List Building

My results on cold traffic vs. email

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This morning I woke up and checked my email to find a new sale notification. Daily Emails 101, $5. “Damn it,” I said.

For the past week, I’ve been running my “Daily Emails 101” offer to cold Meta traffic. Results as of this morning, when I shut the campaign down:

Outbound clicks: 195

Sales: 6

Conversion rate: 3.07%

I was doing this because I wanted to test if this offer had legs on cold traffic. It apparently does — only barely.

I was told that 3% to an ugly, unoptimized page, selling a $5 offer, is the minimum you should get if have any hope of eventually having the optimized funnel break even on cold traffic.

With today’s sale, I managed to squeeze in right at the buzzer. (I was going to run the campaign until 200 clicks and then stop.)

Compare that to the results I had when I made the exact same offer to my list about a month ago:

Outbound clicks: ~470

Sales: 155

Conversion rates: ~33%

The same dude whose “offer validation” process I’m following said that if you’re testing an offer to warm traffic like your email list, you should get at least a 20% conversion rate.

I got over 30%, which I think is a reflection of the quality of my list and the relationship I have with that list, thanks to emailing daily.

My point today is not about how wizardly I am at email marketing. My point is how email marketing, even when done at an average level, completely transforms the math of selling.

Same offer. Same copy. Only difference is cold audience vs. an audience that’s gotten a bunch of emails from you… and the result is 3% vs 20% conversion rate in the average case, or more if you’re willing.

This morning, when the 6th sale came in via cold traffic and I realized that my offer still has legs, I said “damn it” because it means I will now have to do all the work of building out the cold traffic funnel for real:

Better copy… order form bumps… upsells… more ads… constantly monitoring results… watching money drain out of my account and then maybe get replenished, maybe not… family drama… increased blood pressure… rising oil prices… basically pandemonium.

All that sounded exciting before I got started. Of course, now that I’m in it, it just seems like a ton of drudge work.

I’ll still do it, primarily because of ego. Because after being in direct marketing for 10+ years, it bothers me that I’ve never really “mastered traffic,” whatever that might mean.

But logically — logically — things are just so much easier and better on the back end.

It’s 10x easier to a sell a $5 offer to your email list than it is to cold traffic.

It’s perfectly legitimate to sell a $5k offer to your list with just a few emails (I’ve done it multiple times this year), while it’s impossible to do on cold traffic, at least directly (yes, you can do it as an upsell, but even that’s likely to require sales calls).

And the back end is just more fun — not everything needs to be a “template,” “swipe,” or “AI prompt,” the way it does on cold traffic.

It all starts by emailing your list regularly. Actually, not regularly. Daily. I don’t want to shortchange you.

You can get average results by emailing regularly, but you get top-tier results simply by showing up every day.

It’s not hard to do. In fact it’s even fun and after a while, liberating. You can get started today if you like, and if you want my help, there’s my Daily Email Habit service, which gets you writing daily emails, daily. For more info on that:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

How to grow your list 74 times more easily

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A couple days ago, a business owner I am coaching sold a 4-figure offer to his list for the first time. He wrote me over DM to say:

===

By the way this is the highest ticket offer I’ve ever sold. I can’t believe I’d need to sell 74 people on my previous low-ticket offer to equal this.

I mean

I suppose that’s how math works

===

Once upon a time, I heard a clever insight:

If you think you have a list growth problem, what you really have is an offer problem.

Think about it.

When you can reasonably hope to make a $1k sale each time you send an email, even if you have just 100 subscribers (a 1% conversion rate), growing your list to 1,000 or 10,000 subscribers becomes much easier.

When you can make good money even from a small list, then:

* You are more motivated to go out and network and get on podcasts and pump out content to get more subscribers

* You can afford to pay for ads, and the ads don’t have to be perfect to still work

* You can find partners who will happily tell their audience about you, in exchange for a cut of that good money that you’re making

If you think you’ve got a list growth problem, the way I figure, you’ve now got two options.

Option one is to nod and file this away into your mental folder of “worthwhile ideas to consider and to come back to at some point in the future.”

You can deal with the issue of creating a $1k offer in a couple weeks, or after Labor Day, or next year. After all, it’s summertime now, you’re prolly taking it a bit easy, and you might have other things on your mind.

Option two is to deal with this now. And NOW is a particularly good time for you to deal with this issue, not only because you can benefit now instead of later, but because now you can get my help.

Until tonight, Sunday, at 11:59pm PST, I am promoting Rob Goyette’s Fast Revenue Laser Coaching, the best and easiest method I know to create a $1k offer that 1) sells and 2) makes sense to deliver for $1k.

And as part of my promo, I’m offering to help you implement Rob’s system until you make $997 from it. For the full details:

https://bejakovic.com/announcing-fast-revenue-laser-coaching-and-my-bonus/

My list swap outreach template

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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

Doubles your clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates

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Today I’d like to tell you about a special deal on a plug-and-play mechanism that doubles your clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates.

To be honest, this plug-and-play mechanism is very likely to more than double your clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates.

But I didn’t want to scare you or get you suspicious by making outrageous promises right out the gate, like saying that this plug-and-play mechanism triples, quadruples, or quintuples your clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates.

Would you like to know what I’m talking about?

F.U.

I mean, Follow-Up.

(What did you think I meant?)

The fact is, if you have any kind of a way right now to start conversations with possible clients, or affiliate partners, or list swap deals, or dates, then I am certain you have had prospects and leads who have dropped off somewhere along the way.

That is normal.

What is not normal, or is at least a little bit odd, is that email marketers and email copywriters who will happily lecture you on the importance of emailing daily, of regular followup, when done behind the cover of a broadcast email software, are repelled and horrified by the idea of sending a direct 1-1 message to reengage a prospect who has dropped off or has failed to respond.

The fact is, business owners are busy. Business owners are forgetful. Business owners are lazy (yes, it’s absolutely true).

If a business owner you’ve been talking doesn’t reply to you, odds are excellent it has nothing to do with you or your proposal or offer. Odds are also excellent that they will eventually reengage if you keep following up with them, and they might even be grateful to you.

And yet, people don’t follow up.

I mean, will you run off right after you read this email and follow up with all the disappeared clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates you’ve talked to over the past 6 months or a year, before the conversation went cold?

I’m guessing not. Why is that?

I have my own theory. If you like, I’ll share it in a subsequent email.

But not today. Today I have for you the best deal in the history of 1-1 followup deals, which will soon disappear.

I’m talking about Nick Bandy’s Ghostbuster Sequence.

Nick’s Ghostbuster Sequence is a set of 6 simple, plug-and-play templates to follow up with lapsed, forgetful, or disappeared prospects for clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates.

These templates are proven (check out the sales page below). More than that, they also provide a certain psychological buffer to the intimidating act of 1-1 followup. Here’s what I mean:

1. Simply send what Nick gives you inside Ghostbuster Sequence.

2. If it doesn’t work, put all the blame on Nick and his templates.

3. If it does work, tap yourself on the back for a job well done, and take all the credit.

4. Whether it works or not, move on to the next lapsed prospect, and repeat the process.

Do this and I guarantee you, you will be a richer man or woman for it, and very soon.

Nick’s Ghostbuster Sequence currently sells for $54, which is close to criminally underpriced.

On Thursday, the price will go up to a slightly more reasonable $97.

That’s what I meant when I said this great offer is disappearing. And to give you a little bit of a gentle extra kick before it does disappear, I’ll throw in a bonus of equivalent real-world value.

If you get Nick’s Ghostbuster Sequence before this Thursday at 10pm EST, when the price will almost double, then I will also add in my Secret of the Magi, which tells you just one thing:

The biggest lesson I’ve personally learned about opening up conversations that can lead to business partnerships (and possibly dates).

(I learned this lesson through extensive cold emailing of business owners a couple years ago. Read all about it in the Secret of the Magi.)

With the Secret of the Magi, you can open a steady stream of conversations to either profit from directly, or to feed into Nick’s Ghostbuster Sequence in case the conversation goes cold.

Secret of the Magi currently sells on my site right now for $54, the same price as Nick’s Ghostbuster Sequence, at least before the price of Ghostbuster Sequence almost doubles.

But why pay more?

If you want a plug-and-play mechanism that doubles your clients, affiliate partners, list swap deals, and possibly dates, meaning Ghostbuster Sequence… and a way of opening such conversations to start with, meaning Secret of the Magi… here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/ghostbuster

P.S. Forward me your receipt from Nick and I will get you access to Secret of the Magi. I don’t have a better way to handle this right now.

Is your list too small for list swaps?

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For several decades now, I’ve been recommending list swaps as a way to grow your email list.

(List swap = you promote somebody else to your list, in exchange for them promoting you to theirs.)

The #1 objection I hear is:

“My list is too small to make it worth anybody’s while.”

How small is too small?

4 people?

100 people?

200 people?

I was recently on a call with a list owner who has a list of 1,500 entrepreneurs. He said he’s worried his list is too small to do list swaps!

That dude asked for my advice about approaching people for list swaps. What I told him is:

1. A fantastic lead magnet and solid emails will go a long way.

Right now, I’m doing a list swap with somebody who has a list of 150 people… because he’s willing to custom create a lead magnet I know my audience will get value from. Plus his emails are solid.

2. You can always offer to make things right.

If somebody’s list is bigger than yours, you can offer to promote them multiple times, now and then again in 6 months or in a year etc. (In the end, that’s the deal I ended up striking with the guy in point 1.)

3. Money can plug the gap. You can always offer to both promote the other person AND to pay them something to make the exchange more equitable.

So?

Are you convinced now?

Are you gonna rush out and start doing list swaps?

I hope so.

But if not, I gotta tell you my dark-psychology conclusion here:

I don’t think list size is really what’s holding people back from doing list swaps.

Rather, I think it’s the same old culprit that holds back pretty much everybody, pretty much all the time:

Fear of rejection.

Putting yourself out there… and having somebody tell you no or ignore you… and feeling so small and worthless because of it.

If that’s your situation, then I’d suggest, in the words of business coach Rich Schefren, that you put your business goals ahead of your personal development goals.

It would be great to not care about being rejected, or to just do stuff in spite of this fear.

But while you work on that, it can make sense to look for alternate routes to achieve your business goals.

I’d like to point you to an opportunity to do so right now.

Maliha Mannan, who runs the Side Blogger and who is a member of my Daily Email House community, has a list of 9,000 online creators and business owners and people who want to become such.

Maliha is auctioning off a classified ad spot in every Sunday edition of her newsletter… FOR THE REST OF THIS YEAR.

Bidding starts at $2.

More info here:

https://www.skool.com/anthill-club-6065/your-official-invitation-to-my-basementbackyard-party

Daily Emails 101

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Over the past few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time talking to Nick “The Knife” Bandy, and trying to persuade him to create a course that I want to buy and maybe even sell.

The background is that Nick has an email list, which he has been growing for the past year with a low-stress ad funnel to a low-ticket product that runs at a VERY slight profit, indefinitely.

In more specific numbers:

Nick’s low-stress ad funnel gets him about 100 new buyers on his list every month. And for every $1k Nick puts into this funnel, he gets $1.2k out before he’s even sent an email. He only checks in on it every few months.

Every time Nick mentions this ad funnel and this way of growing his list, my stomach growls and I start to salivate a little.

I’ve been trying to get him to create a course about this, because frankly I myself would love to have a similar funnel and would love to grow my list, with buyers, on autopilot, at profit. Come on!

The trouble is, Nick is kinda busy.

He’s got his regular $12k/month CMO retainer (part time, come on!)…

… he’s got partner revshare deals he has been kicking off…

… and because he has created one successful low-stress ad funnel, he has now decided to create a second.

I will keep pushing Nick, and maybe if I succeed, and he creates his course, I can make it available to you too.

Meanwhile, all I can do is daydream.

Today I was in the shower — no joke, and no direct response hyperbole — and I found myself thinking how I could create a low-ticket something called Daily Emails 101.

Daily Emails 101 would walk those who have or want to have an online business through the first 101 days of writing and making sales with a daily email newsletter.

Daily Emails 101 would be the most wonderful, exciting, and nichiest guide to this niche topic, and I’d make sure it inspires as well as informs.

Is this something you would want?

I mean, if I were to create Daily Emails 101, and if I were to promise to get you a deal on it that nobody else will get, not outside of this email, would you put down, say, $5 today to have the option to buy Daily Emails 101?

Hit reply and let me know.

If you say yes, and you’re serious enough to put down $5, maybe I’ll create it… maybe I will sell it to you for an unimaginably sexy price when it’s done… and maybe, when Nick does create his “low-stress ad funnel that grows your list at a profit” course, I will be ready to unleash it on the world, a few copies at a time (I’ll even put your name inside of it to say thanks).

I’m jealous of this lead gen funnel

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Last August, I promoted Igor Kheifets’s $3.99 book, Click Send Earn, as an affiliate.

$3.99? As an affiliate?

Yes. Because Igor pays out a $30 affiliate commission for each $3.99 sale.

The result was I sent two emails, and made Igor 69 sales, while making a little short of $2100 in commissions for myself.

Igor has got a super smart lead gen funnel here, and the offer he makes — $3.99 sale, $30 CPA — has gotten a buncha other list owners besides me interested in promoting.

Maliha Mannan of the Side Blogger promoted, as did Csaba Borzasi, as did Lawrence Bernstein of Ad Money Machine, with a promo that did so well last October that he is reprising it right now, just three months later.

The reason Igor can offer to pay all these folks $30 for each $3.99 sale is that he has a half dozen order form bumps and a long list of upsells once people buy the book.

Igor knows what a new customer in this funnel is worth to him, and I suspect it’s over $30. Of course, each new customer becomes worth much more when they get on Igor’s email list and are getting exposed to Igor’s back-end offers, many of them high-ticket, which Igor knows to convert.

I am frankly jealous of Igor for this funnel. I would love to have affiliates jostling and clamoring to promote either of my two books, or the new book I’m planning to publish this year.

But who’s got time and energy enough to create and dial in all these order bumps… and upsells… and copy… and funnels… and back-end offers?

Igor does, apparently.

And he does it while working 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, and having a family, and two kids, and writing and publishing comic books, and playing video games, and watching Netflix.

It wasn’t always like this.

Igor used to work 70+ hour weeks on his biz. He was grinding and hustling and making $130k a year. That might sound like a dream to you except it really wasn’t, considering how much he was working, and how little he was able to enjoy it. Plus he was making literally 3% of the $4.3 million he makes a year now.

Today, Igor works much less, gets much more done, makes much more money, and enjoys his free time without thinking about working or feeling guilty for not working.

I’m telling you this because this past November, Igor did a masterclass covering his system for getting more done in less time. He documented the exact productivity system that took him from A to B, from overworked and underpaid to having lots of free time and making a lot of money and publishing comic books.

I’ve been through Igor’s masterclass. I’m taking ideas from it. I’m applying them to what I do.

And starting tomorrow, since it’s the fresh start of a New Year, I will be promoting this system to you as well.

Of course, there will be a special deal.

Of course, there will be bonuses.

Of course, there will be a bit of a party theme, it being only a few days after New Year’s Eve. But party theme or not, the promise here is serious:

Work less, get more done, and feel zero guilt when you’re not working.

If that’s something that makes your subtle body tingle, then read my email tomorrow.

Do you NOT (or would you NEVER) sell ads in your newsletter?

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Yesterday, I asked whether you do (or would) sell ads in your newsletter?

I got some folks replying to say yes:

#1. Open to it across all of my media. I have 3 newsletters, 2 with about 40k subs and one with about 2k paid subs. Also IG with about 100k followers, YT with about 40k subs, Linked in about 30k followers. Also interested in buying ads in newsletters.

#2. Id be open it to. But I’m starting from scratch again (sort of) growing an email list of business owners, and copywriters instead of just investors… So interested in buying ad space perhaps

#3. I would. I’ve done it several times in the past, especially for my PowerPoint email list, but not recently.

That’s great, and I’ll add these folks to the newsletter ad sellers resource I’m putting together.

At the same time, I was shocked at how few people replied.

Is it that so few people with email lists read my emails? If so, then I’m doing something very wrong with what I write and sell and preach.

Or maybe it’s that the list owners who read these emails simply find the idea of running ads a no-go?

In that case, it’s a matter of my professional pride, as a self-employed investigative journalist, to find out more.

If you have an email list, and currently do NOT or would NEVER sell ads, either as a matter of principle, or from simple intuition, I’d love to know why.

Hit reply and let me know.

I’m not promising anything in return, except that I won’t try to convince or persuade you to change your mind on anything. I simply want to listen and understand your point of view better. Thanks in advance.

Do you (or would you) sell ads in your newsletter?

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There’s a lot of interest in growing email lists via newsletter ads.

But there’s no good centralized resource of quality newsletters that offer ad spots.

And many list owners who would be open to running ads don’t advertise or even consider the fact.

Which got me wondering… do you sell ad spots in your newsletter? Or would you be open to it?

It could be a “classified ad” — a few lines of copy, tacked on to the rest of your regular newsletter content…

Or it could be “advertorial style” — a full email, dedicated to just the offer being advertised, written in your own words or voice.

And in case you don’t yet offer ads, but now I got you thinking about it, let me address a couple cloudy doubts that might be forming in your mind:

1. You always have the right to refuse an advertiser, so you only promote people who you can can vouch for, because they deliver good content & value.

2. Your list doesn’t need millions or billions of names to be interesting to advertisers. A huge list made up of a buncha bums is a pointless place to advertise. On the other hand, a small and highly engaged list, made up of quality people, can be plenty interesting to advertisers.

So do you (or would you) sell ads in your newsletter?

If so, hit reply and let me know. I’m putting together a little resource of newsletters that are open to sponsors or advertisers, and I’ll add you to it.

(And if you don’t have a newsletter, but do have an audience in some other shape — a community or podcast or YouTube channel — write in and let me know that also.)

Thanks in advance.

2 simplifying questions to ask yourself

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I was waiting in the line at the coffee shop this morning. The barista was making a latte with oat milk for another customer, and she looked up at me.

“Coffee?” she asked.

I nodded and said yes.

“Well?” she said with a bit of frustration in her voice, waving her hand to indicate I should be a bit more specific than that.

I’m telling you this fascinating story because I want to set up something email-marketing related.

I’ve been running my revived Daily Email House group for a few weeks. I invited people to post about problems they are having, and see if the group can help. Came the following problem:

===

How do I grow my list? That’s my biggest problem.

===

“Well?” I said when I read this question, waving my hand to indicate that the question-asker should be a bit more specific than that.

If you’re reading this right now, odds are excellent that you already know two dozen perfectly good ways to grow an email newsletter. Maybe more.

The fact is, there are hundreds and possibly thousands of ways to grow an email list. Many of them can work great. What’s more, there’s a ton of good and free information online about how to put most of them into practice.

And I guess therein lies the trouble. There are simply too many choices, including too many good choices, when it comes to growing an email list.

It paralyzes people, the same way that a choice of two dozen sourced coffees from around the world… prepared with two dozen different techniques including V60s and aeropresses and pretentious pourovers… resulting in two dozen final products like lattes and batch brews and cortados and americanos… can paralyze people, if they don’t already know exactly what they want.

To help with that (not the coffee, but the list growth), let me propose two simplifying questions:

1. “Which platform do I believe in?”

A “platform” is any technology or site or organization that’s already got the attention of some humans. Here are few examples:

– Facebook

– YouTube

– Substack

– Google

– Amazon

– Pinterest

– Email newsletters

– Yellow Pages

– AM radio

– your local Chamber of Commerce

…

Pick a platform from the list above, or some other platform you believe in. You can believe in it because you believe it has staying power… because you feel some affinity for it… because you think that the kinds of people you want to attract are there… or ideally all three.

2. “Do I prefer to pay with money or time?”

You have to pay, unfortunately.

The question is whether you’d rather pay with a dozen hours a month spent creating content, or reaching out to people one-on-one, or building yourself up to be a more attractive and fascinating person…. or whether you’d rather spend a few hundred dollars a month to get the platform owners to push your message out for you.

There are pros and cons to both paying with money or time, including ones which are nonobvious.

For now, just go with your gut. You probably have a sense of which one is a less painful cost to you to pay each month — a dozen hours of your time, or a few hundred dollars from your wallet.

Once you have your two answers to the question above, the path will be clear. You will know what to do — again, most of the details are out there on the Internet, and it’s just a matter of committing to it and following through.

But what if you pick the wrong platform, or you start to pay with one currency and you realize you made a mistake, and you want to switch?

It’s not really a big problem. Anything you do will be infinitely better than doing nothing, and pivoting to a new platform, or switching from paid in time to paid in money, or vice versa, is pretty straightforward.

Did this help?

I hope so.

But if not, my Daily Email House community is still there, waiting to help people who want to use their email list to pay for a house.

Over the next few days, I will be releasing a Daily Email Habit Starter Pack, including a proven way to grow your email list, which is based on my own personal answers to the two questions above.

If you’d like to get inside Daily Email House in time to get this Starter Pack:

https://bejakovic.com/house