Ben Settle

Must be something in the water…

Over the past few months more and more (and more) people have been asking if I do private coaching, one-on-one coaching, or even group coaching.

Really, coaching ain’t my bag.

I’m impatient.

Grouchy.

And have a very low tolerance for people who don’t do as I say, when I say, and how I say to do it.

“Yeah Ben, I don’t care!”

Well, I do, my little droogling.

My time is el-limited-o.

I’m involved in 3 overheated niches (writing sales letters and emails and other marketing pieces)… write daily for this list, plus the monthly “Email Players” newsletter… writing and marketing my own novels… traveling all over hell and gone to speak and train (which will probably only increase in 2015)… commit to a weekly podcast… have agreed to start writing somewhat-regular articles to another (non-business) website… am going to start multiple aggressive paid traffic campaigns for my own site… and the list goes on.

What else can I say?

I’m booked.

That said:

I do have a copywriting apprentice.

And, just recently, reluctantly (reluctantly!) let a new coaching student sneak in under the rope. But, the only reason I did that is because I’ve met him in person during an Oceans 4 mastermind (i.e. he paid $5k to attend) and because he’s like the “Rudy” of marketing — low on natural talent (which we will easily fix) but BIG on heart (which is nearly impossible to create — I’ve never seen ANYONE as persistent as him.)

But, even he doesn’t get much for his money.

(Yet, is happy as a clam to get what he’s getting.)

In fact, while my apprentice gets all the wife (figuratively speaking) copywriting coaching privileges and entitlements in my marketing “harem”… my new student is merely at “concubine” status, and gets only a fraction of the copywriting & marketing time, attention, and privileges my apprentice does.

And make no mistake:

They’re both on constant “probation.”

If either steps out of line, makes one false move, or starts getting pissy with me, they’re outta here.

And don’t think they’re the first.

Don’t believe me?

Ask my apprentice, she’s almost been “fired” several times for insubordination and not putting a tomato on my sammich.

(There is ZERO excuse for that.)

Anyway, so there will be no more coaching students.

The rest of my time belongs to me.

But, despair ye not.

This is why I write these emails.

Publish my “Email Players” newsletter.

And, do a weekly podcast.

They’re like “virtual coaching.”

And you know what?

The podcast has been especially valuable.

(I’ve been catching “flack” from Producer Jonathan for giving too much away in it. And, even some listeners are getting concerned about me due to my “no moving the freeline” attitude not lining up with the podcast.)

You can download free (for now) past episodes here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

P.S. If you have heard the show and want to leave us a review (good, bad, or fugly), it’s mucho appreciated.

Got this ditty from “Email Players” subscriber Michael Cheney.

Michael is a cool cat who just happens to be one of the “founding fathers” of Internet marketing as we know it. (He built his first website back in 1995, and his first product did $250k — which is almost $400k in today’s money, and that was without hardly any of the same advantages, foresight, marketing tools, product launch formula training, etc we have today).

Anyway…

I recently did an affiliate promotion that was like the perfect storm. It converted great, the product was awesome and I was able to use my new-found Settlesque style of emails to push the message home.

Whereas other affiliates maybe sent 7 or 8 emails during the campaign I sent 19 (without a single complaint) – I’ll explain how in a sec. I came #2 on the leaderboard and made nearly $6k in profit.

There are two other affiliates I usually struggle to beat in contests. Using my new email style (and frequency) I was able to not only beat these two guys but actually shifted more sales than both of them combined.

Sure, there were other factors at play here. But make no mistake about it – 90% of the success of this promotion was down to what I learned and applied from you dude.

I was able to send 19 emails because I was offering “edu-taining” emails just like you teach how to do inside the Email Players newsletters.

The feedback I’ve had since starting this has been nothing short of incredible.

I’ve had offers coming out of the wazoo.

I’m on more people’s radars than ever before.

Marlon Sanders even called me up. My peers, my list members and my heroes have come forward in droves saying how they love my emails.

People are opening, reading, clicking and loving my emails. To say sales are up is a freakin understatement.

This has been a transformation of the highest order.

Thank you.

That’s all I’m sayin’.

To use my kinda-sorta mysterious ways, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Ben why are you so anti swipe file? All the great copywriters I’ve read use thm you don’t use them??”

First things last:

I’m not “anti swipe file.”

But, the way a lot of people apply “swiping” online is far more akin to plagiarizing than swiping.

That said…

Swipe files have their place.

But, it’s foolish to cling to swipes instead of thinking.

Case in point:

Right now I’m working on a prostate supplement ad. And, I’ve got all kinds of prostate supplement (and other related supplement) ads laid out in front of me I’m reading to see how they approach certain claims, ideas, closes, offers, keep from running afoul of FTC laws, yada yada yada.

And guess what?

These ads are mostly using the exact same claims.

The exact same benefits.

(More or less.)

And, the exact same appeals and offers.

(“It works or your money back” yaaaaaaawn.)

Some of this stuff is mucho helpful.

But, most of it is being ignored.

Why?

Because I’m FAR more concerned about what the *market* thinks, rather than what other copywriters who are clearly all swiping each other think. The result I’m seeing are ads that look like carbon copies of each other… with each copy getting weaker and less impactful. It’s like in my “Zombie Cop” novel where when a zombie bites someone, the new zombie is weaker and easier to kill than the one who bit him/her. And, when that second tier zombie bites someone, that one he bites is weaker, and when that one bites someone that one is even weaker than the one who bit it, etc.

My point?

Most of my “swiping” comes from the market.

Not from other copywriters.

Anyway, so that’s that.

Go thou here next:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Customer Xan Barksdale askeths…

Hey man, read your emails almost everyday and I’ve got 2 questions that I haven’t ever heard you address…

1.  Why don’t you use something more powerful than Aweber? Something like Infusionsoft?

2.  If you’re a die hard Aweber fan, why don’t you promote them with affiliate links?  I have no idea how big your list is, but seems like you could make a killing.  I know you pump Email Players almost every day, but seems like if you pushed hard for your readers to use Aweber you’d be raking in cash from that too.

Hopefully you can answer those questions if you’re looking for content one day because both of those questions have been on my mind for a while, and I’m guessing other readers are thinking the same thing.

Keep doing good work…I’ve bought Copywriting Grab Bag, the Eugene Schwartz package, and the transcripts to all your podcasts…so, I’m actually a pretty good customer of yours 😉

OK, let’s take your second question first:

I’m not necessarily a “die hard” Aweber fan.

I like them at lot.

They’re my service of choice, for now.

I obviously use them.

And, I get a ton of value from them.

That said…

I don’t endorse any one autoresponder company.

They all have their pros and cons.

They all are worth testing out.

(If you don’t know which one to use.)

And, they all have the potential to go “dark side” — either in user-friendliness, or by not adequately getting rid of spammers (which hurts everyone, as they can land on blacklists, etc that can screw with all their customers’ businesses), or by simply selling out some day to a company that ruins everything good about them.

Too much outside of my control to promote.

Now, let’s go back to question #1.

I don’t just use Aweber.

I use other broadcasting/autoresponders, too.

(Depending on the deal I’m in, what you see me doing with my BenSettle.com-related stuff is just one “cog” in my machine, I sell in multiple markets and ventures.)

But for *this* BenSettle.com list:

I don’t need anything more powerful than Aweber.

Especially when using Jack Born’s “AW ProTools”.

Jack is one of my “Oceans 4 Mastermind” business partners, a world class programmer, and also Perry Marshall’s affiliate manager. He’s also like the “Walter White” of marketing — always hiding out in the desert, cooking up software for exploding sales in his motor home, with smoke billowing out of vents from his office.

Anyway, Aw Pro Tools gives Aweber “Infusionsoft-like” powers.

It’s like bombarding Aweber with gamma rays so it can hulk-out, and is designed around several buyer psychology principles.

It’s also super cheap, too.

(For all the stuff you get, at least.)

More:

You can try it free for 14-days.

Plus, I made a deal so you can get it at a 20% discount I usually only let “Email Players” subscribers see this offer.

But, I’m making an exception today.

Go here to play with it free for 14-days:

(And get a 20% discount if you buy)

www.EmailPlayers.com/awprotools

Ben Settle

Recently, I wrote about my growing gaggle of ankle-biters.

Ankle-biters being people who know they can’t rise to your level, and so haunt forums, and blogs, and social media wasting their lives lobbing cheap shots, personal attacks, and lame attempts to try to tear you down to raise themselves up (which never works) — because they’re still stuck in mommy’s basement angrily eating cheetos and glued to porn all day (literally and/or figuratively) instead of doing real work. Since they can’t bite off your head (i.e. beat you) they can only nip at your ankles. And, like the proverbial angry, ankle-biting dachshund, if they aren’t nipping at your ankles, they are probably going to try to hump your ankle to show their so-called “dominance.” (Figuratively humping your ankle, hopefully not literally, but you never know with some of these seething goo-roo fanboys heh).

Anyway…

I got several responses to that email.

One of which was from a guy who has been plagued by his own growing number of ankle-biters/humpers.

They’re really affecting him.

He is having trouble ignoring them.

And, has this urge to always respond back to lies, personal attacks, etc which just wastes his time, makes him more stressed, and further arouses the ankle-humpers attacking him.

He wanted to know what he should do?

My answer:

1. First, they can make great email fodder.

(You owe it to the ankle-humping schlubs to profit from them, they are putting in all that work, after all…)

2. Yes, ankle-biters and humpers are annoying.

But, they’re mostly harmless.

(Unless you get a real psycho on your hands.)

And, eventually they get tired.

All that biting and humping takes energy, after all.

And, what sustains them is your one-on-one reaction.

They want to know they have some significance in the world (because they are too afraid to do anything with their own lives and, thus, attach themselves to yours, like a parasite). And by you stressing out, arguing back, getting into long, pointless debates via email with them, etc you simply feed their parasitic need for drama.

And, as long as you feed them, they’ll come back.

So don’t nourish them.

Let them eat on their own emotions, instead.

And, when they run out of “food”, they’ll have no choice but to leave and find a new host to attach to somewhere else.

Hey, do what you want with this info.

But I’ve seen it many times.

In fact, back when I did client work, one of my clients was the biggest in the self defense niche for many years before retiring from it. And he was constantly being lied about and tarnished in the forums, blogs, and social media sites. The bigger his business grew, the more aggressive the ankle-biting and ankle-humping attempts became.

He said it’s just how the game goes.

It’s like a yard stick for success, in many ways.

If you do anything significant you’re going to get haters.

But, he realized that eventually the squawkers will get bored, or uninterested in you, and move on to some other person’s ankle to try to hump to get their jollies from.

Anyway, moral of the story?

Ignore them.

This is the same as kicking them off your ankle.

Probably, they will come back.

But, then you just keep kicking them off.

(By ignoring them.)

And then, eventually, they’ll disappear.

’nuff said.

Now, on to business:

If you ain’t getting attacked by the ankle-biters and humpers you’re not trying hard enough.

Enter the “Email Players” newsletter.

Using my system by default will likely get you more haters.

But, also more sales, too.

If you’re worried about some loser living in mommy’s basement hating on you don’t subscribe. You will almost certainly attract a lot of them.

Instead, keep playing it safe.

Keep being plain vanilla.

And, keep out of the ankle-humpers sights.

Fact is, not everyone has the stomach for this.

(As much as I wish more people did.)

For everyone else?

Subscription info is here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Heard my 2nd favorite Christmas song last night.

My #1 favorite is the Grinch song.

But this 2nd favorite song I heard is “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” And while listening to it, something occurred to me about grandmas and marketing.

Here’s what I mean:

I lost my grandma a couple years ago.

But, weird as it sounds, she helps me create my products.

How?

Well, if you listen to certain goo-roos out there, you may be tempted to think the best way to generate income on the Internet is by slapping some crappy product together and then “throwing” it up — whether it’s any good or not.

I’m no goo-roo, but methinks there’s a better way.

Yes, it’s good to create products fast.

But it’s also good to use the “grandma test”:

If the product I’m selling isn’t good enough where I’d want my own grandma (assuming she had the problem my product solves) to have it, then it’s not good enough to sell to the public, either.

Hey, maybe that sounds lame.

But it’ll keep you out of a lot of trouble.

And you want to know something else?

This simple test can serve you very well not only for making happy customers… but also for making happy customers that look forward to buying your NEXT product.

In other words…

They like you FIRST product.

And that trust carries the sale of your NEXT one.

Easy selling.

Anyway, more training at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

If I’ve heard this question once, I heard it a thousand times:

“Does your way of doing email also work for a service or only information products? Thought I’d ask.”

Hey, good question.

And the answer is…

Whaddya, kidding me?

Of course it does.

Take my droog (and “Email Players” subscriber) Doc Carney. He once sent me an email about how he’s using my system for his brand spanking new clients in the medical field to get customers for some super laser treatment session dealybop.

And, well, I’ll let you see it in his own words:

They sent my first email to their list of 200 people.

Not a big list, but they sent it.

RESULTS:

He told me that he had just sent it out and he had already signed up SIX people to come back to their office for $299.00 each. That was for three sessions, so the email worked.

I wrote it in 10 minutes, “Settle Style”, and WAH-LAW…

INSTANT RESULTS.

SAME DAY RESULTS.

So I’m happy.

They’re happy.

My bank account is happy.

Word up, Doc.

So, uhm, yeah.

It works for getting clients, too.

In fact, there’s absolutely no big differences in using my system to get clients as selling information or any other kind of product.

It’s ALL the same.

Little things like response mechanism change.

(i.e. URL, phone call, etc)

But for all purposes & intents, it’s the same.

In fact, I argue it works even BETTER for clients.

Especially since most service providers (of all types) don’t have the ballz to do emails the way I teach and they stick out like an honest man in the White House.

Subscription info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let me tell you about my place.

It’s newer house that sits atop a tall hill overlooking a pretty crappy neighborhood (on my podcast I once said how I could literally see a meth house from my office window — I wish I was joking…) Even though I dig my place and my 3 neighbors on top of this hill (for the most part), I feel kinda like the grinch overlooking Whoville when I look out the window.

All the dam Who’s in the ‘hood.

Making noise.

Cluttering up the street.

(People park on BOTH sides of the street, even though it’s narrow and a sign clearly says “no parking on this side of the street” on one side).

And full of so many stray dogs, I daren’t walk my dog here.

Anyway, that said:

I do dig my place.

(The hill is too steep for the dregs to want to climb up here — hellz, I don’t even like walking up and down it to get my mail at the mailbox…)

Anyway, to the point:

One thing I don’t like about my place is all the earwigs.

Whenever the exterminator comes, he sprays around and, within hours, I got earwigs sneaking in through a crack in the front door dying on my kitchen floor.

It’s like the earwig apocalypse.

And, it’s kinda gross.

Anyway, why am I telling you this?

How does this help you?

Well, for the first year here, I just ignored it. Since I had a person cleaning my place, I simply didn’t worry about it. Especially since I spend 99% of my time upstairs either sleeping or in my office.

But eventually, it got to me.

All the friggin dead earwigs.

Now, if I was foolish I would’ve blamed the exterminators.

(I’ve gone through three.)

But, it’s not their fault.

It’s mine.

I didn’t seal the small opening in the door.

And no matter how skilled they were… no matter how precisely they sprayed… no matter how great their knowledge… until I sealed that hole, the bugs were coming in.

And, it’s the same online.

I’ve seen time after time and after time people complaining about their “copy” not working, when all the dead sales lying around had nothing to do with their copy.

Example:

One of my friends told me about a client he had.

His opt ins were abysmally low.

At first, the client blamed the copywriter. But it wasn’t the copy. It was a glitch in the code that was screwing something up and only a small fraction of people *could* opt in.

And until they fixed that, the copy didn’t matter.

They had to fix the crack in the door, first.

Only then, could sales flow.

Anyway, something to think about.

There’s a lot of profit in dropping the “ninja” mindset always looking for ways to tweak and geek your ads… and just look for obvious bottlenecks in your sites.

Enter the book “Obvious Adams”

I first heard of it when the great Gary Bencivenga sent it to me.

(He’s universally considered the world’s greatest living copywriter.)

And, he said he reads it once or twice per year.

And, that his mentor the late (great) ad man David Ogilvy insisted all his people read it — since it instills a certain, very rare mindset in you where you can see the obvious solutions to problems that plague the average, common marketer.

What about you?

Would you like to see this book?

(Actually, it’s a booklet — only about 20 pages or so.)

It’s on Kindle here:

www.BenSettle.com/obvious

And it only costs a “whopping” $2.99.

Ben Settle

Sigh.

Once again, someone (a cousin of mine of all people!) endorsed me on Linkedout for social media marketing.

He’s not the first to do so, either.

It’s happened more times than I can count.

And I simply don’t get it.

My social media “etiquette” is awful.

I’m as standoffish online as I am offline. Despise all the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” favors, never thank people for retweets, shamelessly self promote, rarely engage in threads, take weeks to accept friend requests (I apply “fire fast, hire slow” to most everything) even as I unfriend innocent people for even the slightest of offenses.

Anyway, the point?

I’m the *last* person to listen to for social media.

(And I’m even worse to emulate on there.)

But…

While I suck out loud at social media, I do know a thing or two about email marketing — with the track record of sales (in multiple markets), training, successful students, clients, etc, to prove it. In fact, later this month even Agora Publishing ($200 million publishing company) is flying me in to Baltimore to teach their copywriters about email.

I also spoke at 3 events this year about email/copywriting.

(Including the biggest event in the home business market.)

And, “Oceans 4” mastermind clients have emailed me telling me how much smackola my email advice has made them.

I can talk about this stuff forever.

And, I unload my best info in my “Email Players” newsletter.

It’s expensive.

I won’t bother sugar coating it.

But, if you are willing to work hard, implement what you learn, keep building your list, and follow my simple instructions, I believe you can kick some gluteus assimus.

Only one way to find out.

And that’s to give it a whirl.

There’s no refunds.

And, no safety nets.

If you’re in, you’re “in.”

So don’t bother unless you’re 100% committed.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle