Ben Settle

A couple months ago I got this email from a veterinarian:

Hi Ben!

We love you and Zoe as clients! To say thank you, we’ve got a new mobile app for you and your animal companions. It helps manage their lives so you don’t have to! Plus:

* Request Appointments 24/7

* Pet Pickup Notifications

* Create and store all your pet’s reminders

Sounds like a mighty fine service for pet owners.

I will certainly give them that.

But, here’s the problem:

Last time Zoe went to this vet was 9 years ago, way back when I lived in

The Burgle. She has since long passed away and joined the Kennel Invisible a year and a half ago. And yet, this vet is sending me this ditty about how much they love having my deceased pet as a client. Anyone who owns pets knows

their lifespans are short — and so I guarantee you I am not the only one who had a “WTF is wrong with you people?” moment when seeing that.

Bottom line?

Not even my paid Email Play

ers newsletter can f

ix email marketing this bad..

Anyway, not a problem for 99.9% of marketers.

But a cautionary tail — as Zoe would have put it — nonetheless.

Speaking of Email Players, you can learn more about it here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

So said the kooky Irishman Stephen in the movie Braveheart.

I got to thinking about that recently, and how those of us who grew up without an iPhone in hand or internet access while in constant fight or flight mode binging movies like Alien, Terminator, War Games, even Maximum Overdrive… tend to have a visceral distrust of machines, crypto, AI, digital products, technology, the government, and other institutions run by utter morons who have power over the populace — especially services people rely on.

And for good reason.

Marcus Gill ‘splains:

Ben,

Your view of AI is spot on.

We live in Houston, 4th largest city in America, 

Harris County 3rd largest in America.

Advanced tech modern city blah blah blah..

Two weeks ago One sudden unexpected Hurricane/tornado instantly took us back to the Flintstones in less than 1 hour.

From 

Uber eatz at the push of a button

To 

Pitch black. No A/C in 100 degree heat.

“Sorry, cash only” everywhere if they could function.

Neighbors stuck in elevators and no traffic lights etc

ALL bc  1-2 main towers and several lines were knocked down.

Thousands of contractors flooding the streets from out of state still cannot fix it fast enough.

We have had several storms in Texas since.  

The shortages are real.

so

AI ain’t a threat. Not even close.

Not knowing how to live off the land or work with your hands, or knowing the trades is.

Writing copy (by hand even) is.

Thinking like a prepper is no longer fringe here.

So keep preaching.

But alas, distrusting technology doesn’t mean not using it.

Or, in an online marketer’s case, shamelessly profiting from it.

Case in point:

We heard from several people who bought my “Email Bastard!” offer a couple weeks ago asking what cart we used for it. And, even more importantly, people wanted to know if it was our ContraCart software? (That I have been mercilessly teasing for over two years now – most recently in the Email Players Comicbook #2 I sent Email Players subscribers back in January to commemorate the newsletter’s 150th issue.) And if it was ContraCart, will it ever be for sale or am we just gonna leave them hanging forever?

It’s a fair question.

And here is my unfair answer:

Selling a cart is a gigantic, logistical, and maybe even unsustainable for our small team task to do it as a service — and so we just shelved it as an offer, and decided to just selfishly use it for our own internal use instead selling Learnistic and BerserkerMail-related offers. It always sounds like a good idea to sell ContraCart, and we know a lot of people could certainly benefit from it… until we run alll the variables involved, after which we just want to reach for the ibuprofen. But all the recently feedback did get us at least talking about it again. And it was not all that surprising to hear about the flaws in a lot of the cart software our boys & ghouls use.

So who knows?

Maybe it will happen or maybe not.

There are certainly no timeframes either way.

And even if we do, it’ll only be for sale to BerserkerMail and/or Learnistic clients.

In the meantime:

If the demand continues it’s far more likely to happen.

If not?

We’ll just use the cart for our own offers.

To learn more about the paid Email Players Newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Back in 2019 I wrote the 8th of my novels titled:

“Enoch Wars: God Blood”

And when it came time to find someone to write the intro the most natural choice was loyal Enoch Wars series fan Daniel Throssell. It wasn’t even a choice — he was the guy.

And the reasons for that were many.

But one of the main reasons was, being an email marketer and copywriter himself, he “got” and, I believe, enjoyed the books at a much deeper level than most as a result.

Especially the merging of my fiction with my marketing wiles.

For example, this part of his intro to the novel:

“It might sound weird … but these books challenged and strengthened my Christian faith in ways I never expected. And I don’t just mean the “good” parts that talk about theology or prophecy. I realised that even the “bad” parts — the sex, gore and language — aren’t Ben just being crass or vulgar … they’re Ben expertly wielding evil against itself. The infamous abortion clinic scene in Lucifer’s Favorite eviscerates the pro-choice position without a single argument — just pure “Vision”. And Skoll’s epiphany as he runs toward the pit in Hell’s Frankenstein — about why everything with the monsters was “all about sex” — was one of the most spiritually illuminating things I’ve ever read.”

i.e., the books utilize persuasion-by-Vision, and doesn’t resort to getting preachy.

A lot of fiction tends to use Vision to persuade when done right, when you break it down.

That is why people are persuaded, influenced, guided by it.

When done right it sticks in the mind, yanks at and tests beliefs, challenges assumptions — and it does it without imposing its Will on you, but by laying out the information in the way I explain in the June Email Players issue where there is nothing really to “object” to.

Sales people love to brag about how they can overcome objections.

And it is a fine skill to have.

But, if you do Vision right, you probably won’t need to overcome a lot of objections.

Why?

Because you don’t create a lot of objections in the first place.

There are no “arguments” to even be made when done correctly.

That was a huge breakthrough moment when I first heard Jim Camp explain that. It reminded me of something the great A-list copywriter Doug D’Anna told me once when I was interviewing him many years ago (way back in 2007) that has never left my psyche. He said he could walk into your house and get your dog to come running over to him even if the dog doesn’t like people or new people.

“How?” I asked, leaning in expecting some super guru trick.

But alas, all Doug said was:

“By holding up her favorite cookie.”

While the owner his manipulating, or restraining, all you gotta do is hold up the cookie.

That is what Vision does:

Gives you a cookie that takes away the objection.

That was not the context in which Doug taught it.

But all great teachings have multiple layers of depth and complexity.

Anyway, so yes, I did use Vision a lot in my Enoch Wars series. In fact, Email Players subscriber Galel Fajardo who does the audio books said he had to pause at times because some of the content made him sick to his stomach.

And some readers still quote my Fezziwig character to me.

The Vision I used to describe that particular character’s miserable existence was deliberate, too.

In the most recent novel (the 9th book “Serpent Seed”) I write a chapter using Vision that I think any parent who is worried about their teenager wanting to butcher their body to try to change their gender should read. I’d make Willis read it if he ever talked about such nonsense to me. Because Vision by persuasion is powerful, and it would at least plant a seed into the mind of he or she that parent would wish to persuade on the topic. Yes, I am saying using Vision can do more than just make your business more sales and get you more cash & prizes.

All right, on to the business.

To learn more about the paid Email Players Newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Sucks to be these guys…

“Oh my, oh my, what have I done! There’s something very wrong, there’s something very wrong, there’s something very wrong!”  — Church Of Satan founder Anton LaVey’s last death bed words.

“I am abandoned by God and man! I shall go to hell! O Jesus Christ!” — Voltaire, atheist, on his death bed.

“I am in the flames!” — David Hume, atheist, last words of despair on his death bed.

“I would give worlds, if I had them, if the Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone!” Thomas Payne, atheist, in his last hours.

“I am perplexed. Satan, get out!” — Aleistair Crowley “Englands most wicked man” on his death bed

Luke chapter 16 tried to warn ’em.

What?

Oh, I know, I know…

“askchually scientists say that’s just neurons firing off in the brain…”

Yes, no doubt the same scientists who say men can have babies, that the food pyramid is healthy, the sun is bad for you, meat will kill you, the jab will totally save your life, the earth is turning into Mordor but Bill Gates’ private jet doesn’t count, the inflation is merely transitory, and the list of lies goes on and on and on and on.

You can put your faith in the scientists if you want of course.

The point here ain’t about if your soul is on the rotisserie.

The point is the power of Vision when it comes to influence & persuasion.

Use it and save thy business from the hell of no sales.

To learn more about the paid Email Players Newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Whenever I think of AI-generated writing I think of the movie Twins.

If you have not seen it, it’s about twin brothers who are the result of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to combine the sperm/DNA of six fathers to produce the perfect child. The embryo split in two and what you got was Julius who was the perfect physical and mental human specimen (played by Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger), and the other Vince who is physically and mentally almost the exact opposite… played by Danny DeVito.

Anyway, here is the part of the script I want to show you:

(Where they confront the guy, Traven, in charge of the experiment)

VINCE: This must be where you made the milkshake…

TRAVEN: We weren’t making milkshakes. We were making the most fully-developed human the world has ever seen.

VINCE: But instead of just one perfect kid, Mom had two of us — way to go, Mom.

TRAVEN: Wrong. The embryo split in two, but it didn’t split equally. All the purity and strength went into Julius. All the crap that was left over went into what you see in the mirror every morning.

VINCE: Whoa — I’m the crap?

JULIUS: It’s not true, Vince.

VINCE: No, I want to hear this. I’m left-over crap? I’m no good?

JULIUS: He’s wrong.

TRAVEN: Just look at him —

VINCE: You tellin’ me I’m a side effect!?!

And so it is with AI-created writing, art, whatever:

The dorklords and broccoli heads who obsess over it think the result is Julius but really they just got the crap left over from smarter, better, and greater minds, and then try to put it together in a way that doesn’t sound totally incoherent, stupid, and probably even insulting to the intended audience in a lot of cases — unless they are catering to the lowest common denominator, I suppose.

It’s all rather amusing to watch play out.

Just a year ago people were running around saying it would change everything.

You won’t have to write ever again!

It was as silly as the woman on TV who thought she’d never have to pay her mortgage again the night Obama got elected. Everyone is looking for that shortcut that doesn’t exist. That tool that will liberate them from doing the hard work. The piece of technology that will disguise their flaws, removing the required blood, sweat, & pain of doing the process to achieve the outcome.

No.

It doesn’t work that way.

Tools can help make writing faster and more efficient.

(I am typing this not hand writing it, for example)

But it won’t do the writing for you.

And I don’t care if we’re talking about copywriting, email writing, grant writing, fiction writing, press release writing, non-fiction writing, poetry writing, or frankly even grocery list writing — creating a collage of others’ writing ain’t the way to create anything that has genuine engagement that lasts the test of time. This is a small part of a very big discussion I talk a lot about inside my paid Email Players newsletter on a somewhat regular basis.

To learn more about it go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

While back on twitter, podcaster Ellie Schnitt declared with the passion of a 1000 pronouns:

“my favorite right wing thing is when they say nyc is sooooo scawwwyy like not to be that girl but I am the approximate size and strength of a ladybug and I don’t feel unsafe here so it’s objectively funny to be a Big Tough Country Boy and shit your diaper over the subway”

To which my reply was:

“My favorite NYC story is when @stefaniasettle saw a bum across the street of her mom’s Manhattan resell store jerking off in public, and the cops formed a protective ring around him while he did it. I like the way they do bid’niz”

Which then got some replies like:

“ok, how do you unsee a tweet?”

“My poor eye holes.”

“How can I unread this!”

Fun times on Twitter.

And yes, there is a point to this beyond my grossing you out. And that point is, creating Vision doesn’t require showing any pictures, images, or videos. If you know what you’re doing, your words fueling your reader’s imagination is a far more useful way to use an image to make sales than a gif or emoji, meme, or other picture.

Been getting low on hate mail, so let’s take for example everyone’s favorite subject:

Abortion.

Ooh!

Many years ago I remember seeing a bunch of pro-life protestors lining up along the road during morning rush hour holding up graphic pictures of aborted babies. Very disturbing and graphic, and horrifying. I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I suspect most everyone else who saw them did too. But, I also seriously doubt anyone’s opinion on the matter was swayed either way. Those against it were still against it (while feeling sick and probably angry at the protestors) and those who are okay with it were still okay with it (while feeling sick and also probably angry at the protestors).

What’d work better?

I’d argue what’d work a lot better is talking to people using just their words to create a Vision. Like, for example, when Antony Levatino testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing about Planned Parenthood’s medical procedures after having personally performed over 1200 abortions himself.

You can read the transcript or watch it on YouTube.

But some of the highlights included such Vision as:

“Your patient today is 17 years old; she’s 22 weeks pregnant. Her baby is the length of your hand plus a couple of inches, and she’s been feeling her baby kick for the last several weeks. And she’s asleep on an operating room table.”

“…you introduce a suction catheter into the uterus. This is a 14 French suction catheter. If she were 12 weeks pregnant or less, basically the width of your hand or smaller, you could basically do the entire procedure with this, but babies this big don’t fit through catheters this size.”

“…you introduce an instrument called the Sopher clamp. It’s about 13 inches long. It’s made of stainless steel. The business end of this clamp is about 2 1/2 inches long and a half-inch wide. There are rows of sharp teeth. This is a grasping instrument, and when it gets a hold of something, it does not let go.”

“…and out pops a leg about that big, which you put down on the table next to you. Reach in again, pull again, pull out an arm about the same length, which you put down on the table next to you. And use this instrument again and again to tear out the spine, the intestines, the heart, and lungs. The head on a baby that size is about the size of a large plum.”

“…You know you did it right if you crush down on the instrument and white material runs out of the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. Then you can pull out skull pieces. And if you have a day like I had a lot of times, sometimes a little face comes back and stares back at you.”

“Congratulations. You’ve just successfully performed a second-trimester D&E abortion. You just affirmed your right to choose.”

The little face staring back is quite the eerie Vision.

And I suspect many-a-person reading it no doubt has a Vision from that now seared into their own non-liquified white goo brains they will not soon forget. Plus, there is nothing to “object” to as far as arguing with it, because, like any persuasion and influence based in Vision it makes no argument to object to.

It simply is what it is.

And while most will not have had their minds changed immediately, the experience of reading that won’t be easily forgotten. Possibly it might even change someone’s opinion in the future over time, as it takes hold, they think about it, see it in a new context, it fits into their world when it didn’t prior to reading it, and have time to digest it all. It’s happened before to some of my customers when I’ve talked about this subject using Vision — especially in my old elBenbo’s Lair Facebook group.

And should that happen to someone?

It won’t be because of any pictures since I didn’t show any.

Nor will it be from any slick “sales copy” or appeals to reason or logic or religion.

It will be because of Vision.

Their Vision, not mine, from their imagination, not mine, based on their experience, not mine – or any vision I try to impose on them with a photo, picture, gif, or anything else I could include in this email.

Speaking of email…

To read about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently I got the email below from a customer I assume does not want me naming him.

(Unless given permission I just default to keeping people anon)

The context:

He read an email from some goo-roo virtue signaling to his list about how he’s different (the goo-roo version of a pick-me) from me, because he doesn’t use shaming and threats to keep people subscribed to his product the way I supposedly do, etc. But the part that stood out most was when the goo-roo quoted a rhetorical device I’ve used for my “No Coming Back” policy for Email Players.

The offending line:

“Plus, practically speaking, if the trash lets itself out why take it back in?”

Hence my customer’s question:

…it made me stop and think. Are you (truthfully) trying to shame people when you suggest that there is basically something wrong with them if they don’t act in the way you’d personally want them to?

(Eg. They’re ‘trash’ if they cancel, they’re X type of person, they’re quitters, they lack character, they have X deficiency, etc etc). Just be clear, I’m not saying you ARE trying to do this for your own benefit or manipulate people out of self-interest like the copywriter below is basically saying, but I know you’ve actually mentioned this shaming tactic several times before (like in the podcast intro) and never really thought of the possibility that you yourself might actually be doing it when it comes to your ban-for-cancellation policy. So don’t take my question the wrong way.

Just wondering if it’s really just (at least partly) a persuasive tactic/strategy to maximise your retention by tapping into shame (or fear via the threat of a lifetime ban). Looking at it from a marketing POV. As, in reality, people (pretty much everyone who has ever signed up to anything) cancel continuity products/services/etc all the time (even the ‘higher quality’, ‘better’ people who supposedly aren’t supposed to cancel). And it does deter people from canceling. But I see no problem with you running your own ship however you want.

Everyone’s entitled to that freedom, regardless.

First things last:

The garbage line is an analogy about a relationship that ends.

i.e., the trope of taking a girlfriend who leaves you back is like taking the trash back in.

That does not mean she is literally trash.

In some cases the man may even still love her but it’s for both their best interests to let it go. It would apply to the woman too, if she brought the man back, and it would be the exact same thing. And to virtue signal over it is the kind of silly self projection I have come to expect from goo-roos far and wide up in this business.

As for me supposedly shaming people or whatever:

There is no reason to shame someone I’m not allowing back.

I wouldn’t even bother. If anything, I am far more likely to wish people the best. For example, just a couple weeks ago I had a mini skirmish with a new Email Players subscriber by email. It was one of those cases where I could tell he was going to be a gigantic pain in the ass customer to deal with and told him as such, and he could tell he did not like my attitude about that … and he left, and I still told him I hope he makes lots of money and is successful, it’s just not going to be with me, obviously.

Sometimes people don’t belong in my World and vice versa.

And for either of us to accept each other back is taking the trash back in.

In fact, some of my former customers are friends.

And I am pretty sure they will tell you I don’t think they are trash..

More:

The whole “I’m not Ben Settle! I’m a nice guy! See? Look! See? Look at me! I’m someone who can be trusted unlike Ben Settle!” thing some of these guys do is admittedly as amusing when I see it as when I see blatant lies being told and spread about my offers from trolls. Especially since at the end of the day, they only make me sales in the long run, in ways I showed and proved in the March Email Players issue (about the pathology of trolls, reply guys, etc to better monetize them). So the way I see it, if it works for these guys who can’t get attention or engagement without invoking my name or taking shots at one of my businesses then all the power to them.

It all just becomes fodder for me eventually anyway – just like with this email you’re reading.

I am delighted if they want to help me, help them, help my business grow.

As for my policy being a tactic to deter people from leaving:

If that is true then I’m doing a piss poor job of it.

Especially since I constantly kick people out for the smallest of offenses.

For instance:

If someone shows me a bunch of attitude or disrespect, they got to go back. If it is clear they don’t have an actual business (a qualification to subscribe clearly listed right under the headline on the sales page — it ain’t a biz opp) I give them the boot, too. If I find getting packages into their country or dealing with their customs is too big a PITA I ban the entire country. My list of banned countries is growing bigger each month now, and that ain’t no exaggeration. I have also kicked people out who I found out refunded offers I sold as an affiliate. Brian Kurtz, for example, could hardly believe I canceled a couple people from Email Players who refunded his honestly advertised and over-delivered offer I sold as an affiliate once. I have zero tolerance for such people.

And that ain’t all:

Since buying ownership in other businesses (BerserkerMail/Learnistic/SocialLair, Low Stress Trading, the Oregon Eagle newspaper), etc… I have been curating the low class customers out even harder, banning people more aggressively, and blocking anyone who causes me even a smidgen of drama. If I find myself thinking about any customer creating headaches for me (due to their behavior – not due to no fault of their own, of course) more than two days in a row… they got to go back, and don’t think they’re the first.

Why would I do that?

Doesn’t that mean less revenue?

In the short term, definitely.

Email Players is my Mickey Mouse, so to speak (as I taught last year in the issue about World-Building) and so that is my first priority. But I also have other companies to tend to now. And that means more and more I only care about serving the hardcore boys & ghouls who use the info inside Email Players and profit from it… and could not care less about the lukewarm boys & ghouls. Frankly, I don’t even bother chasing people whose credit cards expire. People get an automated email every day their card is declined spelling out — in plain English, that even a 3rd grader can understand — what to do, how to avoid interruption, what will happen if they don’t… and they got til the first of the month to get their shyt together and figure it out.

Otherwise?

They get cleaned off the list, never to be allowed back, without a word from me.

Some will them will contact me right after – “But Ben, I didn’t realize…I’m sorry!”

Too bad, you had the info, you were briefed, and now you gotta go back.

Again, if that is trying to deter people from leaving then I’m failing miserably at it.

Just going by the number of people who have tried sneaking back in, asked to come back in, been waiting for a chance to come back in… I have zero doubt at all that if I sent all the exiled & banished an email saying they could come back to Email Players and lifted all the blocks… I’d add at least 100 paying subscribers, and probably a lot more than that. But I don’t want those people back. Nor should they want to come back – as the newsletter obviously did not benefit them and/or they were not intelligent enough to use the info and/or they did not value the info enough to use it.

There is no reason for either of us to waste any time on each other.

i.e., no reason for either to let the trash back in once it’s let itself out.

All right, so bottom line:

These pick-me goo-roos upset by my policy are doing what they always do.

And that is:

They are projecting.

Long ago I realized they do the pick-me “I’m not Ben Settle!” shtick because THEY think in terms of always gaming things, running tactics, tricking people, manipulating customers, trapping people inside, afraid to see people go, fear losing money, etc… and so they project it onto me while hiding behind fake altruism and simpish virtue signaling about how they aren’t me, don’t have my mean policy, or whatever it is they say. They simply cannot fathom someone running a business in a manner where I am perfectly happy making less sales if need be, turning people away until they are ready to buy, using brutal — arguably offensive, although not my intention — honesty at times… and not slobbering over getting the sale with silly tricks and goo-roo gamesmanship, virtue signaling, and pick-me clout chasing.

So as far as these goo-roos chasing clout and attention and engagement?

It never works.

Not long term, at least.

Goo-roos upset by my policy can posture and chest pound all they want to their lists or on Facebook or wherever they do their thing. But people know they’re full of shyt. And those who don’t realize it at first eventually find out soon enough. I know this because many of their own customers, clients, and lists tell me about them — just like the very person who emailed me above, due to him seeing one of these email goo-roos’ emails, which I never would have seen otherwise.

All of which brings us back full circle about the not taking the trash back in analogy:

That’s all it is — an analogy.

And it’s there to benefit both me and my customers.

I would also argue it benefits those who leave, too.

How?

Because most won’t waste their money or my time again on my products.

And, in the email goo-roo’s case above:

It gives him content fodder to virtue signal & pick-me about.

To read about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“I don’t argue with doctors. You know what I’d say to them? ‘Take your clothes off and let me see what you look like.’”

So said the legendary body builder Vince Gironda.

Reminds me of what fitness bros onTwitter dismissively tell skinny reply guys:

“Post fizeek”

i.e., let’s see what you look like.

The reply guys never do, of course.

Got a lot of this in the online marketing world, too – reply guys yapping out unsolicited advice, opinions, conjecture. And I think it would be amusing to dismiss them in a similar manner:

“You send too many emails”

Post bizeek.

“You sell too much in your emails”

Post bizeek.

“Your emails are too long”

Post bizeek.

“Your books are too expensive and nobody reads anymore”

Post bizeek.

“You’re too mean”

Post bizeek.

“You need to offer an audio and PDF version of Email Players”

Post bizeek.

“You should give me lots of value for free before selling me something”

Post bizeek.

“You should let people who cancel Email Players come back”

Post bizeek.

“You should track open rates”

Post bizeek.

“If you don’t use AI you’ll be left behind”

Post bizeek.

“You need a nurture sequence”

Post bizeek.

And on and on and on it goes. I never reply back to these dorks.

But if if I ever did, I’d just say:

“Post bizeek”

i.e., show me YOUR business.

No, don’t show me your client’s business. Or that tech company that was handed $20 million in fundings’ business. Or your favorite goo-roo’s business. Or some guy who wrote a book’s business. Or that blue flame special prancing around the mastermind room talking out of his arse’s business… show me YOUR business, that you built, not someone else… and show me how your business has achieved exactly what I am trying to achieve with my business and maybe I’d listen.

Enough reply guy goop for the soul.

To read about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

In which the question of the hour is asked:

“In your experience, what are the best ways to weed out non-buyers? I sometimes delete readers who haven’t bought anything for over five years and only ask questions by email. One of the most important things I learned from you was the quality of the list, not its size. That’s why I only focus on growing the buyer list, not the reader list. I would be interested in your best practices on how to weed out non-buyers via the daily email, so to speak.”

Here are my thoughts on it:

* Do not whole cloth delete the non-buyers

* After all, you never know when they will become buyers

* The people replying are great to keep on your list for fodder (questions, trolls, ideas)

* They are also great to keep on your list because Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc see them replying to you and see you are a real person, and that can potentially help your inbox deliverability – if anything, you should want more of them

* If you want a clean list I suggest scrubbing your list

* When scrubbing your list remove the bots and catch-all addresses “help@“ or “admin@“, “swipe@” and all the other ones probably nobody is checking or engaging with

I will also say this:

This has been coming up more and more and more over the past year or so. Probably even longer, for all I know. So until proven otherwise I will just assume someone is prancing around a mastermind room somewhere teaching people to delete everyone who hasn’t opened, bought, or engaged in 30 or 90 days or whatever. I will also assume until proven otherwise it’s something people who have no clue how the long game of email or direct marketing actually works teach to others who have even less of a clue — and how unreliable tracking opens at all is in the first place.

Of course, some dork on social media will now probably say:

“Ben says not to track!”

No, Maynard.

What I am saying is that a lot of email tracking is unreliable.

Useful?

Yes, especially when looking at trends over time.

Profitable?

Of course, if you use it right.

We even have tracking and automation mechanisms (designed by my biz partner Troy Broussard — an actual scientist, who gets how for real scientific testing works from being both a Navy Nuclear Engineer and from when he was the Executive Director of Technology for Encyclopedia Brittanica running a $12 million department of developers… not to mention when he was doing all the test/tracking/automation for as many as 50 million emails per month as a consultant) baked in BerserkerMail, after all. But if you think all the major email clients from Gmail to Yahoo to Hotmail to Protonmail to Apple’s Mail and everyone in between are not making it harder — and certainly not easier — to track, by design, to protect their users from you… then, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

Go ahead and delete your whole list for all I care.

Because if you keep deleting people whole cloth you’ll get the same results either way.

My opinion.

It’s also been my experience, too, for over 20 years.

When you send emails people want to read that sell offers people want, you start seeing how many people are buying without being tracked, are not shown as opening or clicking anything yet you still see them buying… and in some cases are maybe not even on your list at all — as someone who is on your list who is also not being tracked by today’s flawed tracking software told them about you, they found you, bought, and the list goes on.

That’ll do it for today.

To read about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle