Ben Settle

So I recently dived back into the golf market.

And, since it isn’t information I’m selling (which I was selling before) but something completely different, that nobody else is (at least not using the format and mechanism we are), I had to re-examine the market a lot more closely.

In other words…

There are no competitors to study.

No ads I can analyze to see how they approached it.

And, no swipe file of ads to raid for guidance.

Ordinarily I’d have been flying blind.

But, I wasn’t.

You see, my fine feathered little droogie, your boy Ben has an ace up his sleeve when it comes to learning about what a list (and market) wants so he can better sell to them.

An ace I rarely see anyone else use.

An ace I learned by observing an ooooold school ad agency.

What is it, you ask?

Well, what I did was, I used this trick I learned by studying what the Norman B. Norman agency would do to get inside their market’s head and psychology when they created their ad campaigns, and applied it to our Facebook group.

(We don’t even have a list).

The result?

I got TONS of market intel.

I know exactly what their objections are. Exactly how much they want what we’re offering. (Without even knowing it exists yet.) And, exactly what to say in the copy, emails, etc.

It’s the ultimate market research shortcut.

And guess ye what?

I reveal exactly what it is and how it works in the September “Email Players” issue.

Best part:

It’s simple.

Quick to apply.

And, mucho profitable, too.

Subscribe here to get it in time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“The world is changed with a checkbook”
– Paul Hartunian

The above is one of my favorite quotes. And, like it or lump it, it’s 100% true — the world really is changed with a checkbook.

Not hashtags.

Or handwritten signs on tumblr.

Or good thoughts.

Or positive thinking.

Or the law of attraction.

Or electing “your” politicians.

Or Facebook “likes.”

Or soaking the middle class and rich in more taxes.

Or social media images with the guy who played Willy Wonka espousing someone’s political or ideological propaganda.

Or Obama.

Or corrupt bureaucrats.

Or the United Nations.

Or… or… any of that nonsense.

No my little droogie, it comes from a checkbook.

And oftentimes, several checkbooks.

For example:

One of the organizations I support (with my checkbook, not by holding some dorky little sign up or simply retweeting them with a hashtag) is called “The Innocence Project”.

You know what they do?

They help get innocent people out of prison.

And, they do it with DNA testing, re-examining peoples’ cases, uncovering fraud and corruption in the legal process, etc.

They’ve helped exonerate over 300 people so far.

That’s 300 people who were (on average) in prison for 13 years (including 18 who were on death row) enduring all the usual fun times prison has to offer:

• Dodging rapists

• Corrupt & violent prison guards

• Wondering when (or if) they’ll see their spouse or kid again

• No freedom

• Constant fear & physical danger

• Food that’d make a rodent sick

• And the list goes on…

Well guess what?

When the Innocence Project takes a case on, it isn’t some fool waxing stupid on flakebook and trying to shame people into liking a post that pays for the work it takes to get the innocent man off.

It’s a checkbook.

Or, in this case, lots of checkbooks.

Lots of people putting their money where their mouths are.

Anyway, the point?

Nothing to do with marketing.

No business insights, either.

Not even (gasp!) anything about email.

No, the point is this:

As a business owner with financial independence (or someone working on being financially independent)… and who has the ability and opportunity to work for yourself… call your own shots… make your own paycheck… control your financial destiny… you have the chance to affect real change.

The kind of change that saves lives.

In his “System Club Letters” Ken McCarthy put it best:

“One of the best things you can do for your country is to become economically independent – and use your economic independence to take a stand against the forces that routinely undermine our communities and our country. If people like us don’t do it, who’s going to?”

Good point, Mr. McCarthy.

Anyway, something to chew on.

My vehicle of choice for financial independence is email.

It’s what I teach in “Email Players” each month and it’s something you can learn, too.

If you want to master using this vehicle, simply do this:

1. Log off facebook for a few minutes

2. Go to this link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

3. Apply the info each month

This last part is important.

If you don’t apply the info, it won’t do you a lick of good.

(And, you’ll be wasting your time.)

Alright.

That’s that.

Next time, baby…

Ben Settle

In this magical 31st episode of “The Ben Settle Show” podcast, Producer Jonathan and I get down & dirty about such life & death topics as:

• Why I’m such a prick about not selling “Email Players” digitally.

• How selling physical products gets me free gourmet food each year. (Nothing to do with your sales and profits, but if you like to eat…)

• A secret way (used by the billion dollar movie industry) to “arrange” it so customers already want to buy your products without even needing to see an ad. (Just do this and the sale is already made, regardless of how good your advertising is.)

• When you should sell digital products and when you should sell physical products.

• 3 myths about selling physical products that keep the ebook evangelists broke (or at least making a lot less profit than they should be making).

• Why it’s easier, less hassle, more convenient, and less work for you to sell physical products vs eBooks and other digital products.

• The printer & fulfillment house I use to sell my print newsletters and various physical products.

• What to do if you download an eBook or pdf document and it won’t open. (Before you contact the seller, just do this and 99 out of 100 times the problem will be solved.)

• Why physical product buyers tend to be FAR better customers and higher quality people than people who only buy digital products.

• The hidden psychology — you can see by observing the world’s top direct mail strategist (the guy other direct mail experts go to when they need advice) — behind why selling physical products is so much more profitable than digital products.

• Do physical products really have more refunds than eBooks? (If you listen to warrior forum trolls you might think so. But here’s the reality…)

• And a bunch more…

Download this puppy here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

Last weekend I read this little ditty on flakebook:

“i have no more physical room for books, Juan. That is why, that unless something is absolutely earth-shattering, it better be deliverable via electronic media so I can store it lol. I think that is something even the Ben Settles of the world will have to soon realize. I have a library on trading that can fill two rooms just about lol.”

I gotta say…

This kind of reasoning amuses me.

(From a marketer’s point of view.)

Why?

Many reasons, my little droogling.

For one, he thinks guys like me care what someone who only buys ebooks thinks or buys.

(I couldn’t care less.)

Secondly, it reminds me of a Copyblogger interview I once did.

They interviewed me about selling physical products.

And, a comment troll said:

“c’mon guys you can’t be serious. i’m from the uk, not from the us, and i can tell you this guy does only one thing, and not even good – he’s trying to justify his own beliefs and preferences and is assuming many people (based on few of his friends as the “sample” of people) like physical products? that guy is like what – 40 years old? go ask 18 years old how they consume media, or news letters. i’m 32 and can’t remember the last time i had printed paper in my hand (ok, it was today – local paper metro in london, uk). printed stuff is for single people who have shit load of time on them or for cave men like your mr. T. most people consume media online – there’s reason for that…if i paid for newsletter 140 usd, like the guy is saying, i’d consider myself the dumbest person in the class.”

Sigh.

Behold the face of an ebook evangelist:

First, he goes out of his way to prove my point while thinking he’s disproving it (i.e. saying he doesn’t touch printed paper, but then admits to reading a print newspaper that same morning — what’s that he said about being dumbest in his class?)

He also makes assumptions without facts.

Like how old he said I was.

That I’m justifying my own beliefs. (In the interview I specifically said there are times when you SHOULD go digital… duh).

And, that printed stuff is for single people with lots of time.

Really?

That’s interesting considering many of the richest and most successful married people I know prefer print to digital “bytes” precisely because it SAVES time, not because they *have* lots of time.

But worst of all…

This bloke judges information by weight and volume.

(And not the value of the information.)

It’s amusing how many people think a 800-page book of filler and nonsense is worth more than a 16-page newsletter filled with hard-hitting tactics and advice that can quickly recoup their investment each month several times over.

Anyway, this is how eBook evangelists think.

It’s also why I couldn’t care less if they buy or not.

And, in fact, why I actively try to repel them.

More:

This is the subject of tomorrow’s Ben Settle Show podcast.

We get down & dirty about digital vs physical products. Including which is more lucrative to sell. Which has the highest quality customers. And, which format is easier and less hassle.

Anyway, it’ll be up tomorrow.

In the meantime check out our past shows here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

P.S. Last I heard, we are in the top 10 of iTunes in our category.

So special shout out to the listeners.

And, also, to those giving us reviews.

Reviews (even troll reviews) are ALWAYS appreciated… if you haven’t left us one, and want to send us some review love (or hate, it’s all good), you can at the link above.

He makes a good point:

(About Monday’s email regarding all the plagiarized swiping thing going on — and how it kills your sales, regardless of what your favorite goo-roo says.)

“Nothing makes me lose trust for a marketer more quickly than getting bombarded with “echo emails” . . . (or “echo blog posts” . . . or “echo” anything . . . ) I ethically-borrowed that term from Breakthrough Advertising….They become Echo Ads….They pay no attention to unique product-market-timing relationship that exists at the moment. Echo emails, echo blog posts, echo products, echo headlines, echo everything. Blah. “Shallow . . . widespread . .  ineffective.”

True ‘dat.

Another smart reader replies:

“These marketers everyone looks up to and takes notes from has these horrendous marketing practices where they say idiotic things like “steal” this or that from your competition or even from the marketers themselves…And I think this is what has lead to the IM community attracting so many good for nothing, lazy bums…”

Yeppers.

It’s the exact mentality I’m railing against.

But you know what the irony is?

The part I can’t help but laugh at?

Whenever I get a hold of someone indoctrinated in the swipe & plagiarize mindset and teach them my email methodology, they realize how they’ve been essentially stealing from themselves.

When they think, they make more sales.

When they tell their own stories, they make more sales.

When they use their own personality, they make more sales.

Suddenly it dawns on them they’ve been like Linus in the Charlie Brown cartoons — treating their swipe files like a security blanket while sucking their thumbs.

Like Dumbo, they realize didn’t need the feather to fly.

They had it in them the whole time.

Ah well.

I know this falls on a lot of deaf ears.

The IM world is full of lazy bums.

And, that ain’t gonna change.

But, you know what?

It’s GOOD news for me and my “Email Players” subscribers.

While our competitors plagiarize and look like idiots to their own lists… literally stealing money from themselves… we stand out like an honest politician in Congress.

Easily capturing market share.

Easily taking top positioning with our lists.

And, easily, scooping up the profits.

If you want to join us, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Just when I thought I’d heard it all…

So there’s this chick I heard of recently that precisely illustrates the kind of person you should actively try to repulse away from being on any of your lists.

Let me splaineth:

Apparently, one night on flakebook she posted:

Will someone share bear their netflix password with me  so I can watch it tonight?

Sweet mother of Saint Karl Marx, what’s the world coming to.

Netflix?

It’s like $8 per month.

But, she is so cheap… and so low class jackass… she asked and probably got a password from some schlub thinking it’d get him laid by heroically coming to her aid with his password.

Dumb.

But, useful, in a way.

How?

Because mooches gonna mooch.

And lots of schlubish marketers think if they freely give away all their best ideas and experiences to potential clients… or keep moving the free line until there’s no reason to buy anything from them… or give discounts & make “exceptions” every time they hear a sob story… they’ll make the sale.

Nuh-uh.

Frankly, it’s almost always the exact opposite:

Someone meets with a would-be client.

Would-be client asks for free information, ideas, etc.

Sucker copywriter (or whatever service provider it is) “share bears” all his best ideas only to watch Mr. would-be client hire someone else.

Happens ALL the time.

(Hellz… it happened to me back in my newbie days, too.)

The point?

It’s hard to get rich by share-bearing.

Instead you gotta sell, babycakes.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:

It’s your moral & ethical duty to sell your stuff.

Not prance around facebook trying to “sell without selling.”

Not give it away free.

And, certainly not share bear it.

Making people buy not only puts food on the table for your family… but it makes your customers more likely to take action and implement your solution, and improve their lives.

That’s the way I look at it, at least.

If you’re the same, then check this out:

My “Email Players” newsletter shows you how to write emails people love to read and buy from.

In other words…

People look forward to your pitches.

They look forward to buying.

And, they look forward to using your product.

Subscription info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I ain’t just whistlin’ dixie about this swiping thang…

Hey Ben,

Just watched you at the NES5 – that was amazing stuff. I got lazy and quit marketing to my list because I was getting so many mixed messages about what to do and what not to do. I was doing okay for awhile and then my sponsor actually told me to swipe his stuff b/c he was more experienced and my sales started going down. Now I know why. Thanks so much for inspiring me to start emailing my list again! I really enjoyed your talk.

– Kristy

She was referring to my “No Excuses Summit” talk.

(From back in late June.)

And, it’s just more proof that swiping emails is not only foolish… but can cost you a lot of money compared to learning a few simple things about writing your own emails, in your own voice, with your own personality, and using your own words and brain.

So simple.

So, so, so, SO simple…

Tomorrow:

Something different.

Or maybe not.

We shall see…

In the meantime, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let’s rap about my last email on swiping.

It was about warning people who see blatant copy-and-paste stealing and, thus, think it’s okay, so they then do it — thereby hurting their sales, their market place positioning, and their very reputations.

It got some interesting feedback, too.

For example:

Amongst some replies I’ve gotten about this subject are people who insist copying and pasting copy, emails, etc whole cloth (or changing just a few words here and there) is okay because (and I quote) “Dan Kennedy, Matt Furey, and almost every great copywriter say copywriting is assembling good copy from a swipe file not thinking up totally new ideas and concepts.”

Do they now?

Well, let’s take a look-see:

Dishonest theft is taking actual trade names, book/product titles, brands or verbatim copy and/or utilizing someone’s intellectual property in an environment where your advertising may very well bump up against his

– Dan Kennedy
“NO BS Marketing Letter”
January 2004 issue

Hmm.

Doesn’t sound like he’s advocating cut & paste.

At least, not in a plagiarizing kinda way.

So how about this one, too:

The lazy use of the word ‘steal’ by marketing teachers has done more harm than good as people who are fully capable of writing their own copy or coming up with their own product ideas, are too bone-headed to do so. Instead, they cut and paste others’ emails or ads.

– Matt Furey
“Internet Marketing Money-Generator”
October 2006 issue

Incidentally, Matt Furey went into a lot more on this.

Including how he throws out anyone from his coaching program he catches copying & pasting and stealing copy, title names, etc. and will not give anyone who teaches or advocates stealing others’ copy an ounce of his knowledge.

And this from an old school master:

The idea of an ad or a headline demands its own shape. It cannot be fitted into someone else’s solution.

– Gene Schwartz
Breakthrough Advertising

(And, I would add, this goes double for email…)

Also, a quick note on this:

Ken McCarthy used to correspond with Gene Schwarz (by mail, this was before email) and said in his copywriting course that Gene was the nicest guy in the world, but swiping was something that really pissed him off.

Wonder why…

More:

This goes beyond right-or-wrong.

Or, getting nailed with a lawsuit.

Copy & paste is just flat out dumb.

In fact, I asked Doug D’anna about swiping once.

Doug is easily one of the single best direct mail copywriters on the planet. And I was curious about what he thought on the subject when I interviewed him for my “Copywriting Grab Bag” product.

Want to know what he said?

You do?

Okay, if you insist:

When I first started out I had a swipe file too. You know what the first thing I discovered was when I realized who Gary Bencivenga was and the game I was in? I threw everybody else’s piece away. Why would I do that? Because I might have been thinking that I was swiping something that was good or using a model that was a winner when it wasn’t. That was the first thing. You need to have control pieces in your swipe file. But, you’ve got to remember that control piece worked for that piece at that time in that market in that environment. So it’s really more of a case study to look at.

I realize this is going a bit deep for the copy & paste guys.

That’s why I’m typing reaaally slow here.

So for the copywriting fanboys who want to appeal to non-existent teachings from various copywriting authorities… I’ve never heard any one of ’em say a swipe file should be used to steal and copy & paste anything verbatim.

Should you use a swipe file to get ideas?

Of course.

Use it to learn how to structure a persuasive argument (paragraph structures, flow of info & emotion, headline/opening sentence/bullet point formulas & templates, etc)?

Yes.

Be inspired by other ads?

Most definitely.

Apply ideas & concepts & offers you see working in one market to another market where nobody else is using it?

Absolutely.

But copy & paste verbatim and plagiarize?

No.

Not only is it flirting with being illegal, but it’s just dumb to try to pass off someone else’s personality, positioning, unique speech peculiarities, etc and think people aren’t going to either see right through it or outright catch you (and notify the people you are stealing from — further making you look like a complete dumb ass).

When that happens, trust vanishes.

When trust vanishes sales die.

And, when sales die, so does your business.

This is why in my “Email Players” newsletter I don’t advocate copy & paste.

I give email examples.

Lots of ideas & concepts you can run with.

And, show you what tactics are working for me.

But you have to be able to think. You have to have common sense. And, you have to apply what you learn.

Otherwise, it’s wholly incompatible for you.

And, will just disappoint.

More details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

In today’s “Ben Settle Show” we rap about…

• A secret way of writing emails (used by Hemingway and other popular novelists) that makes writing faster, more entertaining, and, yes, more profitable.

• How one of the most brilliant marketing minds on the planet structures his sales funnels.

• The single most important thing you can include when speaking publicly if you want to make the most sales possible.

• Why so many “experts” are broke without a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out.

• How to position yourself in your market so people buy from you sight unseen, and without doing even a lick of research on you, your business, or your product.

• What to include on a video sales letter page that has always increased response every time I’ve seen it tested.

• How to keep your girlfriend or wife on her best behavior. (BONUS: This also applies to pets, politicians, friends, clients, customers, service providers, and anyone else you associate with.)

• How to know (really know) what people want to buy. (You can do away with surveys or asking people what they want — just do this and you’ll know exactly what products they want to spend their money on.)

• What the Bible says about how to to gain the respect of your market, colleagues, teachers, clients, customers, etc. (This advice has worked for thousands of years — it works even better today.)

• The exact best time to “fire” problem customers or clients.

• And lots, lots more…

Download this baby here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

P.S. If’n you’re willing, please leave us a review.

Even if it’s a troll review, we’re cool and the gang with that.