego.
First off I suppose introducing myself is an order. I am Leah… the graphics girl. I’ve worked in our Graphics department alongside my awesome co-workers for over 2 years but I kind of ended up in this department accidentally. I started at The Wantad 5-1/2 years ago at the tender age of 19 in the call center. I had no prior graphic design experience but worked my way up helping out every department that would have me & eventually found my “calling” here among the self-professed “computer geeks”. I don’t necessarily fit the mold but that’s ok. I’ve always been known around the company as kind of an outspoken, fun-loving if not slightly over-the-top type, so on first impressions I might not be pegged as artsy-per say but looks & personality can be deceiving sometimes.
Since joining the guys in Graphics I have kind of become a good source of entertainment for the guys, I always seem to be running my mouth about something, flouncing around or telling you my latest story from my inevitably crazy weekend. Anyways it seems to have become the natural progression for me to be involved in all of our newest ventures from free web advertising to blogging! And since I tend to leave my timidity at the door I became the online spokes-girl for our website a couple of months back when we finally went free. You could see me with one of our former interns (and a good friend of mine) the first couple of times we updated our site with the splendid news that we’d gone free & then by myself staring through a pair of binoculars checking out all the fun things we have for sale. It became kind of a running joke with the guys & I that I was a celebrity of sorts now. I signed mock autographs & gave myself a marquee screensaver that simply read CELEBUTANTE. Though I do sport the oversized shades & the extra large attitude sometimes don’t worry! There are no crashed sports luxury vehicles or jail time in my future!
I’m just a ham who doesn’t mind being seen by our Want AD Web Users once in a while…
So I think I ran out of stuff to say for now, but I shall return with more nonsensical babblings that hopefully entertain you for a minute or so out of your day!
Keepin’ It Classy, Leah

Wow, people can actually find and read our blog now!

Although many of you may not have realized, we've actually had our blog up for a little while. But as Matt says below, it's now up "front and center" on our homepage as of yesterday.

I wanted to extend a THANKS for all the feedback we are getting about our New Powered Cover. We are getting a lot of great feedback thus far. Wish I could win those Patriots tickets myself, but.......the rules say I'm not eligible because I'm an employee. Bummer!

Don't forget you have until Oct 12th to submit your feedback and be entered automatically to win the Pats tickets.

Also I wanted to say hello and let everyone know that we have a new resident blogger Justin who just joined the Marketing team. Hey JUSTIN!!!

Cheers,
Eric

Is this thing on?

TAP…TAP…(Deafening feedback noise) Hello?

Hey! The WANT AD blog finally has a link up on thewantad.com homepage. This is a big deal. This blog lived in obscurity up until a few hours ago. Through the miracle of modern technology thousands of people now have access to it. Alright, adding one link isn't too miraculous. But it sure feels that way.

As one of our resident bloggers, I feel like a musician that just went from playing small clubs at 2AM in front of about 6 people each night to playing sold-out gigs at the Garden. I’m getting a bit nervous just thinking about it. Have I really hit the big time? Will I get lost backstage like Spinal Tap? Can I expect masses of people to hold up lighters after I’m done typing this? Probably not.

So, for the many of you who haven’t seen it before, welcome to The WANT AD Blog. We've been doing this for a little while, and there's plenty of good information here already. Check it out. A handful of us Want Ad employees will be in here, adding stuff as often as we can (they do keep us busy here...). Expect to see updates on upcoming events from the Marketing folks, some technical and practical stuff from Neil the IT guy, and some bloggy goodness about us and what we do from me, the Graphics guy.

Keep on rockin'

Matt

Grass Drags, and a silly little misunderstanding

We’re heading up to New Hampshire on October 5-7 for the Grass Drags event. “Great!” I thought, “But is this event appropriate for us?” To me, “grass drags” sounds suspiciously like an event where men show up in Hawaiian hula skirts.

Turns out I was wrong. Way wrong. This event is perfectly appropriate for us and our readers; it’s all about racing snowmobiles without snow. There's water cross racing, tricks and other stuff too.

How cool is that? Even cooler is that this event is the largest of its kind, with 3 days of non-stop ATV and snowmobile action. So make your way up to Fremont, New Hampshire that weekend and check it out. Stop by and say hello to Eric while you’re there. Oh, and guys, leave the grass skirt at home.

So, Do You Guys Have All of this Stuff at Your Building?

A couple of years ago someone asked me at a trade show, “So, do you guys have all of this stuff at your building?”

I was kind of thrown by the question. Where would we put all of that stuff? There’s no way it would work! I responded with something like, “Well, no. We’re not a store. The people who place the ads own these items, and they keep them until they sell it. If you want to buy it, you make arrangements with them, go to their place and pick it up.”

But this got me to thinking; what if we did have all of that stuff here at the Want Ad offices? How much fun would that be? There was an ad for a life-size John Wayne statue in the magazine a couple of years ago. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have put that in my office, with his six-shooter pointed at the life-size statue of the alien from “Aliens” or maybe at the life size hand carved wooden bear (also real ads…). My office walls (which are plain white, pretty boring for a Graphics guy) would be covered in neon signs, or maybe flat-screen TVs.Pinball machines would be placed next to the desks of all Graphics staff. My desk chair would probably be an ATV. There’s a Honda Fourtrax ad running right now that looks pretty cool. The possibilities would be endless.

Of course, I’d be sad when these items sold, as my office would have to be cleared out. But there’s new stuff showing up each week, and I’m sure I’d find a way to borrow it for a few days. The Graphics staff would be redecorating the department constantly, finding the newest “most unusual item” to display in our workspace. We’d probably make a competition out of it, turning it into an on-the-clock scavenger hunt.

Then again, it’s probably a good thing that people keep their items for sale at their place. While it would be fun to have access to all of this stuff, we’d never get the magazine to the press on time, and then where would we be? No magazine means no new ads which means no cool stuff.

Oh well. Reality crushes yet another fragile dream.

Until next time,
Matt

How to Write a Successful Ad

It seems painfully obvious, but Matt from Signal vs Noise has a really interesting post about something near and dear to all of our hearts - writing ads.

"Write an honest, thoughtful, clear ad and you’re more likely to hear from candidates with those qualities."

Granted, he's talking about help wanted ads, but the point still remains relevant - if you write an car ad that tells the buyer what they need to know about your car, quickly and succinctly, you'll get calls and free up your garage space in no time. If you go on and on about the entire history of the car and every little feature (unless it's relevant to the type of vehicle, of course), you'll get lots of dreamers but probably very few serious buyers.

Writing better help wanted ads [Signal vs Noise]

For more information...

Just in case you care to check out the site before you head to Mohegan Sun, here it is...

http://www.manchestermotorcar.com/mypage.html?pg=MoheganSunCruise

New England Dragway in Epping, NH

I had a chance to go to the New England Dragway a few weeks ago...what an event! The Want AD was a main sponsor and handed out a few thousand of our publications.

The funny thing is we had a huge blow up Want Ad book, 11 feet tall! And when the jet engines started up...we thought the big book was going to blow away. It was a sight to see.

I spoke to one customer that said he buys the book all the time and the whole family "flips through the pages" throughout the week. He said he bought and sold items and found the process to be very simple and effective. There were so many enthusiasts for drag racing and it's obvious why. I saw a Mack Truck go 245 miles an hour in 6 seconds! One of the main attractions was the Train & School bus race and these vehicles were equipped with jet engines too! They certainly got out of their own way.

It was a great event!

Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival.

Yes that's right. This Wednesday August 8th, The WantAdvertiser will be at Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival...say that 3 times fast. This is our second year as a sponsor to Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival and we are very excited. Myself (the marketing intern) along with several other WantAd employees will be attending Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival handing out a bunch of free stuff including the newest editions of The Want Ad Original, and The Want Ad Powered! We hope to see all you Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival enthusiasts there to come and chat with The Want Ad, and perhaps gamble with us when the Mohegan Sun's Hot Summer Fun Wild Wednesday Sizzling Summer Showdown Fireworks Festival is over. Untill then, start practicing your black jack skills!

New England Summer Nationals July 4-8!!

Time for another great event! Are you a car/motorcycle nut? If so then the New England Summer Nationals is the place to be.

During the July 4th holiday (July 4-July 8) the town of Worcester comes alive with the sounds of HotRods, Custom Cruisers, and Wild Motorcycles. The event takes place in downtown Worcester and at Green Hill Park.

Take a moment to stop by the Gabriel Racing Trailer in downtown Worcester and pick up a FREE copy of a WANT AD-Original and WANT AD-Powered.

For more info see link below.
www.summernationals.com

Hope to see you there
Eric

Search thewantad.com Without Coming To Our Page

If you're using either Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7, you might have noticed a small box in the upper right corner of your browser. This box lets you search the contents of a website without first having to go to the site. We've written a plug-in for your browser so you can search our ads more easily using this box. Installing it is a breeze - just go to our site.

If you're using Firefox, you'll notice the logo in the box has a bluish halo around it.

Click in the logo that's there and select 'Add "The WANT Advertiser'.

For IE7 users, the down arrow just to the right of the box will turn orange.

Click the arrow and select "Add Search Providers," then choose "The WANT Advertiser"

That's all there is to installing it.

Later, when you want to search our site, you can just select "The WANT Advertiser" from the list of search providers, type in your search term, and hit enter - the results page will load just as if you had gone to our site and searched.

Visit us in Topsfield at the North Shore Old Car Club 6/23 & 6/24

Stop by the weekend of 6/23 and 6/24 and say Hi!

The WANT AD will be handing out FREE copies of both WANT AD Original and WANT AD Powered at the North Shore Old Car Club.

The show will take place at the Topsfield Fairgrounds in Topsfield Mass.

Show hours are 7am-5pm.

Look for the GIANT WANT AD when you arrive.

Hope to see you there!

Eric