Copywriting

How I’d get advertorial clients without Upwork, cold outreach, or a network

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A couple months ago, I got back on Facebook in a BIG way. What I mean by that is that I started spending a few minutes there every couple days or so.

I was lurking, and trying to see what offers I would get pitched by the Facebook ad algorithm. (I was and am planning on launching my own cold traffic funnel, and wiser heads than mine say that you gotta do your research ahead of time.)

That’s how I came across a pretty, pretty brilliant offer.

It’s a dude who is running an ad… telling you he will write an ad to beat your best performing ad… and if he doesn’t succeed in beating it, he’ll give you all your money back.

(The offer started at $97 and has been going up each time he sells out the slots he’s got for the month. It currently sells for $247.)

From what I can tell, the dude has been running this since last November.

He has had 67 people take him up on it so far.

Out of those, he’s been able to beat their best ad 61 times, while refunding people 6 times.

In true Gary Bencivenga fashion, his landing page is FULL of social proof resulting from this challenge, including the refund requests from the 6 refunders, all of whom were complementary to his skill and business model.

Do you think that, out of any of the remaining 61 people whose best ads he beat, he got any long-term clients who are now paying him thousands of dollars a month?

My guess is yes.

I’m telling you this because right now, I’m promoting a cohort iI will run, starting next Monday, May 1st. The cohort will involve writing advertorials and getting clients who will happily pay for those advertorials.

So far, a few dozen people have expressed interest in this. I’ve been talking to them, or rather, emailing with them. I asked them for more information about where they’re currently at.

A few people have told me that they are either sick of looking for copywriting clients on Upwork or via cold outreach… or that they don’t have time or interest in looking for clients at all, and would rather outsource that to me.

I’m sorry to say, in that case, this cohort is not for you.

For one thing, I’m offering to help and advise with getting clients, not do it in your stead.

For another, the client-getting methods we will be using are the ones outlined inside the 1-Person Advertorial Agency course, which are (gulp) Upwork and cold outreach.

(The good news is, Upwork is where I got my biggest advertorial clients, and the way of cold outreach that 1PAA teaches is likely to be more effective and efficient than your usual kind.)

Still, if you hate the idea of Upwork and cold outreach for getting advertorial clients, then I just gave you a working alternative above. Spelled out, it goes like this:

1. Create a landing page with a headline that says something like, “FREE advertorial for your ecom brand”

2. On that landing page, explain your deal, which is basically that you will write them a free advertorial if they will pay you a commission in case of success

3. Explain who it’s for and not for (eg. must have a working cold traffic funnel, must be making at least X sales per day, must not be currently under investigation by the FTC, etc.)

4. Get people to fill out some kind of a form with whatever details you want from them in order to decide if you want to work with them, or to invite them on a screening call

5. Run super basic ads on Facebook for $20 a day to advertise this landing page

6. Update your landing page with proof as you get it

I’ve kick-started my own advertorial agency by reaching out to my list and network. Maybe that will be enough to get me all the advertorial clients I will ever want. Or maybe i will eventually tap out that demand, in which case I will do exactly what I wrote above, with that Facebook advertising strategy.

But if you like, you can beat me to it, and get your name out there in the world, and get clients who pay you for advertorials in the process, by doing what I just told you I would do.

In any case, the countdown to my advertorial cohort continues. Here are the high-level details:

I’ve made an agreement to write an advertorial for a client.

I’m inviting copywriters to join me and work alongside me as I do this.

You get my help with writing an advertorial following the 1-Person Advertorial Agency system.

You get my help tracking down, vetting, and closing a client (or partner business) using the two client-getting methods in 1-Person Advertorial Agency.

Plus, I’m promising to keep working with you and giving you my support and input until you get to $10k from advertorial work.

We start next week. In case you’re interested, reply now.

You + me = advertorials?

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Things move fast in Bejako land:

Last week, I asked for an advertorial client. As of yesterday, I’ve got an advertorial client.

He sells an ecom product I have never heard of before, and apparently he is running millions of dollars worth of traffic to it every year.

I will be writing a test advertorial for him over next few weeks. If it makes money, I’ll get paid on commission. if doesn’t make money… we’ll see. Maybe I’ll try again. Or maybe I’ll go write an advertorial for someone else.

Earlier this year, I promoted the 1-Person Advertorial Agency training, and I wrote that this is the hottest opportunity for copywriters in 2026.

I still believe it.

In fact, it’s why I even decided to offer advertorials to businesses, and why I offered them for free.

I will be implementing what’s inside 1PAA myself, and combining it with my own knowledge, expertise, and copywriting savvy.

But you know what? Selling bizarre ecom products to the tune of millions of dollars every year is a lonely business.

That’s why I’ve decided to take a few people along with me.

Specifically, what I’m offering here is to:

1. Help you write an advertorial that’s up to my standards

2. Help you get a client or clients who will run that advertorial

3. Keep working with you until you make $10k from your advertorial work

Would you like to join me and a few others who will be going for this trip?

We start next week. In case you’re interested, reply now.

A new episode about clever product names

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This morning, I showered, shaved, looked at myself squarely in the mirror, and said, “It’s time.”

I picked up a little plastic bottle, which had arrived by mail yesterday.

For the first time ever, I opened up the bottle and squeezed some of its contents onto my hand.

Out came a creamy white liquid, which is distinctly unwaterlike. I smiled at my own gullibility, and I rubbed the creamy white liquid all over my face.

The thing I bought and rubbed on my face is called “Fusion Water.” It promises 50 SPF, immediate absorption, and no stinging of the eyes. Pretty much, it’s a sunscreen like any other sunscreen.

And yet, a few days ago, as I walked around the city and saw an ad on an advertising column for this thing, I instantly decided to buy it.

I was sold by the “Water” in the name. I imagined something actually like water, cool, clear, not white or creamy, that I could splash on my face to protect myself against the Barcelona sun.

Sure, I knew deep down that “Fusion Water” is probably a sunscreen like any other. But that “Water” in the “Fusion Water” still sold me.

Another example:

After moving to Barcelona, I found that many people here are fans of the air fryer.

“Have you used one? It’s amazing! You should get one.”

I looked up what an air fryer is. It’s basically a small, stovetop convection oven.

But “Fry with air!” sounds much more appealing than “Bake without oil.”

The first brings to mind an image of crunchy and delicious French fries which are somehow good for you.

The second brings to mind the image of a lump of flavorless baked potato, and who cares whether that’s good for you or not.

So what’s in a name?

A lot. That which we call a rose, by any other name would NOT smell as sweet. Neither would “Fusion Water” be as appealing if it were called “Fusion Sun Cream.” Nor would “yet another stovetop oven” sell as well as an “air fryer.”

So think about names. Think about what your audience hates about your category of solution. Call your thing by a name for an entirely different category, which is blessedly free from the negative associations your audience might have with what you sell.

And on that note, I’d like to tell you about a unique digital tool that implants A-list copywriting skills into your brain.

This tool is called Copy Riddles, and one of the A-list copywriting skills it implants into your brain is precisely the skill of seductive names, which can make the sale before a prospect even knows anything about your offer.

For more information about this unique tool:

http://bejakovic.com/cr

Free advertorial for your ecom brand?

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As I wrote a couple days ago, with the current situation what it is, the Sun being in Gemini and the Moon in Scorpio, I’ve decided to get back into client work.

I already got one client last week for a DFY newsletter service.

But there’s another thing I know a lot about, and that’s copy for cold traffic ecom funnels, specifically advertorials that make unprofitable funnels profitable and allow profitable funnels to scale.

I’ve charged a lot of money in the past to write an advertorial. But I’ve since learned the value of investing up front in order to find the right clients, or rather, the right partners.

So lemme ask you:

Do you have an ecom brand?

Or do you work with an ecom brand in some capacity?

Would you like a FREE advertorial you can drop into your (or your client’s) existing funnel, and test, to see if it increases conversions, increases AOV, allows you to scale, and makes you more money?

If you’re interested, hit reply and let’s talk.

4 words that tell you what people will do or want to do

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If you must know the four words, I’ll save you from scrolling and just tell you right away. The four words are:

“I’m not going to”

There. You’re done. You don’t need to read more. But, if you like, do read more, and I’ll give you a bit of context to make sense of these words.

A couple weeks ago, I got a message on LinkedIn (yes, LinkedIn, I have a profile there that I never check) from a dude who was reading my “10 Commandments of Con Men, Pick Up Artists, etc.” book.

I saw that he buys houses for cash. We got into a bit of a conversation. I asked him if, while dealing with house sellers, he has found any little persuasion tricks or deeper psychological principles, along the lines of what I share in the 10 Commandments book.

He had a bunch, including the following:

“When a person says ‘I’m not going to’ it usually means whatever they say after that, they’re going to do or want to do.”

He didn’t give me any examples, but I had heard an example just earlier that day. I had been listening to a call by marketer Travis Sago. Travis was talking about a campaign he ran to sell a bunch of spots for, I believe, an $11k program.

Travis’s strategy was to announce the price early in the campaign. People were shocked at how expensive the program was. One guy apparently wrote in to say, “Have you lost your everloving mind?”

Travis worked his magic during that campaign.

That “everloving” dude ended up buying on the final day. And when he did, he wrote Travis to say, “You know it’s funny, I told myself this morning I’m not going to do this.”

When you think about it, it’s obvious that when people say, “I’m not going to,” they are actually going to, or at least they want to.

Otherwise, why would the thought of doing the thing even be in their head? Even more so, why would they need to try to psychologically guard themselves against the thought by telling themselves and others that it won’t happen?

This is part of a bigger psychological principle, and one that you can use to communicate more effectively and influence people on a day-to-day level, whether you want to buy houses for cash, or to make people laugh, or even to win an election.

I cover all that in Commandment VI of my 10 Commandments book. Speaking of, here’s what the dude on Linked wrote me initially about that book:

“Hi John, I’ve almost finished your book (10 Commandments) and just wanted to say it’s delightful and I appreciate the menagerie of experts you drew on! Thank you”

If you haven’t gotten your copy of my book yet, here’s where you can find it waiting for you:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Two tracks, client and student

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A couple weeks ago I talked to a dude, a successful marketer.

On the one hoof, he sells courses and coaching via his email list. On the other, he does bespoke done-for-you work for clients.

I asked him how he gets his done-for-you clients. Are these people who are part of his audience, and just kept ascending from course buyer to coaching student to DFY client?

Turns out no. In the dude’s words:

===

It’s funny because the bespoke clients that I’ve worked for or have on retainer, they always come by referral.

They always have. I’ve been in business since 2010 and the big whale clients, they come by way of some sort of referral.

Whether that’s a past client of mine referred them, a vendor referred them, a colleague, somebody like that.

===

I’m telling you this because I’m finishing up my first-ever Most Valuable Offer cohort.

I’ve been helping nine people plan, market, and deliver a paid live workshop.

As the first step, I asked them, what’s the next step? In other words, who do they want to attract to this workshop, and what do they want to sell to them afterwards?

One of the participants replied:

“Get more high-quality DTC clients who will implement the work I do for them.”

Well, about that. I’d like to suggest to you, going back to the experience of the successful marketer above, that there are two separate tracks:

A client track and a student track.

Like I said, the two tracks are separate.

At the same time, that doesn’t mean that they are independent.

The two tracks are mutually reinforcing, the same way that train tracks have those wooden sleepers in between them to keep each one in place by connecting it to the other.

Here’s how that works:

DFY client work gives you content, expertise, and standing and with your student audience.

It makes it easier to sell to students and gives you something worthwhile to sell.

The teaching you do via courses and coaching, in turn, gives you reach (including referrals), star glow, and non-neediness when dealing with clients.

It makes it easier to have clients find you instead of you having to prospect… to work with better clients, ones that you like… and to charge more with zero pushback on your rates.

My back-of-the-napkin math is that by having both a client and a student track, you get 500% of the benefit for 75% of the work, compared to having each one alone.

At the moment, I still haven’t finished the current Most Valuable Offer cohort. I am not sure when I will be running the next one.

If you’re interested in creating a Most Valuable Offer yourself, both to monetize your current audience and to make your client work easier, then reply to this email and I’ll put you on the priority list.

At the moment, I’m also not doing any client work.

If you are interested in having me completely handle some projects for you — whether that’s handling daily emails or a weekly newsletter for your business, or advertorials for your cold traffic funnel, or something else you need but I’m not thinking of — then reply to this email and we can talk.

Daily Email Open House

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This Thursday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST, I’ll get on Zoom for a bit of Daily Email Open House:

To hang out, maybe have a beer, and answer questions about sending daily emails… making a $1k+ offer… and using your list to pay for a house.

If you’d like to join me or get your questions answered live, here’s where you can sign up:

https://www.skool.com/daily-email-house/daily-email-house-live-qa-call

I predict you will have your birthday in May

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Three things for you today:

#1. Experts make predictions

From Alan Weiss’s book, Million Dollar Consulting:

“Experts make predictions. They don’t fret about whether they’ll be right, they don’t keep score, and then have no regrets. If you’re afraid to make a prediction because you may be wrong, then you’re no expert.”

#2. The best 9-word email

Yesterday I was listening to examples of business owners using variants of Dean Jackson’s 9-word email (“Are you still interested in buying a house in Georgetown”).

All business owners had good results by sending out a 9-word email to their lists. But who had the best result?

A trainer/education provider for dental hygienists in Canada, because…

Apparently dental hygienists in Canada are supposed to have continuing medical education, and they get audited to make sure they are complying with this.

CRUCIAL: The audits all go out on the same day.

The trainer/education provider for dental hygienists simply sent out her 9-word (actually 6-word) email the day after the audits went out. The 6 words were:

“Are you being audited this year?”

Replies (and business) came fast and furious after that.

#3. I predict you will have your birthday in May

And if I am proven right, what better time to clean up all the latent demand from people on your list who have built a relationship with you, and have been meaning to give you money to get your help, but who haven’t gotten around to it?

Your birthday gives you a good “reason why” for creating a unique offer and running an email promo around it.

For bonus points, you can design your offer so it’s not just tied into a unique occasion in your life but tied into a unique occasion in your prospects lives, so they are doubly likely to take you up on your offer and to pay you good money.

Related to that, I have a special offer for you today:

It’s to get my help coming up with a birthday offer and promo for your list next month.

If you’re interested, hit reply and tell me which day in May your birthday is, and we can take it from there.

Want high-quality copywriting clients?

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The best-kept secrets of rich and well-connected copywriters

For years, they’ve privileges, perks, and pleasures beyond the reach of most people in the industry. Now you can too

I’m helping Svet Dimitrov with an offer he’s making available by auction.

Svet, as you might know, is a direct response copywriter who’s currently working as a copy chief for a 7-figure brand. (He worked as a copy chief with a different brand before.) He’s also got a side gig where he mentors copywriters and business owners with their copy.

Svet got his current copy chief role by networking in a hidden, secret, little known online hangout he calls the Golden Group.

Why haven’t copywriters been told about this group?

The Golden Group is a place where DR marketers and business owners hang out. It’s got fewer than 500 members. But to hear Svet tell it, the Golden Group is wildly engaged, and made up of business owners and preposterously high-quality marketers.

(Since Svet he got his copy chief role there by sending a few DMs in the Golden Group, who am I to question the quality of the people inside.)

Right now, Svet is offering to bring you into the Golden Group with him, and to help you get a copywriting client there.

He’s planning to make this offer via auction, with bidding starting at $1.

Specifically, Svet is offering to:

1. Get you into the Golden Group

2. Guide you, down to the behind-the-scenes DM, so you get connections leading to a direct response copywriting client out of the group

3. Copy chief you on the work you deliver for this client, so the client makes money from your copy and so they want to work with you and paying you, month after month after month

4. Guarantee your results — Svet will keep working with you, guiding you, and copy chiefing you, until you make back the entire winning auction bid

Discover the hidden secret to getting fast cash for your copywriting skills

Considering what Svet is really offering here, which is a way to very possibly make tens of thousands of dollars in the next few months, and hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line… and that he’s guaranteeing you will make your money back before he’s done with you… it would be reasonable for him to charge $10k-$15k for this offer up front.

But again, he’s making this available via auction.

Is a high-quality copywriting client something you’d bid $1 for?

Do you have a new plan for copywriters to get clients?

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Do you have a new plan for copywriters to get clients?

If so, I’d like to promote you.

One thing that always gets a good response from my list is a new plan for copywriters to get clients. A few examples:

* Using AI-generated advertorials to get ecom clients (the 1 Person Advertorial Agency, which I promoted back in January)

* Using direct mail to get and deliver on revshare deals (Doberman Dan’s offer, which I talked about last month)

* Using Instagram outreach to get email copywriting clients (copywriter Logan Hobson once gave a presentation on this for members of my Daily Email House community)

* Going into a secret cave that nobody knows about and coming out with a legit DR job, up to and including a copy chief position (more on this soon)

So lemme ask you…

Do you already have an offer about an exciting new plan for copywriters to get clients?

If so, I’d like to promote it.

Do you not have such an offer, but you have a cool way of getting clients that’s working well for you?

If so, I can help you turn what you know into an offer, and make that sweet “zero delivery” money, and become a bizopp guru (ok, we can skip the last part if you really hate the idea).

Do you neither have an offer nor a new plan, but you know somebody who does?

If so, I’m happy to pay you a finder’s fee for putting me in touch with that person.

In any of these cases, hit reply, and let’s talk. Thanks in advance.