Ben Settle

One of my favorite customers Doc Carney morbidly writes:

So I am sitting here, it’s 8:42 PST and I’m writing you because this morning I get your email…Then I had this terrible thought.

—–
What if ol Ben DIES?
—–

You know.

Has a heart attack, gets run over by some old lady when he’s getting out of car. Get’s poked with a knife from his apprentice.

Like I said, it’s early, and my mind is running a hundred miles an hour right now, and my little fingers are working hard to get this on the computer screen.

Then my next question pops into my head.

“So… who’s going to take his place?”

My thoughts on that?

NO ONE.

What you’re doing and who you’re touching via emails will NOT be and cannot be reproduced on any scale. (deep shit huh)

A lot of people write, and a lot of people write emails, but it’s like a fingerprint or a snow flake.

There’s only one of them, and my friend, whether you know this or not, there is only one of you, and I’m proud to say today, you’re a friend of mine, and whether we get to meet in San Diego again or not, if I die or you die first, just let it be known, we were buddies and it was an experience.

Sincerely written and submitted to you on a platter by none other than me.

Doc

Doc brings up a good point I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

I’ve been noticing and more people are trying to copy me — to use my “fingerprints” (so to speak) in their emails. People trying to use my words, my slang, my stories, my figures of speech, my “personality”, etc.

Which is foolish.

Especially since, many times, their own lists will say something like:

“So and so sure sounds a lot like you do!”

Reminds me of the comic book “Sin City” from the 90’s.

When Frank Miller published it, it was a huge hit.

The story about Marv — the mentally disturbed, butt-ugly, bad-ass guy going around in a trench coat taking on organized crime, psychopaths, cannibals, rapists, and every other kind of scum you can think of — struck a chord in the comic book world because it was so fresh, original, and different from everyone else.

So what happened?

All the wannabes came out of the woodworks.

Suddenly, all these comics popped up with a character walking around in a trench coat fighting criminals, and they all (every single one to my knowledge) ultimately failed miserably, even if they made a little bit of money off the demand for a month or two.

Why?

Because they were trying to copy something they didn’t understand.

It was hackville.

And, it didn’t take long for the public to catch on.

So it is online.

Yes, you can get away with trying to sound like someone else for a while. But, eventually, it will catch up to you. Eventually, people will start seeing you as a warmed over version of me or whoever you’re trying to copy. And, eventually, people on your own list will laugh at you.

SPURN me on this at your peril my little droogling.

If you want to learn how to write emails in YOUR personality, using YOUR vernacular, and selling using YOUR strengths (everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses), then check out the “Email Players” newsletter.

You can’t fake it til you make it.

You have to actually make it.

And that’s where I can help.

I show you the blue print (so to speak).

But you build the house yourself.

You decorate it yourself.

And, it’s un-mistakenly YOU, not me or anyone else.

But, if you join this month, a word of warning:

The February issue is going to startle some of the ladies on the list (with many shaking their fists at me calling me the devil no doubt — goooooood), and contains no hard email teaching. You can still use the info to write profitable emails (I certainly do, which is why I’m teaching it). But, there are no examples, or subject lines, or email break-downs, etc.

It’s experimental stuff.

And, you know what?

Last time I did something like this (last February), it was one of the most well-received issues ever. I remember even getting a voicemail from one of the world’s leading online traffic and lead guys Charles Kirkland saying I need to do more issues like that.

So anyway, that’s that.

To subscribe to the February issue before it mails, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a Facebook comment from one of my business partners:

The Legend of Ben Settle….

Just hired a new Intern ( She is a bit shy and doesn’t know I am posting this here, once she gets out of her shell, I will bring here her) we met this morning about what she wants to do for my agency and set out some goals.

I asked what are her 3 objectives over the next 18 months

?1. Learn how to put a Marketing Strategy together and execute it? 2. Learn how write Headlines ?3. Email Marketing

I ask… so are you learning from anyone in the marketing world outside of the classroom.

She Responded

“… this guy Ben Settle has a cool podcast and his style is straight forward….”

I think she will be rewarded with the first Email Players Scholarship in my office.

Ben Settle – “Reaching Millennial’s Cause Email is Dead”

I will keep you all posted on this

Intern, eh?

My pal Shane Hunter replied saying I was like an “ethical Bill Clinton.”

Hm.

Anyway, point is this:

Thus is another example of the kind of reach you’ll have when you use my style of email and communication (not my personality or words — but the straight forwardness). Something I teach each month “Email Players” newsletter and in the “Email Players Playbook” (that comes with your subscription).

My audience-building methods for writing emails don’t just apply to email.

They apply to podcasting.

Sales copy.

Articles.

Videos.

And any other way you sell.

Subscription info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This week’s “Ben Settle Show” episode is perhaps, minute-for-minute, the most profitable show we’ve ever recorded.

Some of what we discuss includes:

• An inside look at the brain of a goo-roo fanboy who buys and refunds $7 eBooks.

• A 15-second “tweak” to your website that can immediately increase your profits without changing even a single word of a your copy.

• How browsing Facebook can lower your testosterone levels?

• How to turn short term cheap little Kindle eBooks into long term big ticket sales.

• Earl Nightingale’s secret to never making another mistake for as long as you live.

• How to get only the best “cream of the crop” customers to want to buy your products.

• A simple change to your pricing which is virtually guaranteed to increase your profits — fast.

• The wine-lover’s secret to creating the perfect price for your products and services.

Download this bad-boy here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

True story:

Last year I read a long, and detailed rant online from an online marketer who was shocked (shocked I tell you!) when he sold a $7 eBook packed with valuable info (I didn’t read it, but let’s just assume it was for the sake of this email, k?)… only to get overrun with refunds, complaints, entitled buyers thinking they could get free coaching out of him after buying, and so on, and so forth.

The way he made them sound, you’d think these buyers were crazed sociopaths.

But you know what?

It was ALL his fault.

He’s responsible for those customers.

And, well, so it is.

Anyway, there’s a very valuable lesson here.

A lesson that can make you a ton more profit very quickly (as in a 15-second change to your sales page) if you get the psychology of what was going on with his buyers and the way people behave online.

And guess what?

I get deep into this subject on tomorrow’s “Ben Settle Show” podcast.

Watch for my signal tomorrow when it’s up.

Until then…

Check out our last episode (about list building) here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

I’m gonna get all Biblical on your bad self today:

Since putting up the podcast Facebook group it’s been astonishing how many people, when they just start mailing daily the way I teach, see quick results.

And, in some cases, huge results.

(One chick said she just did $8k in $8 days since January 1, for example.)

But, at the same time, I *still* get messages from people saying how they used to do things using my not-so-mysterious ways, made a bunch of the green stuff, then decided to quit even though they were on track to meet their goals. It used to boggle elBenbo’s mind how people can choose to be unprosperous once they were already prosperous.

Then, recently, I was reminded of a story that made sense of it all.

Specifically, when the Israelite slaves were led out of Egypt in the Bible.

God was taking them to the Promised Land. He was going to give them all the comforts and prosperity promised to their ancestors. And, he was going to give them what they all dreamed of and had been praying for:

Freedom.

And success.

And abundance.

And, yes, security.

But what happened?

While trudging through the wilderness, the Israelites started bitching and moaning about how hard it was. Even in some cases, wishing they were BACK in Egypt, with their false Egyptian gods, and where they had more food and warmth than they did on the road. Yes, my little droogie, they wanted to go back to the familiar and “safe” slavery of Egypt even though God was promising them something far better.

But, such is human nature.

People can’t let go of their old self-destructive habits.

Can’t let go of their fear of success or aversion to hard work.

And, can’t just follow a path clearly laid out for them.

But, whaddya gonna do?

Anyway, so it is in business.

If you have used my ways to make a boatload of smackola and then quit, and decided to choose Pharaoh (especially a job, or client work you hate doing, but are paid well for, or going back to mailing once ina while or only when you “have something to say”) over yourself, well, that’s your bid’niz. Who am I to stop you from going back to Egypt, putting your chains snuggly back on, and working to make everyone but yourself prosperous?

Goes back to yesterday’s email about opportunity-minded buyers vs investor-minded buyers.

Opportunity-minded buyers always end up going back to Pharaoh.

Investor-minded buyers despise Pharaoh and seek the Promised Land.

It ain’t always easy.

And, the road can be quite hair-raising and take a lot of work at first.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you’re the same, check out the “Email Players” newsletter. It shows you my exact method for using nothing but plain old, “retro” email to make lots of sales. No, it ain’t cheap, and no, it ain’t for the opportunity-minded dopamine addicts just looking for a “fix” (i.e. “LooK! A new product being launched to buy! Let me try it… aaahhh, that feels good, what’s next?”)

For everyone else?

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Today’s “Ben Settle Show” is all about…

List building.

(It only took 103 podcast episodes, but we finally did it…)

We also rap about:

• How to get sales from paid ads people don’t even click on!

• How potty-mouthed writers can avoid spam filters and not end up in Gmail’s junk folder.

• The politically incorrect and “not-very-nice” secret to getting people who work for you to give you their best.

• Two lists to join if you want to see my email system “in action.”

• A secret way to merge iTunes with YouTube to get a swarm of new leads joining your list.

• The problems with trying to track sales with paid advertising.

• The only “Ben Settle approved” web master on the planet. (And the embarrassing reason why I can’t talk to him.)

• How to use Kindle and daily emails to build a responsive email list.

• Why putting your URL in the comments of your Facebook posts is probably screwing us all.

• How the “Freddy Krueger Of Blogging” builds huge audiences of fans using forum and blog post comments.

• And the list goes on, and ON, and AWWWWN…

Download your list-building love here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Came a review on the iTunes page:

Cult of Copy Joe7/7253434232

He’s good. Master manipulator. You’ve been warned. I unsubscribe after his rant in his newsletter: “You think you’re on this list on accident? That you keep reading these emails (even though you may despise me and everything I stand for) because it’s your choice? You actually think I won’t eventually sell you — even if you opt out today and swear you never want anything to do with me ever again. Silly mortal. You’re a (bleeped by me) belongs to me.? YOU might love being talked to like this. If so, sign up.

I can’t decide which is more amusing:

1. That he whines about being manipulated while associating his screen name with the word “cult” or…

2. He left a complaint about my emails on the iTunes review page or…

3. That he is so insanely literal

Whatever the case, check this out:

Tomorrow’s podcast is a topic I should have talked about a long time ago. It’s a topic everyone is obsessed with. And, especially, if you’ve tasted my email system.

The topic?

How to build a fat responsive list.

For free.

And, by writing just one email per day.

To listen in stay tuned for tomorrow’s show.

In the meantime, download prior shows here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Curious…

Over the past few years I’ve noticed a trend with many respected marketers (including some pretty big name ones who are well known and make a lot of dough) experimenting with sending less emails.

Their reasons vary.

(One of my friends has a “less but better” mantra and if it works for him, that’s cool.)

Hey, it’s their bid’niz and they can do what they want.

God bless ‘em.

On the other hand:

There are guys like me and many of my “Email Players” subscribers who are going the opposite way. We’re finding more but more, and are sending out tons MORE emails.

Example:

Just last Sunday we sent out 12 emails to my podcast list.

(And as I told one person recently, wait’ll I launch my Copy Slacker product — people who are both on this list and the podcast list will get between 20-25 emails combined in ONE day.)

Is this lunacy?

Are we nutzo?

Again, think whatever ye will.

But in my businesses, the more I send the more sales I make.

And the esteemed Michael Cheney (one of the founding fathers of Internet marketing as we all know it) recently said this in our podcast facebook group:

“I’ve been full time Internet Marketer since 2000. And have (thanks to Ben Settle) been sending daily emails since September 2014. I plan to send at least 4 emails to my list per day in 2016. In the past 6 months alone I’ve banked $310k from email so I figure why not scale it up a bit.”

Now we’re talkin’!

At this rate me and my boys (and gals) will shut the email down with all our emails.

So there you is.

If you want to send less emails, or one email per week, or one email per month, or an email only when you have “something to say” that’s your choice and best of luck.

But as for me and my elBenbo Brigade?

We’re ramping things up in 2016.

If you want to learn how to write emails people LIKE reading and buying from (i.e. you’re not an imposition, you’re a welcome guest) so you can get away with doing this, check out the “Email Players” newsletter.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This is the attitude to have.

Props to Stephanie Jones Seegars who just posted this in the free podcast Facebook group this morning:

I have a very tiny list of 8 people. Haven’t emailed them in months and have nothing to sell them right now. Decided this morning, who cares? Screw it, I’m going to start emailing them every day. Starting today. If all 8 unsubscribe, I’ll just email myself while I build my list.

Tired of procrastinating and making up excuses.

Let’s…Do…This…!

This is the exact mindset to have.

It’s not about how big your list is, who is going to read or “open” your emails, or who is going to click, or who is going to opt-out if you haven’t emailed them in a while (note: it’s not easy waking up dead lists, and they often wake up grumpy — mummies don’t like having their sleep disturbed, after all…)

You can worry about all that later if’n you want.

For now, it’s about taking massive and immediate action writing emails.

Starting today.

Her post was timely, too.

Why?

Because Sunday’s podcast shows you how to build a list quickly using the emails you are writing. In fact, I show you how to turn every email you write into a steady stream of quality, responsive leads, without spending a single penny.

That let’s you kill two stones with one bird.

(As my English teacher once quipped.)

So that’s Sunday.

In the meantime?

You can see more stories & ideas like this here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/facebook

Ben Settle