When exposing your blog or website to the buying public as a whole, or any form of online advertising you may do to your own private public (your list), it is vital that your message be one of excitement and good news.
Internet Marketing goes about providing solutions to customers who support you. If you wish to be successful in this industry then you have to be friendly, competent, and most of all, always positive!
Simply put, your online advertising must make use of headlines that stimulate – they must contain an abundance of “sizzle”.
Human buying psychology is very interesting, & without going too deep into it let’s just say we humans always have choices. We can look at the glass as being half full, or half empty. That always remains our choice, based upon our interpretation of the various options being presented to us at any given time.
Always being positive is much more productive in the long run & while always being negative is still not illegal in most countries of this world (last time I looked anyway!) it remains a fact however, that in the world of online sales & marketing, failure looms for the merchant of negativity.
So…when it comes to positive advertising, here are some “key” words you can use in your online advertising which will serve to add “sizzle” to your headlines:
Take a look at these:
Accomplish, Alluring, Achieve, Attain, Amazing, Breakthrough, Beautiful, Better, Blockbuster, Expert, Free, Proven, Money, Magic,
Revealing, Boost, Burst, Confidential, Daring, Discover, Dazzling, Delicious, Dynamite, Electrifying, Enjoy, Excellent, Explode, Exciting, Explosive, Fascinating, Fortune, Fun, Formula, Fortunate, Garner, Hot, Hurry, Important, Imagine, Increased, Instantly, Look, Mind-Blowing, Miracle, Mouth -Watering, Potent, Powerful, Profit, Profitable, Provocative, Quick, Quickly, Reliable, Remarkable, Results, Revolutionary, Secrets, Sex, Seductive, Sensational, Shocking, Sizzling, Soaring, Special, Startling, Strong, Stunning, Successful, Suddenly, Superior, Surefire, Surprise, Surprising, Tested, Thrilling, Ultimate, Uncover, Unique, Unleash, Unparalleled, Urgent, Vital, Vivid, Wealth, Win, Yes,
However, there are always some negative words guaranteed to take the “sizzle” out of your headlines, potentially harming the results you hope to achieve…
Take a look at some of them:
bad, buy, complicated, contract, cost, deal, death, decision, difficult, disaster, disease, disgust, dreary, empty, fail, fatal, loss, hard, helpless, hopeless, liability, lonely, misery, needless, obligation, perhaps, rank, raw, reject, scarce, sell, taxes, terminal, ugly, vague, worry, wrong,
It’s quite simple really – “sizzle” means excitement. “Sizzle” stimulates
emotion, and buying decisions are usually made on emotion & validated by logic later. You stimulate emotion by pushing the right emotional buttons.
Put some “sizzle” in your online advertising headlines & see your results sky-rocket!
Give it a try – make sure the next headlines you write for your advertisements, your blog posts or forum posts contain words that will generate the “sizzle”.
Then, always be looking for the “sizzle” wherever you go or whatever you are doing. Listen to conversations, check out your competitor’s advertisements, pay close attention to what others are putting into their headlines on their blog posts & in the forums. Discover the
differences between the positive and the negative, the hot & the cold.
You’re certain to be shocked and amazed!
Please share your thinking on this by commenting below. Oh yes…while it’s not mandatory, a tweet or share using the buttons at the top of this post would be really great! Thank you.
15. July 2010 at 1:26 pm
Spot on Michael- It works literally in restaurants! and enthusiasm and positive energy are like magnets to the like minded.
Continued Success Kiaran
15. July 2010 at 2:05 pm
Absolutely Kiaran, restaurants are masters at using these! So are many “offline” businesses targeting large retail customer bases.
Thanks for stopping by.
15. July 2010 at 3:06 pm
Michael 2 surprises here that buy is on the bad list and free is not on the good list. I will definitely take this to heart especially with some things I am trying on twitter which is really a 140 character ad. I will use more of the hot words for sure.
Steve Shoemaker
15. July 2010 at 3:28 pm
Steve, thanks for the comment. I think the word “buy” is on the bad list as every time a person needs to spend money it has a negative connotation. The word “buy” implies the spending of money!
I think “free” may have been left off the good list as it is so wildly thrown about these days that not much notice is taken of it in a headline.
It will be very interesting to get your feedback on how the sizzle words do with Twitter. Perhaps you could do a follow-up post on your blog a month or so from now?
15. July 2010 at 8:29 pm
Hi Michael,
this is an amazing list of positive vocabulary that’s extremely useful, especially for me as non-native speaker. BTW, I like your writing style and it might be a good idea to make negativity illegal
The question is: Who would be left ?
Sometimes it depends. You mention “taxes” in your negative list – if you were financial consulatnt or tax advisor you say “save taxes, keep your money”.
Take care
Oliver
16. July 2010 at 6:18 am
Oliver, I appreciate you visiting my blog & your comment.
About “taxes” – you could say “Save money by giving less to the government” LOL
Or perhaps – “Keep your money, don’t give it away!”
I think you just need to play around with some options – when it sounds good to you & you get a good warm fuzzy feeling when reading it, then your site visitor probably would too – providing you’re being honest with yourself!
Make it a great day!
16. July 2010 at 10:45 am
Hi Michael,
Just reading your headline made me think of a steak on a grill, and it’s 4:36 am, my neighbors will think I’m crazy, but I am so that’s ok.
Not long ago I wrote a really negative post, trashed it about an hour later.
It was the middle of the night, here anyway. I don’t think anyone actually saw it, thankfully.
Have to stay positive, one negative post can destroy months of good positve posts.
One word you didn’t include in your list that I have always found pleasing in print is ‘Agree’ Not sure how it could be used in a headline though.
Mike
16. July 2010 at 12:16 pm
So what’s wrong with throwing a steak on the grill at that time?
I absolutley AGREE that it should be on the “good” list!
A headline could read – “XYZ Product Is The Best – Would You AGREE?
Off the top of my head…
Cheers
16. July 2010 at 5:07 pm
Great list of words to use, Michael – a “headline thesaurus” of sorts!
If you look at most “dug” stories on Digg, negative headlines almost always win. There is something in our human nature that makes us want to check out a controversy!
Best,
Ana Hoffman
16. July 2010 at 7:11 pm
Ana, you are right – society is a strange beast, human nature also tells us to rubberneck at the scene of an accident!
Is it society as one large “tribe” that has created the desire within the masses to “belong” even if it is to the negative group?
I firmly believe that it is…unfortunately it is those very masses who never get anywhere in life because they are continually being subjected to the negative, and they accept it.
For those of us who embrace the positive, great achievement & success awaits, as like attracts like.
We CAN change the world – one person at a time!
Stay inspired, keep ahead!
17. July 2010 at 1:37 am
Hi Michael,
Excellent article and awesome list of sizzle words. Here are some more to add to your list…
accelerate, announcing, authentic, battle tested, brilliant, bulletproof, confidential, convenient, cost effective, cutting edge, effortlessly, exclusive,generous, genuine, giant, highly, incredible, informative, insane, innovative, insider, kick ass, knock out, lifetime, loopholes, lucrative, luxury, magical, magnetic, mega, original, overlooked, phenomenal, pioneer, popular, positive, power packed, powerhouse, profitable, promising, proven,scientifically,secure, selected, shocking, simplistic, skyrocket, solid, unconditional,unlock, unstoppable, valuable, virtually, world class.
Have an awesome weekend!
Ilka
17. July 2010 at 10:21 am
WOW Ilka, this is a wonderful contribution, thank you!
I’m going to add these to the list I have & make sure I try to use them as often as I can.
Stay inspired!
19. July 2010 at 5:38 pm
Wow! This is a great list of words to use, Ilka! Thanks for sharing.
All the best,
Mavis Nong
17. July 2010 at 6:33 am
Hi Michael,
Thanks for sharing this post. These words that you have shared are very powerful. No wonder that if you apply these to your ads, you will indeed see powerful, remarkable and revolutionary results
17. July 2010 at 10:13 am
True Sonny, the challenge is to keep remembering to do it!
Thanks for visiting my blog.
17. July 2010 at 5:01 pm
Thanks Michael, today I am writing a blog post and I will see what kind of sizzle I can create
Your list will be extremely helpful.
17. July 2010 at 7:15 pm
You are welcome Peter, let us know when the post is up so we can see what you created.
19. July 2010 at 4:26 am
Hi Michael,
Having a sizzling head line can make or break your article, blog or email campagne! Great Post!
I also have to agree with Ana on the negative headline… It can tend to have a great response factor!
Humans can be a strange bunch… present commpany excluded of course… lol
Warm regards
Sandy Moore
19. July 2010 at 6:40 am
Thanks for commenting Sandy. Maybe I’ll try the “strange” thing next post & throw in a negative headline for fun to see what happens!
Have a great day!
19. July 2010 at 5:36 pm
Hi Michael,
Thanks for sharing this great list. I’m going to use these words to create sizzling words for my headlines
All the best,
Mavis Nong
19. July 2010 at 6:39 pm
Mavis, thanks for letting me know that you will benefit from my post. I really appreciate it!
Stay inspired!