Our physical and emotional state of mind directly depends on words.
While positive words can block out anxiety and fears, negative words, on the other hand, exert the opposite effect.
What does it mean?
It means: A single word matters!
The words you use in the title of your post and in the body of the article will determine the reaction of your readers.
What will they do? Press ‘like’ and share it through their social media, or ignore and pass it by.
Scientists on our response to words
According to scholar Andrew Newberg, it is all about neural functioning of our brain that is easily affected by the words we use.
Jeremy Lack, a co-founder of Neuroawareness Consulting Services, tried to outline the main neuro principles influencing our way of communication and response to a situation.
It turned out that we anticipate fear and danger from communication more than pleasure or rewards. Besides, our initial perception comes through emotions, but not through conscious regulators.
So, do you want to be aware of unrivaled tips to improve your blog content with power words?
Then here you go!
Powerful words for terrific content
I won’t be announcing any miracles today, however I will emphasize one more time the most remarkable and powerful words that may come in handy whenever you need to make your content lively and mesmerizing.
I’ve been keeping an eye on those magical words that do not wear out as time goes by. Finally, I have come up with an upgraded list of the power words you can rely on when you have a low point in your writing career.
You can find the initial part of these strong words in the list below:
- Profit
- More
- Bonus
- Health
- New
- Safety
- Money
- Now
- Today
- Results
- Anniversary
- Plus!
- Challenge
- Bargain
How to use these in practice?
If you are still eager to learn how to be convincing, keep reading.
Tips for embodying power words into your content
Although the myth has it that it is primarily body language and voice tone that play a dominant role in our perception, the message content matters no less.
‘Forever’ vs ‘never’
After writing a sentence or two, pay attention to separate patterns and ask yourself “How does it make me feel?” Do you see the difference between “We separated forever” OR “We separated to see each other never again”.
The content is the same but the words “forever” and “never” are opposite words that evoke different cognitive effects in our mind.
Use ‘and’ instead of ‘but’
Also, avoid using a conjunction such as “but” since it causes negation of the second part of the sentence. Instead, try out using “and”. It will not reject the second part and will not trigger negative cognitive responses on your reader’s part.
The simpler the better
Any words that do not add to meaningfulness and don’t convey the message disrupt your readers’ trust and attention. Too much garbage in our text increases skipping.
So, make sure to avoid the so called adverbial verbs (to glare, to stare). Instead, use unambiguous power words that don’t demand a strenuous additional thinking from your reader to decipher the message. The simpler an output, the higher a response to your content will be.
Use wh-words
If you want to pose a central problem or question for your readers, avoid words such as “would” or “should”. Instead, “why”, “how” and other wh-words create much greater response rate.
Avoid ‘I am’ constructions
Some researchers, including Alfred Korzybski (the creator of General Semantics), also offer to avoid the constructions such as “I am, you are, she is, we are” because they presuppose the equality of two things that cannot be accepted by our mind.
Add ‘ing’ ending
Robert Dilts, a Neuro-Linguistic Programming expert, recommends to add an ending ‘-ing’ if possible because these words often bring movement to our inner representation.
“How are you depress-ING yourself?” is better that “Are you stuck in depression?”
Similarly, the phrase “What is your motivation?” can be replaced by the more effective one “What is motivating you?”
No frozen words!
By adding the ‘–ing’ ending you will also avoid using “frozen” nouns like “depression” or “motivation”. Give these excercises a go to perfect your abilities of changing “frozen” words into more effective ones.
Resist the urge of including frozen nouns by adding these 10 helpful verbs. They can instantly bring effect to your reader’s mind and set in motion any unfulfilled intention.
- Improve
- Trust
- Understand
- Know
- Guarantee
- Protect
- Help
- Compare
- Hurry
- Save
5 Additional persuasive words
As the saying goes, all words are equal but some words are more equal than others. Gregory Ciotti conducted a research revealing top 5 words that are damn efficient. They can encourage your reader to seek more.
You
As it is directly connected with our own identity, it attracts attention a lot.
Because
It’s enough to mention the Xerox experiment to demonstrate the importance of reasoning. Only those people who stood in line and were given a reason agree that another person can cut in line.
Instantly
It is quite enticing since we want to have everything in a matter of a minute.
Free
People can rarely stand the temptation to pass on a deal.
New
It presupposes a novelty aspect and activates our metal reward center.
Do not forget about the headline!
Your headline is the first thing people see on your blog and if it is interesting and eye-catching they will click on your article and share it on social media.
The statistics show that 8 out of 10 ten people read the headlines and only 2 of 10 will proceed reading the rest of the article. So, it is worth spending a lot of time crafting your heading!
The universal formula of a good headline is to make a direct reference to a reader. This kind of headline leaves a reader no choice but to follow the headline link.
Word count
A perfect number of words for a headline is considered to be 6 words. Use negations as it leads to more shares.
Use numbers
You had better use numbers, followed by words to describe quantity. For example, the headline “100 useful things to take along with you on holiday” would be perfect in terms of digital representation.
Add adjectives
Last but not least is an interesting adjective to be included into the headline. How do you like such words as “incredible”, “effortless”, “essential”?
Take a look at the statistics which shows the number of shares if a heading contains a powerful adjective.
| Superlative Words | |||
| Amazing | 15,600 | 538 | 14 |
| Inspiring | 7,340 | 125 | 6 |
| Surprising | 2,700 | 87 | 38 |
| Successful | 1,067 | 137 | 135 |
Source: BuzzSumo
Here are some more adjectives that you can use in your headlines:
- Hot
- Powerful
- Best
- Hot
- Special
- Exclusive
- Proven
- Easy
- Extra
- Latest
- Extraordinary
- Ultimate
- Complete
- Worst
- Hot
- First
- Big
- Premiere
- Basic
- Revolutionary
Whenever you decide to use these kind of adjectives and feel like running out of interesting ideas, turn to this site.
Some more powerful words that work for your headline:
- Amazing
- Apocalypse
- Crisis
- Fooled
- Horrific
- Invasion
- Panic
- Mistake
- Terror
- Stupid
- Victim
- Warning
- Agony
- Cheer
- Devoted
- Hope
- Hero
- Miracle
- Spirit
- Stunning
- Surprising
- Victory
- Wonderful
- Magic
Must-use components of your headline
The adjectives form the so called emotional element of your headline. In order to make your headline even more powerful make sure to add a topic and promise element.
The topic element means that your headline should follow current issues in the world. For example, Donald Trump or The Game of Thrones would go perfectly.
Longevity, cute gods and cats, love and sex are those topics that are always in trend.
The diagram below shows the number of shares for the articles with a topic-included headline.
| Topic | |||
| Donald Trump | 18,061 | 514 | 21 |
| Dog | 14,412 | 286 | 11 |
| Love | 5,587 | 124 | 60 |
| Sales | 2,856 | 260 | 208 |
Source: BuzzSumo
The promise element is represented by such words as “how to” or ”best tips”.
In short, these are some indications of guidance on how to do something or how a reader can improve some kind of skills.
Readers need to be convinced from the very beginning that they are going to experience a potential benefit from the article.
- Discover
- Learn
- Win
- Create
- How to
- Best Tips
Wrap
So, keep your creativity flowing and try out different techniques for your content.
Remember about the cognitive response of your reader and don’t neglect the tips of using power words in the content as well as in the headline.
Guest Author: Veronika Kavanova
The post 79 Power Words to Create Striking Content For Your Blog appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
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