“Email Players” subscriber Matt Rizvi recently wrote on his blog:

I’ve read so much of Ben’s stuff, that I can spot his lingo, his cadence, his Midwest charm, from the other end of this flat Earth.

But I didn’t realize how much I knew Ben’s sound until I joined the lists of lesser-known copy ‘experts.’

Then something strange happened…

I started hearing Ben’s voice EVERYWHERE.

Not just his principles, his style: from the way he spells bid’nis (instead of business), shyt (instead of shit), or ho’ (instead of whole)… way down to the granular stuff like the exact time he sends his emails in the morning (6:30am PST). I even see guys ripping off the look of his landing pages (you know who you are).

Mr. Rizvi is, unfortunately, correct about all of this.

I say unfortunately for two reasons:

1. I don’t like people who are incapable of thinking for themselves

(And prefer they haunt someone else)

2. They are only hurting themselves, and some even get mocked in many circles as frauds — including the circles they probably want to be invited in to some day.

(But won’t because nobody will trust them.)

As the great Ken McCarthy writes in his “System Club Letters” book:

“Copycats don’t get far in jazz. In fact, they don’t exist. Unless you can figure out how to bring something new to the table, there’s no seat for you. Business is a little more tolerant of ‘knock off’ artists, but in the long run the prize goes to businesses that develop a unique personality. The ‘me too’ business makes for slim pickings.”

Want to excel at what you do?

Get the best customers and clients?

Make the max amount of of the green stuff?

Then think and solve problems, instead of incessantly aping and copying. (Every ad/email is a unique problem you can’t solve by mindlessly swiping someone else’s personality, writing style, ways of talking, etc).

Do that and you may be copied, but never duplicated.

Why?

Because you’ll be an original you.

(Instead of a fax of a copy of a scan of someone else.)

To learn how to write emails this way, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Few days ago, I was forwarded a screenshot from a Facebook thread asking for advice on the best list-building course.

There were several names mentioned.

Including, Yours Phony’s.

And, the person said:

“There are many good list building teachers. Avoid the charlatan Ben Settle.”

Which I found as odd as it was amusing.

Why?

Two reasons:

1. I would avoid taking list building advice from me, too.

2. I don’t sell a course on list-building.

I might have an eBook on it somewhere.

And, I have written about my “traffic snowball” in an Email Players issue and a couple of my other programs.

But, mostly, it’s not something I’m particularly good at.

In fact, my main methods for list building are:

• Being interviewed on other peoples’ podcasts
• Word of mouth
• Search engines
• With periodic paid traffic

(i.e. most of the methods I use are slow, and take time and effort.)

Anyway, the naysayer was correct about not taking list building advice from me.

I’m also grateful he spelled my name right, too.

Plus, I got some new leads from it.

How?

Because when you troll people on social media, people tend to look up said person being trolled, and if you have your act together, you’d be surprised how many will join your list and, eventually, buy from you, if you do email right.

I love my unpaid marketing interns.

They serve me well…

All right on to business:

The June Email Players issue goes to the printer soon. And, the main lesson is about (ironically) charlatans. But, not the kind you find online trolling Facebook.

I’m talking about the kind that literally kill people.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let’s talk about the flick “Used Cars”.

It starred Kurt Russell as a shady used car salesman (complete with a plaid suit and everything) who used shady tricks to sell cars. In one scene, a guy is looking at cars across the street, at the rival car dealership. So Russell puts $5 on a fishing pole and “casts” it into the lot, right next to the guy. The guy sees it and bends over to pick it up. As he gets closer, Russell reels the $5 bill away, with the guy thinking it’s the wind. The guy then chases it across the street to Russell’s dealership, so he can try to sell him a car.

Anyway, here’s the point:

It’s not unlike a lot of today’s shady online media and email tricks.

Like, for example, putting “re:” or “fwd” in the subject line to make it look like it’s a reply of forwarded by a friend (in a broadcast/list email which is not Can-Spam compliant, the way I understand it) or “sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of a broadcast email that has an opt out link below it, tends to get negative reactions, or simply ignored (with the rest of your emails) by people who know what you’re up to.

Ever read Gary Halbert’s “The Boron Letters”?

There’s a part where he talks about ads with headlines that say something like:

“Sex!”

Or…

“A submarine that can fly?”

Only to be about life insurance or whatever.

It’s the online equivalent of the used car salesman with the fishing pole.

It’s dorky.

It’s short sighted.

And, it slowly (or quickly) destroys trust.

Yes, I know it supposedly “works.”

But, like the founding father of Internet marketing Ken McCarthy once said: Trust is like a light switch. And once it’s turned off, it’s all but impossible to turn that light back on. And it only takes one time that insults your reader’s intelligence to flip it off.

Anyway, I’m mostly preaching to the choir here.

But, maybe someone needed to hear it before doing something stewpid.

If you want to learn how to write subject lines and emails that get eagerly opened, clicked, and (most importantly) bought from, with no idiotic tricks necessary… then check out my “Email Players” newsletter right here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I haven’t done a whole lot of speaking in the past 12 months (or any, really, other than a few words (literally) at our Wine Villains event in Napa last summer), preferring to revel in my blessed reclusiveness on the Oregon coast with my aging dog.

(She gets very crotchety when Yours Grinchy leaves her at the kennel…)

But, I am going to speak this October at a couple events I can’t possibly say no to and thoroughly enjoy going to.

And, I’ve recently updated my speaking schedule with the details for anyone interested:

www.BenSettle.com/blog/elbenbos-speaking-tour

Ben Settle

Today’s the deadline to get the May “Email Players” issue.

Here’s what’s impatiently waiting for you inside:

• How to use plain text “retro” emails to sell in markets where everyone pimps information out for free. (With examples to model, study, and adapt.)
• The “90/10” secret (used by strippers and a top A-list copywriter I know, not that the two are related…) for writing emails people can’t wait to buy from.
• A secret way Doctor Mercola (who has probably the biggest alternative health site on the Internet) uses to sell that gives you almost no choice but to buy from him over anyone else.
• Two proven (and profitable) examples of how to use emails to milk money from other peoples’ gut-wrenching loneliness. (And have your customers not only love you for it, but maybe even thank you for selling them this way.)
• What the “king of content” is, and a 15-word question to ask yourself that practically guarantees your emails (and other content) make far more sales, create a far stronger personal brand, and make your entire business far more secure.
• Stan Lee’s secret to building a customer base that loves, defends, and buys from you with a big, sloppy smile on their faces. (Not only do they buy from you, often “sight unseen”, but when the trolls, bogus bad reviews, and other attacks come out, they are there to defend you, and become your own Horde of protectors, and evangelists about you.)

And that’s just for starters.

I’m also including a bonus training about how to write and profit from cold emails from one of the top experts on the subject I’ve ever met (who discovered his methods one night while working for an agency, got desperate and drunk, and tested it out, only to have it work better than anything else he’d ever tried).

Anyway, today’s the deadline to get the May issue.

After that, it’ll be too late.

Here’s the link to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, two windfalls happened to Yours Lucky.

First, I got trolled by arguably the single greatest troll who’s ever lived.

It was almost as if God put him on earth just to amuse, entertain, and enrich me.

In fact, not only did he make me sales in his troll video (where he amusingly called me a “cocksucker” and other creative descriptions, while unintentionally revealing his envy for my business model at the same time), but he strengthened the bond with my audience in ways I could never have done without his help. I love this old troll so much, I am thinking of sending him something Valuable to help him troll me even better next time.

(Probably a camera stand so it doesn’t shake so much.)

And the second piece of good luck?

In one of those random juxtapositions of life, the exact opposite of the above:

Less than a week later, the man who is universally considered to be the world’s greatest living copywriter Gary Bencivenga (easily my all-time favorite copywriter) graciously gave me permission to use this testimonial:

“Good copy intoxicates me. Yours is high proof. I’m enjoying it.”

He also graciously autographed for me a couple pieces of direct mail he wrote. (A couple bookalog controls I kept since the 90’s, before I even knew what copywriting was, I just found them too fascinating to throw away — which demonstrates how well what he teaches works and, in fact, he talks about these two magalogs his magnificent Farewell DVD’s).

There were some other great things that happened, too.

Such as being invited to speak at AWAI’s Bootcamp again.

Having one of my most successful product launches to date.

And, we’re gearing up to re-launch another business I’m involved in (in the golf niche).

So, twas a great month indeed.

Anyway, since I’m already writing this blatantly self-serving email, here’s more:

The May “Email Players” issue shows you exactly how to compete (and dominate in) markets where everyone gives information free on YouTube, etc, where people ask you “why should I buy from you, when XYZ guy on YouTube gives everything to me free?”

Not only will you be immune to it, but you’ll profit from it.

And, all it takes is knowing a few ways of doing plain text emails.

The deadline to get this issue is tomorrow, here’s where to get in on time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A question that sometimes pops up is:

“Ben, I’m already an Email Players subscriber, why are you pitching me still?”

Since segmentation is the key to winning the entire game, it probably strikes these good folk (especially all t he email automation specialists popping up out of the woodwork lately) as idiotic that someone who sells email “how to” advice doesn’t do even the most basic email segmentation.

So, here are some reasons why I don’t do it for Email Players:

1. Demonstration.

Current subscribers can see what they’re learning demonstrated in the “digital flesh” each day.

They can also easily opt out, too.

(At any time they want.)

Although, that strikes me rather like someone learning direct mail copywriting to ask the post office not to deliver direct mail they can study for free from a copywriting teacher they are paying to study under.

2. Anticipation.

It lets current subscribers know what to expect in the next issue. When I tease the next months’ issue, it gives them a chance to (hopefully) get excited about what’s coming.

Or, it might help them realize the newsletter isn’t for them.

So in that sense, it’s like a courtesy to both types.

3. Solicitation.

A lot of people have requested I not take them off my daily emails list when they buy. Who am I to rob them of subjecting themselves to my daily asylum of the mind?

4. Procrastination.

Due to my lack of foresight almost 10 years ago, it’d be a huge pain in the gluteus assimus to change everything over for seamless segmentation. So even if I wanted to segment, it’s easier to simply keep things how it is.

For now, at least…

Anyway, so that’s why I don’t segment for Email Players currently.

For 99.9% of products, I would.

But, just not for this particular product.

(I may in the future, but that’s another email for another day…)

Speak of the devil:

The May “Email Players” issue is being prepped to send to the printer Monday. It will be especially useful to people who sell information or services in markets where everything is available free.

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A question that rolled in recently about cold emails:

“besides email campaigns, are the principles taught in your newsletter also useful for one-off cold emails as well as other forms of copy (sales letters, website copy etc.)?”

The answer has always been no.

That is, until now, at least.

I have heard all these cries in the wilderness and have finally taken steps to include a detailed, and very powerful training on the subject in the May “Email Players” issue. It’s taught by an ad agency man who (ironically?) figured out the cold email game while getting drunk when he got desperate for sales one night. And, has since used his wily ways to make a lot of sales with what he discovered.

This is some extremely valuable info if you want to do cold emails.

(Complete with examples)

And, it’s waiting patiently for you in the May issue, which goes to the printer in a couple days.

Time is short to get this.

After it goes to the printer, it’ll be too late to get it.

Subscribe right here, while it’s hot on your mind:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber and one of my favorite graphic designers (who has many prestigious clients, such as Dan Kennedy, and comes with my highest recommendation) Kia Arian recently wrote this in her client newsletter:

I am cautiously introducing you to someone who I’ve kept safely tucked away in my Top Secret Marketing Weapons Arsenal for many months, unwilling to share his madness with anyone but a few worthy colleagues who have been trained to handle sophisticated marketing weapons without inadvertently hurting themselves.

Remember the Tazmanian Devil character in the Bugs Bunny cartoons? He’d come barreling on the scene in a violent vortex, with grunts and gasps, upending everything in sight without mercy? Well, say hello to Ben Settle, master copywriter and coach for email marketing. He teaches people not just how to sell and make money with email, he also teaches on persuasion, personality in copy, and the “inner game” of entrepreneurship and business success. He unapologetically exposes B.S. and will gleefully shame you to teach you a lesson, or just to entertain himself. His introduction always requires disclaimers of responsibility for any offense, insult, or injury to your deeply held beliefs may suffer as a result of his methods. Follow at your own risk.

That being said, I will say with no uncertainty that his teachings have easily been of the biggest influences in how I run AND think about my business, next to Dan Kennedy and Ben Glass.

Thank you Kia for finally untucking me and subjecting your clients to my mouth breathing ways.

I promise to horrify and abuse them with love…

Just like I will to those who subscribe to “Email Players” before the looming May issue deadline.

Subscription details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle