Hi -

Ever since Michel taught me about the power of using alliterative copy, I seek to do so every chance I get (it works great!)... Meaning phrases whose words start with the same consonant/sound, as in:

-Profitably Powerful
-Slot-Maching Simple
-Cash-Pulling Conversions
etc

Does anyone know of any sites/books/resources that list "alliterative phrases"...? It would be great to get a swipe file of these built for reference, vs always coming up with them myself off the top of my head..


thx,

ken

Ken,

One resource I've been using for years is Rhyme Zone:

RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

Well Ken,

It was written for golfers...but I can adjust it for copywriters:

Great Geezer Gamesmanship;
How to Outfox, Outflank and Outfinesse today's Creative Copy Cubs and Devastate, Destroy and Decimate them to tears.

Included in the golf version was the dirty diaper gambit and some Pepto Bismal...good for 2 strokes a side, HA!

Seriously, maybe, I wrote about the power of Poetic devices in copywriting in a post in the early days of Seeds Of Wisdom PUBlishing...if I can find it in the arcane archives, I'll PM it to you.

One note; one of the greatest users of this type of language patterns in persuasion was a guy named Adolph... he caused a country to go crazy and took the world to the brink of destruction.

Now then; do you know the reason why these types of patterns are so effective? It has to do with neuronic shortcuts, the kind explained by Cialdini (partially) in INFLUENCE.

I'll try to find that article for you.

gjabiz

Michel, thanks - that's perfect for rhyming words, which will also be a big help - I bookmarked it... appreciate it. And thx for the tip gja.

Regards,

Ken

Hey Ken,

Not sure it's a perfect match but a lot of toddler/children's books are filled with those types of phrases.

Example: One of my daughter's favorite short stories to hear is called 'Six Sleepy Sheep'. That story is littered with Alliterative Phrases.

Dr. Seuss loves using them too.

Maybe you can swipe some phrases and model them with the text you need.

Take care,

Mike

P.S. Yeah, I'm getting WAY too much kid reading time these days. LOL

As an "old geezer" with kids aged 33, 28, and 26 those days are long gone for me. No grandchildren either.

Enjoy it while you can. You never get those days back.

Alex

Good point Alex.

I haven't told too many people this, but my wife was in a bad car accident on March 8th. She's on the mend and should make a full recovery... but in the meantime, I'm pulling double-duty on child care. So instead of reading stories once per day, I'm doing double.

Oh yeah, my daughter just learned the word "Again". As in... can you read this 12 page story to me AGAIN... right after you just finished reading it.

I'll treasure it always but right now, the double-duty can be wearing at times.

Take care,

Mike

P.S. re: Old Geezer. Back in my massage therapy career, one of my regular clients was a self-made millionaire who lived to be 104. He managed every member of his family's personal stock portfolios until he was 96, then turned it over b/c it was too stressful for him.

He was the type of person that if his portfolio lost a dollar in a day, he didn't sweat it... but it was one of his kids or grandkids, he'd be up pacing the floor all night.

He once told me, "You're only as old as you let yourself feel."

That's a good tip, Mike. I've got young children too, and whenever I read Seuss or Margaret Wise Brown to them I always think the patterns would be great for certain copy purposes.

Children's stories also provide great examples of word economy. Try writing in passive voice to a 3 year old and your toast.

Great tip re kid's books; I read daily w/my daughter and (happy to report she's an avid reader, too!), there's lots of examples of alliteration and rhyming, plus it's a good example for how to write clearly in not-too-big words, which is a plus for any age audience.

Here's another good online tool, originally saw it via Schefren's site, at:

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary and thesaurus

For word concepts/linking/synonyms etc..

Ken

Ken,

That's a great freakin' tool. I tried it for one of the fifty cent medical-ese words I know and it performed great. A definite bookmark on my browser.

I tried hitting your rep button but it's telling me I have to spread the rep elsewhere first.

Later,

Mike