Ben Settle

A while back I remember there was a product I wanted to buy about a certain Internet marketing topic and, when I tried to buy, looking for an order link, I couldn’t find one.

Why?

Because they didn’t have one.

The marketer insisted on me watching another 10 days of videos first before selling me anything. This was despite really wanting the product, and willing to pay a lot of money for it. I didn’t even have to watch the whole first video (and I hate watching videos) to know I wanted it. Frankly, I wanted the product even before seeing the first video. And, I was in a hurry to get it for a project I was working on.

Anyway, I mailed support and they still wouldn’t let me buy.

“You have to watch all the videos first.”

It was the marketing equivalent of giving elBenbo blue balls.

So what did I do?

I said screw it and didn’t buy.

Suddenly I didn’t want it as badly.

And, I never bothered.I bought a different one from one of their competitors instead. We’re talking about a very large ticket product, too. (Don’t remember the exact price this was many years ago.)

The point?

Don’t give your customers blue balls.

Or, they may just dump you for another company instead.

If you want to know how to persuade your list to want to buy from you without playing inane games giving them blue balls or whatever, hit the jump below to check out the “Email Players” newsletter.

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Over the years I’ve compiled a list of excuses people make for either not writing emails, or failing at it.

Here it is for your viewing horror:

1. “Gmail’s inbox! Nothing is getting delivered!”

Bull.

You’re just not interesting enough for people to make you a priority. Frankly, Hillary should just blame her disappearing emails on gmail, too. That’s what all these Internet marketers blame for their lack of success.

2. “No time!”

Really?

You can’t carve out a half hour per day… maybe turn off the evening shnewz or get up a half hour early (or go to be a half hour later)?

And you think you’re going to be a biz’nid owner?

Meh.

3. “Can’t think of anything to write about! My brain goes blank!”

No.

You just don’t know your market well enough. Probably you are bogged down in all the latest persuasion tricks, chokes, and bright shiny objects instead of studying your market, knowing all their pains and problems, etc.

Otherwise, you’d have the opposite problem

So many ideas you have trouble deciding which to write about…

4. “I hate writing!”

But you probably like talking, no?

So talk into a recorder, and have it transcribed. Smooth out, and send.

5. “I have nothing to sell!”

So?

You can start building a list and use my launch method (for sale only to “Email Players” subscribers) to start pre-selling them, so they are primed and ready to buy when you do have a product.

Don’t use no product as an excuse.

That is, if you want to be taken seriously.

6. “I don’t know how to write well!”

Neither do I.

And it doesn’t matter — because email copy is not about “writing” it’s about communication. And you know how you get good at communication? By communicating… and you can practice by writing an email each day designed to sell your product.

7. “I have too much client work to focus on!”

That’s your problem right there.

You aren’t paying yourself first.

Paying yourself first is a must in my humble, but accurate, opinion — not just in terms of money, but in terms of time. The first hour of every day belongs to you and you alone. Start taking that attitude and you’ll find yourself getting a ton of work done, doing better work for your clients, and not feeling guilty at night because you didn’t write an email to give yourself and your kids and family lifestyle, opting instead to write emails to give your clients and their kids and family a lifestyle.

Is that really your priority?

So many excuses.

So many ways people hold themselves back.

If you’re just going to make excuses why you aren’t mailing and being successful with it (and blaming everything and everyone but yourself) I don’t even know why you’re on this list.

There’s nothing I can do to help you.

Nor do I even want to help you.

What would be the point?

I don’t like to encourage bad behavior, I punish it.

That said, for the few people left over reading this who want to stop the endless excuses and start making sales with email, and enjoying it (otherwise, why bother?), then check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

The next issue has a lot of advanced info in it.

And, the bonus I’m including is especially valuable.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Lately I’ve been on an intense Jim Camp (the late “world’s most feared” negotiator) kick — listening and re-listening (over a dozen times so far) to some audios he did, and reading his book “No”. Anyway, something he did when selling water softeners that got him so many sales he made more from doing that part time than he did from his full time commercial airline pilot job was:

Asking his customers who were on the fence to tell him no.

What he did was this:

He went to all the customers he had talked to who hadn’t made a decision, gave him a maybe, put him off, etc. And one by one he told them, “I just wanted to ask you to tell me ‘no thanks’ if that is your decision. That way I can close the file and move on.”

This didn’t close all of them, obviously.

But, he got a bunch of high ticket sales from people who had been in the fence, or just weren’t in the position to buy originally, yada yada yada

All by trying to get a no, instead of a yes.

Anyway, I suspect this would work well for freelancers too.

Y’all having to put up with flakey would-be clients, etc.

Go to each of them (you have nothing to lose) and make them ante up. Call them (don’t be a pussy and email them) and say:

“We talked about doing your ____ work, but you never made a decision. I just wanted to ask you to tell me ‘no thanks’ if that is your decision. That way I can move on to some other clients I’m talking to, and close the file.”

The caveat is, this has to be a principal by which you do business.

If you try this tactically, you’ll sound like an idiot and they’ll see right through you.

You have to really be willing and anxious to let them go.

Ah yes, Jim Camp:

Still schooling us from beyond the grave…

Speaking of clients:

The September “Email Players” issue talks a lot about a topic very few (especially the people always nattering on about it on Flakebook) understand — and that is personal branding. Personal branding simply being nothing more or less than everything you do to attract and maintain customer and client relationships.

Something that can drive your email response higher than you ever imagined.

And, not just emails.

But anything else you market with.

(YouTube, articles, webinars, podcasts, etc.)

If you do client work of any kind, this issue can make it so that, over time, clients wouldn’t even dream of hiring anyone else for whatever it is you do — even if you aren’t the “best” at it they can choose from.

Anyway, she goes to the printer in a couple weeks.

Click the filthy link below to subscribe in time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Following is a short email exchange I had last week with a snowflake:

SUBSCRIBER: You have made it so I cant cancel your annoying emails. Stop now.

elBENBO: I just clicked the opt out link for you. It was really hard to do. It shows you as opted out. If you keep getting them take it up with Aweber.com it’s their software. Now go haunt someone else.

SUBSCRIBER: Haunt someone else? Thanks for that abusive email. I ll leave a screen shot all over the internet for you. Show everyone who receives your salesy non informative emails how polite you are. Secondly. You use aweber so it wouldn’t be myself to sort this out. It would be yourself.

elBENBO: No, it’s Aweber software, snowflake, I have zero control over whether you stay or go. I am thinking by your victim mentality (“abusive” – go to your safe place, hurry!) you just didn’t know how to click the opt out link. Yes, please do tell all your friends online to avoid me, you’ll do us both a favor. Now go away. Shoo.

In his defense, he did go away cordially after that.

So, he probably won’t do me the favor of sharing the screenshot and scaring away people like him who are so delicate telling them to go haunt someone else is “abusive”. I don’t usually recommend wasting time on such things. But, sometimes, drawing the nonsense out of complainers is worth the time if you can turn it into email fodder.

More:

About this whole spam thing.

Since spam is unsolicited bulk email, technically, these complainers are more “spammy” than the marketers they are whining to.

At least, they are in my case.

How so?

Because to join my list one has to click a box saying they acknowledge they’ll be getting “daily promotional emails” from me (it won’t let them subscribe otherwise). Then the first email (all above the fold) says I mail a lot (2-3 times per day or more) and how to leave, etc if they want to at any time.

100% transparent.

And, they are going in as my willing victims, not innocent victims.

On the other hand:

I never ask for their irrelevant feedback, comments, and complaints.

Although I do often find such things amusing…

(And, as you can see, great for email fodder.)

Yes, my little droogie, when you use my methods you can profit from complainers.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This email is for bigger companies.

When I say “bigger” I mean, you’re doing at least $1 million in revenue per year. And, also, you have working offers already in place, but know those offers could be doing 2, 3, 4, even 5 (or more) fold more sales in a reasonably short period of time if you had Yours Unruly’s more “hands on” assistance with your email and copy.

I’ve toyed with this idea in the past.

And, since then, I’ve done it on a less hands-on scale to test the waters.

Like, for example:

Our Oceans 4 Mastermind coaching 7, 8, and 9 figure companies on their emails and copy… flying in to Agora Financial (9-figure per year powerhouse direct marketing company) at their Baltimore office to teach their writers and editors some email and copywriting strategies… advising industry leaders like MLM top earner coach Ray Higdon (who trains mlm leaders doing as much as $50 million per year) and speaking at his private mastermind, helping someone (who wishes to remain confidential) in the cut throat entertainment industry go from making $0 sales in most Decembers to over $100k this last December and doubling that in January (from tweaking his email strategy)… being invited to be an instructor at the great Brian Kurtz’s Titans Masterclass in October… and the list goes on — including teaching some of my wicked ways speaking at prestigious companies like AWAI, Real Dose, and more.

Anyway, the point?

I figure it’s time to take this to the next level.

By that I mean this:

If you qualify, traveling (gasp!) to your place of biz’nid.

And then, analyzing, dissecting, and, if necessary, ripping apart your emails and copy, and helping you and your team “on site” recreate everything, showing y’all anything you need me to show you, and then helping you fix that copy up and get it running. If you qualify (you must be doing at *least* a million per year, my fees are going to be astronomically expensive — so if you’re a price shopper who lets your spouse or accountant dictate these things, and can’t make your own decisions, you don’t qualify), and if you’re interested in this, reply to this email.

In that email:

1. Tell me what your business is, who your market is, what your goals are, etc

2. What your main challenges, goals, etc are you would want my help with

3. Anything else you want me to know, or questions you have

And that’s all there is to it.

Word up.

Ben Settle

Someone asked what my writing music “playlist” is.

Since I just wrapped up the first draft of book 4 in my “Enoch Wars” series a couple weeks ago, and will be starting the first draft of book 5 in mid August, this is a timely question. And, yes, there’s a powerful writing lesson below you can use regardless of what your playlist is or what kind of writing you do.

So chill them zombies out.

Anyway, the playlist depends on what I’m writing.

For fiction (when writing book 4 a few weeks ago) it was:

1. “Requiem For a Dream” original song (had to find the song on YouTube — I have never seen the movie, I just dig the theme for writing)

2. “The Brides” from the Bram Stoker’s Dracula soundtrack

Basically, what I did was, I put one of those two songs (depending on the chapter) on a constant loop. This is a writing trick (that works great for copywriting too) I learned a while back from a former bid’niz partner and it works great for keeping me focused.

Which song I played depended on the chapter.

When I wrote a chapter about the evil villain, I played the Dracula song.

When I wrote a chapter about the so-called “hero” I put on the other one.

The only exception was chapter 8 where I listened to the Miami Vice theme over and over for reasons that will make perfect sense for fans of my Miami Vice-obsessed vampire character Fezziwig.

The point?

Other than my taste in music is boring for you?

For me, writing is all about emotion and focus. And, I highly suggest you tap into the feelz (good or bad — just don’t let the feelz dictate the editing process) in a way that keeps you focused, then write and see what happens.

You can always edit later.

As for non-fiction, emails, copy, etc?

Usually movie soundtracks for that, too.

But, not always.

Okay, enough.

You can read the first of my twisted monster novels free online here:

www.ZombieCopBook.com

But, a word of warning:

The derangement bleeds off the page.

Don’t read if you have a weak stomach…

Ben Settle

P.S. I won’t say it’s great literature (it’s not). But, the reviews mostly agree it’s an entertaining, and, yes, disturbing read. It’s also a fast read, too. In fact, just this last weekend a girl I know told me she started reading it on her beach vacation. And, she said she got through the first 9 chapters in a day.

Of course, she also said:

“Just to let you know, I’m holding you personally responsible for the completely bizarre and twisted dreams I had last night”

Bone App-e-teet…

Didn’t see this one coming…

The esteemed “Umpire Of Direct Marketing” himself Brian Kurtz — who I get to speak after at the AWAI Copywriting Bootcamp this October — sent them this:

“Ben is the gold standard …”

When anyone asks me who is the one person to learn how to write e-mails that get opened and responded to, it’s Ben Settle.

Ben is the gold standard…a superb copywriter with an exceptional gift…and he is both a wonderful teacher and implementer.

In a world of self-promoters and people who constantly tell you how good they are at whatever they seem to be good at, Ben is the antitheses of that…he mostly stays home and simply produces e-mail that consistently delivers as both content and promotion…and frankly, he’s so skilled at it, you rarely know which he is doing since he is always doing both.

He’s one of those guys who sends you an e-mail which always screams “open me!”
When I heard that Ben was venturing out from his “e-mail copy cave” to speak at AWAI Bootcamp this October I was thrilled (and pleasantly surprised).

Bootcamp became a “must attend” once I knew Ben was speaking. You can’t afford to not be there to learn from this master of e-mail marketing…I can’t wait hear what he is working on currently and what is working best for him in one of the noisiest mediums (where he always seems to be able to stick out from the crowd).

I plan on walking away with many actionable techniques for my own e-mail.

And now that I know that he’s willing to speak, I can’t wait to try to land him for one of my events in the future as well…how did AWAI do it?

I’ll be learning about that too!

Brian Kurtz, Titans Marketing LLC,
former business builder of Boardroom Inc.
and Serial Direct Marketer

It’s funny he brings up this part:

“he mostly stays home and simply produces e-mail that consistently delivers as both content and promotion…and frankly, he’s so skilled at it, you rarely know which he is doing since he is always doing both.”

This is the essence of my wicked ways.

Most people simply don’t know how to do it.

And, on page 6 of the August “Email Players” issue (which I am sending to the printer tonight — so best hurry if you want it) I show you a very simple way of doing this along with several proven emails so you can see examples of how it’s done.

Very simple.

Very clean.

And, very profitable, to boot.

Tonight’s the deadline to subscribe to get it.

If you want it, don’t pass go, do not collect $200, instead proceed directly here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

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

Here’s some of the goo-ey yumminess inside:

• A secret way of getting several years worth of daily email ideas and sales letter fodder handed to you on a golden platter. (The great Dan Kennedy says you can build million dollar businesses doing this — but almost nobody talks about the startling *email* profits it can create too!)

• The old life insurance guru’s secret for selling prevention. (Personally, I prefer selling cures, not prevention — but if you have no choice but to sell prevention, simply do this and it’s all good in the email ‘hood.)

• How to get thousands (possibly tens of thousands) more response opt-ins each year with your current traffic volume.

• Why it can be far more profitable to try to get people to spend less (not more) time on your website.

• 7 things you can do to your website (right away — and with minimal time investment) that can make your leads up to 10 times more responsive.

• How to do a weekly podcast without worrying about running dry of ideas. (I did 137 podcasts with ease following this advice — and will continue to use it when I launch my new podcast next year. Best part: Works for videos, blogs, emails, articles, and any other way you distribute content.)

• An email opener template “hack” for people who like hacks.

• Plus — a bonus video/transcript of a training I gave about how to use email to make all the new health offer sales your greedy little heart desires. (I used these methods to convert 40% of our list in weight loss to buyers, as well as to write several multi-million earning sales letters selling health supplements, eBooks, and other health offers. I have never taught this anywhere else and, yes, pretty much all these same methods work for selling non-health offers, too.)

• And a ho’ bunch mo’.

Again, today’s the deadline.

I am sending it in to the printer tonight.

Get it here while the gettin’s good:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a question recently:

“Ben I really want to believe your methods work but how can I be SURE? I don’t like wasting money do you?”

Of course not, duh.

You can’t know “for sure” until you try them.

But, maybe this will help put your mind at ease —

At his Health Profits Summit a few months back, “Email Players” subscriber & owner of the prestigious Real Dose supplement company (over 360k customers) Buck Rizvi said this about how my wicked ways changed their business:

“…it’s had a profound impact on our business and our ability to send emails daily to our customers and not have people just rushing to the exits and they’re buying our stuff. They’re buying 3rd party offers that we’re recommending and we’re able to now mail our list on a daily basis, which is really, really exciting.”

So there you go.

Lots and lots of goo-roos in the health offer space.

And Buck just laughs at them now.

By the way, the video and transcript of that talk above is included as a valuable bonus in the August “Email Players” issue. It’s about how to make more sales with health offers — but the info inside works for selling just about anything else, too.

(I use it all the time for non-health offers.)

But she goes to the printer tomorrow night.

Get your lovin’ here while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle