Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it?
Not just making $10K/month, which would be awesome all by itself, but making $10K/month on autopilot.
My guess is that this dream has tickled your brain once or twice.
The good news is that you can make it a reality. The bad news is that this takes time.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t start a blog and make money from it right now.
You won’t earn $10K/month right from the start, but you can earn something. You just have to learn how to sell. You have to learn how to persuade strangers to take out their credit cards and buy your products and/or services.
And who better to learn from than Jon Morrow himself?
After all, he’s the guy who wrote the emails mentioned in the headline — the ones that make $10K/month on autopilot.
How This Blog Makes $10K/Month from Selling a Single Course
Jon has created several courses over the years, but the one we’ll take a look at is his GuestBlogging course.
How does he sell it?
Through an automated email sequence.
People who subscribe to his email list get a sequence of emails that builds Jon’s authority, builds trust with his readers, and builds a desire for his course.
And boy, does it succeed. Just look at this screenshot from his earnings the last few months:
Today I’ll take you through his email sequence and reveal the persuasion techniques he uses to earn over $10K each month.
Technique #1: Use Dreams to Pique Interest in Their Inbox
The first step to persuading your subscribers to buy your product is to persuade them to open your emails. The best way to do so is by invoking their dreams.
Jon’s course is aimed at aspiring writers and copywriters, and he knows their dream is to be featured in big magazines or newspapers. They dream about becoming highly sought-after writers.
So using that exact subject line hits right on one of their deepest dreams and desires.
But subject lines aren’t the only place you want to do this. Jon does it again in the body of the email:
The aspiring writer would love to have everyone approach them for book deals, columnist positions and hundreds of writing gigs. Jon positions himself as the person to whom they should listen if they want a taste of the same delicious success.
Technique #2: Build Credibility Without Sounding Like A Pompous Ass
Here, Jon builds credibility by suggesting Forbes (i.e. the 82nd most popular website in the U.S.) approached him to write an article for them. And not just that — he had to turn them down because he was booked solid.
That’s some serious bragging rights. It builds instant credibility.
But because Jon doesn’t want to sound like a pompous ass, he adds a line about being flattered. It shows humility.
He does it again later in the email:
It feels strange to say that, by the way. I always wanted to touch a lot of people with my work, but I never figured just one article would reach more than a million people.
Again, Jon builds credibility, but he immediately humanizes himself afterwards.
Yes, his article reached one million visitors, but he’s still as amazed by that as you would be.
He shows he’s not superhuman, and that if he could do it, you can too.
Technique #3: Make Them Self-Qualify as Your Perfect Customer
Any beginning writer who reads this will nod their head and think, “That’s me!”
This is qualification in action. By describing his audience, Jon makes them feel like he’s talking about them. It signals that they should pay attention to what Jon has to say.
But that’s not all.
It also starts them down the path of potentially buying something. After all, his product is for beginning writers, so by nodding along to these statements his readers pre-qualify themselves for his offer when he sends it.
Technique #4: Pinpoint Their Most Pressing Problem
Nobody tells you. Like it’s some big secret or something.
Jon points out a big problem his writer audience has: They want their articles to go viral so they become more prolific, but nobody tells them how to do it.
If your reader is struggling with this problem, you agitate their frustration and fuel their desire to see it fixed.
When you pinpoint a problem they’re struggling with, you capture their attention because it suggests you’ll have a solution.
And lo and behold, Jon does:
So, I’ve decided to do something about it.
I’m releasing a case study of how I wrote and promoted the article that got over 1 million visitors. I’ll send it to you in pieces over the next few days.
Technique #5: Use the Power of Subtle Implication
You might not see it at first, but Jon sends several messages to his audience besides, “You’re getting something for free.”
He also implies that: a) the case study he’s giving away is valuable, and b) that he’s a generous person.
These subtle implications change the way his readers view his case study and him. Two lines are all it takes to build a more positive picture in the reader’s’ mind of who Jon is.
Implying positive attributes about yourself or your product works better than outright stating them.
Technique #6: Tell Them Exactly What’s Coming
Sound like a good deal?
In Jon’s emails he consistently sets expectations so his readers know what’s coming.
When people read this, they know they can expect more emails that break everything down. This boosts the chances that his next emails will get opened and read.
He does it again at the end of his email, where he gets more explicit:
Here, he tells the reader the specific email subject line to expect.
And when that email arrives, his readers will recognize it, which will make them more likely to open it.
Technique #7: Leverage Other People’s Praise with Pride
Don’t just read it. Read some of the comments too.
There are hundreds of them. The site eventually got so overwhelmed with moderating them all that they shut the comment section down.
Jon doesn’t stop at telling people to read his viral posts, which will already boost his credibility. He also tells his subscribers to read the comments.
And when they do, they’ll read a ton of comments like these:
If he still had readers with any doubt that Jon knows what he’s talking about when it comes to viral posts, comments like these squash them all.
Jon builds credibility and authority by letting other people do the talking for him.
Are there awards, accolades, blog posts, videos, or third-party ratings that you can show your audience?
If so, use them and watch your persuasion and influence increase with every email you send.
Technique #8: Set Yourself Apart from the “Bad Guys”
A lot of people like to brag about their traffic. Especially guys. If they write a popular post, they strut around like peacocks, feeling superior to everyone.
But that’s a bunch of crap.
Traffic isn’t about giving yourself an ego boost. It’s about changing people’s lives.
Jon puts himself on the side of his readers here by setting himself apart from the braggers and from the people who fake their success online.
He creates a “bad guy” — an enemy he shares with his readers — and he positions himself as the antidote to that, as the guy who shares his readers’ values, and who cares about their lives.
Think of ways that make you different from so-called “gurus” who lead your readers astray. How are they hurting your readers? What information do they give that’s broken?
Look for opportunities to show people what makes you different and you’ll make a lasting impression.
Technique #9: Give Your Emails a Hint of Intrigue
It’s advanced. Very advanced.
Not just difficult. It’s the equivalent of an Olympic athlete running a four minute mile.
Here, Jon cleverly teases the lesson he’s about to share in this email.
Rather than tell them outright what he has in store for them, he builds it up as something special. Few will be able to resist clicking his link.
Why?
Because Jon has intrigued them. He has created a question in the reader’s mind that has to be answered: “What Jedi-level writing trick is Jon about to share?”
Continually building intrigue like this keeps reader engaged throughout your email sequence.
Technique #10: Be Their Reassuring Voice
Click here to get the lesson.
People are self-conscious, and when learning new things, they can feel overwhelmed. They may feel like they’re not ready yet to implement your advice.
It’s your job to reassure them and make them feel confident that they can.
That’s what Jon does in this excerpt. He tells his readers he’s about to share an advanced lesson, which builds intrigue, but many people may feel like they’re not ready for advanced lessons.
Then he reassures them that, even if they don’t apply it 100% perfectly, they will still see a major improvement in their writing.
Your readers need to feel like your advice or your product will be helpful to them, and that it won’t be too hard for them to apply. They will be more eager to discover your advice.
Technique #11: Make Them Wait with Bated Breath
It’s counterintuitive, though. For instance…did you think posts go viral because readers share them?
Wrong. Shares from readers are a byproduct of the strategy I’m about to teach you, not the cause.
Want to learn the cause?
Open my email tomorrow. 🙂
As mentioned previously, Jon continuously sets expectations for his next emails so readers know they’re coming. But here, he takes it a step further by leaving his readers with a cliffhanger. He leaves questions in his readers’ minds, the answers to which they can only get by reading his next email.
This creates enormous anticipation.
Using cliffhangers is a powerful way to get your email series read consistently.
And the more of your email series someone reads, the more they’ll see you as an authority, and the more likely they are to buy your offer.
Technique #12: Bond Through Relatable Tales
But I had an idea.
In one of his emails, Jon shares a story about how his family was poor, and how his parents struggled to put food on the table due to staggering medical bills.
He explains how he felt guilty and wanted to pitch in, how he earned his first dollars, and finally, how he learned a few valuable lessons about making money from his writing.
This story creates a powerful bond between the reader and Jon. He makes the reader feel like they know him, and like they can relate to him.
The stronger a bond you can create with your readers, the more they will trust you, and the more likely they are to buy from you.
Technique #13: Call Out Their Bullshit
But when it comes to promoting our writing? Or even worse, asking for money?
We feel ashamed. Dirty. Afraid. So, most of us never promote our work at all.
Jon boldly calls out his readers’ bullshit that keeps them from achieving financial success.
He knows many of his readers have all sorts of hangups about promoting or selling their work, and he convinces them they had better get over them if they want to succeed.
If you want to succeed as a writer, you have to be brave. You have to fight for your work.
[ … ] if you’re willing to do the work [of promotion], you’ll be shocked at what will happen.Truths like this can be painful, but relevant.
Jon doesn’t intend to wound people’s egos and then abandon them. Instead, he squashes the mindset that it’s shameful to promote your work, while handing out a new mindset to adopt — you have to fight for your work.
If you can be the person who calls your readers on their bullshit, do it. If you can reshape the way they see themselves and the world, they’ll have already opened themselves up to your influence.
Technique #14: Encourage Courage
With this line, Jon inspires you to be courageous. He inspires you to fight for your work.
Inspiring courage is an effective way of getting readers to follow your lead. When you inspire courage in your readers, you inspire them to see triumph down the line — triumph that they want to see in their own lives.
When you ignite these feelings in your readers, they’ll open themselves to your influence, because they’ll see you as the person that will take them to that triumph.
Technique #15: Use the “Gain, Logic and Fear Trifecta”
Once you complete the class, I even give you a certification you can show the big magazines and blogs to prove you know what you’re doing. It’s a huge advantage.
In the last three emails of his sequence, Jon uses a three-part persuasion tactic known as the “Gain, Logic and Fear Trifecta.”
It works like this:
First, you show the readers what they’ll gain from buying your product or service. Then you give them a logical reason for why they should buy your products. And lastly, you tap into their fear to make them want your product now.
Using these three angles together is immensely persuasive.
In the example above, Jon accomplishes the first step. Immediately the readers knows what they’ll gain — Jon’s insider knowledge of writing for big sites, which they can use to get published there themselves, and a certification that proves they took the course.
That’s persuasive on its own, but in his next email, Jon ups the ante:
On an average day, you might get 50 different pitches from writers you’ve never met before. Well, who are you going to pay most attention to?
- A complete stranger pitching you out of the blue
- A professional writer certified by the most prestigious training program online
Whose pitch are you going to read first?
Here, Jon taps into his readers’ logical side of their brain. He has them imagine two scenarios and deduce which one would win. The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it?
Some readers need a logical justification like this to help them make their decision.
But Jon doesn’t stop there. In his last email, he uses his readers’ fear of missing out to persuade any last indecisive readers:
Click here to get your $100 discount before it expires
Not trying to be pushy. Just want to make sure you don’t end up having to pay full price for this. That would suck. 🙂
He gives them that extra bump they need to decide they want to buy his course and that they better do it before their discount expires.
As you can see, mixing gain, logic and fear makes for an effective persuasion bomb.
Steal These Persuasion Techniques and Boost Your Sales
If you want to sell products or services to your readers, you must learn the art of persuasion.
You must persuade your readers that your product or service, and even your affiliations are worth the investment. You must persuade them you’ll fix their most pressing problems. You must persuade them to trust that you’ll deliver.
Jon’s emails are a great example of persuasion in action. You can steal his techniques and use them in your own emails.
And who knows, maybe one day you’ll have an email sequence that makes you $10K/month as well.
Doesn’t that sound dreamy?
This is an awesome post indeed! You’re extremely correct when you said, “some of us are willing to write but intimidated to market our post, much less make effort to make money from it.” It’s great to have a mentor like you. Thanks for sparking the fire of boldness to succeed in me, Jared.
Hi Eki,
If you want to grow your readership you have to be bold and willing to share your work. It’s your creation. Your idea(s) and if it can help people then why not share it?
Let us know how your journey goes.
Jared
I’m more interested in the cost of establishing this blog and the time consuming of this project.
Jared,
So pleased to see you writing for Smart Blogger. 😉 Keep up the great work!
Thanks Marsha!
Jon, you, Glen and Robert are great mentors and it’s an honor.
Jared
Hey Jared,
You Nailed It.
I am a big fan of Jon’s writing style. The best part of his writing whether it is (emails or the blogs) he knows very well how to persuade the reader using psychology.
I am his secret disciple, I always save his emails separately in my inbox to learn his writing style. Thanks a lot for pointing out the things which every writer should remember while writing the emails.
Jon’s email writing style is extremely impressive, one can become a pro writer if he/she would learn even 10% from him.
Thanks for the amazing post once again.
Cheers,
Shubhanshi
Shubhanshi,
Yeah, I totally agree Jon is a master. It’s great to hear that you study his emails, because they are that good and there’s so much packed into just one email that anyone can learn from.
Thanks for reading and sharing this on Twitter too!
Jared
The post is worth sharing ☺️
When you’re blogging you need to learn the art of writing persuading emails without sounding like an idiot. Here is where most people get it wrong and all they do is sending bulk emails in the name of blogger outreach.
If you want to get response especially from busy bloggers with your emails, make sure to find out what makes them curious and offer them. Don’t just seek help when you’re in the beginning stage of building relationships.
Thanks so much for the tips. Keep rocking.
Hey Jared,
That’s an awesome post! I particularly like technique #4. Not just with emails, but by implementing this little tip, I have reaped a lot of benefits in the blog posts as well.
When you pin point their pressing problem, they can immediately relate to your writing – whatever be the form of your content.
This also helps with instantly building rapport – your readers know you understand their problem and will be already open to listening to what you are going to say 🙂
Thanks for this awesome post!
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane,
You are so right about number 4 it can be used in not only emails but blog posts, videos, webinars or etc. It is powerful.
Thanks,
Jared
Awesome post Jared. Jon is a good copywriter.
I especially like the part where he makes the reader decide emotional and justify logically, in other words, gain + logic + fear= Buy
Yeah Lenny, he does exactly that.
In addition to his email series – he uses videos that teach you things that no one else does. His videos add more fire to the gain + logic + fear trifecta.
Cheers,
Jared
Confession.. I haven’t read the entire article yet. As many readers do, we skim through and look at the high points to see if it’s worth a read. And wow! So much great information here!
I’m a huge fan of Jon and his work. His is one of the few emails that I consistently open, pretty much regardless of the subject line. Funny thing, his pitches are so effective and compelling that I’ve – more than once – signed up for a program that I already own. (True story. You can ask the help desk about me.) Jon is someone I know/like/trust, which is so important in one’s readership.
Great job, Jared! Now, I’ll read this more thoroughly and take copious notes. Thanks!
Awesome Sandra! Take notes and figure out ways to start using them in your own emails.
Jared
The trust point Jared is 100% it. If you help people without attaching to any outcome, then keep doing it, then keep meeting more people, folks begin to trust you and your content. Or, you get clear on your offering, and the clearer you get the more money flows in. Simple process really that bloggers muck up because they get attached to outcomes.
On a side note, so happy with Jon’s success. Virgin, Forbes, Fox News and Entrepreneur featured me as a digital nomad authority – whatever that means LOL – and I am incredibly humbled that they sought me out. JM got stalked for a Forbes article which rocks on so many levels.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Wow Ryan! That’s a ton of media exposure. I’m sure it helped build your brand all while helping you establish more trust too. Very cool.
When the media groups reached out to you were they looking for successful travel bloggers like yourself?
Jared
Hi Jared,
Congratulations on a great article. We all know it, don’t we. We’ve all been drawn in by Jon’s magical words and we know he’s using some secret power to overcome our ability to resist, but it’s so great to have it laid out for us like that. Great job!
Cheers, Mel
Thanks Mel,
Yes, Jon’s words are like magic. But the good news is that we can all learn from him and apply his techniques in our emails, blog posts or videos.
Jared
Thanks for sharing the wonderful article. Keep sharing the good content like this.
Of course Rudraksh! My pleasure.
Jared
Jared this is solid gold. As someone who has written loads of pretty lame emails I love how you did this work for all of us who have reached out to hit the Buy button after reading one of Jon’s emails.
Glad to hear it was useful for you, Hugh.
Hi Jared,
Amazing Post! I never knew these Persuasion Techniques before. This is the first time I am reading your post and I’d say that I have become your fan.
We often lose sales just because we don’t know how to persuade them. I’m gonna try these techniques and will share the experience with you.
Glad to hear Umesh!
Try them out and let us know what happens.
Jared
Hey, I love your post, I even printed it study it more comfortably 🙂 and now I’m dying to actually read the email sequence you’re referring to, but I couldn’t find a way to optin. – Can you please point me to an optin page?
Hey Angel,
Sure thing, if you scroll up near the top of the post just before the sub-headline “Technique #1: Use Dreams to Pique Interest in Their Inbox”.
You’ll see the sentence above it says, “(If you want to read the full email sequence, sign up here.)” Click that “sign up here” link to read all of it in-depth.
Hope that helps,
Jared
Best Blog i’ve gone through!!
Amazing Work 🙂
Glad to heard about persuasion techniques
Hi Jared,
Awesome….Thanks a lot for such a wonderful post.
When I was new to digital marketing about 6 years back, I used to read some quotes like “Money is in the list”.
But as a person who is having no experience on it I used to wonder on how do people actually earn lots of money through their list.
But as I kept learning I came to know about it.
But to be frank I did not read a post like this – which is lengthy, detailed and with practical examples.
I know feel like there is lot more I should learn 🙂
I sincerely thank you for this.
Please keep writing such wonderful posts.
Thanks,
Krishna
Glad it helped Krishna!
Hello Jared,
Honestly speaking, I’ve never read a blog post as powerfully persuasive as this one.
You just handed one of Jon’s most powerful secrets to me. I won’t take this for granted.
Thank you so much. Now I’m set to fight for my work like never before.
Chidiebere, yes fight for your work like never before! You can do this.
Hi Jared Kimball,
I’m doing affiliate marketing as well as selling products from last few years and one of the harder step that I have faced is winning your customer’s trust. If you can win your customer’s trust then there is no one who can stop you from making massive income. I really like the way you have explained everything and would like to say thanks for sharing such a helpful guide.
Keep inspiring us like this.
Regards,
Mary
Thank you Mary! I’m glad it brought you inspiration.
If you can earn their trust it is wickedly powerful. I know of some email marketers that get 50%+ open rates on normal email sends because they have built such a loyal following.
Much appreciated. I don’t want to talk about this article because above comments are made my job. I just want to appreciate to author.
Thanks, Jared, I like the way you explained here. Great explanation. Great work.
Thank you Scintilla! You’re too kind.
Good information I have read in this week. Worthy one to spend your reading time.
Fantastic article!! Thank you so much for this detailed post. It was very helpful for me.
Glad it helped Forsal!
Hi Jared,
Persuasion is something that every blogger should learn to master the are of influence. I believe that you cannot sell something if there is no desire among your readers.
Also, you need to build trust before even planning to market your product.
I enjoyed the article. Worth reading!
Totally agree Gaurav! People need the “desire” first. If it doesn’t exist then no one will want to buy it.
Hi Jared,
Great article you have here. The idea of using dreams as a metaphor to get to the heart of your target audience and move them to take action is phenomenal. Truth be told, every blogger including myself dreams of having my articles publish on authority sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc. But something is holding us back from accomplishing this dream. So, when someone credible like Jon offers to help by way of a course, you definitely want to buy it.
Thanks so much for sharing this master-peace.
You’re welcome Moss. And thanks for sharing the post on Twitter too. More bloggers need to know these things.
That’s HUGE Amount OMG!
Excellent post. The information you provided is useful to all of us. Keep on posting like this. Thanks for sharing. – best shirdi tour package from chennai, shirdi flight package
So pleased to see you writing for Smart Blogger. 😉 Keep up the great work!
Thanks Sudhaara!
I loved this post. Especially I loved Set Yourself Apart from the “Bad Guys” technique. It’s important to create a picture in your audience minds about how you are different than other bad guys. Another thing I liked is honesty you show to your readers. Obviously I will try to use these tricks to sell the services to my readers. 🙂
Yes, try these out and let us know what kind of results you get.
This is a very nice post
Am sure that if the techniques are followed correctly one will make more than $10k/month
Awesome article. Sometimes we think the super successful thought leaders have some magic wand that they point at their projects to make… but how wrong we are.
Well, the tactics are definitely one of a kind but reading through them, one gets a feeling that he/she can achieve similar results (or something close).
Thanks Jared.
Musundi,
You totally can achieve similar results. Go for it.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
This article was very helpful for me. Thank for your sharing !!! Cheers!!!
I’m glad you found it helpful.
Hi Jared,
I believe writing about it, is an amazing piece of work. I really enjoyed your information and the way you write. The Internet has to make possible of every aspect. It is now completely owned by thoughts of people. Thankx for sharing your knowledge. This article is very helpful. Keep sharing!
Have a good day!
You’re very welcome! Thanks for sharing your comments.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful post information above, very useful guide that helped me a lot.
I’m glad you found this useful Valentin.