Find out what power words are and learn how to use them to keep your readers glued and get them to take the action that you want.

If you were to write a short story or novel, you could evoke the emotions you want in your readers by developing characters they care about, writing vivid descriptions, and writing a story that is full of action and plot twists.

As a blogger, these options aren’t really practical for you. You have to take a different approach in order to grab the attention of your readers and get the emotional response that you want.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is by using power words.

What Are Power Words?

Power words are words and phrases that are used to evoke emotions and to get your readers to take action.

The major categories of emotions that are most likely to get somebody to react and then act are greed, lust, anger, fear, and passion.

Power words can also appeal to your reader’s need to feel safe and they can appeal to their desire to be part of something elite and special.

Power Words And Calls to Action

Every time you write a blog post, you want your readers to take action. This action may vary depending on the overall purpose of your blog and the specific subject of each individual post.

Your goal may be to get your reader to subscribe to your blog, to share your post with others, to purchase a product, make healthier life decisions, or change their views on a particular matter. The possibilities are endless.

If you use power words in an effective way, you can increase the likelihood that your call to action, whatever it may be, will be followed.

Effectively Using Power Words

It takes a bit of practice to learn the most effective ways to include power words in your blog posts. If you use too many power words or try to evoke an inappropriate level of emotion on a particular topic, that can be troublesome for your readers.

This is because your writing may come off as, emotionally manipulative, overwrought, histrionic, and phony. On the other hand, if you don’t use enough power words, or you do not take advantage of opportunities to really ‘hit your audience in the feels’ when it matters, you may as well ignore power words altogether.

Two other things that you will need to take into consideration are your target audience and your writing style. You don’t want to give your audience mental whiplash, for example, by using power words in a way that completely changes your writing style. You also don’t want to change the tone of your blog in such a way that it puts off your current audience.

Your use of power words should complement your writing style, and appeal to your target demographic. Whatever you do, be sure you always use power words correctly. Writing misused words will not get the reaction you intend.

Power Words That Evoke Anger

Why would you want your audience to be angry? Actually, there are many reasons. If you are promoting a cause, you might want your audience to become angry enough over an issue that they contact their local representatives, or sign a petition.

If you want people to purchase your product over that of a competitor, you can evoke anger by using power words to convince them that they have been treated unfairly by that competitor. You can even use power words to make a person angry enough about their current situation to do something about it.

If you want to evoke an anger response within your readers, try a few of the following words and phrases.

• Lying
• Arrogant
• Backstabbing
• Devious
• Smug
• Thief
• Underhanded

Power Words That You Can Use to Instill Fear

Fear is undoubtedly one of the most powerful motivators that there are. Power words that evoke fear get the attention of your readers and keeps that attention. This makes these perfect words get readers to click on your post and read to the end.

Fear can also motivate your readers to answer your call to action. Here are a few examples where creating fear could be used in a blog:

• To convince readers they will miss out on information they really need
• To make readers understand that their family or community could be at risk
• To convince a reader that they are taking on a risk if they do not take a course of action

If you want to use fear to get attention and guarantee that your audience follows through to action, here are some words to try:

• Tragedy
• Blindsided
• Victim
• Lurking
• Devastation
• Crisis
• Terrorist

Power Words That Appeal To All of Our Greedy Natures

Who doesn’t like to get something for nothing? Greed isn’t a terrible thing. It is the part of our nature that causes us to look for the best deal at the store, and that prompts us to negotiate with car dealers. These power words are great for getting your readers primed to click on that link or sign up for your special offer.

• Rock-bottom discount
• Free
• Marked down
• Profit
• Tripled
• Gift
• Bargain

Take These Power Words and Make Your Audience Feel Passionate About Something

Sometimes, the best course of action is to get your audience enthusiastic. Power words the evoke passion and enthusiasm can be used as a rallying cry, a source of encouragement, or simply as a means to inject a bit of happiness and enthusiasm into your readers’ day. Here are some passion inducing power words that will have your readers feeling great and ready to go.

• Victory
• Magical
• Brave
• Life changing
• Heroic
• Hope
• Awe inspiring
• Joyful

Power Words That Appeal to The Need to Feel Safe and Secure

There are many great reasons to use power words that appeal to your readers’ need to feel secure. For one thing, feelings of safety and security result in another, very important feeling. This is the feeling of trust. This is important for any blogger because you want your readers to trust the information and advice that you give on your blog.

You may also want them to trust in your products and services. Ultimately, and most importantly, you want them to trust you. If you have used power words to evoke fear, you can use power words that evoke a sense of security to reassure them if they take a specific course of action that they will be protected from harm.

Here are a few power words to make your readers feel safe and secure:

• Guaranteed
• Refund
• Secure
• Money back
• Verified
• Risk free
• Unconditional

Power Words That Appeal to The Desire to be Part of Something Special

People enjoy feeling as if they are part of something exclusive, and feeling as if they are getting something that others are not. Power words that appeal to this desire work because they tweak our love of the secret, the exclusive, and even the forbidden.

Here are some power words that you can use in your writing to leverage this very natural, human tendency.

• Members only
• Secret
• Unauthorized
• For your eyes only
• Insider
• Forbidden
• Premium

Power Words to Evoke Lust

Sex sells, and everybody is buying. All you have to do to be convinced of that is to watch television commercials and look at print advertising.

In fact, these words are so effective, that they can be used to get people’s attention and get them to take action, even when the subject has little or nothing to do with sex.

Try these words in a future blog post, and see what kind of reaction you receive.

• Sensual
• Breathless
• Thrilling
• Provocative
• Yearning
• Exposed
• Uncensored

Getting Started With Power Words

If you haven’t really used power words in your blog posts until now, you will probably find that using them in the future is a bit of an adjustment.

You may also fear how your audience will respond to these words. If this is the case, keep one thing in mind. These are called power words, because the work.

Advertising copywriters, magazine editors, journalists, and other bloggers use the words listed here, along with other power words (there are hundreds of them), because they work.

Using power words can get people to make purchases, switch loyalties from one brand to another, click the subscribe button, share your content, and more. Not only that, power words simply make your writing more interesting to read.

To start, you may have to do a bit of experimenting, and the first posts you write might not be a hit. That’s fine. You can make adjustments based on user response to your calls to action, and their comments to improve your writing further. Eventually, you will be able to create a power word strategy that works for you and your readers. This is a necessary step if you want to grow your blog follower count.

Power Words beyond Your Blog

Here is a bit of a bonus for you. Once you learn to use power words to improve your blog posts, you can use them to make all of your writing more compelling. For example, try using a few power words when you promote your blog on social media. Power words are also great additions to emails and to your web content.

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This is a guest contribution by Judy Thompson, a content writer at SmartPaperHelp.com. She started writing since her childhood when she was traveling with her parents around the country by bikes. Now Judy shares her expertise in blogging online with people from different corners of the world.

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