600+ Power Words That’ll Pack Your Writing with Emotion

Power words are like a “cheat code” for giving your writing an emotional punch. Sprinkle in a few, and you can instantly transform your writing from dull and boring to sizzling with personality.

And the best part:

You can use them anywhere.

If you’re writing an article or essay, you can use power words to hook readers. If you’re creating a marketing piece, you can use power words to boost your conversion rate. Even in your personal life, using power words can make you seem strong or powerful.

It’s strange that a certain type of word can have such a profound effect, but they do, and here’s why:

Emotion.

The more emotion your writing makes readers feel, the more engaged they will be. Power words are a shortcut to sparking that emotion.

And in this post, you’ll learn how to use them like a kung fu master. Specifically:

• The definition of power words (and why they’re so powerful);
• The 7 types of power words proven to make readers emotional;
• Examples of how bloggers, writers, and businesses are using power words to supercharge their content with descriptive language;
• 600+ powerful words you can use, bookmark, and reference (again and again).

Download All 600+ Power Words(in one handy, free PDF)

Let’s jump in.

What are Power Words?

Power words are persuasive, emotional words that trigger a positive or negative response. They can make us feel scared, encouraged, aroused, angry, greedy, safe, or curious. Authors, copywriters, and content marketers use “power words” to spice up their content and compel audiences to take action.

Clear as mud?

Let’s deconstruct an example from the great Winston Churchill. All the power words are underlined:

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Inspiring, right?

Well, there was a lot on the line. Under attack from Germany, Britain was fighting for its survival, and somehow, someway, Churchill had to find a way to inspire his countrymen to greatness.

He chose words. Or, to be more accurate, power words.

Each underlined word makes the audience feel something.

In this case, Churchill intermixes words that cause fear, such as “struggle,” “tyranny,” and “terror,” with words that cause hope, such as “strength,” “God,” and “victory.” The last, in particular, is repeated over and over, practically drilling the emotion into the minds of the audience.

It’s no accident.

Power Words = Emotional Words Packed with Persuasion

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Smart speakers, as well as their speechwriters, sprinkle their speeches with carefully-chosen power words drenched in sensory details, drawing the audience from one emotion to another as skillfully as any novelist or screenwriter.

And it goes beyond speakers and storytellers.

Emails, resumes, blog posts, sales copy, and proposals are all designed to influence the reader in some way. You want to pass along information, yes, but you also want the reader to feel a certain way about that information.

Maybe you want to impress them, get them excited, make them cautious, get them angry, encourage them to keep going, or any number of emotions. The better a job you do at making them feel, the more influential you are, and the better your chances of getting what you want.

So…

Looking for a quick way to give your writing more punch?

Maybe add a little personality or pizzazz — that extra little “oomph” that makes your reader pay attention?

Want to bring your ideas to life, to make them take up residence in the mind of the reader, lurking in the background, tugging, pulling, and cajoling their emotions until they think and feel exactly as you want?

Then you need to infuse your content with power words.

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The 7 Different Types of Power Words

1. Fear Power Words
2. Encouragement Power Words
3. Lust Power Words
4. Anger Power Words
5. Greed Power Words
6. Safety Power Words
7. Forbidden Power Words

We’ve organized our power words into seven different types, which all accomplish the same goal: They inspire emotion in your reader.

Let’s go over each type and see why they work.

1. Fear Power Words

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Let’s do a little experiment.

Just for a moment, stop reading this post, turn on the television, and go to a major news channel. Watch it for five minutes, listening for the words below.

Chances are, you’ll hear dozens of them. Here’s why:

Fear is without a doubt the most powerful emotion for grabbing and keeping an audience’s attention. To make sure you don’t change the channel, news networks load up with fear words, making you worry you might miss something important.

Granted, you can overdo it, but in my opinion, most writers don’t use these types of words nearly enough. They really do connect with people.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Fear Words

Here’s an example of a blog post headline here at Smart Blogger that utilizes three different fear words:

Open it and you’re greeted by this fear-packed introduction:

I was in agony.

Waves of pain unimaginable shot down my spine, causing every muscle in my body to contract as if I’d been shocked with 20,000 volts of electricity. My back arched up at an unnatural angle. My arms and legs began to shake.

One moment, I was on a webinar talking to a few hundred people about traffic, walking them through exactly how to start a blog and make it popular. The next, everything went dark. I was still conscious, but just barely.

Pretty effective, right?

If you’d like to sprinkle fear power words into your writing, here are a bunch to get you started:

Agony	Lunatic
Apocalypse	Lurking
Armageddon	Massacre
Assault	Meltdown
Backlash	Menacing
Beating	Mired
Beware	Mistake
Blinded	Murder
Blood	Nightmare
Bloodbath	Painful
Bloodcurdling	Pale
Bloody	Panic
Blunder	Peril
Bomb	Piranha
Buffoon	Pitfall
Bumbling	Plague
Cadaver	Played
Catastrophe	Plummet
Caution	Plunge
Collapse	Poison
Corpse	Poor
Crazy	Prison
Cripple	Pummel
Crisis	Pus
Danger	Reckoning
Dark	Refugee
Deadly	Revenge
Death	Risky
Deceiving	Scary
Destroy	Scream
Devastating	Searing
Disastrous	Shame
Doom	Shatter
Drowning	Shellacking
Dumb	Shocked
Embarrass	Silly
Fail	Slaughter
Feeble	Slave
Fired	Strangle
Fool	Stupid
Fooled	Suicide
Frantic	Tailspin
Frightening	Tank
Gambling	Targeted
Gullible	Teetering
Hack	Terror
Hazardous	Terrorist
Hoax	Torture
Holocaust	Toxic
Horrific	Tragedy
Hurricane	Trap
Injure	Vaporize
Insidious	Victim
Invasion	Volatile
IRS	Vulnerable
Jail	Warning
Jeopardy	Worry
Lawsuit	Wounded
Looming

 

2. Encouragement Power Words

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Let’s face it.

When they’re reading, most people aren’t exactly bouncing off the walls with energy and enthusiasm. They’re probably bored, maybe a little depressed, and almost definitely tired.

And they’re looking for something, anything, that’ll wake them up and make them feel better.

The good news?

Your writing can do that for them.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Encouragement Words

Here’s an example email from Mirasee:

With two encouraging words — life-changing and magic — in one subject, it’s an email that stands out in most inboxes.

Want to give your readers a pep talk and get them charged up again? Want to encourage them?

Use these power words:

Amazing	Jubilant
Ascend	Legend
Astonishing	Life-changing
Astounding	Magic
Audacious	Marvelous
Awe-inspiring	Master
Awesome	Mind-blowing
Backbone	Miracle
Badass	Miraculous
Beat	Noble
Belief	Perfect
Blissful	Persuade
Bravery	Phenomenal
Breathtaking	Pluck
Brilliant	Power-up
Celebrate	Praise
Cheer	Prevail
Colossal	Remarkable
Command	Revel
Conquer	Rule
Courage	Score
Daring	Seize
Defeat	Sensational
Defiance	Spectacular
Delight	Spine
Devoted	Spirit
Dignity	Splendid
Dominate	Spunk
Effortless	Staggering
Empower	Strengthen
Epic	Striking
Excellent	Strong
Excited	Stunning
Extraordinary	Stunt
Eye-opening	Supreme
Fabulous	Surprising
Faith	Terrific
Fantastic	Thrive
Fearless	Thwart
Ferocious	Titan
Fierce	Tough
Force	Triumph
Fulfill	Tremendous
Glorious	Unbeatable
Glory	Unbelievable
Graceful	Unforgettable
Grateful	Unique
Grit	Unleash
Guts	Uplifting
Happy	Valiant
Heart	Valor
Hero	Vanquish
Honor	Victory
Hope	Win
Incredible	Wonderful
Jaw-dropping	Wondrous

 

3. Lust Power Words

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Like it or not, lust is one of the core human emotions.

Just look at the men’s and women’s magazines in the checkout aisle, and you’ll see what I mean. Nearly every headline on the cover is either blatantly or indirectly about sex.

And it works, not just for men’s and women’s magazines, but for anything.

As a writer, you can use words that inspire lust to make almost anything intriguing.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Lust Words

See if you can spot the lust words in this headline from Cosmopolitan:

Okay, the orange underlines probably give it away, but my hunch is you didn’t need them.

Power words like captivating and love jump off the page. And if you use them properly, they can stir all sorts of emotions in your readers’ heads.

Here’s a lascivious list to get you started:

Allure	Naughty
Arouse	Nude
Bare	Obscene
Begging	Orgasmic
Beguiling	Passionate
Brazen	Pining
Captivating	Pleasure
Charm	Provocative
Cheeky	Racy
Climax	Raunchy
Crave	Risque
Delight	Rowdy
Delirious	Salacious
Depraved	Satisfy
Desire	Saucy
Dirty	Scandalous
Divine	Seduce
Ecstasy	Seductive
Embrace	Sensual
Enchant	Sex
Enthralling	Shameless
Entice	Sinful
Entrance	Sleazy
Excite	Sleeping
Explicit	Spank
Exposed	Spellbinding
Fascinate	Spicy
Forbidden	Steamy
Frisky	Stimulating
Goosebumps	Strip
Hanker	Sweaty
Heavenly	Tantalizing
Hottest	Taste
Hypnotic	Tawdry
Impure	Tease
Indecent	Tempting
Intense	Thrilling
Intoxicating	Tickle
Itching	Tight
Juicy	Tingle
Kinky	Turn on
Kiss	Unabashed
Lascivious	Uncensored
Lewd	Untamed
Lick	Untouched
Lonely	Urge
Longing	Voluptuous
Love	Vulgar
Lure	Wanton
Luscious	Wet
Lush	Whip
Lust	Wild
Mischievous	X-rated
Mouth-watering	Yearning
Naked	Yummy

 

4. Anger Power Words

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As writers, sometimes our job is to anger people.

Not for the fun of it, mind you, but because someone is doing something wrong, and the community needs to take action to correct it.

The problem is, with wrongdoing, most people are pretty apathetic — they’ll wait until the situation becomes entirely intolerable to do anything, and by then, it’s often too late.

So, we have to fan the flames.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Anger Words

The authors of this Forbes headline don’t pull any punches:

I didn’t realize some people get angry over business jargon, but apparently it’s a thing. And this headline, undoubtedly, had such people frothing at the mouth.

If you want to connect with people’s anger and slowly but surely work them into a frenzy, use the power words below.

Just be careful who you target. Lawyers can eat you alive if you pick on the wrong person. 🙂

Abhorrent	Money-grubbing
Abuse	Nasty
Annoying	Nazi
Arrogant	No good
Ass kicking	Obnoxious
Backstabbing	Oppressive
Barbaric	Pain in the ass
Bash	Payback
Beat down	Perverse
Big mouth	Pesky
Blatant	Pest
Brutal	Phony
Bullsh*t	Pissed off
Bully	Pollute
Cheat	Pompous
Clobber	Pound
Clown	Preposterous
Cocky	Pretentious
Corrupt	Punch
Coward	Punish
Crooked	Rampant
Crush	Ravage
Curse	Repelling
Debase	Repugnant
Defile	Revile
Delinquent	Revolting
Demolish	Rotten
Desecrate	Rude
Disgusting	Ruined
Dishonest	Ruthless
Distorted	Savage
Evil	Scam
Exploit	Scold
Force-fed	Sick and tired
Foul	Sink
Freaking out	Slam
Full of sh*t	Slander
Greedy	Slap
Gross	Slay
Harass	Smash
Hate	Smear
High and mighty	Smug
Horrid	Sniveling
Infuriating	Snob
Jackass	Snooty
Kick	Snotty
Kill	Spoil
Knock	Stuck up
Knock out	Suck
Know it all	Terrorize
Lies	Trash
Livid	Trounce
Loathsome	Tyranny
Loser	Underhanded
Lying	Up to here
Maul	Useless
Misleading	Violate

 

5. Greed Power Words

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The legendary copywriter Gary Halbert once said, “If you want people to buy something, stomp on their greed glands until they bleed.” Graphic, yes, but also true.

Skim through good sales copy, and you’ll find a lot of these power words. Many of them are so overused they’ve become cliché, but that doesn’t stop them from working.

The truth is, nearly every human being on the planet is interested in either saving or making money.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Greed Words

Its explicit and implicit use of greed words makes this popular book from Dave Ramsey a great example:

Source: Amazon (affiliate link)

“Money” is hard to miss — it’s probably the ultimate greed word and it’s sitting there in capital letters.

But a title like “Total Money Makeover” also implies another greed word (even though it doesn’t directly state it): money-saving.

(It also gets bonus points for using the safety power word “proven”, which we’ll discuss in a moment.)

If you want to stomp on your readers’ greed glands, use these power words:

Bank	Jackpot
Bargain	Lowest price
Best	Luxurious
Billion	Marked down
Bonanza	Massive
Booked solid	Money
Cash	Money-draining
Cheap	Money-saving
Costly	Nest egg
Discount	Pay zero
Dollar	Prize
Double	Profit
Explode	Quadruple
Extra	Reduced
Feast	Rich
Fortune	Savings
Free	Six-figure
Freebie	Skyrocket
Frenzy	Soaring
Frugal	Surge
Gift	Treasure
Golden	Triple
Greatest	Waste
High-paying	Wealth
Inexpensive	Whopping

 

6. Safety Power Words

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Greed isn’t the only emotion you want buyers to feel. You also want to make them feel safe.

They need to trust both you and your product or service. They need to have confidence you’ll deliver. They need to believe they’ll get results.

Of course, building that kind of trust starts with having a quality brand and reputation, but the words you use to describe yourself and your product or service also matter.

How to Crank Up Emotion with Safety Words

On the landing page for one of our Smart Blogger courses, we use power words to make sure our customers feel safe:

In addition to “legitimate” and “guaranteed” in the screenshot above, our landing page is sprinkled with numerous safety words:

• Money-back
• Results
• Refund
• Proven
• Risk-free

They work for us, and they can work for you.

Help your customers feel safe by using as many of these power words as possible:

Above and beyond	Privacy
Anonymous	Professional
Authentic	Protected
Automatic	Proven
Backed	Recession-proof
Bankable	Refund
Best-selling	Reliable
Cancel anytime	Research
Certified	Results
Clockwork	Risk-free
Endorsed	Rock-solid
Foolproof	Science-backed
Guaranteed	Scientific
Ironclad	Secure
Legitimate	Sure-fire
Lifetime	Survive
Money-back	Tested
No obligation	That never fails
No questions asked	Thorough
No risk	Trustworthy
No strings attached	Try before you buy
No-fail	Unconditional
Official	Verify
Permanent	World-class

 

7. Forbidden Power Words

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Remember when you were a kid, and someone told you NOT to do something? From that point on, you could think about little else, right?

The truth is, we’re all fascinated by the mysterious and forbidden. It’s like it’s programmed into our very nature.

So why not tap into that programming?

How to Crank Up Emotion with Forbidden Words

This Ahrefs article tempts you with its headline:

What’s the “secret”? Only one way to find out.

Whenever you want to create curiosity, sprinkle these power words throughout your writing, and readers won’t be able to help being intrigued:

Ancient	Lost
Backdoor	Never seen before
Banned	Off the record
Behind the scenes	Off-limits
Black Market	Outlawed
Blacklisted	Private
Bootleg	Restricted
Censored	Sealed
Classified	Secret
Cloak and dagger	Smuggled
Concealed	Strange
Confessions	Tried to hide
Confidential	Unauthorized
Controversial	Uncensored
Covert	Under wraps
Cover-up	Undercover
Exotic	Underground
Forbidden	Under-the-table
Forgotten	Undisclosed
From the vault	Unexpected
Hidden	Unlock
Hush-hush	Unreachable
Illegal	Unspoken
Insider	Unveiled
Little-known	Withheld

 

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Now that we’ve looked at the different types of power words (and gone over a few quick examples), let’s go over all the different places you can use them:

Power Words in Action: 14 Places Where Strong Words Can Help You

1. Headlines
2. Subheads
3. Email Subject Lines
4. Opt-In Boxes
5. Homepage
6. Business Names/Blog Names
7. Product Names
8. Sales Pages
9. Testimonials
10. Bullet Lists
11. Button Copy
12. Author Bios
13. YouTube Videos
14. Book Titles

1. Using Power Words in Headlines

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Any blogger who’s been in the game for a while knows the headline is the most important part of writing your blog post.

Its purpose, after all, is to entice the reader to read the rest of your content. If your headline fails to get attention, potential readers will ignore it when it shows up in their social media feed.

And just one or two power words in your headline is usually enough to make it stand out.

Just look at this headline from BuzzFeed:

The word “Unveiled” makes it feel like a secret is being exposed, and the word “Breathtaking” makes you curious to see what the photo looks like.

Here’s another example from BoredPanda:

People generally love anything adorable, so this headline will easily catch attention. (The fact that it refers to snakes will only make people more curious.)

The headline then drives it home by using the powerful verb “Conquer.”

Here’s one from BrightSide:

While one or two power words are often enough, this headline proves you can use more when it fits.

This headline has four powerful words, but they feel natural in the headline, which keeps it from feeling like over-the-top clickbait.

Last one:

This headline from our How to Make Money Writing: 5 Ways to Get Paid to Write in 2019 post incorporates two greed words: “money” and “get paid.”

It’s one of our most-popular posts, and its headline’s use of power words is a big reason why.

2. Using Power Words in Subheads

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Too many writers overlook the value of subheads, which is a mistake. Once people click on your headline, most will scan the post first to see if it looks worthy of their attention.

Adding some power words to your subheads is a good way to make your post look like an interesting read.

For example, here are three subheads from our post on E-book mistakes:

See how the power words in these subheads grab your attention and make you want to read the text that follows?

Adding one or two power words to your subheads will compel readers to stick around longer, which will increase your dwell time — a big deal in Google’s eyes.

3. Using Power Words in Email Subject Lines

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Having an email list is of little use if only a handful of readers bother to open your emails.

And these days, most people’s inboxes are flooded, so they’re selective in which emails they open.

You can stand out in their inbox and raise your open rates by including power words in your subject lines.

Just look at this one from Ramit Sethi:

If this subject line would’ve read “The rules of learning,” do you think it would be as appealing? The word “unspoken” is what makes it interesting.

Here’s another one from Cal Fussman:

Both “Triumph” and “Tragedy” are powerful words full of emotion.

And finally, here’s a good example from AppSumo:

The phrase “Unleash the power” makes you feel this email is hiding something incredibly powerful inside.

See how that works?

When you send out emails to your list, try to add a power word to your subject line so it stands out in readers’ inboxes.

4. Using Power Words in Opt-In Boxes

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As a blogger, one of your main goals is to grow a large and engaged readership, and the best way to do it is by converting readers into subscribers.

That means — unless you’re using a blogging platform like Medium which doesn’t allow them — you should have opt-in forms scattered across your website.

You can place them on your homepage, at the end of your posts, in your sidebar, in a popup, or anywhere else.

But no matter where you place them, your opt-in boxes must catch people’s eye and make them want to share their email address with you. Because they won’t just give it away to just anyone.

(Remember, their inboxes are already flooded, so they’re not necessarily eager to get even more emails.)

Fortunately, you can use power words to make your offer more enticing.

As an example, here’s an old popup from Cosmopolitan:

This popup had power words everywhere, but it avoided feeling like overkill. I bet it converted like crazy.

Here’s a slightly more subtle example from Betty Means Business:

It’s understated, but still quite effective.

Again, you don’t have to overdo it with the power words on these. A little can go a long way.

Here’s one final example from Renegade Planner:

In short:

If you’re not using power words in your opt-in boxes, you’re missing out.

Big time.

5. Using Power Words on Your Homepage

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Your homepage is the face of your website and it’s usually one of the most visited pages. Many people who visit your website will see this page first, so you want it to make a good first impression.

Some people use their homepage to promote their email list, others use it to promote one of their products, and others use it as a red carpet — welcoming new visitors and explaining what their site is all about.

In any case, your homepage is a good spot to add a few power words, as it can determine whether people stay (and take the action you want them to take) or leave (never to return).

Look at this value proposition on the homepage for Nerd Fitness:

“Nerds,” “Misfits,” and “Mutants” are unusual power words that work well for the audience Nerd Fitness is targeting. These words immediately separate it from all the other fitness blogs out there.

But they push it even further with “Strong,” “Healthy,” and “Permanently.”

Here’s another value proposition from MainStreetHost’s homepage:

It’s quite minimal, isn’t it? They just wrote down three power words and follow it up with a service they provide.

Of course, you don’t have to limit your use of power words to the top of your homepage.

You can use it in other parts of the homepage too, as Ramit Sethi does here in his list of what you’ll get when you sign up for his email list:

Go look at your homepage now and see if you can find any areas you can spruce up with some power words.

6. Using Power Words in Business Names/Blog Names

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Having a forgettable name is poison to your website’s growth. So when you start a blog, you want to make sure you have a name people can easily recall.

If you haven’t chosen your blog name yet (or if you’re thinking about rebranding), you should use a power word to give it some punch. It’ll make you stand out from all the boring, forgettable brands out there.

Just take a look at the collection of blog names below and see how well they’ve incorporated power words:

7. Using Power Words in Product Names

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Just like you can use power words to spruce up your blog name, you can also use them to make your product names pack more of a punch.

It can make the difference between your potential customers thinking, “Ooh, this product sounds cool!” and them thinking, “Meh.”

Just check out this subscription product from Nerd Fitness:

It has such a powerful name that you’d almost want to sign up without learning anything else about it. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a community of rising heroes?

Here’s another good example from Pat Flynn:

It’s a powerful name for his podcasting course that instantly informs you of the benefit.

So if you’re about to launch a product (or if you’ve launched a product with a tepid name), consider giving it a power word to make it pack a punch.

8. Using Power Words on Sales Pages

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You can also use power words to spruce up your sales pages and make them more effective at selling your products or services.

They will grab people’s attention when they arrive on the page, they will keep their attention as they scroll down, and they’ll help seduce readers before they reach your “buy” button.

Just look at this headline on Ramit Sethi’s sales page for his product 50 Proven Email Scripts (which also has a power word in its name):

And as you scroll down, you see he keeps using power words throughout his sales page.

His headline is followed by emotion-packed subheads:

And he even uses power words in his guarantee:

9. Using Power Words in Testimonials

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Power words are also tremendously effective in testimonials.

Of course, I’m not suggesting you change people’s testimonials to include power words. But you can certainly select the ones that already use them to great effect.

Just look at this example from Betty Means Business:

Or look at this one from Farideh’s blog:

And here’s another example from Renegade Planner:

All these testimonials will lend extra credibility and excitement due to their power words and phrases.

10. Using Power Words in Bullet Lists

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Many sales pages include a list of benefits of the product they’re selling. Many opt-in forms include a list of reasons you should sign up to their email list.

You can use power words in these lists to inspire more excitement in your reader as they read through them.

Here’s one example from Ramit Sethi’s sales page for his How to Talk to Anyone course:

And here’s another example from an opt-in form on Restart Your Style:

Without these power words, these list wouldn’t convince nearly as many readers to buy or subscribe.

11. Using Power Words in Button Copy

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Yep, you can use power words in your button copy too — even if you only have a few words you can fit in there.

One of the most common power words used in buttons is “Free” (as in the example below):

But you can be more creative with buttons than you might think.

Takes this button from the sales page for the book The Renegade Diet:

“Immediate,”,“Money Back,” and “Guarantee” are all incredibly powerful words, and the author manages to squeeze them all into one button.

Here’s an example from Tim Ferris:

He could’ve used “Send Me the List” as most people would do, but “Unlock” makes it sound a lot more intriguing — like you’re getting access to something that’s been kept hidden away.

Now take a look at the buttons on your site.

Do you see any opportunities to spruce them up with a power word?

12. Using Power Words in Author Bios

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Your author bio is another extremely important part of your marketing.

When you guest post for another blog (or write an article as a freelancer), your author bio has the difficult job of making readers want to know more about you so they click through to your site.

That means your author bio needs to spark attention and interest. And you usually only get three sentences, so you need to carefully consider the words you use.

As an example, here’s the author bio from Henneke Duistermaat in her post on overcoming writer’s block:

Henneke’s author bio is full of power words. It shows her uniqueness and makes her stand out from other copywriters.

You can tell she has carefully picked each word for maximum impact.

Here’s another example from Sarah Peterson’s post on blog ads:

She opens strong immediately by mentioning her guides are insanely useful. And just the name of her report alone is full of power words: “Free,” “Reveal,” and “Begging.”

Makes you want to get your hands on that report, doesn’t it?

13. Using Power Words on YouTube Videos

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If you’re publishing videos on YouTube and you want to get more views, you should use power words in your titles.

All the biggest YouTube channels do this.

They understand most of their views will come from their subscribers finding them in their feeds, and from people finding them in the sidebar of other videos.

In both cases, you’re competing with many other videos for their attention. If you want your video to stand out and be the one they choose to watch, your title has to be captivating.

See how Philip DeFranco does it below:

“Disgusting,” “Punishment,” and “Controversy” are all attention-grabbing words (and that’s besides the attention-grabbing names of Brock Turner, Star Wars, and Kim Kardashian).

Note also how he has capitalized “Disgusting.” It’s another smart trick many YouTube channels use to stand out more in YouTube’s lists of video suggestions.

Style vlogger Aaron Marino often does it as well:

By capitalizing the power words “Don’ts” and “Stupid,” his title catches a lot more attention (as you can see for yourself by the millions of views it’s received).

14. Using Power Words in Book Titles

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If you’re interested in writing your own book, adding power words to your titles will help it sell better.

With all the competition in the book market these days, you need a title that grabs people’s attention and makes them want to peek inside.

Here are a few quick grabs from Amazon’s list of bestsellers in the self-help niche:

Source: Amazon (affiliate link)

I’m sure you’ve seen this title before.

You might say Stephen Covey’s use of power words in his title has been highly effective. (See what I did there?)

Here’s another:

Source: Amazon (affiliate link)

Mark Manson’s bestselling title is packed with power.

The power word “Subtle” juxtaposes well with the F-bomb in the title, and his use of “Counterintuitive” will spark some interest as well.

One more:

Source: Amazon (affiliate link)

Lastly, Jen Sincero’s encouraging book title makes you want to flip it open and read it in one go.

The use of “Badass” alone will make it stand out in the self-development section, but her use of “Greatness” and “Awesome” in the subtitle truly seals the deal.

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600+ Power Words and Phrases to Start Using Immediately

We’re not done just yet.

Before we wrap things up, here are the 7 types of power words in one ginormous list.

It’s an ever-growing, definitive resource for anyone looking to boost the emotion of their writing with powerful words.

Bookmark it, print it, and share it with the writers in your life:

Download All 600+ Power Words(in one handy, free PDF)

FEAR	ENCOURAGEMENT
Agony	Amazing
Apocalypse	Ascend
Armageddon	Astonishing
Assault	Astounding
Backlash	Audacious
Beating	Awe-inspiring
Beware	Awesome
Blinded	Backbone
Blood	Badass
Bloodbath	Beat
Bloodcurdling	Belief
Bloody	Blissful
Blunder	Bravery
Bomb	Breathtaking
Buffoon	Brilliant
Bumbling	Celebrate
Cadaver	Cheer
Catastrophe	Colossal
Caution	Command
Collapse	Conquer
Corpse	Courage
Crazy	Daring
Cripple	Defeat
Crisis	Defiance
Danger	Delight
Dark	Devoted
Deadly	Dignity
Death	Dominate
Deceiving	Effortless
Destroy	Empower
Devastating	Epic
Disastrous	Excellent
Doom	Excited
Drowning	Extraordinary
Dumb	Eye-opening
Embarrass	Fabulous
Fail	Faith
Feeble	Fantastic
Fired	Fearless
Fool	Ferocious
Fooled	Fierce
Frantic	Force
Frightening	Fulfill
Gambling	Glorious
Gullible	Glory
Hack	Graceful
Hazardous	Grateful
Hoax	Grit
Holocaust	Guts
Horrific	Happy
Hurricane	Heart
Injure	Hero
Insidious	Honor
Invasion	Hope
IRS	Incredible
Jail	Jaw-dropping
Jeopardy	Jubilant
Lawsuit	Legend
Looming	Life-changing
Lunatic	Magic
Lurking	Marvelous
Massacre	Master
Meltdown	Mind-blowing
Menacing	Miracle
Mired	Miraculous
Mistake	Noble
Murder	Perfect
Nightmare	Persuade
Painful	Phenomenal
Pale	Pluck
Panic	Power-Up
Peril	Praise
Piranha	Prevail
Pitfall	Remarkable
Plague	Revel
Played	Rule
Plummet	Score
Plunge	Seize
Poison	Sensational
Poor	Spectacular
Prison	Spine
Pummel	Spirit
Pus	Splendid
Reckoning	Spunk
Refugee	Staggering
Revenge	Strengthen
Risky	Striking
Scary	Strong
Scream	Stunning
Searing	Stunt
Shame	Supreme
Shatter	Surprising
Shellacking	Terrific
Shocked	Thrive
Silly	Thwart
Slaughter	Titan
Slave	Tough
Strangle	Tremendous
Stupid	Triumph
Suicide	Unbeatable
Tailspin	Unbelievable
Tank	Unforgettable
Targeted	Unique
Teetering	Unleash
Terror	Uplifting
Terrorist	Valiant
Torture	Valor
Toxic	Vanquish
Tragedy	Victory
Trap	Win
Vaporize	Wonderful
Victim	Wondrous
Volatile
Vulnerable
Warning
Worry
Wounded
LUST	ANGER
Allure	Abhorrent
Arouse	Abuse
Bare	Annoying
Begging	Arrogant
Beguiling	Ass kicking
Brazen	Backstabbing
Captivating	Barbaric
Charm	Bash
Cheeky	Beat down
Climax	Big mouth
Crave	Blatant
Delight	Brutal
Delirious	Bullsh*t
Depraved	Bully
Desire	Cheat
Dirty	Clobber
Divine	Clown
Ecstacy	Cocky
Embrace	Corrupt
Enchant	Coward
Enthralling	Crooked
Entice	Crush
Entrance	Curse
Excite	Debase
Explicit	Defile
Exposed	Delinquent
Fascinate	Demolish
Forbidden	Desecrate
Frisky	Disgusting
Goosebumps	Dishonest
Hanker	Distorted
Heavenly	Evil
Hottest	Exploit
Hypnotic	Force-fed
Impure	Foul
Indecent	Freaking out
Intense	Full of sh*t
Intoxicating	Greedy
Itching	Gross
Juicy	Harass
Kinky	Hate
Kiss	High and mighty
Lascivious	Horrid
Lewd	Infuriating
Lick	Jackass
Lonely	Kick
Longing	Kill
Love	Knock
Lure	Knock Out
Luscious	Know it all
Lush	Lies
Lust	Livid
Mischievous	Loathsome
Mouth-watering	Loser
Naked	Lying
Naughty	Maul
Nude	Misleading
Obscene	Money-grubbing
Orgasmic	Nasty
Passionate	Nazi
Pining	No Good
Pleasure	Obnoxious
Provocative	Oppressive
Racy	Pain in the ass
Raunchy	Payback
Risque	Perverse
Rowdy	Pesky
Salacious	Pest
Satisfy	Phony
Saucy	Pissed off
Scandalous	Pollute
Seduce	Pompous
Seductive	Pound
Sensual	Preposterous
Sex	Pretentious
Shameless	Punch
Sinful	Punish
Sleazy	Rampant
Sleeping	Ravage
Spank	Repelling
Spellbinding	Repugnant
Spicy	Revile
Steamy	Revolting
Stimulating	Rotten
Strip	Rude
Sweaty	Ruined
Tantalizing	Ruthless
Taste	Savage
Tawdry	Scam
Tease	Scold
Tempting	Sick and tired
Thrilling	Sink
Tickle	Slam
Tight	Slander
Tingle	Slap
Turn on	Slay
Unabashed	Smash
Uncensored	Smear
Untamed	Smug
Untouched	Sniveling
Urge	Snob
Voluptuous	Snooty
Vulgar	Snotty
Wanton	Spoil
Wet	Stuck up
Whip	Suck
Wild	Terrorize
X-rated	Trash
Yearning	Trounce
Yummy	Tyranny
	Underhanded
	Up to here
	Useless
	Violate
GREED	SAFETY
Bank	Above and beyond
Bargain	Anonymous
Best	Authentic
Billion	Automatic
Bonanza	Backed
Booked solid	Bankable
Cash	Best-selling
Cheap	Cancel anytime
Costly	Certified
Discount	Clockwork
Dollar	Endorsed
Double	Foolproof
Explode	Guaranteed
Extra	Ironclad
Feast	Legitimate
Fortune	Lifetime
Free	Money-back
Freebie	No Obligation
Frenzy	No Questions Asked
Frugal	No risk
Gift	No strings attached
Golden	No-fail
Greatest	Official
High-paying	Permanent
Inexpensive	Privacy
Jackpot	Professional
Lowest price	Protected
Luxurious	Proven
Marked down	Recession-proof
Massive	Refund
Money	Reliable
Money-draining	Research
Money-saving	Results
Nest egg	Risk-free
Pay zero	Rock-solid
Prize	Science-backed
Profit	Scientific
Quadruple	Secure
Reduced	Sure-fire
Rich	Survive
Savings	Tested
Six-figure	That never fails
Skyrocket	Thorough
Soaring	Trustworthy
Surge	Try before you buy
Treasure	Unconditional
Triple	Verify
Waste	World-class
Wealth
Whopping
FORBIDDEN
Ancient
Backdoor
Banned
Behind the scenes
Black Market
Blacklisted
Bootleg
Censored
Classified
Cloak and dagger
Concealed
Confessions
Confidential
Controversial
Covert
Cover-up
Exotic
Forbidden
Forgotten
From the vault
Hidden
Hush-hush
Illegal
Insider
Little-known
Lost
Never seen before
Off the record
Off-limits
Outlawed
Private
Restricted
Sealed
Secret
Smuggled
Strange
Tried to hide
Unauthorized
Uncensored
Under wraps
Undercover
Underground
Under-the-table
Undisclosed
Unexpected
Unlock
Unreachable
Unspoken
Unveiled
Withheld

 

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Go Ahead and Tell Me. What Powerful Words Did I Miss?

They’re known by many names…

Emotion words. Good words. Strong words. Powerful words, creative words, fancy words, sensory words, trigger words, smart words, feeling words, descriptive words, impactful words, and even — yes, seriously — awesome words.

But whatever you call them; smart, attractive people such as yourself use “power words” every day to pack their writing with emotion.

Yes, this is an enormous list, but with so many power words available, nobody can possibly catch them all on the first pass.

What are some other words that seem to have that extra little spark of emotion inside them?

Leave your answer in the comments, and as time goes by, I’ll come back periodically and update the list. Eventually, I hope to have over 1,000 words here, separated and organized by category, making this the definitive resource for power words on the web.

Thanks in advance for commenting and sharing the post with your friends!

About the Author: Jon Morrow has asked repeatedly to be called “His Royal Awesomeness” but no one listens to him. So, he settles for CEO of Smart Blogger. Poor man. 🙂

The post 600+ Power Words That’ll Pack Your Writing with Emotion appeared first on Smart Blogger.

source https://smartblogger.com/power-words/

How to Build a Niche Website (Step-by-Step Case Study)

Ever dreamed of lying on the beach while earning tons of passive income?

I did.

I wanted to build my own business that generated thousands of dollars while I slept, partied, and traveled around the world.

So, in 2015, my friends and I created a niche website to teach beginners how to breakdance.

Sadly, we never made enough money to quit our jobs and move to paradise.

But here’s the thing…

Though we weren’t successful, the experience taught me a lot about how to build a niche website, market it, and monetize it. And combined with the knowledge I’ve gained working at Ahrefs, I now know the keys to success.

In this post, I’m going to show you what I’ve learned:

What I did right, what I did wrong, and what I would do differently if I created a new niche site today.

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We’ll start with a quick definition, followed by a few examples…

What is a Niche Website?

A niche website is a website that caters to a small segment of a large market by focusing on a common, specific interest.

My website, BreakDance Decoded, was a niche website. It specifically targeted breakdancers, which is a small part of the much larger “dance” market.

Other examples of niche sites are Mr. Money Mustache (focusing on saving and budgeting in the personal finance market) and Kopywriting Kourse (focusing on copywriting in the marketing/business market).

There’s a common misconception that a niche website is a small site. This isn’t true.

“Niche” refers to the segment of the market, not the size of the website.

A site can be niche and still have thousands of pages covering a variety of topics related to the niche.

Case in Point

Nerd Fitness is a niche website that writes about fitness for nerds. Even though it’s only targeting a specific type of persona, the site has hundreds of blog posts ranking for important keywords in Google.

In general, a niche website is an information website. It either produces or sells information that solve problems (e.g. courses, ebooks, etc.).

It may eventually pivot to other monetization models like e-commerce, but the core engine behind the site is information.

Now that you know what a niche site is, let’s take a look at how you create one:

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How to Create a Niche Website in 2019 (Step-By-Step)

1. Choose Your Niche
2. Setup Your Site
3. Do Topic Research
4. Create Your Content
5. Promote Your Content
6. Grow Your Email List
7. Experiment With Monetization

1. Choose Your Niche

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For many aspiring bloggers, niche selection is one of the most challenging dilemmas they face when starting a blog.

They either have too many ideas, or — worse — they have no idea what kind of site they should build.

It doesn’t help that there’s lots of contradictory advice out there: some people suggest you start with your passion, while others say you should choose a niche that’s profitable.

How I Chose My Niche

Personally, I started with my passion.

Not counting my job, breakdancing was the activity I spent the most time doing. So, setting up a niche site that would educate people about breakdancing was a no-brainer for me.

If you’re completely new to building a site and you just want to learn how things work, I would recommend you start with your passion.

Why?

Because growing a website is hard work.

But if you’re creating content on a topic you’re passionate about, you’ll be able to find the motivation to persist on those days you feel like quitting.

(And trust me, those days will be frequent.)

How I Would Choose My Niche Today

Today, I would choose a profitable niche.

What’s that?

It’s a niche with a large audience that buys things.

And that’s what you want:

A market where people are buying, buying, and buying.

While it was fun to write about breakdancing, it was a tough market to crack. When we started, there weren’t any other niche sites about breakdancing. Our competing sites were mostly e-commerce stores selling apparel for breakdancers.

In hindsight, that should have been a warning sign.

If there are no competitors in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you should be concerned.

Competitors = Viable Market

Competition is healthy. It’s a sign the market is worth entering. It’s a sign there’s money to be made.

We should have listened.

To help you avoid the mistake we made, here are a couple tips to help you find profitable niches:

Tip #1: Brainstorm + Snooping Around

Sit down and brainstorm some niches you’re interested in pursuing. Then, do a quick Google search to see if there are any sites dedicated to them.

You can search for “best [niche] blogs” to get started (e.g. “best breakdancing blogs”).

And once you’ve found a few potential competitors in your niche, “snoop” around their site and see how they’re monetizing.

If they have a variety of products, it could be a good niche.

For example, let’s say I am interested in the paleo niche. A quick Google search for the “best paleo blogs” brings me to this site:

Looking around, I can see Diane monetizes her site in a variety of ways:

• Books
• Programs/Courses
• Amazon Affiliates
• Certifying other health coaches
• Etc.

Seems like a good niche!

Tip #2: Browse Affiliate Marketplaces

Alternatively, you can also look into affiliate networks like ClickBank and Amazon Associates. These are middlemen networks that connect bloggers and niche site owners with companies offering affiliate marketing opportunities.

You have an audience, they have a product. Perfect match!

Affiliate networks are ideal because:

• These products are being bought by people interested in different niches;
• They have a variety of categories you can browse.

Just go through them until you find products you’re interested in.

Here’s an example:

Right now, I’m learning Russian. So, I might be interested in starting a niche site about the Russian language.

And lo and behold, ClickBank has a category for the Russian language. Cool!

Unfortunately, there is only one product for sale in this category.

That isn’t promising. If it was a profitable niche, there would probably be more options.

However, when I click on “Languages”, I see lots of courses. And if I follow tip #1, searching for “best language hacking blogs” brings back a strong list of competitors, such as Fluent in 3 Months.

So, “Russian” might be too niche.

But “language” learning could be a niche worth pursuing.

Key Takeaways

• If you’re completely new, start a niche website for one of your hobbies or passions.
• If you know what you’re doing, choose a profitable niche.
• To find profitable niches, do a Google search to see if there are any sites ranking in the SERPs for your target topic. If there are, snoop around to see if they’re monetizing.
• You can also use affiliate networks like ClickBank to find interesting niches to enter.

Further Reading

• How To Find A Niche That Is Guaranteed To Be Profitable by Authority Hacker
• Find Your Niche With My Secret To Finding Profitable Niche by Matthew Woodward
• How To Find A Profitable Niche For Your Blog (7 Simple Steps) by Cloud Living

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2. Setup Your Site

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Done with niche selection?

Great. Now it’s time to setup your site.

There are four things you need when you first get started:

• Domain
• Hosting Provider
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Theme (Plus Some Essential Plugins)

Now, don’t worry if you’re not tech-savvy. I wasn’t great when I started too. I’ll be running through what each of them are, so you can get started fast.

How I Setup My Site (and How I Would Do it Differently Today)

See this?

This is a domain. Think of your domain as the address to your house.

A lot of beginners get stuck on this phase. They procrastinate, hoping to find a perfect domain name.

The hard truth? There’s no such thing.

For us, we wanted a domain that was memorable but self-explanatory. We wanted people to understand what the site was about immediately.

That meant we needed the word “breakdance” in our domain. After brainstorming a few ideas, and consulting the thesaurus, we settled on breakdancedecoded.com.

Don’t spend all your time deciding on the domain. Just make sure it is:

• Short and memorable;
• Easy to spell. Imagine if someone asked you for your domain in real-life. Would it be easy for someone to remember and type it in later, or would they struggle to remember?
• Includes your niche. This tells the visitor right away what your site is about.

If you’re stuck, you can use a tool like Domain Name Brain to give you some ideas:

Once you’re done deciding the name, check if  it is available in a domain registrar like NameCheap (affiliate link) or Hover.

Next: A Hosting Provider

To have a house, you need to have the architecture to hold it.

Your host is that architecture.

A hosting provider allows your website to be accessible on the Internet.

Since we weren’t technically-savvy, we followed a friend’s instruction and got our hosting from WPEngine.

In hindsight, that wasn’t a good decision. WPEngine is great, but it is pretty costly for a beginner site that won’t get that much traffic.

If you’re starting out, you probably won’t be getting very much traffic. So, it’s better to get a cheaper host.

There are plenty of hosting providers out there. Take a look around. Smart Blogger recommends SiteGround (affiliate link), so they’re one option to consider.

Editor’s Note:

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Jon’s in-depth guide on web hosting.

Before you choose a hosting provider, be sure to check out WordPress Hosting: A Brutally Honest Guide That’ll Save You Money.

Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system is an online tool that enables you to create and manage your content (e.g. blog posts). WordPress is the most popular CMS, but there are other alternatives too.

Since we were using WPEngine, we turned to WordPress as our blogging platform.

As you’ll see later on, the biggest traffic channel for a niche site will likely be Google. As such, you should choose a CMS that is SEO-friendly.

Most search engine optimization (SEO) experts recommend WordPress, and it’s the CMS I recommend too.

Editor’s Note:

The steps for installing WordPress will depend on your hosting provide and your particular situation.

But don’t worry.

Chances are excellent our massive, step-by-guide on How to Install WordPress in 5 Minutes or Less will be able to walk you through the tricky parts.

Once you’re done with the installation, you’ll need a theme.

A theme is a template that defines the appearance of your site. (Think of it like the design of your house).

For our theme, we chose Genesis.

Genesis isn’t the best-looking theme around, but at the time we were looking for efficiency and ease of use. (Plus, we weren’t that great with design.) We also figured that we could upgrade to a better theme later on, if we got more successful.

Genesis Theme in Action

With its simplicity, Genesis was a great theme for us. If you’re more design-savvy, feel free to pick another theme.

Smart Blogger recommends Elegant Themes (affiliate link), but you can also browse through the selections in ThemeForest.

Once you’re done, install these two free plugins:

• Akismet. Helps you combat comment spam.
• Yoast SEO. Helps you easily optimize your on-page SEO.

If you want more WordPress plugins to install, check out this list of time savers.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t get analysis paralysis when it comes to your domain name. Choose one that is memorable, easy to spell, and includes your niche.
• Since you won’t get very much traffic initially, start with a cheaper, flexible host, like SiteGround.
• Choose WordPress as your CMS.

Further Reading

• WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need by Viper Chill
• WordPress SEO: A Practical (and EASY) Guide by Ahrefs

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3. Do Topic Research

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Your foundation is set.

It’s time to start getting traffic to your site.

How I Did My Topic Research

Now, at this point, most bloggers make the same mistake:

They write about whatever tickles their fancy.

I know because I did the same thing.

I brainstormed topics I thought would resonate with my audience, and then I wrote about them. The only reason I got away with it was because I was a breakdancer writing to other breakdancers.

I knew the topics that would interest my audience because I was a part of that audience.

But if you’re working in a niche that is unfamiliar to you, you can’t just write about anything you want.

Those topics won’t resonate and you won’t build an audience.

Worse:

Your content won’t rank in Google, which means no traffic will come to your site.

How I Would Do My Topic Research Today

For most niche sites, the best way to get traffic is SEO.

SEO is an acquisition channel that will grow passively. As long as you are ranking well for the keywords you’re targeting, you will get passive traffic.

Compare that with other channels.

You could experiment with paid ads (for example, Facebook ads), but as soon as you stop the campaign or run out of money, your traffic dries up immediately.

The same goes for social media. You have to either build up a large audience (difficult) or bank on viral hits (also difficult). And as soon as you stop tweeting and sharing, whatever traffic you were getting will disappear.

Search engine traffic doesn’t stop. It keeps going. Even when you’re sleeping.

If you want search traffic, you need to write about topics that people are searching for. In other words:

You need to create content for topics with search traffic potential.

In SEO parlance, this is known as keyword research.

Here are a few ways you can do it:

Use a Keyword Research Tool

The easiest way to get started is to use a keyword research tool.

Enter any seed keywords related to your niche into a keyword research tool, and it will generate hundreds of different ideas you can target.

For example, here’s a free keyword tool called AnswerThePublic:

AnswerThePublic generates ideas for you based on different categories: questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabeticals, etc.

There are plenty of other free tools out there, like:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Wordtracker Scout
• Keywords Everywhere

Take your pick.

One of the most important metrics SEOs look at when doing keyword research is search volume. Essentially, search volume is the amount of searches per month for a keyword.

The problem with a free tool is that, while it’s free, it usually has either missing or incomplete data.

As such, you might want to consider using a professional keyword tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer (affiliate link).

You can access it using the Ahrefs’ $7 for 7-days trial.

Enter a seed keyword into Keywords Explorer, and it will generate thousands of keyword ideas, plus all sorts of relevant SEO metrics:

Here’s a quick explanation of everything you’re seeing in the above screenshot:

• Keyword Difficulty (KD). Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty metric gives you an estimate of how hard it would be to rank in the Top 10 search results for a given keyword.
• Search volume (volume). This shows you how many times per month, on average, people in a given country search for your target keyword.
• Clicks. This shows you the average monthly number of clicks on the search results that people make while searching for the target keyword.
• Cost-per-click (CPC). This shows you the average price that advertisers pay for a click on their ad in Google’s paid search results for a target keyword in a given country.
• Clicks-per-search (CPS). This shows you the average number of clicks people perform after searching for a given keyword.
• Return Rate (RR). This shows you how often the same person searches for a given keyword over a 30-day period.
• SERP Features (SF). This refers to how many Google’s SERP Features appear in the search results for this keyword.
• Parent Topic. This shows you a better topic you can target as opposed to the keyword you’re entered.

Lurk in Communities

There are communities for every imaginable topic out there.

Love the TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine? There’s a subreddit for that. Enjoy discovering new products? Well, that’s how ProductHunt was formed.

You name it, they have it.

People gather in these communities to ask questions, discuss trending news, get recommendations, and so on.

Translation: these communities offer a wealth of topics for your niche site.

When we started, we hung out a lot on r/bboy, a subreddit for breakdancers. This was where we got our initial list of topics:

You can do the same too.

Do a search and find all the communities related to your niche. You can find them in places like:

• Reddit;
• Quora;
• Facebook;
• Slack;
• Forums (yes, they still exist);

And much more.

To find out if these topics have search traffic potential, you can install the Chrome/Firefox extension Keywords Everywhere on your browser.

You can also enter these topics into Keywords Explorer.

Ahrefs will show you all the SEO metrics, plus suggest a better topic for you to target (“Parent Topic”).

Figure Out What Your Competitors are Ranking for

Your competitors have done the hard work for you. They’ve been blogging and ranking in Google.

Your job? Borrow generously.

Find out what’s working for them, and then replicate those topic ideas.

Most sites feature their best-performing posts on their blogs, usually in a sidebar:

You can easily see which keywords they’re optimizing for.

For example, the post 595 Power Words That’ll Instantly Make You a Better Writer is obviously optimizing for the keyword “power words.”

If you’re unsure, you can click through to the post. If they’re SEO-savvy, they would have optimized their URLs for the target keyword.

Of course, the best way is to use a tool like Site Explorer.

Enter your competitor’s domain into the tool and go to the “Top Pages” report, where you’ll see all the pages sending them the most search traffic:

Key Takeaways

• To get search traffic to your niche website, you need to target topics that people are searching for. To do this, you need to do keyword research.
• You can either use a free keyword tool or a paid, professional version.
• The paid version will also allow you to check all the keywords your competitor sites are ranking for.
• To find out what your readers are searching for, you can also lurk in communities to find widely-discussed topics.

Further Reading

• What to Blog About: 3 Steps to Mapping out Your Ideas in a Logical Way by Jon Morrow
• Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide by Backlinko
• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO by Ahrefs

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4. Create Your Content

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Jon Morrow is right:

“The best content is king.”

If you want to rank in Google, build an audience and compete with others, you have to create epic content.

You have to publish the best article ever written about those topics with search traffic potential.

The posts have to be detailed.

They have to be in-depth.

They have to answer every single question about that topic.

How I Created My Content

When we began our niche site, we were already huge fans of the detailed, long-form articles published by Smart Blogger and Backlinko.

So, we sought to emulate them.

We even published a 17,000-word article on how to get started with breakdancing.

It was our most successful article, but it took us almost a month to write.

You might be wondering:

“If you’re writing such long articles, how can you publish something every day?”

Answer: you don’t.

Publishing every day is a fool’s game.

What you should do is to focus on quality, not quantity.

If you have to publish less, so be it. Don’t sacrifice the depth of your article on some arbitrary content schedule.

(For us, it was impossible to stick to a schedule, as we had full-time jobs.)

You want to be known for the quality of your work — not how quickly you pump out new articles.

That being said, what does it mean to create great content?

When we started, all we knew was we needed to create something in-depth. We weren’t writers and had no blogging experience.

In short, we had no way to measure and define “great content.” We just went with our instincts.

Today, things are different. After reading and writing so many pieces of content, I can see which articles can be classified as great, and which can’t.

How I Would Create My Content Today

I no longer need to rely on my instincts. I know what “great content” is and what it must embody. It needs the following three characteristics:

Characteristic #1: Quality

Quality is subjective, of course.

How then do you know you’ve created something worth shouting about?

In my experience, quality consists of three factors:

1. Design. Is the website design great? Is it easy-to-read? Are the images beautiful? Or is the site cluttered with hundreds of banner ads, each distracting your reader from the main purpose, which is to consume the content?
2. Content. Does the article flow? Is it interesting, entertaining, and useful? Or is the article full of grammatical and spelling errors that makes reading it off-putting?
3. Usefulness. Does the article actually solve a problem? Does it discuss the topic in-depth? Or is it merely beating around the bush?

If the content you produce meets these three factors, it’s great content.

Characteristic #2: Uniqueness

There are thousands, if not millions, of articles published on similar topics each and every day.

Why would someone choose your article over the others?

The best way I’ve found to create unique content is to write from personal experience.

Pro Tip: This is how Smart Blogger became such a powerhouse in the blogging world. When Jon writes about blogging, it comes from his years of experience. When a guest author is invited to write about a topic, they’re chosen because they have had experience in those areas.

Characteristic #3: Authority

Do you want to learn astrophysics from a Caltech physicist, or your next-door neighbor?

Of course, it’s the Caltech physicist. (Unless, you once lived next to Richard Feynman.)

Your readers are the same way.

No matter the topic, they want to learn from an authoritative source.

If you’re the expert, great! Carry on.

But what if you aren’t?

Get the experts to help you. Be the journalist. The scribe. There are plenty of experts with great knowledge, but insufficient ability to communicate that knowledge.

You can be the go-between.

Interview them. Curate their thoughts, research and expertise. You can even invite the expert to write an article for you.

For example:

Tim Ferriss. Tim doesn’t have expertise in every topic in the world, but he touches lots of topics. He does this by inviting experts to contribute to his books.

Pro Tip: This is also the reason why Smart Blogger succeeded when many failed. If Jon doesn’t have experience in something (e.g. Kindle Publishing), he doesn’t write the article. Instead, he invites someone with experience to do it.

If you read our epic guide to breakdancing, you’d see it checked all three aspects we just covered:

• Quality. While it wasn’t the best-designed post, we formatted it well and added a header image (done on Canva). We even added a Table of Contents!
• Uniqueness. We wrote the entire thing based on our years of experience in dance. We told plenty of stories that were highly unique to what we had seen and observed.
• Authority. All of us had at least 7-8 years of breakdance experience.

Key Takeaways

• If you want to rank in Google, make sure you create great content.
• Focus on quality — not quantity or satisfying some “content calendar.”
• Great content has three characteristics: quality, authoritativeness, and uniqueness. You need to do all three.

Further Reading

• How to Write a Blog Post in 2019: The Ultimate Guide by Liz Careathers
• Demystifying Epic Content: How to Actually Create It (Not Just Jabber About How Important It Is) by Sonia Thompson
• How to Write a Blog Post in 9 Steps (That People Actually Want to Read) by Ahrefs

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5. Promote Your Content

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Do you want to know the greatest lie in the content marketing world?

It’s this adage:

“If you build it, they will come.”

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Think about it.

According to the latest stats, there are 4 million blog posts published every single day. That’s a lot of noise.

That also means there is an extremely low chance that somebody will randomly stumble upon your site.

If you want traffic, you have to be proactive. You have to promote your content. You have to build links.

How I Promoted My Content

We focused on three promotion techniques:

Technique #1: The “Eager Sneezers” Technique

In a post published in 2015, Bryan Harris shared how he started an email list from scratch and got 205 subscribers in 48 hours.

The technique he used? “Eager Sneezers.”

Ignoring the fancy name, it’s essentially reaching out to your friends and inviting them to join your email list.

Bryan’s biggest takeaway was your friends want to help you (so let them).

We used a variation of this idea to get our early traction.

After publishing a post on breakdance music, we reached out to multiple friends to help share it.

Fortunately, as we were breakdancers ourselves, we had a number of breakdancer friends who were more than happy to help:

Technique #2: Community Content Promotion

Remember the communities you joined earlier (where you were “lurking” for ideas)?

They’re great for content promotion too.

Here’s one example of what we did:

Now, this is not an excuse for you to strut into someone else’s community and start spamming links to your content.

Online communities exist for people to have meaningful conversations about a particular topic. Link spam defeats that purpose.

Plus, you’ll likely get booted out of the group.

The only reason I was able to promote my content in a group like this was because I was already an active member. I was participating in discussions, asking questions, and commenting.

I knew what kind of content the community would appreciate, which was why I was able to share it.

So, before you start dropping links to your content in a group, make sure you are active and understand the group’s rules.

Technique #3: Outreach to People You’ve Mentioned in Your Content

If you’ve written an epic piece of content, you’ve likely linked out to sources or quoted experts.

Let them know!

For example:

In our post, we listed 157 songs a breakdancer must listen to. This meant 157 different people we could email.

So, we did. And it resulted in one of the featured artists sharing our post on Facebook:

How I Would Promote My Content Today

According to a survey of 1,117 bloggers, higher-income bloggers put more emphasis on promoting their content than lower-income bloggers.

Translation: if you want to succeed, you have to keep on promoting your content.

If I were to create a new niche website, I would add these content promotion strategies into my toolkit.

Strategy #1: Outreach to People Who Published Articles on the Same Topic

Since they’ve written on that topic before, there is a higher probability they’ll be interested in seeing your post.

To find these people, simply enter the topic of your article (remember to try variations!) into Google. Collect the list of articles that appear in the SERPs.

Then find their email address and reach out.

Alternatively, you can use a tool like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer, a search engine for web content.

Enter the topic into Content Explorer, do some filtering (like “English only”), and export the list.

You now have a huge list of sites to reach out to.

All that’s left is to write the email.

Here are a few tips to help you write a compelling email:

• Keep it short. Most people are busy. You improve your chances of getting your emails read if it’s short and to the point.
• Tell them what’s in it for them. Everyone looks out for #1. Provide value upfront and let them know what they can get out of it.
• Personalize the email as much as possible. People can tell when an email is a template. If they think it’s a template, they’ll delete it without reading.
• Ask wisely. People dislike being told to do something. Don’t be pushy. If you’re asking for a link, suggest the idea gently.

You can also read this in-depth guide about blogger outreach.

Strategy #2: Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a tactic where you write a post for another website (instead of yours).

In exchange for your “free” article, the owner gives you:

• A few links back to your site (either within the body content or inside the author’s bio);
• Exposure to their audience;
• Referral traffic.

Those are just the immediate benefits. Guest blogging also allows you to build relationships with influencers, or even grow your email list.

The biggest challenge with guest blogging is finding blogs willing to accept your guest posts.

To increase your chances of being accepted, look for sites that are already accepting guest posts.

You can find these sites via Google search operators. Here are a few examples:

• [your_topic] “write for us”
• [your_topic] “become an author”
• [your_topic] “guest post”
• [your_topic] “guest article”
• [your_topic] inurl:contribute

These sites usually have a “write for us” page, so all you have to do is to follow their instructions.

You can also look for these opportunities in Content Explorer. The reasoning: if a blog has written about a topic before, there is an increased probability they would cover it again.

Enter any word/phrase from your niche into Content Explorer.

Check the “one article per domain” box to get a list of unique domains you can potentially write for:

Some of these sites may not have an obvious “write for us” page. But, most blogs will accept a guest post if your pitch is good enough.

Key Takeaways

• If you want traffic, you have to promote your content.
• To kick-start your site and get some initial traction, try the “Eager Sneezers” technique.
• You can also promote your content in communities.
• If you’ve mentioned anyone in your posts, reach out and let them know.
• To take it to the next level, try guest blogging and reaching out to people who’ve written about similar topics.

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6. Grow Your Email List

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Study the best sites in any niche, and you’ll notice one thing:

They all build an email list.

An email list is powerful because you can do almost anything with it. You could:

• Survey your subscribers to get content ideas;
• Ask them for feedback;
• Test monetization ideas;
• Sell something.

The possibilities are virtually endless.

How I Built My Email List

Because we were observing these huge sites, we understood the power of the email list very early on. In fact, we obsessed over collecting as many emails as possible.

We tested all kinds of strategies on the site.

Welcome Mats:

Content Upgrades:

We even turned our homepage into an email collection machine:

How I Would Build My Email List Today

In hindsight, we were too aggressive with our email collection.

We were so concerned with the number of emails on our list, the quality of our list suffered.

We should have focused on user experience and only placed email sign-up forms where relevant.

Over the years, Jon and the rest of the Smart Blogger team have written tons of guides on email list building, so I won’t delve too deeply into this topic.

You can check out the different resources here:

• The Ultimate List-Builder’s Resource Guide: 109 Links to Double or Even Triple Your Subscribers
• 9 Irresistible Incentives That’ll Grow Your Email List Like Crazy
• 10 Creative Places for Opt-In Forms That’ll Supercharge Your Signups
• 9 Plugins for Growing Your Email List That Work So Well It Feels Like Cheating
• The Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating Your “Bribe to Subscribe” in Record Time

Key Takeaways

• Build a list! It’s the most important thing you need to do.
• Test different methods for collecting emails on your site.
• But don’t neglect user experience. Don’t cram 100 pop-ups on your site just so you can get a few more subscribers.

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7. Experiment with Monetization

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What’s the purpose of a niche site?

To make money!

As you start gaining traction on your site, and gaining a few subscribers, you can start to look into monetization.

How I Monetized My Site

At BreakDance Decoded, we experimented with a few different strategies.

Strategy #1: Patreon

Patreon is a membership platform where fans can “fund” content creators. You can create separate tiers on Patreon to reward different levels of loyalty.

Back then, Patreon was a relatively new-ish platform. We saw that a few legitimate artists and creators were generating significant amounts of money on the platform, so we gave it a shot.

This was our Patreon page:

No matter how hard we marketed ourselves, the best we did was $50 per month on Patreon.

That’s not to say Patreon doesn’t work.

There are plenty of successful Patreon artists, like Kurzgesagt, who has over 12,000 patrons supporting his work:

Your results may vary.

Strategy #2: YouTube AdSense

In addition to our website, we were also running a YouTube channel. So, we decided to see if we could make enough money from YouTube.

Yes, we dreamed of being the next PewDiePie.

These were our results:

It was decent, but it wasn’t enough for a “passive income” source.

Plus, our niche was too “specific”, so we probably didn’t generate enough views to make financial sense.

Strategy #3: Coaching

One of Jon’s recommendations was to sell video or phone coaching as a quick way to monetize your site.

We took it seriously.

We sent an email to our list, telling them we were available for personal breakdance coaching. At the time, this was a relatively new concept to the niche, so we weren’t sure if it would work out.

Surprisingly, someone took us up on it.

Strategy #4: Online Courses

By 2025, the e-learning industry will grow to about $325 billion in size.

This probably explains why most popular blogs monetize via online courses.

However, our biggest concern (back then) with an online course was the time and effort it took to create a great one. Plus, we weren’t sure if there were any demand for an online breakdance course.

The notion of spending considerable time, effort, and money into creating a course no one wanted didn’t sound appealing.

But after testing all the different strategies listed earlier, creating an online course seemed to be the most viable option.

So, we decided to launch a MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

We sent a survey to our email list, asking them for their #1 challenge.

From there, we came up with a hook we thought would interest our audience:

Hey friend,

Don’t you feel like breaking has limited support and not enough is done to help you improve?

Sure, there are tons of studios out there, and jams have become widespread.

But not every breaking tutorial fixes the problem effectively. Not everyone gets access to the information and knowledge from other bboys. Not every country or state has a strong breaking scene.

This lack of environment for growth sucks, because so many potential bboys and bgirls around the world deserve a chance to learn breaking.

Ideally, a bboy/bgirl’s progress should only be ‘limited’ by their own effort. Not the environment.

As a first step to tackle this problem, I’ve created a 1-minute survey to get to know you better (don’t worry it’s 5 simple questions, no right or wrong answers here.)

So click this link to fill up our quick survey!

Thanks for helping me to understand your breaking views. It will go a long way for both you and me 🙂

While we waited for feedback, we created an outline for a potential 9-week course.

Using the email hook and the outline, we crafted a 5-day email sequence modeled after Ramit Sethi’s successful launches.

Not knowing what to charge, we decided on an arbitrary sales price of $37. For the test to be successful, we told ourselves that we needed at least 10 sales.

As we weren’t technically savvy, we had no idea how to collect orders online. We also didn’t have money to invest in a shopping cart software.

So, we kept it simple:

We created a PayPal link.

Then we activated the 5-day campaign by sending our subscribers a launch email.

To our surprise, we actually managed to sign up 12 students.

Our test was successful!

The only issue? We now had to actually create the course.

Once again, instead of investing in some complicated course software to launch it, we decided to do it the easy way:

Facebook had just launched its “Live” feature and was heavily promoting it.

We decided to use it.

We created a closed Facebook group, sent an email to our 12 students, and invited them to join the group:

Our Closed Facebook Group

Then we filmed each lesson by using Facebook’s Live feature.

Besides some technical issues (like audio), we received rave reviews for our course.

Takeaway:

Don’t let perfectionism stop you from launching. People buy courses for the information, not the software you use or how perfect it looks.

What I Would Do Differently Today

I wouldn’t change a thing.

Online courses worked for me then, and it’s the monetization strategy I would use today.

That said…

Your results may vary.

It’s a good idea to play around with different monetization methods to see what works best for you. Even if you find a cash cow, always be looking at different ways you can diversify your income stream.

Otherwise, you’re asking for trouble.

Nomadic Matt has a blog that receives 1 million visitors each month, but as shared in his interview on Noah Kagan Presents, if he had continued with the same business model he had when he started (i.e. selling links), his business would have been dead in the water by now.

Key Takeaways

• Test different monetization strategies and see which one works out best for you.
• Patreon, online coaching, and online courses are all viable methods to generate revenue.
• You can also consider other methods like affiliate marketing, selling eBooks, and so on.

Further Reading

• How to Make Money Blogging (Free Guide for 2019) by Jon Morrow
• Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Go from 0 to $1,000 In Passive Income by Leanne Regalla
• How to Make Money Writing: 5 Ways to Get Paid to Write in 2019 by Glen Long

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Are You Ready to Create a Profitable Niche Website?

This wasn’t a case study about how successful I am or how many Lamborghinis I now own.

It’s the opposite.

My site wasn’t successful by any means.

Instead of sipping mojitos at the beach, I’m still working out of an office.

But that’s because I didn’t know then what I know now.

Now I know better. Now I know what to do. And now so do you.

It is possible to build a niche website and monetize it.

So what are you waiting for?

Paradise is waiting.

About the Author: Si Quan Ong works in marketing and customer success for Ahrefs, the SEO toolset that helps you grow your search traffic, research your competitors and dominate your niche. If not evident by now, he also breakdances on the side, and has a dream to visit 100 countries. Follow him on Twitter to learn more about his misadventures.

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