Secret, occult, or classified — which one wins?

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Yesterday, after I sent out an email with the subject line “201 good reasons to get on Daniel Throssell’s list today,” I got the following reply from a long-time reader:

===

I know all you top level people charge big bucks for critiques.

I’m not sure why but today I decided to rewrite this email with my take on it.

If it can be useful to you, use it however you wish.

All I want from it is your critique and words of wisdom. Not some long breakdown critique. Just a couple minutes of your time and perhaps a couple lines of advice.

===

What followed was a rewrite of my email from yesterday. It was really a re-write – basically every idea I had in the original email was there, just said using other words. Example:

[my original]
“Daniel’s offers are how he beat out a dozen other top email marketers during the infamous 2021 Black Friday campaign. It’s how he made the classified ads he ran this spring (mine among them) a big success for everyone involved. It’s why I ended up providing a unique and sizeable discount on Copy Riddles only to people on Daniel’s list.”

[my reader’s re-write]
“Daniel’s Offers. This is his Midas touch. It’s how he raced ahead of the pack during the buzzworthy 2021 Black Friday showdown. It’s the force behind his game-changing classified ads earlier this year. And guess what? It’s why there’s a unique, too-good-to-miss discount on Copy Riddles for Daniel’s elite.”

So.

​​​Is this re-write, this new choice of words, better than what I had originally?

Or is it worse?

Think about that for a hot minute. And then I will tell you the correct answer, which is, who cares?

The best and most insightful copywriting book I have ever read is the Robert Collier Letter Book. And as Collier says in that book, “it’s not the copy so much as the scheme back of it.”

Yes, individual words have power. But they don’t have nearly the power of sound psychology.

There are lots of ways to tell people that you have secret knowledge. Whether you use the word secret, select, elite, insider, little-known, occult, forbidden, classified — that doesn’t really matter very much.

It’s the opportunity, the scarcity behind all those words that really gets peoples eyes going wide and their mouths hanging open.

Get the psychology down first. Then fiddle with the words. ​Or don’t, because if you got the psychology behind your words right, you will still make money.

​​That’s how and why the top copywriters make a lot of money.

So how do you get the psychology down?

Back to my email from yesterday. It was about how I’ve brought back my Copy Riddles course, and how I agreed with Daniel Throssell to offer an exclusive $200 discount to buyers who come via Daniel’s list.

In my email yesterday, I was letting my readers know about that, so they sign up to Daniel’s list in case they want that same discount.

The fact is, you have various options if you want to master the psychology behind the words, the scheme back of the copy. A particularly effective option is my Copy Riddles course.

​​As marketing consultant Khaled Maziad, who went through Copy Riddles a while back, wrote me about Copy Riddles:

===

I loved that you didn’t include bullet templates but went deep into the psychology behind each bullet. This course is not just about the “how-to” of writing bullets but understanding the artistry and the deep psychology behind them… Plus, when and where to use them.

===

I’m honestly not sure how long Daniel is planning to promote Copy Riddles — we didn’t agree on it, and maybe he is going to decide in real time based on the sales he sees.

I am sure that the only way to get that $200 discount on Copy Riddles is to be on Daniel’s list when he sends out the discount code.

Maybe it’s too late for that already. Or maybe it’s not.

Maybe, if you get on Daniel’s list right now, you will still have a chance at a $200 savings. If you’d like to at least have that option, which is yours if you want it, then here’s the link:

https://persuasivepage.com/

201 good reasons to get on Daniel Throssell’s list today

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Back in April, I sent an email to announce the last day ever to buy Copy Riddles.

One of the people who replied to that email was Daniel “I just got an entire city boycotted” Throssell. Daniel wrote me to say:

===

This is gutsy, I imagine it’s a cash cow for you!

You know, I have been meaning to ask you for a while if I could promote this one as an affiliate. I have always found it an excellent idea for a course.

But this might be a great opportunity now:

===

Daniel went on to propose a plan. I’d leave Copy Riddles open for one final promo, to his list only. It was clear we’d both make a lot of money this way.

We went back and forth for a while. But ultimately, I said thanks, but no. It would be a cash grab, and people would feel it.

Daniel and I agreed to leave it at that.

But now, I’ve decided to bring back Copy Riddles.

Yes, like Daniel says, Copy Riddles was previously a steady money-maker for me. And yes, I’ve now increased the price dramatically from what I last sold it for.

But like I wrote a couple days ago, I’m bringing back Copy Riddles for reasons other than a cash grab.

I’m proud of this course. It’s felt bad seeing it collect dust on the shelf.

Plus, ​​I got a dozen or more unsolicited messages about how great a product it is, and some about how not making it available is a crime against people who want to get copywriting skills.

​​I even tried to sell it off wholesale to a new forever home, but that didn’t work out.

So I’ve brought Copy Riddles back.

​​And since Daniel asked to promote it earlier, I thought would be only fair to write him now to see whether he’s still interested. He said yes, under one condition:

That I offer a special price, only for people on his list.

We agreed on a $200 discount from the new Copy Riddles price.

At the same time, I want to give a fair chance to anyone from my own list to get that same discount, since I won’t be offering it again in the future.

So I’m telling you right now:

If you want to get Copy Riddles, and you want to get it for $200 off what it now sells for, then get on Daniel’s list today. Because his email about Copy Riddles, along with the special discount code, will go out tomorrow.

So that’s 200 good reasons right there to get on Daniel’s list today. And if you need one more:

As I’ve written before, Daniel gets results from his email list that nobody I know can match. The stock explanations for Daniel’s success are his storytelling chops, mixed in with his willingness to embrace conflict and self-promotion.

Fine.

But here’s another reason for Daniel’s success you may or may not have thought of:

His offers.

​​Daniel’s offers are how he beat out a dozen other top email marketers during the infamous 2021 Black Friday campaign. It’s how he made the classified ads he ran this spring (mine among them) a big success for everyone involved. It’s why I ended up providing a unique and sizeable discount on Copy Riddles only to people on Daniel’s list.

Not only are Daniel’s offers unique and creative, not only are they pretty much irresistible to his audience, but they end up making his positioning and authority and relationship with his audience only stronger after each promotion.

There’s lots to be learned there. And you can do so for free — even if you don’t vibe with Daniel’s style otherwise — by getting on Daniel’s list and paying attention just to the offers he makes.

So there you go. 201 good reasons to get on Daniel’s list. Here’s the link, in case you’d like to do so right now:

https://persuasivepage.com/

A VERY busy man writes me a note

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Last week, I got an email with the subject line, “A note from a VERY busy man.”

“Oh God,” I thought.

Before I clicked to open the email, I saw that the very busy man’s name is Tom O’Donnell. I looked Tom up.

​​It turns out he is a business consultant, a specialist in negotiation, a polyglot (Serbo-Croatian, Vietnamese, Turkish), and a former event manager involved in “producing events for people such as the Queen of Norway, the Princess of Sweden, Arthur Miller, the Dalai Lama, three Presidents of the United States, four Vice Presidents and others.”

“All right,” I said. “So maybe Tom really is VERY busy. Then why is he writing to me?”

Here’s Tom’s note:

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It is possible that you do not actually know me although I am a subscriber to your newsletter. I am a VERY busy man who is frequently too busy to slow WAY down and listen to outside ideas and take counsel from others (to my regret) but one exception I have made is to purchase every thing you offer and I have sat here today and realized how valuable all of it is to me (I can’t speak for others.).

I had been trying to learn copywriting as a way to increase my ability to sell and influence others so I had discovered your riddles course and enjoyed it, then the daily newsletter, then the MVE, then the postcards, and today I purchased the Amazon book and subscribed to the bookclub and I have been sitting here in Minnesota, USA as you sit and work in Spain and I wanted to thank you for the work and effort.

Your material and the people you recommend (like Ben Settle) are becoming my approach to how I conduct my life. I am 76 years old and have had some fine coaches and models but discovering you was truly mind-changing. Please keep it up. As you once wrote about Ben Settle (let me paraphrase) “Ben Settle is an acquired taste.” In you, I have discovered what I need. Thanks and PLEASE keep it up.

Tom ODonnell

p.s. Use this any way you choose.

===

I am choosing to use Tom’s very flattering note by featuring it in this email, with gratitude.

But you might wonder whether there’s any point you can possibly take from this email besides the fact that I am a swell guy, at least according to Tom.

There is a point you can take away. In fact, this email is a illustration of an important technique I had spotted last year, and started practicing since.

This technique I believe is very valuable — perhaps VERY valuable. From what I see, it’s also very underused.

In case you are interested, you can see this technique explained and described below in an email I wrote last year.

By the way, I often cringe when I read my old emails, but this particular one happens to be a favorite. In case that’s got you curious:

https://bejakovic.com/send-me-your-praise-and-admiration/

Copy Riddles is back but don’t buy it

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Last week, I got a nice email notification of a new “Facebook Mention.”

​​Since I almost never log in in to Facebook, the same nice email notification kept coming at me every few days, like a a woodpecker hammering away at an aching tree trunk.

The notification said that email marketer and “profit engineer” Frederik Beyer had mentioned me in a comment. Frederik’s comment read:

===

Clyde Bedell (as my loyal subscribers might have realized) is BY FAR my favorite “lost” old-timer.

Bedell’s book and self-study course are both way better than any paid online products I’ve come across.

With the exception of John Bejakovic’s “Copy Riddles” which stands heads and shoulders above the rest. That one’s only for people who are dead serious about ‘gitting gud’ though. Copy Riddles is not for the shiny object people, that’s for sure.

===

I don’t know Bedell’s self-study course. I do know my Copy Riddles course, and I appreciate what Frederik has to say about it.

As you might know, I retired Copy Riddles back in April. Since then, I’ve gotten lots of people saying nice things, like Frederik above, entirely without prompting, about how much they value Copy Riddles.

I’ve always been proud of this course. It’s felt bad having it rotting on the shelf.

So back in July, I tried to find a buyer who would take the IP for Copy Riddles off my hands and make it his own. A buncha people were interested, but nobody turned out to be the right fit.

So I’ve decided to bring Copy Riddles back. The only thing I can say is I have changed my mind.

Besides, I don’t think my Frank Sinatra-like move of retiring and unretiring Copy Riddles has hurt anyone. The only people who have possibly been affected are the ones who bought Copy Riddles back in April when I announced I’d be retiring it.

The way I see it, no harm done there. Those folks got access to a new way to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe… and for much less than I will be charging for Copy Riddles going forward.

Which brings us to today.

I have brought Copy Riddles back. You can check that for yourself at the page below. But I advise you not to buy Copy Riddles today.

The reason why is that I have dramatically increased the price. I will be selling Copy Riddles at this dramatically higher price going forward.

However, I will have a special, one-time, unique opportunity very soon to get a significant reduction from that new price. I’ll have more to say about that in a few days’ time.

Meanwhile, if you’re curious about Copy Riddles and why people like Frederik say it’s head and shoulders above other paid online products, you can get a teaser here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Business opportunity for an honest, reliable businessman or woman

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Consider the following classified ad, which ran thousands of times across the US:

“BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: For an honest, reliable businessman with $20,000 to invest for a large return. References exchanged.”

Now ask yourself…

How does this classified ad make you feel? Take a moment right now to look inside yourself:

Are you suspicious and wary?

Or are you excited, and eager to know more?

Or are you perhaps disappointed, because this business opportunity doesn’t apply to you for some reason?

Perhaps you don’t have $20k to invest? Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as a businessman? Perhaps… you suspect you are not fully honest?

Like I mentioned a few days ago, I’m reading a book called The Big Con. It’s about conmen, working complex, months-long schemes some 100 years ago, who took their rich marks for millions of dollars in today’s money.

One way that these “big con” grifters would rope in their marks was by running the above classified ad in local newspapers.

If you dig into the 17 words of the ad above, you will find a surprising amount of deep psychology.

Today, I want to focus on just one of those words. That’s the word honest. From The Big Con:

===

But the mark must also have what grifters term “larceny in his veins” — in other words, he must want something for nothing, or be willing to participate in an unscrupulous deal.

If the mark were completely aware of this character weakness, he would not be so easy to trim. But, like almost everyone else, the mark thinks of himself as an “honest man.” He may be hardly aware, or even totally unaware, of this trait which leads to his financial ruin. “My boy,” said old John Henry Strosnider sagely, “look carefully at an honest man when he tells the tale himself about his honesty. He makes the best kind of mark…”

===

I’m not sure what my point is by telling you this. I found it fascinating on some level, and I wanted to share it.

Perhaps you can consider it a public service announcement, warning you to take heed if anybody ever appeals to your inherent honesty.

Or perhaps it’s simply to soothe your conscience a bit, and to tell you that if you suspect you are not as honest as you might be, then in fact you’re probably more honest than the norm.

Whatever the case, it’s worth paying attention to business opportunity ads, whether “legit” or entirely fraudulent, like the ad above.

That’s because business opportunity ads appeal to some of the most powerful human drivers, and often get responses like no other copy ever could.

I experienced this first-hand a few years ago, when I first started looking at old business opportunity ads, and when, as a lark, I started introducing some business opportunity language into my own emails.

In particular, I once sent an email in which I claimed to have a new business opportunity, and I invited responses from people who wanted to know more.

I got swamped by replies.

I never followed up on these replies, for reasons of my own. But the demand for that offer is there, and it’s very real.

What’s more, taking advantage of this demand does not require any dishonesty, but would genuinely help business owners who are currently in distress.

Maybe this all sounds fairly abstract. If so, you can find the business opportunity I am talking about described in full detail in the swipe file that goes with my Most Valuable Email course — specifically, MVE #12.

If you actually apply the idea in MVE #12, it could be worth much more to you than the price I charge for the Most Valuable Email training. And you might find other valuable business ideas in that swipe file. As reader Illya Shapovalov, who bought MVE last month, wrote me to say:

===

By the way, I printed out the MVE swipe file. Almost every day, I sit down to study and analyze it a bit. But every time, I just get sucked into the content itself! 😂 Learned a bunch of new stuff without even intending to do so. Thanks for that too.

===

Here’s your opportunity to to invest for a large return, references exchanged:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Do you have a wonderful product that’s underpriced or underappreciated?

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Last month, I promoted Steve Raju’s ClientRaker training. It was grand. I got a buncha new buyers for Steve, and in the days following Steve’s first live call, I got a buncha happy subscribers writing in to thank me for turning them on to such a valuable training.

Eventually, the ClientRaker chatter died down. But then this past Monday, long-time reader Kevin Wood wrote me to say:

===

It’s about a month later, but I’ve only been through 2 of the Client Raker calls. So far it’s one of the most mind-blowing trainings I’ve been through. Beyond the technical steps of using ChatGPT, the mindset shift has been the biggest thing so far. Like how much positioning matters, the types of industries to target, why not go after whale clients. A lot of these thoughts have never entered my mind before, so it’s super inspiring in that way.

Also, learning how to use ChatGPT the “Steve Raju” way makes me feel dumb in a good way. Like, there’s no way I would have figured or even thought of the approaches he takes. And this is after going through other AI courses and trying out a few different AI writing tools. It’s shifted how I use ChatGPT in general, not applying his client methods yet.

Anyways, it’s the best money I’ve spent on a course this year and that’s without applying it for clients yet, or finishing the course. So, thanks.

===

Like I wrote at end of the ClientRaker promo…

I would promote something like Steve’s ClientRaker every week if I could. But there are not a lot of ClientRakers and not a lot of Steve Rajus hidden out there.

Not a lot… but there might be some.

Steve and I started talking back in June, when I sussed out interest in a training about charging higher prices for your offer.

Turns out Steve didn’t need my help with that, beyond me telling him that what he’s offering definitely sounds more valuable than what he’s charging for it.

But if something has worked once, it’s worth going back to again. So since I connected with Steve in this way, let me try it now with you:

If you’re selling something wonderful — a course, a training, even your services — that you feel is underpriced, then write in and let me know.

Or if you have a great offer that not a lot of people know about, write in and let me know that as well.

I’m not promising anything specific in return, except an open ear and maybe some encouragement that yes, indeed, you should charge more starting today, or yes, indeed, you should take obvious steps to get more people exposed to your great offer.

But who knows, maybe it will turn into something more. Maybe we can work together directly in some way. Or maybe I can help you indirectly in some way. But it won’t happen unless we first talk.

It’s up to you, and to your decision to reply to this email, preferably right now.

I failed in my quest for the gift of the gab

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Yesterday I tried to win the gift of the gab. I didn’t manage it.

What surprised me was that I found I had really hoped for it. I was almost desperate to get it.

Background:

I’ve been vacationing in Ireland for a week. Yesterday was the last full day. It was supposed to be the climax — going to Blarney Castle outside Cork, to kiss the Blarney Stone.

Legend says that anyone who kisses the stone will be blessed with the “gift of the gab” — the skill of talk, palaver, flattery, “the ability to deceive without offending.”

But the kissing didn’t happen for me. The line to kiss the stone was impossibly long, down the stairs, out the castle, into the gardens.

My friend Sam and I had spent too much time idling around the Blarney Castle grounds, inspecting and enjoying the fern garden, the bee observatory, the lake with the gold treasure at the bottom of it, the horse paddock with no horses, the impressive botanical garden, the wish-granting magic stairs.

What a waste of time.

Because the line for the actual castle was building up in the meantime, putting a bigger and bigger barrier between me and the gift of the gab.

My point:

We all want something external, outside ourselves, a talisman, a magic spell, a divine approval, something to believe in as cause and guarantee for our success, and as a motivator to action.

Regarding my failed quest for the gift of the gab:

The last time I was in Ireland, 10+ years ago, was because I was competing at the European University Debate Championships, even though I had only taken up debating months earlier.

In the decade since, I met two of my long-term girlfriends — relationships that lasted multiple years — when I ran up to an unfamiliar girl on the street and started gabbin’ away.

And today, I have this gabbin’ email newsletter, which is read regularly by some thousands of people, and which provides me everything I ever wanted in life, at least as far as business goes.

Meaning, I shouldn’t really be desperate for a magic stone to grant me the ability to chat, chatter, and use words to connect with people.

And yet, yesterday I found myself scheming to get back to Cork at the very next opportunity, book a hotel near the Blarney Castle, and be the first person in line in the morning to kiss the stone and get that magic gift of the gab.

So I’m writing this email to tell myself as much as to tell you that power and responsibility aren’t in the Blarney Stone or really anywhere else you need to travel to. As Tolstoy wrote, the Kingdom of God is within you.

It can be valuable to remember that.

On the flip side, there’s no denying that something external to believe in will sell, and will sell big. It’s the allure of a new mechanism, as copywriters like to call it.

But let’s get off the ethereal plane and descend to a more mercenary plane:

Specifically, the plane of my Most Valuable Email course.

I’ve made sure that course contains a mysterious and magical mechanism, the “Most Valuable Email trick.” It’s a big part of the reason why many people have bought this course.

But as I make clear on the MVE sales page, what’s really most valuable is the process of applying this Most Valuable Email trick to yourself, which makes you a better marketer and copywriter every day, and which as a side-effect produces interesting and influential and even sellable content.

Or in the words of Spanish A-list copywriter Rafa Casas, who bought MVE right when I put it out:

===

Thanks for the course. It’s true that it can be read in an hour, but it needs more resting time and practice to get the full potential out of it. Which is a lot.

===

So if you want to develop and nurture and even cherish the gift of the gab that’s already in you, and learn to sell daily without offending, here’s the full info on Most Valuable Email:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

I was wrong about being a pity-seeking loser

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On the sales page for my Most Valuable Email course, I once wrote:

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People love stories that show vulnerability — from the guru who’s already made tens of millions of dollars. But stories of vulnerability from the panhandler in front of the supermarket? People don’t love that so much.

===

Turns out I was wrong. People do love stories of vulnerability from people who haven’t achieved anything — as long as those people make their plea on Facebook or Twitter. From an article I just read, “The rise of pity marketing”:

===

Two weeks ago, at the start of the Edinburgh Fringe, an actor named Georgie Grier posted on Twitter to say only one person had turned up to her one-woman preview show, attaching a picture of herself crying with the caption: “It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…?”

===

Within hours, Grier had thousands of replies to her Tweet, including from other, more successful comedians, encouraging her to keep going and saying they had bought tickets to her show. The next night, Grier played to a packed room.

The article I read gives other good examples to make the case that being a pity-seeking loser on social media is now a viable business strategy. The article wraps it up with the following observation:

===

Is it real success if you had to publicly declare yourself a failure to achieve it? Those who opt in to pity marketing seem unconcerned, given it can yield major (if short-term) returns.

===

Phew. This gives me a bit of a lifeline.

Because I find pity-seeking revolting, both in myself and in others. I want to continue my war on it.

But how can I, when it clearly works, and I was wrong to say it doesn’t?

Well, I’m shifting my angle of attack. My hope lies in the key phrase above, how pity marketing can create “major (if short-term) returns.”

Because there’s no way in hamfat that pity seeking can truly be a reliable strategy for the long term.

In the current moment, pity seeking seems to be viable in general.

And in the current moment in your career, whatever it is that you do, you might post on social media that you have no readers/audience members/customers/clients/sales/whatever. And if you also post a video or a pic of yourself, red-eyed and teary, you might draw sympathy and maybe even a short-term spike in business.

But it’s not something you can do every day.

No, for every day, you need another strategy.

Because the pity reservoirs in most people get depleted pretty quick.

But the reservoirs for being amused, surprised, taught something cool and new, benefited directly and indirectly, well, those reservoirs run very deep.

There might be multiple strategies that allow you to tap into those deep reservoirs over and over again.

I know of one such strategy, which I can personally recommend. It’s my Most Valuable Email trick. In case you’d like to find out what that is, so you can start using it today, tomorrow, and the day after to grow your audience and influence and income while making yourself into a better and more skilled person:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

10 pieces of Bejako advice to a newbie copywriter

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A new subscriber to my list wrote in today to ask:

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how would you approach copywriting & marketing if you had to start from scratch. or if, let’s just say your brother (if you have one) asked you he wants to learn copywriting and marketing. what would you tell him? what would you tell him in terms of getting clients (it seems this is a whole phd education on itself)?

===

That’s not unlike asking how I would approach a career in computer programming if I had to start from scratch.

​​But even though I have literally hundreds of posts on my website that are relevant to answering this question, I decided to entertain this reader and so create a single resource to point people to in the future.

So here are 10 pieces of Bejako wisdom for newbie copywriters:

1. The 5-year rule: It will take months and more likely years to get consistently good and make good money from copywriting. Unless this is a job that you imagine you will be okay doing every day for at least the next five years, then don’t get started at all.

​(​By the way, this bit of advice isn’t unique to copywriting — I apply it to every complex project or undertaking I’m considering.)

2. There’s no “one thing.” Copywriting and marketing are really a collection of different principles and techniques you have to understand and master to some extent, preferably to a high extent.

3. Books: The best way to learn if you have dedication (see point 1 above).

4. Ads and working funnels. The best marketing is out there for free. Look at it critically. Try to deconstruct it consciously, and write down what you see. Patterns will soon start to emerge that you won’t see if you simply look at advertising like a consumer, or worse, if you dismiss it by saying, “I could do this” or “I’ve seen this described in a book.”

5. Get real practice, as soon as you can, preferably today. “Real practice” does not mean hand copying sales letters or writing mock ads for made-up products. You have three options. Get a job, get a client, or start your own project. No need to restrict yourself to just one of these options, by the way.

6. Start an email list today even if no one is reading it but you. Write about what you’re learning and apply it within your emails.

7. You will have to pay one way or the other. In one case, you will have to pay in time and money (the freelance route, which means buying your education in drips and drops via courses or coaching or ongoing mistakes that nobody corrects for you for too long).

In the other case, you will have to pay in freedom that you’ve sacrificed and in having your productivity arrogated by an employer (the route of getting a job, and working for somebody who knows what they are doing and can teach you and correct your errors).

8. The golden ticket is not to be a copywriter but a marketer who either 1) guides client businesses to make more money and gets paid accordingly, or 2) eventually takes his skills and runs his own business.

​​That said, copywriting is a kind of Trojan horse that can help you do either of those more easily. If you have this understanding at the start and if you take it seriously, it will make your path easier and more lucrative.

9. If after everything you have read so far you still want to become a copywriter (or better yet a marketer), then the sooner you get started, the better.

​​This is not a field in which you have to study for years before you can have the authority to actually do any work — though it might take you years to figure out the various elements (point 2 above) and have them click in your head.

10. Read my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters book if you haven’t yet, and consider re-reading it if you have read it once already. It lays out several of those fundamental principles and techniques (point 2 above) and exposes you to a handful of the top people in this field, many of whom have written informative and very affordable books (point 3 above).

Here’s the link to get started:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

I got burned by a deadline, don’t let it happen to you

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This past Tuesday I got an email with the subject line,

“We’re funding your newsletter growth”

The body of the email explained that Beehiiv, the Substack competitor I use for my new health newsletter, was offering to match any money I might put into its Beehiiv Boosts service, up to $2,500.

Boosts are basically a coregistration service for various Beehiiv newsletters – you subscribe to one newsletter, you immediately get a bunch more paid recommendations you can subscribe to with just one click.

I had already used Boosts before. I knew it worked fine and delivered quality subscribers.

So taking advantage of this new “deposit matching” offer to the max was a no brainer. I understood fully that it translated into 1,000-1,250 extra subscribers for free.

To seal the deal, later in the day I got an email from my friend Will Ward. Will wrote:

===

Hey you are using beehiv for your [health] newsletter right? This seems like a pretty good offer. Am considering switching over to max out the matching.

Are you on the $99 / month plan?

===

I smiled and nodded to myself with satisfaction. I’m all over it already, Will.

The next day, Wednesday, I went to check the deadline for this matching offer — by when do I have to deposit the money to get Beehiiv to match my deposit?

My eyes got wide, then shot forward out of my skull, and snapped back into their sockets.

It turned out the deadline had already passed. The offer was only good until end of day, Tuesday. I hadn’t noticed this in the one and only email about the offer.

As that realization sank in, that self-satisfied smile left my face.

“Well,” I said to myself, “I never really wanted this offer anyhow.”

I even meant it in that moment. Of course, it wasn’t true. It was just my brain trying to cover up a screw-up with a tolerable emotion rather than anger or frustration.

The fact is, I got burned by the deadline. But it doesn’t have to happen to you.

Because three hours still remain before I will retire my Most Valuable Postcard #2, at 8:31pm CET tonight.

The reason why I’m retiring this offer, in case you’re curious:

As the name of it suggests, MVP #2 is really just the remains of my short-lived subscription offer, the Most Valuable Postcard, which I ran last summer.

MVP #2 should be a standalone course, with clearer positioning, with its own sexy name, with a bit more bulk, and with an extra zero or two in the price.

So I will retire it. Maybe I will bring the content back in the future, changed slightly and priced much higher.

But if you would like to get it before it disappears, at the current very affordable price, you can buy it today, of your own choosing, at the link below:

https://bejakovic.com/mvp2/