I love my readers. You challenge me all the time. A smart, inquisitive bunch you are.
Soon after I hit "publish" on last week's post, I heard from some of you.
"Don't just tell me how to wake up an old blog post," you said. "Show me."
Okay. That's a fair request. I went fishing through my old posts. And I found one in particular that had touched a nerve. In fact, it's still one of the most googled posts I have ever written.
The topic? The runaway use of cheesy clichés in copywriting.
So hearing the same old tired words can make us a little crazy. Our eyes glaze over when we hear "We go the extra mile," "discover the difference," and "out-of-the-box."
But why?
Now, I will admit. Clichés became clichés in the first place because they were powerful. People just got what you were saying immediately when you used the word or phrase. You could picture it.
But if every product is "cutting edge," then what does cutting edge mean? It means nothing anymore. It's a tired, deflated party balloon, once full of energy, now just sad.
The three clichés that made my new list for 2009
Okay, it was hard,but here's the list: Best Clichés of 2009. I wish I could give them all an award (she smiles). Cause they're all winners.
Counting down, in David Letterman reverse order:
3. 'Killer'
I'm finished reading a piece when this word rears its ugly head. In a Google search, you'll find 457,000 entries with the word "killer."
We have killer apps, killer websites, killer ads.
Aside from who wants to kill anyway (aren't there laws against that?), how did this word worm its way into our language? And what did it mean when it was bright and shiny new?
I think it started out as another word for great. Awesome. What does it mean now? Nothing. A simple search turned up hundreds of articles with "killer" in the headline:
"Increase Your Click-Throughs with Killer Title Tags"
"Get More Online Dates by Writing a Killer Profile"
And my all-time favorite, she says, tongue firmly embedded in cheek:
"Become a Killer Writer: Avoid Overused Adjectives" (Huh?)
2. 'Sucks'
This one took a close second.
"How to Succeed at Content Marketing Even if Your Content Skills Suck"
"How to Write a Good eBook—You Know, the Kind That Doesn't Suck."
"6 Words That Make Your Résumé Suck"
And now, my personal favorite:
"Clichés Suck"
Okay, ready? Time for the guy in the tux to pass me the sealed envelope on silver tray). And the winner of the Best Cliché of 2009 is:
3. 'Rock star'
If I hear one more writer compare a person or thing to a rock star, I'm going to light an incendiary device under my computer monitor, just like in those old movies where the trailer trash guy shoots the television.
Blog like a rock star.
Network like a rock star.
Use QuickBooks like a rock star. (Okay, I made that one up.)
All right. Enough with the "rock star."
Even the top bloggers, who I will be nice enough not to name here, are guilty. Here are two recent post titles:
"How to be A Rock Star in Your Niche"
"Rockstar Plugins You May Not Know About" (Now even a WordPress plugin can be a rock star!)
Rock star meant something once. Charismatic, passionate, attractive. (On second thought, looking at Arrowsmith's Steven Tyler, maybe not so much that last one).
But these words have had the life sucked out of them. The visual imagery is gone. Because if everyone can be a rock star, then it isn't that special anymore.
There you go. Avoid these three clichés and you'll be on your way to becoming, as my blog post title so cleverly described:
A killer, rockstar writer who doesn't suck.
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