Many years ago, I first had one of my sales letters reviewed for legal compliance.

It was quite the education, too.

In fact, while I am certainly no expert on the subject, and I very well may be wrong… going by what he told me, it’s rather astounding how many sales letters — even by so-called world class copywriters with legal departments reviewing their copy — look like gigantic “fed bait” targets to me now.

Anyway, I quickly went to work fixing the compliance “holes” in that ad.

And, soon after that, I ran it. Then something interesting happened. Even though I thought for sure the changes I made to my sales letter to make it more compliant with its claims would have made its response significantly weaker… just the opposite happened.

Response, engagement, and sales were way higher than expected.

The quality of customer was also way higher than expected.

And my knowledge of copywriting soared higher than expected, too.

The reason?

My theory is three fold:

1. The more compliant my sales copy, the more believable it is.

2. The more believable it is, the more likely it’ll sell the skeptics.

3. And the more it sells the skeptics, the more sales from the higher quality customers I tend to get — probably because skeptics are often a 2-5 x’s bigger market segment than the hyper buyers sitting around in their moo-moos drawing welfare each month that are attracted to the screaming claim & exclamation mark-ridden copy are. In fact, it was such a valuable experience I invested a pretty penny in having a bunch of my other various companies’ sales letter analyzed a few months ago, and am having even more done today. I probably have invested nearly $20k in these reviews over the last 6 years or so, and it’s always worth every penny.

It could be that one the greatest copywriting “hacks” is having it legally compliant…

Something to think about.

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

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

The social fugazi

Not long ago one of my customers was speculating about why it is someone like me has but a pittance of a social media follower count vs many who learn from me, maybe even bow at my righteous email altar, and yet have 10x the size audience I do.

There are obvious and not-so-obvious reasons for this.

The obvious is, I’m not a social guy as it is.

I had my fun on social about 8 years ago in my old elBenbo’s Lair Facebook group, got burned out on the attention and chaos and drama, and realized that is not my game at all. Nor do I play today’s game of chasing clout or trend-of-the-day topics. Social media algorithms tend not to like those such as me.

But there is another reason that is maybe not so obvious.

And that is this:

In a day and age where everyone’s a celebrity but nobody’s got talent, I’m more of a 4 quarters vs 100 pennies kinda guy than ever before. I also have simple tastes and who enjoy my privacy above all else while writing emails and books and newsletters (and the occasional pulp horror novel) from my oceanside lair, while investing my profits in companies I think are cool.

No lifestyle pics or selfies.

No world traveler exploits.

No rockstar lifestyle full of booze, drugs, and indiscriminate hookups.

I’m too crotchety for that shyt.

Instead, I prefer my day be to wake up, write, play with Willis rest of the day, and refuse to travel at all. That’s probably the polar opposite life of what probably 99% of these guys on social media want, and that the algorithms reward due to their inherent engagement from the proles who are impressed with it. I neither sell to or cater to the proles, the clout-chasers, or the people pursuing the lifestyle instead of pursuing the excellence first which, ironically, is required to get the lifestyle.

The result is much fewer, but far-and-away better, customers.

As for these people who learn from me with 10x sized audiences?

Some of them are extremely good at building audiences. Or so it seems, at least. Although I suspect there are quite a few bots amongst those followers, but be that as it may. And a scant few (I can probably count them on one hand) of those guys are also wise enough to put as many of those people in their audiences on an email list, which is the way to go.

That way they own their business, not Elon or Zuck or Google.

That is what I want for all my boys & ghouls at the end of the day:

To stand on their own two feet, no matter what happens, with an asset (email list) they own.

But alas…

An awful lot of them are hopelessly 100% reliant on social media and don’t have a business as much as they merely have an audience on a platform they have zero control over and that could boot them at any time, taking their audiences from them. That is why it works only until it doesn’t. It’s especially bad for the ones I know of who are completely financially overextended, terrified their audiences will find out they aren’t what they say they, and will be revealed as buck naked when the tide goes out in the coming months and years.

A lot of the things people are impressed by on social media are a fugazi.

As elusive and as much a facade as the algorithms they rely upon.

And it’s all a big bubble that’s already hissing air.

All of which is why I wouldn’t give a trough of horse pucky for the futures of most of these guys who have to constantly churn out content, chase algorithms, and 100% depend on platforms they have zero control over, while refusing to grow and write daily emails to and develop a relationship with an email list like I tell them to do.

Most won’t though.

And even when they do, it’ll be too late.

Not unlike March 2020 when the lockdowns hit.

Suddenly everyone was asking me how to grow an email list at that time.

No.

The time to do that is BEFORE you need it, not when.

And so it is now.

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

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Beheaded by the curve

Comedian Owen Benjamin (ooh) tweets:

“Yeah. Being ahead of the curve will always be attacked. But in 4 years I’ll get letters and stories of triumph and trust and respect. And that’s how a strong community is propagated.”

A lot of people despise Owen and/or think he’s practically the devil.

But he’s absolutely right about being ahead of the curve getting you hated. This is nothing new of course. People have literally been executed — probably even beheaded — for being ahead of the curve, accused of heresy, etc simply for putting out differing theories/ideas/solutions about whatever, right, wrong, didn’t matter. A lot of people I know up in this business who are reading this right now can probably relate even on a small level today. We have seen a bunch of blue flame specials on social media spazzing out, for example, even with something as non-controversial as BerserkerMail since the day it launched.

How have we been ahead of the curve?

1. Talking about the low importance of tracking open rates — those bots sure love to open your emails, but they ain’t buying. Ditto with a lot of clicks now, too. Not to mention more and more inbox clients across the board bragging about their ability to block tracking.

2. Not caring about soft metrics over ROI — only people online brag about their soft metrics, because there are admittedly still sufficient numbers of make muney online guys and would-be clients who are easily dazzled by bull shyt. But soft metrics are just vanity metrics akin to valuing yards run over points scored in football.

3. Teaching the realities of online sales attribution — copywriters love pounding their chests about how much money their copy or emails made. But attribution online is a lot more complicated than that, with many more moving parts, and much of the credit belonging elsewhere. Goo-roos running around claiming their copy or their emails made all the sales from a launch or whatever are simply full of shyt.

4. Focusing more on building the email list rather than the social media audience — all roads should lead to the list first that you can export and backup, not to the 3rd party platform owned by someone else, in our way of thinking. That is literally direct response marketing 101. But in 2024 it might as well be an advanced direct response marketing 400-level concept.

5. Images in emails hurting deliverability — which more and more marketers are coming around to finding out for themselves. We barely even have to waste time talking about it anymore, and even other ESPs are begrudgingly (since they cater to people who think they need pretty templates, etc) admitting it.

6. Daily email — I have yet to see even one other major ESP advocate daily emails probably for two reasons: 1. They don’t mail their own lists their own offers, and are run by managers, bankers, and social activists, and simply don’t know the relationship building, lower spam complaint potential, and upside sales daily can grant a business. 2. Their clients sending daily emails costs their platform more money. Email ain’t free, and you get what you pay for, but instead of working their economics around it, they would almost prefer you send no email at all while paying them each month like a good little soldier.

7. Mobile apps — we’re still a few years ahead of the curve on this, and admittedly nobody really gives us any flack over it. But most online marketers are still waiting for a guru to grant them permission to use mobile app tech. And even those who do use mobile apps are foolishly using big tech they have little control over and that does not integrate with their back end email, marketing, or offers like Learnistic does. But something like 90%+ of customers are on their phones most of the time, and are in an app when on that phone nearly all the time they are on the phone.

i.e., go where you customers are — which is in an app.

Anyway, those are a few examples.

All right so enough of that today.

If you are interested in my paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently one of my pals was telling me about some of the bigger and more successful business owners he knows who are seriously worried about their lack of engagement, sales, new customer acquisition, low quality leads, and the list goes on this year.

A lot of them had been cleaning up for years.

Now?

They are losing ground – and fast – just pitiful numbers compared to what they’re used to seeing.

And it got me to thinking about what’ll surely be the paraphrase of the decade:

“Everyone’s a marketing guru during a bull market”

But now that things are tightening up across the board?

You’re going to see just how many of them goo-roos out there who have been pounding their chests on Facebook and Twitter and in masterminds for the past 10 years really know their stuff… or are just posers , or else who happened to have gotten in the right market, with the right offer, with the right people, at the right time, and don’t really know how to repeat it or adapt to what’s coming down the pike.

Those who been around the block have seen this cycle repeat itself.

It’s the exact same thing each time, and this time will be no different.

Except, in many ways, I think, it will be far more intense.

The reason:

I touched on this in detail in this past January’s tripe-sized 150th Email Players issue. And it’s because, I believe, the credit deflation is already starting to happen. You may not believe that because all you’re hearing on the news is about inflation. And despite what the lapdog media is insisting otherwise, the evidence of most peoples’ eyes and ears are showing inflation is not at-all the optimistic 3% they claim. Especially when you factor in things they leave out like, you know, food, gas, and things people actually need.

Why anyone believes a single word the corporate media says is beyond me.

Especially after the last few years alone.

But people much wiser than myself – and certainly wiser than the shills in the media, who can’t even give a weather report without inserting some obvious bias or propaganda into it anymore – about economics have been saying this whole time:

There is a LOT more credit/debt than there is cash in this debt-driven economy.

And eventually that debt can only either be repaid or written off.

And while everyone is (understandably) nattering on about inflation, there are many other stories talking about how younger people especially are not only not repaying debt, but literally can’t repay it. They can’t even keep up with their minimum payments even as they are borrowing more of it. And eventually, a whole lot of that debt will be written off because it ain’t gonna be repaid. Maybe the powers that be know this is inevitable. And maybe this is why they are trying to act like superheroes to court voters by forgiving student loan debt and, most recently, Kamala talking about forgiving medical debt – both of which are almost certainly inevitable anyway, as far as I can tell, at this trajectory.

Deserves got nothing to do with it, either.

But unless we go back to indentured servitude, debtors prisons, etc, who knows?

This is all speculation, obviously, so take it for what it is.

But, running with this speculation:

Perhaps a time is coming when you might be considered lucky if you have even a $1,000 limit on your credit card or can pull out more than $100 at a time from the ATM. Then all those expenses you just “slap” on a credit card now, without thinking about it, become a whole helluva lot harder to pay for without cold, hard cash in your pocket if you don’t get your act together now, while you still have some time, and start growing your email list, mailing it offers they want to buy, and selling those buyers something else — every day, day in, and day out, and, yes, starting today.

It’d probably almost be Faustian if that happened:

Everything on sale from the deflation, but not a lot of cash or credit for most to buy it.

That’s my admittedly non-expert advice.

But going by how wrong nearly ALL the so-called experts have been about just about everything the last few years, I’m probably more likely to be correct than they have been. Admittedly, I get my info from some people most consider “fringe” (but often correct on such things) and time will tell either way. I was also admittedly a couple years off on when the inflation kicking in would hit us to the degree it has. I expected it a year ago. I also expected what a lot of marketers are experiencing now to have happened not long after Jen Psaki was on TV telling the wine aunts to kick back and relax with a margarita because the inflation was merely “transitory.”

Anyway, end of speculation.

Whatever happens:

Focus on the fundamentals, do the work, and write like your life depends on it.

Because in many ways it does now.

As far as using email goes?

You can learn more about that in my paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

In which a fine question is asked:

“Ben, if you were in your 20s – what would you read more? Which movies/shows would you watch? (if any) I know you’ve said in your emails you’d rather read & go to the gym than sit in front of a television. Apart from this, which other activities do you recommend to keep the brain engaged and active in leisure time?”

My answer:

Lots and lots and lots of walking.

It’s the greatest business and marketing ‘secret’ I can possibly recommend.

Also fill your head with as much info you find interesting as possible.

And avoid ALL woke movies/TV of all stripes.

Avoid social activist types, too, they’ll bring you nothing but drama and make you dumber.

I’d also watch the show “24” for learning sale letter and email pacing. Watch LOST for world-building and creating intrigue/curiosity. Watch Seinfeld for infotainment. Watch documentaries (not Netflix documentaries, they’re nearly all so backasswards it’s become a trope of itself in recent years) about men who’ve accomplished great things: “King of Late Night” about Johnny Carson, “Chris Claremont’s X-Men” on Amazon about relationship-building, “Eye of the Beholder art of Dungeons and Dragons” about craftsmanship and branding, and the Special Effects Titan documentary about Ray Harryhausen for creating drama, craftsmanship, storytelling, World-Building, product design, and a lot of other things I teach.

I may not have exact titles accurate above, but they are on Amazon.

That’s a very short answer to a question I could write a book of its own on.

But I daresay the above is more than enough to keep people busy for a while.

Besides that?

Go here for more info on the paid Email Players newsletter:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Reader Parker Worth gets frisked by the zombie cop… and “it moves”:

I’m a foaming at the mouth fan of your emails and products.

Even better?

The Enoch Wars makes me feel like Howard Carter discovering King Tuts tomb.

How?

Look, the fiction book market is stale.

And frankly, Zombie cop gave me the ol’ rush of a 3,000 year old rotten mummy curse. A hit so strong I’m digging graves for more (especially after finishing book 7 with Azriel escaping a furnace)….

I know practically nobody joined this list to hear about my fiction.

But, that doesn’t stop me from talking about it..

The book referenced above (Zombie Cop) is the first of a 9-book series of novels I wrote between 2013 and 2023 called The Enoch Wars. And if you want to see if they are worth your precious time and the psychological damage that is sure to ensue if you do… then you can read that first book Zombie Cop free in the Enoch Wars app — where it is in eBook, audio book, and even screenplay (Yes, I wrote a screenplay for it) format. That particular book’s introduction was also written by the great, and esteemed A-list copywriter Bob Bly who also quite enjoyed reading it, as do its many copywriter fans, I have noticed.

And the book is “for real” free to read.

There is not even currently an opt-in required.

The only requirements are a smart phone or iPad to read it in the Learnistic app.

Here’s where to get your lovin’:

https://www.EmailPlayers.com/enochwars 

Ben Settle

One of the single most valuable books I’ve ever read for business is Dan Kennedy’s:

“NO BS Time Management”

My favorite part is about what he calls “Time Vampires”. These are people that suck up your time like a traditional vampire sucks up your blood. They basically tap a vein in your time and take as much of it as you foolishly allow because you’re too nice to stick a cross in their face and rebuke them… leaving you a pale, withered husk of a schlub — dried out of all energy, patience, and desire to work.

Anyway, Dan identified several of them.

But over the past 22+ years since first reading and as my business has grown, with my time becoming far more of a novelty it is now vs the commodity I originally allowed it to be…I’ve identified several more that try to scratch at my office window, thirsty, and begging to be let in. And each of them are particularly gruesome, dangerous, and blood-thirsty.

They are:

* The Debating Dracula – who always wants to debate you online or via email

* Bride Of Debating Dracula – who also always wants to debate you online or via email

* The “I’ll Be Back” Barnabas Collins – who has something you require, says they’ll be back, never returns, so you have to waste time chasing them all round hell and gone just to get whatever it is they were supposed to do or give you

* The Always-Late Lestat – who is always, without exception, late disrespecting both your time and theirs, always with an excuse of course (one of my friends is like this, one day a mentor told him, “if you’re late that means either you don’t respect their time or you don’t respect yours, either way you’re being rude and disrespectful…”)

* The Nagging Nosferatu – constantly nagging at you, sucking up your time drop by drop with their pedantic & pointless nagging

* The Count Of Chronic Texting – always texting you and demanding replies immediately

I’ve dealt with all these evil things.

And nowadays the second I so much as see one of their ghoulish shadows growing on the wall I immediately turn and stake them through the hearts, cut off their heads, and stuff garlic down their miserable throats. Then I set their bodies on fire and salt the ground in a circle around the ashes just to be sure.

Once I started ruthlessly doing that my income dramatically increased.

So did my productivity and enjoyment of my work.

More:

These time vampires are filthy, nasty, unclean… and totally worthy of contempt. And while you may foolishly think you are immune to their hypnotic gaze, I would bet someone else’s left testicle that at least 2 or 3 of these vile, “revenue revenants” have long ago tapped one of YOUR veins, and have been mainlining your time ever since… with you so used to it you no longer even notice it and are none the wiser.

My advice?

It certainly won’t hurt to have as much contempt for them as I do.

And the way to do that is to get Dan Kennedy’s NO BS Time Management book.

It’s like a time vampire hunter’s field manual. He walks you through how to valuate your time amongst other extremely practical and profitable tips. The chapters on self discipline & patience are especially valuable. Probably the two most valuable chapters of any business related book I’ve ever read in some ways that have lead, guided, and instructed me for over 20 years to accomplish more than my lazy bum competition.

I will also say this:

Once you understand your time’s value the way Dan shows in the book, you will likely never look at a time vampire trying to suck up your time ever again. You will see, as I saw many years ago, that a time vampire feasting on you is literally stealing money right out of your pocket.

The book is just incredibly useful.

And it changed everything, early on, about who I do business with.

Frankly, don’t even think of it as a “book.” It’s a sharp stake dripping holy water. And by using it you will have that much easier of a time identifying and dispatching these evil creatures of the night wanting to steal all your time and money and energy.

To get the book simply do this:

1. Go to Amazon and type in: “Dan Kennedy Time Management”

2. Look for the new 2024 version he wrote with Ben Glass

3. Add to cart…

Obviously, I have no affiliate or JV arrangement.

I just want everyone in my horde to possess it, use it, benefit from it.

Even if just makes you more likely to respect MY time…

Ben Settle

P.S. Since we’re talking about vampires:

If you want to see my own take on vampire lore, check out my Enoch Wars novels on Amazon too, while you’re there. Or, if you want a free, uhm… “taste”… of them without paying any money, I have the first novel (Zombie Cop) in the Enoch Wars mobile app free. It’s in there as an eBook, audio book, and even the screenplay if’n that creams your righteous twinkie. I also have writing tips, business tips, and fiction tips in there, too.

All free, with no email opt-in required, yours for the taking:

https://www.EmailPlayers.com/enochwars 

(You will need a mobile device or iPad to access the app)

1. They’re fun to write, produce, entertain your readers with

2. They’re a novelty

3. They can be a great catalog for your offers, or even just your teachings, philosophies, thoughts, content, whatever it is (they don’t even have to sell — the ones I am running in this year’s Email Players issue do not sell anything except for a small plug at the end of each episode)

4. They can be used as premiums/bonuses/gifts

5. People often keep them, show them off, don’t toss them out

6. It’s easily one of the oldest direct marketing formats ever invented (even Gene Schwartz mentions them in his Breakthrough Advertising book, implying they don’t really go out of style as a format)

7. They set you apart from your boring competition who can’t be bothered

8. People enjoy reading them if the art is good — something proven over and over again in the comicbook industry

9. You can turn them into “motion” comicbooks (like I used to watch when I was kid, where they’d take Marvel comics, and film the panels, add voiceovers, etc) and put on YouTube, social media, in your mobile app – which I even still have yet to do, but it’s on the agenda

There are many more reasons.

I’ve been doing them since 2019, and still finding new uses for them.

For example:

I have ownership in a software company (that sells Learnistic, BerserkerMail, SocialLair), a company that teaches how to trade Options (Low Stress Trading), and most recently even a local newspaper (the Oregon Eagle). And those are all potentially ripe for comicbook-style ads, characters, storylines, to reach out into the market like tentacles and grab on to whole new sections of the market.

Technically, we already have a comicbook for the software company.

(Email Players Comicbook #2 I gifted to Email Players subscribers back in January.)

But I’ve already talked to Troy Broussard (majority owner of Low Stress Trading) about him creating a comicbook for that, as he’s been wanting to do something like this for a long time. Plus, we can hire his kids to help produce it in house. I also have a hankering to approach the Oregon Eagle majority owner (Richard Emmons — hi Richard!) about it as well, as the possibilities for using this with mass media are endless, especially as way of creating our own propaganda.

It’s all in the idea stage in my head.

But that gives you a very small taste of how this can work.

All right, on to other things.

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

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

 

One of my favorite “marketing” books is called:

“Mail-Order Mysteries”

The author, pop-culture historian Kirk Demarais, goes through some 150 products he bought from direct response comicbook ads back in the 60s, 70’s, and 80’s. Everything from authentic laser-gun plans, x-ray specs, and even 7-foot-tall monsters with glow-in-the-dark eyes… to 100 Toy Soldiers in a Footlocker… to Count Dante’s World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets… to Hypno-Coins, Life-Size Monsters, Sea Monkeys, Soil From Dracula’s Castle, and a ho’ bunch more.

Spoiler:

Very few did anything near what they promised.

All the ads are well-worth studying, though. (The products sold, not so much)

But, one offer that was especially useful to read about was a book called:

“Very Special People”

It was a 400-page book about… the abnormal. Like, for example The Elephant Man (it was written by the author of the popular book The Elephant Man), the original Siamese twins, “Hop” The frog boy, the Mule-Faced Woman, the Elastic Skin Man, The Heaviest Man in the World, The Tallest Man in the World, Living Skeletons (ooh yeah!), Fat ladies, Bearded Ladies, and limbless men like Prince Randian the Caterpillar Man (who is pictured in the ad), and probably a bunch more.

It was a smash success, too, from what I understand.

The reason?

Because people are irresistibly and morbidly drawn to freak shows.

Case in point:

Elaine’s dancing in the TV show Seinfeld or, for that matter, Taylor Swift’s dancing everyone makes fun of. For a more down to earth example, take my Copy Troll book cover — which was intended to give people the creeps. It was inspired by a painting I saw in an hotel when speaking at one of Agora Financials’ offices many years ago, where the character in the dayem painting’s eyes followed me wherever I was in the room, and I couldn’t help but stare back and examine it.

Anyway, freaky things are hard NOT to look at.

We’re talking instant and probably near-guaranteed engagement.

And it’s one of many reasons why the visual & design-side of marketing is both so potentially very powerful, yet so extremely underrated for whatever reason. You can potentially get a lot of engagement, sales, and new customers by tapping into forces like this. What you do with that engagement, of course, is what determines if you are going to be able to monetize it or not.

Something to think about.

To subscribe to the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Not that anyone should particularly care, but today is my birthday.

And I’m celebrating with an admittedly pompous, arrogant, & totally self-indulgent email.

Once upon a time a reader asked:

“…on many lists and see lot of experts saying they are THE person to learn from. Why u? Everyone has testimonials and clams being the greatest. What makes u different? Do not take as trolling I am new trying to get handle on things thanks!”

At the risk of sounding like a megalomaniacal techno-despot, my answer is:

Seizing a corner of our industry and recreating it in my own image.

For example:

* While a bunch of boomer marketers are just now starting to dabble with text message marketing as if it’s the second coming of FAX… I’m over here helping design a fully integrated, multi-media messaging app for businesses that could make mere text message marketing look as archaic as sending smoke signals.

* While every online marketer and his father is drooling on the carpet mindlessly debating politics online all day… a few months ago I bought ownership in Email Players subscriber Richard Emmons’ Oregon Eagle newspaper, where we’re helping pro freedom candidates actually have a shot at winning against one of the most corrupt and evil political machines in the entire country.

* While copywriters are on social media grandstanding about the importance of “storytelling!”… I’ve written 9 novels (my Enoch Wars saga), turned the first novel into a screenplay (and soon a graphic novel), with a second fictional universe of novels on the way after I get done with that… plus a series of running comicbook-style ad storylines I’ve been publishing in Email Players these last few years, and will continue to write & publish next year.

* While everyone is crowing about how they are a world class expert at crypto and investing… I went and bought ownership in what is fast becoming THE premier Options trading coaching program (Low Stress Trading) on the planet…. with testimonials so surreal we probably can’t even really use a lot of them due to alphabet agency laws/rules/regulations (having to hire three different attorneys just to help us make sure we’re squared up with the copy before we start rolling out big with direct mail, which we are talking to the great Craig Simpson about tomorrow).

* While the content creation goo-roos and infloo-encers are busy nattering on all day about content creation, how to create content, how to sell content & be a content creator… I invested in a platform designed & created for ultra-engaged content creation & distribution (Learnistic) using mobile app technology.

* While every online marketing ex-spurt and his mother is debating about what the best shopping cart is our boys at Learnistic/BerserkerMail built our own online marketer’s “wet dream” cart platform (ContraCart) for the company’s internal offers that might (if we can work out the logistics) even eventually be for sale to the public (we are going to discuss next month when the team comes to my seaside Lair for a few days).

* While the the endless crop of social media experts spend all day trying to prove how social media savvy they are… I co-designed & built — and single-handedly financed the startup of — our own social media/membership site platform (SocialLair) designed for paying customers you want to serve in a private, big tech-free place untouched by Zuckerberg, Apple, Google, Amazon, or even the WEF.

* And maybe most important of all to a list like mine…

While other email guys are nattering on all day long to the make money online dorks about how much their emails make, fapping themselves blind to all their clients’ test results they pretend to have had more impact on than they really had, and droning on about their so-called open rates, click rates, and/or shilling whatever Soros and/or DEI approved email platform they are merely affiliates for… I have financed (with money made from, yes, ending emails selling my own offers to my own lists & businesses…) and co-built with Troy Broussard (former Navy Nuclear Engineer-turned-world class email marketing automation specialist who used to routinely do the sending/testing/tracking/automation of 30-50 million emails per month for his clients, and knows a little bit about how to get ‘em delivered and engaged with) our own platform called —

“BerserkerMail”

In other words:

I’m not just selling info and using other business’ platforms.

I’m helping to build, grow, & sell entire media & news platforms, paid for by the profits and based on the experiences I’ve gained via using email marketing & copywriting (selling my own offers, at my own risk, and at my own expense, not at some client’s expense & risk) day in and day out — for longer than a lot of these other guys have probably even been online.

All right, that’s my obnoxiously self righteous answer to what makes me different.

Take that info and do whatever you want with it, or do nothing with it.

So that’s all I got today.

Back I go to celebrating being another year closer to death…

To check out the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

BEN SETTLE

Publishes ridiculously high-priced books & newsletters about online marketing, writes twisted horror novels & screenplays, and trades options & invests in companies he thinks are cool – like BerserkerMail, Low Stress Trading, and The Oregon Eagle newspaper.

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Email Copywriting Education

Gives Away His Best Tips

For How To Potentially

Double, Triple,

Even Quadruple

Your Sales Online

Type in your primary email address below to open Ben's daily email tips and a free digital copy of his $97.00/month Email Players newsletter, plus get access to 40+ HOURS of content in his free mobile app:

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I agree that when I sign up above, I will be added to a marketing mailing list where I will receive DAILY email tips and promotional offers from Ben Settle.

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WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Even when you’re simply just selling stuff, your emails are, in effect, brilliant content for marketers who want to see how to make sales copy incapable of being ignored by their core market. You are a master of this rare skill, Ben, and I tip my hat in respect.

Gary Bencivenga

(Universally acknowledged as the world’s greatest living copywriter)

www.MarketingBullets.com

I confess that I have only begun watching Ben closely and corresponding with him fairly recently, my mistake. At this point, it is, bluntly, very rare to discover somebody I find intelligent, informed, interesting and inspiring, and that is how I would describe Ben Settle.

Dan S. Kennedy

Author, ’No BS’ book series

Ben is one of the sharpest marketing minds on the planet, and he runs his membership “Email Players” better than just about any other I’ve seen. I highly recommend it.

Perry Marshall

Author of 8 books whose Google book laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry, whose prestigious 80/20 work has been used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs, and whose historic reinvention of the Pareto Principle is published in Harvard Business Review.

www.PerryMarshall.com

I think Ben is the light heavyweight champion of email copywriting. I ass-lo think we’d make Mayweather money in a unification title bout!

Matt Furey

www.MattFurey.com

Zen Master Of The Internet®

President of The Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation

Just want you to know I get great advice and at least one chuckle… or a slap on the forehead “duh”… every time I read your emails!

Carline Anglade-Cole

AWAI’s Copywriter of the Year Award winner and A-list copywriter who has written for Oprah and continually writes control packages for the world’s most prestigious (and competitive) alternative health direct marketing companies

www.CarlineCole.com

I’ve been reading your stuff for about a month. I love it. You are saying, in very arresting ways, things I’ve been trying to teach marketers and copywriters for 30 years. Keep up the good work!

Mark Ford

aka Michael Masterson

Cofounder of AWAI

www.AwaiOnline.com

The business is so big now. Prob 4x the revenue since when we first met… and had you in! Claim credit, as it did correlate!

Joseph Schriefer

(Copy Chief at Agora Financial)

www.AgoraFinancial.com

I wake up to READ YOUR WORDS. I learn from you and study exactly how you combine words + feelings together. Like no other. YOU go DEEP and HARD.”

Lori Haller

(“A-List” designer who has worked on control sales letters and other projects for Oprah Winfrey, Gary Bencivenga, Clayton Makepeace, Jim Rutz, and more.

www.ShadowOakStudio.com

I love your emails. Your e-mail style is stunningly effective.

Bob Bly

The man McGrawHill calls

America’s top copywriter

and bestselling author of over 75 books

www.Bly.com

Ben might be a freaking genius. Just one insight he shared at the last Oceans 4 mastermind I can guarantee you will end up netting me at least an extra $100k in the next year.

Daegan Smith

www.Maximum-Leverage.com

Ben Settle is a great contemporary source of copywriting wisdom. I’ve been a big admirer of Ben’s writing for a long time, and he’s the only copywriter I’ve ever hired and been satisfied with

Ken McCarthy

One of the “founding fathers”

of Internet marketing

www.KenMcCarthy.com

I start my day with reading from the Holy Bible and Ben Settle’s email, not necessarily in that order.

Richard Armstrong

A List direct mail copywriter

whose clients have included

Rodale, Boardroom, Reader’s Digest,

Men’s Health, Newsweek,

Prevention Health Magazine, the ASCPA

and, even, The Limbaugh Letter.

www.FreeSampleBook.com

Of all the people I follow there’s so much stuff that comes into my inbox from various copywriters and direct marketers and creatives, your stuff is about as good as it gets.

Brian Kurtz

Former Executive VP of Boardroom Inc. Named Marketer of the Year by Target Marketing magazine

www.BrianKurtz.me

The f’in’ hottest email copywriter on the web now.

David Garfinkel

The World’s Greatest Copywriting Coach

www.FastEffectiveCopy.com

Ben Settle is my email marketing mentor.

Tom Woods

Senior fellow of the Mises Institute, New York Times Bestselling Author, Prominent libertarian historian & author, and host of one of the longest running and most popular libertarian podcasts on the planet

www.TomWoods.com

I’ve read your stuff and you have some of the best hooks. You really know how to work the hook and the angles.

Brian Clark

www.CopyBlogger.com

Ben writes some of the most compelling subject lines I’ve ever seen, and implements a very unique style in his blog. Honestly, I can’t help but look when I get an email, or see a new post from him in my Google Reader.

Dr. Glenn Livingston

www.GlennLivingston.com

There are very, very few copywriters whose copy I not only read but save so I can study it… and Ben is on that short list. In fact, he’s so good… he kinda pisses me off. But don’t tell him I said that. 😉

Ray Edwards

Direct Response Copywriter

www.RayEdwards.com

You’re damn brilliant, dude…I really DO admire your work, my friend!

Brian Keith Voiles

A-list copywriter who has written winning ads for prestigious clients such as Jay Abraham, Ted Nicholas, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, Robert Allen, and Gary Halbert.

www.AdvertisingMagicCopywriting.com

We finally got to meet in person and you delivered a killer talk. Your emails are one of the very few I read and study. And your laid back style.. is just perfect!

Ryan Lee

Best-selling Author

“Entrepreneur” Magazine columnist

www.RyanLee.com

There’s been a recent flood of copy writing “gurus” lately and I only trust ONE! And that’s @BenSettle

Bryan Sharpe

AKA Hotep Jesus

www.BooksByBryan.com

www.HotepNation.com

I’m so busy but there’s some guys like Ben Settle w/incredible daily emails that I always read.

Russell Brunson

World class Internet marketer, author, and speaker

www.RussellBrunson.com

Type in your primary email address below to open Ben's daily email tips and a free digital copy of his prestigious Email Players newsletter.

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I agree that when I sign up above, I will be added to a marketing mailing list where I will receive DAILY email tips and promotional offers from Ben Settle.

NOTE: You’ll have to confirm your subscription to join the list. If you do not see the confirmation in your inbox, check your spam, junk or promotions folder.

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