Business Ideas

Modified Depoorter Pricing

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I recently came across a clever pricing strategy for an online product.

I realized this pricing strategy is something I had used in the past to sell both services (back when I was working as a sales copywriter) and, later, my own courses.

This pricing strategy was elegant and worked very well when I used it.

The only problem was, I wasn’t consistent enough or thorough enough about using this pricing strategy.

So I’ve created a mini-course outlining this pricing strategy, both for your benefit and for mine. I’m calling this mini-course Modified Depoorter Pricing.

It’s a mini-course, because I didn’t fill it with a lot of fluff or infotainment.

It’s simply the core idea spelled out — Depoorter Pricing — plus a few key distinctions to help you apply it well to your particular situation — hence Modified Depoorter Pricing.

At this point, I don’t have a sales page for this mini-course. Everything I’ve just told you is all I have to tell you today. Maybe that will change in the future.

For now, the only added sales appeal I have to share is that I’m making a very special price available for the first 10 people who buy Modified Depoorter Pricing. If that’s enough for you:

https://bejakovic.com/depoorter

Best way to market your newest book

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A couple weeks ago I got a message from copywriter Andrew Harkin, who gave my new 10 Commandments a nice 5-star review on Amazon (“brilliant little book”). Andrew then wrote me to say:

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Hi John

As promised, just left a review on Amazon UK

Sorry it was a bit later than I intended, but better late than never as they say

I loved it, but then I’m almost obsessed with the craziness of the human mind, psychology etc..

Have you started writing your next one yet? 😉

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It took me two years to write this new 10 Commandments book, which is criminal, considering it’s only 33,000 words in total.

But in answer to Andrew’s question, just today, I’ve started work on my next book. I will aim to get it out much more quickly than the new 10 Commandments one.

It might seem foolish to be starting work on a new book only a few weeks after publishing the last one, before I’ve done any kind of thorough job promoting that.

But this entire book project got started with an inspiring blog post by James Altucher from 2020. James advised writing a short book, not overthinking it, getting it done quickly, self-publishing it.

And when you self publish, then what? Says James:

“The best way to market your first book? Write your next book.”

… so that’s what I’m doing. That said, I haven’t given up on promoting my new 10 Commandments book. To do so, I have two offers for you today:

1. Do you have a podcast, a Facebook group, or a newsletter? If so, we can do an exclusive interview that gives value to your audience. ( I’ve already agreed to do this with a couple of community and list owners.)

I have lots of stories and conclusions from writing this book, some of which are in the book, many which are not. If you have an audience and want some unique and interesting content just for your audience, hit reply and we can talk.

2. If you haven’t read my “brilliant little book” yet, Andrew in his 5-star review promises that if you do, “your financial & mental investment will reap dividends.”

Do you like the sound of dividends? And for just a $4.99 investment? If you do, here’s where you can get a copy of my (currently) newest book:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

How to evaluate business opportunities

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Last week, I read an article about Samuel Langhorne Clemens, alias Mark Twain. I found the article hard going but I forced myself to push on through. And boy am I glad I did.

Because towards the end, when summing up Twain’s life, the author of the article wrote about all the time Twain spent not-writing, and instead investing in and losing money on various hare-brained business opportunities. Says the article:

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Why did a talent like Twain waste so much time on extraliterary pursuits? The question assumes a distinction he scarcely countenanced between writing and other forms of commercial activity. If there is a constant in his life, it’s his labored obsession with labor-saving. He poured his earnings into schemes meant to spin off money like a perpetual-motion machine.

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That phrase, “labored obsession with labor-saving,” really got to me. It hit home.

So one possible conclusion to this email would be to say that the constant human drive for “labor-saving,” for “almost passive income,” for business opportunities, is what keeps so many people broke, stressed, and working too hard.

Reasonable conclusion.

And yet, business opportunities do exist.

I got into copywriting 10+ years ago because getting paid thousands of dollars to write a sales letter sounded pretty good. And it turned out to be pretty good.

Working on commission with clients and getting paid a share of their profits sounded even better. So I started doing that. It turned out to be even better that straight-up copywriting.

Creating a course that people had already paid for and that I could keep selling sounded still better than working on commission with clients. It turned out to be exactly that way.

So, how do you evaluate possible business opportunities? How do you decide that something is worth diving into? How do you avoid wasting your time, money, and self-respect?

I thought about it. I came up with three questions to ask myself, which maybe you can ask yourself as well:

1. “Is this a 5-month plan or are you ok if it turns into a 5-year plan?”

For example, I hate the very idea of checking charts doing “technical analysis” or trading stocks or other financial vapor. I might be able to force myself to do it for 5 months. There’s no way I could do it for 5 years without throwing myself under a fast-moving train. But the chances that I would be so successful with trading in 5 months’ time that I never have to do it again are nil. Therefore trading, profitable bizopp though it might be, is out for me.

2. “Are you building up some kind of asset regardless?”

I recently thought of running ads to promote affiliate offers. Solid business opportunity, if you have good offers to promote, a good source of traffic, and copywriting skills to bridge the gap.

But what if it still doesn’t work? I have then just spent time and money to run ads to somebody else’s offer, without making money.

The solution in my mind is simple – get those people on a list first before sending them to the affiliate offer. For one, it increase the chances they will buy the affiliate offer in time. But more than that, it turns a black/white business opportunity into a gradually growing asset (an email list) that has value on its own, regardless of whether the direct business opportunity pans out.

3. “What happens if the opportunity disappears?”

I currently have a community on Skool. I was even thinking of starting another one. A lot of people are doing the same. After all, Skool already has a lot of users, plus they make it easy in some ways to run a group in a profitable way.

But what happens when Skool becomes a dumpster fire like Facebook? Or when it shuts down like Clubhouse? Or when it introduces new rules that specifically say, “no Bejakos,” like the r/copywriting subreddit already did?

In that case, I also have the email addresses of everyone in my community. I can simply send them an email and tell them that the community has been moved to a different URL. It would be an inconvenience, but not any kind of failure.

And with that, I have a hot new business opportunity to tell you about, specifically a bridge to sell you.

Well not really. Not even figuratively. All I have is my $4.99 new 10 Commandments book.

The underlying business opportunity there is more effective communication skills.

I don’t know if you’re ok with “more effective communication skills” as a 5-year business plan.

But if you are, it’s an asset that’s only going to build on itself, and one that will never disappear, as long as there are humans and as long as there is business. If you’d like to start investing now:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

How to keep your readers from feeling cheap, cheated, or used

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I got an email yesterday from Parker Worth, whose online profile describes him as “just a guy with a neck tattoo.”

Maybe Parker’s a bit more — he’s got an online audience of over 70,000 people spread across X and LinkedIn and his email list, and he’s built a nice business on the back of it, teaching people how to write online.

Parker is apparently reading my new 10 Commandments book. He wrote in to say:

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Loving the book so far man.

Super refreshing especially in the age of AI Amazon garbage.

Will give it a solid review once finished

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On the note of AI garbage, a telling story:

While doing research for this book, I was looking for articles that discuss the use of misdirection in the movie The Sting, which I reference a few times in the book.

Not only did The Sting win the 1973 Oscar for best original screenplay (and Hollywood screenwriters are one of the disciplines I profile in my book) but the movie is a realistic depiction of how con men used to play the “big con” (and con men another group I profile in the book).

So while looking for something on the use of misdirection in The Sting, I found a 2,000-word blog post, published in mid 2024, that discussed exactly this topic in depth.

At first, the blog post seemed highly relevant to what I was looking for and had me nodding along.

Gradually a few small tells started to show — odd discrepancies with character names and plot twists from the actual movie, which I’ve seen a bunch of times and know well.

Finally, as the blog post recapped the climax of the movie as it never happened, I realized this was completely made up AI garbage, which had nothing new or unique or even true to say about what I was interested in. Realization made, I cursed at my laptop for a few minutes and made particular note of this blog to make sure I never come back there and waste my time again.

Point being:

You can fool some of Bejako some of the time, but you can’t fool all of him all the time.

I’m not sure what my point is beyond that except to say, these days, it’s more important than ever to give people something that feels real.

This is not new with AI. It started long before, with the ability to automate your communication (via things like email autoresponders), and even before that, with mass media that allowed one person to speak to thousands at the same time.

None of us wants to feel cheap, cheated, or used.

That’s why I spent so long doing research for my tiny new book, reading dozens of other books, watching hours and hours of obscure videos on YouTube, digging through 100-year-old newspapers, and thinking up how to integrate my own real-world experiences from my past and present careers of writing sales copy, picking up girls on the street, and selling myself to prospective clients on sales calls.

I discarded ten times the material that I finally deemed was actually good enough to include in the published version.

That’s ok. I believe all this research and prep are a major reason why I’ve heard from so many people, like Parker above, who tell me that they love the book. If you would like to see if you might love it as well:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Get low

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Some time ago, I was browsing through the list of Recommended Creators on Kit, basically other newsletter owners I could do a list swap or cross-promotion with. Among the million and one marketing ones, there was a standout:

Lil Jon’s Wellness Newsletter

It turns out that rap star Lil Jon is now “on a journey of wellness and enlightened.” And if you like, he will send you “simple wellness tips each Wednesday.”

I gotta say this made me chuckle.

All I really knew of Lil Jon is his 2002 megahit, Get Low.

The video for that song showed Lil Jon as a kind of king of the ghetto club, holding a chalice and a glass cane that looked like a scepter, and with his mouth full of gold teeth. The video also featured the usual women grinding and twerking on stripper poles, while the refrain of the song ran:

“To the window/to the floor/till the sweat drop down my balls/till all these bitches crawl”

After I saw that Lil Jon is now enlightened and willing to send me wellness tips each Wednesday, I got curious.

What happened? I had to read about the man.

“Well I’ll be damned,” I said after Wikipedia hit me. It turns out that the “king of the ghetto club” thing was just an act.

I don’t know how much you care to know about Lil Jon, but here are a few facts that can be enlightening:

1. Lil Jon’s dad was an aerospace engineer and his mom an army nurse.

2. He grew up in a middle class neighborhood and attended a magnet school.

3. As a teenager he was heavily into skating culture and his favorite bands included the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

4. He’s been described as a “high achiever” and a “passionate reader.”

You might think this email is just about how your public persona can be vastly different from who you really are. But it’s more than that.

I’ve been going on lots of first dates lately. Inevitably the girls ask me what I do. To which I say, “Not much. Mostly I sit around. I watch TV. I play a LOT of video games.” Then I look the girl straight in the eye and smile to make it clear I am rather proud of what I just said.

One girl so far has been confused and shocked. The rest were first amused and then pleased.

Because what’s the alternative? A boring conversation about work, or worse yet, digging myself deeper and deeper into the quicksand of trying to impress the girl. That’s not good for me or her.

I think this whole topic is worth developing more, and maybe I will do that in a future book on personal positioning. I could call the chapter about this “Idiot Positioning,” or with a hat tip to Lil Jon, maybe “Crunk Positioning.”

But maybe I’m running ahead of myself. Maybe I haven’t sold you on this whole idea yet. Maybe you are skeptical that making yourself out to look dirty or stupid or like a loser is actually a good strategy.

What can I tell you? Effective communication is not always what it seems. Insults can work as glue between friends. Assurances can be veiled warnings. And making yourself out to be an idiot, and smiling about it, can work in your favor.

And if you want to understand why, and how to make this work for you, I suggest consulting Commandment VI of my new 10 Commandments book. In case you haven’t gotten your copy yet:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Paperback

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A long-time reader named Jordan writes in reponse to my announcement yesterday, about the ebook version of my new 10 Commandments book being live on Amazon:

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I’ll wait for the paperback to be ready, I’ve found digital copies more likely to go unread (since like courses, the digital backlog always seems bigger and more step requiring than physical ones)

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I’m telling you this because:

1. There might be something to what Jordan says.

I know direct marketing legends like Dan Kennedy bang the drum about the value of physical content arriving in the mail, both for the excitement of actually getting something real delivered, and for the fact it will hang around the house and be visible and be more likely to be consumed, shared, and remembered.

2. Because the Amazon elves have finally woken up and done their job, so the paperback version of my book is now up and live.

If you like the sight of a book lying on your desk, or you want a reference you can reach for without relying on anything digital, or you simply enjoy the feel of some paper and ink in your hands:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments​

#1 New Release

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I launched my new 10 Commandments book last night. So far, the book has turned into the #1 New Release in the Business Communication Skills category on Amazon, and is only a couple spots behind Cialdini’s Influence among the bestsellers in the same category.

Speaking of, one of the people I asked for feedback on the book before I published it was Rob Marsh, founder of the Copywriter Club and co-host of the world’s #1 copywriting podcast. As Rob was reading through my new 10 Commandments book, he wrote me to say:

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Hey John… I haven’t finished yet, but so far I like what I’m reading.

Your teaching style is subtle, yet effective.

And what you share is spot on. It will help a lot of readers be more persuasive.

Any way… hoping to finish this week.

I will definitely share with my audience.

Also happy to give you a “blurb” if you think it would help.

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I was happy with what Rob had already written and I didn’t ask for more. But Rob’s a generous guy, and when he finished the book, he sent me the following Cialdini-scented blurb:

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In addition to Cialdini’s well known 6 principles of influence (urgency, scarcity, consistency and so on), it’s time to add Bejakovic’s 10 commandments of persuasion. This book will make you a better writer and a better sales person. But more than that, you can use John’s commandments to be more persuasive, more engaging and more interesting in everything you do.

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Would you like to be more persuasive, engaging, and interesting? Or to sell more? Or to write better?

I don’t know. Hmm…

On the odd chance that you answer yes, you can find a copy of my new book waiting patiently for you here:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments​

Announcing: 10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

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So it’s ready.

My new book has now been published, under a title that rolls right off the tongue:

10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

I’ve been working on this sucker for two years. I’m happy to say it’s finally done.

If you’d like to grab your own copy so you can read it, you can do so at the link below.

And if you’re not sure, well, I’ll promoting this in the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years.

I’ll be using all my skill writing intriguing copy and my experience coming up with sexy bonuses to get you to finally break down and get a copy.

One thing’s for sure — if you sign up now, you will get any bonuses I offer in the future, plus you might learn something sooner rather than later, and you might even enjoy the process — God knows I worked hard to make this book interesting and fun.

In case you’re ready:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

P.S. As of right now, Amazon has made the Kindle version of the book available, but the paperback is still “IN REVIEW.” If you do have your mind set on the paperback, I’m afraid there’s nothing to do but wait.

And if you were one of my early beta-readers, I’ll send you a paperback copy as promised, as soon as it becomes available. Of course, if you want to read the book sooner, there’s always the Kindle version also…

Somebody has beat me to the 10 Commandments of Con Men

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As you might know, I have been working, toiling, grabulating for the past two years on my new book, full title:

10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

I had a minor heart attack earlier when I discovered that somebody has already beat me to the core concept. An Austrian con man named Victor Lustig, who lived and scammed in the early 20th century and who apparently sold the Eiffel Tower twice (!), apparently kept a list of 10 Commandments of Con Men. Here’s old Victor’s list:

1. Be a patient listener

2. Never look bored

3. Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them

4. Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones

5. Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other person shows a strong interest

6. Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown

7. Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually)

8. Never boast – just let your importance be quietly obvious

9. Never be untidy

10. Never get drunk

Are you impressed? Yes? No?

All I can tell you is that, after I read Lustig’s 10 Commandments, I personally took a big sigh of relief. I found his 10 Commandments rather dull and uninspiring, and fortunately, I found that there’s zero overlap (well, minus the hinting at sex talk) between his commandments and the 10 Commandments I have in my new book.

Most importantly, I was reminded once again that the value is almost never in the ideas (ie. commandments) themselves, but in how those ideas are presented, illustrated, and made to shine.

That’s why it took me so long to complete my book. And complete it I did.

I can tell you that, following two years of ups and downs, missed deadlines, and a few dozen readers writing me messages to the effect of “done is better than perfect,” I am proud and a little nervous to announce that my book will finally be published.

When?

Tomorrow.

Why not today?

Well, maybe Lustig was on to something. Don’t pry into my personal circumstances (I’ll tell you all eventually). Meanwhile, I have nothing to promote to you today — but I will tomorrow.

Do not create a course and do not build an audience

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Yesterday, a friend texted me with a screenshot of an Instagram account of a duo of “Instagram & social media experts.”

“Do you know them?” my friend asked. “They create a course on how to create digital courses and sell them.”

I groaned and replied that I had never heard of these particular experts.

My friend was not happy with that response. She called me up right away. She explained how she was just on a webinar for this course and how it sounds like a good deal. It’s not so expensive (only 500 GBP), plus they really walk you through the whole thing, plus you can license their course and resell it.

“And they live in Bali!” my friend said, like it’s a proof element, rather than a red flag.

Fortunately, my friend lives in London and knows a million and one successful, accomplished, and rich people.

“There’s this nutritionist I know,” she said. “She has a lot of work but it’s all one-on-one. She actually asked me if I wanted to be her business partner, and do something online. Maybe I could create a course with her teaching what she knows?”

Finally a bit of sense in this conversation.

I’m gonna tell you what I told my friend, my best advice for how to launch an info biz for someone like her.

I’ll tell you this because it equally applies to someone like me or maybe you, if you are already somewhat established in a niche but thinking of doing something entirely new. Here’s what I told my friend:

1. If you really want to do this, then partner with the nutritionist woman. She’s the expert and she already has clients. That means she has knowledge and case studies. She can deliver the actual information and service. You can focus on the marketing and business stuff.

2. Do not create a course. A course takes between 6 weeks and 6 years to complete, and if you’re just getting started, odds are that it will be on the 6 years side.

3. Instead, create a live training based on information the nutritionist’s clients are already paying for. A live training is a very forgiving format to deliver information, and it has high perceived value. You can do it next week since the woman already knows the material, and you can run it with minimal infrastructure (Zoom and a clean t-shirt will do, pants not required). Plus, you can charge a good amount right out the gate because of the live, personalized feel.

4. Do not build an audience. An audience takes between 6 weeks and 6 years to build, and if you’re just getting started, odds are that it will be on the 6 years side.

5. Instead, reach out to people you know more or less personally, and ask them if they want to sign up to your training. (Like I said, my friend knows a lot of people socially in London, and from previous places she’s lived, jobs she’s worked at, schools she’s attended. Plus the nutritionist has her past clients list and her entire professional network. If, by a bit of social media posting and a few texts and DMs, they cannot get 10 women to sign up for their training, then the problem is with the training, and no amount of audience will fix that.)

6. Once you run that live training, you can run it again, each month, and for more money. Or you can polish it up and turn it into a course, except now it’s more likely to take 6 weeks than 6 years to complete.

I normally wouldn’t plop down a bowl of steaming how-to porridge right in front of you like this. It’s not good manners.

But this is a big weekend for me. I have a book to publish, an optin funnel to create (I bought a newsletter ad that’s due to run tomorrow, unrelated to the book), a lead magnet to write for that funnel, a gym to go to, and forced socializing to do (ahem, read the new book for that).

That also means I have nothing to promote to you today.

I prefer to build up your eagerness for my new book which will be published… imminently. I’ll have more information on that soon.

But if you absolutely need something to do with the energy that’s built up by reading this email, then go and implement the plan I’ve listed above.

Or if you already have a working business and you don’t want to get distracted, then forward my email to a competitor with a note that says, “Thought you might like this.” Maybe they will get distracted and go build a new info product business and move to Bali and stop competing with you. And if that happens, you can thank me by buying a copy of my new book.