Emotional reactivity in email promos

Last Wednesday, I started a new, possibly doomed email promo.

My goal was to get 5 people into the 1-Person Advertorial Agency Cohort.

My offer was help with copywriting, help with getting clients, up to and including making $10k from advertorial work.

My price was $5k.

Like I said, I started promoting this on Wednesday.

By about Friday, I was hating it.

A few dozen people had responded to express interest, most of them before I had publicly announced the price.

After several days of email back-and-forth, nobody had signed up. Some people had opted out. Some had stopped responding. The others had questions, doubts, or concerns. The nerve!

I spent a part of my Friday fantasizing of simply closing down this whole thing, and focusing on writing my own advertorials rather than trying to persuade anybody to join me. “I’ll show them!”

Fortunately, I have been here before.

Instead of lashing out at the world, I simply kept promoting the offer to my list, answering questions from the people who had expressed interest, and honing the 1-1 sales process bit by bit.

On Saturday, one person joined. Yesterday, four more people joined, including one guy (a long-time reader and buyer) who only responded to the “Final Call” email I sent out.

In sum:

I wanted 5 people. I got 5 people. $10k collected over the past two days, with another $15k due when I get people to the result I promised.

I’m telling you this because, besides running this advertorial cohort, I’m also coaching several business owners on how to make money with their email list. And making money with your email list means email promos.

I’ve recently seen, on a couple different occasions, people getting frustrated due to a lack of results, shutting down their promo after just a day or two, and scrapping the offer.

I know how it feels. I’ve been there. In fact, like I just told you, I was there last week, ready to shut down my own promo and scrap the offer.

Maybe now that I’ve told you that it happens to me, you will be able to recognize it in yourself as well.

It’s helpful to label it. (“Emotional reactivity” is not a very elegant term, but it’s what I call it.)

It’s also helpful to remind yourself that, now that you’re in the middle of the promo, it’s probably not a good time to make dramatic decisions, like killing the offer, or slashing the price, or promising tons of new deliverables that you hadn’t planned on initially.

Rather, the middle of the promo is a time for talking to your audience, clarifying your offer and your positioning, and making the best out of what you’ve already got.

From time to time, I like to promote Travis Sago’s Royalty Ronin community. From time to time, I like to reiterate that Travis’s Ronin is the best deal in Internet Marketing right now. From time to time, I cite some cool or fundamental thing I’ve learned from Travis.

The fact is, this entire “advertorial cohort” promo wouldn’t have happened without the many things, big and small, I’ve learned from Travis and the courses and trainings and regular posts he puts up inside Royalty Ronin.

Everything, from the very concept of this promo, to the offer structure, to the pricing, to how I promoted it, to the fact that I didn’t give up in frustration after a few days of no results… all of that comes from stuff I can trace directly to Travis.

Travis offers a week-long free trial for Royalty Ronin. I’ve gotten a metric ton, and 100k+ worth of income, due to what’s inside Ronin. Maybe you will too. If you wanna give it a try:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

P.S. If you do make it past free trial and stay inside Ronin, write me an email and let me know. I have some bonuses with your name on them.

Tonight: Manna for Marketers live gameshow

Tonight at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST, I’ll step in front of the camera, with my best Alex Trebek mustache and grey suit, to host the first and last Manna for Marekters gameshow.

“Manna for Marketers” is a live implementation workshop for the influence ideas from the 10 Commandments book.

I’ll show you how I’ve consciously applied the “10 commandments of Con Men etc.” in my biz, in expectation of this workshop.

Plus, I’ll offer my help and input if you want to raise your hand live on the call, and ask me how to apply any of these commandments to your biz (or life).

And, because listening to me rattle on for a long time is not fun for anybody, I’ll run “Manna for Marketers” like a gameshow.

The whole thing will be structured like Jeopardy (hat tip to reader René Kerkdyk for this idea), with quiz questions, answers, a final winner, and a big prize for the winner.

If you took me up on my Tour de Commandments offer last week, I sent you a link already for today’s Manna for Marketers call.

Yes, there will be a recording in case you can’t make it, which I will put into the already-existing bonus area. But considering the live gameshow aspect, and the big prize for the winner, I hope to see you there live in a few hours.

And if you didn’t take me on the Tour de Commandments offer, you can still join Manna for Marketers.

It’s an Obvious Adams thing, but if a promo did well because of the bonuses (and there’s no denying that Tour de Commandments was a success because of the bonuses), then it makes sense to get more use out of that.

And why wait?

That’s why today you can get an get an entry ticket (and the subsequent recording) for the Manna for Marketers gameshow, plus all other exciting bonuses I offered last week, for $97. Here’s all I’m including:

1. “Manna for Marketers” live gameshow and implementation call

2. “3 lessons after $18,487 spent on running Amazon book ads”

3. “40 Pages to Authority: A $1k article series”

4. “How I made an extra $1404.53/month in Amazon royalties at the push of a button”

5. “The best direct marketing book of the past 15 years”

6. “The best course on selling via email I have personally found”

7. Influence Riddles Vol. 1

If you wanna take me up on this offer, here’s where to go:

https://desertkite.thrivecart.com/manna-for-marketers/

P.S. If you do take me up on this offer today, pay attention to the thank you page. It will have the Zoom link for tonight’s gameshow.

10 things that are working for me now

#1. Pre-auction polls

I wrote up an email for a list owner (and potential auction partner) to test interest for an offer he thought of auctioning off.

The poll went out, and there wasn’t enough interest to run the auction. But the list owner got a bunch of coaching clients simply by following up with the people who did express interest.

The whole point of an auction is to get leads. But you might not even need an auction.

#2. The Most Valuable Offer

I had 9 people sign up. 5 actually put on their own Most Valuable Offer. Based on what I’ve heard from so far, everybody made sales and got leads for future offers. I will be running this offer regularly in the future.

#3. DFY newsletter service

I offered this a couple weeks ago. I got a grand total of two people raising their hands. One was not a fit. The other was, and we agreed to work together. This DFY newsletter service is also something I will be advertising regularly in the future.

#4. Asking myself, “What’s working for me now?”

In fact, that’s why I’m writing this email today.

And also asking, “What’s worked for me recently?” I asked myself that a couple weeks ago and I identified two offers over the past 6 months that worked dramatically better than everything else (the 1-Person Advertorial Agency promo and my “I endorse YOU” auctino). What’s next is to figure out how to deliver more of the same outcome, in new ways, or to new people.

#5. Daily emails

Not new, but worked for me before, and working for me still.

For example, I wrote recently about the value of having two tracks, a client and a student track. I ended up convincing myself with what I wrote in that email.

That led me to relaunch the DFY newsletter service. Soon will lead me to start offering more client work of a different kind (if you’re feeling like a detective, it’s something I mentioned above).

#6. Making a coaching offer that consists of a down payment to get started, and the rest conditional on success

I’m working with a few people on this arrangement right now. It makes selling easier. It makes delivery easier. It makes me more motivated. It makes coaching clients more motivated. It allows me to charge more than I might otherwise. I’m waiting to find out what the downsides, if any, might be.

#7. Making lists of 10 ideas, like this

My first idea is almost never the best one. And usually, idea 7 or 8 is something I never would have thought of but is surprisingly valuable. This is not something new I’m doing. I’ve been at it for years. But like daily emails, it has been working for me for years, and continues to work.

#8. My Monetization Mastermind group as a way to open doors

It’s a reason why to get introduced to people. A reason to get on a call. A reason to find more good people to get introduced to.

#9. Getting on calls with people

I’ve found it’s the fastest and most indepth way to communicate, at least if you work from home like me. You can get info out of people you could never get over email alone.

Whenever I talk to people, they always make some side comment that ends up changing how I think about a crucial issue. (Such as points 3 and 5 above, which were the direct result of getting on a call with somebody inside my Monetization Mastermind group).

#10. Weekly work budget

I wrote about this last week, but in a nutshell, it’s a total amount of time I allow myself to work each week. It’s forcing me to prioritize and focus. I’m getting more done in less time.

At this point, I could promote something, like my Daily Email Habit service.

But I’d rather know what’s working for you now. If you’re game, hit reply, and let me know.

Last call for Tour de Commandments bonuses

The past week, I have been running the Tour de Commandments event to mark the 1-year anniversary of the publication of my 10 Commandments of Con Men etc book.

As a result of this event, I have sold more than 100 paperback copies of my book, and have rocketed up the book rankings, at least for a few days, above the paperback of Robert Cialdini’s Influence. That’s really all a daily email writer could ever want for.

Today is the last day of this promotional spectacle. With one final, desperate push towards the finish line, the Tour de Commandments event ends tonight, Sunday the 17th, at 12 midnight PST.

If you take me up on this offer before the deadline (instructions below), you get the following bonuses:

#1. “Manna for Marketers” live workshop and implementation call

Happening next Wednesday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. I will cover how I’ve consciously applied these 10 Commandments of Con Men etc. in my biz. I’ll also offer you my help and input if you want to raise your hand live on the call, and ask me how to apply any of these commandments to your biz (or life).

#2. “3 lessons after $18,487 spent on running Amazon book ads”

Over the past 7 years, I’ve spent $18,487 on Amazon book ads. The majority of those ads have been for my two “10 Commandments of SOMETHING” books. I’ve put together a report on the 3 main lessons learned after 7 years, thousands of copies sold, and $18k+ in ad spend.

#3. “40 Pages to Authority: A $1k article series”

Back in 2023, the the Professional Writers Alliance paid me $1,000 to write a 4-part article series about my experiences writing, promoting, and profiting from a 40-page book (my first 10 Commandments book).

PWA made these articles available to their paying members only. But you can get them as a free bonus for taking me up on my Tour De Commandments offer.

#4. “How I made an extra $1404.53/month in Amazon royalties at the push of a button”

This report outlines a hack, which involves the push of a button — literally, that’s all there is to it — and which made me an extra ~$1.5k per month in Amazon royalties. I used this hack once, over the span of a few months, or rather a few weeks. I made money with it. And I never used it again.

I’m not saying anybody else should use this hack. I’m not saying anybody else should NOT use it either.

All I’m willing to do is to tell you what this hack is, why I’m no longer using it myself, and how you can try it out yourself, if you so choose, to make easy money off Amazon.

#5. “The best direct marketing book of the past 15 years”

That’s according to me, somebody who has read and reread all the great direct marketing books, and some of the not-so-great, and who has made millions in sales via the ideas I’ve learned in those books.

Odds are excellent you have not read this book or even heard of it. But I will tell you what it is so you can grab it on Amazon, and I’ll even give you $15 in Bejako Bux so you can get it effectively FREE.

#6. “The best course on selling via email I have personally found”

The information in this course has influenced a ton of people online, indirectly. Yet I never hear anybody talking about this course directly, or implementing the complete system inside, rather than just one fraction.

(I have been going through this course and implementing it myself and helping my coaching students implement it.)

If you like, you can be among a select elite of people who both know about this course and who profit from it. Because, if you take me up on my Tour de Commandments offer, I will tell you where to find this best course on selling via email, for FREE, and completely legally.

#7. Influence Riddles Vol. 1

7 real-life case studies of successful episodes of influence, turned into riddles for you to ponder and profit from, including:

* How one clever offer owner got me to promote his offer as an affiliate even though I knew it wouldn’t sell to my list

* A lead magnet I’ve seen two very successful marketers using, which gets better conversions and higher-intent leads than the usual free report/course/template etc.

* A new upsell strategy that “exploded average order value overnight” (taken from the best direct marketing book of the past 15 years, which is #5 inside this bonus bundle)

If you want to take me up on this Tour de Commandments offer, here’s what to do:

1. Grab five paperback copies of the 10 Commandments book (or four, if you’ve already got a paperback and can dig up that receipt as proof)

2. Forward me your receipt (or receipts, if you already got one) from Amazon

3. I’ll get you in for the Manna for Marketers workshop, and get you access to the above bonuses, as well as others I release in the coming days.

Again, the deadline for this event is tonight, May 17, at 12 midnight PST.

If you’re in, here’s where to take me up on this offer:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

The best course on selling via email I have personally found

Yesterday, I teased, without revealing, the best direct marketing book of the past 15 years.

This got more people to take me up on my Tour de Commandments offer than the previous days combined.

In part, that’s the cumulative effect of an email promo, which in this case has been going on since Monday.

In part, it’s the power of teasing info, curiosity, and that itching, nagging, bothersome mystery and information gap that a secret creates.

If you need a valuable marketing idea for today, let this be it:

When trying to sell info, use the takeaway sale.

Let me now take my own advice. Let me tease a second bit of info today. Let me tell you about the best course on selling via email I have personally found.

This is NOT a course about email copywriting. Rather, it’s a course about making sales via email.

These are two distinct things.

Most people who try to make sales via email only blast out offers (“New! Discount! NOW!”) or they only try to be funny and informative and valuable in the hope that one day, somehow, people on their list will buy out of good will alone.

Both of these approaches can work from time to time. But long term, both are suboptimal and even unsustainable.

Fortunately, there is a THIRD WAY, which is laid out in the best course on selling via email I have personally found.

I have been going through this course and implementing it myself and helping coaching students implement it.

I happen to know the information in this course has influenced a ton of people online, indirectly.

Yet I never hear anybody talking about this course directly, or implementing the complete system inside, rather than just one fraction.

If you like, you can be among a select elite of people who both know about this course and who profit from it.

Because, if you take me up on my Tour de Commandments offer, I will tell you where to find this best course on selling via email, for FREE, and completely legally.

The course consists of several audio recordings, and one document which lays out the philosophy behind the case studies.

It’s not fill-in-the-blank templates. Rather, it’s made up of a dozen or so case studies that illustrate the many ways to implement underlying ideas in this course, which are both profound and simple.

Also, here are the other bonuses I am offering as part of my ongoing Tour de Commandments event:

#1. “Manna for Marketers” live workshop and implementation call

Happening next Wednesday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. I will cover how I’ve consciously applied these 10 Commandments of Con Men etc. in my biz. I’ll also offer you my help and input if you want to raise your hand live on the call, and ask me how to apply any of these commandments to your biz (or life).

#2. “3 lessons after $18,487 spent on running Amazon book ads”

Over the past 7 years, I’ve spent $18,487 on Amazon book ads. The majority of those ads have been for my two “10 Commandments of SOMETHING” books. I’ve put together a report on the 3 main lessons learned after 7 years, thousands of copies sold, and $18k+ in ad spend.

#3. “40 Pages to Authority: A $1k article series”

Back in 2023, the the Professional Writers Alliance paid me $1,000 to write a 4-part article series about my experiences writing, promoting, and profiting from a 40-page book (my first 10 Commandments book).

PWA made these articles available to their paying members only. But you can get them as a free bonus for taking me up on my Tour De Commandments offer.

#4. “How I made an extra $1404.53/month in Amazon royalties at the push of a button”

This report outlines a hack, which involves the push of a button — literally, that’s all there is to it — and which made me an extra ~$1.5k per month in Amazon royalties. I used this hack once, over the span of a few months, or rather a few weeks. I made money with it. And I never used it again.

I’m not saying anybody else should use this hack. I’m not saying anybody else should NOT use it either.

All I’m willing to do is to tell you what this hack is, why I’m no longer using it myself, and how you can try it out yourself, if you so choose, to make easy money off Amazon.

#5. “The best direct marketing book of the past 15 years”

That’s according to me, somebody who has read and reread all the great direct marketing books, and some of the not-so-great, and who has made millions in sales via the ideas I’ve learned in those books.

Odds are excellent you have not read this book or even heard of it. But I will tell you what it is so you can grab it on Amazon, and I’ll even give you $15 in Bejako Bux so you can get it effectively FREE.

If you want to take me up on this Tour de Commandments offer, here’s what to do:

1. Grab five paperback copies of the 10 Commandments book (or four, if you’ve already got a paperback and can dig up that receipt as proof)

2. Forward me your receipt (or receipts, if you already got one) from Amazon

3. I’ll get you in for the Manna for Marketers workshop, and get you access to the above bonuses, as well as others I release in the coming days.

If you’re in, here’s where to take me up on this offer:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

The best direct marketing book of the past 15 years

Do you like books?

Do you like marketing books?

Do you like valuable marketing books that can legitimately make you millions of dollars, if you only consistently apply what they tell you to do?

If so, I got something for you.

This whole year I’ve been reading and rereading a book, without telling anyone anywhere what it is. It’s the first time I’ve come across an information resource that is so valuable that I wanted to keep it and hoard it for myself, like a miserly dragon.

This book is:

1. Published relatively recently.

2. Almost unknown. I haven’t heard anybody else talking about it, and as per Amazon, it’s not selling.

3. Written by a direct marketing legend who has little personal charisma and either little skill or little interest in building up a big personal brand. (How is he still a legend then? That’s something I will only tease for now.)

4. The most valuable and useful and impactful book about direct marketing in the past 15 years, going back to Mark Ford and John Forde’s Great Leads, which was published back in 2011. That’s according to me, somebody who has read and reread all the great direct marketing books, and some of the not-so-great, and who has made millions in sales via the ideas I’ve learned in those books.

Now here’s my deal for you:

I’m currently running my Tour de Commandments event. I’m using it to mark one year since I published my 10 Commandments of Con Men etc. book.

The deal is that if you buy 5 copies of my book (or 4, in case already have a copy), I’ll give you a buncha bonuses.

My new bonus for today is that I’ll give you (well, kinda) this best direct marketing book of the past 15 years.

This book sells on Amazon right now for $15 for the paperback.

The thing is, I have no interest in going on Amazon and actually filling out your shipping details and ordering this book this book on your behalf and shipping it to your door. I’ve done that before, and it’s frankly too much work for the small offer I am making right now as part of this Tour de Commandments event.

But I also know the value of getting something for FREE.

So my deal is:

Take me up on my Tour de Commandments offer.

I will tell you the name of this book, and I will give you $15 in Bejako Bux to offset the price if you wanna buy it. You can use this $15 in Bejako Bux towards any of my courses or coaching (or anything I sell directly on my site).

(If by some minuscule chance you already own this direct marketing book, you still get to keep the $15 in Bejako Bux.)

Plus, I’ll also tell you a second resource, by the same uncharismatic direct marketing legend, equally as obscure and unknown, which I have been bingeing on for weeks now. It’s got so many valuable marketing ideas that it could legitimately be packaged up as a $30k/year mastermind. But it’s available for free, if you only know where to look, and that’s what I’ll tell you.

Plus plus, there are the other Tour de Commandments bonuses I have promised so far:

#1. “Manna for Marketers” live workshop and implementation call

Happening next Wednesday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. I will cover I’ve consciously applied these 10 Commandments of Con Men etc. in my biz. I’ll also offer you my help and input if you want to raise your hand live on the call, and ask me how to apply any of these commandments to your biz (or life).

#2. “3 lessons after $18,487 spent on running Amazon book ads”

Over the past 7 years, I’ve spent $18,487 on Amazon book ads. The majority of those ads have been for my two “10 Commandments of SOMETHING” books. I’ve put together a report on the 3 main lessons learned after 7 years, thousands of copies sold, and $18k+ in ad spend.

#3. “40 Pages to Authority: A $1k article series”

Back in 2023, the the Professional Writers Alliance paid me $1,000 to write a 4-part article series about my experiences writing, promoting, and profiting from a 40-page book (my first 10 Commandments book).

PWA made these articles available to their paying members only. But you can get them as a free bonus for taking me up on my Tour De Commandments offer.

#4. “How I made an extra $1404.53/month in Amazon royalties at the push of a button”

This report outlines a hack, which involves the push of a button — literally, that’s all there is to it — and which made me an extra ~$1.5k per month in Amazon royalties. I used this hack once, over the span of a few months, or rather a few weeks. I made money with it. And I never used it again.

I’m not saying anybody else should use this hack. I’m not saying anybody else should NOT use it either.

All I’m willing to do is to tell you what this hack is, why I’m no longer using it myself, and how you can try it out yourself, if you so choose, to make easy money off Amazon.

If you want to take me up on this Tour de Commandments offer, here’s what to do:

1. Grab five paperback copies of the 10 Commandments book (or four, if you’ve already got a paperback and can dig up that receipt as proof)

2. Forward me your receipt (or receipts, if you already got one) from Amazon

3. I’ll get you in for the Manna for Marketers workshop, and get you access to the above bonuses, as well others I release in the coming days.

If you’re in, here’s where to take me up on this offer:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Announcing: Tour de Commandments

Today, being May 11, marks the busy and drama-filled kickoff of Tour de Commandments, a special event to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of my conveniently titled book:

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

I published this book exactly a year ago, on May 11, 2025.

Since then, I have sold some 4k copies of this book… gotten a bunch of 5-star reviews (“Can’t tell you how glad I am that I clicked Buy Now”… “This is going into my yearly reads collection”… “More compelling than Cialdini with sprinkles of Houdini”)… and had people tell me this is the best thing I’ve ever written.

And now, I have a spectacular, amazing, uncanny Tour de Commandments bonus bundle to encourage you to get your copy, and a few extra copies to boot.

Over the course of this event, I’ll be dripping and leaking these bonuses. Today, I’ll tell you about just the first leg of the Tour de Commandments bonus bundle:

“Manna for Marketers,” a live implementation workshop for the influence ideas from the 10 Commandments book.

Who: For email marketers, list owners, course creators, online business owners, coaches, and sales professionals.

What: How I’ve consciously applied these 10 commandments in my biz, in expectation of this workshop. Plus, my help and input if you want to raise your hand live on the call, and ask me how to apply any of these commandments to your biz (or life).

Why: The #1 thing my readers have been asking me for, on the back of this 10 commandments book, is advice and examples on how to implement these ideas.

So I’m giving it to you.

You can see behind the curtains of how I use these commandments practically. You can get ideas for how you too can use them. And can get my direct help in tweaking these ideas to help you perform miracles of persuasion.

How: Like a gameshow? Listening to me rattle on for a long time is not fun for anybody. So I’ll apply everything I know about making workshops fun, interactive, and even exciting to this “Manna for Marketers” workshop.

There will be a gameshow component, there will be rewards and prizes, and you might win a brand new Tesla (ok no Tesla but everything else is true).

When and where: Next Wednesday, May 20th, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST, inside the Big Store (I’ll send you a link if you take me up on the offer below.) And of course, if you cannot make it live, there will be a recording, which others will have to pay for, but which you get for free, as part of this special event.

As I said, I will tell you about the remaining bonuses over the coming days.

If you already know you want to participate in the Tour de Commandments based on the Manna for Marketers live workshop, here’s what to do:

1. Grab your five paperback copies of the 10 Commandments book (or four, if you’ve already got a paperback and can dig up that receipt as proof)

2. Forward me your receipt (or receipts, if you already got one) from Amazon

3. I’ll get you in for the Manna for Marketers workshop, and all the remaining bonuses as I release them over the next few days

If you’re in, here’s where to take me up on this offer and reserve your spot for “Manna for Marketers”:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Off-market affiliate deals

I’ve been lurking on Facebook lately, doing research for my low-ticket funnel. That’s how I came across an interesting new offer for coaches and consultants:

1. We will build out a low-ticket funnel for you, for free

2. We will run traffic to it, for free, using our own money

3. We will drive buyers who come through this funnel to a sales call for your high-ticket coaching or consulting offer

4. We only take a cut when you close a deal

I don’t know how well these guys are doing.

But I do know another company that effectively has this same business model.

It’s a company I used to write copy for back in the day.

They didn’t advertise that this was their business model, but since I was a copywriter for them, I know that that’s what they did.

They started out with real estate investing gurus who had high-ticket coaching programs, and then graduated to more general bizopp coaching offers.

I happen to know that they were making a killing back when I was working with them. They only seem to have gotten bigger since.

My point for you is:

Affiliate marketing is great.

It allows you to promote and profit from offers, without having to go through the massive trouble of creating and delivering those offers.

Affiliate marketing also sucks.

Most of the available affiliate offers are no good, and the few good ones have a ton of other people promoting them.

The solution to this dilemma is to roll your own off-market affiliate offers, like the guys above.

In other words, to find people who have good offers, or the makings of good offers, but who aren’t promoting them adequately, and who certainly don’t have affiliate programs…

… and then make some sort of a deal with them to promote them adequately, using your own skills and resources.

(And better yet, to put yourself in toll position, so you get the unique right to promote this off-market affiliate deal, while others only look on with wonder and envy.)

If this is something that interests you, you can go off on your own right now and start doing.

I really hope that’s what you will do.

But if you want some support and help for this kind of stuff, my best recommendation is the Royalty Ronin community, which in many ways is a community of people who are rolling their own off-market affiliate deals, using various techniques and approaches.

In case you wanna find out more, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial here:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

P.S. If you sign up for Ronin and make it past the first 7 days, write me and let me know. I’ve got some bonuses with your name on them.

My list swap outreach template

Today I wanna tell you about a free database of list swap partners, and how to actually use it to get others to promote you, even if your list is tiny.

First off, the database:

You’ve probably heard of it, because many list owners have promoted it over the past few months. It’s called List Match.

I’m late to the game of promoting List Match, but I will aim to make up for it.

Because since February, I have been signed up for List Match myself.

Thanks to that experience, I can tell you the good and the bad of List Match, and how you can turn the bad into great for you.

The good of List Match:

The people behind List Match keep promoting it. That means the platform is full of list owners who have said they want to run a list swap, and who have even gone through the trouble of signing up for an account and creating a profile.

The List Match database is fresh and more people keep getting added every week.

There are some whales on there, but most of the people on List Match have small audiences. (That fixes the problem of, “my list is too small for a list swap.”)

The bad of List Match:

List Match is hosted on Circle, which is community platform, and simply not a fit for a database tool like this.

People are supposed to “like” your automatically generated profile post, and then Circle is supposed to notify you, so you can somehow pick up the interaction.

I never get notified. Plus discovery of potential partners is inconvenient at best.

(I’ll tell you in a second the only decent way I’ve found to discover relevant newsletters on List Match).

How to turn the bad into great:

Like I said, the people behind List Match keep promoting and expanding the database. That means new people sign up, expecting others to reach out to them (that’s the official promise).

But because of List Match being on Circle and the tech problems around that, few if any of these list owners ever get any possible partners reaching out to them.

That becomes your opportunity, because this is effectively a starving crowd of people who have expressed interest in an outcome (list swaps), except nobody is satisfying that hunger for them.

My advice:

1. Get on List Match yourself

2. Once you’re on it, don’t just scroll through the hundreds of list owners on there. Instead, search the database using the search function for terms relevant to you.

(I just tried “email marketing” and found dozens of good people, including ones I have already done swaps with, bought ads from, have inside my Monetization Mastermind community, etc.)

3. Instead of relying on Circle’s unreliable “like” notifications, hoping that if you “like” somebody they will reach out to you, you reach out to them, and you do it off Circle.

(Yes, you have to be the one to take 100% of the initiative. But that’s precisely where the gold is, not just in this particular case, but everywhere else in life.)

List Match gives you the website of the person who wants to do a list swap.

Go to their website, find their contact email, or barring that, sign up to their list and then hit reply when you get the welcome email.

This bit of work is super likely to pay off. Again, these aren’t random list owners that you are cold-pitching for a list swap.

Instead, they are people who have expressly stated they are looking for list swaps… who have shared their list size so you know you are in the same ballpark… and who you have something in common with (you are both on List Match).

You can use these facts and your own copywriting or networking skill to craft a short outreach message to encourage these people to respond to you and to agree to a list swap.

Or if you like, I have a ready-made and proven list swap outreach email I’ve used in the past with another, earlier database of list swap prospects. You can use my outreach message instead of writing your own.

I used this outreach email to do a buncha list swaps for my now-dormant longevity newsletter.

Almost every list owner I reached out to with this message got back to me, and most people said yes, including when I had just a few subs.

My deal to you:

1. Sign up for List Match using my link here (it’s free): ​https://bejakovic.com/listmatch​

2. Forward me your account confirmation email (mine had the subject line, “Your account is ready”)

3. I will then send you the list swap outreach email I’ve used in the past, plus a templatized version you can fill in the blanks for and send out yourself

The daily email model is on its way out

A few days ago, I sent out an email asking my readers if they are still interested in sending daily emails for their business.

To which I got a reply from a genuine A-list copywriter who sometimes reads my daily emails, somebody with a history of top-level marketing results, who wrote:

“I don’t have time to get them. If there’s a way to subscribe to fewer I’d love that. They’re all quite good but it’s a time management thing. I believe with very few exceptions the daily email model is on its way out.”

That’s good to know.

In other news, last month, email marketer Liz Wilcox ran an affiliate contest to promote the yearly subscription of her membership.

Despite my distaste for affiliate contests, I decided to participate because the prize for the top affiliate was a solo email to Liz’s very responsive list of about 15k people.

A few days later, the results rolled in:

===

First prize (solo email to my list):

JOHN BEJAKOVIC

Second prize (1:1 session with me):

TARZAN KAY

Third prize ($100 gift card lottery winner):

CAT GRIFFIN

===

I didn’t know these other two people but I looked them up. Tarzan Kay sends weekly emails to a list that’s more than twice as large as mine (and that was recently “scrubbed” for engagement from a list that was almost 4x the size of mine).

As for Cat Griffin, she sends sporadic emails to her list and does most of her marketing on Instagram instead.

I don’t know how Tarzan and Cat promoted Liz’s offer to their audiences. I promoted it by sending a single daily email, and that was enough to win me the affiliate contest.

Point being:

1st place: Daily emails

2nd place: Weekly emails

3rd place: Sporadic emails

You can choose not to send daily emails because you’ve decided you have better, higher priority things to do.

That’s a legit decision to make.

And while the daily email model is on the way out, the same way that direct response copywriting, and marketing, and business more generally are on the way out…

I have personally found that relentless followup, relationship building, and continuous attempts at being present in prospects’ and customers’ lives, even if ignored or rebuffed by most of those people, still remain the most effective way of using email to make money.

If you’d like to start sending daily emails, so you can be in 1st place in your own niche, I have a daily email prompts service to help you do that:

https://bejakovic.com/deh