There’s nothing worse than getting through a lazy uninspired blog post that is written for the sake of writing and posting at least something. This one simple fix will make any article you write sound more engaging no matter what you’re writing about and who your audience is!

Read the following paragraph attentively. Can you guess what’s wrong with it?

Blogging has become very competitive. A lot of bloggers put a lot of their time and money into making their blogs very attractive. And although market is very saturated, there are ways to make your blog stand out. Some of them are very easy.

OK, are you bored yet? Look at the paragraph above: 4 sentences, all 4 of them feature the word “very”. This 4-letter word is the reason why your writing sounds incredibly boring and generic. It even might be the reason why your blog post bounce rate is so high! Overusing this one short word is deadly to your blog and business. Good thing there are plenty of alternatives!

Well, how do we spice things up? I’ve prepared a short list of 20 words to use instead. Keep in mind that some of these words can be used based on particular situations only. When in doubt, use Thesaurus website (my favorite source for synonyms and definitions) or Grammarly to check for more options.

Very is an adverb that is used to enhance the meaning of words following it.

There are 2 ways to substitute it:

• change it by itself
• switch both very and the following word

Let’s use the very (forgive the pun) first sentence of the paragraph as an example.

Blogging has become very competitive – Blogging has become extremely competitive.

Or

Blogging has become very competitive – Blogging has become cutthroat.

Obviously, the second example is far more situational, but it makes your text edgier and sharper overall.

Here are 20 of the possible synonyms: awfully, chiefly, dreadfully, eminently, exceedingly, exceptionally, extra, extremely, evidently, greatly, highly, intensely, most, notably, obviously, particularly, vastly, uniquely, unusually, wholly.

You don’t need to major in English or have perfect writing skills to be a blogger or provide good copy for your business. Most mistakes are extremely simple to correct with practice and perseverance. They say that all we need is 10,000 hours to master a skill, but with smart hacks like that it might take you way less time 🙂

Do you notice using any other words more often than you should? Type them in comments, let’s find a way to substitute them together!