List Building

Cheap, easy, and definitely worth it

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A few days ago, I sent out a George Foreman-themed email asking for testimonials. Either for my newsletter and products… or for me personally.

I got back some good responses. Just what I was hoping for. For example, copywriter David Patrick wrote me to say:

“If John is behind anything, then I’m sure it’s going to be good. In fact, he may very well be the best thing to happen to America… at least when it comes to persuasion and influence! No, really!”

Others wrote in to say that I’m not only the best thing for America, but “maybe even the world”… that I am a “vital resource”… and one person, who shall remain unnamed, wrote in all seriousness with:

“John Bejakovic and persuasion. You can’t beat that. He made me like cats. Even though I used to hate them and they used to hate me. So he’s a great person to find out about a new product that’s about persuading stubborn prospects. Or cats.”

I also got less flamboyant, perhaps more useful testimonials. I will drip those out in good time, in upcoming emails and sales pages.

For today, I just want to point out something obvious that you might already know, but that I had to learn. In fact, I didn’t learn it until only a couple years ago, when I was writing a VSL for a get-rich-in-real-estate guru.

In one of his content videos, this real estate guru talked about his “buyers list” — the list of people you can flip a house to.

But a buyers list is so much more than that, the guru said.

​​He then rattled off all the connections, employees, business opportunities, sources of funding, and personal relationships that resulted from his list, and from the personal emails he would send to them on occasion.

“Huh, interesting,” I said, a dim light slowly flickering to life in my head.

​​Time passed. I stared into space.

​​The light flickered a little brighter. “Ohh… yeah… I get it now!”

Because it’s not just a “buyers list” that can do all that. It’s the same with any email list, when it’s built right and managed right.

The fact is, my newsletter list has given me — often without me even asking — business partners… JV partners… copywriting clients… consulting clients… free products… insider tips and valuable ideas I wouldn’t know about otherwise… job offers… podcast appearances… mastermind appearances… and many, many new relationships with people, some of whom even became my friends, mostly online, but in real life as well.

Like I said, I had to have somebody point this out to me. That a list is a relationship, and that it’s good for a lot more than just a certain kind of one-way traffic.

Maybe you’re amazed I could be so dense.

But I am far from a natural when it comes to promotion or marketing or business. And yet it doesn’t matter.

You can find a spot for yourself, and be successful in time, even if you’re not a natural showman, salesman, or “scheme” man.

Lots of people have walked the road before you. Many of them are willing to point out, sometimes even for free, just where you should put your feet to take the next step to success.

Such as for example, starting and running your own email list. It’s cheap. Easy to do. And it’s definitely worth it.

If you want to see, how I do it, sign up to my list. You might learn something about copywriting and marketing and business along the way. Here’s where to get started.

Why list building fails

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Today, I want to share an article with you. It’s all about list building and why it fails so often.

This article appeals to me because of my tortoise-like nature.
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But I want to share it with you also, because it might keep you from making frustrating mistakes that suck up years of your life… and it might help you achieve real success at some point.

The author of this article is contrarian marketer Sean D’Souza. Here’s the way Sean sets it up:

Whether you choose advertising or content marketing such as blogs, videos, podcasts etc., you’re almost always circling the airport. We know fully well that it takes time to get a business going, yet no one can tell us how much time it takes.

Which is why we fall for the nonsensical promise that even reputable marketers will make. They have no problem with suggesting that you can grow your list to 100,000 or that you can at least double or triple your list.

Instead of making any promises like the above, Sean’s article gives you a three-step plan, fit for tortoises, which actually works.

On a little side note:

I have the feeling that most people working in direct marketing or copywriting (or trying to break into it) are natural-born opportunity seekers.

I know this certainly includes me.

I get magnetically attracted to big promises involving secret mechanisms and push-button solution. Even though I should know better.

After all, as marketer Rich Schefren once said, opportunities don’t come disguised in a sales letter.

But they might come disguised in a blog post like Sean’s, if you’re willing to dig in and really do what he says. Here’s the link for when you’re ready:

https://www.psychotactics.com/list-building-failure/

My little-known history as an Amazon ebook hack

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A-list copywriter Bob Bly just sent out an email about the National Emergency Library. I’d heard of this initiative but I didn’t bother to look it up until now.

Turns out, the Internet Archive is scanning books and making them freely available online during the corona situation. That’s the National Emergency Library. To which Mary Rasenberger, director of the Authors Guild, said (and I quote from Bob’s email):

“[It is] no different than any other piracy sites. If you can get anything that you want that’s on Internet Archives for free, why are you going to buy an ebook.”

I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds like the old argument about sex and marriage. Why buy the cow, when there’s an app that hooks you up with free milk, even at 3am.

And yet… plenty of people are still getting married these days. How come? Riddle me that, Mary.

But seriously, here’s a little-known fact about me:

For about a year of my life, I eked a meager living by writing ebooks and selling them through Amazon Kindle publishing. (Don’t search for the books because they were all published under pseudonyms.)

I actually sold thousands of copies of these books — but it didn’t mean much. Kindle ebooks sell for a couple of bucks each.

Thing is, had I known as much about marketing back then as I do now, I wouldn’t have failed or given up on my Kindle publishing dreams.

That’s because selling books on Amazon (or really, on any outside platform) is not a good way to make money. It is, however, a fantastic way to get highly qualified leads who have tried a glass of your milk, and who want more.

That means you can get these folks over to your site and sell them more milk — maybe at a higher price than what Amazon encourages you to charge.

Why stop there though?

If somebody likes you and knows you and trusts you, why limit your offer to a carton or two of milk?

Instead, take your new-found customer by the hand to the back of your property… open the barn door… and introduce her to your gorgeous cow. It might be just the bovine your customer has been looking for all her life.

In other words, if the National Emergency Library, the National Milk Authority, or any other pirate institution starts giving away samples of your money-maker for free, it might not be the end of the world. It might even be the start of something great. As multi-millionaire marketer Joe Sugarman once said:

“Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem & turned it into an opportunity.”

How to make friends on Twitter

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A while back, Ben Settle wrote that if you go on Twitter right now, you can find pockets of people sharing really good ideas and trying to improve themselves.

So I created a Twitter account. I followed some people who seemed intelligent and reasonable. And after watching them bicker and henpeck each other for a few days, I gave up and closed down my account again.

I’m not sure what pockets of positivity Ben Settle was talking about, but Twitter ain’t it. Or so I thought, until today.

I was reading an article, which linked to another, which finally led me upon the site of one Alexey Guzey. I don’t know the guy from a hole in the ground, but he seems intelligent and reasonable. He writes well. And he’s very enthusiastic about the power of Twitter for meeting good people, learning interesting stuff, and improving yourself.

I’m not 100% convinced yet, but I might give Twitter another try. If I do, I’ll start by following Alexey Guzey.

If this has got you somewhat curious, then take a look at Alexey Guzey’s guide on how to make friends on the Internet. It includes pointers about using Twitter in a smart way, as well as a bunch of motivational case studies of valuable relationships he has made through the Great Twat. Here’s the link:

https://guzey.com/how-to-make-friends-over-the-internet/

How to astroturf your way to 6 million website visitors for $255

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At the end of 2016, a PR company called Hack PR had a problem.

They had launched a promo campaign for a rich but unknown political aspirant — but the campaign was going nowhere.

The CEO of the Hack PR was stressing out because his reputation was on the line. And so he decided to astroturf on Reddit.

In other words, he went on Reddit and posted a link to an article talking about the languishing promo campaign. He then went on Fiverr and bought all the Reddit upvote packages — for a total of $35.

Two hours later, his post was at the top of r/politics and had 500 comments. Media requests started pouring in.

And each time a new media outlet covered the campaign, Hack PR would repeat the process — post on Reddit, buy upvotes on Fiverr. They also started anonymously spamming a list of journalists with links to the trending articles.

All in all, over the course of 3 days and for a grand total of $255, Hack PR managed to get 6 million website visitors. They also got 4,000 very engaged email subscribers.

So what’s the point?

I’m not sure. I’m just impressed. And I plan to do more research about astroturfing, Reddit, and PR.

For now, if you want to see how you can communicate with a very engaged list of email subscribers and get them to further your cause (whatever that might be), you might like my upcoming book on email marketing:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/