Other action verbs, words and phrases:

verbs, words and phrases:

collide, shock, connect, handed, drenched, dump, pinpoint, trigger, scour, juiced, crank out, load, pogoed, harness, float, bored to tears, get into the trenches, haul, hammer it home, rampage, scramble, the underbelly, fuss, drag, pocketing, rocketed, smack/smacking, trashes, oohing and aahing, winced, frightened, hunt down, devour, hobble, nail down, snicker, cram, wail, huff and puff, size up,

Words to Avoid

Now some words to avoid, as they are overused and some alternatives....

Learn...

discover, acquire, digest, uncover, gain access to, obtain, secure, unearth, disrobe, expose, unveil, take in, observe,  disclose, revealed to you, unmasked, spill the beans, let out the bag, laid on the table, made plain

Pay/Cost...

ante up, take advantage of, invest, cover, contribute, chip in, furnish, provide, supply, goes for, initiation fee, access fee, requires a small sum, total amount, valued at, available for, offered at, worth

Sell/Sold...

happily involve, help obtain, provide expertise, supply with vital information

Buy...

reserve, claim, gain access to, acquire, get, secure, snatch this up, scoop up, snatch up, own, take home, make it belong to you, make this yours, when you choose to say yes, it's yours, get involved with this wonderful opportunity

Teach...

demonstrate, display, reveal, disclose, divulge, present, prove, uncover, meet the eye, parade, flaunt, direct your attention to, lead you through, confirm, expose, broadcast, open the door,

Power Words to Infuse Your Copy

Power Words

Most people write boring flat copy, it's lifeless because they use boring overused verbs.

Which of these sentences sounds best?

·        Did you talk to a crowd?

·        Did you enchant a crowd?

·        Did you thunder down on the crowd?

·        Did you command the crowd?

The last three sound a lot better than the first one, don't they?

Words like talk, walk and try – they are all overused.  Even words like increase, if you use them again and again will lose their power.  You need variety and passion in your copy.

I hope you can see the difference in power verbs and stale verbs.  Below is a list of commonly used words and a whole host of alternatives.  Use them and weep tears of joy, as you are flooded with sales!

Instant...

immediate, right away, simultaneous, within moments/seconds/minutes/hours, fast, in a jiffy,  wink of an eye, without delay, straight away, straight off, at once, promptly, shortcut, in a flash, go like the wind, shake a leg,

Without Effort...

automatically, accidental, intuitively, involuntary, knee jerk reaction, mechanically, naturally, reflectively, self-regulating, spontaneously, routinely, robotically, unconsciously, impulsively, posing no difficulty, easy as falling off a log, nothing to it, easy,  simple, effortless, a cinch, in a relaxed manner, casually, fool proof,  without any trouble, no practice necessary, almost over night, connect the dots, force you, sit back and watch, bypass, force-fed/feeding, fall into place, force-feed, tricking your brain, “quick-fix” solution, no “getting up to speed”, tap into,

Profitable...

lucrative, gravy train, make a killing, the goose that lays the golden egg, return on investment, wallet sweller, enlarge your bank account, fast track to profits, top dollar, multiply your investment

Inexpensive...

affordable, introductory pricing, wholesale priced, petty fee, bargain, economical, reasonable sum, meager, modest, lean, puny, dirt cheap,  a real steal, a fraction of the cost, below wholesale, pays for itself, budget friendly,

Empower...

conquer, triumph, clobber, humble, vanquish,  shellac, trounce, wallop, rain blows on, pummel, steamroll, monopolize, put you in the driver's seat, give you free reign, call the shots, dominate, reign supreme, command, tower above, tyrannize, be at the helm, manipulate, tear up, humble (as in humble the competition), sticking it to, blow the lid off of, collapsed, smack the snot out of, spank,

Increase...

boost, swell, snowball, accelerate, avalanche,  bloat, balloon, mushroom, fatten,  deepen, heighten, flood, drown, flush, overwhelm, swamp, downpour, gush, swarm, overrun,  crush, mob, explode, blast, burst, erupt, shatter, rain, blow the lid off,  maxed out, bursting at the seams, landslide, jack up, gorge, spike, merge, squeeze out,

Reduce...

slim, condense, defeat, downgrade, slash, vanquish, subdue, drain, carve up, shrink, dwindle, retire, shrivel, plummet,  disintegrate, destroy, squander, nose-dive, chop up, bankrupt, put the kibosh on,  torpedo, shatter, demolish, level, plunge, crash, shave, erase, suck down, melt away, vanishing, dwarf,

Fail...

fall short, choke, break down, give out, bomb, flop, flunk out, stink up the joint, ruin, bust, go under, go belly up, crumble, throw in the towel, flounder, burn out, blow your wad, come up short, sabotage,

Humiliate...

belittle, disgrace, embarrass, humble, shame, take down a peg, deflate self esteem, throw for a loop, put on the spot, put to the blush, dishonor, blackball, blacklist, blow away, robbed, suffer, beg, demolish,

Permanent...

ever-lasting, fixed, certain, continuous, immutable, nonstop, perpetual, unceasing, uninterrupted, around the clock, lock up, lock into, capture, burn (burn into your memory forever), etch, install,

Hidden...

concealed, buried, clandestine, secret, invisible to most, under wraps, covert, classified, confidential, covert, hush-hush, top-drawer, need to know basis, private, overlooked, lock-box secret,

Try...

attempt, take a stab at, have a go at, take a crack at,  zero in, set (y)our sights on

Lazy...

lethargic, sluggish, spiritless, inactive, apathetic, inert, slowest, unresponsive, casual, easygoing, flabby, sloppy, dreamy, uninspired, unmotivated, passive

Pain...

nouns: misery, grief, heart ache, torture, torment, plague, living hell, martyr,

verbs: crucify, mutilate, mangle, disfigure, butcher, cripple, massacre, maul, slaughter, slaving away, 

Instant Gratification Bullet Points

Instant Gratification Bullet Points

One of the biggest benefits you can give a visitor is instant gratification, so to create this type of bullet point – you give a benefit that they can attain immediately after getting your product.

“Health alert: the 60 second test that can save your life”

You should always include instant gratification bullet points in your web copy.

Fool-proof Bullet Points

When people learn something, they often want to use that new knowledge every day.  Another way to describe this is, that they want a fool-proof solution.

Example:

“How to permanently lock your mind into “survival mode”... so you'll never be surprised by trouble”

As you can see, the idea behind this type of bullet point is that you can “lock into” some knowledge that will benefit the reader for life.

Ease of Use Bullet Points

Another benefit that people often look for is to get something without much effort. The difference between this type of bullet point and the instant gratification bullet points is that the result may not be immediate, but you can do almost nothing to achieve the result.

Example:

“The amazing 10 minute strategy used religiously by the most overworked people in the world... to have better sleep, more energy and supercharged brainpower”

Mistakes in Bullet Points

Mistakes in Bullet Points

People are naturally motivated to move away from pain towards pleasure, so you need to create pain motivators in your copy.  In a bullet point, you point out a mistake that can be avoided if they buy your product.

So hit on things that can cause the visitor pain and how your product can eradicate your pain.  It's not only the word 'mistake' you can use here, but words like: victim, hidden dangers, nightmare, scam, shocker, scare, crisis,  ruining, terrible, lie, ashamed, risk, warning signs, etc.

You can couple a pain bullet point with a promise of pleasure, or start a bullet point on a positive note, that ends on a negative note.  You'll want to do a mixture of the two types to get the most of this type of bullet point.

Examples:

“What criminals look for when they're taking notes on you! (And how knowing this mindset puts you back into control)”

“How to recession proof your business in 2010 (And how not knowing these three steps almost guarantees you'll struggle to turn a profit this year)”

Incongruent Juxtaposition Bullet Points

These are my favorite type of bullet points, as I think that they are the most powerful.  This is where you look for something that doesn't doesn't usually go with a benefit and tying the two together. 

One way of doing this is you can challenge conventional wisdom...

Example:

 “Why Pepper Spray is more likely to do harm than good if you're trying to protect yourself (often, that pepper spray in your pocket is used against you by your assailant, unless you know the simple way to use it correctly, every time!)”

Another way of creating this type of bullet point is to pick something minor, but interesting and tie it in with a benefit:

“How tapping on 7 parts of your body can help you lose weight”

As you can see from this example, you can mix and match the types of bullet points to create exciting reasons to buy your product.

Master the Art of Bullet Points

 Bullet Points

Bullet points are an ideal way to portray the benefits of your product or service.  The premise behind bullet points is that you want to create enough curiosity with each bullet point, that the visitor wants to buy your product, just to get the answer to that one bullet point.

You can create 20 bullet points, with which each will convince a different group of users, to buy your product.

Here is the magic formula for writing bullet points – promise your reader a huge benefit, with an element of curiosity.  You can tell them what they can get, but they have to get your product  to get the answer.

There are 6 types of bullet points, which are most effective.  You should use all 6 types of these bullet points in your copy.

They are:

1.       How To

2.       Mistakes

3.       Incongruent juxtaposition

4.       Instant gratification

5.       Fool-Proof

6.                Ease of Use

How To Bullet Points

These are the most straight-forward type of bullet points.  Here, you just write a “how to” plus a specific benefit.

Example:

How to qualify for social security disability pensions at any age

Test Your Headlines to See What Converts the Best

Headlines to See What Converts the Best

The headline is the most powerful text on any page, as it will set the tone for the rest of the site and is the deciding factor on whether more is read on that page, or not.

So if your headline is no good, then you run the risk of no-one reading the rest of your text.  The answer is to test a number of headlines, to see what converts the best.

So first, write what you consider the best headline to be for your product and write some alternatives as well and then test them all.

There are plenty of services on the internet that will help you do this, like Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/).  This will show things like, how many people visit your site and how long people stay at your site, so you can analyze whether you headline is working. 

The headline is the key to engaging the interest and attention of visitors to your site.  Sometimes it is just a couple of words that can make a huge difference to a sale, or a click away, so please make sure you test and keep testing your headlines.

How to Write a Killer Headline

Killer Headline

Your website's home page is a key web page, especially if it is there that you want to persuade your reader to take an action, like sign up to your newsletter, or buying your product or service.  Obviously this depends on your site, as you may have a few pages, where you'd like your visitors to take some sort of action.

So, on the pages where you would like your visitors to take action, you need a killer headline to keep them reading.  I am going to share a system with you, on how you can create killer headlines.

Forget anything that you have read about headlines before and use the formula below and you'll be pumping out profitable headlines in no time.

The Formula:

Benefit + Emotional Response + Incongruency = Killer Headline

Okay, some explanation...

Benefit

Think about all the benefits that your information, product, or service has and write them all down.  Can you combine them or rephrase them to come up with a whopper benefit?   Once you have spent a little time thinking about this, pick out the strongest benefit.

Some benefits to help get your mind buzzing:

faster, bigger, better, stronger, longer lasting, more effective, easier, simpler, requiring less effort, cheaper, higher quality, getting a bargain, having more control, etc. etc.

Emotional Response

The headline serves one purpose only and that is to get the visitor to read beyond the headline.  So, your headline needs to tap into the emotions of your visitor.

The best three emotions to target are fear, frustration and anger.  However if you can't think of any way to evoke these emotions with your offering, think about happiness, courage and reduction of stress.  Obviously there are other emotions that you can consider, but these six are some of the strongest.

An example, let's say you have a product on how to raise children.  It is easy to evoke fear by painting a picture of the child being in danger, this will get many worried parents to read on.   Okay, the unfortunate truth is that more and more children are being abducted in shopping centers, so we can use that to create a headline like:

“The hidden danger many children face at shopping centers... and how you can immediately protect your child and take control of any unsafe situation that may present itself.”

Now we have benefit, plus emotion.  I think you'll agree that you can come up with some great headlines with those two elements alone, but the killer twist does lie in incongruency.

Incongruency

As we see so many advertisements in one day, our brains have learned to block out information that is not unique.  If we did not have this inbuilt survival mechanism, our brains would be bursting at seams, with all the commercials going around our heads – it would drive us mad! 

So, to get someone's attention, you need to take two things that wouldn't normally go together and put them together, like a fish on a bicycle, or a gorilla playing the drums.  This is the ingenious element of incongruency.

Let's add incongruency into that child safety headline, we had earlier, to demonstrate the curiosity this element brings out in us:

“The hidden danger many children face at shopping centers... and how a 38  year old  fish monger discovered a method to protect your child and take complete control of any unsafe situation”

Huh?  What on earth does a 38 year old fish monger have to do with child safety?

This headline evokes emotion, promises a benefit and makes you want to find out more about the fish monger, as he doesn't belong there!

It is quite easy to come up with these incongruencies.  Think about things about your product that are true, odd or unique and find something that normally is not associated with it.

What Makes Web Copywriting Great

Great Copy writing

One thing that puts a lot of people of a site is sloppy wordmanship, as well as a poor design.  It is easy to become inconsistent with phrases used to describe certain benefits of products, within your copy.

Be aware at all times of your spelling, grammar and formatting of your copy.  Many sites have lost sales because of small spelling mistakes, or bad formatting.  Always use a spell checker and a human eye to ensure that everything is correct.

Formatting can be improved by:

·        Breaking up large chunks of text, by making sure that your paragraphs are small and easily digestible.

·        Another way of breaking up large chunks of text is to indent key elements, as this will help emphasize a point and will lead the reader's eyes to this part of the copy.

·        Keep the width of the page of your site quite narrow, as the human eye finds it easier to read sentences of a smaller width.

·        Use plenty of subheadings and bullet points, as these will help the visitors who just like to skim read, before deciding whether they'd like to read the whole thing.  These subheadings and bullet points should portray the key points.

·        Make sure that your links to other URLs are in a universal format, (blue and underlined) so that you do not confuse the visitor.

It is essential to check through your copy for these inconsistencies, not just once, but on a regular basis, as you don't always catch them all first time round.  Also check that what you are trying to communicate is ultra clear and easy to understand.

Other off putting traits of copywriting include lots of capital letters and exclamation marks, as it makes your site look very childish.  Instead of capitals, you can use bold text, or highlighting to emphasize important points.

Writing copy is not the same as writing articles, short reports or any other type of writing, as you need to have a really good understanding of the written language.

The language you use in your copy has to be very well thought out, as you need to manipulate the language to influence people's buying behaviors.  You need a good understanding of what words to use in your copy and which to avoid.  Also you need to think about what phrases to use to make the visitor read on. (There is a chapter on power words and transitions later on, which will help you understand these concepts more.)

Inject Your Copy With Personality

Copy With Personality

You need to write your copy with vivid images and keep the tone light and unassuming.  Do not bore the visitor, as once again, you will lose them.

Include stories in your copy, that show the reader that you know what they are feeling, what they are going through and then how your information, product, or service can help them.

So inject your personality throughout all the copy and keep it consistent, so that you create a connection with the reader and they begin to trust what you say.  This is one of the keys to effective copy.