The course I wish I had created

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Just a few moments ago, I sent an email to marketer Matt Giaro, telling him he’s free to use the following line and to attribute it to me:

“You took the information I gave you and ran with it much further than I did, and developed a complete system for it and got repeatable results from it, unlike me. I wish I had done what you did, but now that you’ve done it, there’s no need for me to do it on my own and duplicate the work.”

The background:

Some time last fall, Matt contacted me.

​​He saw that, earlier in the year, I had run a $300 classified ad in Josh Spector’s newsletter. He was thinking about doing the same, and he wanted to know my experiences.

So we did a quick little one-hour paid consult.

I told Matt how I ran a few successful newsletter ads (Josh Spector, Daniel Throssell), where I got hundreds of new subscribers who paid for themselves, usually on day zero.

I also told him about the unsuccessful newsletter ads I ran, which just cost me money and probably sender reputation (I’m looking at you, Udimi).

And that was that. Matt said thanks, and we went our separate ways.

Until this March. That’s when I saw that Matt was launching a new course, called Subscribers From Scratch. It was all about how he was getting high-quality newsletter subscribers by running little ads in other newsletters.

The fact is:

The way I was running newsletter ads required a good deal of work. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do every month, much less every week or two.

And since I have plenty of other shiny gewgaws to distract me, I never bothered to figure out how to run newsletter ads repeatably and to still get good results.

But Matt did figure it out.

He took what I told him and ran with it. He developed his own system that allowed him to get a few dozen or a few hundred subscribers each time he ran a newsletter ad.

But much more importantly, he figured out how to get quality subscribers, subscribers who ended up paying for the ad, often in a matter of days.

So like I said to Matt, his Subscribers From Scratch is the course I wish I had created.

I wish I had taken the trouble to figure out a repeatable, scalable system for running newsletter ads. I wish I had packaged it up and sold it.

But I didn’t. And now that he’s done it, I won’t have to.

Right about now, you might expect me to plop in an affiliate link for Matt’s Subscribers From Scratch.

That won’t happen.

Subscribers From Scratch normally sells for $397. But I got Matt to agree to give away a “lite” version of it — all the training and how-to information, minus the bonuses and templates — for free.

Well, for free if you’ve already bought my Simple Money Emails course. Or if you buy it before this Saturday, June 1, at 12 midnight PST.

If you’ve already bought Simple Money Emails, you should have gotten an email from me already with the instructions on how to claim Subscribers From Scratch Lite.

And if you haven’t yet bought it, but you want to learn how to write effective daily emails that make sales, and get Matt’s Subscribers From Scratch Lite for free, and learn how to get readers who actually buy from the emails you write, then here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

Exotic dancer turns down a client

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Today I was talking to the owner of a successful Facebook ads agency. She said something interesting about a potential client she turned away.

I asked if I could reprint what she told me in my email and use her name.

She refused. At least the name part.

“Never ever name me,” she said. “Not my real name. Give me a cool name, some exotic dancer’s name.”

So let’s call her Misty Mirage.

And yes, you now have the right to feel I catfished you into reading this email, because this is as close to exotic dancers as this story is going to get.

You have every right to close down this email or even to unsubscribe in frustration.

But you might still want to read on, because what happened was short but steamy.

So Misty Mirage was talking to a potential client today. They were talking about a private dance, aka. a Facebook ads campaign that Misty would run.

Except, the guy didn’t have the money to pay Misty her usual exotic rate. He was trying to negotiate some kind of payment plan.

Normally, Misty would try to accommodate a broke but nice client and still do a little dance for him. But perhaps because of the alignment of the stars and the moon, today she refused.

​​As she told me:

“Normally I would have tried to help this dude for free, and done a ton of work, and then he would have ended up disappointed and so would I. Because it wouldn’t have worked without a lot of effort and a lot of money. If this guy doesn’t have the money to pay me, he’s not gonna have the money to run ads properly. So I told him, ‘Can’t do it for you.'”

I’ve previously suggested choosing clients and customers by asking yourself, “Would I bet on this person? If I could only get paid if they end up successful, would I still take their money upfront?”

I still think this is a good question to ask. But apparently it’s not good enough.

Like Misty’s case shows, even successful business owners will do work for free just to be nice.

Maybe it’s not always “free” free work.

​​But it’s free work nonetheless — selling their products or services for cheaper than they could sell them, or giving away consultations or good advice, or simply not charging for all they do or all the time that they invest.

I know I’ve done it in the past. Sometimes I still catch myself doing it. Maybe you’re doing it too.

So I’m here to tell you, it’s okay to stop.

​​It’s okay to say no.

​​It’s okay to send people away, even if they’re nice, because they simply have too many pieces missing for you to really help them. It can be genuine charity. And it will also help your business.

And now:

Since I love to apply the ideas I write about, I would like to announce that tomorrow I will give away something for free.

But it won’t be anything of my own.

It will be a free, time-limited bonus for anyone who has bought my Simple Money Emails course. This free bonus is currently selling for as much as Simple Money Emails sells for. But you get it for free, if you are a Simple Money Emails buyer.

More info on that tomorrow.

But if you’d like to get Simple Money Emails today, both because it can show you how to write steamy, burlesque-like emails like this one, and because you want tomorrow’s free bonus, whatever it may be, then head on over here:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

High-ranking Tinder profiles

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I met a friend for dinner last night. As we sat over tacos gobernador, he told me about an acquaintance of his, who has cracked the Tinder code.

My friend explained:

Apparently, Tinder puts its users into castes of a sort. Based on how attractive you are, you get a score. And your profile is only ever shown to other people who are at your score or lower.

In other words, the caste of 6’s are allowed to gaze up and admire the caste of 9’s. On the other hand, the 9’s don’t even know the 6’s exist. Let them eat cake.

But!

My friend’s acquaintance has supposedly figured out a way to game the system. He can now create profiles that get a Brad Pitt score at will. And he’s selling these profiles.

Of course, once you update your Brad Pitt profile with your Ed Norton photos, the profile won’t stay inside the top caste forever.

But it will stay there for some time. And who knows, maybe that’s enough time to find true love? With somebody high-caste?

“Interesting,” I said out of the side of my taco-filled mouth. “So how is he selling these?”

“That’s the problem,” my friend said. “Facebook won’t let him run ads. So I suggested he could pay for an agency Facebook ad account. He could then cloak it. And who knows, after a while, he might figure out how to run these cloaked ads to sell his Tinder profiles.”

One way or another, this is the route many people take when they have something new to sell.

“I have the product. It’s great, or at least I think so. Now how in the hell do I build an audience, or create a marketing system, so that I can sell my great product?”

It can be done. But it’s a difficult and expensive path to go.

A much easier and cheaper route is to find people who have already built an audience or a working marketing system.

Example:

When I had the idea to create my Copy Riddles program, before I built it out, I reached out to Derek Johanson of CopyHour.

​​I explained my idea, and asked Derek if he would like to be my first affiliate.

​​Derek said yes, even though he had never met me before, and even though I had zero credentials as a course creator.

Example two:

I told my friend last night to tell the Tinder code-cracker to find people who are already running Facebook ads for Tinder offers.

You know, $37 ebooks with the magic 3-word Tinder opening line etc.

Reach out to these people, and see if they would be interested in selling their buyers on the opportunity to get seen on Tinder, so they can actually use their magic opening lines.

And that’s my suggestion to you too.

It’s not just if you have a new offer. It’s not just if you’re a newbie.

You can go at anything alone. You might make it. Or you might falter and collapse by the side of the road.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who have already bought or built various bicycles, buses, or helicopters. Many of them might be willing to give you a ride. You just have to ask.

But back to my Copy Riddles program.

After Derek Johanson said he would be my first affiliate, I did end up creating the actual program. And Derek did end up promoting it as an affiliate. As did Daniel Throssell. Daniel had this to say about it (spliced together from a few of his emails):

===

There are few other courses I fully and wholeheartedly endorse as strongly as one of my own. Copy Riddles is one of them.

It’s the most brilliant course concept I’ve ever seen… literally a gamified series of sequential puzzles that teaches you copywriting.

I have literally never had so many people write to me after I start promoting something, offering unsolicited & gushing feedback on it!

===

Maybe Copy Riddles can help you sell your own $37 ebook? Or maybe it can help you craft a sexy pitch that gets others interested in selling it?

If you’d like to find out more about Copy Riddles:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Affluent quests

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This morning. Coaching call.

The guy I’m coaching writes a daily email. Makes a lot of money. Has had two or three successful careers before turning to online marketing.

As an aside, today he mentioned an email that he sent to his list last week. It was about his own imposter syndrome.

Admitting to imposter syndrome wasn’t any kind of pandering or fake vulnerability.

He genuinely felt doubts when a new client, much more successful than him and with a much bigger business than his own, came to him for advice and guidance, and offered to pay him multiple thousands of dollars per month for it, for a six month engagement.

“That email got a lot of response,” my coaching student said.

I’m not surprised. And I imagine that the people who replied to him were his best prospects.

After all, the most highly qualified, highly credentialed people are the ones to most acutely feel a mismatch between their public image — success and achievement — and the inner reality — doubts, confusion, time needed to figure it out.

This includes even the top achievers, the ones who repeatedly get results.

Marketing tip:

In his No B.S Marketing To The Affluent book, direct marketing legend Dan Kennedy says the affluent are on a search, a life and lifestyle quest.

Dan gives five dimensions to this quest. But most of all, says Dan, the affluent are on a quest for competence.

So keep that in mind if you’re trying to sell to the upper end of your market. The high achievers. The Mavericks, rather than the Gooses of your audience.

As for me:

Maybe you’d like to work with me one-on-one?

Next week, I’m wrapping up coaching with the high-achiever above.

​​Right at the start of our work together, I told him that he didn’t need more than a month of my feedback and time. After all, his emails were already fun and interesting. His copy was dialed in. And he was making lots and lots of sales.

And yet, he still wanted to get my feedback on his copy, because he wanted to get better at what he’s doing, and to learn something new. About that, he told me this morning:

“It’s been amazing. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had sales. Mostly little tips and tricks that I opted in for, so I feel fulfilled.”

I don’t do a lot of one-on-one coaching.

​​After next week, it will either be zero people, or one person, depending if I find somebody who is a good fit.

​​In case you’re interested, hit reply, and we can talk.

Far ahead of the pack

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It’s Sunday today, and since I live in Spain, that means the world wakes up slowwwwly. But not this morning.

This morning, around 9am, I was in my living room when I heard whistling downstairs. Angry, insistent whistling.

This wasn’t some preteen girls — in my experience, the usual whistlers in my neighborhood. It didn’t sound like them, and it was too early. I went out on the balcony to investigate.

It turns out there was a race to be run. I’m guessing a 10K.

My building is right on the corner of Avinguda Diagonal, the main avenue that cuts across Barcelona. The runners were supposed to run down Diagonal.

The whistling appears to have been a police officer who had spotted a parked car trying to sneak onto the avenue and into the race course.

As I stood on the balcony, a pace car passed by. A few moments later, two cops on motorcycles followed, with their sirens flashing. And then came the front runner.

He zoomed by.

​​After him, there was a minute or two of absolutely nobody.

Then, finally, a couple more runners in second and third place. I’m guessing the rest of the field was far behind.

This reminded me of last year’s Barcelona marathon, which I also witnessed from my balcony.

At around 10am, a small group of Kenyans and Ethiopians ran by my building. After them, there was nobody.

I lost interest and went back inside. I read for a while. I got dressed. I went for a walk to the beach. I came back. It was around noon by this time.

And as I was coming back to my building, I saw the rest of the field — thousands of people, wearing funny costumes, pushing wheelchairs, getting cheered on — jogging along where the Kenyans and Ethiopians had sprinted by, almost two hours earlier.

All that’s to say, most of us can run. But there’s levels to it.

There’s me, trotting along for about 200 yards before saying, screw this.

There’s recreational joggers.

There’s serious hobbyists who do triathlons.

There’s professional runners.

And then, there’s the small group of Kenyans and Ethiopians, far ahead of the pack, winning the biggest races and setting records.

Mmmm… maybe it’s the same with your chosen profession?

I don’t know what you do. But I can tell you I did direct response copywriting as a profession for a number of years.

I thought I was pretty good at it. In fact, I know I was. Still am. Pretty good. But there’s levels to it.

I’ve never competed at the highest levels, against the best-of-the-best copywriters, for the biggest prizes. And maybe that’s a good thing. Statistically speaking, odds are good I would get my ass handed to me.

Because there’s levels to it.

The good news is, unlike marathon running, writing copy can be a slowwww and deliberate activity.

Yes, there is creativity and talent involved. That’s a part of what sets the A-list copywriters apart from everyone else who might just be pretty good.

But there are also learnable strategies. Tricks. Even hacks, which the A-listers use that you don’t use.

But you could use them. If you only knew them. And you could profit from them.

Because unlike in marathon running, the prizes from sales copy don’t just go to the top three Kenyans or Ethiopians.

If you can take one or two strategies from the very best copywriters, and apply them to what you’re doing, it could be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to you.

That might sound like hype and exaggeration. But it’s just the nature of direct marketing, where a small advantage, multiplied over a large number of prospects, can produce a lot of wealth quickly.

So would you be interested in owning the strategies, tricks, and hacks of the very best A-list copywriters, the ones who are far ahead of the pack?

​​If so, take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/academy/cr/

How to get me to refer your stuff (or vice versa)

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I’ll tell you in just a second. But first, for greater impact, let me illustrate what I have to tell you with a little anecdote from this morning:

This morning, I prepared my usual breakfast — a can of sardines and some salad from a bag — and I sat down to my usual breakfast reading.

My usual breakfast reading is the latest New Yorker. ​​Today, it happened to be an article abut the hottest restaurant in France, a €52.99/person, all-you-can-eat buffet called Les Grands Buffets.

Les Grands Buffets is in a town called Narbonne, in the south of France, less than 100km from the Spanish border, and a 2-hour drive from Barcelona, where I live.

“Interesting,” I said.

And without knowing what I was doing, I got out my phone.

I opened up the WhatsApp group I have with two friends who visited me in Barcelona two years ago. They both have some interest in the south of France. So I forwarded them the article and joked, “Maybe for the next time you visit.”

Then I thought of my ex-girlfriend.

After 9 months of cohabitation after our breakup, we finally stopped living together last month. But she’s still in Barcelona and we’re still on good terms.

Since she’s a big foodie, I also forwarded her the same article about Les Grands Buffets. (Immediately, she wrote back, “Maybe you would like to go for a road trip ?😂❤️”)

So the point I want to share with you is a simple two-step formula for getting referrals.

It’s right there in my experience from this morning, in the way I unthinkingly forwarded this New Yorker article to two sets of people. The formula:

1. Something interesting, potentially valuable, which I was willing to share

2. Specific details that made it easy to think of the right people to share it with

This is something you can do consciously, if you want to encourage me (or others) to refer you or your brand or content or offers.

Let me give you an example:

Last night, I sent out a very brief email to my list. The email asked my readers if they 1) write Facebook ads, and 2) have clients who pay them for it.

I promised my readers that if they satisfy these two conditions, I have something that might help them get paid more.

So far, I’ve had a few dozen people respond.

But… maybe you know somebody else? Somebody who fits the two criteria above? Somebody who writes Facebook ads… and who has paying clients?

If so, consider forwarding them this email. Maybe you can benefit this person, and they’ll be grateful to you.

And if somebody forwarded this email to you, and you fit the criteria above, and you’re interested in what I have, then hit reply.

4 lessons from my 9-day promo for Daily Email Fastlane

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Last night, I concluded the promo for for Daily Email Fastlane. That’s the workshop I’m hosting tonight, right now, as this email goes out.

Good news: I sold more tickets to Daily Email Fastlane than I was expecting.

Bad news: At $100 per sale, it’s still not enough to buy a Rolls-Royce.

But that’s okay. This workshop was most of all an experiment, in a few ways.

I’ve collected the data. It’s now time to analyze it.

Some of what my analysis shows is standard daily email propaganda. What I mean is, the data supports the basic idea I was plugging all week long, about the value of writing daily emails for your personal brand. For example:

#1. 87% of people who signed up for Daily Email Fastlane have bought other courses or trainings from me before. Many have been on my list for 3+ years.

Would they have stuck around and been willing to buy from me now if I failed to stay in touch with them during that time?

#2. There was also a handful of first-time buyers. Most of them have been on my list for weeks, months, or in one case, closing in on a year.

In other words, it took dozens or hundreds of daily email “touches” to close this first sale… but it wasn’t very hard to do.

In fact, I even had fun writing some of those dozens or hundreds of emails over the past weeks, months, and year.

#3. I made sales with every email I sent out during this promo. This tells me I probably could have sent out still more emails and made still more sales.

All these conclusions are probably obvious to you. And they are only really useful in case you too send daily emails, as validation, or want to start sending daily emails, as inspiration.

But I do have one extra tip for you.

It’s relevant whether or not you choose to send daily emails.

In fact, it might be more relevant if you don’t send daily emails.

This tip doesn’t come from the sales data. It comes from the replies and comments of the people who ended up signing up for the workshop.

It’s this:

Many of those who joined told me they were sold by the core idea I had for this training. The core idea was to share the common elements among 3 daily emailers I’ve coached, each of whom is uniquely successful in his own way.

The way I came up with that core idea wasn’t accidental. It wasn’t a unique moment of inspiration, either.

It was routine, and something you can do too.

It’s simply an application of my #1 strategy for creating offers of any kind, in any niche.

You can use this strategy to create offers that sell… even if you don’t have your own coaching program for authority, even if you don’t sell marketing advice, even if, like me, you don’t bother to set up a sales page.

You can find this strategy described in detail towards the end of chapter 1 of my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters. For more info on that:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Talk different

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Today is the last day to sign up for my Daily Email Fastlane workshop, which means it’s TIME:

TIME ​​to feature bits of self-serving feedback I’ve gotten from readers who have already signed up.​​

I have one such bit below.

​​If you read on, you will see it serves my purposes perhaps all too well.

Still, it might just be worth reading for your own self, because it does also illustrate a deep marketing truth.

Yesterday, I got a message from Ashley Gainer, who is a copywriter, former journalist, and current host of the Copy Chatter podcast.

Ashley had signed up for Daily Email Fastlane, so I wrote her to ask what her situation is in regard to daily emails, and how I can make the workshop as useful to her as possible.

​​Here’s a part of what she replied:

===

I’ve been sending a daily email to my list for 2+ years. Your “takes” on the how and why of copywriting and marketing in general are often so different from what I normally see with the chest-thumpers — I want to know more about your approach.

===

Ok, so now that I’ve slipped in this bit of self-serving feedback, maybe you can read it again and see that deep and obvious marketing truth:

If you want people to buy from you, even products that are kind of vague and mysterious like Daily Email Fastlane, then make sure you talk different from other people out there.

I don’t mean just talking all ungrammatical or doubling down on your own slang.

I mean fundamentally having unique things, different things, surprising things to say.

Easier said than done, right?

​​How in helminth do you come up with different, unique, surprising things to say, particularly every day?

Good news:

​​That’s one of the commonalities I’ve found among three successful daily emailers I will be using as case studies inside Daily Email Fastlane.

Honestly, I’m dissecting what these guys do as much for myself as I’m doing it for you.

Because if I could only have five fundamentals of human psychology as applies to marketing and copywriting, one for each of the fingers of my left hand, then contrast would be one of them. In fact it would be the thumb.

That’s why during Daily Email Fastlane, I’ll go into this “talk different” topic, and give you a practical technique I’ve seen used by all three of these daily emailers to say something unique as often as they like.

Daily Email Fastlane is happening tomorrow night, live on Zoom, at 8pm CET, with a replay if you cannot attend live.

But the deadline to sign up is today, Wednesday, less than 12 hours from now, at 8:31pm CET. If you’d like join me and find out how to talk different:

https://bejakovic.com/daily-email-fastlane

The green beret of direct marketing calls out my sloppy campaign

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For the past week, I’ve been promoting the Daily Email Fastlane workshop I’m putting on this Thursday… in a slightly sloppy way.

I have been promoting this workshop without a promise, without a sales page, without even any detail about what you’re getting or how it’s going to look.

And yet, I’ve made a solid number of sales so far. There may be a lesson there.

But now, the deadline is nearing. In fact, the deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday May 22, at 8:31pm CET, less than 24 hours from now.

This means it’s time to stop fooling around.

Fortunately, last night I got a buffet of questions from Dr. Ivan Carney.

Doc Carney has been described by people in the know as a “green beret of direct marketing and a consummate direct mail mind.”

He was not sold by my promotion over the past week. And he wrote me to ask:

===

John, I’m unclear

Is this a one time deal or a weekly deal?

How long is it going to be in this session?

Is there going to be a Q and A?

Do we get any PDF’s or formulas?

This is a group setting right?

Is there a guarantee?

What if I don’t do daily emails?

What if I do daily emails and they haven’t worked?

Is this easy?

Can I do it?

Will it work for me?

Dr. Carney 🙂

===

I’m not sure whether Doc Carney has these questions for real, or if he’s just trying to point out the gaps in my marketing. In any case, I’m grateful for his message.

As for his questions, which might be of interest to you as well:

1. Daily Email Fastlane is a one-time workshop, delivered live on Zoom, this Thursday, hopefully with a live audience though that’s yet to be proven. (There will be a recording and some people have written me to say they won’t be able to attend live.)

2. The workshop will last between an hour and as long as it takes to cover the material I want to share and to answer questions that come up.

​​I’m guessing around 2 hours total but I’m willing to stay as long as even one person in audience, should there be one, remains standing.

3. There will be no PDFs, formulas, magic incantations, charms, amulets, or fairy dust given away as part of this workshop.

​​I will however share practical information and aim to inspire you to actually go out and apply it to your own daily emails for your own personal brand.

4. There is no guarantee for this workshop, beyond the fact I guarantee that I have and will continue to put in work to make it useful and entertaining for you.

5. If you don’t do daily emails, then ask yourself whether you can see the value in sending emails daily to an audience that’s come to know, trust, and perhaps even like you a little, however grudgingly.

If the answer is no, then this workshop is not for you.

If the answer is yes, then this workshop might be for you. I will share ideas and techniques to help you get successful with sending daily emails for your personal brand, even if you have tried doing so before and all that happened was a loud explosion with some black smoke seeping out.

6. “Is this easy?”

It’s as easy as paying me $100 and showing up to a Zoom call.

7. “Can I do it? Will it work for me?”

Let’s see. The payment link below has worked for a bunch of other people so far. I believe you too can successfully use it, as long as you act before the deadline.

Maybe try it out for yourself now? Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/daily-email-fastlane