Direct Marketing

Holy Grail launch party

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Yesterday, I paid 9 euro to see the Holy Grail. And I did see it, although I walked by it at first without noticing it. I got distracted by the heavy medieval chains on the walls.

After I first failed in my quest to find the Holy Grail, I asked Perplexity to guide me to it. It told me to retrace my steps, to the southeast, in the direction towards Jerusalem.

So that’s what I did. And sure enough, I found it.

The Holy Grail is housed in the Chapel of the Chalice in the Valencia cathedral.

I went there yesterday since the cathedral, which dates back to the 13th century, is one of main tourist attractions in the city.

The cathedral features a museum, ancient Roman ruins under it, and an impressive gothic dome.

Plus, like I said, it houses the Holy Grail.

But is it REALLY the Holy Grail? The cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper? The night before he was crucified? The most holy and elusive relic in all Christendom?

It seems a little implausible. To make it more so, when you see the Holy Grail, it looks like a golden goblet that’s fit for a medieval king.

But a little pamphlet, available at the entrance to the chapel in multiple languages, informs you that:

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Only the top portion is the sacred relic: a cup in the form of a carefully shaped and polished bowl. The cup is made of a type of veined sardonyx agate that comes from the region between Alexandria and Syria. Without a doubt, it is a Palestinian artifact, crafted in the first century AD. It is an example of a Jewish “Blessing Cup” for the ritual Paschal Supper in the Hebrew tradition, the most important piece in a Jewish family’s treasury.

Archeological studies, historical documents, the testimony of Tradition, recent discoveries about the design and the inscription in the base, comparative analyses with other similar cups around the world, references from the ancient liturgy, various investigations from distinct scientific disciplines, and even the legends of the Grail – all of these indicate it is perfectly plausible that the Holy Chalice of Valencia was in the hands of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, and that it contained the Most Precious Blood of the Redeemer. In contrast, there is no evidence that counters this position.

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The pamphlet goes on to tell the history of this stone cup. How it was used in Eucharist services by the early popes, up to the 3rd century… why it left Rome… how it was hidden in the face of the Moorish conquests of Spain… how it finally found its way to the Valencia cathedral… how it was recently used by two Catholic Popes during Mass.

So… is this really the most holy of holy Christian relics? In a little glass display case, behind a rope? In a side chapel where 9 of us were there to see it (I counted)?

I don’t know. I’m not an expert in Christian relics.

But I am an expert in effective communication. And clearly, the Catholic Church, or at least the archdiocese of Valencia, hasn’t done a great job communicating that the Holy Grail is here, if this really be it.

You might think it a bit distasteful to use this as a topic for a daily email, to profane the sacred, and to talk about better marketing for the Holy Grail.

In my defense, it seems the Church agrees it hasn’t done a good job advertising.

There’s a building across the street, which is being refurbished to serve as a Holy Grail information center and museum, to raise worldwide awareness of the Grail’s location, and to increase the number of pilgrims and tourists who come to see it.

But I think an information center, even it were to send out daily emails about the Holy Grail, won’t be enough.

This relic, if it really is the cup that Jesus held in his hands at the final supper, is infamous for being hard to find.

Hundreds of years of popular legend tell us how the best, bravest, and most noble knights went in search of the Grail, and all but a small handful — Galahad, Perceval, Indiana Jones — died or failed on the way.

If the Grail really has been found, and is available for everyone to see, it’s gonna take a giant announcement, an event, a spectacle, fireworks, buildup, in other words, what in marketing we call a launch.

It’s the only way in my mind to resolve the tension between the Holy Grail being sought and not found for hundreds of years… and the Holy Grail now available for tourists to see, for just 9 euro, and in fact not very popular as an attraction.

(By the way, it might be good idea to increase the admission price. I mean, it’s the Holy Grail. Sir Lancelot, despite being one of the greatest knights, quested after it for years and failed at the last step. How can you justify making something that’s so hard to attain available for 9 euro?)

But maybe I should stop giving the Catholic Church advice.

Maybe I should simply take my own advice.

Let me get to a less sacred topic, and remind you of my Daily Email Habit service.

I opened it up a few weeks ago, and have had a steady stream of people signing up since.

For the moment, I’m making it available at $20 a month because I wanted to test it out, polish it, make sure it works for people, take the pressure of myself, and as usual, reward early customers who trust me enough to take me up on my experiments.

I will have an official launch for Daily Email Habit soon, and the price will go up. There will be a big announcement and maybe even fireworks.

But for now, Daily Email Habit is still available at just $20/month, for the reasons listed above. If you would like to test it out, before the whole world finds out about it:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The first time I tried it, I didn’t last very long

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Dan Kennedy has a joke that goes something like, if we all stopped doing a thing in case the first time didn’t work out well, the human race would soon die out.

Get it? Get it? Wink wink, nudge nudge?

It’s about sex.

I bring this up for two reasons:

Reason one is that the first time I tried it — meaning writing emails, get your mind out of literotica section please — it didn’t work out well. Or actually I just didn’t last very long.

I believe this current newsletter, which has been running for 6+ years day in and day out, is something like my third or fourth attempt to stick to emailing consistently.

Reason two is because I want to share with you a case study I got from a reader named Jakub Červenka.

Jakub runs an online business called Muž 2.0. From what Google tells me, that translates from Czech into into Man 2.0. Because Jakub’s business is teaching men self-development stuff, specifically how to fix various bedroom problems.

Now, I happen to know from having exchanged lots of emails with Jakub over the years that his main thing is running ads on Facebook to a webinar that sells his core program.

But lately, Jakub gave another shot to daily emailing, even though it didn’t work out well the first time around. Jakub reports:

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I had been sending emails daily and then stopped for a good part of this year mainly due to feeling burnt out and feeling like I was riding on a dead horse, writing emails about the same topic.

With your service, this block is gone. I like to see the puzzle and then read in your email how you personally used it. It’s great over-the-shoulder learning experience.

I also noticed how not wanting to break the streak is motivating me – even more so than I don’t know, say making potentially money from making a sale to my list… that’s crazy. I am ashamed to admit it, as it is completely irrational, but it’s the truth. And probably not so surprising to anyone in the copywriting world, we know we are not rational beings, but still, this surprised me.

Also, I used a few of your prompts in my Black Friday promo. I made crazy good offer to my list, (20 of my flagship courses for 40% of the price) due to some messed up technical stuff ended up selling 23, which with some up/cross/down sells brought home close to $20k in 3 days… my best Black Friday yet.

So it was a good offer, but I was not promoting it in any other way than by e-mails and your inspiration was part of it, so you can say that your service contributed to this result. Which is true and it restored my resolve to write daily.

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The service Jakub is referring to is my Daily Email Habit. It makes it easier to come up with a daily email topic every day, plus it has an in-email streak counter to keep you accountable.

Like Jakub says, why the streak counter works is not particularly rational… but it can be very effective.

And the results?

Jakub already had a successful business, and he had all the pieces in place. Reintroducing daily emails helped him make another $20k last month that he might not have made otherwise.

Your particular situation? Only you can really answer that question.

One thing I’m sure of, if you’re planning to ever or restart daily emails, the sooner you do, the sooner you will see results. Yes, even if you tried it before and it felt like riding on a dead horse.

For more info on Daily Email Habit, and how it can help you start and stay consistent with daily emails:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Build your list by… writing

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Last Wednesday, I got a message from Chavy Helfgott, who is a copywriter and brand strategies, and who also happens to subscribe to my Daily Email Habit service. Chavy wrote:

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At least for the beginning, I’m posting my emails on LinkedIn as well (as I have a large following there) and – I got 8 new subscribers from today’s post! This is after neglecting my LinkedIn account and rarely posting for quite a while.

Thank you for this. It feels amazing to have had a concrete result so fast.

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Yesterday, I wrote that I’ll one day have an official launch for Daily Email Habit, but that day is not today, or any time soon.

I also invited people to reply if they are interested in Daily Email Habit, so I can send them the full details. A good number of people did reply.

I sent the folks the details… and then I asked myself, what exactly am I doing? What is my purpose in creating this extra obstacle for others and work for myself?

And so I’ve decided to open up Daily Email Habit to my entire list, both to stop myself from fielding these one-on-one messages, and to make Daily Email Habit available to people who might benefit from it.

If you’re interested in Daily Email Habit, and how it might possibly help you, the full info is at the link below.

I can tell you that the core promise of Daily Email Habit is a daily nudge to write your own daily email.

The effect of consistent nudging is consistent daily emails. And the effect of consistent daily emails is that they grow your expertise and authority… create or deepen your relationship with your audience… build up a stockpile of interesting content can reuse as you see fit… and make you better at writing, in all formats.

Plus, you can do like Chavy is doing, and simply post your daily email to LinkedIn or wherever and get people to opt in for your list. And yes, it does work — she sent me a screenshot of 8 shiny new subscribers from last Wednesday to prove it.

For full info on Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Bounced

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Yesterday I noticed I hadn’t gotten any emails from Jacob Pegs in a while.

As you might know, Jacob runs an online business called Modern Maker, which consists of him, a set of headphones, and I guess an Internet connection.

And yet, as I write this, Jacob and his Modern Maker online business are rolling into the million-dollar revenue mark for 2024, with something like a 95%-98% profit margin.

Jacob asked me to coach him on email copywriting earlier this year, and so I did, and I got on his email list as part of that. But I haven’t been getting his emails lately. I checked. Nothing, since November 20.

I wrote to Jacob yesterday to see if he’s alive and to ask what’s up with the no emails. He replied a few minutes later:

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What that’s weird!

I’ve been emailing daily. Let me check that for you 😮 really appreciate you letting me know. WTF!

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It turned out I had been “bounced” off his list. “Bounced,” as far as I understand, is a special mystery status for when an email cannot be delivered, for reasons that are not listed inside services like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign.

I’ve already been bounced a few times off other newsletters. I have a custom domain (bejakovic dot com), and the email address associated with that is more flaky than your typical gmail or yahoo email address. Sometimes, I noticed weeks or months later I had stopped getting emails from somebody.

This affects me the other way around also. Last week, I got an email from marketer Fred Beyer, who wrote:

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I haven’t gotten a single email from you, since Nov 13th.

But my personal email address is still getting your emails so I KNOW you’re still broadcasting.

I had NameCheap crap out on me and shut down my domain for a few days, did your ESP auto-scrub me because of the temporary bounce?

I have bought products from you, from both of my email addresses so I’m guessing it’s kinda important that I’m a proper part of your system to receive any updates and such.

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I checked inside ConvertKit. Sure enough, Fred had also been bounced off. I added him back — the only way was to go to my home page and sign him up by hand.

I checked the analytics for my email from last night. 4 bounced subscribers, compared to 3 unsubscribes. Now, I guess not all of those bounced subscribers will be permanently unsubscribed. But some will. Since September, I’ve had 67 subscribers permanently removed because of bounces, and these include long-term readers and customers.

What to do?

I already wrote a while back about “unwilling unsubscribes,” people who got unsubscribed in spite of swearing to me they never meant to do so.

That issue seems largely solved by a two-step unsubscribe process, which more and more email senders now provide.

But this bounced thing is both more tricky and more serious. For one, because it seems more common. For another, because it seems to disproportionately affect people with custom domains.

All that’s to say, I’m just bouncing this bounced problem at you, hoping you can bounce a solution or at least a suggestion back at me.

Is there some tech thing to be done?

Or is the only reliable way around this to have two or five ways to reach your customers and prospects? Email… plus Skool community… plus work phone number… plus SMS… plus bedroom GPS coordinates?

Please bounce back any information or suggestions you can give me. In turn I promise to collate the answers I get and share the most useful-sounding ones.

Industry gossip you shouldn’t care about but probably do

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Yesterday, I exchanged a couple emails with the “The World’s Most Obsessed Ad Archivist,” Lawrence Bernstein.

Along with a few decades and deep connections in the direct response industry, Lawrence has the distinction of being one of only a handful of people to be called out as a “valued resource” by A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga, at the climax of Gary’s legendary Farewell Seminar.

I promoted a little offer of Lawrence’s a couple months back. Lawrence was good enough to tell me yesterday that the 150+ sales of that offer that I helped make were slightly more than he got from his own house file.

That’s gratifying to read. And considering I only have a modest-sized list, it’s proof of the effect of daily emailing done right. But wait. There’s more.

Lawrence then went on to say how this compares to big-marketer results he’s been privvy to recently:

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By contrast, and I realize this isn’t apples to apples…

There are/”were” some BIG marketers who thrived on the affiliate merry-go-round of ubiquitous as they are shallow $2K courses, usually backed up by webinar selling.

That model hasn’t had much of a pulse — at least as far as I can see — for a year or so. One of my subscribers and friends, who writes for one of the big financial outfits wrote me this last February, regarding those $2K offers:

“Been on a massive downslide ever since the FTC stepped in against Agora Financial – and in general the most recent “home-runs” have been more like inside-the-park home runs. They rarely work externally… and they’re mostly just milking house files with backend launches.

I’ve seen groups repeatedly run promo’s bringing in names at 10% of BE just because they had nothing else…

I’ve seen huge affiliate pushes for webinar launches that resulted in 750,000 names on a hotlist… and the sales were so low the affiliates payouts were ZERO…”

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Let me repeat that last number because it’s so crazy: 750,000 qualified leads… and effectively ZERO in profits.

I read something similar in an email from Shiv Shetti recently.

Shiv shared stuff he’s heard inside private masterminds, gossip about specific flashy gurus in direct marketing-related niches.

These are guys who are publicly making millions and living a Floyd Mayweather lifestyle… who are in private broke, nearing bankruptcy, or are facing revolt from the customers and clients they have managed to rope in.

Maybe you’re not in the direct response industry. Still, I’m telling you this in case you ever find yourself looking around, and seeing that everyone else is doing so much better than you are… maybe even including people who got going well after you did.

You can’t really know anybody else’s full reality. And if you’re like me, you don’t even want their reality, even if it’s not all rotten.

From what I can tell, the insecurity about how well others are doing is simply a way to focus the general human desire for ANYTHING BUT WHAT I HAVE NOW.

“People are like cats,” says Dan Kennedy, “they always want to be in the other room.”

The trouble is, this kind of “But look where everybody else is!” comparison is such a fundamental part of human nature, or at least my own, that there’s no easy, quick, and permanent fix for it.

But certain things do help. Awareness of it… inquiry about what’s really going on, and if the surrounding thoughts are true or not… focus on your own work, instead of gawking around.

And maybe the following exercise.

It’s quick, it’s easy, and it might just give you a permanent fix, at least a partial one in your business, and maybe even in how you feel about it.

If you have a couple minutes and an open mind:

https://bejakovic.com/things-worthy-of-compliment-in-12-of-my-competitors/

How to prepare for a future in which people can’t think

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I was talking to a friend today. She has a kid who is 11. The kid has to go through a rigorous set of state-sanctioned exams that will determine his future education, career progression, and I suppose retirement community.

“It’s crazy!” my friend said. “Who even knows what will happen in the future?”

I have no kids and am generally clueless about what’s going on in the world. “Huh? Future? What are you talking about?”

“AI!” she said. “What will kids have to learn? How will that even look?”

I read an article by Paul Graham a couple weeks ago. I’ve written about Graham before in these emails. In a nutshell:

Graham is a kind of modern-day renaissance man — a painter, computer programmer, businessman, and investor. This last one is what he’s best known for.

Graham cofounded Y Combinator, the early-stage investing firm behind companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Twitch, Instacart, Reddit. Thanks to his stake in these companies, Graham is worth north of $2.5 billion.

Along with his many other activities, Graham also writes interesting online essays. He wrote a new one a few weeks ago.

In the future, predicts Graham, not many people will be able to write because AI has made it unnecessary.

Is that bad? In Graham’s words:

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Yes, it’s bad. The reason is something I mentioned earlier: writing is thinking. In fact there’s a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing. You can’t make this point better than Leslie Lamport did:

“If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.”

So a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots. I know which half I want to be in, and I bet you do too.

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Is Graham right about writing?

I don’t know. I have heard said that 2,500 years ago, smart people were making the same argument AGAINST writing, saying that it weakens critical thought and makes the mind flabby.

I can only report my personal results, today, in 2024.

Writing, at least in my case, causes me to think more and make distinctions I wouldn’t make otherwise. Plus, I even find it kind of enjoyable. And there’s no doubt that thanks to writing, I’ve achieved a level of influence I could never have achieved otherwise.

I am telling you this because I’m finally ready — with two days’ delay — to start rolling out my new Daily Email Habit service.

A key idea behind Daily Email Habit is that there’s value in writing.

And so this service is designed to help you start and stick with the habit of writing a daily email. A big part of how it does this is by giving you a new constraint each day, and narrowing the scope of what to write about.

At the same time, Daily Email Habit is designed NOT to narrow the scope so much that you end up filling out a template. There’s value in writing, and it’s something you cannot get by outsourcing your daily email to a template — or to AI.

I will start rolling out Daily Email Habit tomorrow.

If you’ve already written me to express interest in this new service, there’s nothing more you need to do.

But if you haven’t written me yet, and Daily Email Habit sounds like it might be useful to you, then write me and tell me what you like about this service. I will then add you to the priority list, so have a chance to try out Daily Email Habit sooner rather than later.

Mickey Mouse promos for Mickey Mouse reasons

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Today, being November 18, is the birthday of Mickey Mouse. I bet you weren’t expecting that?

Mickey made his first public appearance in Steamboat Willy, which premiered on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York city. And so, November 18 became Mickey’s birthday.

I only found this out today because from time to time I like write emails on the topic of, “On today’s date.”

But actually Mickey’s birthday fits perfectly to something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. That being:

Lots of businesses run promos around big and generic holidays — Black Friday, Valentine’s, Labor Day.

Some businesses try to get cute with it, and run promos for small but generic holidays — Mickey Mouse’s birthday is an example.

I guess that’s fine, if you are Ford Motors or the local gym chain.

But if you have anything like a personal brand, or want to build personal authority and a personal relationship with your list, then in my mind it’s much better, more convincing, and more effective long-term to run promos that tie into you, your business, or your customers.

The occasion for such personal promos doesn’t have to be huge (“I’m getting married!”) or cataclysmic (“I’m getting divorced!”).

It can be modest and frankly trivial — my “Most Vivian Event” from a couple months ago comes to mind, where I decided (and failed) to run a promo in honor of a reader who wouldn’t buy from me.

As long as you think up a personal occasion and reason to your promo, it builds a connection to your audience while selling at the same time… it makes your promo unique to you and uncopyable by others… and it feels more credible and real than “because Black Friday” or “because Steamboat Willy!”

I’m in the middle of launching my Daily Email Habit service. Of course, it’s turned out to be more work than I had anticipated just to put it in front of the first few people. Once I solve all the issues still facing me, I plan to promote this offer through the rest of this month.

But now that I’ve already written this Mickey Mouse email about Mickey Mouse promos, it feels like a shame not to run a promo myself, my Mickey Mouse reasons notwithstanding.

So I have a special offer for you, which I’m calling the “Better Than Mickey” Promo-in-a-Box.

In short:

If you have a list and an offer, I will come up with a personal, congruent, sexy promo strategy for you — a “Promo-in-a-Box.”

This is something I’ve done dozens of times for my own list and while I was a coach inside Shiv Shetti’s PCM mastermind. I’m estimating a few hundred thousand dollars in extra sales that would not have happened otherwise.

Here’s how this “Better Than Mickey” process will work, if you’re game for it:

1. You and I will get on an onboarding call, so you can tell me about your list, your offers, and your business.

2. I will go away to my cave and conjure up a “Better Than Mickey” Promo-in-a-Box that involves a congruent occasion, a sexy offer (without requiring creating new products), and copy angles (to tie it all together).

3. We will then get on a second call, and I’ll walk you through the promo strategy, answer your questions, and make sure this is something you will be happy to run and can actually implement on time.

I am only opening up two spots for this “Better Than Mickey” Promo-in-a-Box. I’m not sure I will ever offer this deal or anything like it again.

The price is $500.

I can tell you this is a small fraction of what I used to get paid inside Shiv’s mastermind to deliver exactly this kind of custom promo strategy. (I won’t say exactly what small fraction, because that’s Shiv’s business as well as mine.)

I’m asking just $500 because frankly this isn’t about money. While it doesn’t pay for me in terms of the work involved (at $500 or more), I like finding out about new businesses, and strategizing these promos. And I figure that I’ve limited my exposure by just offering two spots.

More relevant for you:

If you have a list and an offer, then running a successful promo can net you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Paying me $500 for my experience and help, to make sure it happens and that it goes well, is in my mind a no-brainer.

If you’re interested in this “Better Than Mickey” Promo-in-a-Box, hit reply and tell me so. I’ll take it from there.

Again, I’ve only opened up two spots for this, and I am only responding to hand raises that express interest before tonight, Monday, November 18, at 12 midnight PST.

Yes, it’s for Mickey’s birthday, and for Mickey Mouse reasons. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m stubborn, and that I stick to deadlines like a koala to bamboo. Or maybe like a mouse to cheese. In any case, if you want your own “Better Than Mickey” Promo-in-a-Box, I suggest you act now.

The excessive value of writing into the void

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In my email yesterday, I asked for reader questions and replies. Well, I got ’em. To start, a reader named Kenneth wrote in to ask:

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Yeah, at this point you are reading my mind.

I’ve always wanted to ask a question, but wondered whether you respond to emails.

Well, the question “How do you get opt-ins to your list?”

I can’t say I know because I got into your list by a strange way.

I am in a copywriting group and a member of the group shared your sales letter as a way to use reverse psychology, I think it was your MVE product.

He didn’t even share a link, I had to copy the link in the screenshot(I think that’s what happened), got on your homepage and got on your list.

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… and that’s pretty much how I get people to opt-in to my list:

I write stuff… wait until people share that on the Internet of their own accord… then rub my hands in anticipation as others see those shares, google the clues available, search through the Google results, find my website, figure out that I’m actually the guy they were searching for, and then opt in.

I’ve heard this described as “upstream leads” — as in, people who had to swim upstream to find you. I’ve also heard it said these are the most valuable kinds of leads.

Is that true? I don’t know. I can imagine it is… I can also imagine it’s just an excuse by people who like to do it that way.

But that’s less interesting to me than the following:

I’ve gotten variants of Kenneth’s question before. And maybe I’m reading into it, but my feeling is that when people ask “How do you get subscribers” there’s a hidden assumption there.

That assumption is that, if you got no subscribers, no readers, there’s no sense in writing, particularly an email a day, like I do.

Sounds reasonable. But again, is it true?

The answer is no, at least to my mind. Even if nobody is reading what you write, a daily email:

1. Gets you to think about whatever you’re teaching or selling or doing, sharpens your own opinions on the subject, and builds up your expertise

2. Makes you a better writer and a better communicator, in all formats, not just email, without any pressure

3. Builds up a warchest of interesting content, which you can reuse for paid products, for ads, as book chapters, for SEO, for live presentations and trainings, for client work, or as a portfolio

4. Acts as proof of your authority to anybody who does come across you, whether that’s a potential client, customer, or simply fan

5. Can be enjoyable on its own, much how toast with butter is enjoyable on its own

6. Beats Wordle as a daily habit (though you can do both, as I do)

7. Makes you referable, for all the reasons 1-6 above combined, so that in time you do get people subscribing to read what you have to say

I’m telling you this because:

1) I’m grateful to Kenneth for writing in with his question, and I wanted to answer it thoroughly in a newsletter email, and

2) because starting tomorrow, I will be rolling out Daily Email Habit.

Daily Email Habit is my new service to help you be consistent with daily emails. It will give you a daily email prompt/constraint to take away idling over what to write, to keep you on track, and even to help you be more creative.

I will be rolling out Daily Email Habit gradually. But if you like, reply to this email, tell me what like about this service, why it sounds like it might be valuable to you, and I will add you to the priority list, so have a chance to try out Daily Email Habit sooner rather than later.

Huh, that’s possible?

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There’s a terrace on the 12th floor of my building. I tried going up there once. None of the keys that the landlord has giving me fit the lock. I figured the terrace is off-limits and I left it alone.

Then I went traveling for a few days. I asked an acquaintance to come water my plants while I was gone. He did, and out of curiosity, he also went up to the terrace and tried unlocking the door. It turns out one of the keys does fit, you just gotta jiggle it a little.

The terrace opens up to a fantastic view of the whole of Barcelona, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sagrada Familia and back. As you can imagine, I’ve been going up there since.

Last weekend, I did a few market research calls with people who had expressed interest in my new daily email prompts service.

One of these calls was with a reader who only identifies publicly by the code name Misty. After I asked Misty my questions, she asked me one in turn:

“Do people respond to your emails a lot?”

It depends.

People used to respond more back before I started selling in almost every email. I figure that the daily option to buy channels some of that drive.

These days, there are strange lulls and peaks in the replies I get. Sometimes it seems people are responding regularly to my emails, and sometimes it’s crickets (at least until I have a new offer).

I asked myself, why?

My best guess is that I often forget to write emails featuring people who ask me questions and who respond to my emails. And vice versa. The more I make this newsletter feel interactive, the more people respond.

But this goes beyond just getting people to reply to your emails:

You gotta tell people stuff, explicitly, to clue them in. A lot of us, myself included, never think what options are out there, or here, right under our nose.

So if there’s a behavior you want people in your audience to adopt, first of all you have to tell them that it is in fact possible to adopt that behavior… and second that it is in fact encouraged and maybe even beneficial to them.

Maybe this is super obvious. But again, it’s something I personally forget to do.

I’ve experienced it on the other side as well.

It’s not only the terrace that I avoided going to for a year+ because I assumed it was off-limits.

I also almost never respond to other people’s newsletter emails. “Surely they don’t want to hear from me? What do I write? Everybody else must be responding anyhow, I guess they are too busy.”

All that’s to say:

You can hit reply to this email, tell me who you are, share your thoughts, or ask your questions. I don’t promise to have answers for you. But I do promise to read all messages and to reply in turn.

Plus, there’s a chance you get featured in one of these emails — under your own name, or under a code name, as you prefer.

In other words, it’s possible to reply… it’s ok to reply… and I even hope you will do it.

Announcing: “White Tuesday” Copy Riddles event

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It’s a bright and sunny day outside, I’m in a good mood, and there are still many weeks left until dark and depressing Black Friday.

That’s why I’ve decided to put on a special and time-limited event, which I’m calling White Tuesday, starting today and running through tomorrow (Tuesday), to promote my Copy Riddles program.

I tried to make this White Tuesday offer easy to say yes to. Here’s what’s inside:

#1. White Tuesday Storytelling Secrets

This storytelling bundle has two parts.

The first is a training called Storytelling For Sales, in which I show some of my go-to tricks for using stories in sales copy. I previously sold this training for $200, but it’s yours free for White Tuesday.

The second part of this storytelling bundle is a training called, “Next-level storytelling tricks for emails that sell (no hero’s journey, thank you).”

This was a special presentation I did last year as bonus when Kieran Drew promoted my Simple Money Emails program.

I haven’t made this training available in any way since, and the only way to get it previously was to pay for Simple Money Emails, which sells for $197. It’s also yours free for White Tuesday.

#2. Make The Lights Come On: How Multimillionaire Marketers Use The FREE Formula To Create a “Lightbulb Moment” In Their Prospects

I’ve never sold this before and I’m not sure I will in the future, so I won’t put an arbitrary made-up value on it.

I will say this training has my analysis of the common structure — the “FREE Formula” — I’ve identified in the copy of a few multimillionaire marketers.

These marketers use change in perspective as their main way of selling, rather than big sweaty promises. They do very well for themselves as a result. For example:

One such marketer wrote a “lightbulb moment” 40-page PDF that sold $960,000 worth of coaching services in 2 hours…

… another such marketer wrote an 1,791-word email that made the light come on for me personally, and made me spend a few thousand dollars on this marketer’s offers as a result…

… a third such “lightbulb moment” marketer uses the FREE Formula to convert up to 20% of his (large and woolly) email list.

I figure if you can get even a fraction of these results, this Make The Lights Come On training could be the most valuable of all the bonuses I’m offering (with the possible exception of the next bonus).

But once again, Make The Lights Come On is yours free as part of the White Tuesday event.

(NB. I will deliver Make The Lights Come On as a live email course at the beginning of December.)

#3. $2k Advertorial Consult: 100% nothing-held-back training on how I write advertorials

Over the years of my copywriting career, I’ve written dozens of front-end “horror advertorials” — basically mini sales letters. By my estimate, these horror advertorials have made upwards of 10 million dollars’ worth of sales from cold traffic, mostly Facebook and now YouTube.

I’ve hinted at my process before and and given some examples of finished horror advertorials.

But I’ve never done a full reveal of my process, including the research… my own templates and checklists… the writing… the layout, etc.

Well, never, except once. I agreed to do it once, with one private consulting client, an ecommerce store owner.

I got on a call with this ecommerce store owner… shared all my advertorial-writing assets and secrets… and walked him through my process.

He paid me $2k for that info. All that info — the recording of the call, all the checklists and templates I shared — are yours free as part of the White Tuesday deal.

And by the way, this $2k Advertorial Consult can be relevant whether you are writing advertorials, or if you’re working on just about any other serious copy project that has to convert on cold traffic.

(Also, as part of this advertorials info-bundle, I’ll throw in my Horror Advertorial Swipe File. This is a zip file with 25 PDFs, featuring the original copy for 25 of my horror advertorials, which pulled in millions of dollars on cold Facebook and YouTube traffic. I’ve previously sold this swipe file for $100.)

Putting together elements 1-3 above, you have a real-world value of $2,300, based on just what these programs and trainings have sold for before. Plus you get the “Next-level storytelling tricks” training and Make The Lights Come on for extra sauce.

And there’s one one more element to the White Tuesday event:

#4. The one-time White Tuesday payment plan

You can get started with Copy Riddles, and get the White Tuesday bonus bundle of $2,300 of real-world value, for just $97 today, and then 9 more monthly payments of $100.

This payment plan is there to make it psychologically easier to get started — in my experience, people take up payment plans not because they cannot afford to pay in full, but simply because it feels like a smaller commitment.

But if you need a stronger justification for using the payment plan, then just take one or two ideas from Copy Riddles or associated free bonuses… apply them once a month… and make $100 wouldn’t have made otherwise.

Do this, and the entire White Tuesday Bundle will effectively be free. You will probably even make some extra money to boot. And you will have learned a bunch of valuable stuff that will last you your whole marketing life.

Final point:

I will never be making this White Tuesday Copy Riddles offer again, and I will likely not be doing any kind of Copy Riddles promo for a long time.

If you have been thinking about getting Copy Riddles, but putting it off, I can only tell you to take advantage of this offer now.

I make a point of treating my previous customers well. That means I will only ever move the price up rather than down in the future.

And if ever offer any future bonuses or incentives, all previous customers will be grandfathered in, you among them if you join today.

On the other hand, if you miss this White Tuesday offer, you miss it forever.

All that’s to say, there won’t ever be a better time. If you want to get the full info on Copy Riddles to see if it’s right for you, or to take advantage of this White Tuesday deal:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

P.S. If you are already a Copy Riddles member, the White Tuesday bonuses are of course available to you too.

The storytelling bundle will go into the course area automatically. I’ll invite you to join Make The Lights Come On for free when I open it up. And as for the $2k Advertorial Consult, it’s yours as well — if you write me and say you want it, while this White Tuesday event is live.