“Now, whether or not what we experienced was an ‘according to Hoyle’ miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt the touch of God. God got involved.”
— Jules
“Pulp Fiction”
As if my ego needed to get any bigger…
Following will sound either like a random fluke or divine miracle.
But recently, an “Email Players” subscriber emailed me about how he had his entire business wrapped up with just PayPal. And, unfortunately, he got on the wrong bureaucrats’s radar somehow (which is a lesson all in itself for why you never rely on one merchant account…) and, got banned, and said they were freezing all his money for 180 days (his living expenses, since everything was tied to his PayPal… another cautionary lesson…)
But, it get worse:
They also banned his wife’s account, too.
And, they even banned his college-aged daughter’s account, who did his tech support.
Mind you:
He wasn’t selling anything outrageous or unethical. It simply happened, and it can (and does) happen to anyone, whether they deserve it or not. Talk to enough people up in this business and you will hear many-a-horror story about such things.
Anyway, long story short:
What happened after that was a miracle of near-Festivus proportions.
Here’s how he described it:
Yes, I deserve a flogging because they (PayPal) had everything.
So, on the 15th…I was all set to write an email to you to tell you that I was going to have to cancel. I’m a Christian so I believe that when I’m impressed to do something it’s God’s direction.
I was impressed NOT to write that email at that time.
So, I didn’t cancel, and my payment has been bouncing since the 26th.
I’ve only had three issues of E-Mail Players, and here’s what I’ve learned:
1. First, I used to spend at least 1 hour per email. Then in something you ridiculed those of us that did so. So I stopped worrying and trying to game G-Mail’s inbox and Promo Tab…I I got a 0 Aweber Spam Score, I hit send. Now….15 minutes on each email.
?Income, open rates (I know you don’t believe in open rates and click through rates, but I’m not there yet) all went up.2. Second, I was spending way too much time on conservative websites. Again, your ridiculing (detecting a pattern here) those of us that had no self control got me thinking… “what ARE you doing?” I cannot tell you about the gain in productivity since that moment…it was just what I needed.
3. You validated my reason for doing my own support and talking to people. And your reasoning was the eXACT reason I gave my partner earlier this year. Helps me to know the customer and what they want and makes writing emails that are real so much easier. I may be crazy, but at least somebody that makes a lot more money than I do is just as crazy.
So, you see…if I had to cancel, it would be a real loss to me.
And lo and behold today, PayPal wrote me to tell me I could withdraw all of my money.
[NOTE: well before the 180-days]
And I’m sure you know, that doesn’t happen.
And thus, I just changed my card details and you don’t get to kick me out for quitting.
Divine intervention maybe? I don’t doubt it.
I looked at my PayPal and noticed that I made 123K for all of 2018 writing emails twice daily for my business. Not bad for $10 FE products.
But two-three hours a day on 2 daily emails was draining me, admittedly. And with them banning me, I was thinking that maybe I could do something else.
I think though, I am going to do better this year with things I’ve picked up from you and be more happy and hopefully launch fewer products and make more money.
I hope to report in to you next January. I won’t be writing you much or commenting I don’t think, but I lurk, listen and read my friend. Much of what I’ve implemented is life stuff that you said.
I think you are divinely inspired.
[Name withheld by request]
Anyway, this got me to thinking:
I don’t know about being divinely inspired.
But, I do know how to get the proverbial “halo effect” from my market by getting on lots of podcasts and turning those appearances into a bigger, ever-growing email list with lots of new buyers. And, it’s something I teach in great detail in the March “Email Players” issue.
Deadline is in less than 48 hours to get it.
After that?
Too late…
Here’s the link to subscribe, while there’s still a little time:
Ben Settle
