Direct Marketing Predictions

How to avoid disappointing readers and burning yourself with “secrets”

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If you go on Amazon right now and look at the top 15 bestsellers in the Internet Marketing category, you will see a curious thing:

6 of those 15 books have a title of the form “[Topic] Secrets.” So there’s Traffic Secrets, YouTube Secrets, Instagram Secrets, plus three others.

Obviously, “secret” is a powerful word in direct marketing. It goes back to Robert Collier at least, who published a book called The Secret of the Ages back in 1926.

In the decades since, you had Gary Halbert with his sequence of “amazing secret” ads… Boardroom’s collection of “secrets” books… and today, Agora’s newest imprint in the IM space, which has a newsletter called Daily Insider Secrets.

Like I said, secrets obviously sell. Then and now.

And yet, I’m writing this email to warn you about “secrets.”

For one thing, “secrets” can make you sound like everybody else. 6 out of 15, remember?

For another, “secrets” might attract the wrong kinds of buyers. They might also put the right kinds of buyers into the wrong frame of mind.

For a third thing, and most important, relying on words like “secrets” can allow you to coast instead of coming up with better content. For example, here are some of the secrets from one of those Amazon best-sellers:

“Secret #1: What is copywriting?”
“Secret #13: It’s all about them — never about you”
“Secret #31: Polish your sales copy”

I don’t know how chipper you would have to be to avoid getting down in the mouth when this treasure chest of secrets is opened up.

But what’s the problem? The book is a best-seller, right?

In my experience, being on an Amazon best-seller list doesn’t mean much. But even if this book were a legit best seller, putting out generic content and calling it a secret leaves you wide open to competition. Your only defense is this thin mist of curiosity, which can dissipate in a moment.

Maybe I’m digging myself into a moralizing hole. So let me finish up by telling you what I tell myself, because it might resonate:

Put in a bit of extra work to come up with unique content and a unique perspective. Once you’ve got that, if it warrants being called a “secret,” then sear that on its rump and let it run.

But odds are, once you’ve done that bit of extra work, you’ll come up with a better, more interesting title or headline for your content. Maybe you’ll even start a new naming trend. One which half a dozen Amazon best-sellers will copy for years to come.

By the way, I’ve also got a daily email newsletter. It’s called John Bejakovic’s Newsletter of Secrets. You don’t have to sign up. But if you want to read all the secrets inside, here’s where to go.

An imminent prediction about a 10x opportunity that solves an urgent problem

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A few days ago, I was chatting to a friend. She said she’s got “thanatophobia.” I looked it up. It means a fear of death.

Then today, I was reading through YouTube comments. “If you don’t like the sound of people whistling,” wrote one of the commenters, “you’ve probably got misophonia.”

I looked that up, too. It’s when a sound irritates you more than it should.

Here’s a third affliction I only just found out about:

Cyberchondria. That’s the condition when you latch on to a newfangled term, found on the Internet, which gives a Greek name to symptoms of being alive.

But let’s change tack for a second.

A while back, copywriter Roy Furr wrote that there are only three types of big ideas for sales letters:

1. Solve an urgent problem
2. Present a 10x opportunity
3. Make an imminent prediction

So let me make an imminent prediction for you:

Rates of cyberchondria will rise dramatically over the next year. Society will become more atomized, isolated, and socially distanced. People will suffer as a result. And they will want answers.

So if you want a 10x opportunity, simply keep an eye out. New terms will pop up to describe bad feelings you’ve sensed but never articulated. These new terms — and the urgent problems behind them — could be your new big idea.

As marketer Rich Schefren says over and over, “That which is most personal, is most general.” And if it has a scientific-sounding name, that certainly helps.

Do you have unexplained symptoms of malaise, boredom, or irritability? I don’t know the cause. But I might have a cure: Click here and subscribe to my daily email newsletter.