Joe Karbo

Most people are too busy digging an escape tunnel to notice the cell door is unlocked

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I used to prepare to escape. Away from the office job. Away from the 40-hour workweeks.

But I didn’t experience real freedom until I started preparing less — a lot less.

For example, yesterday I crafted a new offer, with no preparation, in just about two hours from start to finish. With a little luck, it should earn me enough money to cover all my expenses for the next month, maybe longer.

What’s more, I’m going to ask you to send me $197 dollars for this offer, even though it won’t cost me more than a few minutes of my time to fulfill it. And I’ll try to make it so irresistible that you’d be a darned fool not to do it.

After all, why should you care if i make a $197 profit for a few minutes’ work if I can show you how to make a lot more — in just the next week, and in every week after that?

I’ll tell you about the offer in a second. But first, let me address the strange sense of deja vu you might be feeling right now.

Because what you’ve just read is the reworded lead to Joe Karbo’s Lazy Man’s Way to Riches ad.

It’s a famous ad. There is a lot in there. A lot I didn’t see when I first read it. And even a lot I didn’t see for many years after.

For example, here’s one thing always gets me:

In the fifth sentence, Joe admits he’s selling something. Even though he’s formatted his ad to look like a neutral newspaper article.

And then in the seventh sentence, he reveals the price of his offer — and that the price is entirely unrelated to his cost of fulfillment.

It’s a great pattern interrupt.

Because most marketers try to lull you into buying. They think if they hold off long enough, they can hypnotize you so deeply that you won’t mind when the pitch comes.

The trouble with that is, all of us are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

It’s very hard to fool modern consumers into thinking they are not reading an ad when they in fact are.

And people’s reactance to ads — leading to perfectly good sales messages getting tossed out on sight, marked as spam, or simply browsed away from — has never been higher. In fact, it’s increasing.

Which is why it can make sense to disarm your prospect’s skepticism right away — by admitting you are selling something, and maybe even revealing the price.

Which brings me to that $197 offer I mentioned up front.

It’s for my “Win Your First Copywriting Job” workshop, which kicks off this Friday.

Like I said at the start, I used to have an office job. I’d sit there each day, lusting after the kind of freedom I have now. To work when I want… where I want… and as much or as little as I want.

And still, to have as much money as I need.

Fortunately, I was tossed out of my office job and into my first copywriting gig without too much time to prepare, doubt myself, or try to line up everything perfectly.

But perhaps you’ve had the curse of too much time. Perhaps you’ve been studying maps of the terrain… digging your escape tunnel… and waiting for the perfect moment to make your break.

And waiting.

In that case, my workshop might be what you need to escape for real.

The workshop is not a “Lazy Man’s Way to Copywriting Riches.”

​​But if you’re willing to do some work… and if you have a couple basic requirements satisfied… then I can help you open the cell door and take that first step through it. All within the next week.

​​For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/win-your-first-copywriting-job/

Great product names for dummies

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Today I spent some time looking up the worst book titles of all time, according to the Internet. Here are a few standouts:

– The Joy Of Uncircumcising
– You Are Worthless
– Reusing Old Graves
– The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa In Theory – And Practice
– How Green Were The Nazis?

Ridiculous, right? But it’s easy to shake your head and point and laugh. Can you do better though?

Can you come up with a great book title that gets people to latch on to a book… pick it up… thumb through it… buy it… and mention it to friends, before they’ve even read it?

It’s a relevant question if you’re a marketer or copywriter. Because book titles are the closest mainstream thing to naming direct response products and offers.

If you like, I’ll tell you what I think. I think there are lots of ways to come up with good titles or offer names. Let me illustrate just one:

– The 4-Hour Workweek
– The 16-Word Sales Letter
– The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches

How good are these titles actually? ​​Well, the first and third are backed up by results.

Neither Tim Ferriss nor Joe Karbo were famous. And yet they managed to get their books to millions of people, largely on the strength of the appeals in those 4- and 5-word titles.

The second title on that list is a book by Evaldo Albuquerque. It’s about a very niche topic — writing long-form sales letters. And even so, it’s got a respectable 260 reviews on Amazon.

A part of that is because Evaldo is as close to a star as you can get in this field. Plus he has the backing of many copywriting and marketing influencers.

But his title certainly helps. And in any case, it’s an illustration of the point I want to make:

* You can write a good name through paradox.

“Paradox” in this case is a shortcut for flat-out impossibility (“The 16-Word Sales Letter”)… contradiction (“The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches”)… or subverting strong expectations (“The 4-Hour Workweek”).

So how do you use this? All I can do is give you an example.

​​Say you’re selling a solution that helps people title their books. So you start with “book title” in the name of your offer. And then you ask yourself:

What’s the opposite of that? What are things that people believe to be “musts” around this topic? What are people expecting?

Well, one thing people might expect is that a good title has to be short. So you could use the name:

“The 99-Word Book Title”

People might also expect that you have to be creative to come up with a good name. So here’s option two:

“The Dullard’s Way To Great Book Titles”

Finally, people might think that coming up with a title name will take brainstorming or a lot of time. So you subvert that:

“The 4-Second Book Title”

But perhaps the results still suck. Fear not. There are lots of formulas you can use.

​​For example, if your topic is tricky, overwhelming, or requires study or intelligence… there’s an easy way to turn that into a title that works. Just put your topic in your name… and then attach “for dummies” at the end. And if you think you need it, add a disclaimer:

“Great Product Names For Dummies: Not just for dummies — but for everyone who is intrigued by paradox!”

Well. Maybe you’re still not sold. Maybe you want more ways to come up with great names for your product or offer. Then here’s an offer of my own:

I write an email newsletter. Product naming is something I might talk about more in the future… or I might not. But if I do, my newsletter is the first place where any such talk will go. If you don’t want to miss that, click here to subscribe.

How to abuse your customers into buying from you

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There’s a lot you can learn from chick flicks.

Take for example, the evergreen romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary. It’s about a 30-something single woman, a bit fat, a bit messy, not too successful.

Throughout the movie, Bridget is searching for a nice, sensible boyfriend to go out with. She eventually succeeds — by not becoming bitter, by putting herself out there, by picking herself up when she’s down. At least that’s the surface script.

But there’s an underlying script as well.

After all, the guy that Bridget winds up with — Mark Darcy — starts off by cruelly and unironically insulting her:

“I do not need a blind date, particularly not with some verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and dresses like her mother.”

Ouch.

Mark keeps this up for much of the movie.

Of course, it turns out he’s not such a bad guy after all. This makes it ok that Bridget winds up with him before the credits roll.

It gets better —  we hope

And that’s the underlying script.

It seems to say, even when somebody verbally or emotionally abuses you, there’s hope that they might actually like you.

I think many people subconsciously hope for this in real life as well. And that’s why abuse can help you make sales — as long as you keep it subtle and ethical.

As an example of this, take Joe Karbo’s famous ad, The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.

I’ve been talking about it for the past few days.

In one part of this ad, Joe says something like, “I will ask you to send me ten dollars for something that won’t cost me 50 cents.”

That’s borderline insulting.

And then he twists it further by calling you a “darned fool” if you don’t take him up on his offer.

At this point, you might be ready to boil over with indignation.

So Joe stops the abuse. He tells you how his offer is so valuable that you shouldn’t care if he is making a profit, because you’ll make a lot more.

This abuse-then-soothe pattern is something you can use on different levels.

At the sales argument level, like Joe did. Or to structure an entire sales letter. Or even across different sales messages — for example, within email campaigns.

Speaking of which, if you want info on how to structure email campaigns, you’ll want to read my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space.

You’d be a darned fool not to do it.

After all, I’ve written successful sales emails for some very big businesses, and I’ll be sharing my insights within this book — which you can get for free, if you sign up now. More info here:

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

How to overcome being nervous, with Neil Strauss AKA Style

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I once listened to an unusual Mixergy interview.

Andrew Warner, the guy who runs Mixergy, typically interviews successful entrepreneurs for his show.

This time however, his guest was Neil Strauss.

AKA Style.

AKA the guy who wrote The Game, the book that exposed the underground pick up community and made it a mainstream phenomenon.

The strange thing was that Andrew, who had probably interviewed hundreds of people up to then, was nervous during this interview with Neil.

Neil, who is a very experienced interviewer himself on top of being a high-performing pick up artist, had this advice for Andrew:

“If you’re ever feeling nervous, call it out.”

Neil was saying that, in business as well as socially, you always want to beat someone to their objection.

If you raise the objection before it occurs to your adversary, then the objection loses its force.

This relates to what I was talking about yesterday. It was about Joe Karbo’s price argument in his famous ad “The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.” Joe wrote something like:

“I’m going to ask you to send me 10 dollars for something that’ll cost me no more than 50 cents. And I’ll try to make it so irresistible that you’d be a darned fool not to do it. After all, why should you care if I make $9.50 profit if I can show you how to make a lot more?”

That first bit, about the 50 cents, serves multiple purposes.

One of them is to raise a possible objection.

Try to imagine the ad without it:

You tell the prospect how you’ll ask him to send you $10, and that he’ll be a darned fool not to do it, because this information is worth way more than $10.

Maybe the guy will buy it. But maybe he’ll also say,

“Sounds good, but why $10 exactly? And how much are you making off this? It sounds fishy.”

So that first sentence, about the 50 cents, makes a small but significant difference — it diffuses the objection before it arises in the prospect’s mind.

And this isn’t the only reason to use this argument.

It’s not even the main reason, in my opinion.

I’ll talk about why tomorrow.

For now, if you want more copywriting advice, you might like my upcoming book. It deals with email marketing for the health space, including writing the actual copy. You can find out more about it here:

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

The lazy man’s way to addressing price concerns

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Have you ever heard of the 1970’s version of Tim Ferris?

His name was Joe Karbo.

Like Tim, Joe started with a successful direct response business.

And like Tim, Joe then wrote a book teaching a mass audience how they too could use modern marketing techniques to get rich.

It sounds a lot like Tim’s “4-hour Workweek.” Except, Joe’s version came out about 40 years earlier, and had an even better title:

“The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches”

Joe sold this book through a full-page, all-text ad he ran in mainstream magazines. The ad is worth tracking down because it’s full of good lessons. The one I want to focus on today is how it addressed the price of Joe’s book.

Very soon into the ad, Joe announced that he will be selling something (without saying what). And he immediately said it will cost $10 (about $60 in today’s money).

What’s more, he freely admitted that it won’t cost him more than 50 cents to make this thing. And then came the kicker. In Joe’s own words:

“And I’ll try to make it so irresistible that you’d be a darned fool not to do it. After all, why should you care if I make $9.50 profit if I can show you how to make a lot more?”

Obviously, Joe was successful. He managed to sell 3 million copies of his book using this approach.

​So what’s going on behind the scenes of this sales argument?

I think there are two crucial parts to it.

One is the provocation (“It won’t cost me 5% of what I’ll charge you, and yet you’ll pay”).

The other is the chance to lay out the benefits (“You get something more valuable than the price because XYZ”).

Now I see a lot of marketers today using just the second, benefits part of this sales argument. They ignore the first, provocation part.

I think that’s a mistake for two reasons. I’ll talk about each of these two reasons in more detail in upcoming emails.

For now, if you need a lazy man’s way to get your sales emails to actually make money, you might like my upcoming book. It deals with email marketing for the health space, and it covers how I’ve written emails that actually tripled sales for big direct response companies.

For more info about this book,  check out the ad on the following page:

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