The shutout or prat-out

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I’m now reading the Big Con, written in 1940. It’s all about con men playing the big con — not just street hustlers nickle and diming, but elaborate operations involving dozens of men, which took in $25k or $30k or even $50k at a time from a well-heeled mark.

​(​That’s the equivalent to $549k or $659k or $1.1M in today’s money.)

The Big Con is filled with quirky and unfamiliar lingo that describes techniques based on deep and familiar human psychology. One such term is the “shutout” or “prat-out.” From the book:

“He doesn’t know it, but he has been given the ‘shutout’ or the ‘prat-out,’ a clever method of stepping up the larceny in the veins of a mark when the manager feels that he is not entering into the play enthusiastically enough. It may be repeated several times so that the mark is fully impressed with what he has missed.”

The shutout or prat-out works like this:

The mark — let’s call him James Markham — gets acquainted with an affable, attractive man. Let’s call this second man John Conway, for he is a con artist.

Through various loops and intrigues, Conway convinces Markham that he has access to inside information on horse betting.

Conway gives Markham a tip on a sure-thing pony.

Markham bets.

And Markham wins. His excitement and greed flare up.

Conway feeds Markham another sure-thing tip. Let’s say Challedon to win in race 4.

Markham stands in line at the betting parlor to put down that bet before the race starts.

But there are a few people ahead of him in line. Unknown to Markham, all of them are part of the big con.

Each one is placing very large bets. It’s taking a long time. They finish one by one while Markham hops nervously from foot to foot, dreaming of the score he will surely make once he bets on Challedon in race 4.

Finally it’s his turn to place his bet. But right before he can hand over his money and tell the bookie which horse he wants to bet on, the announcer for race 4 says:

“And they’re off!”

It’s too late. Betting on race 4 is closed.

Markham listens to the race results as they come in. Challedon lags at the rear.

​​Markham listens with attention.

​​Challedon starts to move up. As the horses enter the home stretch, Challedon is in fourth place. But Challedon presses forward. Neck and neck through the finish line. Challedon wins!

​​And Mr. Markham sits there, stars in front of his eyes, calculating the small fortune he would have made had those bastards in line ahead of him been just a little faster with their bets.

Mr. Markham has been given the shutout or prat-out. He is now much more ready to be set up for the sting — to be separated from his $25k or $30k or $50k. That’s the equivalent to $549k or $659k or $1.1M in today’s money, in case you forgot.

But what’s really going on here?

And how can you use shutout or the prat-out in other, less larcenous fields of influence?

Perhaps it’s obvious to you.

Or perhaps I’ve given away too much in this email.

But if not, if there are valuable details you are unsure of or are still curious to learn, then you can find a full treatment of the underlying psychological principle in my Most Valuable Postcard #2, informatively titled the Ferrari Monster.

As I explained yesterday, I will retire MVP #2 tomorrow at 8:31pm CET.

The reason why, 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/

My “unpleasantly manipulated” reader guesses the essence good copy

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True story about daily emailing:

This past spring, I wrote an email about my grandmother and a neighbor she once had. My grandma couldn’t remember the neighbor’s name any more, but only the fact he liked fried chicken.

I made the point in that email that if you want to be remembered, you have to take things into your own hands — otherwise you run the risk of becoming the fried chicken guy.

My email was selling my Most Valuable Postcard #2.

Our story continues with a reply I got to that email. The reply came from an uncommitted new reader, who wrote:

===

I am feeling unpleasantly manipulated by your writing.
Is this the key to good copy?

New subscriber, not yet committed.

===

“Could be,” I wrote back to my uncommitted new subscriber. “Which part did you find manipulative here?”

He wrote back to explain:

===

No one wants an epitaph of being “the guy who likes fried chicken”.
That sets up a negative emotion in the reader.

Followed by the pressure to purchase MVP #2, by tomorrow night at 50% discount.

Two emotions jammed together –
Felt manipulative.

===

My eyebrows shot up when I read his reply. I can understand if my uncommitted reader didn’t enjoy reading my fried chicken email.

​​But with those two points he singled out he literally got to the essence of effective copywriting, at least the way I describe it in MVP #2.

Only thing is, in MVP #2, I managed to unify his two part observation into a single guiding principle, a single word, a single approach that is really the most important — the most valuable thing — in all copywriting and direct marketing.

I also spelled out specific techniques to apply this guiding principle, both in your marketing campaigns, in your copy, and even in your customer service.

Maybe that’s got you a bit curious.

Maybe this will get you to take action:

I will retire MVP #2 this Saturday at 8:31pm CET.

The reason why, 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 be retiring 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/

How to seek out testimonials

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Yesterday I held a coaching call with a coaching client. At the end of it I asked if he had any last questions for me. He did:

===

Do you do anything to seek out testimonials? Because I don’t feel I’ve gotten anything since I’ve purchased your course that enticed me to do it. But maybe I might have missed it. I feel I don’t do a great job of it. I have one follow-up email for people who purchased my [course] a week later and another one for [his other course].

===

Great question.

Testimonials are super important, both for possible future buyers and for that person who just bought — it makes it more likely they appreciate what they just bought, and get value from it, and stick around.

Beyond that, testimonials are super important for you, the person who created the course — or at least they are for me.

Making a sale is nice, I won’t lie.

​​But hearing that somebody actually appreciates your work (as I’ve had happen lots of times) or genuinely had a life-changing experience due to it (as I’ve had happen on a few occasions) makes you feel good about what you do… makes you more likely to stick with it for long term… makes you more likely to put in extra effort with the next product you launch, because you realize what can be at stake.

So how do you seek out testimonials to benefit your present customers, your future customers, and yourself?

Here are three different strategies, ranked in terms of how effective they’ve been for me:

One, like my coaching client said, is an automated followup process. It’s better than nothing, but I’ve found it pretty weak in general.

I had a followup email for my Copy Riddles course back when it was delivered as a “live” course that went out one email a day. After the complete batch of course emails had gone out, I would let a couple days pass, then send out an extra “what feedback do you have for me” email.

​​I did get a few testimonials that way, but it was nothing to write to a motel, hotel, or houseboat about, and certainly not to home.

The second strategy I’ve used is a request for a testimonial inside the product itself. I usually end my courses with a little signoff. Here’s how I end my Most Valuable Email course:

===

We’ve reached the end of this course. I want to say thanks once again for your trust in me, and for getting this course. And I’d like to commend you for making it to the end — most people never do that.

I hope you will apply this Most Valuable Trick for yourself, because it really has been that valuable to me, without any hyperbole. And it can be the same for you. If you do apply it — when you do apply it — write in and let me know the results. I’d love to know.

Good luck, and I hope to hear from you soon.

===

I have had a fair number of people finish courses and write in with feedback after I prompted it like this. Perhaps it’s a better moment than when a followup email arrives — the end of a course is an emotional high, at least if the course is good.

But the third and most effective way I’ve sought out testimonials is simply engagement, as in:

1. Writing engaging emails (the recent “Even numbers for the dead” email drew a lot of replies, including some that were effectively testimonials)

2. Using engagement bait (as I do often, see my “Magic boxes” email from a few days ago for that)

3. Actually engaging directly with readers, in some limited but real way

And of course, when people give you testimonials, you want to encourage more such behavior. That means you feature the testimonial not just on your sales page, but in your emails. Name the person. Say you appreciate what they’ve done for you. And mean it.

Let me give you an example:

A few days ago, out of the blue, I got an email from a new subscriber, Pete Reginella.

​​Pete had bought my 10 Commandments book on Amazon without being previously on my list. He signed up to my list to get the little-known, apocryphal 11th Commandment. He read the welcome email which delivers the bonus, which starts out like this:

“First off, thanks for reading my 10 Commandments book all the way to the end. I’d love to hear what you thought of it, particularly if you thought it was wonderful. Just hit reply and let me know.”

Pete did write in, and I’m grateful to him for it. Here’s what he had to say:

===

Hey John,

I’ve read lots of copywriting books in my short time as a copywriter and I must say…

Yours was actually the only one I couldn’t stop reading.

I actually read it all in one sitting.

It was very easy to consume and well written.

===

So that’s a short how-to course on seeking out testimonials.

As for a short how-to course on the supreme element of your copy to worship above all others…

… ​​​and a short how to course on getting everything you want in life, at least the material stuff…

… ​​and a short how-to course on making your copy easy to consume…

… ​​for all that and more, check out my 10 Commandments book:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Deadline for MVE before price triples like Amazon in 1999

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Three hours from now is the deadline to get my Most Valuable Email course before the price goes up from $100 to $297.

That will happen tonight, as surely as fortune is a woman, at exactly 8:31pm CET.

If you’ve been on the fence and wondering whether MVE is worth getting, and whether it’s worth the price I ask of it and more, consider the follow testimonial I got a few days ago:

“Just retook your courses mate – so good. V underpriced IMO.”

If that seems like a rather brief testimonial to crow about, let me explain. It came as a throwaway comment, a part of a longer email exchange I recently had w/ Kieran Drew.

As you might know, Kieran is a bit of a star in the creative entrepreneur space:

​​He has something like 182 thousand followers on Twitter. He has a big and growing email newsletter. But perhaps most impressively, he has his own course on writing, High Impact Writing. He launched that this past May, to his own audience, at $297.

Result?

A few halting sales the first day… some more the next day… many more still the day after… still more the day after…

​All in all 487 people bought.

​​Kieran took in a cool $140k with his first product launch over 5 days.

So when Kieran makes a throwaway comment that my courses are so good (he has Most Valuable Email and my recent 9 Deadly Email Sins), I take notice and make a point of telling the world. And when Kieran says my offers are very undepriced, I take notice and take action also.

Which us brings us back to that deadline. It’s almost here. And it really is deadly. If you’d rather be safe, here’s where to get MVE before the price triples:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Even numbers are for the dead

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Last week I was visiting my home town of Zagreb, Croatia. It was my mom’s birthday. I went into a flower shop to buy her some flowers.

I pointed at some sunset-pink roses. “Six of those,” I said to the flower shop girl.

She shrugged as if to apologize. “We really only sell them in odd numbers. So five… or seven…”

I stared hard at her for a moment. “Fine,” I said. “Then give me seven.”

While she was tying the roses up I was pacing the flower shop and inspecting the orchids and potted eucalyptus plants. My irritation was growing.

“And can you tell me please,” I finally blurted out, “why exactly you only sell them in odd numbers?”

The flower shop girl looked at me patiently, the way she might with a child. “Because even numbers are for the dead. Odd numbers are for living people.”

I was taken aback. But I’ve double-checked since. The girl is right.

At least in this part of the world — Croatia, Serbia, and possibly a dozen other tiny countries with a shared cultural history — you buy an even number of flowers when you go to a wake or a funeral. You buy an odd number for weddings, graduations, birthdays, etc.

Why? Why not the other way around?

Who knows. Perhaps some practical reason. Perhaps symbolic. Or perhaps entirely arbitrary, set by some highly OCD person once upon a time who managed to enforce his will on the rest of us.

One thing’s for sure:

People love these kinds of rules. They live by them. It gives structure and coherence and even meaning to an otherwise chaotic existence.

People love these rules so much they will seek them out if they are missing.

My friend Sam sent me an article last week about Brandon Sanderson, one of the best-selling fantasy authors in the world.

Sanderson sold $55 million worth of books last year. But unlike with J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin, practically nobody, outside Sanderson’s sizeable audience, knows who he is.

The reason, as the article will tell you, is that Sanderson is not a very good writer.

​​So why the devoted following of millions of people?

One reason, according to Sanderson’s fans, is his characters. And then, from the article:

“The second answer to Why Sanderson? is his worlds. This is probably what he’s best known for. Worldbuilding, as it’s called. Sanderson dreams up far-off lands—sometimes cities, sometimes whole planets, with rules and systems and politics—and then he populates them with characters whose fates are also the worlds’.”

So there you go:

People are shopping for worlds to inhabit.

They might enjoy yours, and even pay to be inside.

In order for that to happen, one thing you will need is a strong and elaborate set of rules.

For example:

One of the rules of my world, as you might know, is that deadlines are deadly.

You don’t want to miss them.

Because I don’t extend them and I don’t make exceptions to them.

My deadlines also come exactly at 8:31pm CET.

Such as my deadline tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:31pm CET, to get my MVE course before the price goes up threefold, from $100 to $297. That’s less than 24 hours from now. In case you don’t want to be struck down by the law:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Mysterious copy chief gets me moving

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Back in May, I wrote about the mysterious Mercure. That’s the pseudonym of a guy with a big following on copywriting Twitter.

Mercure ​​only reveals publicly that he is the copy chief of $10M company. He offers coaching to copywriters without them knowing his real name or even seeing his face.

(I happen to know Mercure’s real identity because I met him in real life. But I ain’t telling.)

Two weeks ago, for reasons of his own, Mercure bought himself a ticket to the Most Valuable Email show. He wrote me a few days later to report an “aha!” moment:

===

Whew, what can I say! It’s a rollercoaster! I loved it!

It resonates with my way of writing, and puts some words and ideas on otherwise unconscious processes.

It wasn’t easy to follow at times, and it did require my full attention, but that’s due to the (circular) nature of the idea. Your fluid writing actually made things easier to get. And your choice of examples make everything clear in the end.

Truth be told, it did get me a “Aha!” moment, concerning my current sales letter, product, offer, and future newsletter. I’m now curious to see how it can be applied to others niches, even though you did say it may or may not work. I think it can, as it appears close to some of the “techniques” I’ve been using in the supplement niche.

All in all, I believe Copywriters fascinated by the architecture of persuasion will appreciate it a lot and find it indeed most valuable.

I think it deserves a second and third read to grab onto the smaller details, that’s what I’ll do in the coming days.

So thank you very much for this! I’ll be focusing on implementing the many lessons now. 🙂

===

It always warms the old heart-cockles to get an endorsement like that. But Mercure wrote me something else that wasn’t as cockle-warming:

“I think you should absolutely raise your prices. 100 for MVE is a steal (I believe it.)”

Mercure told me he raised his prices for the group coaching he offers. Twice. Result:

* Less demand for his coaching
* Less work to do
* More money coming in

So while I wasn’t too happy to hear this message — I fight like a dying man against making any kind of change — I decided it was time to finally listen.

Like I announced yesterday, I will increase the price of Most Valuable Email from $100 to $297.

The price will change in two days’ time, on Tuesday at 8:31pm CET.

If you’d like to get Most Valuable Email, or rather steal it, before the price changes:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Who else wants to get kicked off my list?

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Yesterday, I sent out an email about how I recently created a joke payment plan for my Most Valuable Email course, and how I’ll soon increase the price of MVE from $100 to $297. The subject line read,

“They laughed when I created a payment plan, but when I jacked up the price…”

In case you’re entirely new to copywriting, that was a play on “They laughed when I sat down at the piano but when I started to play,” which is one of the most famous headlines of all time, written by John Caples in 1926.

A healthy number of people bought MVE from yesterday’s email. Some also wrote in to reply and say they thought the email was witty. And then one guy wrote in to say:

===

297 plus 3 payments of 1 dollar?

BTW, the subject line is a bit lame, don’t you think?

===

I raised my eyebrows a bit, paused for a moment. I then scrolled down to the bottom of the email, and clicked unsubscribe on behalf of this reader.

I don’t know whether his reply was a missed attempt at humor. I don’t know whether it was a genuine attempt at trolling me. I do know it was a distraction.

And it would have stayed just a distraction — but I would hate to allow myself to be just distracted. That’s why I decided to write an email out of it, and get some use out of this ex-subscriber, rather than simply allowing him to interrupt my morning.

Moving on:
​​
As you might recognize, my subject line today, “Who else wants to get kicked off my list,” is a play on another classic John Caples headline, “Who else wants a screen star figure?”

I’m not actually inviting trollish responses with that subject line. I like almost all of my readers, and I like having a pleasant rapport with my audience. That’s why the “lame subject line” guy is only the fourth person I’ve proactively unsubscribed from my list in 5 years of daily emailing.

But I do draw a line somewhere. I expect my readers to treat me well, because I treat them well.

Which brings me back to Most Valuable Email.

I have been selling MVE for a year for $100.

Over the past year, I’ve had many people tell me that’s a steal, and that I should raise my price.

And just in the past couple weeks, I’ve had a number of people I admire tell me the same. I will tell you about one such mysterious person in my next email.

Eventually, the message got through.

So I am raising my price for MVE, like I said, from $100 to $297.

I am also giving you fair notice about this change. You can still get MVE for $100 until Tuesday, August 22 (yes August, not July), at 8:31pm CET.

But why wait and risk missing out? You can laugh at deadline worries — if you follow this simple link:
​
https://bejakovic.com/mve/

They laughed when I created a payment plan, but when I jacked up the price…

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This past Tuesday, I created a new, mildly troll-like “financed payment structure” for my Most Valuable Email course. Just $97 today… plus three easy $1 payments each 30 days.

I did make some sales with that new payment structure. But what I did not expect is the sheer amount of laughter, chortling, and knee slapping this aroused.

I got a lot of LOLOL, funny, this is hilarious af 😂😂😂 replies. One particularly amused reader wrote in to say:

===

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I’ve been laughing at this checkout page for longer than I’ve laughed at ANY standup comedian’s joke.

‘just thought about it again and had to laugh (again) before typing this sentence.

It’s the most absurd thing I’ve seen in ages!

I FUCKING LOVE IT!

Gotta take the ‘sting’ out of those one hundred bucks!

===

I’ve since removed that financed payment structure — as I said, it was destined to disappear without ceremony or notice. MVE is back to its usual one hundred bucks price. But soon, it will be time for a new payment structure, with much more sting:

I’ll be raising the price of Most Valuable Email from $100 to $297, effective next Tuesday, July 22, at 8:31pm CET.

I’m deadly serious about this price increase.

I realize that doing so on the heels of a trollish “financed payment structure” might not get me taken the most seriously.

But this is not a stunt, and not something will reverse like I did with that $97 + 3x$1 setup.

This is a genuine price increase. If you’re curious, I will have my explanation and reasoning for it over the next few days. Or in case you’d like to get MVE before the price triples, and you don’t want to risk missing the deadline as so often happens:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

One big proof element

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I read a story this morning about Tim Meeks, the inventor of the harpejji.

The harpejji is a new instrument, one of only a few new instruments invented in 21st century to actually take off. It’s a combination of a piano and an electric guitar. It sells for $6,399 a piece, and Meeks sold more than $1 million worth of them last year.

That’s where we are today. Here’s how we got to where we are:

Meeks invented the harpejji in 2007. He made videos of himself playing the thing. He showed it off at music festivals. He had a few other harpejji enthusiasts play it and hype it up for him.

Sales. Were. Meager.

And then one day, Meeks was at a trade show in Anaheim, CA. Somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, can you teach me how to play this thing?”

Meeks stared for a moment and then snapped out of his trance. “Sure,” he said. “Sure! Of course! I’d love to!”

It was Stevie Wonder who was asking.

Stevie Wonder loved the harpejji. He bought one immediately. He has since performed a bunch with it in public.

And here we are today. Point being:

One big proof element can be worth 100 small or middle-sized proof elements.

In fact, entire sales promotions, and even entire businesses, have been built on the back of one big proof element.

So if you’re smart, you will work to get yourself such a big proof element, or maybe even to bake it in to your offer when you create it.

But on to business. I have my Most Valuable Email course to sell. And odds are, you haven’t bought it yet, because only about 5.1% of my list has bought to date.

I’ve shared lots of proof elements for MVE so far:

My own results, tangible successes, and intangible benefits resulting from applying the MVE trick…

The reason why of the thing, which I hint at publicly and explain in detail inside the course…

The testimonials and endorsements and even money-making case studies from many satisfied customers.

The fact is though, none of this qualifies as the One Big Proof Element.

So let me tell you that feared negotiating coach Jim Camp used the Most Valuable Email trick on the very first page of his legendary book Start With No.

This book has formed and influenced other influential people, like email marketer Sen Settle… business coach Travis Sago… and FBI negotiator Chris Voss.

Did all these influential folks find Start With No influential because of the ideas inside?

Yes, but — the presentation was also immensely important. In fact, in the case of somebody like Camp, the presentation and the ideas were really an indistinguishable blend.

If you’re a Jim Camp fan, it will be obvious to you how Camp is using the MVE trick in Start With No once you know what this trick is.

And whether or not are a Camp fan, if you would like to have similar influence on your readers, particularly the influential ones among them, then Most Valuable Email might be your ticket. Here’s where to buy it:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

If you have a working ecommerce funnel…

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A break from our usual late-night programming to bring you the following announcement:

If you or a client you work closely with has an ecommerce business, and you currently have a funnel that’s working on cold traffic, then hit reply and let me know. I have something you might like.