My list swap outreach template

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Today I wanna tell you about a free database of list swap partners, and how to actually use it to get others to promote you, even if your list is tiny.

First off, the database:

You’ve probably heard of it, because many list owners have promoted it over the past few months. It’s called List Match.

I’m late to the game of promoting List Match, but I will aim to make up for it.

Because since February, I have been signed up for List Match myself.

Thanks to that experience, I can tell you the good and the bad of List Match, and how you can turn the bad into great for you.

The good of List Match:

The people behind List Match keep promoting it. That means the platform is full of list owners who have said they want to run a list swap, and who have even gone through the trouble of signing up for an account and creating a profile.

The List Match database is fresh and more people keep getting added every week.

There are some whales on there, but most of the people on List Match have small audiences. (That fixes the problem of, “my list is too small for a list swap.”)

The bad of List Match:

List Match is hosted on Circle, which is community platform, and simply not a fit for a database tool like this.

People are supposed to “like” your automatically generated profile post, and then Circle is supposed to notify you, so you can somehow pick up the interaction.

I never get notified. Plus discovery of potential partners is inconvenient at best.

(I’ll tell you in a second the only decent way I’ve found to discover relevant newsletters on List Match).

How to turn the bad into great:

Like I said, the people behind List Match keep promoting and expanding the database. That means new people sign up, expecting others to reach out to them (that’s the official promise).

But because of List Match being on Circle and the tech problems around that, few if any of these list owners ever get any possible partners reaching out to them.

That becomes your opportunity, because this is effectively a starving crowd of people who have expressed interest in an outcome (list swaps), except nobody is satisfying that hunger for them.

My advice:

1. Get on List Match yourself

2. Once you’re on it, don’t just scroll through the hundreds of list owners on there. Instead, search the database using the search function for terms relevant to you.

(I just tried “email marketing” and found dozens of good people, including ones I have already done swaps with, bought ads from, have inside my Monetization Mastermind community, etc.)

3. Instead of relying on Circle’s unreliable “like” notifications, hoping that if you “like” somebody they will reach out to you, you reach out to them, and you do it off Circle.

(Yes, you have to be the one to take 100% of the initiative. But that’s precisely where the gold is, not just in this particular case, but everywhere else in life.)

List Match gives you the website of the person who wants to do a list swap.

Go to their website, find their contact email, or barring that, sign up to their list and then hit reply when you get the welcome email.

This bit of work is super likely to pay off. Again, these aren’t random list owners that you are cold-pitching for a list swap.

Instead, they are people who have expressly stated they are looking for list swaps… who have shared their list size so you know you are in the same ballpark… and who you have something in common with (you are both on List Match).

You can use these facts and your own copywriting or networking skill to craft a short outreach message to encourage these people to respond to you and to agree to a list swap.

Or if you like, I have a ready-made and proven list swap outreach email I’ve used in the past with another, earlier database of list swap prospects. You can use my outreach message instead of writing your own.

I used this outreach email to do a buncha list swaps for my now-dormant longevity newsletter.

Almost every list owner I reached out to with this message got back to me, and most people said yes, including when I had just a few subs.

My deal to you:

1. Sign up for List Match using my link here (it’s free): ​https://bejakovic.com/listmatch​

2. Forward me your account confirmation email (mine had the subject line, “Your account is ready”)

3. I will then send you the list swap outreach email I’ve used in the past, plus a templatized version you can fill in the blanks for and send out yourself

The daily email model is on its way out

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A few days ago, I sent out an email asking my readers if they are still interested in sending daily emails for their business.

To which I got a reply from a genuine A-list copywriter who sometimes reads my daily emails, somebody with a history of top-level marketing results, who wrote:

“I don’t have time to get them. If there’s a way to subscribe to fewer I’d love that. They’re all quite good but it’s a time management thing. I believe with very few exceptions the daily email model is on its way out.”

That’s good to know.

In other news, last month, email marketer Liz Wilcox ran an affiliate contest to promote the yearly subscription of her membership.

Despite my distaste for affiliate contests, I decided to participate because the prize for the top affiliate was a solo email to Liz’s very responsive list of about 15k people.

A few days later, the results rolled in:

===

First prize (solo email to my list):

JOHN BEJAKOVIC

Second prize (1:1 session with me):

TARZAN KAY

Third prize ($100 gift card lottery winner):

CAT GRIFFIN

===

I didn’t know these other two people but I looked them up. Tarzan Kay sends weekly emails to a list that’s more than twice as large as mine (and that was recently “scrubbed” for engagement from a list that was almost 4x the size of mine).

As for Cat Griffin, she sends sporadic emails to her list and does most of her marketing on Instagram instead.

I don’t know how Tarzan and Cat promoted Liz’s offer to their audiences. I promoted it by sending a single daily email, and that was enough to win me the affiliate contest.

Point being:

1st place: Daily emails

2nd place: Weekly emails

3rd place: Sporadic emails

You can choose not to send daily emails because you’ve decided you have better, higher priority things to do.

That’s a legit decision to make.

And while the daily email model is on the way out, the same way that direct response copywriting, and marketing, and business more generally are on the way out…

I have personally found that relentless followup, relationship building, and continuous attempts at being present in prospects’ and customers’ lives, even if ignored or rebuffed by most of those people, still remain the most effective way of using email to make money.

If you’d like to start sending daily emails, so you can be in 1st place in your own niche, I have a daily email prompts service to help you do that:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

4 words that tell you what people will do or want to do

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If you must know the four words, I’ll save you from scrolling and just tell you right away. The four words are:

“I’m not going to”

There. You’re done. You don’t need to read more. But, if you like, do read more, and I’ll give you a bit of context to make sense of these words.

A couple weeks ago, I got a message on LinkedIn (yes, LinkedIn, I have a profile there that I never check) from a dude who was reading my “10 Commandments of Con Men, Pick Up Artists, etc.” book.

I saw that he buys houses for cash. We got into a bit of a conversation. I asked him if, while dealing with house sellers, he has found any little persuasion tricks or deeper psychological principles, along the lines of what I share in the 10 Commandments book.

He had a bunch, including the following:

“When a person says ‘I’m not going to’ it usually means whatever they say after that, they’re going to do or want to do.”

He didn’t give me any examples, but I had heard an example just earlier that day. I had been listening to a call by marketer Travis Sago. Travis was talking about a campaign he ran to sell a bunch of spots for, I believe, an $11k program.

Travis’s strategy was to announce the price early in the campaign. People were shocked at how expensive the program was. One guy apparently wrote in to say, “Have you lost your everloving mind?”

Travis worked his magic during that campaign.

That “everloving” dude ended up buying on the final day. And when he did, he wrote Travis to say, “You know it’s funny, I told myself this morning I’m not going to do this.”

When you think about it, it’s obvious that when people say, “I’m not going to,” they are actually going to, or at least they want to.

Otherwise, why would the thought of doing the thing even be in their head? Even more so, why would they need to try to psychologically guard themselves against the thought by telling themselves and others that it won’t happen?

This is part of a bigger psychological principle, and one that you can use to communicate more effectively and influence people on a day-to-day level, whether you want to buy houses for cash, or to make people laugh, or even to win an election.

I cover all that in Commandment VI of my 10 Commandments book. Speaking of, here’s what the dude on Linked wrote me initially about that book:

“Hi John, I’ve almost finished your book (10 Commandments) and just wanted to say it’s delightful and I appreciate the menagerie of experts you drew on! Thank you”

If you haven’t gotten your copy of my book yet, here’s where you can find it waiting for you:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Three Most Valuable Offers with your name on them

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For the past few weeks, I have been helping a small group of folks design, launch, and deliver a paid live workshop, something I’m calling Most Valuable Offer.

These folks are running their Most Valuable Offers to their own lists and audiences.

But part of my own deal to them, for this initial cohort, was to get a bit of added distribution via a mention in this newsletter, if they launch their Most Valuable Offer before the end of April.

Three brave souls have done so and have taken me up on my deal.

Maybe you will be interested in the unique and Most Valuable Offers they are making? Here they are, for you to evaluate, judge, and decide:

#1 “The same system powers a live campaign right now with a 26% reply rate and 86 new clients won”

Ryan Lemos runs a Dubai-based AI agency and is hosting a live online 2-hour Claude Code workshop on May 14, where you will build two systems: one that automatically researches your ideal clients, and one that turns that research into LinkedIn content written in your voice.

No coding required. The same system powers a live campaign he is running right now with a 26% reply rate and 86 new clients won.

It is hands-on from the first minute, and both systems will be running before you close your laptop.

Click here to get the full details: https://claudecodeworkshop.replit.app/

#2 “For experienced coaches and consultants who have something valuable to share, but haven’t moved yet”

If you’ve got expertise but keep spinning about what to launch, this may help.

Steph DragonHeart Benedetto has put together a short, practical email series on how to choose the right offer when you have too many good ideas. It’s for experienced creators, coaches, and consultants who have something valuable to share, but haven’t moved yet.

Over 5 emails, she’ll help you choose a direction, simplify it, and take a real step forward. She’ll also share the details of her “Get It Done” workshop where (you guessed it) you’ll actually get it done and hit send.

Grab it here: https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/getitdonebejako

#3 “Reclaim your evening with a simple shift about time itself”

Tom Grundy is a City of London banker who used to work so late the office cleaner would vacuum between his legs at his desk.

Nowadays, he eats dinner with his family at 5.30pm most evenings, writes daily emails and runs a coaching practice alongside his day job.

The change wasn’t blocking his calendar, setting boundaries or learning to say no. Instead, it was a simple shift about time itself which once he’d seen, he couldn’t unsee.

Tom’s sharing this shift in a one-off training called Reclaim Your Evening. Join Tom’s newsletter to get the details: https://reclaim.followingfulfilment.com/home

Two tracks, client and student

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A couple weeks ago I talked to a dude, a successful marketer.

On the one hoof, he sells courses and coaching via his email list. On the other, he does bespoke done-for-you work for clients.

I asked him how he gets his done-for-you clients. Are these people who are part of his audience, and just kept ascending from course buyer to coaching student to DFY client?

Turns out no. In the dude’s words:

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It’s funny because the bespoke clients that I’ve worked for or have on retainer, they always come by referral.

They always have. I’ve been in business since 2010 and the big whale clients, they come by way of some sort of referral.

Whether that’s a past client of mine referred them, a vendor referred them, a colleague, somebody like that.

===

I’m telling you this because I’m finishing up my first-ever Most Valuable Offer cohort.

I’ve been helping nine people plan, market, and deliver a paid live workshop.

As the first step, I asked them, what’s the next step? In other words, who do they want to attract to this workshop, and what do they want to sell to them afterwards?

One of the participants replied:

“Get more high-quality DTC clients who will implement the work I do for them.”

Well, about that. I’d like to suggest to you, going back to the experience of the successful marketer above, that there are two separate tracks:

A client track and a student track.

Like I said, the two tracks are separate.

At the same time, that doesn’t mean that they are independent.

The two tracks are mutually reinforcing, the same way that train tracks have those wooden sleepers in between them to keep each one in place by connecting it to the other.

Here’s how that works:

DFY client work gives you content, expertise, and standing and with your student audience.

It makes it easier to sell to students and gives you something worthwhile to sell.

The teaching you do via courses and coaching, in turn, gives you reach (including referrals), star glow, and non-neediness when dealing with clients.

It makes it easier to have clients find you instead of you having to prospect… to work with better clients, ones that you like… and to charge more with zero pushback on your rates.

My back-of-the-napkin math is that by having both a client and a student track, you get 500% of the benefit for 75% of the work, compared to having each one alone.

At the moment, I still haven’t finished the current Most Valuable Offer cohort. I am not sure when I will be running the next one.

If you’re interested in creating a Most Valuable Offer yourself, both to monetize your current audience and to make your client work easier, then reply to this email and I’ll put you on the priority list.

At the moment, I’m also not doing any client work.

If you are interested in having me completely handle some projects for you — whether that’s handling daily emails or a weekly newsletter for your business, or advertorials for your cold traffic funnel, or something else you need but I’m not thinking of — then reply to this email and we can talk.

Daily Email Open House

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This Thursday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST, I’ll get on Zoom for a bit of Daily Email Open House:

To hang out, maybe have a beer, and answer questions about sending daily emails… making a $1k+ offer… and using your list to pay for a house.

If you’d like to join me or get your questions answered live, here’s where you can sign up:

https://www.skool.com/daily-email-house/daily-email-house-live-qa-call

Daily Money Vitamin

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A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga once prescribed an “Ad-A-Day Vitamin”:

Every day, no matter what, read a great ad.

Gary said this was a recipe to get 1% better every week.

Which is nice except it doesn’t work. Because reading alone won’t make you better, or cause any kind of a lasting change in you or your life.

(I speak here from personal experience, as a person who has read things in the past, often with great interest.)

Instead, I have something different for you.

Something that creates lasting change, not only in you but in your life, business, and bank account.

It’s the Daily Money Vitamin:

Every day, no matter what, implement one great idea.

Put the idea into action, Apply it. Don’t just read about it, don’t just nod at it, don’t just savor it like a connoisseur.

Instead, think about what the idea is telling you to do, and then do that.

Within a week you will be 1% richer. Within a year, you’ll be 67.8% richer. Within two years, you will be 2.81 times richer. After that, it really begins to compound.

Excellent. Except where do you find great ideas to implement?

Ultimately, great ideas are everywhere. In conversations with people you trust… in old books… in expensive courses… in free email newsletters like this one (ahem, I shared one with you just a few lines above, the Daily Email Vitamin).

If you start keeping track of great ideas like this today, within a year, you’re likely to have hundreds of them.

I myself have been keeping such an archive for years. At last count, it was 937 great ideas long. Here’s a very small sample:

* “To build fascination and rapport, keep asking deeper, more enthusiastic questions” (from James Altucher via his podcast)

* “Use the same link text as the subject line to get clicks” (something Ian Stanley said somewhere)

* “Trialibility is the no. 1 factor affecting adoption of an innovation” (from Jonah Berger’s Catalyst)

I once created a collection of all these great ideas which I called The Shangri La Library Of Rare And Priceless Ideas.

If you want to stock your own library of great ideas, and if you want to taking your Daily Money Vitamin today rather than never, then I’ll make you a deal.

For the next 24 hours, until tomorrow, Tuesday Apr 28 2026, at 8:31pm CET, you can get your little claws on The Shangri La Library Of Rare And Priceless Ideas, for free, if you get my Most Valuable Email program.

For more information on Most Valuable Email before the day runs out:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Fire sale auction

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After my first and very successful “I endorse YOU” auction back in December, I haven’t had much luck coming up with an auction offer that really excited my audience. A few of the flops:

#1. An A-Z system for growing your list via newsletter ads, from finding the right newsletters, to getting the lowest rates, to making ~$10 for every new subscriber

#2. The behind-the-scenes info of auctions I’ve been running with partners, plus info on how I’ve gotten each such partner

#3. A penny auction to find out what marketing book I’ve been reading repeatedly this whole year and keeping hidden, because it’s simply too valuable to share publicly

Auction archwizard Travis Sago says that one of the easiest things to auction off is licensing rights to a course, at least if you got a course, and if you got an audience of marketers who want to make money.

Is that right?

I don’t know. My gut feeling is against it but my gut’s failed me many times before. I am willing to put it to the test and find out.

A few days ago, I listened to a podcast about the realities of the book publishing business:

1. Publishers publish a bunch of books, then sell the books to bookstores.

2. If the bookstores cannot sell all the books they bought, they send the books back to the publisher and ask for their money back.

3. In case the publisher is left holding a bunch of books no bookstores wants, they try to recoup at least some of the value. They auction off the books in a kind of fire sale auction to whoever is willing to pay for the lot (or any fraction of the lot).

4. The rest of the books, the ones that cannot be sold via the fire sale auction, are fed into a shredder, chopped up, and then turned into pulp, to recoup at least a few cents on the dollar of value.

With that preamble, lemme ask you:

Would you participate in my fire sale auction?

The offer on auction is the licensing and resell rights my Copy Riddles course, which currently retails for $997.

Would you bid $1 for the right to sell Copy Riddles yourself, forever, and keep every cent of the $997, or whatever you choose to sell it for?

Copy Riddles is the best thing I’ve created. Out of all my courses, books, and trainings, it’s likely to be useful to the greatest number of people. If anything I’ve created outlasts this newsletter, it will be Copy Riddles.

And yet, I haven’t been really selling it.

In part, it’s because I’ve gotten out of the “teach you copywriting” business.

In part, it’s because my list is growing so slowly and the price point of Copy Riddles is so high that it makes little sense for me to promote Copy Riddles regularly, since I have largely tapped out easy demand in my own list.

That said, Copy Riddles has still has brought in ~20k/year over the past few years, which I’ve made by running a creative and exciting promo for just a few days, once a year.

Would you want to sell Copy Riddles yourself? To your own audience or to other people’s audiences?

You’d be free to reposition it, free to repackage it, free to transform it into another format or AI tool or live workshop or audio book, or to break it up into pieces and sell it that way.

Of course, if I were to run this fire sale auction, I’d throw in some bonuses to make the auction offer more unique and exciting and FIRE.

But really, the core offer is Copy Riddles, and your right to sell it in perpetuity and keep all the money.

Would you bid $1 for that?

If you would, hit reply and let me know. Otherwise I’ll start priming my shredder and wood pulper, and try to reclaim at least a few cents of the $997 value.

I predict you will have your birthday in May

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Three things for you today:

#1. Experts make predictions

From Alan Weiss’s book, Million Dollar Consulting:

“Experts make predictions. They don’t fret about whether they’ll be right, they don’t keep score, and then have no regrets. If you’re afraid to make a prediction because you may be wrong, then you’re no expert.”

#2. The best 9-word email

Yesterday I was listening to examples of business owners using variants of Dean Jackson’s 9-word email (“Are you still interested in buying a house in Georgetown”).

All business owners had good results by sending out a 9-word email to their lists. But who had the best result?

A trainer/education provider for dental hygienists in Canada, because…

Apparently dental hygienists in Canada are supposed to have continuing medical education, and they get audited to make sure they are complying with this.

CRUCIAL: The audits all go out on the same day.

The trainer/education provider for dental hygienists simply sent out her 9-word (actually 6-word) email the day after the audits went out. The 6 words were:

“Are you being audited this year?”

Replies (and business) came fast and furious after that.

#3. I predict you will have your birthday in May

And if I am proven right, what better time to clean up all the latent demand from people on your list who have built a relationship with you, and have been meaning to give you money to get your help, but who haven’t gotten around to it?

Your birthday gives you a good “reason why” for creating a unique offer and running an email promo around it.

For bonus points, you can design your offer so it’s not just tied into a unique occasion in your life but tied into a unique occasion in your prospects lives, so they are doubly likely to take you up on your offer and to pay you good money.

Related to that, I have a special offer for you today:

It’s to get my help coming up with a birthday offer and promo for your list next month.

If you’re interested, hit reply and tell me which day in May your birthday is, and we can take it from there.