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My new chore-of-the-month arrived yesterday and is looking at me accusingly

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Yesterday I pushed my way into the lobby of my building — too many grocery bags in my hands — and I peeked into my mailbox.

My ex-girlfriend (still living together) was already by the elevators, holding her own batch of grocery bags. “There’s nothing,” she said. “I checked already.”

But I don’t trust anyone. So I peeked into the mailbox. And I saw it:

A narrow cardboard package that somehow telegraphed class and high-value.

I opened up the mailbox. The ex came over wide-eyed. “What is it? What did you order?”

Frankly, I had no idea.

The package was postmarked UK. I thought for a minute. And then I remembered.

I’d signed up to a magazine-of-the-month club a while back. Each month, they send you a new magazine, so you can get exposed to new stuff, be entertained, have new email fodder.

This was my first issue.

I couldn’t wait to see what I got. I tore open the cardboard package right there in the lobby.

Inside was more beautiful paper packaging. I felt bad ripping it apart. In the elevator up to the apartment, I tried to peel it open carefully. But impatience to see my cool new magazine bubbled over.

I ripped up the paper packaging as well.

As I entered my apartment, I could finally get at the fascinating and intriguing contents inside. And what I found was:

A squat, black cover, showing a hand holding a spoon, and taking a bit of some kind of unidentified mass from a platter, which was held by another hand.

A vague, arty photo. There was nothing else on the cover except the magazine title. Not a good start.

I flipped to the back.

​​”FEATURING,” the back cover said, “Fiction:” and then a long list of contributors. “Poetry:” and then another long list of contributors. “Art and photography:” and then more contributors.

“Ugh,” I sighed. “This feels like it’s gonna be work.”

I tossed my new chore-of-the-month onto the little stand next to the couch, where it’s still sitting, in its shrink-wrap. I’ll have to schedule a time during my work hours to sit down and face this obligation.

In case you’re wondering how this could possibly be relevant to you:

Between 2017 and 2021, I subscribed to Ben Settle’s Email Players print newsletter.

After I decided to unsubscribe, I asked myself why. What did it?

There were several logical reasons.

But I realized that the real, emotional reason was simply that reading Email Players had become a chore.

I’m sure there were still some valuable ideas in each issue. But it was no longer fun to read.

I kept looking at it sitting there by my couch, and thinking, “Ugh. There’s that to do.” And since Email Players is hardly the only source of valuable ideas in the universe, I decided to unsubscribe.

I myself am now planning a subscription offer, a community around newsletters, which I’m planning to call Publishers Club.

But I realize that — and here’s the takeaway of today’s email — value notwithstanding, my subscription offer will have to be enjoyable and even fun if people will have any chance of getting value out of it.

So I am appealing to you for help and input.

Write in and tell me one subscription offer that you pay for, and that you actually enjoy or even look forward to.

It could be a newsletter, a community, a magazine, a magazine-of-the-month club, a streaming service, whatever.

For bonus points, tell me what makes this subscription offer enjoyable or even fun.

In return, I will 1) telepathically send you good vibes along with my gratitude and 2) reply via email and tell you the only subscription offer I am currently enjoying, and why I suspect I am enjoying it.

I’ve mentioned this subscription offer in passing a few times in the past. But I’d say chances are about 99.9% you do not know what I have in mind.

​​If you’d like to know, write me with your fun or enjoyable subscriptions, and we can do a tit-for-tat trade.

Free new newsletter idea

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Today I want to give you an idea for a new newsletter, free for you if you want to run with it. But first, a bit o’ background:

A couple days ago I was at the gym, stretching and listening to one of only two podcasts I ever listen to, Mike Mandel’s Brain Software Podcast.

In this episode Mike had a guest, Scott Adams of Dilbert and Trump fame/infamy. Adams has written a new book, and he’s going around to promote it.

I finished listening to that podcast but I was still not done with the gym. The podcast app jumped to the new episode of the second of only two podcasts I ever listen to, the James Altucher Show.

In this episode, James had a guest, also Scott Adams, still promoting his new book.

That’s the background. It’s relevant because Adams’s new book is called Reframe your Brain. It’s all about reframes — different ways to look at situations, changes in perspectives that make you happier, wiser, or simply more effective.

My point in telling you this is to show you that now is a good moment to launch a newsletter, one I have been thinking about for along time, exactly on this topic.

I was planning on launching this newsletter myself.

​​But I simply have no time to do it along with this marketing newsletter you’re reading now and the other health one I’ve got running.

​​So I’m giving you the idea if you want it, for free.

The name I thought of for this newsletter was Great Reframes. It would be in the vein of Letters of Note, in case you know that.

Each issue would simply give readers an interesting and valuable reframe, along with a bit of a story or historical anecdote to make it stick. For example, your first issue could cover one of the classic and most powerful reframes of all time:

“Pain is just weakness leaving the body”

… which is how Arnold Schwarzenegger hypnotized himself into pushing harder at the gym, and how he ultimately won seven Mr. Olympia titles.

I’ve been collecting such reframes for a while. I got a few dozen of ’em so far. They’re everywhere once you get yer antennae up.

Scott Adams collected a bunch of his own reframes into his book. Scott’s book is both a resource for you if you choose to launch this newsletter, and it’s also free publicity, a horse to ride, an occasion to justify your new newsletter. The time to get going is now.

“Yea sure,” you say, “but what about the money? Weakness leaving the body is nice and all, but how about some money entering my wallet?”

If you want to monetize this newsletter, then you got a few options, depending on what you like to do:

You can position this Great Reframes newsletter as a resource for investors, along the lines of Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money.

​​You could make the reasonable claim that a change in perspective is an invaluable investing tool. At the end of each issue, you could simply pitch stuff that would be interesting to investors — exclusive access, high-priced analysis.

Or if you want to promote yourself and your writing services, you could position this as being an inspiring resource for entrepreneurs and hustlers.

​​You could get entrepreneurs all motivated and inspired with your reframe, and then simply suggest they hire you to write whatever it is you write, since you’ve just demonstrated you can do it well.

Or you could go full-consumer, and simply aim this at self-help junkies. Give them a new reframe in each issue, and then sell them courses, retreats, coaching, whatever.

So there you go. In the slightly modified words of info publisher Bernarr MacFadden:

“Not having your own newsletter is a crime — don’t be a criminal”

… which is another good reframe for you to use in an issue of your new newsletter.

And as I said yesterday, if you do decide to create this newsletter, and you need a platform to actually send your newsletter and a website to get people to opt in to it, then I recommend Beehiiv.

Beehiiv is what I use for my own health newsletter, and it’s great, a rare piece of online software that works well and is a pleasure to use.

​​In case you’d like to get this newsletter started now, for free, go here:

https://bejakovic.com/beehiiv

Psychographics of prospective copywriting clients

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Last week, I advertised a writing job through this newsletter.

I got a few dozen applications coming in. As a result, I could confirm first-hand what I had figured out second-hand a long time ago, and that is the psychographics of prospective copywriting clients.

In case you’re curious, I’ll share these psychographics with you:

1. Prospective clients are busy

Copywriting clients have their own businesses to run and lots of other plates to spin. That’s why they are looking for a writer instead of writing themselves. It’s also how they have money to pay you.

2. Prospective clients do not enjoy the work of hiring a copywriter

Resumes/application emails are not fun to read. Neither is wit — not when it’s jammed like a head of lettuce into a job application. Neither are random samples of sales copy — not unless the client happens to be a member of the target audience for that copy, and even then.

3. Prospective clients will be swamped with applications

My list is not huge. I still got a few dozen applications following just one email. When I advertised on Upwork in the past, I got still more applications, towards 100, coming in for a single advertised writing job.

So what to do if you are a freelance copywriter looking for work?

The best way I found around the nasty psychographics above was to get into a position where I don’t have to apply for copywriting jobs, ever.

Yes, it can be done.

You can put yourself into a position where clients get referred to you or even seek you out — specifically because they are busy… and do not enjoy the work of hiring a copywriter… and do not want to be swamped with applications.

The trouble is, getting into such a position takes time or luck or ideally both.

So let me tell you about the second-best way.

This second-best way is designed to take into account the three psychographic elements above. By my estimate, it boosts your chances of winning a job about 20x-30x.

I’ve used this strategy while I was still applying to copywriting jobs, both when I was on Upwork and later off it, often winning out against 50+ other hungry copywriters.

I used this strategy to win 4- and 5-figure copywriting jobs, even when I was new in the industry and had little to nothing to say for myself… and also later, when I was more established, but I really wanted a specific job because it was such a great opportunity for whatever reason.

If that’s got you curious, then you can find this job application strategy described in detail in a short training I call Copywriting Portfolio Secrets. Earlier this year, I got a testimonial about this training from copywriter Kevin Wood:

===

Yo!

Your copywriting portfolio secrets workshop works like magic, even on Upwork in 2023.

[censored – Kevin explains how he applied the ideas in Copywriting Portfolio Secrets, with the result being…]

Pitched 100/hr with no job history, no reviews, only one ongoing job since they use Upwork to pay freelancers.

Got the job the next day. Should be a solid 3-4k/mo for the foreseeable future.

Shit works!

If you’re selling that training separately, I’d be happy to write up a better testimonial you can use.

===

I’ve sold Copywriting Portfolio Secrets previously for $97, but I’m giving it away for free now as a bonus to anyone who gets the Infostack copywriting bundle.

You can find out more about that bundle at the link below. But before you go there, here are three other free bonuses I will send you to complement the bundle and Bonus #1, Copywriting Portfolio Secrets:

Bonus #2. No-Stress Negotiation For Well-Paid Copywriters ($100 value)

This guide outlines my 7-part negotiating system, which I adapted from negotiation coach Jim Camp. This system kept me sane while I still regularly interviewed and worked with copywriting clients. Follow these seven principles, and you will end up making more money, working with better clients, and being able to stick to it for the long term.

I only offered this guide once before, as part of the $100 Copy Zone guide, which also featured….

Bonus #3. How To Get Set Up On Upwork

This free bonus is an excerpt from a short self-published book I wrote once, How to Become a $150/Hr Sales Copywriter on Upwork: A Personal Success Story that Almost Anyone Can Replicate. It tells you how to actually get set up on Upwork — the details of your profile page, your description, your title.

If you combine this bonus with the two bonuses above — Copywriting Portfolio Secrets and No-Stress Negotiation — you have a great shot of winning a job on Upwork by the end of this week, or even today.

And finally, my bonus stack also includes…

Bonus #4. Dan’s Timeless Wisdom (priceless, or $25k+)

Between August of 2019 and March 2020, I was in Dan Ferrari’s coaching group. As you might know, Dan started out as a star copywriter at The Motley Fool, and went on to become one of the most successful, most winning, big-money direct response copywriters working today.

Inside his coaching group, Dan dispensed copy critiques, marketing advice, and mystical koans to help his coaching students get to the next level.

At some point, I had the bright idea to start archiving the best and most valuable things that Dan was saying. I got 25 of them down, and they are all included in this document, which has until now only been shared with Dan and his coaching students.

(By the way, I never tallied up the exact and rather painful amount of money I paid Dan for the coaching. It was north of $25k. I do know I made it all back, and then some, in just the first two months after I stopped with the coaching, thanks to just one tip I got from Dan.)

So there you go. If you want the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Stack for its $555.86 worth of value and inspiration, yours for just $49…

… or if you want my add-on bonuses for their $25,197/∞ value, yours free…

… then here’s what to do:

1. Buy the Ultimate Copywriter’s SUPER Bundle at https://bejakovic.com/infostack

2. You will then get an automated email from ThriveCart with a link to a special, members-only page on my site where you can access the four free bonuses above.

Important:

Infostack’s bundle offer is live now and will go on until next week, but I will only be promoting it until tomorrow, Friday, at 8:31pm CET.

That’s how long my offer with the bonuses above is good for. Your gotta buy this bundle before Friday at 8:31pm CET to get my bonuses. So if you know you want them, why not get them now?

How to use LinkedIn to win friends and influence clients within three months

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Many years ago, while I was still on Upwork, I created a short-lived LinkedIn profile.

​​I thought LinkedIn could be a way to get high-quality leads for my copywriting services. So I created a profile and started aimlessly “connecting” with people who could be potential clients or contacts to help me get clients.

This lasted all about three days. I hated the experience, and it produced nothin’. I felt stupid and frankly humiliated, groping, and needy.

In a fit of rage, I deleted my LinkedIn profile, raced up to the tower of my moss-covered castle, slammed the large oaken doors behind me, and vowed that the cruel world would never see me “connecting” with anyone ever again.

And yet, ever since, I continue to hear stories of people getting clients, customers, and, yes, valuable connections through LinkedIn.

Even though I refuse to come down from the tower of my moss-covered castle, I have to admit my beastly ears always do perk up at these stories.

And so they did a few days ago, when I got an email from reader Carlo Gargiulo, who works as a copywriter at an info publishing business in Switzerland.

​​Carlo wrote me to say he has been applying some ideas I’ve shared, specifically inside my Most Valuable Email training, to writing LinkedIn posts. The results have been impressive.

Like I said, I couldn’t keep my beastly ears in place. I let out a soft growl. And I wrote back to Carlo, to ask exactly what he was doing on LinkedIn. He wrote me to say:

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About three months ago I decided to start writing posts on LinkedIn about copywriting and direct response marketing.

I started doing this because I noticed that very few Italian copywriters were talking about copy on LinkedIn.

So, every Monday morning I publish a post.

The goal is to create some authority for myself and to get some clients among the entrepreneurs who follow my page.

For the past 2 weeks or so I have been reaping the first fruits.

There are entrepreneurs I had met in the past who have contacted me privately to ask how much it costs to consult with me and how much money I charge in exchange for writing marketing materials.

Specifically, they want posts similar to the ones I write on LinkedIn and email sequences.

The other result I have achieved is about the growth of authority in the company where I work as a copywriter.

Many colleagues started following me, and since I’m not very popular (since I’m very private), those posts were a hook to showcase my knowledge, and now I end up with a queue of people who want to talk to me about anything related to copy and direct response marketing.

As I told you, I’m very private, I lead a quiet lifestyle (books, TV series, magazines, running, walks at the lake) and I don’t like to show off.

===

Carlo’s message went on. He listed the specific marketing and copywriting ideas from the MVE swipe file, included with the MVE training, that he has been using in his LinkedIn posts.

I won’t repeat those here. ​​But I think you get the bigger point:

A way to use LinkedIn not to feel humiliated and out of place, but to get clients warmed up, reaching out, and asking to work with you… and even maybe to get a kind word or a smile of appreciation from your coworkers and colleagues.

Of course, that’s all assuming that you can write something that lights up people’s brains a bit, and that they feel interested in reading more of.

There are different ways to do that.

​​But as Carlo found, and as I found before him, using the MVE trick, and specific ideas in the MVE swipe file, is one effective way to go about it. If you’d like to get started with that today, so you can reap the benefits within a few months’ time:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/​​

The power of preparation for perplexing performances

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“Tell me Sir, was this real… or was it humbug?”

Houdini was shocked at the power of his own show. He couldn’t believe that the man standing across from him — respected, intelligent, worldly — could be asking him such a question.

“No Colonel,” Houdini said with a shake of his head. “It was hocus pocus.”

The year was 1914. The place was the Imperator, a ship on the Hamburg-New York line, sailing west across the Atlantic. Houdini was traveling on the ship as a passenger, but he agreed to perform a seance act for the large and rich ship’s company.

Houdini walked around the audience, giving out pieces of paper and envelopes, telling people to write down a question, seal it in the envelope, and then put it in a hat that Houdini passed around.

But one of the audience members was particularly distinguished and highly reputable — Colonel Teddy Roosevelt, former President of the United States, traveling back from the UK. Roosevelt had just finished promotion of his new book about an adventure trip he had taken to Brazil the year previous.

“I am sure there will be no objection if we use the Colonel’s question,” Houdini said during the seance, tentatively walking towards Roosevelt. The audience murmured assent.

Then Houdini took out two little slate tablets, which were blank. After appropriate buildup and mystery, he asked Roosevelt to place his envelope, with the question inside, between the two tablets.

“Can you please tell the audience what your question was?” Houdini asked.

“Where was I last Christmas?” Roosevelt said.

Houdini opened up the slate tablets. They were no longer blank. Instead, they now showed a colored chalk map of Brazil, with the River of Doubt highlighted, where Roosevelt had spent the Christmas prior.

The effect of this on the crowd, and on Teddy Roosevelt himself, was immense. Roosevelt jumped up, and started laughing so hard and slapping his legs until tears ran down his face.

And then, the very next day, Roosevelt buttonholed Houdini on the deck of the ship. Roosevelt asked, in a hushed voice, whether Houdini truly had connections to the spirit world.

Houdini did not. It was hocus pocus, and he was ready to admit it.

So what lay behind his spectacular performance?

I won’t tell you the exact details. Like all tricks, it’s underwhelming when you find out the truth. But I will tell you the powerful underlying principle, in a single word:

Preparation.

An immense amount of quiet background work… research… setup… as well as thinking up and making plans for all possible contingencies.

Like I wrote a few weeks ago, I’ve decided to put together a new book. Working title — and maybe final title — is “10 Commandments of Hypnotists, Pick Up Artists, Comedians, Copywriters, Con Men, Door-To-Door Salesmen, Professional Negotiators, Storytellers, Spirit Mediums, and Stage Magicians.”

Some of the commandments I have in mind are clever techniques. Others… well, they’re stuff like this. Research. Preparation.

Few wanna do it. Few take it seriously. But the ones who do are eventually seen as having supernatural powers, while everybody else — ah, it’s not too bad, but I could do the same.

I already have a lot of this book ready, thanks to emails like this that I’ve already written. But it’s still gonna take me a while to pull everything together and get the book published.

Meanwhile, if you want a similar book, with a similar mix of stories and often unsexy but extremely powerful ideas, take a look at my other 10 Commandments book:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Why I retired Copy Riddles

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Yesterday, I sent an email about how my Copy Riddles program is up on pirate sites, even though it’s not for sale on my own site any more. I got a bunch of responses to that email.

​​One reader wrote in to say that “not selling Copy Riddles is a crime against copywriters who want to master the craft.” Others wrote in to ask why I decided to retire the program.

If you like, I’ll tell you a reason why.

It’s that I believe — how can I put this delicately — that teaching people how to be a copywriter is a crumbling business.

ChatGPT is a part of it. But really, it’s that we were in a “copywriting bubble” over the past five or seven years.

The 4 Hour Work Week and podcasts and side hustle blogs made copywriting a thing. Marketers with copy chops and those without could create courses about copywriting, and sell them for good money to masses of people.

​​That came to a fever pitch thanks to corona — there was genuinely more demand for copywriters since everything moved online, and many people were looking for a change.

When I was looking for a copywriting coach in 2019, I had trouble finding one. Over the next year, every living A-list copywriter, and many others, unliving, C-list, or D-list, launched coaching programs.

But now, I believe all that’s coming to an end.

I’m not saying copywriting as a profession is gonna die. I predict that, if you have already have skills and clients, you will be able to adapt and continue to do well. And I’m sure new people will appear and write winning copy tomorrow who have never heard of Gary Halbert today.

But the fact is, 90% of the copywriting education market is not made up of people who will ever write winning copy, or really any kind of copy. It’s made up of people who don’t have skills or clients, and who never will, for reasons of their own.

With all the talk of AI, plus the wobbling of the economy, plus simply the fact that copywriting is past its gold rush moment, I believe this large crowd will start to scatter, if it hasn’t started already, to other business opportunities that sound newer and more exciting.

So that’s why I decided to give myself a bit of a nudge, and I retired my Copy Riddles program. A shrinking market makes me uneasy.

So that’s why I decided to give myself a bit of a nudge, and I retired my Copy Riddles program. A shrinking market makes me uneasy, and I wanted to step ahead of it.

But more on that in the future.

For now, I’ll point you to my Most Valuable Email course. I’ve kept that peach on the table because it’s not meant for copywriting specifically. Rather, it’s for anybody who considers themselves a marketer, and who wants to become more successful and valuable at what they do. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/mve

Looking for a deliverability expert

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If you know somebody who is an expert on email deliverability, please send them my way or tell me where I can find them.

The background, as I’ve mentioned before, is that I’ve launched a new newsletter.

My new newsletter runs on Beehiiv, which is a Substack-like platform.

I recently started paying for Beehiiv “boosts” — basically co-reg when people sign up for other Beehiiv newsletters.

I also have double-optin set up for my Beehiiv newsletter.

When I started running the paid boosts, I quickly started getting dozens of new subscribers per day.

But none of them, not a single one, was double-opting in.

The good news is, with boosts you don’t have to pay for subscribers who don’t double-opt in. The bad news is, I wasn’t growing my list.

I didn’t know what was wrong, and I wanted to find out in the quickest and most direct way possible.

So I wrote up a post about what I was seeing. I titled it, “Boosts: Shaky day 1 experiences.” And I posted it inside the Newsletter XP community, which is hosted and run by the Beehiiv people, and which has a few hundred people, mainly Beehiiv users, who paid good money to be there.

Result:

It seemed like the entire Beehiiv team got on the case. They figured out that the Boosts were not to blame. Rather, it turned out my double-optin emails were for some reason ending up in spam.

One of the Beehiiv people suggested changing my sending domain from my custom domain to the default Beehiiv domain. That fixed the issue for the moment. But it’s not a permanent solution.

Yesterday, I tried reverting to my custom domain again. And again, I am seeing that practically nobody is doing the double optin.

I’m guessing my confirmation emails are going to spam again. ​​

So if you know somebody who can help me diagnose and fix the underlying issue, tell them to contact me or tell me how to contact them.

For the right man or woman, I’ll pay top dollar to get this problem solved. And I’ll be grateful to you for your help, and for putting me in touch with this person.

Day 2 at a copywriting conference starts in bed

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Last night, I slept through the night. I don’t remember the last time I slept through the night.

But yesterday I was exhausted. It was day 1 of a copywriting and marketing conference I’m attending.

It’s been a strange experience. The talks are interesting. The people are nice and smart and many are very successful.

But yesterday afternoon, when it was time for the second coffee break — the fourth networking opportunity of the day to that point — I had to leave and just go out for a walk and get away. So much listening and talking in such a short space.

All in all, I counted 12 hours of strenuous ear or mouth work yesterday. That’s why I managed to sleep through the night.

In another half hour, it will be time to start the second day.

I still have to shower. I have to get dressed. And I have to rouse whatever socializing energy is left in me for the morning coffee. It’s not the coffee that will require an effort but the inevitable socializing.

Since there isn’t much time, let me quickly tell you the best thing I heard during yesterday’s talks.

Well, really the best thing was listening to Drayton Bird, who is 87, but who was so full of energy and charm and stories — “…and then Gene Schwartz asked me to show him my headline. He showed me his. They were identical…”

Those kinds of stories were really the highlight.

But the best takeaway I heard came from business owner Barry Randall. Barry is apparently renowned for getting things done. So much so that A-list copywriter John Carlton has apparently invented a “Barry Quotient,” which I guess is defined as the fraction of good ideas you implement over the good ideas you hear about.

How does Barry maintain a super high Barry Quotient? One thing he said, which stuck with me, is:

“Simple ALWAYS gets done”

Maybe you shrug. Maybe you say that’s obvious and nothing new. It sounded profound to me. But maybe that’s because I heard it live. And maybe that’s really the advantage of a live event over an email or paper newsletter, even if they share the exact same ideas or strategies.

In any case, this simple email must end here. But if you want to read more simple advice, read my 10 Commandments book.

​​I’ve worked hard to make the simple advice in that book sound profound and impactful, even though it’s just a book, and not a live person talking to you.

Will any of the 10 pieces of advice in this book sound profound or impactful to you? Only one way to find out:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Reader hopes I can understand why he unsubscribed

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My email yesterday got a high number of unsubscribes. The normal is 1 or 2 but yesterday’s email got 5. One unsubscriber wrote:

===

I do LOOOVEEE the emails and I just want them to keep coming ALWAYS. But the thing is I’ve subscribed to A LOT of lists already and I’m consuming a lot of content than I should. In fact, I’m at the point where I’m inches away from getting the infamous “information overload”. So most of the time I just skip some emails to let my brain rest. Unfortunately, very very unfortunately, I have to let your email list go (FOR NOW). But I need to get those emails in the future so kindly don’t put me on your blacklist. It’s temporary. Hope you can understand.

===

Here’s a free and valuable email marketing tip:

Don’t apologize. Don’t explain yourself. Don’t hedge or flip-flop.

Email is a wonderful medium because you can control any neediness you might feel.

​​You can be however you are in real life. You can even write like that. But then you can take a moment to distance yourself from what you’ve written to cut out any unasked-for apologies, waffling, or attempts to lessen the insult that your message wasn’t going to cause anyhow.

As for the guy above, he has been placed on a blacklist. Not out of any malice. Active Campaign does it automatically whenever somebody unsubscribes.

I used to occasionally go in and purge that blacklist so unsubscribed readers could get back on my list if they so choose.

​​I don’t bother any more. I do get on occasion somebody writing to me to say they signed up but are not getting my emails, in which case I will add them by hand.

Famed negotiation coach Jim Camp used to say negotiation is a series of decisions. You can’t tell people anything. The only thing you can do is help them see and decide for themselves.

My email yesterday got a high number of unsubscribes. I’m sending a new email today because you only ever get people off your list when you a send a new email. You also only ever get people reading and opting in and PayPaling you money when you send a new email.

Negotiation is a series of decisions. You can only send people emails to help them make those decisions for themselves. ​​If that’s something you can see for yourself, you might decide to start applying it. You certainly don’t need my help to do it. But in case you want it, you can sign up for my email list here.

A secret only elite master persuaders know

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This past January, I wrote an email about my “5-year rule.” Before starting any new project, I simply ask myself:

“Would I be ok working on this for the next five years?”

If my answer is, “No way!” or “Really, I want to do this for a year or max two and get out,” then I don’t allow myself to even start.

To which, I got the following response from a reader:

===

Where were you two years ago with this advice John?! Really – you’re late to my party!!!

Seriously, thanks for this. I remember your earlier email about this and it made sense then, and it makes just as much sense now.

Is it ridiculous to say that I still don’t really know what I would like to be doing in five years? Sigh.

===

Like I told this reader, I wouldn’t stress about it — I feel most folks, myself included, don’t really know what they want. But we do know pretty well what we don’t want.

That’s why massively successful opportunity offers are so often really not about the promise, but about implied escape:

* Lazy Man’s Way to Riches [DON’T WANNA WORK, EVEN IF IT’S TO GET RICH]

* Four Hour Workweek [DON’T WANNA WORK]

* 7 Steps To Freedom [REALLY JUST DON’T WANNA WORK OR HAVE PEOPLE TELL ME WHAT TO DO]

So there you go. If you’re searching for your prospects’ deepest desire, maybe it’s just to escape. If so, it makes sense to call it out, or even put it in your product name.

But maybe escape is not your prospects’ deepest desire. Maybe it’s something else. In which case, I got some good news, some bad news for you.

The bad news is, as with escape above, your prospects are rarely ever going to tell you their deepest desires straight out. The fact is, they probably don’t know themselves. At least not consciously. And if they do know, they won’t admit it when you ask them.

The good news is, there aren’t all that many of these fundamental desires to go around. So you can just make a list of them, and then test them out against each other with your audience, and see which one gets a best response. For example, by putting different ones in your subject line.

If you want a list of deepest desires I myself assembled, you can find that in round 19 of my Copy Riddles program. I call this list the Dirty Dozen.

I didn’t pull this list out of thin air or my deep understanding of human nature — my understanding ain’t that deep.

Instead, I pulled the Dirty Dozen together by looking at what top copywriters were really doing in their copy — beyond just selling the main promise and showing the proof for it. Sometimes — not always, but often — there were other, hidden, emotional appeals in there. Deep stuff, dark stuff, dirty stuff, which I ended up putting into that list.

Anyways, maybe I’ll go ahead and take my own advice. And if you’d like to do the same, you can find the Dirty Dozen, and much more stuff that nobody’s ever told you about, inside my Copy Riddles program here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr