Daniel Throssell

The old “Simon Lannister”: How to achieve the possible

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Simon flew through the finish line and immediately collapsed, face down on the track.

“You all right, Si?” It was his sister Margot, standing over him and holding a stopwatch.

Simon lay there on the ground, gasping for breath. “heave… heave… TIME? heave…”

“Oh right,” Margot said. She looked at the stopwatch. “Three minutes, 59.7 seconds. That seems good. Is that good?”

Simon kept heaving for breath, face flat on the ground. Gradually his hands curled into fists and his heaves turned into sobs. “I did it… I DID IT…”

Simon’s Jack Russell terrier, Sergeant, came over and sniffed his master’s feet. Sergeant followed the scent away into the grassy, wildflower-covered field in the middle of the track.

“I don’t mean to rush you Si,” Margot said, “but could you maybe hurry it up? We’ll be late for lunch. And you know how mum gets whenever we’re late.”

And that’s all the detail that’s been preserved about this historic event.

Because historians love to study and celebrate Roger Bannister, the first man to run the four-minute mile, back in 1954.

But practically nobody studies or even remembers Simon Lannister, the 34th man to run the four-minute mile, only a few years later, in 1958.

And I suspect it will be the same with me and my achievement yesterday.

Because yesterday, I got banned from r/copywriting.

The context is that over the past few days, I’ve been rewarding people who share links to my Copy Riddles optin page.

And that’s why Sonam Zahrt-Tenzin, a copywriter who’s already gone through the Copy Riddles program, put together a nice writeup of his experience and posted it on the r/copywriting subreddit.

But when I went to read it a few hours later, it was “[removed].” In fact, a post at the top of r/copywriting said any links to me and any of my stuff are now banned because there have been too many of them over the past few days.

You might think this is a failure but:

I’m grateful to Sonam and to all the other people who shared links to my site.

Like I said, I doubt history will remember our collective achievement in getting me banned from r/copywriting. I’m certainty not the first to break through that barrier — I believe that was Daniel Throssell, and probably other people after him.

Even so, it’s been an achievement for me. And I don’t mean that in a perverse, “good is bad, bad is good” sense.

I mean it in the sense that I’ve seen a nice bump in new subscribers over the past few days.

In fact, I saw a bump on top of that bump after the “banned” post appeared at the top of r/copywriting. And since that post is sitting there still, I’m guessing it will send a few more people to check out my site.

What’s more, I imagine this promo campaign will bring me knock-on benefits and name exposure, which will only be obvious in weeks and months to come.

That’s the achievement I’m happy about.

Now, as you might have noticed if you’ve been reading my emails for a while, I’m not a person who particularly craves attention, controversy, or conflict.

But the fact is, if you do anything in life… besides drumming your fingers on the table and watching the seasons change outside your window… then soon enough, you will run into resistance, whether internal or external.

In my experience, the only thing to do at that point is to give it the old Simon Lannister:

Keep putting one foot in front of the other, if for no other reason than that you’ve set your mind to it. And once you’re done, pick yourself up from the track, and rather than dwelling on your achievement or the resistance you encountered, go get lunch, and then move on to the next goal in your life.

For example:

Even though Daniel was the first to get banned from many choice locations on the Internet… I’m sure other virgin forums, groups, and communities remain.

So if you’d like to help me get the word out about this newsletter, and possibly get banned somewhere new, then take a look at the link below.

I’m offering a bribe in exchange for your help. But if the bribe doesn’t turn you on, ignore it. And if you want to help me out just for the sake of helping me out, I’ll be grateful to you. Here are the full details:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/

My second brush with death

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A few days ago, I sent out an email about a girl who secretly reminded me of a bear — in all the best ways. After I sent that email out, I posted it to my site as a blog post… and then I got the following message:

“A bear huh wtf!”

It turns out that every few months, this girl checks on me via my blog. And thanks to famous female intuition, she picked just the right day, with just the bear story right at the top.

As soon as I saw her message, I spun around and looked at my front door. A thin, half-inch board of plywood.

A cold sweat ran down my back. I imagined her showing up at my door at any moment… and with one mighty swipe, tearing it off its hinges and— well, I should be careful what I say. She might be reading.

So let me switch gear:

Yesterday, I wrote about my more real recent brush with death — a car that fell out of the sky in front of me.

When I wrote that email, I hadn’t yet thought of any clear marketing takeaway for you.

Well, I’ve since thought of an obvious and powerful takeaway. And since it goes just as well with the topic of today’s email, I’ll share this idea with you now.

This marketing idea was a revelation to me when I first heard it. That’s why I even included it as Commandment IV in my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.

The commandment is simply to give an occasion to your promotion. Give the reader an excuse to buy by answering the question, “Why am I hearing about this now?”

Of course, crap, transparently false occasions won’t do much and can even hurt you. (“Oh no! We’ve overstocked our warehouse again! Tee hee, so naughty we are! Oh well, time for a sale…”)

But if you can make your occasion feel real — cars falling out of the sky, a furious girl on a rampage — then you might have yourself a sales multiplier.

That’s one reason why I think Daniel Throssell’s Black Friday campaign this year did so well.

His feud with Matt Bockenstette gave it an occasion and made it feel real. People are starved for things that feel real, and so this feud made people pay attention and maybe gave them an excuse to buy.

And that’s the key point. Maybe, an excuse to buy.

Because I’ve seen so many successful and competent marketers lately… gnashing their online teeth and shaking their online jowls. “That Throssell character! And his shameless controversy seeking! Rrrr… rrreprehensible!”

I don’t know what this reaction is about.

It could be some honor among thieves thing. “Of course we want to agitate the shit out of our prospects — it’s ultimately good for them. But come on, not when we’re the prospects!”

Or perhaps it’s just shortsightedness. Thinking that Daniel somehow cheated his way to a big win.

I don’t doubt the occasion of the feud helped. But it would have multiplied a big fat zero had Daniel not had by far the best offer… and a relationship with his audience that’s tighter than anything I’ve personally ever seen.

And if you’re wondering what my stake is in all this:

Daniel’s been generous to me and we are on good terms. But perhaps you can believe me when I say I’m not shilling for him.

In part, because he doesn’t need me to.

In part, because I have my own offers to promote.

Well, that’s not really true. All I have is one single, tiny offer.

Because while my Influential Emails training is wrapped up for now… while Copy Riddles is in the hangar, getting spit-shined for its January 2022 flight… and while I work on new offers that I will launch over the coming months…

All I really have on offer is my tiny Kindle book, 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.

Among other things, this book will give show you A-list occasions, done right.

And speaking of which, if you haven’t bought this book yet, I’d appreciate if you’d do it now. I could really use the money — I’m looking to invest in a steel door for extra protection. Here’s how you can contribute $5:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

A critical look at Daniel Throssell

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A few questions for you:

How would you like to triple the size of your email list… while doubling (yes, doubling) your open rates?

How would you like new prospects who are so grateful for your non-stop marketing… that they write in daily to thank you?

How would you like to have people buying your products in unseen numbers… even before you make any effort to advertise those products?

You might this is a pipe dream. But this dream is real. And attainable. In fact, here’s one way to do it:

Get Daniel Throssell to promote you.

Before you throw up your hands in frustration, hear me out. There might be some profit in it for you.

As you might know, Daniel Throssell is a copywriter with a popular email newsletter. A few weeks ago, he and I did an “email swap.”

I wrote an email in this newsletter to promote Daniel’s list. I said Daniel’s writing is funny and entertaining. That’s what I could see on the surface.

But then a wave of people hit my site, following the email Daniel sent to his own audience about me. And I realized something deeper is going on, under the surface. It’s best summed up by a new reader who wrote me to say:

“I’m here because Daniel Throssell recommended you in his emails, and I’m about 50 emails deep into his list and will pretty much do anything he tells me to do at this point 😂”

When Daniel and I first discussed the email swap, he said he could get 10% of his entire email list to click through to my site.

I didn’t say so at the time, but I thought that was nonsense. I know how my own smaller list responds. Even if I’m selling free money, 10% won’t click through reliably. Plus I’ve managed much bigger lists for clients, and I know response only goes down with size.

And yet, I was wrong. Daniel did what he said he would do. Even more than that, in fact.

It wasn’t just idle clicks either.

Like I mentioned above, Daniel’s readers rooted through my site. They found an offer I hadn’t even made public (my Copy Riddles September launch). Some bought it right then and there. Many others bought it over the coming days — many more, in fact, than people who had been reading my newsletter for months or years.

By the end, I got literally hundreds of messages from new and engaged readers and customers. They told me how Daniel sent them and how they are sure they will like my stuff also. And my open rates, if those mean anything any more, are now double what they were before.

You might think I’m writing this as a way of saying thanks to Daniel. That’s not what this is about.

I’m writing this because I want to share something valuable with you. Because I’ve seen first hand the engagement that Daniel’s emails command.

You probably haven’t had a chance to experience that first hand. Instead, you’ve probably only seen Daniel’s online persona. Like a friend of mine who wrote me a few days ag to say, “I just unsubscribed from Throssell’s list. He was starting to annoy me.”

That’s a shame. Because this past Sunday, I promised you a resource. One that shows you how to create a responsive list beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

Well, I was talking about Daniel Throssell and his emails.

Whether you like Daniel’s online persona or not… my advice is to think twice, and look beyond the surface. It’s what I’m doing.

I’m reading each of Daniel’s emails and looking at them critically. Beyond the entertainment. I’m trying to read between the lines, and see what he’s doing. And I’m thinking about ways I could apply it to my own marketing. It’s already bearing fruit.

I suggest the same to you.
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Because odds are, you won’t get Daniel Throssell to write an email promoting you.

But if you do what I’m suggesting, and you look critically at what he’s doing… and you model it yourself… then the pipe dream I described above — including engagement and sales — is still attainable to you.

​​And if by chance you’re reading this… but you’re not signed up to Daniel’s list… then here’s where to go:

https://persuasivepage.com/