What do I write about NOW?

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I woke up this morning to find out that, after about 8 years of this daily email newsletter, my dad finally found me online and signed up to hear from me every day.

“Oh God,” I said to myself, “what do I write about NOW?”

This always happens whenever somebody from my real life signs up for my newsletter. I suddenly get in my head and start thinking what people will think. It lasts a day or two. Then I gradually relax and get back to writing for myself.

To date, as far as I know, this newsletter counts among its readers my mom… my dad… friends I have had for 20+ years… girls I’ve known or dated or been in long-term relationships with… a mom of an ex-gf… several people I have only met in real life after being in contact with them via this newsletter… a motley collection of people I have never met in real life but that I have surprisingly fun and even important relationships with online, entirely via typing and maybe occasionally by Zoom… and then of course the large and mostly silent majority who sometimes read, sometimes reply, and sometimes buy from me and make my life, the way it is, possible.

I really struggled to write today’s email.

For one thing, because I’m in my head, like I said at the start.

For another thing, Christmas Eve is not very inspiring or exciting where I’m at right now.

It’s rainy and gray in Zagreb today. I’m currently at an Airbnb and getting ready to go for a Christmas Eve gym session, before heading for the Christmas Eve suckling pig roast at my mom’s and grandma’s.

In terms of email fodder, nothing much is going on compared with years past. (I checked my email from December 24 2024. I found the Holy Grail on Christmas Eve last year, and I wrote an email about it).

A final thing is that, though I’m no believer and frankly I have zero tradition of Christmas from when I was a kid (New Year’s was the big holiday then, with presents and a tree and a commie version of Santa Claus), I still feel some reluctance to go into my usual full-salesman mode on Christmas Eve. (I will reserve that for tomorrow.)

So lemme just say how strange and in a way miraculous it is to be able to do what I’m doing.

I wanna say thanks that you’re reading these emails, including presumably today, on Christmas Eve.

If you celebrate, enjoy your own version of suckling pig or however it is you feast today. If you don’t celebrate, I hope you’re doing well wherever you are in the world. In the words of my spirit animal, Ebenezer Scrooge, “A Merry Christmas to everybody!”

50 ways to leave your back spasm

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Yesterday I asked readers for suggestions in dealing with an old-man back spasm that gripped me a few hours earlier.

Well I got suggestions.

Let me tell you some of ‘em, in the style of Paul Simon’s song 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover:

Limber up your hip, Chip

Take a magnesium pill, Bill

Stand more and sit less, Wes

Just listen to me

Roll on a massage ball, Paul

Become a supple leopard, Shepherd

Get some physiotherapy, Lee

And get yourself free

The people who wrote in with suggestions were not trying to sell me anything (thank God) and were just offering help.

(I appreciate everyone who took the time to write me. If I haven’t replied yet to you to say thanks, it’s only because I’m traveling today and am writing this from a plane somewhere between Vienna and Zagreb.)

That said, even though this was not a sales situation, I noticed something inside myself. It might be useful to you if you ever do try to sell people something.

Yesterday I said I’d entertain all suggestions for getting my back spasm to pass.

But today, as I was reading the suggestions my good readers sent in, I noticed I was immediately resistant to some.

It wasn’t because of the suggestions themselves, or because of the people who were giving the suggestion.

Instead it was the way those suggestions were made — with some small detail that simply didn’t fit with my actual situation.

For example:

One person mentioned lower back pain. That’s not where my pain is.

Others talked about chronic back pain. My thing is acute.

Sales trainer Dave Sandler called this “painting the seagull,” as in, forcing a seagull into your prospect’s mental vision of a beach, where the prospect doesn’t see one naturally.

Force the seagull in there, says Sandler, and you create a clash that makes the whole vision disappear. That was my experience today.

The fix to this is (switching metaphors) to play doctor. To ask more questions and get the “patient” to describe his own situation in detail.

Even if your diagnosis ultimately ends up the same, it’s much more likely to be accepted if you listen, and acknowledge the uniqueness of the person standing opposite you, and encourage their mental bubble to expand instead of doing something to make it pop.

This might be useful to you if you ever get on sales calls or anything like sales calls… with prospects for your coaching… or copywriting services… or simply your expensive-ass offer.

And if you want a new plan on how to sell or behave on sales calls, Sandler’s book is still my go-to recommendation. For more info, slip out the back, Jack:

https://bejakovic.com/sandler

Read this if you’re stuck with a “hammer selling” brain

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I’m an old, old man. Let me tell you just how old:

I was the washing dishes this morning — my way of staying off the computer right when I get up — when I felt my back start to seize up.

This has happened to me a few times before in my life, always when I was doing some sort of quick movement, usually when it was cold.

Today was the first time it has happened just on its own, while I was behaving myself and in fact elbow-deep in hot water.

(Maybe it’s because I’ve been going to the gym a lot these past days. And when not at the gym, I’ve been doing yoga at home, and yoga, from what I’ve experienced, is an excellent way to get cramps and pull muscles and cause joint injuries.)

In the past, when my back seized up, it was extremely painful, and usually took days to fully resolve itself.

Today I managed to intercept it early.

I stopped what I was doing. I straightened up. I breathed deep. I went to lie down on the floor a bit. I put my back against the radiator in the bathroom to try to get muscles to unspasm. I even went to the pool a bit later and swam for a half hour, which seems to have helped things.

As a result, my back hasn’t been nearly as bad today as in the past when this happened.

But I can still feel it a bit, and when I sit or turn, I get the sense that my back is just waiting to fully seize up.

I will be traveling back to Croatia tomorrow, five hours on various airplanes. I’m hoping to avoid traveling in extreme pain whenever I turn or bend or straighten up.

Do you have any suggestions for me to cure my spasmy back muscles? Anything at all? I’m willing to entertain whatever you can propose.

In other news, yesterday I asked people for new offers they are planning to launch in 2026. I was curious about the offers themselves, and also curious about how people are going about defining these offers.

I got a buncha responses.

Here’s one that caught my eye.

A reader kicked off by telling me he will be launching “a group coaching membership with a 1:1 coaching offer built around it (adding email coaching and *maybe* calls).”

This reader went on to say what this shiny and elaborate hammer is intended for:

====

The market is people over 40 who are feeling the effects of age, from less energy, aches and pains, unwanted flab, and such things.

[The reader explained how hard it is to differentiate yourself in that space, or to say anything really new. He concluded with:]

The whole fitness space is the definition of a saturated Stage 5 market, and that’s true even when you dig into several layers of niches and sub-niches.

===

In the words of Byron Katie:

Is that true?

Can you be 100% sure that it’s true?

Like I wrote above, right now I would entertain any kind of cure for my almost-but-not-quite seized back.

I wouldn’t really look at the testimonials or endorsements or credentials of the person suggesting it to me… I wouldn’t be concerned about it being a new mechanism… I wouldn’t care whether I have a relationship with the person who’s offering help.

In other words, I, a person over 40 who is feeling “the effects of age, from less energy, aches and pains, unwanted flab, and such things” would be willing to listen to pretty much the first person who would come and promise to have a solution for my highly specific health issue.

I don’t know if “almost-but-not-quite seized back” is a good market to go after.

But it seems like talking about this could at least make for an effective ad… or an email hook… or maybe an Agora-style bonus to give people along with a free trial of the “group coaching membership with a 1:1 coaching offer built around it.”

That’s it. That’s all I got for you today.

I think the marketing and sales implications are clear.

The only thing that might not be 100% clear to you is how to dig up such “layers of niches and sub-niches” where the riches lie in your market.

For that, I’ll direct you to my group and community, Daily Email House.

Inside the group, you can ask questions and I can chime in with comments and occasional answers, and sometimes further questions.

In case you’re having a hard time getting out of “hammer selling” brain and into the frame of solving present pains of the market, here’s my cure for that:

https://bejakovic.com/house

Dude quietly bows out of Monetization Mastermind

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This past summer I created an invite-only group called Monetization Mastermind. To start, I invited a small group of list owners I have done affiliate deals and list swaps with. The idea for the group is to make more such partnerships possible.

Initially, the group featured mainly list owners who sell courses around copywriting or email marketing, since that’s what kinds of offers I’ve promoted a lot in the past.

Over time, the group has grown, either by my invitation or by recommendation of the people inside. As a result, the profile of people inside has gotten more diverse, and has gone beyond course creators in the copywriting space.

So far, everybody who has joined this group has stayed inside, though some participate more and some less. But now I have the first person who has left the group. It happens to be one of the first people I invited inside the group. Two days ago, this dude wrote me to say:

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I think I’m going to quietly bow out of Monetization Mastermind. I’ve been making an effort to network outside of copywriting groups and focus on a different audience. While I appreciate what you’ve built here and have tremendous respect for you and the folks in here, I need to put my energy elsewhere.

Thanks for putting it together. You’re doing a lot of good here. I appreciate you letting me be a part of it.

===

I don’t know the full details of this dude’s business.

On the one hand, it’s a tried and true strategy to take yourself and your offers to a new market, particularly one that is willing to pay you more.

On the other hand, based on what little I know of this dude and his business, my diagnosis is that his is an issue of offers.

Specifically, I think it comes down to a classic mistake, one I see others making all the time, and one I have made myself plenty of times too.

Internet Marketer Travis Sago, who is either unable or unwilling to speak other than in metaphor, calls this mistake “selling the hammer.”

The alternative being, selling the birdhouse, or the patio deck, or the chicken coop.

As Travis says, “Nobody is ever just buying a hammer. There’s an outcome they’re looking to get with that hammer”

Do I hear you groaning, or are you rolling your eyes right now?

I mean, this is really just that old chestnut about how nobody wants a quarter-inch drill, but a quarter-inch hole, except with other hardware, right?

Right.

But people find it surprisingly difficult to apply this super obvious and familiar lesson when it comes to their own hammers, ones that they have spent weeks or months designing and sourcing and forging.

Folks keep selling the hammer for years, or for as long as they stand, making new versions and crowing about the latest improvements… until they either wise up and start promising birdhouses and patio decks and chicken coops… or until they quietly bow out of the market, because their hammers are just not selling enough.

This got me curious.

Are you planning to launch an offer in 2026, an offer you need to be a success?

If so, I’m curious what offer you’re planning.

And I’m curious how you came up with your plan.

If you like, hit reply, unburden yourself, and tell me about your upcoming offer.

I’m not promising anything but to listen and maybe to ask some follow up questions.

But who knows, sometimes that can be the most valuable thing you can get, and can lead to insights that can make all the difference when you make the intimidating decision to actually go live.

The BEST kind of infotainment, for me, now

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… is listicles. Let me give you 10 reasons why.

No, listicles ain’t it, though my recent email with 10 reasons why auctions can beat launches did work well. It drew a bunch of interest, including from some very successful course creators and audience owners.

I don’t think it was the listicle part of that email that did it. Rather, I think there were a few other reasons why that email drew big fish from deep under the surface of my email list.

Would you like to know what I think is the biggest of those reasons?

Would you like to know what I believe is the BEST kind of infotainment right now, which draws in even sophisticated and big-time marketers and business owners… and which also happens to be the only kind of infotainment I still regularly consume?

It’s not funny stories about what happened around the kitchen table last night…

… not personal reveals of childhood trauma…

… not pop culture references…

… not historical anecdotes…

… not insightful analogies that put familiar facts into a new context…

… not rants and raves…

… not, like I said, listicles.

Nothing wrong with any of those, and you can weave them into your emails, as I do, often.

But on their own, all of these have become insufficient, at least to draw my weary attention and interest.

Rather, the BEST kind of infotainment, in my immodest opinion, because it is the the ONLY kind of infotainment that still sucks me in on a consistent basis, is…

“What’s working for me now”

(… and its flip side, “What’s not working for me any more.”)

It’s important to highlight this is still infotainment. It’s still there to attract and give your readers momentary pause, to allow people to nod along for a minute and say hmmm.

It’s not heavy-handed teaching or nuance or complexity. And its ultimate and not-so-secret goal is still to sell – you as a trustworthy and successful and relatable person, and your current offer, whatever that may be, as a worthwhile and credible opportunity.

Why does “What’s working FOR ME now” work so well, for me, and on me?

Under the shiny “NOW” hood, it’s still the old-fashioned engine, made up of news and benefit and proof.

Except, in today’s world, news spreads quickly and soon stops being news, often before your audience has had a chance to even see your message.

And as for proof, we’ve all become skeptical and jaded and suspicious.

The fix to both is to share, not “What’s working now,” but “What’s working FOR ME now.” Not, “How TO” but “How I.”

So there you go.

Whether you’re new or established, my suggestion is to write more “What’s working FOR ME now” content.

Not only will it draw in even sophisticated readers, but it will force you to try out new things in your business, make them work for you, and then figure out how to package that up in a sexy and sellable way. And if you’re constantly doing that, you will find success, and soon.

By the way, “What’s working FOR ME now” is an expansive category that allows for lots of different experiments and reports.

One small slice of that category is what I’ve called my Most Valuable Email trick.

The Most Valuable Email trick allows you to create “What’s working FOR ME now” content quickly, without taking weeks or months to run an experiment and collect and process results.

In fact, I used the Most Valuable Trick in this very email. And like I say on the sales page, you can get going with it in an hour from now. If you’d like more info, or to get started today:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

How do you auction off a self-paced video course?

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Yesterday I wrote about 10 reasons why auctions can legitimately beat product launches.

I got a bunch of responses to that from people, including some big name course creators, who were planning on doing a launch soon but are now considering doing an auction, thanks to the magical power of written words, the ones I sent out yesterday via this newsletter.

I also got a number of questions from people who don’t understand how an online auction in course/info product/coaching space works, or what its purpose truly is.

No shame there.

I was equally as confused when I first heard of auctions. It made no sense to me why or how they work, or what their ultimate purpose is.

In the interest of effective email copy, let me take on one specific question I got. A reader writes in:

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You have certainly got me thinking how I could do an auction like you did last week.

Was a lot of fun watching you do your thing.

What I am wondering about is whether an action can have more than one winner.

Like you say I want to launch a new course.

I don’t want to sell that course to one person even if its for 31000 dollars. And who in their right mind would buy a self paced video course for that?

Yours wasn’t that. You sold something very special and unique. I could try and do the same, but I am still wondering how this applies to launching a course.

===

In the words of Oprah, “YOU get a car… YOU get a car… YOU get a car…. EVE-RY-BO-DY GETS A CAR!!!”

This new auction way of selling is ultimately two things:

1. A price discovery mechanism

2. A handraiser campaign

The price discovery part is pretty obvious — people bid, and you find out what the market will pay.

The handraiser campaign might be less obvious.

Thing is, people who are raising their hands by bidding in an auction aren’t really raising their hands for your course, coaching, or even for the “something very special and unique” that’s being auctioned.

Nobody ultimately wants a course or a coaching program or even a DFY service. Instead, people want some OUTCOME.

If you take the time to discover what outcome people in your audience ultimately want, then you can auction off “something very special and unique” which promises to deliver the outcome with ease, speed, and style.

(Oprah: “YOU get a car! And it’s an ultra-rare and luxurious Rolls-Royce Boat Tail!!!”)

Of course, you can also make less unique or special offers to people who bid but didn’t win — offers that promise the same outcome, though maybe with more time, effort, or uncertainty.

(OPRAH: “YOU get a car! And it’s a very functional and efficient Renault Clio…”)

Does that make things clearer?

I hope so.

If not, and if running an auction is something that interests you, then I can tell you how I myself grokked how an auction works and how to run one with success:

I went through several trainings by Internet marketer Travis Sago, who invented this new form of selling courses and coaching and services and software.

Travis’s auction-related trainings cost about ~$4k in total and take several days of watching to get through.

Even so, they can be well worth it if you actually do run an auction or two or three.

But maybe paying $4k up front… only to have to go through hours upon hours of Travis talking… just to be faced with the prospect of all the work of finally putting this information into practice and running an auction yourself… is not really the OUTCOME you want?

Maybe the OUTCOME you want is simply to make a bunch of sales of your new course or coaching… to have your audience thrilled with the experience of buying from you and from the spectacle you organized for them… and to still have your eyes clear and your limbs full of energy, because you basically had nothing to do while this auction was going on?

Like I said, I’m talking to several course creators about running an auction for them in place of the launch they were planning.

But I am still interested in talking to more people.

If you have an audience, and if you have solid offers to put in front of them, then my offer is to run an auction for you, including:

– Creating excitement and buzz up front with your audience…

– Defining your offers (from the Renault to the Rolls-Royce)…

– Managing the actual auction process…

– Making sales to all those people who raised their hands by bidding.

And of course, I ask for nothing up front, Only a share of sales made, once the money is sitting in your Stripe or PayPal.

If you’re interested, hit reply and let’s talk.

Why not skip the product launch?

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A bit of anonymized industry gossip for ya:

A course creator I know approached me recently about promoting his upcoming product launch. It’s a productized Version 2 of a successful live training that sold out a few months back.

(I won’t say who this course creator is exactly, but maybe you can guess.)

The course creator in question is planning the launch of this V2 for some time in January.

Somebody else I know, Chris Dyson, who I’ve taken to calling “the wizard of auctions,” got wind of this news. And yesterday, Chris threw up an idea:

Why not skip the product launch… and run an auction instead?

Why not indeed?

This morning, I sat down and wrote up 10 reasons why auctions can legitimately beat product launches:

#1. Auctions have inbuilt social proof of demand and desire.

This is something you have to work hard to generate in a launch, and even then it’s not 1/100th as credible or powerful as in an auction.

#2. With an auction, instead of guessing what price the market is willing to pay for your offer, you find out directly.

Often, it’s much, much more than you might sell the same offer for in a launch (eg. the $31k winning bid in my auction last week).

#3. If the price the market is willing to pay for your offer is lower than you thought, an auction allows you to adjust on the fly.

On the other hand, a launch of an offer that’s priced too high is likely to be a total flop. (Trying to lower the price in an underperforming launch is likely to put a kind of stink on the offer, and make things even worse.)

#4. Auctions allow you to skip creating the funnel (sales copy, upsell pages, etc).

All you need is a post that lays out the offer, along with possibly some goofy wrapper around it to make it even more fun (eg. my “POOL PARTY” theme from the auction last week).

#5. Running an auction forces you to think about the real (and sexy) outcome your audience really wants.

Yes, it’s still possible to botch this or skip it altogether. But the very structure of an auction at least forces you to think about it, however fleetingly. A launch does nothing similar, which is why so many people launch such crap offers.

#6. An auction allows you to make much more money overall.

Not only is the price likely to be higher (point 1 above) but auctions allow customers to pay for and buy much higher offer packages, even if they are not interested in the lowest-ticket, “front end” offer you are selling, as is typical in a product launch.

#7. Auctions are fun and exciting and audience-building.

That was my main conclusion from my recent auction. Yes, launches sometimes work out like this too, but more often than not, launches are neutral or even negative, if you do them the way most do them.

#8. Auctions are hot and new.

They won’t always be, but they are right now. And there’s value in hot and new.

#9. An auction allows you to successfully sell the same core product, to the same audience, a few days or weeks later, for another boost in sales.

That’s much less likely with a launch.

#10. Auctions can, or so I hear, be repeated more frequently to get the same results.

I can’t confirm this directly. But the experts on online auctions say, you can run the same auction every quarter, and it will work just as great. On the other hand, from what I’ve experienced and seen, run the same launch every 3 months, and you will get dramatically lower results.

I talked to the course creator who was planning the January launch.

He said he’s definitely open to the idea of skipping the launch, and doing an auction instead. We’ll talk some time in the next few days in more details, and we’ll see what happens.

What about you?

Are you planning a launch?

Did any of my 10 reasons above make you get a bit jealous about the idea of running an auction… and a little wary of doing your planned launch?

If so, hit reply. Tell me a bit about what you’re planning, and I can tell you if I think you might have a winning auction on your hands.

Am I ditching daily emails in favor of communities?

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Yesterday, I sent out an email about how my bank cancelled my debit card while they ship me a new one. I also dramatically stated I’ve been living on 200 euro in cash until my new card arrives.

In reply to that email, I got an offer from long-time reader, fellow Barcelona resident, and occasional coffee buddy named Matthias (not sure he wants me to share his last name). Matthias wrote:

===

Hey John, just read your mail. Similar happened to me last month. If you need some cash, let me know, then I can meet you for a quick coffee or sth.

===

Also yesterday, at the end of my email, which was really about how my Amazon book sales have cratered after I stopped paying for ads a few days ago due to the cancelled debit card — and dropped from 19 a day (last day of advertising) to just 2 a day (a couple days ago) — I asked readers to buy my book on Amazon, either because they are curious about it or because they want to help me goose sales until can get ads running again.

I have been promoting this book since May. I have written dozens of emails driving readers to the Amazon page for it.

Most of my best and most dedicated readers and customers have already bought this book.

And yet, I still made 11 new sales yesterday, and from what I can tell, all or close to all of those came via my email.

I’m telling you this because lately I’ve been talking a lot about the Skool community I’m running, and in particular the auction I ran last week inside that community.

(Maybe you heard? The winning bid in that auction was $31k. In case you haven’t heard, don’t worry, because it’s a fact I will be repeating several hundred more times before 2025 runs to a close.)

About that community and auction:

After the auction completed last week (with a $31k winning bid, just in case you forgot), I got lots of feedback and impressions from people who witnessed what went down.

One such bit of feedback came from Howard Shaw. Howard’s a Partner at Chester Toys, a UK toy wholesaler that’s been in business for 60 years. Howard also happens to read these emails, and he wrote:

===

I think what showed during the whole auction was the affinity with your group – which I guess in no small part is down to people ‘knowing you’ from being on your list.

===

Howard’s absolutely right.

Communities are great, and it’s been fun to build up something new.

But the fact is, my community wouldn’t exist had it not been for this email newsletter.

Not only in terms of members who form the core of the community, and who joined via these emails… but also in terms of engagement by those folks, which is there in large part because of the relationship that these emails have built up.

Fortunately, I don’t have to choose between having a community and an email list. It’s easy and profitable and fun to have both.

But if the direct marketing gods forced me to choose only one, then for all the reasons I’ve listed above, and for many other reasons besides, I’d choose an email list, and I’d MAIL IT DAILY.

Now, if you want some help with MAILING A LIST DAILY, and sticking with it for the long term, I’ve got just the thing to help you.

It’s my Daily Email Habit service. Speaking of:

Earlier this week, I got on a call with the winner of the auction I ran last week, Nick Bandy. (Nick’s winning bid, for the third and final time, at least in this email, was $31k.)

I grilled Nick about his current job (fractional CMO with a $12k/mo retainer), his life history, his list (about 800 people, all added since this spring) the offers he’s making the people on his list via daily emails, and then some.

At the end of our call, which lasted about two hours in total, Nick said about Daily Email Habit, which he wants to promote to his own list as well:

===

That’s why I said Daily Email Habit so enthusiastically. I literally wouldn’t have started any of this if I didn’t buy that. I enthusiastically endorse this. It’s one of the best things I ever spent money on.

===

If you wanna find out more about Daily Email Habit, or get going with this enthusiastically endorsed service today, so you can build up your own stock of human relationships with folks who support and drive on everything else you want to do online or offline:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

If you have a book on Amazon, then advertise, liberally

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I’m taking part in a forced experiment:

My debit card was set to expire in January ’26.

My bank shipped me a new one, but due to some snafu with the address, it didn’t arrive.

I asked the bank to resend the new card. Which they did.

In the meantime, they also helpfully cancelled my current, still-valid card.

For one thing, this means I have been living for the past few days on the 200 or so euro I had in cash when my debit card got cancelled.

For another, a bunch of online accounts started notifying me that my card is no longer valid.

Among these is the Amazon ads platform.

As you might know, I have a couple books on Amazon, both conveniently titled the 10 Commandments of SOMETHING.

I’ve been running ads to promote the newer of those 10 Commandments books since I published it in May.

The book has been steadily selling ~15 copies a day thanks to its cool black cover, its provocative 23-word title, and of course the ads I’ve been running for it.

But how much is each of those elements responsible for the steady sales of the book?

That’s the forced experiment I am now involved in. Let’s look at the data.

My Amazon ads stopped running on December 12. Here are the sales of my book on Amazon for each day from December 11th (when ads were still running) until yesterday:

Dec 11: 19

Dec 12: 8

Dec 13: 8

Dec 14: 6

Dec 15: 2

… and as for today, December 16, there have been zero sales as of the time I’m writing this.

Maybe Amazon is punishing me for no longer running ads by throttling even organic sales of my book.

But I rather think it’s the opposite. My theory is that, if you pay Amazon to advertise your book, and particularly if you make a few sales via advertising, Amazon goes above and beyond in promoting your book to readers organically.

The point I’d like to suggest to you:

If you have a book on Amazon, then advertise. And be liberal.

My current ad spend philosophy on Amazon is that I just want to break even across all sales — the money I spend on ads should be roughly equivalent to the royalties I make on both paid AND organic book sales.

My future ad spend philosophy on Amazon — as soon as I get my new debit card, or soon after — will be to spend even more liberally.

My plan is to (finally) put an offer on the thank-you page of the optin that I link to at the end of the book. I’m thinking to make that offer something unique, only available on that page, and available for ~$100. Whatever money I make from these thank-you-page sales will also go towards Amazon ads. I figure even one or two sales of that a month could be a big deal for helping me sell way more books.

If you’ve already read my new 10 Commandments book, maybe you have a suggestion for an offer I could make to readers of that book, immediately after they finish the book and opt into my list? Something that would tie into the theme and topic of the book?

If you have an idea, write in and let me know. If I end up creating that offer, I will give you a free copy of whatever it is that you helped me create, along with an acknowledgment in the same.

And if you haven’t read my new 10 Commandments book yet, why not?

The book talks about SOMETHING, specifically the common strategies and techniques used by con men, pickup artists, magicians, door-to-door salesmen, hypnotists, copywriters, negotiators, political propagandists, stand up comedians, and Oscar-winning screenwriters.

If that sounds intriguing to you, or if you simply want to help me goose sales of my book while it’s not being advertised, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

He auctioned his CAT?!?!

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Yesterday in my Daily Email House community, I announced the winner of the prestigious “Inaugural Pool Party Funniest Comment” award.

The lucky winner was audio-engineer-turned-newsletter-operator Filip Stilin. Filip’s winning comment was:

“Subject line: He auctioned his CAT?!?!”

(In case you’re wondering why Filip’s comment was possibly funny, I could explain it, but would that make it funny now? I suspect no. Such is the nature of humor. You had to be there.)

Filip’s prize for writing this funniest comment are A) a physical copy of my favorite comedy book, which has influenced my writing as much as any copywriting or marketing book I’ve ever read, and B) the pleasure of seeing his comment turned into an actual subject line in my email today.

Now here’s the point, and why you might feel this email is anything beyond an inside joke run amok:

The whole idea for this “funniest comment” contest came up as a suggestion during the auction I ran last week, by one of the auction participants.

It was a suggestion I immediately adopted.

That’s because the biggest thing I’ve learned over the past year of running a community is to stop trying to do everything myself… to start asking for feedback and guidance and input… to let people participate and shape the direction of the group… instead of hitting them over the head repeatedly with content and “value” and then wondering why nobody’s engaging.

It’s kinda opposite of how I run this newsletter, which is guided exclusively and jealously by my own standards and tastes and preferences.

That’s not to say I can never adopt others’ suggestions in these emails. In fact that’s what I’m doing today with Filip’s subject line.

But that’s all done in line with the core concept of this newsletter, which I’ve realized is about performing real magic, about turning ideas into reality, about casting spells that make living, breathing rabbits appear.

That might sound grandiose, and maybe it is. In any case it’s true.

For example, the spell for today was “Apply a suggestion coming from the audience.”

Tomorrow’s spell might be something else.

This spell-based approach has been profoundly valuable to me in running this newsletter, and has made this newsletter 1000x more fun and educational and ultimately profitable than it would have been otherwise.

If you you wanna find out more about this “real magic” way of running a newsletter, and of the power of turning ideas into reality, I have created a course all abut it. It describes my approach in detail, gives lots of examples, and maybe encourages you to apply the same in your own world. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/