John Bejakovic

How Edward Bernays manipulated me, and how he might do it again

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I once wrote an email with the subject line, “How I manipulated you, and how I might do it again.”

​​That email was all about the strategic use of inflammatory words — like “manipulated” — to get people reading stuff they might not read otherwise.

Well, Edward Bernays manipulated me, and I guess he manipulated millions of other people, too.

Right now, I’m reading Bernays’s book Propaganda. It’s been in print for the past 100 years, and it’s still discussed today, though I suspect few people who discuss it have ever read it.

Why do people know and discuss Propaganda? Because of that title. Propaganda. It’s like manipulated. On the one hand repulsive, on the other hand fascinating.

Imagine that Bernays had titled his book Public Relations — which is really what his book is about. Would we be talking about it today, much less reading it?

The answer is no. The proof is that Bernays did in fact write a book called Public Relations. Result?

Propaganda: 2,700+ reviews on Amazon
Public Relations: 74 reviews on Amazon — and I bet most of those only came via Bernays’s Propaganda fame

All that’s to say, hooks matter. And unless you hook someone right away, then all the other thousands of words you might have written won’t matter much.

But you knew that. It’s the oldest bit of advice traded around the copywriting bonfire.

What you might not know is how to write a great hook. How to make it sensational and inflammatory — propaganda for the rest of what you have to say.

About that. As Daniel Throssell wrote recently:

​The skill of coming up with a great hook, and the skill of making it sensational, are almost exactly the same as a tiny, mechanical, supposedly “niche” copywriting skill you probably do not yet possess.

​​But it’s a skill you can find out more about, and even acquire quickly, via the following page:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Shady and petty, or smart personal positioning?

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In 1906, magician Harry Houdini started to research an ambitious book he planned to call The Encyclopedia of Magic.

But the more Houdini worked, the more maniacal and single-minded his focus became — to discredit Robert-Houdin, the great 19th-century magician that Houdini had originally modeled himself after, down to the name.

Even the title of Houdini’s book changed. ​​First it became Robert-Houdin’s Proper Place in the History of Magic… and then, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin.

Robert-Houdin was a hack, Houdini was effectively saying. Robert-Houdin had managed to fool magicians into thinking he was something great and original, when he was not.

Yesterday, I wrote an email about how negotiation coach Jim Camp snubbed his mentor Dave Sandler.

Sandler was a sales trainer who had influenced much of Camp’s thinking — take a look at their published works — but Camp never seems to have given due credit to Sandler for his influence or ideas.

You might call that — along with Houdini’s attack on Robert-Houdin — petty, shady, or simply inevitable human ego that crops up even among great men.

You might call it that.

But I might call it smart personal positioning.

Hear me out:

It’s undeniable that being unique, new, distinct, never-before-seen is a tremendous advantage to your personal positioning.

The trouble of course is that you’re probably not unique, distinct, or never-before-seen, just like the other 117 billion humans estimated to have ever lived.

​​We’re all quite similar to each other, and we’re all really the outgrowth of our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, teachers, mentors, living and dead.

That might be true. But like I said yesterday, it’s not really what the human brain responds to.

The human brain responds to contrast. That’s the basis of cognition.

And what bigger contrast is there than saying about yourself, “There was darkness upon the face of the deep… and then there was light.”

So there you go. If you’re looking to improve your personal positioning, work on being more distinct, unique, new.

That’s given.

What you might not have thought about is to make yourself distinct and unique at the expense of the people who helped you get there.

It might seem like one of those unsavory and pointless things done by people who have made it to the top… but I disagree. At least about the pointless part.

People who get to the top often do things that seem unnecessary or even self-defeating — if you’re not in their place.

Anyways, that’s just an idea for you to consider.

I realize today’s message might seem a little dark, but that’s what happens if you want to reach into all corners of human nature. Some are nice and cheery… others are dark and disturbing.

If you are willing to face the dark and disturbing corners of human nature, and maybe even figure out how to work with them to your advantage, then I have an entire sub-training all about that.

That sub-training is Round 19 of my Copy Riddles program. It deals with the dark psychological things that are present in the best sale copy, which go deeper than mere self-interest.

For more info on Copy Riddles, from Round 1 to Round 20:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Jim Camp, plagiarist

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Last week, Ben Settle sent out an email in which he quoted a reader who said the following about negotiation coach Jim Camp:

“… his whole system for the most part comes from Dave Sandler and he never gives him credit, ever that I’ve heard. Now I realize he has done many things to make him an expert but he has never anywhere I’ve heard even mentioned Sandler.”

Ben is a big Jim Camp fan, and has infected many of his readers, me among them, with Jim Camp’s authority.

Ben shrugged off his reader’s comment, and said he had never heard of Sandler.

​​Neither had I. But I looked Sandler up. He was a sales trainer and he died in 1995.

I found a book of 49 of Sandler’s “Timeless Selling Principles.” Most of the rules line up very well with Camp’s system. And some line up exactly.

​​Take a quick look over the specific language in the chapter headings and summaries below, and you’ll see that Jim Camp was in fact taking a lot from Sandler. ​​From the book:

* “Don’t spill your candy in the lobby” [Camp swapped in “beans” for “candy”]

* “The best sales presentation you’ll ever give, the prospect will never see” [taken word-for-word]

* “The bottom line of professional selling is going to the bank” [Camp said “bottom line of negotiation…”]

* “You must be comfortable telling your prospect that it’s OK to say ‘No.’ You must also be comfortable hearing and accepting ‘No.'” [Camp used this pretty much word-for-word, and summed it up with the title of his book, Start With No.]

In that Ben Settle email, Ben wrote, “If you learn something that’s not common knowledge from a particular source it’s good to give credit.”

I’ve read and listened to Camp a lot, but I’ve never read or heard Camp credit Dave Sandler. I’ve heard him mention Peter Drucker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, even Gloria Steinam, but never Sandler. (I checked just now, and Sandler is credited once, among 20 other mentors, at the end of Start With No.)

So now what? Is Jim Camp really a plagiarist? Or did he at least snub an influential mentor by not crediting him enough?

It might be interesting for the gossip, but on a practical level, I couldn’t care less.

As I wrote a long time ago in this newsletter, I’m less interested in attribution than in ideas that work.

Jim Camp’s system works. I know because I’ve used it and seen it work.

But is it really Camp’s system? Or Sandler’s system? Or somebody else’s who came before Sandler? Or some amalgam?

Instead of agonizing over those tough questions, I would like to give you a better, easier question to ponder:

Do you remember any of Sandler’s points above?

​​The real value in this email is those five points, not a dogpile on the topic of whether Camp gave due credit or not.

And yet, I doubt one person in a hundred will remember any of Sandler’s ideas above from this email… while many will remember that I wrote an email with the subject line, “Jim Camp, plagiarist.”

No judgment there. Such is the human brain — wired for human action and drama. You can gripe about it and fight it without effect, or you can simply accept it and work with it.

As I wrote once before, it’s your choice whether you want to be subtle or savage in how you work with it.

What is not your choice is how people’s brains work, and what kinds of messages they respond to.

​​And the most condensed and powerful type of message that people respond to… well, you can read more about that here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

What a first-rate roper needs

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The “big con” requires two central con men. One is the insideman; the other is the roper.

The insideman has the “opportunity” to get something for nothing, which is what ultimately seduces and dooms the mark.

The insideman stays put and waits for the roper, who goes out into the world and “ropes in” the mark.

A good roper needs to have: the gift of the gab; surface knowledge of lots of topics; the ability to pretend and act; a magic quality known as “grift sense”; and the willingness to withstand the high stress of constantly being exposed while trying to scheme and swindle himself into a mark’s confidence out in the wild.

That’s what it takes to be a good roper. But what does it take to be a first-rate roper?

David Mauerer, a professor of linguistics and author of The Big Con, asked this question to two big-con ropers back in the 1930s. here’s what one of them said:

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Will-power is the most important asset a con man can have. Have you ever watched a grifter who stayed in one position all his life and never advanced? It is pitiful to see how much mental energy he uses up getting nowhere. If he is a smack-player, he won’t try to get up any higher in the racket. Most failures wear themselves out with futile grifting and worry about keeping out of the can. They work themselves into a fever because they haven’t the will-power to stop and organize themselves for efficiency and try to get a big mark for the big store.

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(The “smack,” by the way, is a short-con game, as opposed to the big con, which is at the top of the confidence game hierarchy. Short-con games like the smack have lower stakes, lower earnings, and less prestige among grifters than the big con.)

Now, maybe don’t want to take any kind of business advice from criminals.

Fair enough. I can’t fault you, and I won’t try to persuade you otherwise.

Personally though, I found the above quote made me stop and think. To me at least, it applies even outside the world of confidence men.

The key words for me were continuing to “play the smack”… instead of having the will-power to stop and organize yourself so you can get to the next level.

Only you can figure out what it might take to get you there.

Maybe it’s skills… presentation… connections… attitude… experience… or an entire change in approach.

Again, only you can figure it out. And it will take will-power to get you to do so.

Anyways, if by chance you find out that it’s skills that you need, specifically copywriting skills, here’s how you can learn from the people who have made it to the absolute top of the copywriting racket:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Why I don’t write to my “old self”

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“… the 30-oared ship of Theseus, the Athenians constantly removed the decayed part of her timbers, and renewed them with sound wood, so that the ship became an illustration to philosophers of the doctrine of growth and change, as some argued that it remained the same, and others that it did not remain the same.”

It’s become popular online advice to say, “Write to your old self.” Solve the problems that you yourself had two months or two years ago.

I believe I first heard Rich Schefren say this years ago, but it’s become widespread since.

I don’t do it this way. I don’t write to my old self. Two reasons why:

First, find it hard to move forwards while looking backwards — it gives me seasickness.

Second, I frankly don’t remember who I was two years ago, any more than I can guess who I will be two years from now.

Instead, what I do, and what you can consider doing too, is to write to myself today. I write about what I find interesting, motivating, valuable-sounding right now.

For example, in my email yesterday, I wrote about very high-ticket back-end offers. Why? Because I sense it’s something I should be doing today, or at least in the next few months.

Of course, among the ideas I find interesting many have to do with tennis gossip, identifying plants in the wild, or my own health.

I don’t write about those. I make an effort to choose among all the many ideas I find interesting, motivational, and valuable-sounding, and I only write about those that can also be interesting to people who tend to read this newsletter.

Still, the starting point is always what I find interesting, today, now.

In case this idea resonates with you, I can tell you there are some benefits to doing it this way, at least in my mind:

It’s fresher, more honest, less preachy than writing to my old self.

It can be more valuable to readers — because I’m writing based on my current experience and emotions, rather than on fading or faulty memories.

Ultimately, by focusing on ideas that can make me better, rather than what made my old self better, it makes this newsletter better in the long term, and benefits my readers if they stick with me.

Maybe this doesn’t do anything for you. But then again, maybe it resonates with you on some level.

And if it does, and if you’d like to do something similar, then consider using my Most Valuable Email trick. It’s a way to take ideas that interest or intrigue you, play with them, and make them interesting to your readers, too. For more information on MVE:

https://bejakovic.com/mve

$90k upsell to a $39 magazine subscription

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I found the following via Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine site. You gotta pay for that site, and I happily do. It clues me in to wonders like the following:

For the past dozen or more years, select subscribers to National Geographic magazine (one-year print subscription: $39) have been getting a unique sales letter in the mail.

The sales letter, which comes with an attractive brochure, is making a pitch for a $90k upsell — and apparently selling out the offer year after year.

I bet you’re curious what this $90k upsell could be. I mean, it’s quite a leap from $39. ​​What could possibly be worth it?

I’ll tell you.

The offer is called “Africa by Private Jet.” It involves:

* 20 days
​
* 7 different countries

​* A private Boeing 757, refitted to accommodate just 51 expert travelers instead of the standard 233 budget sardines

​* Visits to the best big game, big ape, and big culture locations across Africa

​* Professional scientists as tour guides, an on-staff physician, and an expedition chef

​* An inaugural dinner with Jane Goodall in London (first stop of the trip) and a farewell dinner in Rome (last stop)

​* A safe, fascinating, hassle-free adventure; a feeling of importance and superiority; interesting dinner party stories for a lifetime; all backed by the good name of National Geographic Society

The sales letter made me want to go.

And it reminded me of Ken McCarthy’s Advanced Copywriting for Serious Info Marketers seminar.

One of Ken’s many messages in that seminar was that if you think a bit, you will find higher-ticket offers — which cost 2x, 10x, 100x, even 2,307x of what your front-end costs — and your best or very best customers will still happily buy.

There’s no shortcut to that bit of thinking.

But perhaps a good starting point is to conjure up an absolutely incredible experience or transformation you yourself would like to enjoy — and then just take others along with you on that trip.

Anyways, my offer today has little to do with the above National Geographic story, except the following:

Before he got to talking about upsells, Ken McCarthy spent the majority of that Advanced Copywriting seminar teaching what he believes to be the “most important, do-or-die copywriting skill.”

He first teased people in the seminar, and had them guess what they thought this skill might be. People guessed:

Stirring up curiosity?

Coming up with a big idea?

Sounding believable?

Nope. Ken had a mechanical skill in mind. And he said this one mechanical skill covers 90% of what it takes to be a copywriter. If you’d like to find out more:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

The comeback secret of a humiliated Major League pitcher

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I read an interesting article this week about Colorado Rockies pitcher Daniel Bard, who was infected multiple times with the yips.

Bard started out a baseball prodigy. Even in his teens, he could throw at close to 100 miles per hour.

In one famous, high-pressure situation, while pitching for the Red Sox, Bard came on with the bases loaded.

He struck out Hall of Famer Derek Jeter with three pitches. Then All-Star Nick Swisher came to bat.

Bard first threw two strikes. But it was Bard’s third pitch that made history.

​​It was later called by Sports Illustrated “one of the nastiest, most unhittable pitches that the world has ever seen,” a 99-mph fastball that went straight at the center of the plate only to wildly dip into the dirt at the last millisecond.

Swisher swung through empty air and tossed his arms up in frustration. “It’s not supposed to move like that,” he said later.

All good — until one season, when Bard completely lost control where the ball was flying. He started to hit players. He sailed the ball high and hit the back stop. He threw to first base but instead the ball landed in the dirt.

The technical term for this condition is the yips. Nervousness, anxiety, whatever.

Bard had gotten tight, and no amount of deep breathing, meditation, or top-level sports psychology could help him.

That’s the inevitable intro I had to give you just to set up the following paragraph, which was the most practical and valuable I found in this interesting article.

Bard cured his yips eventually, and made it back to the Major Leagues after quitting. He even became a star pitcher once again. But the yips started to creep back in. Then the following happened:

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In the off-season, a friend who coaches at U.N.C. Charlotte suggested that he throw a two-seam fastball from an arm slot two inches higher than his usual position. Bard had spent years tinkering with his arm slots, to disastrous effect. But he understood his body and his mind better now. Instead of instructing his body, he tried imitation, thinking of pitchers with higher arm slots and mimicking them. The ball hissed out of his hand and sank. That fastball became his best pitch.

===

In case it’s not clear, what I found interesting was this idea to mimic and imitate successful people, rather than tinker with your technique.

This can apply to whatever you’re doing.

Say copywriting.

One option is to sit down and say,

“All right, what’s the level of sophistication in this market? Should I use the if-then headline formula here? Or the how-to? Or the case-against? Or maybe it’s best to lead off with authority, to diffuse the readers’ skepticism?”

That’s the tinkering option.

The other option is mimicry. You set aside all the talk about sophistication and headline formulas and authority. Instead, you sit down, rub your hands together and say,

“Right. Say I’m John Carlton. In fact, let me put on a Hawaiian shirt. What would I focus on here? What kind of headline would I write if I were John?”

Is mimicry the optimal way to learn?

I don’t know. It prolly depends on your own psychological makeup.

But it’s almost sure that most skills are taught and learned via the tinkering approach, with almost no thought given to mimicry. That’s a shame, because mimicry can be a great way to get better, and fast, and painlessly.

But on to work:

It’s true, my Copy Riddles course does break down copy into component parts, and instructs you on what to do. It even gives you a tinker-y checklist of how to write good copy, from alfalfa to zucchini.

But the real strength of Copy Riddles is the mimicry part.

Write copy… see what A-list copywriters like John Carlton did with the same prompt… then do it all over, while mimicking, imitating, or channeling those A-list copywriters.

For more info on this approach, which has been endorsed by Major Leaguers like Gary Bencivenga, Parris Lampropoulos, and Gary Halbert, take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

I flipped the script and had it flipped on me

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Yesterday, I reached out to a biotech company that’s doing some exciting work, which I’d written up in my health newsletter.

I wrote them an email to say I want to help them publicize their work. I said I have a newsletter in the space, and I’d like to be put on the list to get their press releases in the future.

All of which is 100% true and was said entirely in earnest.

I sent this email to the communications officer at the biotech company.

I didn’t hear back from the communications officer. But a couple hours later, I did hear back from the CEO.

He thanked me for covering their research in my newsletter… said my newsletter is great… and that he would keep me up to date with the newest results of his company’s research.

That reply came from his official company email address. A bit later, I saw that he also signed up to my newsletter with his private Gmail address.

I’m not telling you this as an effective but entirely unscalable newsletter growth strategy, though it certainly is that.

Instead, I’m sharing it as an example of “flipping the script.”

I in fact did reach out to this biotech company with the thought of getting my newsletter better known, and even with the idea of growing my list.

I wasn’t sure my email would get the CEO to sign up for my newsletter, but I had certainly hoped for something similar.

The thing is, I went about it entirely indirectly. There was no ask in my email except to be notified of the company’s future work.

In my email, I did mention the lead researcher’s name… I mentioned my own newsletter… I included a link to it.

​​It so happened that if anybody from the company clicked that link, they would see my post about the company’s latest research front and center at the top of my newsletter archive.

Maybe you think that by telling you this, I’m trying to make myself out into some kind of would-be Professor Moriarty, a scheming keyboard puppetmaster, always two steps ahead.

​​That’s hardly it. And to prove it, let me admit that I myself am susceptible to the same form of influence.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an email about 7 Twitter content strategies, which I was sharing even though I had never successfully grown a Twitter following.

Then earlier this week, I got a reply to that email from a guy named James Carran. James wrote:

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From someone who HAS done it, more than once, these are pretty much on the money.

The biggest thing is when you can combine more than one in a personal story. “How I built a million dollar newsletter using these 7 tips” tends to work better just now than “7 tips to build a newsletter” etc.

===

Hmmm… a compliment about my content, plus a meaningful extension, and all from somebody who’s grown multiple Twitter accounts to some number?

I was curious. I asked James what his story is. He replied:

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I’m @getpaidwrite on Twitter, 105k there.

And at one point I was ghostwriting for 4 others. It’s definitely gotten more difficult to grow though.

===

At this point, I naturally checked on Twitter to see if James’s claims are true.

Sure enough. I saw he has 106.1K followers on Twitter… along with a link to his newsletter.

Still curious, I signed up for his daily emails.

Now, I can’t imagine what kind of direct, head-on appeal, bribe, bonus, begging, or threatening could get me to sign up for daily emails from somebody who had just replied to one of my own emails.

​​​And yet, there I was, signed up, after a total of 80 words of influence from James.

Now, maybe James set me up in this way intentionally. Probably not though. But you can still learn from it.

And you can start to think about how to create the conditions where people themselves hit upon the idea of doing just what you want them to do.

Last point:

I wrote to James to say I had signed up for his newsletter, and to ask if I could include his message in an email. He wrote:

===

Of course, go ahead!

And thank you for joining my list, that’s an honour. I’m trying to get into the swing of daily emails and improving my email marketing game. Reduce my reliance on “X”.

MVE was a huge help, bending my brain to think of how to apply it effectively from a more general writing perspective…

===

You probably know what James is referring to by MVE. But in case you don’t know yet, and you would like to know, then you can find out here:

https://bejakovic.com/mve

Deadline to get 4 copywriting bonuses that made the Infostack promo

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Today is the deadline, in just 3 ominous hours from now, to get the Infostack copywriter’s bundle along with my special bonuses.

​​I won’t send any more emails about this offer before the deadline hits.

In case you missed my emails over the past few days:

The core Infostack offer is a bundle of 14 different copywriting courses, trainings, and ebooks, my 10 Commandments Of A-List Copywriters among them.

​​All these products sell on their own for a total of $555, but get the Infostack bundle and you can get them all for a grand total of $49.

I’m also offering some free bonuses to entice you to sign up. Speaking of which, I’ve gotten a bunch of replies during this promotion along the following lines:

“I purchased the Infostack package for your bonuses.”

“… this fine offer from infostack which I leaped on and mostly to get your bonus packages.”

“Grabbed it. And to be completely honest, after reading through Copy Riddles a bit, I swiped this offer specifically for your bonuses.”

“I wanted the Dan Ferrari gems [bonus #4 below], so here we are.”

​​[From an email sent to Infostack support, forwarded to me:] “I’ve sent you TWO requests, yesterday and today, to cancel and refund this transaction. I sent the requests through the Contact link on your website. I did this because I wanted John’s bonuses.”

I also got one person writing me to say about the Infostack bundle, “I don’t think this one will sell. They have again left out the values under each item.”

I won’t share specific sales numbers for this promo — what good are they to you — but I will say that by my standards, the promo did fine. And I’m writing this before the final batch of sales that always come in the last few hours.

That just goes to prove the old direct response adage that people will often buy the bonus rather than the core offer.

So if you ever find yourself stuck selling something bland (rather than SUPER or ideally SUPER Ultimate), then you can always help yourself out by taking a sheet of parchment, reaching for your goose quill and ink stand, and carefully writing down the following heading:

“10 ideas for cool bonuses to make this offer sell better”

That’s how I came up with my own bonuses for the Infostack Bundle. In case you’re curious, here they are:

1. Copywriting Portfolio Secrets ($97 value)

In this training, I show you how to build up your copywriting portfolio in the fastest and most efficient way, so you can start to win copywriting jobs even today. I show you the best way I’ve found to win 4- and 5-figure jobs I REALLY wanted, even when I wasn’t qualified for them, and how you can do it too.

I previously sold this training for $97. But it’s yours free if you take me up on my Infostack offer, which also includes my…

2. No-Stress Negotiation For Well-Paid Copywriters ($100 value)

This guide outlines my 7-part negotiating system, which I adapted from negotiation coach Jim Camp. This system kept me sane while I still regularly interviewed and worked with copywriting clients. Follow these seven principles, and you will end up making more money, working with better clients, and being able to stick to it for the long term.

I only offered this guide once before, as part of the $100 Copy Zone guide, which also featured….

3. How To Get Set Up On Upwork

This free bonus is an excerpt from a short self-published book I wrote once, How to Become a $150/Hr Sales Copywriter on Upwork: A Personal Success Story that Almost Anyone Can Replicate. It tells you how to actually get set up on Upwork — the details of your profile page, your description, your title.

If you combine this bonus with the two bonuses above — Copywriting Portfolio Secrets and No-Stress Negotiation — you have a great shot of winning a job on Upwork by the end of this week, or even today.

And finally, my bonus stack also includes…

4. Dan’s Timeless Wisdom (priceless, or $25k+)

Between August of 2019 and March 2020, I was in Dan Ferrari’s coaching group. As you might know, Dan started out as a star copywriter at The Motley Fool, and went on to become one of the most successful, most winning, big-money direct response copywriters working today.

Inside his coaching group, Dan dispensed copy critiques, marketing advice, and mystical koans to help his coaching students get to the next level.

At some point, I had the bright idea to start archiving the best and most valuable things that Dan was saying. I got 25 of them down, and they are all included in this document, which has until now only been shared with Dan and his coaching students.

(By the way, I never tallied up the exact and rather painful amount of money I paid Dan for the coaching. It was north of $25k. I do know I made it all back, and then some, in just the first two months after I stopped with the coaching, thanks to just one tip I got from Dan.)

So there you go. If you want the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Stack for its $555.86 worth of value and inspiration, yours for just $49…

… or if you want my add-on bonuses for their $25,197/∞ value, yours free…

… then here’s what to do:

1. Buy the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Bundle at https://bejakovic.com/infostack

2. You will then get an automated email from ThriveCart with a link to a special, members-only page on my site where you can access the four free bonuses above.

Important:

The deadline to get both the Infostack bundle and my bonuses is tonight at 8:31pm CET. After that, my bonuses go back to Barbieland. So if you want them, I suggest you get them now.

Psychographics of prospective copywriting clients

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Last week, I advertised a writing job through this newsletter.

I got a few dozen applications coming in. As a result, I could confirm first-hand what I had figured out second-hand a long time ago, and that is the psychographics of prospective copywriting clients.

In case you’re curious, I’ll share these psychographics with you:

1. Prospective clients are busy

Copywriting clients have their own businesses to run and lots of other plates to spin. That’s why they are looking for a writer instead of writing themselves. It’s also how they have money to pay you.

2. Prospective clients do not enjoy the work of hiring a copywriter

Resumes/application emails are not fun to read. Neither is wit — not when it’s jammed like a head of lettuce into a job application. Neither are random samples of sales copy — not unless the client happens to be a member of the target audience for that copy, and even then.

3. Prospective clients will be swamped with applications

My list is not huge. I still got a few dozen applications following just one email. When I advertised on Upwork in the past, I got still more applications, towards 100, coming in for a single advertised writing job.

So what to do if you are a freelance copywriter looking for work?

The best way I found around the nasty psychographics above was to get into a position where I don’t have to apply for copywriting jobs, ever.

Yes, it can be done.

You can put yourself into a position where clients get referred to you or even seek you out — specifically because they are busy… and do not enjoy the work of hiring a copywriter… and do not want to be swamped with applications.

The trouble is, getting into such a position takes time or luck or ideally both.

So let me tell you about the second-best way.

This second-best way is designed to take into account the three psychographic elements above. By my estimate, it boosts your chances of winning a job about 20x-30x.

I’ve used this strategy while I was still applying to copywriting jobs, both when I was on Upwork and later off it, often winning out against 50+ other hungry copywriters.

I used this strategy to win 4- and 5-figure copywriting jobs, even when I was new in the industry and had little to nothing to say for myself… and also later, when I was more established, but I really wanted a specific job because it was such a great opportunity for whatever reason.

If that’s got you curious, then you can find this job application strategy described in detail in a short training I call Copywriting Portfolio Secrets. Earlier this year, I got a testimonial about this training from copywriter Kevin Wood:

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Yo!

Your copywriting portfolio secrets workshop works like magic, even on Upwork in 2023.

[censored – Kevin explains how he applied the ideas in Copywriting Portfolio Secrets, with the result being…]

Pitched 100/hr with no job history, no reviews, only one ongoing job since they use Upwork to pay freelancers.

Got the job the next day. Should be a solid 3-4k/mo for the foreseeable future.

Shit works!

If you’re selling that training separately, I’d be happy to write up a better testimonial you can use.

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I’ve sold Copywriting Portfolio Secrets previously for $97, but I’m giving it away for free now as a bonus to anyone who gets the Infostack copywriting bundle.

You can find out more about that bundle at the link below. But before you go there, here are three other free bonuses I will send you to complement the bundle and Bonus #1, Copywriting Portfolio Secrets:

Bonus #2. No-Stress Negotiation For Well-Paid Copywriters ($100 value)

This guide outlines my 7-part negotiating system, which I adapted from negotiation coach Jim Camp. This system kept me sane while I still regularly interviewed and worked with copywriting clients. Follow these seven principles, and you will end up making more money, working with better clients, and being able to stick to it for the long term.

I only offered this guide once before, as part of the $100 Copy Zone guide, which also featured….

Bonus #3. How To Get Set Up On Upwork

This free bonus is an excerpt from a short self-published book I wrote once, How to Become a $150/Hr Sales Copywriter on Upwork: A Personal Success Story that Almost Anyone Can Replicate. It tells you how to actually get set up on Upwork — the details of your profile page, your description, your title.

If you combine this bonus with the two bonuses above — Copywriting Portfolio Secrets and No-Stress Negotiation — you have a great shot of winning a job on Upwork by the end of this week, or even today.

And finally, my bonus stack also includes…

Bonus #4. Dan’s Timeless Wisdom (priceless, or $25k+)

Between August of 2019 and March 2020, I was in Dan Ferrari’s coaching group. As you might know, Dan started out as a star copywriter at The Motley Fool, and went on to become one of the most successful, most winning, big-money direct response copywriters working today.

Inside his coaching group, Dan dispensed copy critiques, marketing advice, and mystical koans to help his coaching students get to the next level.

At some point, I had the bright idea to start archiving the best and most valuable things that Dan was saying. I got 25 of them down, and they are all included in this document, which has until now only been shared with Dan and his coaching students.

(By the way, I never tallied up the exact and rather painful amount of money I paid Dan for the coaching. It was north of $25k. I do know I made it all back, and then some, in just the first two months after I stopped with the coaching, thanks to just one tip I got from Dan.)

So there you go. If you want the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Stack for its $555.86 worth of value and inspiration, yours for just $49…

… or if you want my add-on bonuses for their $25,197/∞ value, yours free…

… then here’s what to do:

1. Buy the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Bundle at https://bejakovic.com/infostack

2. You will then get an automated email from ThriveCart with a link to a special, members-only page on my site where you can access the four free bonuses above.

Important:

Infostack’s bundle offer is live now and will go on until next week, but I will only be promoting it until tomorrow, Friday, at 8:31pm CET.

That’s how long my offer with the bonuses above is good for. Your gotta buy this bundle before Friday at 8:31pm CET to get my bonuses. So if you know you want them, why not get them now?