Ad Money Machine

Millionaire math used by the wealthiest people, but not me

by

Yesterday morning, my time, I concluded the “Unannounced Bonus” promo I had been running all past week.

As usual, the final day of the promo was an exhausting barrage of emails.

The last thing I wanted to do yesterday was to think or write more about that promo or how it went.

But today, I did what I usually do and looked at my “Unannounced Bonus” promo — how it went, how it compared to previous promos, what I can learn.

Let me shoo the elephant out of the closet right away, and make the gray beast dance:

This “Unannounced Bonus” promo made fewer sales of Copy Riddles, across 7 days, than I made last year during the last promo I ran for CR, which I called the “White Tuesday” promo, and which lasted just 2 days.

Before you either feel too bad for me or start to maliciously gloat, let me say that the “White Tuesday” promo surprised even me by how well it did.

And though the “Unannounced Bonus” promo did less than that, it still made more in a week than I would likely be making in a month if I had a proper job. It also paid me an effective per-email rate that’s many hundreds of dollars higher than I was making back at the peak of my freelance copywriting career.

But, with all that self-reassuring done, the fact remains I made fewer sales now, over 7 days, than last year, over 2 days.

What’s going on?

I made a list of 10 possible explanations for myself. All of them are legit, and all possibly contributed. But there’s one big one that stands out to me, and that I want to highlight to you too:

During the “White Tuesday” promo last year, part of the offer was a payment plan for Copy Riddles.

95% of people who bought during that promo took the payment plan.

During the “Unannounced Bonus” promo that just ended, part of the offer was once again a payment plan for Copy Riddles.

But just 33% of people who bought during this promo took the payment plan.

The difference is that this time, I was partnering with Lawrence Bernstein, and offering a lifetime subscription to his Ad Money Machine as a bonus for Copy Riddles. (And vice versa — Lawrence was also promoting the offer to his list.)

Due to the uniqueness of this arrangement, I agreed with Lawrence we’d offer the same payment plan as he offered the last time he made the offer of a lifetime subscription for Ad Money Machine…

… which, as I said, 33% of buyers ended up finding enticing.

On the other hand, last year, I followed a very specific payment plan philosophy. 95% of people found that payment plan enticing, and much more importantly, a greater total number of sales came out of it.

Maybe you remember what the payment plan was that I offered for White Tuesday. If not, my emails are all archived on my site, and you can find the campaign there. You can look it up, and see what the exact payment plan was.

But I’ll tell you one thing:

Even if you know the specifics of what I did publicly, you’re unlikely to glean the underlying payment plan philosophy, or the most exciting and valuable marketing trick resulting from that philosophy, which is applied behind the scenes.

I’ll tell you a second thing:

The payment plan philosophy I followed last year came from a 13-minute video by Travis Sago, titled “Millionaire Math Used by the Wealthiest People.”

If you’ve already taken me up on my recommendation to sign up for Travis’s Royalty Ronin community (I myself am a paying member), then you can find this 13-minute video as a bonus inside the Phoneless Sales Machine course, which normally sells for $2,000, and which Travis gives away as a free bonus for those who are in Royalty Ronin.

If you haven’t taken me up on my recommendation to sign up for Travis’s Royalty Ronin community, then I can only tell you Royalty Ronin is expensive. Very expensive. Particularly if you sign up and do nothing with the information.

On the other hand, if you are selling offers online — specifically, info products like courses or ebooks — and if you apply just this one idea from Travis about payment plans, it could well be worth thousands of dollars to you by the end of this week alone, and much, much more in the coming weeks, months, and years.

If you want to invest in a month of Ronin, and see how quickly and thoroughly you can make your money back:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

Death by indecision

by

All week long, I’ve been standing on the sidewalk outside my store on top of an old soap box, shouting and yelling to attract buyers to Copy Riddles with the “Unannounced Bonus” of a lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine.

That offer comes to a close tonight at 12 midnight PST.

In case you have successfully dodged, ignored, or forgotten everything I have had to share about Ad Money Machine, I can tell it’s a members-only database of winning direct response ads, updated daily and put into historical context by Lawrence himself, a man who has decades of experience as a direct mail copywriter and operator.

You want an example? I’ll give you an example.

Just this past Thursday, July 17, Lawrence’s new entry inside Ad Money Machine was a magalog that ran around the turn of the century for Healthy Directions. The headline complex ran:

Death By Indecision

Today’s Greatest Threat To Your Life Isn’t Cancer… Toxic Drugs… Heart Disease.

It’s Having Too Much Information and No One to Trust

As Lawrence writes in his commentary, this is a “compelling lead that can be deployed in almost any industry.” So let me deploy:

Today’s greatest threat to your pocketbook isn’t AI… inflation… or hordes of competitors.

It’s having too much information and no one to trust.

Regarding trust — Lawrence has been in the game of copywriting and info publishing for a few decades. I’ve been at it for a little over a decade.

That kind of longevity typically encourages trust. But here’s the thing:

Both Lawrence’s Ad Money Machine and my Copy Riddles program are ultimately not about our own personal authority.

Rather, they are based on hard numbers and objective results:

Sales letters that mailed and ads that ran over and over and over… copywriters who were paid millions in royalties for their work and hired by the top publishers over and above others… and in the case of Copy Riddles, a process to get you practicing and writing sales copy, which is independent of my own advice and opinions.

If you have no one to trust, then Lawrence and me are reasonable choices. But if you’re already burdened by too much information from people you trust, then here’s my biased but accurate suggestion:

Drop all the other advice, based on likability and personal authority, and focus on these two resources that are fundamentally based on sales results and a new mechanism.

Only thing is, you can’t think about it too much longer. Beware of death by indecision, because the deadline is nearing.

Like I said, the current offer disappears tonight at 12 midnight PST, never be repeated. If you need a reminder, here’s what the “Unannounced Bonus” offer is made up of:

#1. Copy Riddles, of course, which allows you to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe

How?

By drilling into you mechanical do-or-die skill of writing sales bullets, and giving you feedback from A-list copywriters, who wrote their own sales bullets starting with the same source material as you did.

(This feedback process is why past customers have called Copy Riddles “the best course I’ve taken, bar none” and “worth every dollar/minute/page.”)

#2. A lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine

… which sells for $997 on the rare occasions when Lawrence makes it available at all. $997 is what I paid Lawrence last year for it. (A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga: “I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price.”)

#3. The unique and never-to-be-repeated “Bullets With Bejako” live cohort

Many years ago, I used to run Copy Riddles as a live cohort to provide members with greater motivation, feedback, and results that an “asynchronous” content-only course frankly cannot match.

I stopped doing live cohorts for Copy Riddles because they are too much work.

I won’t ever do a live cohort in the future. But I’m doing as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo, so you can own those million-dollar copywriting skills in just the next few weeks, instead of never.

#4. 3-Month Copy Riddles Payment Plan

As part of this promo, until tonight only, you can break up payments for Copy Riddles over the course of three months.

Again, this “Unannounced Bonus” event ends tonight at 12 midnight PST.

If you’d like to stop the indecision right now:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

“What is the absolutely most important, do-or-die copywriting skill?”

by

“What is the absolutely most important, do-or-die copywriting skill? It’s a mechanical skill. it’s not something touchy-feely, empathetic, hard to describe. It’s so important, that if you can do it, you are a great copywriter, you’re 99% of the way there. If you can’t do it, you will never get anywhere. What is that skill?”

That’s a little quiz that Ken McCarthy, who’s been called the “founding father of Internet marketing,” once gave to a room full of info marketers who wanted to learn copywriting.

“I was gonna offer $1,000 in cash to the guy that can get this,” said Ken. “That’s how confident I am nobody in this room knows it, except for maybe a professional copywriter.”

People in the audience started guessing:

“Know your market?”

No.

“Hand-copy great copy?”

No.

“Write every day, practice?”

That’s a good one, but no.

“Get your reader’s attention?”

Another good one, but no.

“List a lot of good benefits?”

Ooh so close, but no.

“Empathize with your readers?”

No.

Finally, somebody in the back of the room:

“Write a sales bullet?”

“Yes!” said Ken. “This is the entire craft of copywriting. And it amazes me how many people have read all the classics, written some great copy, taken thousands of dollars worth of training, met great copywriters, and didn’t realize that this is it. If you can do this, you are in the game. If you can’t do it, you’re outside the stadium, trying to find a parking place, circling round and round. It’s that night and day.”

“Why are bullets so important?” asks Ken. “Because they are the raw material for:”

– bullets (of course)

– headlines

– reasons why

– subheads

– calls to action

– sales arguments

– the order form

– the entire letter

Email marketer Ben Settle, who back in his freelance copywriter days used to write copy for Ken, and who reveres Ken and frequently quotes and references him in his emails, agrees. Says Ben:

“When written correct everything ‘comes’ from the bullets, including non-bullet copy or ads where there are no bullets.”

Which brings me back to my Copy Riddles program, and the “Unannounced Bonus” event I am running for it right now. This event ends tomorrow at 12 midnight PST. It involves:

#1. Copy Riddles, of course, which allows you to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe

How?

By drilling into you mechanical do-or-die skill of writing sales bullets, and giving you feedback from A-list copywriters, who wrote their own sales bullets starting with the same source material as you did.

(This feedback process is why past customers have called Copy Riddles “the best course I’ve taken, bar none” and “worth every dollar/minute/page.”)

#2. A lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine

… which sells for $997 on the rare occasions when Lawrence makes it available at all. $997 is what I paid Lawrence last year for it. (A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga: “I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price.”)

#3. The unique and never-to-be-repeated “Bullets With Bejako” live cohort

Many years ago, I used to run Copy Riddles as a live cohort to provide members with greater motivation, feedback, and results that an “asynchronous” content-only course frankly cannot match.

I stopped doing live cohorts for Copy Riddles because they are too much work.

I won’t ever do a live cohort in the future. But I’m doing as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo, so you can own those million-dollar copywriting skills in just the next few weeks, instead of never.

#4. 3-Month Copy Riddles Payment Plan

As part of this promo, for the next three days only, you can break up payments for Copy Riddles over the course of three months.

Again, this “Unannounced Bonus” event ends tomorrow at 12 midnight PST.

If you’d like to get in on the game and you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

How I write emails and create offers using Ad Money Machine

by

Yesterday I got an email from Robin Timmers, the “largest copywriter in the Netherlands”. Robin just got Copy Riddles during the current “Unannounced Bonus” promo, which comes with a lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money machine (normally $997). About that, Robin wrote:

===

Hey John,

I got the offer, and I was wondering…

(I’ll start after finishing up CopyHour, which is +-3 weeks left.)

How do you (both in general and specifically you) use the Ad Money Machine?

===

Well, it’s about time somebody asked.

I’ll tell ya, and it will be relevant whether or not you get Copy Riddles or Ad Money Machine.

It will be just as relevant if you want to do all the endless and tiring legwork yourself that Lawrence has done on your behalf, and masochistically spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to find out what best direct response marketers across industries are doing.

Here are four ways I personally use Ad Money Machine:

#1. Subject lines and email hooks

Nobody has called me out on it, but all the subject lines I have so far used during this promo have come from ads and sales letters in Ad Money Machine:

* Copy Riddles customers hit jackpot with “Unannounced Bonus” scheme (“U.S. residents hit Jackpot with ‘Old Vegas’ Casino Rolls”)

* Over $1M ($1,000,000) and 20 years of loving labor went into this brilliant Unannounced Bonus (“£125,000 ($300,000) and 2 years of loving labour went into this sumptuous Centennial Edition of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF DICKENS”)

* Exposed: Gary Bencivenga’s “100x its price” marketing investment (“Exposed: Warren Buffett’s $39 Billion Black Gold Bonanza”)

* The magnificent obsession that produces A-list copywriting skills (“The Magnificent Obsession That Produced The Coffee Favored By Kings”)

* Dead for 34 months — now alive again (“Outlawed For 41 Years — Now Legal Again”)

* Copy Riddles is expensive… or maybe not (“Life is short… or maybe not.”)

* How I write emails and create offers using Ad Money Machine (“How I Make $327 Per Hour Practicing Real Estate”)

The bigger point is that good hooks, and good ways of crystalizing those hooks in words, are eternal. It makes sense to be a student of your market, and other markets, and reuse what’s worked.

#2. Marketing ideas I can port from one industry to another

Just one example: Gary Halbert’s 4 steps for turning $39.95… into $289… into $4,046.

Yes, Lawrence has the front-end ad that Gary Halbert ran in the WSJ, selling a Halley’s Comet commemorative silver coin for $39.95.

But the ad copy was not the story.

The story, which Lawrence got direct from Gary himself, is how those $39.95 front-end orders were turned into $289 sales, and how those $289 sales were turned into $4,046 sales, in 4 simple steps.

In spite of this being Gary Halbert, this 4-step process is perfectly legal and even ethical. It also applies to any field, including info products like courses and memberships. It’s something I have been using in part and will be using much more going forward with the offers I create.

#3. Uncovering core appeals in an industry

Until last year, I ran an email newsletter on the topic of longevity. I regularly went into the Ad Money Machine “Beauty and Anti-Aging” category (~100 winning direct response ads) to search out what appeals sell (“Look 10 years younger in 10 hours”), what words and phrases people respond to (“thinning hair”), and what hooks to use (the French).

#4. Curiosity, entertainment, and inspiration

Like I keep saying, Ad Money Machine is not simply a huge collection of winning direct response ads, with a new ad popping up each day.

What makes me keep going back over and over is Lawrence’s commentary, knowledge, and experience, which put these ads in their fascinating (at least to me) context.

If you’re actually interested in copywriting and marketing… if you’re intrigued by the history of the field…if you are amused by or have at least heard of some of the characters who made it what it is… then Lawrence’s site is addictive.

As just one example:

Last Sunday, I went on Ad Money Machine, looking for a headline I could repurpose for a subject line.

I came across that “U.S. residents hit Jackpot” ad.

But then I started reading Lawrence’s commentary, where he casually mentions that Vic Schwab (author of “How To Write An Advertisement,” one of the best books in the field, and the copywriter behind Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends And Influence People”) helped start a gold and silver coin company.

Lawrence had a post on that as well. So I got sucked in, clicked through, and started reading that instead of writing my email. That’s ok. Not only was it fun and interesting and inspiring, but I learned something (going back to point 2 above) that I will use in the future.

The deadline to get Copy Riddles along with the “Unannounced Bonus” of Ad Money Machine is this Sunday, just two short days away.

As a reminder, I also will be running a live cohort for Copy Riddles, one last time, never to be repeated, as part of the offer for this promo, to help you actually go through the program so you benefit from it and start owning those A-list copywriting skills.

Plus, there’s a payment plan if you want to take out some of the sting of paying in one lump sum. That also goes away on Sunday.

To take advantage of all that before the deadline makes it disappear forever:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Copy Riddles is expensive… or maybe not

by

This past Monday, as I started my “Unannounced Bonus” promo for Copy Riddles, I got the following message from a long-term customer (I don’t know if he wants me to share his name):

===

Gadzooks! What a bonus!

I was going to wait, but I don’t think I can pass this up.

However, I will take a day or two to run my numbers because I was NOT planning on dropping a grand on a new course this month.

===

This customer has since gone to join Copy RIddles and get access to that gadzookin’ bonus, which is a lifetime membership to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine.

Except, something sneaky is going on:

This customer didn’t lay out $997, which is what Copy Riddles sells for. That’s because he took advantage of the (so far unannounced) payment plan for Copy Riddles, which I’m offering this week only, as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” event.

I’ve only offered a payment once before in the 4+ years of Copy Riddles, and I only did that for 2 days.

I was pleasantly surprised it 1) helped drive sales and 2) the people who bought via the payment plan weren’t buying because they couldn’t afford the full price, but simply because it was psychologically easier.

(I have interacted with many of those customers before, and I know they are successful marketers and business owners.)

That’s something to consider if you too sell high-ticket info products.

Here’s something else to consider. The total offer for Copy Riddles during the present “Unannounced Bonus” promo, which ends this Sunday at 12 midnight PST, is now:

#1. Copy Riddles, of course, which allows you to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe

(Previous customers have said Copy Riddles is “the best course I’ve taken, bar none” and “worth every dollar/minute/page.”)

#2. A lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine

… which sells for $997 on the rare occasions when Lawrence makes it available at all. $997 is what I paid Lawrence last year for it. (Gary Bencivenga: “I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price.”)

#3. The unique and never-to-be-repeated “Bullets With Bejako” live cohort

Many years ago, I used to run Copy Riddles as a live cohort to provide members with greater motivation, feedback, and results that an “asynchronous” content-only course frankly cannot match.

I stopped doing live cohorts for Copy Riddles because they are too much work.

I won’t ever do a live cohort in the future. But I’m doing as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo, so you can own those million-dollar copywriting skills in just the next few weeks, instead of never.

#4. 3-Month Copy Riddles Payment Plan

As part of this promo, for the next three days only, you can get started with Copy Riddles for $399, and then two more monthly payments of $399.

About that price:

I’m not saying Copy Riddles is not expensive because you can break it up into payments, though that can help reduce the psychological sting of a lump sum.

I am saying Copy Riddles can stop being expensive if you take the attitude that you will get your money’s worth from it, and more.

At the risk of sounding like a pretentious pontificator:

I’ve forced myself to develop the habit that, whenever I spend money on courses, memberships, events, I sit down and make a list of 10 ideas for how I could make that money back, and more, by a given date, thanks to what I’m learning or getting inside that course/membership/event, ideally before I’ve even paid it off fully.

No, it doesn’t always work out as planned.

Sometimes it takes me longer to make my money back, and sometimes I don’t manage it all the way.

But sometimes, I do make my money back before the deadline I had set for myself. And sometimes it works out much better than planned.

This is a good attitude in general if you spend time in the world of direct response marketing and copywriting.

That world is built out of intangible, feathery ideas, which can nonetheless quickly translate into real and tangible things like gold, houses, and cars.

I’ll have a real-world example tomorrow of how a Copy Riddles member applied this mentality to get more out of Copy Riddles than he paid for it.

Meanwhile, the deadline is nearing. Once again, it’s this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

If you’d like to get Copy Riddles and the free lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine… be part of “Bullets With Bejako” live cohort… and even potentially take advantage of the payment plan, giving you two extra months to recoup your investment in this offer, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Dead for 34 months — now alive again

by

I’ll pay off that provocative subject line in a second. First, let me set it up so it has a chance to have an impact on you:

Two days ago, I was listening to a new episode of Dean Jackson’s “More Cheese, Less Whiskers” podcast.

Dean is a legend in the marketing space. In this episode, he was basically having a live consult with a real estate agent turned coach.

The real estate agent/coach runs an 6-week cohort program, helping other agents to get their first transaction. The program features the usual recorded content plus live weekly calls. About that, here’s what Dean said:

===

Part of the thing about a live cohort is that it’s kind of synchronous consumption, that they are there and they’re physically present, and it’s easier to consume than while they’re sitting and could be watching Netflix.

You know what I mean. That’s always going to be more — it’s easier when things are synchronous and scheduled to actually get them done, then even with the best of intentions, to get yourself to self-directedly take that kind of action.

===

This made my pointy Vulcan ears perk up.

Because it’s a bitter pill to swallow:

You can create a really great course, with all the info inside that people need to succeed, but most people who buy will simply never even get through the first lesson. Of those who do, most won’t get all the way through to the end of the last lesson.

That makes it hard to profit from the course.

Yes, there are creative ways to encourage people to consume courses all the way to the end, or to get value even while consuming only a tiny part of the course. I’ve used many such tricks in my own courses.

But the fact is, nothing really compares to simply changing the format and not selling a “course” at all, but instead selling a live experience, happening in real time, shared with other people. In other words, running a live cohort, like Dean is talking about.

I can speak to this from my experience selling my Copy Riddles program over the years.

When I started Copy Riddles, I ran it as a cohort 2-3 times a year.

The lessons were delivered daily by email, and were necessarily synchronous.

More importantly, I had live weekly calls. Those calls where an opportunity for Copy Riddles members to come together, to see me there and feel that this is happening live, and to ask questions.

Plus, I featured a weekly “Best Bullet” contest, which was both fun for participants and also reinforced that week’s course content by showing why some bullets work better than others.

Small wonder that a disproportionate number of enthusiastic testimonials and impressive case studies I’ve gotten for Copy Riddles have come from people who went through the program in those live cohort days.

I’ve been thinking about this over the past few weeks in the lead-up to the “Unannounced Bonus” promo I’m currently doing for Copy Riddles.

The offer I’m making during this promo is already the most valuable offer I’ve made for Copy Riddles. But I decided to pull out all the stops.

I haven’t run Copy Riddles as a live cohort program since September of 2022. That’s 34 months ago. (You see where this is going?)

I also won’t ever run Copy Riddles as a live cohort in the future.

But I will resurrect the live cohort and run it one last time as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo.

No, I won’t be delivering Copy Riddles via email again. It still remains a course in the course area, so you can easily access it now or in the future.

But I will be doing live weekly calls for Copy Riddles members.

These calls will be an opportunity to ask me questions about writing bullets, about copy in general, or really anything else, as long as it’s interesting.

They will also be an opportunity to submit your bullets for the weekly contest and win recognition and prizes.

Most importantly, these calls act as a reason to go through the course content now, to get a bit of motivation and accountability by being a part of a group of people who are all doing the same as you, and to make it easier for you to own those million-dollar copywriting skills this program can give you — and to own them in just the next few weeks, instead of never.

Of course, the live cohort is only part two of the offer for this “Unannounced Bonus” event.

Part one is free lifetime membership to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine so you can get your daily direct marketing vitamin, the way A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga advises.

Lawrence only makes this lifetime membership offer available rarely. When he made it available last year, I paid $997 for it. But you can get it for free as part of this week’s promo event, which ends this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

If you’d like to act before the deadline takes the matter out of your hands:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

P.S. If you’re already a Copy Riddles member, the Ad Money Machine lifetime membership applies to you too. So does the offer of joining for the live cohort — just write me and tell me that you want in so I know to add you.

And about going through Copy Riddles a second (or third) time, here’s copywriter Yago Bader Galarza, who joined a couple times in the live cohort days:

===

The course is amazing, I’ve completed it twice now, and I’d say the second time I learned even more than the first.

I think it’s super-valuable to go through it periodically, trying to do the exercises from different angles forces me to be more creative and I can really see my improvement from launch to launch. I would love to sign up a third time and continue to learn from it.

In a world where most courses are hard to consume (and I think almost every copywriter has a pile of unfinished courses) Copy Riddles is a breath of fresh air that I recommend to everyone I know all the time. So thanks for creating it and looking forward to doing it again.

===

The magnificent obsession that produces A-list copywriting skills

by

This morning, I sent an email about a great endorsement for Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine. That endorsement came from the world’s greatest living copywriter, Gary Bencivenga.

(Gary: “I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price.”)

A lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine costs $997, but I’ve made a deal with Lawrence so I can offer it for free as bonus for my Copy Riddles program for this week only. Except…

It’s nice for Lawrence and Ad Money Machine to get this great endorsement from Gary Bencivenga.

But what about Copy Ridddles? Where’s the shining endorsement there?

Unfortunately, I cannot count Gary Bencivenga as a Copy Riddles member. (Gary, if you’re reading, hit reply and we’ll fix that.)

I therefore do not have a glowing testimonial for Copy Riddles the way Lawrence does for Ad Money Machine.

However, I do have the following curious story from Gary.

Once upon a time, a young Gary had to compete against Gene Schwartz, the legendary copywriter and author of the cult book Breakthrough Advertising.

Gary wrote up a first draft to try to beat Gene’s control sales letter. But when Gary compared what he had written to the control, he got depressed — his bullets were so much weaker than Gene’s.

So what did he do? In Gary’s own words:

===

I said, the only way I’m going to have a way of competing with Gene is if I figure out what he’s done to get these bullets.

So wherever his bullets came from, I would read the same page. I would learn from him just by mimicking what he had done.

So I said, “This bullet that he came up with came from chapter 3, page 4. What is the original source of this?”

And he taught me so much, just by studying his copy and by looking at the product itself.

I was able to beat him, but it was really his package too in a way, because I learned the technique.

===

That process Gary describes is exactly what Copy Riddles is about.

Copy Riddles gets you competing with A-list copywriters, starting with the original source material they used, and allows you to compare your final result with their final result.

The goal is not to match word-for-word what the A-listers did. It’s certainly not to get depressed about how your copy is so much weaker than theirs.

The goal is to find out what A-list copywriters zoom in on, what they chose to leave out, how they take a dry and technical fact and make it sexy and exciting.

Do this over and over, starting with different source materials, and subtly and quickly, the A-listers’ instincts become your instincts, their tricks your tricks, their skills your skills.

Of course, you don’t need Copy Riddles to do this. You can follow the process and do all the work yourself. Start by digging around the Internet and collecting A-list sales letters…

… then stalk Amazon, eBay, used book sites, and online repositories to find the books and courses they were selling, most of them out of print…

… and when you finally get both the sales letter and the out-of-print book in your possession… go bullet by bullet… and tease out how the A-list copywriter turned lead into gold.

This magnificently obsessive process will 100% work.

I know because I’ve done it. All in all, it took me about three months of time and maybe 100 hours of work.

Of course, if you these results but you want them more quickly and more easily, then that’s what Copy Riddles is for.

Copy Riddles is a fast, fun, mostly-done-for-you ride that allows you to own A-list copywriting skills, following this Gary Bencivenga-approved process.

It’s a process also approved by the couple hundred people who have been through Copy Riddles before you, who say things like:

#1: “There are very few copywriting courses that offer this level of practical value”

#2: “The best course I’ve ever taken, bar none”

#3: “I literally use what I learned in Copy Riddles every day”

#4: “I think most people should start learning about copywriting this way”

#5: “One of the best copywriting courses I’ve done”

#6: “The entire course is an a-ha moment”

#7: “Worth every dollar/minute/page”

If you’d like more info on Copy Riddles, or to grab it before the Ad Money Machine “Unannounced Bonus” disappears:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Exposed: Gary Bencivenga’s “100x its price” marketing investment

by

I once heard Gary Bencivenga say—

But wait. First, let me do things properly, and first tell you who Gary is, in the odd case you don’t know, or remind you of the man’s accomplishments, in case you do.

Gary Bencivenga is widely regarded as the world’s greatest living copywriter.

That praise is based not on subjective impressions, but on hard numbers.

An executive at Rodale Press, a big direct response publisher, said that Gary never lost a split-run test when going up against other top copywriters.

An executive at Phillips publishing, another major direct response company, said that Gary had more winners than anybody else.

Gene Schwartz, a legendary copywriter and the author of the bible in the field, Breakthrough Advertising, summed it up by saying there are only four or five true masters of copywriting — and Gary is one of them.

With that intro, let me tell you what I heard Gary say once.

Gary said he advised a client, a publishing company, to purchase a small financial newsletter, lock stock and two smoking barrels, simply because of an enthusiastic testimonial the newsletter had gotten. (The author of that testimonial was a certain Warren Buffett.)

So great, says Gary, is the value of really convincing proof.

Going by that logic, I am hereby putting in my offer to buy Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine — the entire site, all the content, and the domain. I am doing this based simply on the following testimonial, which comes from Gary Bencivenga himself:

===

One of the secrets I teach copywriters and marketers who want to be more successful is to be sure they read a great direct response ad every day.

But where do you find an almost limitless supply of great ads to be inspired by?

The best source I have ever found is Lawrence’s site. I’ve been writing copy for more than 40 years now, and I still do my ‘ad-a-day’ thing, just to keep sharp.

I never fail to be inspired with new ideas when browsing through Lawrence’s collection of ads. I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price. Investing in your own knowledge is always the greatest investment you can make, and this is one of the smartest ways to do it.

===

I don’t know how much Gary paid to get Lawrence’s daily serving of a great response ad.

I do know I paid Lawrence $97 per month for it for a long time, and then I paid him $997, last year, in one lump sum, for a lifetime subscription.

You, however, can get the same lifetime subscription I paid $997 for, the same subscription that Gary says is “one of the smartest ways” to invest in yourself, and you can get it for free.

You can get it for free as part of the “Unannounced Bonus” promo I am doing for my Copy Riddles program this week, which runs until this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

For more info on Copy Riddles, or to invest in yourself before this deal disappears:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Over $1M ($1,000,000) and 20 years of loving labor went into this brilliant Unannounced Bonus

by

This week, I’m running an “Unannounced Bonus” promotional event for my Copy Riddles program.

Copy Riddles, as you might know, uses a clever mechanism to download A-list copywriting skills into your brain, over the course of a few short weeks.

I’ve been selling Copy Riddles since 2021. I have had a lot of customers go through the program. I have had only glowing feedback.

But I’ve been talking about all that for years. Odds are, you know it already.

So today, I want to share with you the special “Unannounced Bonus” I’m making available if you join Copy Riddles before this Sunday, July 20, at 12 midnight PST.

That bonus is a lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine.

I’ve written about Lawrence lots of times in my newsletter — he’s “the world’s most obsessed ad archivist.”

Ad Money Machine is Lawrence’s subscription service where, each day, he shares direct response winners from the past and the present. Two points to highlight about that:

First off, these are not just random screenshotted ads from newspapers.com. As Lawrence says on the Ad Money Machine site:

“I’ve invested over a million bucks on subscriptions and products to keep my name (and aliases!) seeded on direct mail lists.”

The vast majority of these ads, packages, and promos are not available online — anywhere, except inside Lawrence’s membership site.

The reason is that he’s spent the time, effort, and money to get himself on the lists of the biggest and most successful direct marketing companies, so he can see all their marketing — the front ends, being mailed out to specialized direct mail lists, as well as all the mysterious stuff that goes on in the back, to customers only.

Because of this, Ad Money Machine is effectively a collection of “businesses in a box” — the winning ad copy, offers, and funnels across a range of markets, from health, wealth, self-help, along with a bunch of quirky ones thrown in (fishing, stamps, “grass plugs”).

Second off, Lawrence isn’t “just some guy,” and Ad Money Machine is not even his primary business.

For over two decades now, Lawrence has been working as a direct response copywriter and operator, focusing on direct mail.

That means that, when it comes to Ad Money Machine, Lawrence doesn’t just share winning ads and promos. He also puts them in context, using his own decades of experience, and he explains why these ads worked and how they connect to deeper principles of copywriting and direct marketing.

A few bits of feedback Lawrence has gotten about that, from top direct response copywriters and marketers who have paid him thousands of dollars for his ad archives and commentary:

“Brilliant examples, great commentary. This one just gave me an idea for a newsletter we’re about to launch that I think will hit large. I don’t know where you find this stuff, but I’m glad you do.”

— John Forde, A-list copywriter and co-author of Great Leads

“My jaw is literally black and blue from hitting the floor over and over again as I got to see the techniques you’ve uncovered. I never dreamed many of these things were even possible, let alone how easy you’ve made them. The word ‘miraculous’ comes to mind.”

— Ken McCarthy, founder, System Seminar

“If Lawrence has got a product for sale, you should get it!”

— Marty Edelston, founder, Boardroom Inc.

About that last comment from Marty Edelston:

Ad Money Machine normally sells for $97/month. I subscribed to it at that price for over a year, starting in 2023. At that time I even promoted it to my list, for free, without being an affiliate, simply because I thought it’s such a valuable service.

Then back in 2024, Lawrence offered a rare opportunity to buy a lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine for $997 one-time. I knew I’d keep paying Lawrence monthly for a long time, so it was a no-brainer to take him up on this offer. I paid the $997 and bought the lifetime subscription.

Now, I’ve partnered with Lawrence so people who buy Copy Riddles during this week also get a FREE lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine, the same subscription I paid $997 for. I also got him to agree to extend the same benefit to previous Copy Riddles buyers.

(If you’re wondering why Lawrence would possibly agree to this, it’s because I’ve made the same deal to his lifetime subscribers — they can get Copy Riddles for free. Being a savvy direct response guy, Lawrence knows the value of growing his list with a bunch of people who are 1) interested in direct response copywriting and 2) have paid $997 to get better at it.)

Over the course of the coming week, I’ll have much more to say about Copy Riddles, about Ad Money Machine, and about Lawrence himself.

But frankly, I’ve never offered a deal this good before, at least if you too are interested in direct response copywriting and want to get better at it. In case you already know you want this deal, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

P.S. If you are already a Copy Riddles member, I sent you an email about how to claim your free lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine. In case you didn’t get that email, write me and I’ll get you set up.

The only marketing subscription I pay for each month

by

I don’t pay for any copywriting newsletter, print or digital.

I don’t pay for any marketing mastermind.

I don’t pay for any monthly coaching, community, or support built around an industry guru or expert.

Nothing wrong if you pay for any of these. I’ve paid for all of them in the past. But it’s been at least a couple years since I paid for any kind of marketing info subscription each month.

Well, except one.

I pay for it now.

I’ve been doing so for a little over a year.

I keep paying for it each month because I find it 1) interesting and 2) valuable. And because I find it interesting and valuable, I find time most days to at least give a quick glance to the latest daily edition, and often I have a thorough sit-down read.

This marketing info subscription is Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine.

As you might know, Lawrence a direct marketing expert who’s been in the game for a few decades.

Lawrence also happens to have a passion for research and archiving and detail. And his Ad Money Machine basically gives you interesting and valuable ads, ranging over the past 100+ years of direct marketing… plus Lawrence’s expert commentary on the why and how and who and who else behind each ad.

It’s as good of a source for marketing insight and inspiration as I’ve been able to find.

Ad Money Machine costs $97/month. You can go sign up for it now. But maybe, probably, you’re not ready to “go steady” with Lawrence based on just my quick and surface description of what he offers.

So I’d like to suggest a “coffee date.”

Lawrence has put together a guide called “How To Turn Fascinations Into Fortunes.” It gives you a perfect flavor for what Lawrence does – a collection of fascinating and effective ads from the past, all tied together with a common theme, along with Lawrence’s commentary and analysis, which you can’t find anywhere else on the Internet.

“How To Turn Fascinations Into Fortunes” normally sells for $97, the same as a month of Lawrence’s Ad Money Machine subscription.

But for the next day or so (the clock’s ticking), Lawrence is making this guide available to you, just because you happen to be a reader of this newsletter, for only $7.

Final word:

I’m not an affiliate for this offer. I don’t get paid whether you buy it or not. I can tell you I did buy this offer myself, for my own purposes, several weeks ago, before I ever had any plans on promoting it to you.

If you’d like to find out more about it, while Lawrence’s sizable discount is still live:

​https://bejakovic.com/fascinations​