Ben Settle

Recently someone wrote the above thread title in that powerhouse of direct response marketing knowledge and experience:

The Warrior Forum.

The guy said basically this:

He’s been pouring over swipes from all the great direct response copywriters. But, that Gary Bencivenga (universally considered the world’s greatest living copywriter, with the 40+year track record of controls to prove it) ads are long-winded, don’t flow well, and have no salesmanship.

He’s certainly entitled to his opinion.

And, he’s probably a decent fellow.

(It’s not illegal for him to be wrong, after all.)

I only bring this up to warn you that if you’re thinking about checking out the “Legends of Direct Response” DVD’s I’ve been yapping about all day… and you share the above warrior forum guy’s opinion on Gary Bencivenga’s ads, don’t bother.

Gary’s talk is business-changing in so many ways.

(His red shirt teaching is especially profitable.)

But, people wandering the goo-roo casino won’t get it… Will think it long-winded… And, will say it teaches no real salesmanship. (Just like the warrior forum guy thought of Gary’s ads.)

So anyway, if that’s you, don’t buy.

I’m dead serious about this, too.

Just leave it alone.

Save your money.

And, go ye back to the warrior forum.

For everyone else?

I highly suggest checking it out here:

www.EmailPlayers.com/titans

Yes, that is an affiliate link.

No, it’s not cheap.

And, there’s nothing “ninja” in it.

(The word is even mocked during the event.)

But if you go through the product, apply the various lessons, stories, and experiences to your emails and ads… I think you’ll find it makes you tens, if not hundreds, of times your investment back over time.

More:

I’ve created a little “carrot” to get you to buy today.

(And not put it off until it’s even more expensive.)

And, that carrot is over $5,000 worth of bonuses (true retail value, not phony made-up value) I’ll send you if you use my link. These bonuses are also yours to keep even if you decide to return the Titans DVD’s.

These bonuses include:

1. Crypto Marketing Secrets book
2. The Agora tapes downloads
3. 10 Copyright-free emails you can use however you want
4. Gary Halbert Secrets From Beyond The Grave interview
5. Free back issue of any “Email Players” issue you want
6. Bullet Points template (same one I use)

This offer ends Sunday at midnight.

(Pacific time)

Use my affiliate link below to get it and all the bonuses:

www.EmailPlayers.com/titans

Ben Settle

Want to hear something dirty?

According to Dan Kennedy, back in the old days burglar alarm companies used some, shall we say, unsavory methods to sell. What they would do is, they would send a crack team of guys dressed in dark fatigues into a neighborhood, go into a few peoples’ yards, and leave things like empty booze bottles, dirty magazines, and half-empty boxes of condoms around the bushes.

Then, couple weeks later, a burglar alarm sales guy showed.

Think that helped sales a bit?

By going DARK like that?

You bet your gluteus assimus it did.

It was all about going dark emotionally.

Dark psychologically.

And, yes, dark physically.

And guess what?

You can go dark like this online, too, and get the same results… but, do it in a way that is (1) not unethical (2) not illegal and (3) not immoral.

(Unlike the burglar alarm people.)

How?

That’s where Dan Kennedy’s “Titans Of Direct Response” talk comes in. I remember first listening to Dan’s training walking my dog, and wanting to sprint (not run, but sprint) back home to capture all the ideas he talked about for my emails. He walks you through several dark psychological places in your prospect’s mind no other marketers dare tread that are huge hot buttons for buying. And, he shows you (with a big swipe file of examples and supplementary training in a bound book) how to exploit those dark places, shed some light in there to give those prospects relief, and make a ton more sales than you ever have before.

Dan’s talk changed the entire way I look at email and copy.

In fact, I sent Brian Kurtz this email the same day:

“I’m only about half way through the Dan Kennedy teaching (haven’t even gone through all of it yet) and already it’s opened up a ton of new ways/approaches to write emails to the various markets I sell in. (Banging out emails is already easy for me, but it’s going to get a helluva lot easier and faster after applying Dan’s material).”

And put Dan’s stuff to use I did.

That same evening.

What I did was, I made a master list of the dark emotional places he talked about, and started writing emails based around them for a launch in the golf niche, as well as a special weekend sale. Since my launches and sales are often 16 emails long that was a lot of emails — and it was just so easy using Dan Kennedy’s ideas. (And, yes, I am using things he taught on those DVD’s “on you” now, and will be throughout the weekend. Hi.)

Bottom line?

Dan’s part ALONE has already been worth many times the price.

If you want to listen to it, here’s what to do:

1. Click my affiliate link below

2. Order the Titans of Direct Response DVD’s

3. I will send you over $5k in (real retail value) bonuses.

But you best hop to it.

This offer ends Sunday at midnight.

Here is the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com/titans

Ben Settle

P.S. What’s that?

You want more information on the $5k+ in bonuses? Well, hoooookay then, how about these mangoes:

1. Crypto Marketing Secrets book

This is the entire 30-issue run of The Crypto Marketing Newsletter.

(Which ran from early 2010 through mid 2012).

This book is not for sale anywhere else. Less than 50 people — give or take — on the planet possess it (and if you are one of the few who already has it, simply give this second copy away to a colleague as a gift or as a contest bonus, or sell it on eBay if you want).

NOTE:

This is a *physical* book that will be sent by mail.

(At my expense).

Retail value: $810.00 (30-issue run, each issue costed $27)

2. The Agora Tapes

Last December Agora Financial ($200 million dollar publisher of books, newsletters and, now, health supplements) flew me in to Baltimore to teach their copywriters and editorial writers about:

• Infotainment (the single most valuable skill you can learn, IMHO)
• Selling with storytelling
• Email marketing

They also taped my talks and gave me copies.

This bundle of recordings are not for sale for any price. But, I will give them to you (via mp3 download) when you try the Titans of Direct Response DVD’s.

Value: $5,000 — the fee Agora paid to teach it

3. Free Email Players back issue

You’ll get a pdf of my most current “Email Players” issue catalog. Pick any one issue you want and I’ll send it to you (at my expense, anywhere in the world).

Retail value: $97.00 — what back issues sell for

4. “Gary Halbert Secrets From Beyond The Grave” interview

I did this interview with Doberman Dan years ago. Dan used to live with Gary, and they did a bunch of projects together. During that time, Dan learned lessons that have made him (literally) millions of bucks in sales since.

This interview contains tips like:

• How to virtually guarantee you get someone’s attention (i.e. potential JV partners, clients, customers, etc)

• A secret way of writing world-class ads while goofing off (how else do you think a fun-loving guy like Gary Halbert pumped out so many profitable ads?)

• Why blatantly copy & pasting Gary Halbert’s copy for your promos can destroy your sales

• How to never get “writers block”

• The single most important copywriting “trick” ever created (and that can help you do all kinds of other tasks, too — like write high selling ads, find a car and accomplish just about anything else)

• And a ho’ bunch more

Retail value: $67.00

(Doberman Dan and I agreed to never sell this for less than $67.00 or give it away as a bonus for a product that was less than that amount)

5. Ten Copyright-Free “Dark Knight” Emails To Use, Abuse, And Profit From However You Want

These are ten 100% copyright free emails I originally wrote for my own business while watching “Batman: The Dark Knight”. But you will have my permission to use these 10 emails however you want, in any way you want, without any compensation, attribution, or extra permission from me. You can use them “as is”, lift whatever copy you want from them (story, subject lines, etc), even sell them to your clients (if’n you do freelancing) for all I care. There’s nothing like having some emails you can use and abuse however you want, ready to go at a moment’s notice if you’re tired, or feeling lazy, or just don’t want to have to “think.”

Retail value: Unknown

(I don’t write emails for hire)

6. The Exact Bullet Points Template I Use

Last but not least:

This document contains the bullet points template I have on my desk (it’s next to my left arm now, as I type this, and is always there) that I use in emails and sales letters.

It’s shortcut my writing time by a factor 10.

And, it’s based on all the best bullets I’ve ever studied.

The only other way to get this is buying my $297 “Copywriting Grab Bag” product. But, I’ll include it in the same package with your free “Email Players” back issue and “Crypto Marketing Secrets” book when you buy the Titans DVD’s.

Deadline is Sunday at midnight.

(Pacific time)

After that?

All these bonuses vanish like a fart in the wind.

And, from what I understand, Brian is going to be raising the price even higher eventually.

So now’s the time my little droogie.

Here’s the link one more time:

www.EmailPlayers.com/titans

So here’s the thing.

I recently bought (and devoured) Brian Kurtz’s “Titans of Direct Response” product. It is — hands sideways — the most profitable marketing product I’ve bought since Gary Bencivenga’s farewell DVD’s in 2007. And even though it’s NOT an “email marketing” product, I’ve been implementing a lot of the information inside in my emails and seeing crazy profitable results (in at least two niches, and for two launches so far).

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

I dig on this product so much I asked Brian Kurtz (he did not ask me, I went to him) if I could promote it. I believe (and I’m right) everyone in marketing and copywriting should possess, study, and implement this material immediately.

But, there is one “snag” to it:

The product is expensive.

For some, very expensive.

And, I realize people aren’t just going to casually plunk down the dough for it just because I say to.

So, I put my thinking cap on and asked:

“Ben, you sexy SOB, how can you take the ‘sting’ out of this purchase for people — especially those who are careful about who they trust and what they spend money on?”

The solution?

I decided to give away a PILE of unique bonuses worth (“for real” retail value) 3x’s the price the DVD’s cost. And… these bonuses are yours to KEEP, even if you (gasp!) decide to some day refund the Titans product.

(Which comes with a 60-day guarantee.)

More:

Since some of these bonuses are hard copy I send to you at my expense (printing and mailing, which is quite expensive, especially for the first bonus below), I’m putting my money and time on the line here to get this product in your hot, greedy little fingers.

And before you even ask…

When I say 3x’s the price in bonuses, I mean legitimate retail value.

Not phony made up goo-roo value where they just invent a number and slap it next to a string of bonuses, even though those bonuses never sold via retail.

Anyway, so here they are:

1. Crypto Marketing Secrets book

This is the entire 30-issue run of The Crypto Marketing Newsletter.

(Which ran from early 2010 through mid 2012).

This book is not for sale anywhere else. Less than 50 people — give or take — on the planet possess it (and if you are one of the few who already has it, simply give this second copy away to a colleague as a gift or as a contest bonus, or sell it on eBay if you want).

NOTE:

This is a *physical* book that will be sent by mail.

(At my expense).

Retail value: $810.00 (30-issue run, each issue costed $27)

2. The Agora Tapes

Last December Agora Financial ($200 million dollar publisher of books, newsletters and, now, health supplements) flew me in to Baltimore to teach their copywriters and editorial writers about:

• Infotainment (the single most valuable skill you can learn, IMHO)
• Selling with storytelling
• Email marketing

They also taped my talks and gave me copies.

This bundle of recordings are not for sale for any price. But, I will give them to you (via mp3 download) when you try the Titans of Direct Response DVD’s.

Value: $5,000 — the fee Agora paid to teach it

3. Free Email Players back issue

You’ll get a pdf of my most current “Email Players” issue catalog. Pick any one issue you want and I’ll send it to you (at my expense, anywhere in the world).

Retail value: $97.00 — what back issues sell for

4. “Gary Halbert Secrets From Beyond The Grave” interview

I did this interview with Doberman Dan years ago. Dan used to live with Gary, and they did a bunch of projects together. During that time, Dan learned lessons that have made him (literally) millions of bucks in sales since.

This interview contains tips like:

• How to virtually guarantee you get someone’s attention (i.e. potential JV partners, clients, customers, etc)

• A secret way of writing world-class ads while goofing off (how else do you think a fun-loving guy like Gary Halbert pumped out so many profitable ads?)

• Why blatantly copy & pasting Gary Halbert’s copy for your promos can destroy your sales

• How to never get “writers block”

• The single most important copywriting “trick” ever created (and that can help you do all kinds of other tasks, too — like write high selling ads, find a car and accomplish just about anything else)

• And a ho’ bunch more

Retail value: $67.00

(Doberman Dan and I agreed to never sell this for less than $67.00 or give it away as a bonus for a product that was less than that amount)

5. Ten Copyright-Free “Dark Knight” Emails To Use, Abuse, And Profit From However You Want

These are ten 100% copyright free emails I originally wrote for my own business while watching “Batman: The Dark Knight”. But you will have my permission to use these 10 emails however you want, in any way you want, without any compensation, attribution, or extra permission from me. You can use them “as is”, lift whatever copy you want from them (story, subject lines, etc), even sell them to your clients (if’n you do freelancing) for all I care. There’s nothing like having some emails you can use and abuse however you want, ready to go at a moment’s notice if you’re tired, or feeling lazy, or just don’t want to have to “think.”

Retail value: Unknown

(I don’t write emails for hire)

6. The Exact Bullet Points Template I Use

Last but not least:

This document contains the bullet points template I have on my desk (it’s next to my left arm now, as I type this, and is always there) that I use in emails and sales letters.

It’s shortcut my writing time by a factor 10.

And, it’s based on all the best bullets I’ve ever studied.

The only other way to get this is buying my $297 “Copywriting Grab Bag” product. But, I’ll include it in the same package with your free “Email Players” back issue and “Crypto Marketing Secrets” book when you buy the Titans DVD’s.

Whew!

Add ’em up and it’s a cool $5,974.00+ in retail value bonuses.

(What people actually paid, not made up goo-roo figures.)

They’re worth even more when you count the copyright-free emails and bullet point templates. And again, they are all yours to *keep*, even if you (gasp!) refund the Titans DVD’s.

This way you simply cannot lose.

Only I can lose in this deal.

(Since I pay the expensive hard costs to print and mail you the “Crypto Marketing Secrets” book, free “Email Players” issue, and bullet point templates.)

Anyway, that’s all I got.

The deadline?

Sunday at midnight (PST).

After that, this offer vanishes like emails from Hillary’s hard drive when under investigation, and you miss out on all these valuable goodies.

Here’s my naked affiliate link:

www.EmailPlayers.com/titans

Ben Settle

The May “Email Players” issue goes to print tomorrow.

Here’s what’s inside:

• The word-for-word scolding advice, I gave my ex-copywriting apprentice that she credits for building her thriving copywriting business while making her 10x’s better at the craft.

• A real life example of how to take anything — an object in a room, a person, a place, or even a bottle of beer — and turn it into a profitable email.

• The exact best time to first mention your product in an email.

• An “A-list” direct mail copywriter’s advice for writing emails that pull and pull and pull in sales hand over fist. (This one piece of advice from waaaaay back in 2007 alone changed my entire copywriting process and I immediately saw response from all my ads soar.)

• How to sell to emotional chicks if you’re a logical-thinking guy.

• 10 magic words that explain everything a man needs to know about selling to female markets.

• How to reanimate dead, rotting lists. (Just as mummies hate having their sleep disturbed, so do your sleeping leads who haven’t been contacted in weeks, months, or years. Follow this simple 2-step procedure to wake ’em up in a way where they are both more likely to listen to you and buy from you.)

• How to create click bait phrases. (Click bait headlines are written by some of the best copywriters on the planet — this issue includes a little cheat sheet you can use to create your own click bait subject lines in just seconds.)

• The one subject line that is virtually guaranteed to get opened by anyone who sees your email if you do it right.

• How to use foreign slang to make your emails less “plan vanilla” and more fun to read (and, thus, buy from).

• And a ho bunch mo’…

Deadline to get in is today.

I’m sending it to the printer a day early this month.

Subscribe here in time, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold:

Last year, when my I was instructing my ex-copywriting apprentice in the arts and craft of Ben Settle email writing, I did something the mush cookies would no doubt say was borderline “abusive” to her.

What happened was this:

She got her first client and sent me her first batch of emails.

I grunted a few times (as her email interrupted my all-important intellectual pursuits at the moment) and read through them.

I was horrified.

They were unfit for public reading.

I said:

“don’t ever show me crap like this again.”

Yes, elBenbo bared his fangs this time.

(I think there was even a full moon that night…)

Anyway, I then spent a couple hours writing her a long, detailed, and informational-dense email telling her not only what to do to correct her sins, but examples of how I think, plot, and strategize when I write my own emails. This is something I’ve never really done before. In fact, the only time I’ve ever done something like it was to some people I was hanging out with at our last Oceans 4 mastermind, at the bar, with a couple of the attendees.

(I was much nicer to them, though.)

And guess what?

The May “Email Players” issue contains this lesson.

I only did some *mild* editing.

(For context).

And if you’re a white knight mush cookie thinking I’m too mean or whatever, worry not:

Her self esteem wasn’t damaged.

In fact, she was grateful for it.

She emerged a MUCH better copywriter from it.

And, she has a thriving client base of happy-as-clams customers as a result. (And just to show I’m not pure evil to her… once in a blue moon — to keep her spirits up — I even give her an *occasional* compliment to boot…)

Anyway, at the risk of sounding goo-roo cliche’:

This is true “insider” info.

Stuff I only would tell someone one-on-one.

And this next issue is probably the only time you’ll see it.

Subscribe here before it goes to print and it’s too late:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Since it’s Monday, and it’s nothing but doom and gloom all over the place with people whining about “ooh it’s Mooooonday, help me I’m dying!” I want to douse myself in some positivity.

I also want to show you I ain’t just whistlin’ dixie, neither.

(About how much money “Email Players” makes people.)

David Frees says:

“Ben: I’m a subscriber and a podcast listener (religiously) and just wanted to let you know that one idea from the email newsletter (where you were walking through the coaching for low self esteem example) …inspired a ppc campaign that paid for the subscription many times over. Love the product and the show. Be well man.”

Aaaaah yes.

I feel the Force flowing through my ego now.

But, let’s see if we can’t pump it up another notch:

JT DeBolt said:

(In a Facebook comment)

“Ben Settle is fer reelz. We literally increased our revenue by 4-figures in the first month of subscribing to Email Players, and have continued that trend since. Crazy.”

Whooo-eee!

We’re on a roll here!

But my ego still has some more “wiggle room” for more props.

One more?

Okay, glad you agree.

Aaaaaaand someone named Sam says:

“Excuse me but what’s the point of this piece of junk email?”

Doh!

Hear that?

That’s the sound of all those props hissing out of my ego like hot air from a balloon………..

Dang.

I was doing so good, too.

Ah well.

On to bid’niz:

The May “Email Players” issue mails in a few short days.

Subscriber here while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This week’s “Ben Settle Show” covers the next 7 Email Players rules.

Including:

• A mental “shift” that’ll instantly force you stop giving power and attention to losers, haters, and nay-sayers trying to bring you down.

• Best way to respond to hate and complaint mail.

• How to respond to refunders when they offer you “advice.”

• Why you should make fools in your business life suffer so they never bother even thinking about wasting your time again. (Since doing this my sales have soared, methinks yours will, too.)

• What a “screw you fund” is, and why every entrepreneur should have one. (Especially if you’re income is dependent on client work.)

• How to give yourself an air of confidence that’ll scare away the idiots and attract the best people into your life. (Personal, professional, and all other aspects of your life.)

• Why it’s always your fault. Always.

• A real life example of how I “got got” in business a few years back. (And how to almost 100% prevent getting into bad deals or getting screwed over in your business deals henceforth).

• The dangers of networking in Facebook groups. (If you haunt FB groups, especially if looking for clients, heed this warning or suffer the wrath of the freebie seekers you will…)

• Why good-intentioned hot chick copywriters have to use extra discernment when a man wants to hire them.

• Why brilliant copy won’t sell a turd.

• And a ho bunch mo…

Download this silver delicious episode right here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Nick Papa gives his opinion on iTunes:

A Child Murderer Sent Me To Your Site

I first learned of this podcast after randomly stumbling upon Ben’s website while searching for info about Freddy Krueger. (True story!) He reminds me of a guy I once knew who was (at the time) a “brown” belt in karate… a “brown” belt who routinely destroyed (and embarrassed) “black” belts. I don’t know where Ben currently “stands” in the marketing world… you certainly don’t hear all the “gurus” plugging his wares. But after listening to all his podcasts (and reading all his daily emails), like that “brown” belt, he’s a total bad*ss who’s more entertaining and more educational than the best of ’em.

^^^ Correct.

He also brings up a good point:

My products not be plugged by gurus.

It’s very true.

And mostly that is because (1) I don’t have an affiliate program (so why would anyone plug my wares — unless they’re playing good Samaritan, maybe) and (2) my products are 100% incompatible with the way a lot of gurus teach and do things.

(Especially the ones who live launch to launch.)

For example:

• I don’t move free lines

• I don’t appeal to freebie seekers by going out of my way to pretend I have nothing to sell with free webinars or whatever — if I promote a free webinar you can bet yo gluteus assimus I will trumpet in the email there will be a pitch at the end, and if someone is going to be a baby and whine about it they shouldn’t attend

• I don’t try to warm up people and show them what a swell bloke I am before selling to them (i.e. I don’t waste time with “incubating” people or sending “good will emails”, which I am 100% opposed to)

• I mostly promote dull unpolished objects as opposed to the bright shiny “ninja” objects that appeals to the low class jackass crowd

There are more.

Many more.

And I often discuss them on my podcast.

Speaking of which:

Tomorrow’s podcast contains another 7 “Email Players” rules — which are maxims, lessons, and guidelines I live my life (business and personal) by that have made life a lot more fun, exciting, and profitable.

These rules episodes are often “fan favorites.”

And, tomorrow covers rules 29-25.

Until then?

Listen to the other rules (1-28) here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

This is for anyone who uses “business cards.”

(Especially freelancers.)

Earlier this year my ex-copywriting apprentice went to the Traffic & Conversion Summit, and used this game plan to get clients, without being just another business card in their folder to be ignored, tossed, and forgotten.

Ready?

Set?

OK then, here. we. GO —

“Before going to traffic and conversion…I sent myself a message. It contained a link to my Dropbox portfolio, my skype user ID, and my email address. If someone asked me for my card…I would ask them for their cell number and text them the copy/pasted message I had set up before hand. I thought it was clever.”

As my hero Emperor Palpatine would say:

Goooooooood.

The Force is strong with her.

Anyway, some free advice.

You are welcome.

For paid advice (that will put lots of rupees in your hot pocketseseses), go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settl