Offers

How to get your list to pay you to create your own lead magnet

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A couple days ago, brand strategist Chavy Helfgott posted a little case study in my Daily Email House community. Maybe it’s something you can profit from.

Chavy wrote:

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I’ve been working with John on monetizing my list, and after several weeks of asking lots of questions to my readers, we realized the following:

1) Creating a lead magnet was something that would solve problems for many of my readers

2) I myself don’t have a proper lead magnet with which to steadily grow my list with high quality subscribers

So – John conceived of the idea of running a live cohort for a minimal price, in which I would build a lead magnet for myself while showing the cohort members my process, and giving them feedback as they create theirs.

Jan 29 – initial tease to my list and LinkedIn to gauge interest

Feb 4 – official “launch” with an email describing the live cohort

Feb 13 – registration closed

Total marketing: 12 emails to my small list & 10 LinkedIn posts

Zero ad spend.

15 days from concept creation to launch closing.

4 cohort members paying me $99 each.

Our first call is on Monday, and I’ve already built a template that is on its way to becoming my first sellable info-product.

And of course, I started creating my own lead magnet, which will probably be a summary of this lead magnet building process.

So – if you, too, are a barefoot shoemaker, perhaps you can also let your audience pay for the privilege of coming along for the ride as you make your own shoes.

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Like Chavy says, we all have important things we want to do, need to do, aren’t doing….

… so why not create an offer out of it?

You can do like Chavy is doing, and run a cohort program. Charge people some nontrivial but very easy price, and guide them through the same process you are following.

It makes sure you do what you need to do, plus it builds an offer for you, plus it gets you buyers you can sell other things to.

Pr you can do like I’m doing with my “Behind The Scenes” auction.

Fact is, for the past few months now, I’ve been creating “systems” docs for several things I do or want to do better, in which I put real-world data, make hypotheses based on that data, and create systems that get me better results over time.

I’ve created such “systems” docs for promos, for followup, and for auctions, among other things.

Except, I’m not as diligent as I should be at updating these docs and putting in the data and making hypotheses and creating ever better systems.

So I figured, why not turn my “auction systems” doc into an offer, take other people for the ride, get paid a bit of money to actually do what I should be doing?

That’s what’s happening tomorrow.

In case you missed my emails about it over the past few days… I’ll be running an auction.

Bidding starts at $1.

The offer on auction is the “Behind The Scenes” of the auctions I have run already and will be running (I currently have 8 auction partners who are at various stages, and all are still moving forward).

The “Behind The Scenes” I will share will include offers on auction (both public and private)… sales numbers… interesting marketing… sales DMs… “day after” conclusions… along with the “auction system” I am devising based on all this data.

I’m thinking to make bonuses available as well for tomorrow’s auctions, Such as, how I have and will be getting auction partners… a live ride-along with me on an auction, plus a share of the money made… and other bonuses that are suggested by auction participants in real time.

Maybe tomorrow’s auction will be a flop, and winning bid ends up at $13.

Maybe I will be able to do like Chavy, and make a bit of cash, a few hundred dollars or more, by taking people along for the ride with me.

In any case, I figure I will get something out of it, in the form of the “auction systems” doc I should be creating anyhow, plus data (from tomorrow’s auction) that I can put into that doc to make my auction systems better.

If you’d like to participate in the auction (I will have a prize for anyone bidding), here’s where the auction will go down, tomorrow, Tuesday, at 7pm CET/1pm EST/10am PST:

https://t.me/+_qLpIllO2IZlM2Q0

Final call for… my unnamed “get you a $1k+ offer” level-up

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Final call?

For ever? For ever ever?

I don’t know. Let’s see. It’s definitely the final call for this first cohort, which will kick off next Tuesday, February 3.

In case you have successfully managed to avoid all my emails over the past few days:

I’m offering to help you create and sell a 1k+ offer, and to do it over the next few weeks.

The way to do it is to package up your knowledge and help, not as “coaching,” which so many people try offering, without success…

… but as the guaranteed solution to ONE core problem that people on your list have.

This is good for the people you sell to, and it’s good for you too.

For them, it:

* Solves a legit and nagging problem

* Gets them a result quickly

* Is an easier decision than the vague, seemingly “forever” investment of coaching

For you, it:

* Makes you feel good about working with people you can help and get results for

* Gets you paid

* Gets you customers who have had a great experience with you, and who will likely want to pay you again in the future to solve their next problem

For this first cohort, I’m asking that you have an email list that you write to regularly, with ~500 people opening your emails whenever you send.

If you have that, and if you like the idea of having an offer you can sell for $1k+, 3-5 times a month, then hit reply and tell me so, and I’ll be in touch.

Do you make these mistakes in guarantees?

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A few days ago, inside my Daily Email House community, I invited people to share:

1. “The most you’ve ever spent on a single book, course, or coaching that got you EQUIVALENT OR GREATER value”

2. “The most you’ve ever spent on a single book, course, or coaching that got you ZERO value”

The responses were interesting and revealing. (It might be worth asking your own audience, either via email or in your community, to share the same.)

One of the responses was from a House member whose worst high-ticket purchase was a £1300 program to help build an online fitness business.

Why was this the worst?

Says the House member:

“2 weeks in, I realised this was not what I wanted to do and literally just quit. Didn’t even bother trying to get my money back because it was 100% my fault.”

This speaks to my experience with money-back guarantees.

I personally never get reassured when I see an offer with a money-back guarantee because I know will most likely never claim it, even if I never open up the product… or if I open it and find it disappointing… or if I simply decide it’s not for me.

And vice versa.

I don’t offer money-back guarantees on the stuff I sell. But I have heard-tell that people who are reassured by money-back guarantees tend, more than the mean, to make for bad long-term customers.

My point today is that risk reversal can be done differently, without promising money back.

It can be done in a way that reassures good prospects, and doesn’t reassure or invite bad prospects.

For example, there’s the guarantee I made during the “I endorse you” auction I ran last month. The guarantee there was to keep working with and promoting the winner (The Amazing Nick Bandy) until I’ve paid back the entire winning bid.

(So far, I’ve been working behind the scenes with Nick, and setting the stage for him to make his $31k, and then some, back.)

As a second example, there is what I’m doing now with the “Get you a $1k+ offer” offer I have been talking about for the past week. As a reminder, this offer is for you if:

– You have tried offering coaching in the past, or are trying to offer it now, without much success, and…

– You have a small but dedicated list of readers, meaning 500 or more folks who open your emails whenever you send one.

If that’s you, then what I’m offering is to help you repackage “coaching” into a simple 1k+ offer that actually sells for you, and to keep helping you until you’ve sold $10k of your new offer.

Sounds attractive? Then hit reply and let me know.

If I’m actually suited to help you get to where you wanna go, I’ll share the full details of this offer… including how I’m taking the risk from your shoulders and putting it onto mine, and how I’m tying my success to your success.

Why I keep putting “coaching” in quotes

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Yesterday, a long-time reader and customer wrote in, with confusion about my current offer to help you turn “coaching” into a simple $1k+ offer:

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I guess I don’t know why “coaching” is in quotes. Is this to sell coaching? Part-time coaching? There is something I’m missing or don’t understand about the offer.

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It takes a big man to admit he has been making a mistake in his emails for a week or more, and to apologize for failing his readers.

Fortunately, I am not a big man, so you don’t have to listen to me apologize or admit to anything.

Instead, I can tell you I’ve been reading a book about marketing (I know, what’s new).

Says the book, there’s gold in what your marketplace tells you, not directly when you ask, or in formal situations like when they decide to sit down and write you a testimonial. Instead, there’s gold in unguarded moments, in casual comments, in the tone in which they write in and ask questions or reply to your emails.

In short, you gotta read between the lines.

Looking at my reader’s comment above, my reading between the lines is of frustration.

My further reading (ok, guessing) is that this frustration is due to being both intrigued by my offer and being unable to make a yes or no decision on it.

And getting still further in between the lines, I’m fully guessing this inability to decide is because my reader cannot tell if this offer I’ve been talking about is intended for him or no.

Am I right in my reading between the lines?

I have no idea. But let me try to be explicit about who this offer is for and who it’s not for, and see the result.

If:

– You have tried offering coaching in the past, or are trying to offer it now, without much success, and

– You have a small but dedicated list of readers, meaning 500 or more folks who open your emails whenever you send one…

… then what I’m offering right now is for you. My offer is to help you repackage “coaching” into a simple 1k+ offer that actually sells, and to keep helping you until you’ve sold $10k of your new offer.

On the other hand, if you don’t have a list, or you never write them, or you have no interest in working with any of the folks on your list directly and 1-1, then I’ll be useless to you, at least in my current incarnation.

As for why “coaching” is in quotes… from that same book I’m reading:

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Want to know what separates the experts who have people begging to buy from the ones who struggle to make sales?

It’s not their expertise.

It’s not their marketing.

It’s not even their solutions.

It’s knowing exactly how to package what they know into the perfect next step.

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That’s why I keep putting “coaching” in quotes. Because “coaching” stands for a specific way to package up and publicly present what you know.

It’s not the only way.

If offering “coaching” hasn’t been working for you, I’m offering you a new way. A way to package up what you know into the perfect next step for people in your audience, one that you can realistically and congruently charge $1k+ for, and that the right people will readily say yes to.

If that’s something you are interested in, then hit reply, and write me some lines that I can read between.

$13k of existing, hidden demand

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Today, first I got a self-serving testimonial to put in front of you, and then I will tell you something possibly illuminating, which that testimonial is proof of.

Over the past couple months, I’ve been helping several folks repackage their non-selling “coaching” into a sexy, specific, sellable $1k+ offer.

One person I’ve been helping is “Rebelpreneur” Gasper Crepinsek.

I started worked with Gasper on this back in mid-December. Over the following few weeks, Gasper’s offer gradually came together, and he put it in front of his audience. He DM’ed me last week with an update of results so far:

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On a separate note:

We sold $13K+ with the first launch of this new offer. Not all cash collected (some split into payment plan).

Which is a great result by itself. And feel free to use it in your marketing.

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Now as promised, here’s the possibly illuminating thing that Gasper’s testimonial is proof of:

I was privy to Gasper’s launch emails. He sent out 3-4 emails to his list, basically telling people the outcome of his $1k+ offer, with various levels of detail of how that outcome will be reached, from “no detail” to “quite a bit of detail.”

The key being, Gasper was not “creating demand” through subtle and patient marketing.

Rather, he was simply tapping into existing demand, by basically asking people if they want what he has to sell.

In his case, that existing demand turned out to be worth $13k this month, and will almost certainly be worth more $k next month, when he reopens his offer.

The same is very likely true of you.

If you have a small but dedicated audience, you have untapped demand on there.

There are people on your list right now who are open to buying — or are even actively looking to buy — from somebody who can help them solve their problems.

Those people will buy from somebody. Maybe not today. Maybe next week, or next month. But that demand will go somewhere.

Point being:

If you put together a sexy offer, that somebody can be you.

As I’ve done with Gasper, I’ll be working with a few more people in February to help them repackage “coaching” into a $1k+ offer.

Would you like to use your knowledge and skill to help people in your audience get results?

Would you like to have a $1k+ offer, which you can sell 3-5 times a month, and which you can deliver in 6 or fewer hours to start, and in less and less time with each subsequent sale?

Would you like my help in getting there?

If you would, hit reply, and let’s see if I’m a good fit to get you results.

Really great price on coaching

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I talked to a dude recently who has made a new coaching offer to his list, with 1-1 access to him, in various formats, for a full year, at a really great price.

Nobody bought.

Now here’s a marketing and psychology truth that took me embarrassingly long to learn:

If you offer people a really great price on something they don’t want to buy, the really great price won’t make them want to buy it either.

That’s why discounting fails to drive sales in so many situations. Discounting only works when people want the thing being sold, and they value it at the full price you claim for it.

But back to coaching.

As I’ve been croaking about for a few weeks now, nobody really wants “coaching.”

Yes, some people manage to sell “coaching” because they have so much status, authority, and relationship with their audience. In those situations, their coaching clients are effectively buying the coach, and the relationship with that coach, rather than the coaching itself.

That’s definitely a nice position to be in.

But what if you don’t have that level of status, authority, and relationship with your audience yet?

The fix is simple, and can be executed quickly. It’s to sell people something they actually want to buy, and which they value at the price you ask for it.

This is how you go from trying and failing to sell “coaching,” which people don’t want even at a really great price… to having a $1k+ offer, which you can make 3-5 sales of each month, and which is both easier to sell and deliver than “coaching.”

Maybe you’re interested in how to implement this fix, which I claim is “simple, and can be executed quickly.”

I’ve prepared a 1-page overview of how to do it, a process I’ve guided a few people through already.

I’m begrudgingly willing to share this 1-page overview with you.

If you like what you read, you’ll have the opportunity to work with me directly in February, to implement this for yourself and your own list.

Or of course, you can just run with it yourself.

In case you’re interested in the 1-page overview, hit reply, tell me you want it, and I’ll get it to you.

You’re probably creating too many products

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I’m reading a book by a successful direct marketer. A few nights ago ago, I came across the following provocative statement:

“Creating too many products is one of the biggest mistakes marketers make. Customers become overwhelmed too easily.”

The fix, according to this guy, is to have a few products — three is enough — and to do a thorough job selling them, by changing the hook, the segment you’re targeting, your method of selling. The guy gives an example:

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I ran two campaigns, back-to-back.

The first was a seven-day webinar that talked about a hot new niche that’s taking the Internet marketing community by storm. The day after that promo ended, I launched another promotion, similar to the one I’ll reveal in the next chapter.

In both cases, I was selling the exact same product. Same exact offer and price point. But I used two different hooks and two different strategies (webinar vs. mini group).

The first promotion generated $180k in up-front sales… and… the follow-up promotion generated over $200k.

If I had just promoted the webinar and concluded that I had pulled all the sales out of my list, I would have lost out on $200k.

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been getting people to raise their hand if they’ve tried offering coaching to their list, and if they only heard crickets as a result.

My solution to this cricket cacophony is to repackage and reposition “coaching” into a $1k+ offer to solve a specific problem. Doing this makes both selling and delivery easier.

But here’s the crucial thing, and how this ties into the “too many products” idea above:

If you figure out a solid way to solve a problem for one segment of your audience… chances are excellent that have you just “created” a half dozen successful new offers, which you can sell in the future, with minimal tweaking of the underlying product, just by changing the hook, the segment you’re targeting, or your method of selling.

As one example, the product I have created as the solution to the “coaching crickets” problem is something I will pitch in the future to:

– People who hear crickets when they pitch “consulting”

– People who have a small list and want to monetize it quickly

– List owners (including those with big lists) who are only selling low- and mid-ticket offers, and are frustrated by it

– People who have a cold traffic funnel that is working but which they cannot scale (hello Nick)

– Freelancers who cannot get their audience to take them up on their services

– Freelancers who want income stability

– Community owners who want to monetize their group

– etc.

But… forget I said any of that. At least for now.

Because for now, I am only focused on list owners who pitched “coaching” to their list… and heard crickets as a result.

If that’s you, I have a solution, which I’m happy to share with you in the form of a 1-page overview.

If you like what you read, you’ll also have the opportunity to work with me directly in February, to implement this for yourself and your own list.

In case you’re interested in the 1-page overview, hit reply, tell me you want it, and I’ll get it to you.

How to sell a $1k+ coaching program without testimonials

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I’ll tell you in a a sec how to sell a $1k+ coaching offer without testimonials. But first lemme tell you a related and intriguing list-building tactic.

It comes courtesy of marketer Kevin Hood, who shared it inside my Daily Email House community a couple days ago. It goes like this:

1. Come up with a list of “mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive buyer personas” who could potentially be interested in what you offer (Kevin used AI, but you can use… other methods also)

2. Come up with a list of “pain points, desires, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings” those people might have

3. Go on social media and write 100s of tweets or threads or stories or whatever and combine one item from list 1 and one item from list 2 in a statement that looks like:

“If you spent your 20s or 30s digging yourself into debt but deep down you desperately want to become financially free, I hope you find my page.”

Says Kevin:

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Where most posts get 500-1000 views.

These get thousands.

No matter your follower count.

This is a real post from one of my clients who teaches Financial Independence and investing, and it got 189,000 views while generating 1,600 new followers for his account. And while we can’t be 100% precise on measuring email subscribers according to individual posts, the estimate is around 100 new email subscribers from this post alone.

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I don’t know what Kevin client’s “my page” looks like. Maybe it has some testimonials. Maybe it has a unique mechanism for how he financially frees 20- and 30-somethings from debt. Maybe it features risk-reversal copy such as, “Sign up to my newsletter and if you don’t like my emails, you get to come to my house and kick me in the shin.”

Whatever. All those things are nice addons.

But the fact remains, specificity, and in particular double-specificity like Kevin is using, is a powerful way of drawing attention… creating interest and desire… and providing proof. Even if you have nothing else going on.

Now back to coaching programs.

Q: How do you sell a $1k+ coaching program without testimonials?

A: You rely on other forms of proof.

There’s many, beyond testimonials. In particular, there’s specificity. I’ll leave you with a riddle related to that:

If you’re looking to monetize your list with a $1k+ offer… if you tried offering “coaching” or “mentoring” to your list before but got zero takers… then how do you figure out what specific or double-specific segment of your audience to appeal to in order to actually make some sales?

I’ll give you a hint about my thinking.

My recommendation is not to do what Kevin did, and use AI to come up with a bunch of stuff that you throw at the wall to see if it sticks.

My recommendation is also not to use your own creativity and brainpower, to sit and introspect what specific segment you could appeal to.

If you eliminate both of those options… then what’s left as a means of determining which specific people you could help with your $1k+ coaching offer?

If you like, guess what I have in mind, write in and tell me so, and I’ll tell you quick whether you got it or no.

Last call for 1-Person Advertorial Agency & my bonuses

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It’s 10:32 pm on Saturday night as I write this. I’m having my chamomile tea. I’m eyeing my Kindle longingly. Frankly I had been hoping to skip writing this final email BUT—

Every time I’ve sent an email this week about the 1-Person Advertorial Agency, I’ve made multiple sales.

People want this offer.

And so, in respect to the spirit of Gary Halbert, who said you keep mailing an offer for as long as it keeps making money…

… in due deference to my own pocket book, which is always hungry for a little more cash…

… and also with your best interest in mind, in case this offer could be useful to you, but you haven’t given it proper consideration until now…

… let me say this is your last call.

The deadline to get 1-Person Advertorial Agency + my bonuses is tonight at 12 midnight PST, a short 5 hours from the time this email, scheduled as it soon will be, will go out.

This is the last email I will send about it. (Even if it ends up driving in multiple sales. Sorry Gary!)

All week long, I’ve been saying 1-Person Advertorial Agency is the hottest opportunity for copywriters in 2026.

You can get the full details about this offer at the sales page below.

If you act before the deadline, I am also offering the following bonuses:

#1 Horror Advertorial Swipe File, which you can feed to the AI beast so it produces better, or rather, more horrifying advertorials

#2. 26 Rules of Client Management for Copywriters, taken from my Copy Zone guide to the business side of copywriting

#3. Most Valuable Postcard #1: Nota Rapida, which digs into the topic of building long-term relationships with copywriting clients much more deeply

#4. Ghostbuster, Nick Bandy’s 5-stage sequence for reactivating (reanimating?) dead clients or prospective clients

If you want to get in in the little time that remains, before the church bells toll, the wolves start howling, and the gates shut you out:

https://bejakovic.com/advertorial-agency

Free 3-step plan to get more testimonials, perform an X-ray of your market, have buyers recommit to what they just bought from you, and possibly even drive more sales

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Here’s a 3-step plan to get more testimonials, perform an X-ray of your market, have buyers recommit to what they just bought from you, and possibly even drive more sales:

STEP 1. Sell an offer.

STEP 2. Offer people a bonus if they buy the offer now.

STEP 3. When people buy, send them an email with the promised bonuses. At the top of that email, paste in the following mystical, secret, wizard-like spell:

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Thanks for taking me up on [the name of your offer].

I’m curious, what made you do it?

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Yes, that’s it.

Yes, I can see your jaw drop and your eyes roll back in your head from mock amazement.

All I can say is, don’t knock it till you try it.

I’ve been doing this all week long with people who took me up on my recommendation for the 1-Person Advertorial Agency.

As usual when I interact directly with people on my list, I’ve been blown away by how little I know, how pale my own imagination, and how rich and surprising it is to go out to my market and talk to them.

You want examples?

I’ve gotten a dozen responses so far, with varying answers to “What made you do it.” Three categories have been prevalent so far:

A. The opportunity of the beast

This being a biz-in-a-box offer, it’s inevitable that people would cite the opportunity of it. Ok, that’s not surprising. But still, it’s different and more insightful to hear it in people’s own words:

#1. “I still don’t plan on leaving my job which I like no matter how successful it is though I might stop working overtime and do this instead once it starts paying. In the meantime it’s not that much of a time commitment that I can’t do both.”

#2. “I like Travis [Sago]’s model of working other’s lists but this method looks equally profitable but might be more helpful in expanding my skills.”

B. A point of differentiation

I hadn’t thought of this one at all, and I didn’t talk about it in my emails. And yet, multiple people brought up the uniqueness of advertorials as opposed to other things copywriters can offer:

#1. “It’s also a point of differentiation since it seems that everyone who hasn’t firmly planted their flag in the email copywriting camp (i.e. most copywriters/marketers) has rebranded themselves as a creative strategist overnight (soon-to-be most copywriters/marketers).”

#2. “Clients who are willing to spend money on advertorials are more serious overall. Meta ads is the bright shiny object that everyone and their dog in law wants rn. But advertorials have been around way longer and sophisticated clients like them a lot.”

C. Because of me

1-Person Advertorial Agency is a great offer, I think its value is self-contained.

And yet, the fact that my readers know and trust me (and maybe even like me???) definitely helps sell the offer, and makes it more credible — even when I say I haven’t used this system myself:

#1. “Plus, as a previous buyer of yours, products you recommend carry more weight than other offers.”

#2. “The fact that you are promoting it. Especially your honesty in saying you have not been taken the course yourself.”

So there you go. Sell something. Then ask people why they bought, and you shall receive.

And now, an important announcement:

The opportunity to get 1-Person Advertorial Agency + the bonuses I am offering is ending tonight at 12 midnight PST.

Along with the core 1-Person Advertorial Agency offer (full details at the sales page below), I am offering the following bonuses:

#1 Horror Advertorial Swipe File, which you can feed to the AI beast so it produces better, or rather, more horrifying advertorials

#2. 26 Rules of Client Management for Copywriters, taken from my Copy Zone guide to the business side of copywriting

#3. Most Valuable Postcard #1: Nota Rapida, which digs into the topic of building long-term relationships with copywriting clients much more deeply

#4. Ghostbuster, Nick Bandy’s 5-stage sequence for reactivating (reanimating?) dead clients or prospective clients

If you wanna get that, you will have to act today. But why not act now, while it’s on your mind? Here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/advertorial-agency