Pirates, waddya gonna do

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Last week, Mercure and Svet Dimitrov, both members of my Monetization Mastermind group, ran a course launch.

The day after the launch ended, somebody who “bought” the course pirated the content and made it available for sale online.

Svet and Mercure investigated the offender!

And they found who done it!

“Now I got you, you son of a bitch!”

It turned out to be some girl in Illinois who had her credit card info stolen and who had no idea about the course.

In other words, nothing to do, nowhere to go.

I had almost the identical thing happen to me during a promo of Copy Riddles back in 2023.

The only difference was that I didn’t find Copy Riddles immediately for sale online. Instead, I found out about it when I got a chargeback a couple weeks after the promo.

Also some clueless girl from the heartland of America who had never heard of me or my Copy Riddles course.

I went to check the account associated with the name on my website, where the course is delivered. I saw a Ukrainian IP and all course pages cleanly swiped within 2 minutes after login, I’m guessing by a bot.

Waddya gonna do? I know what I did. I shrugged and put it out of my mind.

For this and many other reasons, I have long ago decided to avoid sailing where the pirates are, and to take harbor where pirates aren’t willing to follow me.

Specifically, I’ve decided to sail as little as possible on the risky, turbulent, pirate-infested Ocean Of Secrets, and to instead spend most my days cruising the safe, rich, and comfortable Sea Of Getting People Results.

That’s a metaphorical and philosophical shift, but it’s more than that. It’s also a matter of deliverables, and of the offers I’m making as well.

If you’d like an example, keep an eye out for my email tomorrow.

I will tell you about my Price Increase Challenge, which I will be launching next week, not with the goal of selling you hot and exclusive tactical info (“Raise your price exactly 18.2%!”)… but with the goal of getting you to actually run a promo to your list that boosts your positioning, and maybe even wins you a treasure chest of doubloons.

The lifesaving value of charging more

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It’s Saturday today. I’ve forbidden myself from doing any work on the weekends except writing this email.

But what the hell am I gonna do if I don’t work?

I sat on the couch. I looked around. I waited.

Eventually, I picked up a book.

Good thing.

Because I came across the following fun yet instructive story, which goes back to ancient Greece:

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A stranger publicly said that he could teach Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, an infallible way to find out and discover all the conspiracies his subjects could contrive against him, if Dionysius would give him a good sum of money for his pains.

Dionysius hearing of it, caused the man to be brought to him, that he might learn an art so necessary to his preservation.

The man made answer, that all the art he knew was that Dionysius should give him a talent [eg. 25kg of silver], and afterwards boast that he had obtained a singular secret from him.

Dionysius liked the invention, and accordingly caused six hundred crowns to be counted out to the stranger.

===

If you so choose, you can extract many lessons from this story. Today, I will extract just one for you. It be this:

A higher price can be better for both you as the seller AND for your audience as the buyers… even if the deliverables stay exactly the same (or if the deliverables are nothing at all, as in the story above).

Paying a high price can literally be lifesaving for the buyer (again, as in the story above).

But even when it’s not a matter of life and death, paying a high price can be a boost to your buyers’ ego, reputation, and peace of mind. And what’s more important than those things?

I’m telling you this because a few days ago, in my Daily Email House community, I asked folks whether they are interested in running a price increase promo.

That was motivated by the fact that, as I’ve found out recently, a bunch of my readers who sell courses and ebooks and templates charge very little for what they sell.

That’s not good for them… and it’s not good for their buyers either, at least if the stuff being sold is lifesaving or at least potentially life-changing.

So I offered to help folks run a price increase promo over the next few weeks, as a challenge, in a group, to avoid feeling alone, or feeling like they’re going to screw things up, or feeling paralyzed from overthinking.

I will have more details on that “Price Increase Challenge” soon — the when, the where, and of course, the how much. And I will apply my own lesson. I’ll make the price VERY high, but in a way that’s good for you, if you choose to join me for this Price Increase Challenge.

Follow up on “nasty follow up”

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A couple days ago, I wrote an email about a “nasty follow up” script, which I got from a follow-up expert, to move along a potential auction partner who had started dragging his feet.

The script ran:

“Ok no sweat. You wanna put bringing in auction cash on the back burner until 2027? 2028?”

It didn’t feel very in character or natural for me to send this, but I closed my eyes and sent it nonetheless. I then wrote an email about it, which drew a lot of response from readers. A few samples:

#1. “Haha doesn’t sound like you at all”

#2. “That’s pretty polarizing. If you don’t care, then no problem. I’d probably just move along to something else until/if he changed his mind.”

#3. “Having just finished negotiating with a guttural-ly screaming 8 year old after he was forced to get a haircut (because he was looking like a mildly-clean hobo) my gut instinct would be to tell the guy that ‘putting the project on hold for so long doesn’t work for me. Good luck!'”

#4. “This guy broke his word to you, you could argue disrespected you. Would you want to do business with someone who doesn’t do what they say they will do? Also, his feelings aren’t your responsibility. If he feels bad because you’ve pointed out the incongruity between his words and actions… that’s not you being a dick.”

#5. “Curious how this works out. Not something I’d send but it doesn’t mean its wrong haha”

About how it’s working out:

It’s been two days now and the update is… nothing. Silence. No word from the dude.

Is he mad? Is our partnership over before it even started? Did I make a huge mistake?

Last night, I talked to the same follow-up expert, who also happens to be the person who referred the potential auction client to me in the first place.

I told the follow-up expert I had sent his message verbatim, and that I haven’t gotten a response since. He nodded in approval. “He’s always been slow to reply,” he said with a chuckle. “Here’s what I’d tell him next…”

In other words, in this follow-up expert’s world at least, the follow up doesn’t stop. Not until you get a clear yes or no, or better yet, “scram!”

This is all kinda new to me, at least when it comes to 1-1 interactions.

Fortunately, I’ve internalized it pretty good when doing 1-many interactions, specifically, when I’m hiding behind my email software and writing to thousands of people at the same time.

My approach is to keep following up… day after day… until my readers either tell me to scram (they unsubscribe) or they tell me yes, in the form of buying something from me.

I’ve found this simple habit — sending out a sales email every day — to be completely transformative to me, in terms of money, in terms of how I am able to work, and personally too.

If you would like to have something similar in your life, I’ve created a service to help you get started, and to make it easier to keep going. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

$1 per subscriber?

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Earlier this week, I wrote an email about a 36-hour promo that promises to pay you $2-$6 per subscriber on your list. To which I got a response from a new reader, who wrote:

“If you could even help me get to $1 per subscriber that would be quite valuable to me. Do let me know if this offer can extend to me as well.”

(For a bit of background, this dude has a list of 6k names… of people who are likely to have money to spend… the majority of whom got onto his list by buying a course he sells via Facebook ads.)

For reasons that don’t matter here, I didn’t think the 36-hour promo I was advertising would really fit his situation. I wrote him to tell him so.

Then, like a true salesman, I let the conversation drop and went on with my day.

Except, after a night’s fitful sleep, that bit about “help me get to $1 per subscriber” came back to me.

I realized I’m pretty confident I can help this guy get to making at least $1 per subscriber — $6k per month — from his list. Maybe more. I wrote to tell him so.

The upshot is we’ll get on a call tomorrow, and talk, and see if it makes sense for us to work together to make that $1 per subscriber happen.

And then, like a true salesman, I let this whole topic drop and went on with my day.

Except, after another night’s fitful sleep, the slow and creaky wheels of my mind started turning, and turning, and turning. Eventually, a drop of thought dripped out.

Maybe, I thought, maybe other people on my list are in this same situation and could also use my help?

Let me find out:

If you have an email list of at least 2000 names, but you’re not making $1 per subscriber per month, maybe I can help you get there.

Or if you are making more than $1 per subscriber per month, maybe I help you add in another $1 or $2 or $3 to that.

In case you’re interested, hit reply. Tell me a bit about yourself and your list. And we can talk in more detail.

Nasty follow up

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How would you move the following interaction along?

I have this potential partner. He was referred to me for an auction, because he has a nice-sized community and assets he could legit auction off, and he wants to monetize them all better, without doing much work.

So as per auction protocol, I wrote him a pre-auction-poll post — basically a way to float the idea for an offer to auction off, and see if there’s interest enough.

I sent him the copy a couple weeks ago to post in his community.

“Love it,” he said. “Will run this next week.”

Next week came.

Next week went.

The guy ran a price-increase promo during that time, so I figured, “Ok, maybe that takes precedence. Let’s wait it out.”

This week came… and the guy started promoting something else. No sign of my pre-auction-poll post.

I followed up with him yesterday to ask if he’s still interested in running an auction.

“Yes!” he said. “Let’s say next week. Lots of irons in the fire at the same time.”

So in a nutshell, two weeks ago it was next week… this week, it is again next week. Mañana, mañana.

So? How would you move this along?

I’ll tell you how an expert in followup would move it along.

Not me. I’m not the expert.

I’m talking about somebody with much more experience in 1-1 selling, and following up with people.

I chatted with said expert today and asked what he would write to my potential auction partner. The followup expert gave me this move-it-along script:

“Ok no sweat. You wanna put bringing in auction cash on the back burner until 2027? 2028?”

I winced at this.

It sounds kind of passive aggressive. Even nasty. Or maybe it just sounds like it’s gonna make my potential auction partner feel bad and possibly cause some kind of conflict.

Will it? Won’t it?

I just sent it over to my potential partner right before writing this email. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, I would like to point out a very simple but incredibly powerful fact of life.

The fact is this:

You can feel however you feel, and still act alongside that.

In other words, there’s no need to feel natural and easy and pleasant all the time without exception.

There’s also no need to suppress fears, doubts, or negativity you might actually be feeling.

You can feel however you feel, without suppressing it, without feeling guilty about it, without thinking that you need to wait until you change your inner state… and you can still act, alongside that turmoil or tension inside of you.

And with that bit of inspiration, I’d like to point you to a discussion about increasing your prices, which I started today inside my Daily Email House community.

At the end of that discussion, I made an offer, to run a price-increase challenge together this month, in a group, with support and feedback so you don’t feel alone, uncertain, and in danger of making a big mistake.

If raising your prices is something that you know you should be doing, but you just don’t feel great about it, maybe now is a chance to act alongside how you feel?

In case you’re interested:

https://www.skool.com/daily-email-house/price-increase-promo

OFFER

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Yesterday, at the bottom of a 500-world email, I made an offer.

It got a lot of qualified response, so let me rerun it, this time at the start of the email, after a big bright subject line that says OFFER.

If you might be interested in:

A 36-hour email promo that pulls in between $2-$6 per newsletter subscriber, and…

…requires little or more likely NO additional delivery (no coaching calls, no cohort groups, no WhatsApp access, no new products to create or obligations to fulfill), and…

… sells a $300+, old-hat product that you’re not selling much of any more…

… and that’s fun for your list and fun for you…

Then the fact is, I already have a system to do exactly this.

I’ve proven it myself on a few occasions.

But I would like to get some more case studies for it, and quickly.

So I’ve got an offer for you:

Are you interested in running a 36-hour promo to your list, pulling in between $2-$6 for each person on your list, selling stuff you already have, and having fun in the process?

And would you like to get my help? For free?

If you would, hit reply, and let’s talk.

Dude X’s tactical tip for cold traffic funnels

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Today, I got a tip for ya that applies to cold traffic and warm traffic alike.

I’m in the community of this dude, let’s call him Dude X, who is an expert of running low-ticket ad funnels.

Today Dude X wrote about a student of his who was running an low-ticket course to cold traffic… and it wasn’t selling good.

What’s worse, the sales the student made didn’t ascend in any way (in other words, the buyers who bought the low-ticket course didn’t buy anything more).

And this in spite of the fact that the student’s course was a really solid course, with tons of info, templates, tutorials, etc. It was something she could legitimately sell for $500… but she was selling it for $20, and struggling.

Why??? Here’s what Dude X wrote:

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Everyone already has tons of information. They don’t need more.

What they need is a quick win. Something they can do. Something they can finish. Something that gets them a result.

So going back to this student.

When we changed her offer from a strategic offer to a tactical offer, everything shifted.

A strategic offer tries to teach everything. The whole picture. The full system. All the pieces.

A tactical offer helps people do one thing fast and get a result.

===

So that’s my tip for you. Sell an opportunity to get a quick and easy result. And since this is a newsletter all about implementation, I asked myself, how do I put this to use?

A few days ago, I floated the idea for a new offer I called Daily Emails 101.

Basically, my idea was to sell this as a low-ticket offer to cold traffic.

And even though I never properly defined what this offer would be… I suspected already that it’s too vague, that it promises too much and is likely to deliver too little in terms of actual results, and to do so to the wrong kinds of people.

After reading the thing above from Dude X, I thought to myself, what’s a small specific step that would get a quick win for the kinds of people I want on my email list?

Immediately an idea popped into my mind:

A 36-hour email promo that pulls in between $2-$6 per newsletter subscriber, and…

…requires little or more likely NO additional delivery (no coaching calls, no cohort groups, no WhatsApp access, no new products to create or obligations to fulfill), and…

… sells an old-hat product that you’re not selling much of any more…

… and that’s fun for your list and fun for you.

The fact is, I already have a system to do exactly this.

I’ve proven it myself on a few occasions.

But I would like to get some more case studies for it, and quickly.

So I’ve got an offer for you:

Are you interested in running a 36-hour promo to your list, pulling in between $2-$6 for each person on your list, selling stuff you already have, and having fun in the process?

And would you like to get my help? For free?

If you would, hit reply, and let’s talk.

What’s up with my hiring

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Last week I wrote an email saying that I’m hiring an assistant. I got a buncha replies to that, some encouraging, others frustrating.

I wrote back to everyone to say I’m working my way through the replies, and that I will be in touch if I think there’s a possible fit there.

I’ve had a few people proactively follow up with me since. “Do you have an update regarding my application?”

The update is that on Friday I hired somebody. I’m also interviewing a second person to hire on Monday. I figure, now that I’ve decided on hiring, why not go big?

The guy I hired yesterday, marketer and computer programmer GC Tsalamagkakis, is somebody I’ve known for a good while.

He has been active in my Daily Email House community for over a year. He was one of the top bidders in my “I endorse YOU” auction. We’ve talked on multiple occasions previously. I know he’s worked with and gotten results for other people I know and respect.

GC wrote me flat out saying that he’s not applying to be my assistant, but that maybe he can help me automate some of the stuff I’m doing or want to do?

We talked and defined an easy test project.

GC wanted to do it for free.

I told him I appreciate the sentiment but I insist on paying him, both for his sake and for mine.

He quoted me a price.

I thought it was too low. So I decided to pay him 4x what he had asked me.

Do you think that makes me a good guy? Or a creep who’s trying to virtue signal by writing about it here?

You can think what you like, but I can tell you I’m neither very good nor am I trying to signal whatever goodness I have here.

This is simply me working myself mentally into this hiring game.

A couple days ago, I mentioned a discussion I’d listened to between Frank Kern and Dean Jackson, about sticking to what you’re irreplaceable at, and hiring out for everything else. Said Frank:

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There’s three ways to get rich. You can invent something. You can inherit something. Or you could invest. And I think all business people are ultimately investors.

That’s all we do. So if you think about that, and you think about the hiring of a “who,” it’s not an expense, but a means to multiply capital.

I pay my “who” that does the automation stuff close to 300 grand a year.

And people are like, “My God, you could get it so much cheaper.”

And I say, “Well I might-could, but assuming I’m getting about a 20% annual return on my investment in a ‘who,’ would I rather get 20% of 50 grand, or 300?”

===

That 20% return is pretty much how the math will work out for the test task that GC did for me.

He’s automated some stuff for me that was previously spread out across a couple software subscriptions.

As a result, I will be able to shut those subscriptions down, and save enough over the coming year to make back what I paid GC, and make about a 20% return on top of that.

There is a bigger point here, and it applies to you also. I’ve heard it stated in different ways:

“Turn costs into a profit center.”

“Find a way to make it work for you.”

Or, like Frank Kern says above, “Think of it like an investment.”

This applies if you’re hiring, yes. But it also applies if you’re buying courses, paying for subscriptions, running ads, or simply spending your money and time. All these could simply be costs. Or, with a change of perspective and bit of determination, they could be opportunities to multiply capital. It’s your call.

Come with me

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A couple weeks ago, I got a message from copywriter Theo Seeds about my new 10 Commandments book (“thought it was excellent”).

Theo shared a real-life sales story related to one of the commandments in the book, Commandment IX:

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I have a story you might find interesting about “committing to the bit.” When I was 18 I spent a summer selling pest control door to door in New Jersey for a company called Aptive. When I first got there, one of the VP’s of Sales of the company, Kyle Neilsen, was in Jersey doing trainings for the salespeople who had been there a few weeks already.

Here’s one thing he said. “I love when I see a house with anthills in the yard. What I do is I knock on the door, and then as soon as they answer, I say ‘lemme show you something,’ make a ‘come with me’ motion with my hand, and then turn around and start walking towards the anthills. Either they follow me outside and I make the sale, or they don’t follow me outside and I just keep walking towards the next house.”

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Persuasion wizard Dean Jackson calls this filtering for “cooperative and friendly” prospects. It’s one of the five stars of Dean’s “five star prospects” classification.

About those five-star prospects, Dean says:

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Nothing you do will turn someone into one if they’re not already. You can’t create them. You can only DISCOVER them. The only difference is… some prospects are ready right away while others need more time to show their “true feathers.” And that’s where your record-keeping helps.

Once you get into this mindset, this understanding that you can’t turn someone into a 5-star prospect… That gives you freedom and takes away all the stress. You don’t have to spend all your energy convincing someone in the hope they convert anymore. All you need to do is patiently educate and motivate them regularly…

… and wait till they become ready to take the next step.

===

If what Dean says makes sense to you, I have something to show you. Come with me:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Question for info product creators

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Have you ever created an info product that sold well to your own list?

Would you like to transform that product into a product that sells well to affiliates’ lists also, mine among them?

If so, hit reply, and let’s talk.