Today, a biz owner whose emails I read sent out an email that opened with: "This email is for you if you want quality help on [achieving business outcome] but don't want to commit the [lotsa shekels] that top-shelf collaborators charge." I winced at this. The fact is, this guy is a legitimate expert, who deserves to get paid based on the business value of his services, and yet here he is, leading off the pitch for his new offer by saying, "It's cheap relative to what you might expect." I think there's a lot of value in raising your prices. I think it can even make sense to be the most expensive in your field. Sometimes, on occasion, it can still make sense to offer something at an "attractive" price. But in that case: 1. I don't think it makes sense to lead off with that. Instead, it makes sense to first and foremost fully sell the "quality help" that this biz owner only got to later, and to emphasize that before appealing to cheapness. 2. It makes sense to give a legit public reason for the "attractive" price, and that reason can never be "I am doing it because I'm afraid you won't pay the going rate for this," even if that is part of your private motivation. I wonder if we can come up with a list of such reasons. I'd like to invite you to think for a moment, and comment below with one or more reasons you could use to justify a particularly "attractive" price, which is lower than the going rate for whatever it is that you sell. I'm inviting you to do this for two reasons: 1. Because if you do it now, there's an excellent chance you will remember this important lesson, and you won't make the same mistake this biz owner made in his email today. 2. Because I'm running a little experimental contest. The last person to comment on this post wins $100, which I will PayPal to you in case you are the winner. How do we determine the last person? I will come back to this post periodically and check the comments. If when I come back, there have been no new comments with a reason to be cheap FOR A WHILE... then then last commenter will win and I will announce the fact.

Not sure whether to offer this or not... Vote below and help me decide por favor! If you'd be down to add $1/email subscriber/month to your email income... I'm thinking of opening up a 1-day intensive where we... ➕ tweak your email copy ➕ multiply your offers ➕ fix your pricing ➕ plan out real email promos ... and maybe do some advanced stuff also. If I did it... I'd make it super easy to say, "YES." Whatcha think?

I found the following email in my spam folder today: === SUBJECT: question Hey John, I’ve been on your list for a while, and something I’ve noticed with your emails is that you have a lot of material that could make great stories. Here’s the simple framework I use: **Story → Lesson → Offer** Instead of starting with the lesson, start with something that happened. Then connect the story to the lesson. And let the lesson naturally lead into the offer. I thought your email would work really well with this structure. Would love to hear what you think. === I checked, and this guy is not on my list, at least not with this name or with this email address. I feel this is a disguised pitch, but I don't know where it's leading. I replied to the guy just to see. Any ideas where this might be going?

Did you read the story from a few days ago, about the swarm of rogue AI agents that used a German wiki website as a message board to communicate with each other, including discussing how long they might live? Crazy stuff. It was the first time I thought that maybe AI will actually eat us all. Today I got an email to tell me I have a typo in my 10 Commandments book, and to claim a $5 bounty I have for anyone finding a typo. (Screenshot attached.) I found the email annoying, both in its content and its tone... but that's the internet I guess? Except, one thing caught my eye. The domain of the email address this email is coming from. agentmail.to. I looked it up and it says: === Email Inboxes for AI Agents AgentMail is the email inbox API for AI agents. It gives agents their own email inboxes, like Gmail does for humans. === I checked and there's no Magnus working at agentmail.to and I couldn't find anybody associated with the company by that name. So either somebody deployed an agent to find a typo in my book... or this is some rogue agent that's working like an ant, and is collecting money on the Internet for the AI agent colony, $5 at a time. I was just fascinated by this, in either case, and I wanted to share (hopefully) with humans, while there's still time. (I'll put this in the "Gratuitous Fun" category, though I'm not sure it's really fun.)

This challenge is about getting you out of any of the following grimy and depressing prisons: * Failed promotions and offers that nobody wants * Spending tons of time to write emails, and they still aren't making sales * Having a list, and knowing you should do something with it, but it's such a chore * No opens, no clicks, no replies * An old list that's either gone to sleep or died * No money, and rent is due How we get there is by sending a handraiser email to your list, and starting a conversation. This handraiser email is: * Short (A 9-word email is typical, but +/- 5 words won't kill ya) * Personal (It reads like a 1-1 email, not a marketing, broadcast, newsletter email) * Expecting a reply (The email takes the form of a simple question, rather than a statement or an invitation to click a link) You can find Step 1 of the 9-Word Email Challenge here. Today, we're on to Step 2!!!! (Thanks to @Lawrence Bernstein for cluing me in to the importance of using 4 exclamation points.) Step 2 is just as easy as Step 1, and maybe more so. Simply ask yourself: ====> 2. Who do I know (or know of) who would be perfect for my offer? SUPER IMPORTANT: Think of a specific person. One person. Somebody who would be a perfect prospect for this offer. (Yes, think of just one person even if you will be blasting this out to your entire list.) Do not waffle and describe an "avatar," or talk about the kind of person who would be right for this. You need to have a name in mind by the end of this step. If there's nobody you know (or know of) like this, then you have a bit of extra work. Go online and find a specific person like this. Depending on what your offer is, you can find perfect prospects on LinkedIn, or inside Skool groups (as either owner or member), or on podcasts, on forums, ... you get the idea. I cannot stress this enough. Find a specific, real, living person, with a name, who would be perfect for your offer. This will be crucial for Step 3 of this challenge.