Gary Halbert’s first and most important lesson

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A long time ago, in a beautiful city far, far away…

I worked as an IT office drudge, and I decided I had had enough.

Fortunately, I knew a guy who was doing freelance copywriting.

I thought I could do the same, so I took a week off my regular IT job to sit at home and try it out.

I wanted to see if I could do the writing, and what it would be like to work by myself.

The writing part was fine, and I decided that I would give the freelance life a shot.

However, there was one problem.

Two days after starting my stay-at-home work experiment, I started to get depressed.

Not sad.

Not hopeless.

Just my nervous system seemed to be slowly shutting down, and I found it hard to concentrate or feel very motivated about achieving anything.

And again, this happened just two days after trying to work from home by myself.

The good thing was, I had a suspicion of what the problem was.

And I had a quick fix for it.

In fact, it’s an idea I got from the Prince of Print, old Gary Halbert himself.

It’s something that Gary once called his first and most important lesson.

And it’s something I continue to apply to this day, and that I consider to be vital in making me a successful freelance copywriter.

The thing is, this has nothing to do with writing.

Nothing to do with persuasion.

And yet, without it, I could never have succeeded in making a comfortable career, working a couple of hours a day, usually in my pajamas.

Anyways, if you want to know what this important lesson is, you can rifle through the thousands of pages of content that Gary Halbert has left online as his legacy. It won’t be a waste of your time.

However, if for any reason you don’t want to go that route, there is a second option.

You can also consult my upcoming book,  which covers freelance copywriting on Upwork.

I’m making my way through all the sections I’ve planned out for this book, and I should be finished with it by the end of the month.

If you want to get notified once it’s out, simply sign up below, and I’ll send you an email to let you know when I finish. And then, you’ll have Gary’s secret lesson all to yourself. Here’s the link to get notified:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

Cogsworth wisdom for long-term Upwork success

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“This is yet another example of the late neoclassic Baroque period. And, as I always say, ‘If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!'”
— Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast

A few weeks back, I was interviewed about freelancing on Upwork.

Nick Tubis, the guy who interviewed me, said something along the lines of, “Most successful freelancers get invited to jobs. What would you do if you’re not getting invited?”

To which I told him the truth:

Yes, I regularly get invited to Upwork jobs.

And I also regularly scroll through listed jobs, and apply to any for which I might be a good match. It worked for me at the start of my time on Upwork, and it’s working for me still. In the words of Cogsworth: If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!

Let me give you an example:

Earlier this year, I landed a daily email writing gig this way.

It paid $150/hr.

I didn’t get invited to this job. I found it and applied.

If I hadn’t searched for jobs that day, and I hadn’t applied, I wouldn’t have gotten this contract, which netted me about $6k before the client decided to take the work in-house.

The fact is, many potential clients who might be a perfect match for you will never find your profile.

They won’t invite you to their job.

They will pass like a ship in the night.

So my strategy now is the same as my strategy when I started on Upwork.

Each day, I take a bit of time, and go through the newest job listings.

And then, if I find something good, I send in a very brief and yet very effective job application.

It usually takes me about 2 minutes to write.

And yet, it routinely wins me 4-figure contracts, just like that daily email writing job.

I’ll lay out how I write this typical job application in my upcoming book about freelance copywriting on Upwork.

This book won’t teach you how to write copy.

Just how to win jobs, deal with clients, and get paid better and better rates on Upwork.

If that’s something you’re interested in, and you want to get notified when I finish up this book, you can sign up here:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

How to properly toot your own horn on Upwork

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A while back, I was lurking in the CopyHour Facebook group when a post caught my eye.

By the way, CopyHour is a course offered by Derek Johansen.

It’s a structured take on Gary Halbert’s idea of neural imprinting — basically, copying out successful sales letters by hand each day.

Anyways, the post in the CopyHour group was by a guy going through the course, and trying to get started on Upwork as a sales copywriter.

He was asking for feedback on his profile overview statement. That’s the description about yourself you put on Upwork to tell potential clients about yourself. The trouble is, copywriters, especially new copywriters, mistake this for an opportunity to display their copywriting skills.

That’s exactly what this guy did.

He wrote a long, conversational post.

He tried to make the skeleton dance (“I’m new and inexperienced but that means I’ll work extra hard”).

And he even used a “secret” lead.

In my opinion, this is not the right way to toot your own horn as a sales copywriter on Upwork. So I responded to this guy with my thoughts, which might be relevant to you as well if you’re starting on Upwork:

1. Don’t be clever. There are good clients on Upwork but they are outnumbered by people who need miracles for under $50. To me it seems your description would appeal more to the second group than to the first.

2. Don’t apologize for starting out. The majority of people offering services on Upwork are incompetent to begin with — odds are, you’re already better. Instead, tell potential clients in detail what you will do for them, and give them reasons to believe you will deliver (beyond just trying hard).

You see, Upwork is basically a B2B platform.

People who are searching for freelancers on there already have a pretty good idea what they need. They just want to make sure you’re it. And that’s why fancy copywriting tricks that are designed to suck in prospects from cold traffic will only get in your way.

Instead, I think it’s much better to be direct with your Upwork self-description.

Yes, there are some tricks to making your description stand out, and making it more convincing. Though it’s more about putting on your marketing hat, rather than your copywriting hat.

Anyways, if you want to find out what these tricks are, and how I used them to write my own Upwork profile, you’ll be able to read about it in my upcoming book on the business of Upwork freelancing.

I’m planning to finish this book by the end of the month.

And if you want me to notify you when it’s out, simply sign up below:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

Why you should disqualify your best prospects

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A true marketing tale:

Yesterday morning I got an email from a well-known copywriter.

It was a long content piece, talking about where the world of copywriting and direct response was going.

It was interesting, even inspiring.

At the end, the guy introduced his offer: mentoring for copywriters who want to take advantage of all these coming changes to become the top 1%. He wasn’t selling anything directly — rather just trying to get people to set up a kind of strategy call.

A good sales pitch.

And I was ready.

But I couldn’t really tell if it was right for me.

I still had questions, and even the free call seemed like too much commitment to make.

Now this email was probably over a thousand words long. But these doubts I had at the end could have been resolved with a few lines at most. Something like: “This offer isn’t right for you if x, y, or z.”

Would it have turned me off if I didn’t match these criteria?

Sure.

But I didn’t act anyhow.

There was still some hesitation and resistance, even though this expert copywriter did everything else right.

This hesitation can be overcome, by all things, when you state who your offer is not right for.

Don’t try to massage it either.

Be blunt and honest.

After all, why would you want people who are not qualified leads taking you up on your offer?

Just my attitude.

And it’s the same attitude I take when I talk to prospective copywriting clients.

It’s served me well so far. I’m not as far along as the A-list copywriter I’ve been writing about. But I am well-paid, and on Upwork, where I still get most of my clients, I’ve got a 100% rating.

Only taking on jobs where I know I can deliver is a big part of this. It’s another thing that disqualifying prospects helps with.

Anyways, if you want to know more of my Upwork strategy, and how I’ve managed to get to a $150/hr rate on the site that clients are happy to pay, then you’ll want to read my upcoming book on freelance copywriting on Upwork.

This book isn’t for you in case you’re looking to learn the craft of copywriting. It will only cover the business side, and only on Upwork.

If that’s something you want more info about, then sign up below, and I’ll notify you when the book is out:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

Dog takes bus, Upwork success ensues

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A dog named Eclipse rides the bus by herself several times each week.

She even has her own bus pass.

Her owner is waiting for her at the dog park, and Eclipse takes the bus to meet him. It all happened by accident the first time — she got on first, the guy stayed behind — but now they’ve made a habit out of it.

The other passengers don’t seem to mind.

I guess it helps all this is happening in Seattle.

The liberal home of Amazon.

The platform on which I am planning on publishing my upcoming book on Upwork freelancing.

The book is titled:

“How to become a $150/hr, top-rated sales copywriter on Upwork”

And it’s going to share my experiences with the business (rather than the craft) of sales copywriting for clients on Upwork.

If you want to get notified when this book comes out, you can sign up at the link below.

And when I finish up the book, I’ll write an email, put it on the bus with its own bus pass, and send it your way. To sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

How to influence the President of the United States to take action

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President Ronald Reagan put his index cards down and looked around the room.

“Has anybody else seen this movie?” he asked.

His National Security advisors shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. Nobody else had seen WarGames, the Matthew Broderick movie that was weighing on Reagan’s mind. So the president described the plot:

A teenage hacker randomly dials numbers using his 1980s computer modem.

He gains access to a military supercomputer.

He starts playing a game with it, not realizing that the computer is connected to the entire nuclear arsenal of the United States.

And he comes within a thumbtack of initiating World War III.

“Could something like this really happen?” Reagan was asking.

Nobody knew.

So General John W. Vessey Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would look into it.

One week later, the general returned with the report. “Mr. president,” he said, “the problem is much worse than you think.”

Long story short, Reagan set a process in motion that culminated with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 3 years later. This is still the main piece of legislation on the sensitive topic of hacking.

But here’s the thing.

How did General Vessey come up with that report within just one week?

Well, it’s because a group of scientists working within the government were already concerned about the very same issue. Analyses had been done. Papers had been written. And the outcome of all this well-researched and deliberate data was:

Nothing.

Crickets.

Instead, it took a Hollywood movie, which Reagan watched for entertainment, to get anybody to act.

That’s the power of a story.

It’s become a cliche to say that our brains are wired for stories.

But that’s because it really appears to be true.

Nothing seems to convince, entertain, and move us quite like a story.

Nothing even comes close.

Anyways, if you want more on the topic of stories (and weight loss supplements), take a look at for my upcoming book.

It will talk about stories, and how to use them in your emails to sell health products.

The book is free if you sign up to get a copy now.

Here’s the link with more info:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

AI summer is here

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Back in the 1980s, artificial intelligence faced a cold, barren winter.

Funding became scarce.

Researchers started abandoning the field.

And critics piled on, saying that the big promises AI was supposed to fulfill did not and will not happen, ever.

Well, the winter is long gone.

And summer seems to be here.

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I don’t feel like playing chess with you any more

I just read a fascinating and frightening article that confirms it.

DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has come up with a new little program called AlphaZero.

AlphaZero plays games.

Things like Go and chess.

The thing is, it doesn’t need any human help.

You don’t have to teach it, train it, or tweak it to the specifics of the game.

You just tell it the rules.

And within a few days time, the thing learns how to play on its own.

How good is it?

Well, within three days, this Skynet embryo taught itself to play Go.

And it then beat another DeepMind program, which made history earlier because it beat one of the best human Go players on the planet. (This earlier program required months of training and hand-holding, unlike AlphaZero.)

Now Go isn’t real life.

It’s not even poker.

But just wait.

I’m sure the guys at DeepMind are already working on it.

You might think I’m bringing this up because I’m afraid DeepMind and AlphaZero are coming for our copywriting and marketing jobs.

That’s not it. (When Skynet arrives, who’s gonna care about advertorials any more?)

Instead, I think this story is a good illustration of an important and valuable principle. The idea is this:

Creating something new will often sweep away hard and narrow problems.

AlphaZero has been designed to play any game, and incidentally, it learns to play better than any human-designed program that plays just one game.

As in AI, so in persuasion. It just might be described using different words.

For example, copywriting and marketing experts Matt Furey might say, “Stop solving problems. Create instead.”

Daygame guru Jon Matrix might say, “Play to win, don’t play not to lose.”

However you say it, I think it’s an important idea to keep close to your heart at all times.

In my own experience, it seems to have a magical ability to guide you to easy (or easier) success.

Anyways, enough about Skynet.

Back to more earthly things.

Such as weight loss supplements, plantar fasciitis insoles, and kidney disease ebooks.

If you sell any of those — or something like them — you might be interested in my new book. It talks about email marketing for the health space, and it brings together some lessons I’ve learned by writing copy for those exact products above.

For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

How to spoil an almost-closed sale

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“When the locomotive starts to chug from a standing start, it really works hard. The amount of commitment and energy that the train must exert is monumental. But once the train starts to move, the next few feet become easier and the next few even easier. So it is with copy.”
Joe Sugarman, The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

I’ve been writing a lot of advertorials lately.

This is for a client based out of Bangkok, who sells physical products online.

Their funnel works as follows:

Prospects first see a video ad on Facebook which demonstrates the product.

They then click through, and are taken to an advertorial (that’s where I come in).

If they like what they read, they click through once more to the sales page, where they get a chance to buy.

And here’s one recent lesson from this project:

It has to do with a first-person, story-based, blog-style advertorial I wrote for a neck brace.

The first version of the advertorial was profitable, though barely so. The client asked me to come up with another version, to see whether we could increase conversions. I told him to simply test out two small changes:

1. Swap out the current headline for a Gary Halbert-style classic along the lines of “The Amazing Direct Mail Secret Of A Desperate Nerd From Ohio”

2. Insert a new lead that immediately offers a discount, with a link to the sales page (only then followed by the current story lead)

My client tested these two things out.

The new headline seems to have made quite an improvement, and is beating the old control by about 30%.

The new lead however, is underperforming the old control.

It seems that, even though prospects already know what the product is all about (thanks to the long video ad on Facebook) and are largely sold on it, they still need to read copy, and a lot of it, to get fully convinced to buy.

It was worth testing.

Now that the results are in, however, it’s really a reiteration of some old-school copywriting principles.

Very much along the lines of what Joe Sugarman, who ran a direct marketing empire that included such classics as BluBlockers, talks about in the quote up top.

You’ve got to get people reading.

You’ve got to get the train moving.

And only once it’s full steam ahead can you break through the last bit of buying resistance that’s holding prospects back.

Anyways, enough about advertorials.

Onwards and upwards to sales emails.

If you haven’t yet signed up to get a free copy of my upcoming book on email marketing, perhaps this post has stoked the old steam engine enough to get you interested.

If that’s the case, here’s where you can sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

A lesson from Widows: How to tell you’re winning a negotiation

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I just saw the surprisingly good Widows.

There are many scenes in this movie that would make for good email — or blog — fodder.

One that sticks out is the following:

Jamal Manning is a former crime boss who’s looking to get respectable, so he’s running for alderman in Chicago’s 16th district.

And in this scene, he visits the reverend of the largest congregation in his district, trying to get support.

The reverend speaks first:

“Election’s in less than a month. If I was a doctor, I’d be telling you to get your affairs in order. Three weeks from now, you won’t need a doctor. You’ll be asking someone like me to give you last rites.”

Manning is getting impatient. He thinks the reverend has already decided to endorse his opponent.

“I didn’t say that,” says the good reverend.

He then suggests he’s still keeping his options open.

Finally, Manning can’t take any more. He blurts out:

“I’m gonna cut to the chase here, reverend. I’m in the driver’s seat. I just don’t have a set of wheels. All I need is your endorsement and your contribution to help me get across the finish line.”

And there it is.

The phrase that tells you you’ve been negotiating right, and are near to crossing the finish line.

Did you catch it?

“I’m gonna cut to the chase.”

That’s not my wisdom.

Instead, it’s straight from the late negotiation expert Jim Camp, who said his students always love to hear that phrase. “Cut to the chase” means the other side is getting worn out and they are ready to agree to just about anything.

So how do you get to that point?

Well, you do what the good reverend did.

Which is something that doesn’t just apply to local politics or crime movies.

In fact, it’s another tenet of Camp’s negotiating method.

And it’s even something that’s been adapted to writing more effective sales emails by that devoted Camp disciple, Ben Settle.

You can try to glean what I’m talking about by closely reading the script above.

Or you can get a copy of my upcoming book when it comes out, where I will cover this topic in much more detail, and give several examples of emails where I’ve used this same strategy.

The choice is yours. If you want the second option, here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

A non-plastic straw to stir up creativity

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Somewhere in the jungles and rain forests of Bali, a woman named Elora Hardy has built a house.

It’s not any usual house mind you, but something pretty spectacular and otherworldly:

No plastic

The thing is, this crazy design didn’t just arise from Hardy’s brain, or from the brain of the other designers at Ibuku, her architecture company.

Instead, it was largely a response to the demands of bamboo, the building material they chose to use. In Hardy’s own words:

“The construction industry, the design world, just relies on materials that will bend to your will. Like plastic. People love plastic because you can just make whatever shape you want out of it. You can mould it, you can color it, it’s like the ultimate vanity. […] The team and I could never have come up with this on our own. It was totally driven by the form and the shape of the material we chose to use.”

And yes, this design stuff also applies to copywriting.

Namely:

If you are having trouble coming up with a good idea, odds are you are allowing yourself way too many options.

Enforce some quick barriers, and watch the ideas pour in.

Here are a few such barriers I’ve set up for myself on earlier posts in this blog:

1. Tie in the latest movie I’ve seen
2. Demonstrate the marketing principle I’m talking about
3. Work in 2 or 3 randomly chosen and unusual phrases
4. End with a call to action
5. Tease the main idea without giving it away
6. Tell a story

You get the idea.

There are a lot more of these creative barriers or requirements.

And setting them up for yourself is not just a cute game — not by a long chalk.

It’s serious business.

Because the resulting copy that you write will be much more interesting, much more lively and unique, and will therefore sell much better.

In other words, thunderbolt city.

This is is why I’m putting together a list of such effective self-imposed barriers — including the ones above, but also many more.

And I’ll put it in my upcoming book on profitable email marketing for the health space.

For a free copy when it comes out, head on over here:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/