Ben Settle
Your Daily Email Addiction
Today is a very special day that should be a national holiday.
And in celebration of this day, I am sharing a video about a lesson inspired by something I read in a book called “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story” about the so-called advertising ghetto:
A shameful confession:
For many years and up until very recently (including in the July “Email Players” issue), I used to aggressively advocate marketers, authors, and assorted other business people do their content creation (whether creating products, writing emails, pounding out sales copy, or whatever their #1 content-creation priority is for the day) the first hour of the day.
The reason?
Because that’s when people are at their most creative.
There’s a lot of evidence backing this up, too.
And all the most productive people I know practically swear by it.
But, I was reading an interview with Stan Lee — easily one of the most prolific writers and content-machines who ever walked the face of the earth — just a few short weeks ago, and realized how horrible that advice is for certain people.
For example, he used to structure his day like so:
Now, I can tell you, if I did that, my mind would be mush, my energy levels would be wiped out, and my content, writing, etc would be a phantom shadow of what it could and would be.
But that’s because Yours Reclusive is an introvert.
And, thus, I derive my energy – like Superman getting his power from the sun – from being alone.
Extroverts, on the other paw, like Stan Lee, get their energy from being around people, talking to people, and pleasing people. Thus, if you’re an extrovert, I now advise switching the whole thing around — and doing all your “people” stuff (phone calls, meetings, errands that deal with people, talking to vendors, coaching calls, consulting sessions, etc) during that first hour, instead of writing.
This should make you more productive.
You content more profitable.
And, your day a lot more fun.
More:
And this is especially true if you use the ideas I teach in the July “Email Players” issue which has almost three dozen of the best and fastest ways I know and use for creating content, including:
The deadline to get this issue is less than 24 hours from now.
After that, it’ll be too late.
So if you’re the procrastinating type, best hop to it, Pokey.
Here’s the link:
Ben Settle
True story:
Once upon a time, the late, great comicbook creator Stan Lee noticed when he started signing off his Stan’s Soapbox articles with things like ‘nuff said and some of his other clever little endings… the idiots at DC Comics and other comicbook companies started doing the same thing, making everything look derivative.
i.e. fans who saw other companies do it, probably thought Stan was copying them.
Stan’s solution?
He started using the word “Excelsior!” which nobody copied.
Or, if they did, they were so insignificant — even for copycats, who are inherently insignificant anyway — nobody knew.
Anyway, why am I regaling you with this tale?
The answer is simple:
If there’s one thing that’ll piss you off once you start knocking out lots of content — especially using the ways I reveal in the July “Email Players” issue — it’s the incessant copycatting nature of the internet and marketing world.
It not only is stealing your ideas and hard work.
But, it also waters things down for you to new people who see it going on.
But, there is a secret content-protection secret based on an old, mostly-obscure Superman villain that not only foils these idiot content thieves and copycats… but exposes them as the hacks they are. Plus, it also lets you tap into something the late, great copywriter Gene Schwartz did in his mailings that can make your content inherently more profitable, too.
I talk about this in detail on pages 5 & 6 in the July “Email Players” issue.
The entire issue is about how to quickly & painlessly create profitable content like:
But that rascally old deadline is almost upon you.
To subscribe in time to get it, go here immediately:
Ben Settle
One of the questions that pops up every now and then from “Email Players” subscribers (one of the “perks” of being a subscriber is asking me questions via email) is:
“What’s the best music to write to?”
When it comes to writing and content-creation I refer you to something the guy who not only publishes many of my books but is also the world’s most-published author of computer books likes to say:
“If it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it!”
And, I have to agree.
When in doubt, go Baroque.
More:
There is a secret “trick” to making content creation — especially written content, like emails, sales copy, bonus reports, blog posts, social media content, etc — I learned years ago from an old business partner who was very lazy, yet wrote thousands of pages of content very quickly…. to make your content even more profitable, and far more quickly and easily. This little ditty can also ramp up your concentration through the roof.
And yes, it applies to any kind of music you listen to.
But, it is especially powerful with Baroque and instrumental music.
It’s also something I’ve been using for years to pound out more content in a week than most of my peers and colleagues create in a month, or even several months.
And you know what?
I reveal this power trick on page 4 in the upcoming July “Email Players” issue.
Plus, this issue contains 33 additional ways to quickly and as painlessly as possible bang out all kinds of content for your business, including:
The deadline to subscribe is coming up fast.
Here’s the link to subscribe in time to get the next issue, while you still can:
Ben Settle
Once upon a time, Yours Scribbler got asked this about fast writing:
“Do you now what I’d pay for? A crash course on getting faster my email writing efforts. It often takes me up to an hour to get an email done: editing and sending included. Sometimes more.”
My command is your wish.
Checky:
I once read an interview with Neil Gaiman who is easily one of the world’s most respected and prolific writers (comic books, novels, short stories, screenplays, etc). He said his high school guidance counselor asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Neil told him he wanted to write American comic books. When he realized school was all but useless for this, he decided to start working in publishing to get experience writing. So he got on the phone, and by the end of the day sold two newspaper articles he hadn’t yet written.
Then, he said:
(Paraphrased)
“It’s good for any would-be writer to write a couple hundred thousands words under tight deadlines”
More:
At the end of 2010 (the week between Christmas and New Years) I made a goal to be client-free by the end of 2011. The first thing I tried was creating a small info publishing business based heavily on SEO that required me writing over 1,000 ezine articles, 400 or so unique blog posts, and about 90 or so email auto-responder messages. Plus, I was writing all the emails and copy on retainer for a biz-opp company, I was also writing my own daily emails, writing my old monthly Crypto Marketing Newsletter, and some other things.
For a month and a half I barely slept.
I wrote morning, noon, and night.
And, while that business flopped (Google decided to slap article directories right when sales were starting to come in — Yay!), on a scale of 1-10 my writing speed went to 12.
Thus, the free secret to fast writing:
Writing lots of words under intense deadline pressure.
It ain’t magic but it works like a charm.
Just like everything I teach in “Email Players”, not-so-coincidentally.
And, especially in the upcoming July issue.
In fact, when you follow my commands inside that issue, I believe your writing — and other content-creation endeavors, video, audio, whatever you need to do in your business with content— automatically will get much faster. So fast, you’ll look back at your writing now and wonder how you ever wrote so slow.
The deadline is looming to get this issue.
Go here to get in while you can:
Ben Settle
Once upon a time, I read a book about the late John Hughes.
He was the screenwriter and director for some of my favorite movies back in the 80’s and early 90’s. One guy in the book described Hughes as eccentric, prone to emotional mood swings, brilliant, a genius, and someone who tired of hanging out with the liberals in Hollywood before he dropped out of the game altogether to be a recluse with his family until his death in 2009. He also wrote tons of movie scripts — including some that were never even made into movies, and at least one that was made but was so dumb (the movie “Dumb & Dumber”, ironically…) he didn’t want his name attached to it.
Frankly, he was a writing machine.
And, I have always enjoyed some of his movies.
Especially Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club. and Home Alone.
Incidentally, the late brilliant copywriter Gene Schwartz said every copywriter should watch Home Alone at least 2 or 3 times — something to think about, my little droogie, the next time you’re scrolling through Amazon Prime looking for a movie to watch…
But you know what my favorite thing about him was?
The thing I did not realize until reading this book?
John Hughes was a speed writer.
Apparently, he would write entire scripts in 1-3 days!
One story the director Chris Columbus (who directed Home Alone) said was, John Hughes was a night owl. And he had Chris come over one evening only to get an idea and then disappear for the rest of the night while Chris slept on the couch. In the morning, John woke him up having wrote an entire first draft of a movie script.
Now that’s fast!
And, it’s one of the keys to his success:
Fast writing.
Way too many people in copywriting, email, content-marketing, content publishing, etc spend far too much time writing. They are always trying to get things perfect. Always waiting to be “inspired.” And, always making writing far harder than it needs to be. Screw that sideways. I’m all about fast writing. It’s why my latest novel first draft this month took me just 12 days. It’s why some of my highest performing sales letters were banged out in days (sometimes hours) instead of weeks and months. And, it’s why I can easily churn out emails when needed to sell my products while the mush-cookies afraid to even begin are still waiting around trying to get their swans in a row.
And you know what?
Fast writing is easy when you know what you’re doing.
Enter the July “Email Players” newsletter.
It contains 34 ways to quickly and as painlessly as possible bang out all kinds of content for your business, including:
But time is getting short to subscribe in time for this issue.
Here’s the link:
www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle
P.S. I timed it, I originally wrote *this* email in less than 7 minutes.
See?
It works.
Now stop being a donkey and start writing…
The #1 thing that holds people back from creating a smooooothe-as-honey lifestyle, where you can just get up, pound out an email, and be done with your day (if you choose), is…
(Drum roll)
Not having a product to sell.
You can have all the email know-how in the world.
But, if you got nuttin’ to sell, it’s like having a souped-up car without a steering wheel. It’s also the nagging thing that prevents people from subscribing to my “Email Players” newsletter.
And you know what?
That’s unacceptable to a guy like me.
Thus, I have dedicated the entire July “Email Players” issue to listing almost 3 dozens secrets, tips, and methods for banging out all the content you can use to create products, as well as emails, videos, blog posts, bonuses, whatever you need for your business… very quickly and with as little pain as possible, and sometimes in just minutes per day.
Yes, I want to help make your business as successful as possible.
But mostly, it’s pure, unadulterated selfishness.
I want more people to know how to create content so they can create products so they have use of MY product.
So to help me, help you, help ourselves, here’s what to do:
1. Subscribe to the newsletter before the July issue deadline
2. Read the July issue the minute it arrives
3. Implement immediately, then start selling said content using my diabolical ways you’ll learn in the book I send to new subscribers.
Here’s the selfish link to serve my selfish purposes:
Ben Settle
Many suns ago, James Altucher wrote an email about 30-day challenges.
Everyone’s got a 30-day challenge these days.
(Even Yours Unruly, in my “Email Skh?ma Playbook” which I send to new “Email Players” subscribers upon subscribing.)
Anyway, it was an interesting list.
A couple of the things on his list I’ll never do.
Like, for example, “live only in Airbnbs for 30 days.”
I’d rather be *waterboarded* than stay in an Airbnb.
But, the list was overall thought-provoking and one of the things he said is perfect for anyone who wants to get faster at writing emails, and be able to pound them out without struggling, squirming, or wriggling in your seat trying to think up ideas.
And, that idea was:
Write down 10 ideas a day for 30 days.
He equates it to exercising your idea muscles, like any other muscle.
And, yes, I completely agree.
In fact, I have been doing something similar — not as part of a challenge, but just as a result of having lots of ideas — for years. I have a folder on my hard drive with some 2,400+ various email ideas/subject lines/themes/offers. Plus, a 255 page document full of Email Players issue ideas and fodder. And, I’m always adding to it. Whenever I am away from my computer and get an idea, I simply whip out my phone and email the idea to myself (yes, I realize there are things like evernote or whatever, but this is what works for me).
The result?
I don’t really worry about what to write about.
I simply open the folder, take a gander, and pick whatever’s interesting.
Anyway, end of PSA.
Of course, ideas don’t equal sales.
The next step is knowing how to turn those ideas into emails.
Enter the “Email Players” newsletter.
It’s pricey, if you are one of these prole-minded types who think they are business people that think in terms of expenses instead of investments when it comes to ongoing business education they can profit from. And it’s for people who have the attention span to read 17 pages per month and *implement*. Amusingly, most people don’t have even that attention span, which is why there’s no real “competition” out there for my boys and ghouls who use my methods.
And the July issue goes to the printer in 5 short days.
The entire issue is packed with ways to create content, including:
Anyway, here’s where to subscribe to get it in time:
Ben Settle
If you’d like to be a proverbial content-creating machine, then smell ye this:
Over the past 12+ months — Yours Self-Aggrandizement has been hard at work (way harder than I wanted to be…) pumping out several hundred page books (or, more accurately, converting entire video courses to books, which I found much more time and labor consuming than just writing the darn things)… hundreds of bonus videos & trainings… “Email Players” newsletter issues & bonus inserts… generation pieces… multiple 20+ page sales letters… literally hundreds of emails for… dozens of special trainings (audio and video and print — for both myself and others)… content for courses… podcast episodes (both my old podcast I ended late last year and the new not-exactly-a-podcast venture I’m going to be launching)… fiction (including an entire novel I banged out the first 12 days of this month)… not to mention special one-shot supplemental reports and offers such as the paid-ad stuff I’ll be testing in the next couple “Email Players” issue… as well as probably dozens of affiliate promos, lots of launch campaigns, and the list drones on and on and on…
Anyway, here’s the reason I bring this up:
I am not entirely sure exactly how much content this all adds up to.
But, I reckon I’ve pumped out the equivalent of probably at least 2 or 3 full-length novel trilogies in the last 12+ months. And, in order to meet many self-imposed tyrannical deadlines, my beady little mind was forced to come up with all kinds of ways — or drew upon ways I’d learned from others who have pumped out lots of content in a short period — to do it all in a fraction of the time it’d normally take.
This is vital because money lurves speed.
In fact, the great Dan Kennedy has said the reason he is the highest paid copywriter on the planet is not because he’s the “best,” but because he’s the fastest — and can do the most projects.
This applies to everything else:
The more content you create (and sell) the more money you should make.
This is easily proven and demonstrated, and is no big mystery.
And guess what?
The upcoming July “Email Players” issue contains 34 of the best way I use to pump out mooney-making content very quickly, and profiting from it from conception until infinity.
By content, I mean, specifically things like:
All generated very quickly – and sometimes in just minutes per day.
Originally I was going to expand all this info into an expensive book.
But, I decided to simply “condense” it into a single newsletter issue, instead. And, I suspect just one or two of the tips can radically change almost anyone’s business, sales, and, hopefully, entire approach to creating content.
More:
I’m also including a small present with the issue, too, since July’s my birthday month. Franky, just because the US government stubbornly refuses to honor my birthday as a national holiday doesn’t mean I can’t use it as an excuse to gift my favorite customers.
Anyway, the deadline to get this issue is approaching fast.
To subscribe in time, go here immediately:
Ben Settle
Not long ago, a reader asked:
I have an email list of 14,000 plus people which keeps increasing daily. I get barely 10-12% open rates. Now, of course, I’m learning to write better subject lines by going through your material. But other than that, what would you do to keep a healthy open rate consistently in an ever-growing email list?
My answer:
I care less and less about open rates the more I realize and learn – from computer scientist types over the years – how inaccurate they are, unless something has changed I am unaware of.
But, besides that:
The concept of caring about open rates beyond checking your list’s health every now and then makes little sense to me.
It’s like caring more about having the most yards than actual points scored in football.
Or caring more about having the most base hits than runs in baseball.
Or caring more about winning the most popular votes instead of the most electoral college votes in US politics.
Example:
One of my “Email Players” subscribers once told me that, the first month he used the information in the newsletter, the client he writes for had the best month they ever had, and in a month that usually gets very little business.
But, he was still concerned about his lowly 9% open rates…
Again, these open rates worry-warts make little sense to me.
But, to throw a righteous pity bone to the people who are still obsessed with opens anyway, four surefire ways to ratchet them up are:
1. Drive more traffic to your opt-in page so you have more new leads to mail to
2. Get more of your emails delivered
3. Write better subject lines
4. Be someone people want to hear from
So simple.
So easy.
So… elusive to people who treat email like Pac Man or some other arcade game score instead of as a tool to make sales.
As for #1 above, I’ll be talking a lot more about that next month.
#2 is not something I worry much about.
And as for #3 and #4, that’s where the book I give to new “Email Players” subscribers comes in.
You can read more about it here:
Ben Settle
