Ben Settle

More and more I’ve noticed people who quit their “Email Players” — www.EmailPlayers.com — wanting to re-subscribe.

Usually… I reject them.

Why?

Isn’t that like flushing money away?

Mayhaps.

But if someone cancels (especially during or right after their first month) it’s usually from one or more of these 4 reasons:

1. They just wanted the free stuff

This is the mark of a loser.

You cannot do much about these types, they are who they are, and whenever your offer is heavily “bribe” based (like mine is) you will attract them.

2. They’re quitters

They’re like the guy who only takes a health supplement for 30 days, doesn’t feel results, then quits. These people are not serious about their success.

Fact is, most who stay past 3 months stick around long term.

Make lots of sales.

And CRAVE more information to get more.

And those who quit?

They often cite money as the reason.

Which brings us to reason number 3…

3. I have not provided them enough value

Money is NEVER the real reason.

Even a homeless beggar on the street can afford $3.23 per day (the subscription price). Money is an excuse, but not a legitimate reason. And if that reason is cited as the excuse then I’ve either not provided them enough value (so why let them re-subscribe if that’s the case?) or…

4. They are not using the information

Again, it’s not the money.

$3 and change per day won’t break anyone.

Most “broke” people I know piss away 5 times that each day at Starbucks. So I’m either underwhelming them (so again, why let them come back?) or they are not APPLYING the information. If they don’t apply it, they can’t benefit from it and there’s no reason for them to stick around (or for me to allow them to come back later — no do-nothings allowed).

So those are the main reasons people quit.

And also the reasons I reject most who try to come back.

Some people slip through the cracks.

But I usually catch them.

And when I do, I go all “Soup Nazi” on them:

“No newsletter for you!”

Sometimes I even tell them to try back in 1 year (another trick I learned from the Soup Nazi).

Hey, I SUFFER for my newsletter.

I demand perfection from myself.

And… from each issue.

How can I tolerate any less from subscribers?

Ben Settle

P.S. The May “Email Players” issue shows you a little-talked about way to treat your market that (1) 99% of marketers are too big of mush cookies to follow and (2) will make you stand out like a sore fart from your sheepish competitors, and can potentially make you lots more sales and deal with only the cream of the crop customers and clients.

She goes to the printer Thursday.

So if you want it before it goes out sprint to the link below.

(Hurry — knees to chest! Knees to chest!)

www.EmailPlayers.com

Couple weeks ago I sent an email with the subject line:

“Apparently I sell snake oil now. Who knew?”

Remember that one?

If not, here’s a quick refresher:

It was about some butt hurt would-be client who wanted me to waste time gathering information for him about my “services” and client work, even though I don’t do client work anymore, and am not for hire. When I told him that, he got all butt hurt, and said I was a snake oil salesman (without any specific reasons why), he did his homework on me (he didn’t), wasn’t impressed (even though he wanted to see more of my work heh), and so on.

I don’t know I’d call him a “troll” necessarily.

(He was more an orc or troglodyte.)

But, an argument could be made…

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

The ever-charming Naomi Novella chimed in with a special poem she wrote for trolls shortly after.

If you know any trolls, methinks you’ll get a kick out of it.

I certainly did.

Here’s what she said:

Wow, the daily emails are not enough, the radio show? A free email player sample is right there on your website. Perhaps a $2.99 ebook? I guess $2.99 is too steep for this tight ass.

A poem for all the trolls of the internet:

Troll
Sits lonely and stares
at computer screen glare
in dark office room…he feels the gloom
Wondering why…his business can’t fly
Or where the women went
Maybe because all he does
Is criticize and lament
Others because they live and earn
While he stares and burns

With gratitude for all you do Ben…

Naomi Novella

Awright.

On to bid’niz:

Next “Email Players” issue goes to the printer Thursday.

One of the secrets inside is how to conduct your business so you attract more higher quality clients, customers and buyers… and less grunting, do-nothing trolls. (As you saw, a few will always slip through the cracks… but this will help minimize and marginalize them so they haunt someone else.)

This alone can add more scratch to ye bottom line.

But time is short.

And, the hour grows late.

Subscribe here to get this issue in time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

On today’s “Ben Settle Show” podcast:

• A secret negotiation trick that instantly turns the tables in your favor during ANY negotiation.

• How to screw with a crooked car salesman’s head.

• Why the idea of a “soul mate” is a total lie & scam.

• A word-for-word online dating ad for women to swipe that will get them far higher quality men than the typical chick’s ad. (This ad was so good, even married Producer Jonathan perked up and got excited by it — plus, it’s also a great example of persuasion you can use in any kind of ad.)

• How to “train” your brain to bang out profitable emails at will.

• How to give “depth” to your emails. (So they instantly stand out.)

• How to educate someone into wanting what you sell. (Not recommended, though — as it can take literally a decade or more, it’s must easier to do what we reveal on this episode to make lots of sales, instead.)

• How to position yourself as the “philosopher” of your niche.

• Why doing housework will NOT get a man more sex.

• What a woman should do if she wants a high quality guy looking for reasons to like her, instead of looking for reasons to disqualify her.(Works for selling any other kind of product or service, too.)

• Why high email open & clickthru rates can mean LOWER sales.

• How to use email to attract the best joint venture partners.

• Why I rarely track email open rates.

• How to be a social media troll (if you must troll, do it this way.)

• How to get a man to stop complaining. (Just hand them this…)

• How to profit from mocking haters.

Plus, we have some fun with a Twitter drama queen dissecting something stoopid she said, and a merry time was had by all…

This newest episode is on iTunes here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

Guess which marketing “sin” is the worst:

1. Being boring

2. Crappy offer

3. Bad spelling/grammar

Which do you think is the worst?

Well, you’re wrong!

The #1 worst marketing sin (the “unforgivable” marketing sin — like blaspheming your market) is not even listed above.

(I kinda moved the goal posts on ya there, didn’t I?)

It’s actually:

Selling what people ain’t buying.

And guess what?

This is even MORE prevalent with businesses selling online. It’s the #1 reason why people can write the best emails, have the best copy and know all the best persuasion methods… and still flounder around frustrated and confused.

It’s also tomorrow’s “The Ben Settle Show” topic, too.

I’ll let ya know when it’s posted.

Speaking of the show:

After this week’s podcast, we’re changing up the formatting a bit. Instead of it being an hour (give or take a few minutes) show, it’ll be a half hour.

This will make the show more focused.

Less burdensome for Producer Jonathan and me.

(It was starting to feel like — GASP!!! — work to us.)

And, easier to listen to.

(Especially for low attention spans).

Anyway, we’ve dropped a lot of profitable tips and ideas about selling, persuasion, marketing and gender relations (i.e. dating) so far.

Tips that can put more scratch in ye pocketeses.

You can listen to past episodes here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a story.

A little while back, I was doing a podcast interview when I was asked what is a good way for someone to position themselves as an expert in their niche, field or industry.

I told him he was asking the wrong question.

And, to fuggetabout being an expert.

Why?

Because, yes, people listen to experts.

But, they follow leaders.

Anyone can declare themselves an expert.

Not so a leader.

(By leader, I mean a thought leader.)

To be a leader people have to be following you.

You’ll know it when it happens in this particular bid’niz because suddenly you’ll notice people swiping your copy verbatim as if its theirs… or quoting you to their friends… or promoting you in their emails, podcasts, social media, etc without caring if you are aware of it or not… or mimicking your personality… and so on, and so forth.

Some of those things are good.

Some are bad.

And, some are just dumb.

(Like mimicking a personality.)

But be a leader you must if you want to be positioned in such a way where business automatically flows to you, where you’re the first choice for whatever you sell to your market by “default” (often without needing to read your sales materials), and where even if you don’t have the best product, people pick you because it’s “safer” to.

Anyway, positioning yourself as a leader is a “must achieve” goal.

Got lots of broke experts out there.

(Most don’t have a pot to piss in, or a window to throw it out.)

But, there are very few broke leaders.

And guess what?

In the next “Email Players” issue I show you one (of many) ways to quickly start positioning yourself as a leader (even if you’re still a relative newbie) at the expense of politicians, celebrities and even giant corporations.

A way I’ve used many times.

A way, yes, you can use too, amigo.

But she goes to print in less than a week.

Subscribe to get it here, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Hear ye this…

Last September I was hanging out with “Email Players” subscriber Ryan Levesque in San Diego during our first “Oceans 4” mastermind workshop, and he started telling us about a way he uses to always get the arm rest when you’re sitting next to someone on an airplane.

It was very useful and interesting information.

(I even used it when I flew back home…)

But also quite profitable, too.

How so?

Because shortly after that, I figured out a way to use his tip and combine it with Twitter in a secret way to write lots of emails (this tip lets you potentially bang out a LOT of emails without splitting your brain open thinking up ideas) that have been profitable in both my main list (i.e. Internet marketing/email) and the weight loss niche, where I also used it, too.

More:

These emails are fun for you to write.

Quick to bang out.

And, people tend to love reading and buying from them.

And guess ye what?

In the May “Email Players” issue (which goes to the printer next week), I show you exactly how this trick works, along with an example of how I used it.

Again, she goes to print soon.

Subscribe in time here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A brand spanking new “Email Players” subscriber asks about how to write a call to action:

Hey man, for the first time ever, I started emailing daily since Monday. One new story a day, and the only call to action is a link to my salespage.

And I’ve been getting sales (2-3) everyday! This is seriously a milestone because I’ve never hit that before.

I know I’ll read about it in the handbook, but I thought of asking you this now:

Any tips on drawing people to click in the call to action portion? It’s always the last paragraph.

How do I go beyond, “Btw, my new book can teach you more” and stuff?

I also read on your salespage that  a “Click here” may not work well?

Thanks man. 

First off, congrats.

You’re already kicking bootyus, so just wait to you get the material… you’ll get the why it works, and see endless examples and strategies for how to mail in a way people like reading and buying from.

Secondly, your call to action question:

Don’t get too caught up with it right now.

The only wrong thing you can do is have no call to action. Just like the only wrong thing you can do in email is not send one.

You’re still new so focus on writing them emails.

And what should eventually happen is this:

You’ll start just naturally banging out ways to ask for the sale and you won’t even think about it.

I know that sounds impossible.

But, it happens a lot.

The only exception is, I have run into people who are very methodical in their thinking and like to have things laid out systematically, in a sort of “paint by numbers” fashion.

That’s just the best way they learn.

If that’s you, try this:

Go through a bunch of my emails (or any email marketer you like) and study how we do it, then *adapt* it to your personality, offer and style so it sounds like an original you, and not a second hand version of me or someone else.

Yes, it’s work.

And, it’s time consuming

But, it’s the best way to do it.

(Getting your hands dirty doing grunt work like that is ideal.)

More:

If you’re really eager, or just low on time, I once wrote an “Email Players” issue that contains a call to action “swipe file” (Back issues available for sale only for current “Email Players” subscribers). What I did was, I went through hundreds (literally) of my emails, especially the ones that did unusually well, and pulled out the best calls to action segues. Each issue comes with a catalog where back issues can be purchased from, and you can get it from that, if’n you want.

Whatever the case, remember:

The only wrong thing you can do is have no call to action.

Even a weak CTA is better than none.

And, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

That’s it for today.

More “Email Players” info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold…

A website reader and life coach shows exactly how he’s using email to kick some serious gluteus bootyus in a market where hardly anyone thinks daily emails work:

First of all, I’m still not a customer.

But I’ve decided to follow your example and test this daily email thing you are doing.

I’m a life coach and reasonably seasoned marketer, that was looking for a way to simplify my business.

I’ve been sending simple stories about my current clients struggles and accomplishments to my list for the last 25 days, and here’s what happened:

1 – Yes, there are people pissed off, telling me I’m not a “good” professional

2 – Yes, there are more unsubscribes

3 – Because I email everyday and the content matters, the number of complaints I get in each message is really pretty insignificant.

If I don’t email everyday, then the number of “complainers” will grow in my database.

In the past, that caused the number of spam complaints per email to be much higher than the expected for most services (aweber, mailchimp and so on).

It didn’t matter how high was the quality of the content I was putting out there, I would be treated as a spammer because I was “collecting complainers”.

I used to live with the risk of loosing the trust of my email marketing providers because of that.

Obviously, not receiving complaints was a huge matter to me, and I used to email only occasionaly to receive less complaints.

Your solution goes in the exact opposite of the direction I was using and now the problem is completely solved with the daily emails.

The daily messages serve to “wipe out” the suckers from my list, constantly, while I’m making sales.

I see the complainers now as a “plague” that I have to get rid of, every single day, for the sanity of my list.

But the best comes now:

4 – I’ve closed like $25K in coaching contracts in less than 1 month.

5 – I’ve sold $1660 worth of an ebook.

6 – There are several people asking me about my fees etc. I WILL sell more.

7 – I have an average of 15% of open rates in daily emails, which is actually more audience than most marketers will have even with lists that are 10x bigger than mine.

I have a pretty strong list. It’s a 20K subscribers.

In the past, I used to do a lot of stuff, like video marketing etc etc.

What I’m learning is: that’s not actually necessary. They help… But they’re not needed.

But here’s the takeaway that I’ve learned:

It’s only possible to write good, solid daily emails for a list if you are doing your homework and it’s actually capable of understanding your audience, delivering the results you promise.

In that sense, my advice to users who will use your strategies are this:

Work on your skills to help your audience. Then the emails will flow easily.

Thanks.

Rodrigo.

And that, my fine feathered droogie, is where “Email Players” changes the whole game for people — it builds thy skills.

Day by day.

Week by week.

Month by month.

And, yes, year by year.

(There are lots of people who have been with it since day 1, and the ones I hear from are all kicking booTAY).

I show you how to get tons of ideas.

Examples of emails I successfully use.

And, strategies that keep you lightyears ahead of your goofy competitors as they flounder around trying to keep up with you.

Is “Email Players” for everyone?

Hellz naw!

Like I keep saying:

It’s not for opportunity-minded people (as opposed to investor-minded people). Or, people who never implement. Or people who don’t have some kind of proven-to-sell offer and a list (doesn’t have to be a big list, but, a list ye must have, and be building it).

If that’s you?

Go buy another $7 WSO.

Or collect another FREE!!!! opt in bonus.

Or, haunt flakebook.

Anyway, next issue goes to print in 10 days.

Hurry:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

On today’s “Ben Settle Show” we pontificate about:

• How to make an “air tight” case to persuade people to buy products and services they normally wouldn’t even look at.

• How one of the world’s top sales trainers spins his product’s flaws into reasons to buy.

• Little-known ways how anorexia SAVES lives (yes, “seriously”).

• Why people who “troll” message boards, review sites and blogs can’t get chicks.

• 4 free (and proven) ways to build your list if you’re a rank marketing noob fresh off the turnip truck.

• Are business degrees really as worthless as the paper they’re printed on to online marketers? (Producer Jonathan and I weigh in with our humble — but accurate — opinions on the matter.)

• How to avoid getting “man boobs.”

• How to scare away trolls, complainers and “butt hurt” people who waste your time and energy.

• Why so many low class jackass cheapskate clients have such unusually big egos, and how to bring them down to earth when dealing with them.

• How to profit from 1-star Kindle & iTunes reviews.

• The perfect teacher to follow if you’re a newbie who wants to build a hyper responsive list without spending any money.

• A secret way to “barter” for website traffic.

• The best free lead generation method ever invented? (You won’t get the most leads from doing this, but the few you do get will be extremely qualified and, in many cases, ready to buy.)

• A Biblical case for mocking your enemies in your emails.

• How to “trick” your haters into writing your content.

• A lotza mo’ to chew on…

Listen in here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle