Khaled Maziad Archives

Yesterday, after I sent out an email with the subject line “201 good reasons to get on Daniel Throssell’s list today,” I got the following reply from a long-time reader:

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I know all you top level people charge big bucks for critiques.

I’m not sure why but today I decided to rewrite this email with my take on it.

If it can be useful to you, use it however you wish.

All I want from it is your critique and words of wisdom. Not some long breakdown critique. Just a couple minutes of your time and perhaps a couple lines of advice.

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What followed was a rewrite of my email from yesterday. It was really a re-write – basically every idea I had in the original email was there, just said using other words. Example:

[my original]
“Daniel’s offers are how he beat out a dozen other top email marketers during the infamous 2021 Black Friday campaign. It’s how he made the classified ads he ran this spring (mine among them) a big success for everyone involved. It’s why I ended up providing a unique and sizeable discount on Copy Riddles only to people on Daniel’s list.”

[my reader’s re-write]
“Daniel’s Offers. This is his Midas touch. It’s how he raced ahead of the pack during the buzzworthy 2021 Black Friday showdown. It’s the force behind his game-changing classified ads earlier this year. And guess what? It’s why there’s a unique, too-good-to-miss discount on Copy Riddles for Daniel’s elite.”

So.

Is this re-write, this new choice of words, better than what I had originally?

Or is it worse?

Think about that for a hot minute. And then I will tell you the correct answer, which is, who cares?

The best and most insightful copywriting book I have ever read is the Robert Collier Letter Book. And as Collier says in that book, “it’s not the copy so much as the scheme back of it.”

Yes, individual words have power. But they don’t have nearly the power of sound psychology.

There are lots of ways to tell people that you have secret knowledge. Whether you use the word secret, select, elite, insider, little-known, occult, forbidden, classified — that doesn’t really matter very much.

It’s the opportunity, the scarcity behind all those words that really gets peoples eyes going wide and their mouths hanging open.

Get the psychology down first. Then fiddle with the words. Or don’t, because if you got the psychology behind your words right, you will still make money.

That’s how and why the top copywriters make a lot of money.

So how do you get the psychology down?

Back to my email from yesterday. It was about how I’ve brought back my Copy Riddles course, and how I agreed with Daniel Throssell to offer an exclusive $200 discount to buyers who come via Daniel’s list.

In my email yesterday, I was letting my readers know about that, so they sign up to Daniel’s list in case they want that same discount.

The fact is, you have various options if you want to master the psychology behind the words, the scheme back of the copy. A particularly effective option is my Copy Riddles course.

As marketing consultant Khaled Maziad, who went through Copy Riddles a while back, wrote me about Copy Riddles:

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I loved that you didn’t include bullet templates but went deep into the psychology behind each bullet. This course is not just about the “how-to” of writing bullets but understanding the artistry and the deep psychology behind them… Plus, when and where to use them.

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I’m honestly not sure how long Daniel is planning to promote Copy Riddles — we didn’t agree on it, and maybe he is going to decide in real time based on the sales he sees.

I am sure that the only way to get that $200 discount on Copy Riddles is to be on Daniel’s list when he sends out the discount code.

Maybe it’s too late for that already. Or maybe it’s not.

Maybe, if you get on Daniel’s list right now, you will still have a chance at a $200 savings. If you’d like to at least have that option, which is yours if you want it, then here’s the link:

https://persuasivepage.com/

Today I watched a clip of Jerry Seinfeld on the Johnny Carson Show. Jerry smiles his precocious-boy smile and says:

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To me the most amazing thing about the news is that whatever goes on in the world, it exactly fits the number of pages that they’re using in the paper that day. [Johnny Carson chuckles off screen. Jerry continues:]

They must stand around after each edition going, “I don’t believe we just made it again! If one more thing happens, we’re screwed. There’s no more room in this paper!”

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This is a joke if you hear Jerry Seinfeld tell it, or imagine him with his mannerisms, or if you include that exaggeration at the end.

It’s not a joke if you just read the first sentence of that quote. It really is amazing that the day’s news always just fit the newspaper.

Of course, who reads newspapers any more — but the underlying point still stands:

The news was and is just a constant drip of telling you what to think, how to feel, how to react.

The news is not what’s worth knowing. At least that’s the way I look at it.

If you’re still reading, you might wonder what I think is worth knowing. I call it anti-news.

I’ve written before of my policy of not reading books that were published in just the last year.

I’ve been informed this has a clever name, “the Lindy effect,” after some long-surviving deli in New York.

The idea is, if something is worthwhile, it will still be worthwhile in a year from now. More generally, the longer something has been around, the more likely it is to keep being around.

This simple but powerful idea impacts everything I do, from the books I read to the emails I write to the offers I create. And since it’s time to start promoting:

It also lies behind my Copy Riddles program.

Copy Riddles is built on examples of winning copywriting that have been around for three, four, five, six decades or more.

But I’d take it still further back:

I believe Copy Riddles is really about the principles of effective communication, going back thousands of years. That might sound high-heeled, but it’s really what direct response marketing is — a merciless distillation that purifies and concentrates the evergreen principles of effective communication.

These principles were relevant yesterday, last year, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago.

And if you are looking to influence or manipulate people, these principles are your best bet for what will continue to be relevant tomorrow.

As marketing consultant Khaled Maziad wrote me to say after going through Copy Riddles:

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Man, this’s the best course on bullets I have ever seen. And believe me, I have seen a lot. I loved that you didn’t include bullet templates but went deep into the psychology behind each bullet. This course is not just about the “how-to” of writing bullets but understanding the artistry and the deep psychology behind them… Plus, when and where to use them.

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As you might know already:

This is the last week I am giving away two free bonuses with Copy Riddles. The first bonus is Storytelling For Sales. The second bonus is Copywriting Portfolio Secrets.

Don’t buy Copy Riddles just for the free bonuses.

But if you decide you want to get Copy Riddles, you have until tomorrow, Saturday Jan 21, at 12 midnight PST to get Storytelling for Sales and Copywriting Portfolio Secrets as free bonuses.

After then, Copy Riddles will remain available, but the free bonuses will disappear.

To get the whole package:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

Secret, occult, or classified — which one wins?

Jerry Seinfeld’s serious joke about the news