Copy Riddles if you want ’em or not

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Today I’m reopening Copy Riddles for a few days.

This brief enrollment window will close this Sunday at 12 midnight PST. The actual Copy Riddles program will kick off next Monday, January 31, 2022.

If you are by chance already convinced that you want to join Copy Riddles, you can do that at the link below.

If you’re not convinced that you want to join Copy Riddles… or you don’t even know what Copy Riddles is… it might also be worth visiting link below.

Because that’s where I’ve laid out exactly what this program is. And I’ve built up my best case why Copy Riddles can quickly and pretty easily implant A-list copywriting skills into your head.

But perhaps you are certain you do not want to join Copy Riddles.

And perhaps you’re wondering where your lighthearted copywriting insight is for the day.

In that case, I’d like to tell you about the “super fun” tactic one elite copywriter has found to  keep his prospects reading past his lead… and ultimately buy. Yes, even in cases when his lead is a little weak.

If you’re curious about that, the answer is still to click the link below and read the page that appears.

So whether you’re highly aware… mildly unaware… or firmly opposed to the power and value of this program I call Copy Riddles… the only suggestion I have for you is to click below and take the next logical step:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

The power of sitting and not taking action

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Yesterday, I found myself reading a promising article titled:

“Buy Things, Not Experiences”

“Wow!” I said, as a gust of wind shook my window. “That’s the opposite of that tired phrase everybody’s always preaching, ‘Buy experiences, not things.'”

A little smile spread across my face. I couldn’t wait to see how the writer would pay off this shocking, denialist headline.

But woof, what a disappointment.

The article sounded like a speech prepared in 15 minutes by a high school debater. Three unrelated, undeveloped, unconvincing arguments. I won’t retell them here, but I’ll tell you the upshot:

The controversial headline got my attention. But the actual content didn’t make me want to read more by the same writer.

In fact, it put me on guard. In case I ever see another link to this guy’s content, I will think twice — Oh, that’s the high school debater, it’s probably not worth wasting my time.

That’s a fate I would like to avoid for the things that I write. Perhaps you want the same for yourself, too.

In that case, I can tell you a little secret which goes against much conventional wisdom in the marketing space:

There’s a lot of value in just sitting on things. Well, at least that’s what I’ve personally found.

For example, this newsletter. I don’t “execute” these emails fast. I don’t write at breakneck speed or jump on good ideas as they come to me.

Instead, I often get an idea for a subject line, topic, angle… and then it sits there, for days, weeks, sometimes months. I have things I wrote down two years ago which have still not matured.

But on occasion, something will click. A second good idea, or illustration, or whatever, will come my way. And I’ll remember — boy, this would go great with that other thing I thought of months ago.

Of course, it doesn’t always click. But in general, by sitting on ideas, like a mother goose on her eggs, I’ve written some of my most effective, interesting, and influential emails.

And maybe, you will find the same with your own writing. By sitting, and not taking action fast. In spite of that tired phrase everybody’s always preaching, “Money loves speed!”

But really, all this has just been a buildup to the thing I really wanted to show you.

Because a few weeks ago, I found a funny clip on YouTube. ​​It was part of a sketch show that ran on the BBC between 2006 and 2010.

​​All the clips I found from this show were clever and well-written, and they often had direct application to persuasion and influence.

Such as the clip I’m about to share with you.

It’s a satire of Richard Dawkins, looking for a new topic after his blockbuster book, The God Delusion.

Maybe you will enjoy the sketch. And maybe, it will give you some good ideas for controversial content that delivers… rather than disappoints. You can find it below.

But before you click to watch it, sign up for my email newsletter. Or don’t, and sit on it for a while. Here’s the video:

Knock twice before you open this email

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Welcome. First, let me share the traditional greeting:

“Email is great! Yes it is.”

And now, you and I can get started with today’s content:

A few weeks ago, I was rea​ding a New Yorker article. In that article, I came across an interesting idea that’s stuck with me since. ​​I’ll share it with you in today’s email and then we can wrap up this part of our lives and move on to other things.

The article I read was about how good technology is getting at reading our minds, in a very literal sense.

You can now scan people’s brains and have a good idea of how their brains are lighting up in real time.

Combine this with a lot of data of other people’s brains and a lot of fancy software… and we are nearly at a point where somebody can know exactly what you’re thinking… even if you’re just sitting there, eyes closed, doing nothing but smirking.

Anyways, the idea that stuck with me had to do with “event boundaries.” From the article:

He had the class watch a clip from “Seinfeld” in which George, Susan (an N.B.C. executive he is courting), and Kramer are hanging out with Jerry in his apartment. The phone rings, and Jerry answers: it’s a telemarketer. Jerry hangs up, to cheers from the studio audience.

“Where was the event boundary in the clip?” Norman asked. The students yelled out in chorus, “When the phone rang!” Psychologists have long known that our minds divide experiences into segments; in this case, it was the phone call that caused the division.

In other words, neuroscientists now know something that writers have known for millennia:

Our brain loves to create scenes, snapshots, and scripts as a way of making sense of the immense complexity of the world.

This is so obvious that it might not sound like much of a breakthrough. But it has some interesting consequences. Again from the article:

Walking into a room, you might forget why you came in; this happens, researchers say, because passing through the doorway brings one mental scene to a close and opens another.

But perhaps more interesting is the basic influence idea of exaggerating what people already want and respond to.

​​For example, is it any wonder so many religions have strict rules for entering and leaving a place of worship?

When entering the church, dip your fingers in holy water and make the sign of the cross… do not enter or leave the sanctuary while the ark is open… leave the mosque using your left foot while reciting the dua.

And the point of this sermon is:

People want scenes… clearly marked beginnings and endings… so give it to em. Create doors, entrance rituals, dramatic event boundaries.

You will be helping your audience make sense of both you and of their world. They will thank you for it, with their attention, trust, and perhaps even money.

And that all I wanted to say. Except of course the traditional farewell:

“This email is finished! You can sign up here to get more. Yes you can.”

The plagiarism trick of James the Baptist

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James Altucher is a kind of modern day John the Baptist. He rails against college, owning a house, or paying your dues in any industry.

I first heard about him from entrepreneur and copywriter Mark Ford. Mark cares about good writing and interesting ideas. I guess that’s why he’s friends with James.

James has a colorful life history. He has a talent for making and then losing millions of dollars… he’s neurotic and nerdy… at one point, he lived for a year straight in Airbnbs, and owned only 15 things.

But people follow him. Online. Huge audiences.

James also has a podcast. The world’s elite comes to him to promote their causes. He’s interviewed Tony Robbins… Richard Branson… Robert Cialdini… and hundreds of others among the rich and influential.

James interrupts his guests while they’re speaking. He asks out-of-left-field questions. He makes his guests pause. And then relax. And then answer honestly with real insights.

A while back, James published a brilliant idea. It allows you to avoid agonizing over your writing, and create content that’s guaranteed to light up your readers’ minds.

James’s post gives an example of how he got crazy spikes of online traffic using this idea. He spells out exactly how you can use it too. You can use it to write your own popular online content, winning sales copy, or even a bestselling book.

In short, James just shared a way to stop trotting along on a lame copywriting mule… and to start galloping on a copywriting thoroughbred.

I even used this technique to write this email. It’s been a revelation. And I want to share it with you now:

https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/i-plagiarized

Why do scammers say they are from Nigeria?

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According a site that tracks online fraud, 51% of all scam emails mention Nigeria.

It seems self-defeating. Everybody knows it’s a scam. The “Nigerian prince” has become a stock joke.

So what gives? Are scammers so dumb? Don’t they know that everyone is on to them?

Well, we now have the answer, thanks to Cormac Herley, a researcher at Microsoft.

Herley came up with a mathematical model of the scammer’s dilemma.

And after a lot pencil sharpening… crumpled-up papers… and banging his fist on the desk… Herley finally solved his mathematical equations.

The answer to “Nigerian scammer” riddle is this:

1. Sending out spam emails is pretty close to free.

2. But “selling” the prospects who reply to those emails takes time and effort.

3. And so scammers want their front-end marketing to repel everybody but the most gullible. Because…

Those are the only people who the scammer can hope to profit from. That’s why scammers say they are from Nigeria… exactly because it sets off warning sirens to almost everyone except real prospects.

Ok, maybe this isn’t the kind of mind-blowing conclusion that required a bunch of fancy math.

But still, it sounds like a solid second argument for what Ben Settle calls repulsion marketing.

The first argument is psychological:

By saying things that repel the people you don’t want… you create a tighter bond with the people you do want. Because if you’re not saying anything to piss off a few people, you’re not saying anything to make anybody bond with you, either.

But the Microsoft research gives us a more practical reason to repel.

Because these days, there are a bunch of ways to get a bunch of free prospects. For example:

You can implement Daniel Throssell’s “Referral Magnet” strategy to create a kind of flywheel for new email subscribers…

Or you can post your stuff on your blog and let Google serve it up to the world forever…

Or you can go into popular Facebook groups, and spread your peacock tail for all to admire.

Free. All of it. But then comes the second step:

Fielding questions/requests/offers from prospects… dealing with customer service… handling refunds if you offer them.

All of these things have a real cost, whether in terms of time, actual work, or simply your psychological well-being.

So my takeaway for you is:

Start repelling people. Or get off my list.

Because as freelance forensic consultant Sherlock Holmes once said:

“When you have eliminated all who would be impossible or improfitable to sell, then whoever remains, however improbable, must be your prospect.”

Are you still reading?

Damn. I tried so hard to repel you. In that case, the only thing left for me to do, even though it hurts me to do it, is to offer you a spot on my email newsletter. Click here and fill out the form.

New personality dimension to ask about your market

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One evening some 50 years ago, a mother showed up at the hospital with her 3-year-old son, who had a large white turban on his head, made of a bathroom towel.

Every so often, the mom would start muttering under her breath.

​​And then she’d smack the boy, hard, on the back of the large white lump on his head.

They were admitted to see the doctor.

​​”What seems to be the problem?”

The mom sighed. She started unwrapping the towel. And there it was:

A bright yellow potty on the boy’s head.

“He jammed his head into it when we weren’t looking,” the mom said. “It’s on so tight that we can’t get it off. We tried everything. Can you help, doctor?”

The point of this story is:

I’ve had doctors in my family.

My mom was a doctor. My grandma was a doctor. In fact, she was the doctor in the story above. (In the end, she sawed the potty off the boy’s head.)

And yet, in spite of this family connection to honest, hardworking, helpful doctors… my knee-jerk, perhaps shocking reaction today is:

You can’t trust what doctors say. Especially as an organized group.

Look at that scandal I wrote about yesterday. Not so long ago, doctors endorsed a specific brand of cigarettes.

And things haven’t changed since. Doctors today might not endorse cigarettes. But as a bunch, the medical industry remains self-serving… short-sighted… and open to corruption.

Again, that’s my knee-jerk reaction. I’m not saying it’s well-reasoned. And I’m not trying to convince you.

I just want to share an interesting idea I read recently:

The US is quickly splintering into two groups, and it’s not the two groups you might think. It’s not Left vs Right, atheist vs religious, Democrat vs. Republicans, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, or even COVID-cautious vs COVID-so-damn-over-it.

The divide between the two groups is this: people whose default setting is to trust institutional narratives, and people whose default setting is to be skeptical of them; people who believe them unless/until proven otherwise and people who disbelieve them to equal measure.

Maybe this idea is not new to you. But it was new to me.

​​I kept going back to it over and over in conversations with friends. I found it much more telling than talking about political views.

That’s why I wanted to share it with you. This “new divide” idea might be valuable to you as a kind of personality test for your audience, market, or niche. Or for yourself.

Anyways, I read this idea in an article by a writer who calls herself Holly Math Nerd.

Holly goes into much more detail and explanation of her theory, and gives some interesting predictions, as well as more examples in attitudes to medicine, education, and media.

So if this idea resonates with you — or if you’re skeptical of it — you can investigate more for yourself here:

https://hollymathnerd.substack.com/p/on-default-settings-and-the-real

More top copywriters read my emails than any other newsletter

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Top copywriters in every niche — 113,597 in all — were queried in this worldwide study of reading preference. Three leading research organizations made the survey. The gist of the query was — Which newsletters do you read, Mr. Copywriter?

The newsletter named most was the John Bejakovic Letter!

The rich, subtle insights and cool tone of my newsletter’s superb blend of unexpected topics seem to have the same appeal to the reading tastes of top copywriters as to a good many other readers. If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, this preference among top copywriters will hardly surprise you. If you only recently joined my list — well, keep reading now.

Yes, keep reading… so I can tell you the following story:

In 1946, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company launched a powerful new advertising campaign.

It was a series of ads with the headline, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

The ads were based on a survey by “three leading research organizations,” all three of which turned out to be RJ Reynolds’ advertising agency, the William Esty Company.

Plus, it appears William Esty surveyed most doctors about their preferred cigarette brand right after giving them free cartons of Camels.

“That’s horrible,” I hear you saying. “Those dastardly tobacco companies. Good thing we’ve learned our lesson, and nothing like that could happen today.”

Well, about that…

I happen to be both my own product and my own advertising agency.

​​And so I have to admit that the “three leading research organizations” I hired to perform the survey about my superior newsletter… well, all three of those research organizations were me, me, and me.

​​(And in confidence, I’ll also tell you I’m a very sloppy survey conductor who likes to cut corners. Maybe it wasn’t quite 113,597 copywriters that I polled.)

But there’s a second and more serious point I want to make. It might be eye-opening for you, more so than the idea that facts can be cheap. But I’ll save that for tomorrow, since this email is getting long already. You can sign up here if you want to read that email tomorrow.

For now, if you’d like to see a bit of advertising history, and maybe learn a few things that could help you advertise your own products or services, take a look at this warm, impartial, and helpful ad:

https://bejakovic.com/more-doctors

The success secret that successful people won’t tell you

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Today I want to tell you about the quarter game. Hypnotist Mike Mandel wrote about it a few days ago:

You imagine you will find a quarter somewhere today, as though it’s been left deliberately for you. And Mike says, more often than not, it turns out to be true.

Now, as you might have noticed, I’m a sucker for magic and magical thinking.

I mean, over the past month alone, I’ve sent emails about blindsight… the illusory nature of reality… my own tendency to see mystical significance in trivial events… and even a religious epiphany I experienced at age 20.

And here I am today, telling you to manifest quarters into your life.

I wish I could control myself better so I could look a little more serious and professional… and stop myself from morphing into the male, copywriting version of Rhonda Byrne, the Australian TV producer who made that movie The Secret.

But what to do? Here’s my story:

Yesterday, I went out for a walk. And I played the quarter game for the first time. I told myself I’d find a quarter, as though it had been left deliberately for me.

After a few minutes of walking around, I didn’t find a single quarter.

But then I told myself, “You know what, quarters are fine. But what would be really great is if I found that missing license plate.”

Because this past Sunday, I went to my car — actually, my mom’s 20-year-old white Audi, which I have been using for past six months — and I found the front license plate was gone.

This is a huuuge hassle.

Where I am right now (Croatia), it means I have to go to the police, report the license plate as missing, apply to get a whole new set, then update documents, insurance, the vehicle inspection. It’s such a pain in the ass that I have been ignoring it and instead just not using the car for the past few days.

That’s why it would have been great to “manifest” that license plate back into my life.

It would save me hours or days of sitting around in government offices, filling out paperwork, driving around town… or alternately, stressing that cops will pull me over and fine me and harass me if I don’t do all that.

So there I was yesterday, with the sudden idea to play the license plate game. And the darnedest thing happened.

Within five minutes, I had the missing license plate in my hand. I found it over a wall and down a ditch, in some bushes, close to where my car — well, my mom’s car — had been parked.

I’m not sure how the license plate got there. And I’m not sure exactly how I had the idea to check there.

All I know is that, had I not read Mike Mandel’s email… and had I not half-jokingly played the quarter game… I would not have thought to play the license plate game, or search for the license plate where I did find it. As though somebody had deliberately left it there for me.

But let me wrap this up. Here’s a quote from Eric Hoffer’s book True Believer, about the psychology of revolutions, religions, and other mass movements:

“The remarkable thing is that the successful, too, however much they pride themselves on their foresight, fortitude, thrift and other ‘sterling qualities,’ are at bottom convinced that their success is the result of a fortuitous combination of circumstances. The self-confidence of even the consistently successful is never absolute.”

Hoffer’s point is that people only attempt real change when they feel they have their hands on some “irresistible power.” And this irresistible power is almost always something outside themselves… or at least outside the limits they feel to be their own identity.

Such, it seems, is human psychology. You can fight it. Or you can work with it.

If you can work with it in a socially acceptable way, good for you.

But even if you end up at risk of looking like a male Rhonda Byrne, it’s still a pretty good deal to make.

Because if you just rely on your own “sterling qualities,” odds are you end up sitting around government offices for days… pulling your hair out… and cursing the stupidity and injustice of the world.

The alternative is to effect change in your life without all that stress. And all you have to do is believe — in magic if you have to — and play the game every day.

Last thing:

Every day, I write an email about copywriting, marketing, or woo-woo topics like manifesting quarters. If you’d like these emails to magically manifest themselves in your inbox each day, you can sign up here.

Gary Bencivenga: The best way to create an offer that sells

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Today I found myself in a hypnotic trance, reading through an article titled,

“Charlie Munger: 20 Book Recommendations That Will Make You Smarter.”

When I got to the end of the article, I slowly started to wake up.

“What the hell am I doing?” I asked myself. “How many thousands of books do I already have on my to-read list? Why did I need to click on this article and why did I make it all the way to the end?”

It might be obvious:

It’s because it’s Charlie Munger’s recommended books. And Charlie Munger is a successful and smart guy… so his recommendations might make me smarter and more successful too. At least that’s how my brain rationalized it.

In my mind, this goes back to the advice of Gary Bencivenga, the man many have called the “best copywriter in the world.”

Gary’s entire copywriting philosophy was built around proof. And Gary believed that, while proof in your copy is great, proof embedded in your offer is even greater.

When I think a bit, I see that’s what got me to click and consume the “offer” of that article today. Because that article could just as well have been,

“Charlie Munger: 20 Negotiation Tips That Will Make You Richer.”

Or, “Charlie Munger: 20 Mental Models That Will Make You Stronger.”

Or, “Charlie Munger: 20 Indian Dishes That Will Make You Fuller.”

With any of those offer variations, but with Charlie Munger again at the core, I probably would have still wound up in a trance.

And vice versa.

Imagine that same article had been titled, “20 Really Fantastic and Valuable Book Recommendations.”

​​And if you go to read the article… there’s a case study right up top of Charlie Munger… and how he made a bunch of money by applying an idea from the first book on the list.

Yes, that case study would be proof. And yes, it would be valuable. But it would be nowhere as valuable as basing the entire offer around Charlie.

But perhaps I’m not making this “proof offer” idea clear. So consider something Gary Bencivenga himself did.

At some point in the 70s, Gary started working for a direct response marketing agency. Gary wrote an ad for the agency itself to hunt for new clients. He ran the ad in the Wall Street Journal — and got his agency swamped with new work.

How did he do it?

Well, there was a ton of proof throughout the entire ad. How the agency works… how they reward copywriters… case studies of past clients.

But all that was nothing compared to the actual proof-centered offer. The entire ad was built around that offer. In fact, it featured right in the headline:

“Announcing a direct response advertising agency that will guarantee to outpull your best ad.”

So there you go. Build your offer around an embedded proof element, and watch your prospects get into a buying trance. But…

Perhaps I’m still not making this “proof offer” idea clear enough.

In that case, you might like to read more about it.

And you can do so in Commandment I of my little book, The 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters. Yes, I took Gary’s advice when titling that book. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

MIT scientists shocked to rediscover ancient direct marketing fact

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Yesterday, a friend forwarded me a trending news item:

“A Nine-year-Old Girl Has Disappeared After Using Moisturizer That Makes You Look Ten Years Younger.”

Unlike me, my friend has a kid, so the fact that he forwarded me this story might just be a symptom of early-onset dad humor. But maybe not.

Maybe it’s a sign of something much deeper… much more sinister… and much more significant… at least if you are interested in persuasion and sales.

​​Because check it:

I read another news item yesterday. It was about a study that came out this past December, from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

These MIT management experts were studying the spread of misinformation online. The question they were studying was this:

Are people who are more digitally literate — for example, who know how Facebook recommends stories — any better at coping with online misinformation than unwashed digital illiterates?

Answer:

People who were digitally literate were much better at gauging accuracy. They could tell apart which stories (about politics and corona) were true and which were fake.

But…

That had nothing to do with which stories the digital literates ended up sharing.

​​In other words, these digital Steve Urkels were just as likely to share fake stories — which they knew to be fake — as the digital illiterates — who believed them to be true.

So there you go. Maybe that explains why my friend, who is very digitally literate, shared that obvious hoax about moisturizer with me.

But more seriously:

The researchers concluded that “measuring digital literacy might be useful for identifying social media users who are vulnerable to believing misinformation.”

That seems naive and shortsighted to me.

To me, this study just shows that the apparent truthfulness or fakefulness of what you say… doesn’t matter much in whether people engage emotionally, and in other real-world ways, with your ideas and content.

Maybe you find that shocking. Or maybe you find it obvious. Because it’s really just a re-statement of the ancient direct marketing truth:

All decisions are made emotionally, and are only primped and preened afterwards with a bit of logic.

Maybe remembering this truth will help you when you try to convince people to buy from you… or just to share some of your content.

For example, my Copy Riddles optin page. One last time, I’d like to invite you to share it.

Maybe by now I’ve stirred up sufficient shock, outrage, or perhaps amusement in you that you want to share this page just because.

But maybe you need some logic. In that case, I also have a bribe for you. For the full details, take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/