John Forde

The DR world’s secret referral network

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Here’s a little story of secret networks making referrals around the world:

Back in 2023, I met a copywriter at a conference in Poland. We hit it off, and stayed in touch.

This guy is French, but he was working in Switzerland as copy chief at a supplement company. He wanted to quit this 9-5 job and go freelance — but living in Switzerland ain’t cheap. In order to have the confidence to quit his 9-5, he would need at least one really good copywriting client.

He asked if I knew anybody.

I did not.

But I did know an international man of mystery, connections, and influence, Lawrence Bernstein.

I had gotten connected with Lawrence earlier that year after writing him an email to enthuse about his “ad a day” subscription, Ad Money Machine.

Lawrence and I had gotten on a Zoom call to get acquainted after that email. Lawrence had asked if he could introduce me to anybody in the direct response space. There wasn’t anyone at that time. But I now wrote him (from Spain) on behalf of this French copywriter. Was there anybody Lawrence could think of as a client for him?

Lawrence lives in Arizona. But he wrote an email to one of his many international DR contacts, a supplement marketer in France. That guy wrote an email to somebody back in Switzerland. And the end result, in the words of the copywriter I had met in Poland:

===

Lawrence connected me to someone in France, who knew somebody in Switzerland. That’s funny because it traveled all around the world just to get back to Switzerland. So I met with the guy in October and it was a great match. I quit my job in December and I had the whole month of January without a job just trying to see what I was going to do. Then he sent me an offer for February.

[…]

It was funny to meet people that were so close. I didn’t know about the company. I didn’t know about the guy. It was so close to home but actually I had no idea what they were doing that or that they existed.

===

As far as I know, the copywriter is still working happily with this client that Lawrence had helped connect him to.

I’m telling you this to make the point that direct response outfits tend to fly under the radar.

Yes, there are a few noticeable behemoths like Agora and Guthy-Renker.

But there are thousands of other small operators, maybe a team of 10 people of fewer, pulling in tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales.

You won’t ever know about these people, not unless you are well-connected already, or obsessive in your research, or willing to spend a lot of your own money to buy DR offers and to get on DR mailing lists.

Lawrence happens to be all three.

That’s another reason I keep enthusing about Lawrence’s Ad Money Machine. Lawrence’s “ad a day” service features winning ads you won’t find anywhere else, often with copywriting techniques and marketing strategies that are pulling in millions of dollars, but flying under the radar.

As A-list copywriter John Forde wrote about Ad Money Machine:

“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.”

And now, it’s time. Because my current “Unannounced Bonus” 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 invest in this before it disappears in a few short hours:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

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

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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.

My first 1-star Amazon review

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It finally happened. I finally got my first 1-star Amazon review.

I wrote back in May about how I had gotten a 1-star review of my “10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters” on Goodreads, a book review platform.

That review was in Serbian, a language that I understand. The gist of the review was an attack on direct response copywriting. “Outdated!” “Cringe!” My poor book, which has the word “copywriters” in the title, apparently attracted somebody who loves to read about a topic they hate.

That’s okay. Because I wrote an email about that review and I profited from it.

But I’m not sure I can profit from my first 1-star Amazon review. Because a while back, Amazon started allowing reviews that don’t say anything, but simply just pick a number of stars.

What precise and profound comment did my reader mean to express by choosing a single star for my book?

Perhaps the reader had some genuine gripe or even a legitimate critique of the actual content.

But perhaps he or she read the book and thought it was great, and wanted to reward me for writing it: “This book is so good it reminds of my home state of Texas! Here’s a lone star fer ya.”

Or perhaps this reader thought the book was too valuable to share, and wanted to discourage others from reading it and getting good ideas from it also.

Unfortunately, we will never know.

Instead, in order to profit from this zero-content review, let me tie it up with something more substantive. And that’s a message I got last week from Kieran Drew.

As you might know, Kieran is a bit of a star in the creative entrepreneur space. He has close to 200k followers on Twitter. He also has a big and growing email newsletter, with over 25k readers.

Earlier this year, Kieran launched a course about writing, High Impact Writing. Over the course of two 5-day launches, he sold over $300,000 worth of this course to his audience.

But back to the message Kieran sent me last week.

​​It simply said, “hope you’re well mate, continuing to spread the good word.”

​​Beneath that was a screenshot of a tweet that Kieran wrote earlier that day:

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Copywriting is the most important skill for any creator.

My 5 favorite books (if you’re a beginner, read in this order):

1. Adweek Copywriting Handbook
2. Great Leads
3. Cashvertising
4. 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters
5. Breakthrough Advertising

===

I’ve never read Cashvertising. But the others I have read, and multiple times each. It kind of tickles me to be included on a top-5 copywriting list along with Joe Sugarman and Mark Ford John Forde and Gene Schwartz.

I’ve been pushing my 10 Commandments book pretty hard over the past few days.

Today is last day will be pushing it for a while.

Of course, you can choose to buy it today or you can choose not to. There’s no urgency, beyond the fact that people who care about writing and know about online business success think that what’s inside this book is valuable.

It might be so for you too. If you’d like to stake $5 on it to find out:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

A damn good bit of advice from an embarrassing book I bought yesterday

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Yesterday, I found myself in the Moco Museum gift shop, thumbing through a book, and looking over my shoulder.

The Moco Museum features street art, pop art, and what I can only call high kitsch.

And after getting through the colorful exhibit, there I was in the gift shop, holding a little white book with a big black title.

The book collects 120 short ideas by George Lois. Lois is a brand advertising guy that the book describes as “America’s master communicator, advertising guru, the original Mad Man, and acclaimed cultural provocateur.”

A little boastful, but nothing too indecent in that.

The problem was that big black title on the cover. It read:

“DAMN GOOD ADVICE (for people with talent!)”

I felt embarrassed being seen buying something like this. But I liked the few of Lois’s bits of advice that I had thumbed to.

And since I have exactly one physical book in my new apartment, I steeled myself and decided to buy “DAMN GOOD ADVICE (for people with talent!)” in spite of the title.

So like a teenager buying condoms for the first time, I looked around, picked an opportune moment, and rushed for the cash register.

“I’d like to buy this,” I mumbled, pushing the book across the counter, not raising my eyes.

The woman just smiled at me knowingly and rang up the book without comment.

And good thing. Because I’m reading the book more this morning, and I’m enjoying it.

Lois gives a brief but interesting perspective on creativity and brand advertising. Much of it is laughable and sacrilegious from the perspective of direct response advertising. But there is still some surprising common ground.

For example, Lois’s advice no. 50 says:

“Research is the enemy of creativity — unless it’s your own ‘creative’ research (heh-heh)”

I raised my eyebrows when I read this headline. But Lois pays it off in a way that is consistent with something a very successful direct response marketer said recently. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow if you like.

For today, I just want to share a much simpler idea, Lois’s advice no. 75:

“What a difference a name makes!”

Lois is talking about the power of good brand names. But his advice no. 75 made me think of chapter 6 of Great Leads, by Mark Ford and John Forde.

One bit of advice from that marketing classic is that, if you have a complex problem to talk about, it can be smart to package it up inside of a name, ideally one that makes instant sense to the reader.

Of course, not only complex, hard-to-describe problems deserve a good name.

Vague symptoms… shadowy enemies… novel mechanisms… and plain old giant promises often become more manageable and real if you just give them the handle of a good name.

Which brings me to the name and the promise of the presentation I will put on next Wednesday.

It’s called the Most Valuable Email.

And it’s about a type of daily email that has been most valuable to me in the history of this newsletter… and that might be equally valuable to you, if you are a copywriter or marketer, and you have your own mailing list, or you want to start one.

The Most Valuable Email presentation will happen on Wed June 22 at 7pm CET. If you’d like to get signed up for it, the first step is to get on my email newsletter before Wednesday. The second step will become obvious once you get my first daily email. No talent required.

How to be seen as a more credible source of solutions and advice

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Today, YouTube served me with up a recent interview that PBS did with Garry Kasparov.

Kasparov was World Chess Champion for 20 years and then an opposition leader in Russia.

“Unfortunately,” the interviewer said in his opening move to Kasparov, “you turned out to be right. Back in 2015, you wrote a book called ‘Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.'”

The interviewer took a breath after reading out that title. He went on:

“Now that we see what he’s doing, what should our response be?”

Given Kasparov’s book, this might seem like a reasonable question to ask.

And that’s just the point I want to make to you today. There’s something important hiding inside that question.

In the words of Mark Ford and John Forde from Great Leads… the fact that you understand what’s wrong can help make you seem like a more credible source for solutions, too.

The fact is, just because Kasparov wrote a book critical of Putin gives him no special insight on how to stop the raging war in Ukraine. The two are about as related as knowing that “heavy turbulence makes for unpleasant flights” and knowing how to land a jumbo jet.

And yet, it doesn’t matter. The human instinct to jump from one to the other. Because when we’ve got trouble, it’s natural to look outside ourselves for the solution. And at those times, we are willing to accept a lot of things as qualifications and authority.

The takeaway for you is clear:

Don’t build a better mousetrap.

Instead, write a book. Educate your prospect about the dangerous breeding habits and expansionary intent of the eastern harvest mouse. “The eastern harvest mouse is coming,” your book should say. “And it must be stopped.”

Ok, let’s get to the business end of this post:

If you want more advice on building credibility with your audience, you might get value from my email newsletter. That’s where I regularly write about reasons that credibility fails. You can sign up for it here.

Great re-reads

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“The richer part of the promises you’ll make is the part that pulls the strings from behind the curtain. Friendship and status among your peers. Confidence and freedom from worry. Inclusion. Safety and security. Even just the feeling of association to people you admire and respect.”
– Michael Masterson and John Forde, Great Leads

I’m re-reading Great Leads right now. It’s my third time around reading and taking notes from this book. Even so, last night, I was shocked to read that passage above. It felt like I’d never seen it before. Which means…

1) This passage was secretly inserted into the book since I last read it (very unlikely) or…

2) My eyes carelessly skipped it the two times before (somewhat unlikely) or…

3) I was daydreaming both times while reading it (somewhat likely) or…

4) At those earlier times, I just didn’t grasp the deep significance of what I was reading (very likely).

In fact, my brain might have glossed over this passage even this third time.

​​Probably, the only reason I was finally able to see it is because I was writing about the same stuff only a few days ago. (If you’re curious, check out my emails from Dec 31 and Dec 29.)

So my point is that there is much value in re-reading books, and then re-reading them some more. And not just because you might be forgetful… dull of understanding… or careless the first few times around.

The way I think of it:

The ideas in a book, and the presentation of those ideas, are like seeds. And your mind while you’re reading, and the circumstances of your life at that time, are the soil in which those seeds can land. And for each seed, there is a different season for fruitful sowing.

In other words, if you revisit a good book, even one you’re sure you know well, the harvest can be bountiful. You can find good ideas that you couldn’t appreciate earlier. Or you can remind yourself of good ideas you had seen before, so they become a deeper core of who you are.

In this way, re-reading good books can create transformative changes in your life and business. Because many valuable ideas are simple. You just need to be reminded to apply them, and results will follow soon.

But maybe you knew all that already. And maybe by telling you this, I’m just making you feel a little guilty, instead of actually motivating you.

So let me tell you that in my experience, re-reading books is actually fun and exciting. You discover stuff, like that passage above, that couldn’t have been in the book before.

Re-reading good books also gives you confidence and satisfaction. You are following the advice of industry giants like David Deutsch, Ben Settle, and Parris Lampropoulos… so you know you are building a valuable habit.

And rereading books can even make you feel a little smug and superior — in a perfectly healthy way — compared to both your earlier self and to all those other people who aren’t willing to do this.

But do as you think is right.

Maybe you really are too smart to get value out of a second or third re-reading of a book.

But if you are not, then I’d like to talk to you. Because I feel like we might be kindred spirits.

So if you already have this habit, or if you’re planning on starting it now, write in and let me know. I’ll tell you a few of the best books, both persuasion and non-persuasion related, that I’m re-reading now and will be re-reading soon.

And by the way, if you’re puzzled by why I would tell you all this, you clearly need to re-read Great Leads. It’s right there on page 83, before the analysis of Vic Schwab’s How To Win Friends & Influence People ad.

But if by some cruel twist of fate you don’t have your own copy to reach for, here’s a very smart way to invest $11.42:

https://bejakovic.com/great-leads

The Rule of One applied to online communities

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A few days ago, copywriter Stefan Georgi sent out email with subject line,

“Hang out with me in Scottsdale on Jan 29th?”

Stefan was promoting an entrepreneurs’ event in Scottsdale, AZ. So what’s the primary benefit to anyone on Stefan’s list in attending this event?

Well, it’s right there in the subject line. Getting to hang out with Stefan.

This made me think of series of ideas I got exposed to a few months ago. They came from a certain Stew Fortier.

I don’t know Stew, but online, he bills himself as a “former technologist, current writer.”

Anyways, Stew wrote a bunch of interesting and valuable tweets — a horrible format in my opinion — about online communities and why they die or thrive. The answer:

“A purpose is the primary value that members get by participating in the community.”

Stew gives the example of a community of designers. Designers might want many different things. But a purpose is one specific thing, such as:

* Mentor each other
* Help each other find work
* Invent new typography together
* Give feedback on each other’s work
* Lobby Congress to replace the English alphabet with Wingdings

Stew then gives the hypothetical of somebody in this community of designers proposing a book club:

“If the community exists to help designers get higher-paid work, you’ll know to pick books about design careers. Your core utility isn’t diluted, it’s amplified.”

You might recognize this as the Rule of One from the Mark Ford and John Forde’s book Great Leads. And if you ever decide to create an online community, then as Mark and John write,

“Put the Rule of One to work for you in all your communications, especially in your promotions and their leads. You’ll be amazed at how much stronger — and successful — your copy will be.”

And by the way, as Stefan’s email and most online copywriting communities show, gazing at the guru is a completely valid purpose.

Because purpose in an online community is much like value in email copy. Hard core, practical stuff is ok on occasion and for a while. But more illogical, entertaining, emotional stuff is both more powerful and evergreen.

And now:

Would you like to join the community of readers who gaze at my entertaining and fluffy marketing emails every day? Our purpose is simple — to expose you to the most subtle and powerful persuasion ideas out there. If that’s a community you’d like to join, then click here and fill out the application form.

Woody Allen and Mark Ford walk into a library together…

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“I don’t enjoy reading,” Woody Allen said once in an interview. “But it’s necessary for a writer, so I have to do it.”

Preach, Woody.

I’ve always found reading is one of those things I do out of responsibility, not enjoyment.

But do you really have to read to be a successful writer? Or at least a successful copywriter?

I don’t know. But I heard two expert copywriters talking today. And their opinion seems to be yes.

The two copywriters in question were John Forde and Mark Ford. You might know them as the two guys who wrote the book Great Leads, which is up there with Cialdini’s Influence and Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising as elementary education for a copywriter.

So John asked Mark, where do you get your big ideas from?

Reading, said Mark.

Not by swiping what worked before. Not by intuition. Not by some magic spark of creativity.

Instead, Mark reads. And when something makes him excited and interested, he takes note, and he uses that idea, in some form, in his own writing.

Which might sound pretty simple. Or even cheap. But hold on. Because here’s a second tip from the same interview:

Mark says Googled reading won’t lead you to a big idea. You’ve got to read books.

Yes, it’s work. Maybe even unenjoyable work. But so what? Read lots of books, carefully, and you can make lots of money as a result. And as Woody Allen will tell you:

“Money is not everything, but it is better than having one’s health.”

But here’s what not to do:

Don’t read my daily email newsletter. It won’t lead to your next big idea. And it’s not enjoyable.

If you don’t believe me, or you want to judge for yourself what my daily emails are like, then click here.

The grandmaster of marketing secrets fesses up

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A few weeks back, I wrote a post about the trouble with marketing “secrets.”

​​It’s not that packaging things up as a secret doesn’t work. It does. It works great, and that’s why so many marketers use secrets as a crutch.

Today, I want to warn you about secrets again, but from the other side. Not a warning to you as a copywriter peddling secrets… but to you as a prospect getting sucked in by the promise of secret copywriting knowledge.

And to do that, I want to share a quote I heard in a speech given by an A-list copywriter who might be called the grandmaster of marketing secrets. I’m talking about Mark Ford, who, along with Bill Bonner, was one of the key people who made Agora the direct marketing behemoth it is today.

In case you don’t know, Agora is a conglomerate of a bunch of smaller publishing companies. Much of what Agora does is sell secrets — in the finance, health, and most recently, make money online markets. From what I understand, the selling of secrets at Agora all started with Mark Ford, who literally wrote the book on selling secrets (Great Leads, along with John Forde).

So Mark Ford and Bill Bonner were talking about the psychology underlying what they do… and they concluded the following:

“There is an inverse relationship between the value of knowledge and what people are willing to pay for it. The most important things in life you’ve probably heard a hundred times before, but you’re not paying attention. When you’re in the right place and you hear it, you have that ‘aha’ moment and everything changes.”

In other words, these two guys, who have collectively made hundreds of millions of dollars selling secrets, concluded that secrets aren’t worth that much.

So what am I saying?

Nothing. Draw your own conclusions. But perhaps Mark Ford’s confession above is something to remember the next time you hear an alluring promise of “insider knowledge” and “7-figure copywriting secrets.”

Speaking of alluring promises:

I write a daily email newsletter. It’s full of non-secret, highly valuable information. If you’d like to sign up for it, here’s the link.

Forrest Fenn fortune finally found

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Ten years ago, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, a man named Forrest Fenn buried a small treasure chest.

According to the available descriptions, the chest dated back to the 12th century. It was made of bronze, with wood liner and a locking front clasp. On its sides, it showed scenes of knights scaling a wall while damsels above rained down flowers.

Fenn, who was a filthy-fun arts and antiquities dealer out of Santa Fe, filled the chest with hundreds of rare coins, gold nuggets, and pieces of ancient jewelry. The treasure was estimated to be worth between $1 and $2 million.

And then, Forrest Fenn hid the treasure and the chest “in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe ” — intending for somebody else to find it.

Fenn published a memoir in 2010 titled The Thrill of the Chase. It contained hints as to the location of his treasure chest. It also contained a poem, which Fenn said had nine specific clues.

In the decade since, hundreds of thousands of people searched for Fenn’s treasure. Five treasure hunters even died in the quest, by falling off cliffs or drowning in rivers.

And then this weekend, Fenn announced that somebody has finally found the treasure chest, somewhere “under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains.”

So what’s the copywriting lesson here?

First, I think this was an impressive instance of mobilizing people. Forrest Fenn literally got people to sacrifice their lives in search of a $1M prize.

Of course, this wasn’t just about $1 million. This was about uncovering a secret treasure. And that’s the point I want to get across to you.

Forrest Fenn could have just announced that he had buried $1M worth of treasure in the Rocky Mountains. “Go find it, you bums!”

But that’s not what he did.

Look at the description above of the treasure chest and its contents. It came from Fenn himself.

There’s so much detail.

You can probably picture the bronze box, the relief on the sides, and the jewels and gold coins stacked up to the rim. Then there’s Fenn’s memoir itself, in which every line could be a possible clue to the location. ​

And that’s the copywriting lesson.

If you’re going to lead people by the nose, you have to give them enough bait to get them hooked. Otherwise, they will just think you’re making stuff up. Or, as John Forde and Michael Masterson put it so formally in Great Leads:

“Specificity is absolutely required to overcome the skepticism that secrets automatically evoke.”