Ben Settle

One of my favorite “Email Players” subscribers is Sanjay Pande.

Why?

Because he is always implementing what he learns in the newsletter — even from the monthly critique I offer as a “perk” for subscribing. In fact, just a critique I sent him was worth more money in a day than 90% of Americans probably make in a month.

Checky:

Hi Ben,

You’ll be pleased with this …

I think we’ve had one of our best “non-launch” days from the last e-mail you critiqued. As you already know, it was inspired by your “Mock the competition” issue.

So far we’ve had one sale for $1497, 3 invoice requests for the same course (our market needs this) and one snowflake complaint. That single e-mail should bring in close to 6K to the business. I’ll take more complaints please and thank you very much. This is a very hard market to sell to btw (uphill battle because we’re creating the demand).

My partner is an industry authority and can’t go off on rants like I can, so we changed the newsletter from “him” to from “both of us” (which gives us lots of flexibility) – This was inspired by another list I am on (non IM).

Yesterday, I revisited at least a dozen of the older newsletters and I can tell you this. If you’re stuck for ideas. Just crack open 10 old Email Players issues and skim them and … Wow! You’re going to feel like the idea machine man (or woman).

Warm Regards and THANK YOU!

Sanjay Pande

That’s what I’m talkin’ about Willis.

This kind of response warms the cockles of my cold, icy heart and gives me hope for humanity.

Next issue goes to print in less than 2 weeks.

Get your Email Players lovin’ here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Ben why is ‘Email Players’ so expensive?”

Came a question this morning.

I often hear variations of this question.

But, it makes no sense to me.

In fact, I argue it’s inexpensive.

That I should charge more.

And, that it’s actually cheap.

How so?

Because it comes out to $3.23 per day.

That’s cheaper than many Starbucks drinks (it’s amusing to think of someone complaining about the price while sipping a $3.75 coffee each day…) and is probably way less than what a bum holding a cup out on the street makes in just an hour.

Fact is, it’s never about price.

Ever.

It’s about priorities.

It’s about having an “investor” vs a “consumer” mindset.

And, it’s about whether or not someone can muster up the balls (it doesn’t take much) to sit down and write an email for 20 minutes 5-7 days per week and invest in their business, or if they will instead find something else more “important” to do — like play on flakebook or watch tv or talk about business on forums & blogs instead of doing it.

But it’s never about money.

Even a panhandler makes more than $3.23 per day.

And lots of people piss that away on daily Starbucks.

More:

At $3.23 per day, sending a daily email using my tips and teachings inside the newsletter should easily pay for itself if you have even a *half* way decent list and offer (and if you don’t then you shouldn’t subscribe anyway — you’re not ready).

Anyway, that’s my opinion.

And, of course, I’m right.

If you got the right stuff, check it out here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Otherwise, don’t sweat it.

You don’t “need” the newsletter.

And, it’s not intended for everyone anyway.

Ben Settle

But I’ll take my time anywhere
Free to speak my mind anywhere
And I’ll redefine anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home

“Wherever I May Roam”
– Metallica

The above is from one of my favorite songs.

I listen to it frequently.

(I listen to lots of Metallica when writing.)

And, there are two reasons why:

1. The “writing” reason

Any song that pumps you up is good writing music, because anything that gets you into an emotional state gives you energy — and when it all boils down, writing (especially an email designed to sell) is nothing but a huge outpouring of energy and emotion.

Maybe it LOOKS simple.

And, practically speaking, it is.

But, it’s also exhausting.

(And often the more effective the email, the more exhausting.)

2. The “inspirational” reason

It just flat out reminds me of how cool it is to live what I jokingly refer to as The Ben Settle Lifestyle® (for the insanely literal, that trademark is a joke).

Example:

Late last week friends in another state invited me to hang out with them and, I figure, why not? It’s an absolute no-brainer to pick up and travel wherever I want, for any reason, whenever it suits my fancy. I just pack a bag, laptop and phone… fire up the car and I’m on the road faster than you can say “goo-roo fanboy.”

I have no boss to answer to.

No authority to submit to.

The only time table is my own.

I go where I please, when I please, however I please.

(Planes, trains, automobiles, etc).

Anyway, so why tell you this?

Because I’m just a regular guy.

True, unlike you, I put my pants on 2 legs at a time.

But, other than that, I’m as normal as it gets.

And, if I can do this, YOU can.

Trust ye me…

Yes, it took many years of planning, hard work and sacrifice — including an 11 year dysfunctional marriage (where I purposely isolated myself from friends, family and colleagues and did NOTHING but hole myself up and work 15+ hour days)… years of living without the basic pleasures the AIAC (Average Indebted American Chump) takes for granted… and more anxiety than I ever care to admit to anyone.

(Some memories I’ll happily bring to my grave…)

But nowadays it’s MUCH easier.

The paths have been blazed for you.

All you have to do is choose one.

So stay the course, babycakes.

Victory IS worth the struggle.

Especially when your freedom is at stake.

Alright, enough speeches.

Time to pitch.

After all, I do you a disservice by not pitching right now. Otherwise, I’ve just left you all dressed up with nowhere to go.

So here goes:

Everyone makes their own path.

Mine is email marketing.

If you want to journey the path with me, check out “Email Players”.

It’s a monthly newsletter.

Could be considered expensive.

And, is only for dead serious entrepreneurs “ready” for it.

(i.e. don’t go into debt for it.)

Go here for the details:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Ye olde email below needs no commentary.

(Red emphasis mine)

It speakeths for itself about how effective my email methodology is:

Gosh Darnit Ben….

Now I may be $20 poorer after buying your Cracker Jack Secrets E-book, but I’m also infinitely richer at the same time.

I work for a tiny company (there are 5 of us) that does internet marketing for a variety of different companies. I’m a young, recent-ish college grad – a student of Anthropology, no less – that took this job over a better paying job in a large corporation with benefits like health insurance and a 401k plan. I saw the potential in how I could have my hand in every piece of pie in this company.

What can I say, I’m a control freak.

Since starting here 6 months ago I’ve completely re-vamped the financial database and helped streamline the work we do in less time and more efficiently. I really don’t know how they were getting along without me (that is actually what the owner says). When the time came to put my hand in the juicy, juicy, sales-pie that was coveted from me, I turned to the InterWebs. I found you, by chance, on a search of how to write a compelling subject line for an email. I read what you had to say, which led me to your blog, which led me to read about you, who you are, and what you do. I subscribed to your email list.

I hated you. I hated your arrogant son-of-a-gun attitude (and your stupid use of the word “ye” like an old English hag) and no-effs-given approach to how things should be done. But yet, I couldn’t pry myself away and my email responses and quality grew and grew. Your email today made me buy this E-Book. I’m not even sure how. I was literally pulling out the credit card without a second thought in some sort of hypnosis.

What I’m trying to say is that while you may receive some testimonials from the biggest names in the online marketing world, don’t forget about us little folk. The folks with a tiny company just scraping by and the college grad trying to make her way in the scary business world.

I’d say thank you, but I wouldn’t want it to go to your head.

Natalie Barrett

What can I say?

I charm like a vampire…

To learn how to write emails that get even people who hate your guts to want to buy what you’re selling, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“I’m HIV positive the movie starts at 9:00,” she said as we were en route to the theater last night.

Oh come on.

Admit it… that’s funny.

A little dark, maybe.

(Like a joke from the movie “Pulp Fiction”).

But, I couldn’t help but snicker when she said it.

And, I bet a lot of people reading this email chuckled at it, too — albeit maybe feeling bad about being entertained in such a way. Just as during other times when I go out of my way to make jokes that are a little… politically incorrect… in my emails — not only to this BenSettle.com list, but other lists I write for, as well.

But you know what?

Lots of profitable emails contain “dark” entertainment.

Will make some kind of statement about the human condition.

And, yes, be uncomfortably funny.

But they can also make you sales, too.

(Assuming you do them right, I can already see a bunch of goo-roo fanboys now writing some idiotic pornographic joke to their list thinking they’re being funny… then getting a horde of unsubscribes and complaining what I teach “doesn’t work!”…)

But anyway, don’t fear dark entertainment.

As my boy, the legendary Johnny Carson, said:

“Lay any joke open you will find
something unpleasant underneath”

True ‘dat.

He joked about all kinds of taboo subjects.

Like divorce.

Death.

Infidelity.

Obesity.

Even (gasp!) mocking Mr. Rogers.

And you know what?

He made millions laugh. Brought a little joy to their dreary day. And, was beloved by America (as a whole, obviously he had his haters, and you will too if you do it right) for it.

Anyway, don’t let mush cookies censor you.

Otherwise your emails are doomed to be limp.

Boring.

And, dry as a horse’s skull on the desert.

To learn my email system check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

The following is NOT for tender eyes.

(Or is it ears?)

But, I hate censoring people.

Especially when they’re so enthusiastic.

Anyway, below is a recent “Email Players” testimonial about last month’s issue about how to inject proof & credibility into your emails (back issues for sale to subscribers), from the head copywriter of a HUGE direct response marketing company:

Hey dude

Been on your list for a while and getting more and more sucked in.

Fabulous work!

I’m head copywriter at Mindvalley (giant direct response personal growth company). 

I recently convinced my CEO Vishen that you were a badass… so we subscribed to Email Players.

Literally just got the “proof” edition… FUCKING GOLD.

Totally get the reverse neediness principle… and the skeleton dance idea is off the chain. Powerful.

That whole newsletter was fucking excellent, actually.

I see dollar signs, baby.

Also — I have my own business in the visualization niche, 25k list, daily emails… so this stuff is infinitely applicable.

In fact, your email today “why I would suck as a coach” is fucking dynamite. A mail like that would be an amazing way to launch a continuity program for my business.

As a brief aside, me and Vishen were using you and frank kern as examples of how to write like a human and still sell shitloads to all the junior copywriters this week. You’re becoming mindvalley’s go to copywriting pro — not bad for a giant direct response company like MV.

And the boost in sales from ONE email using your strategies paid for 3 months subscription to email players. And I send daily emails. So, it’s all profit for me from now…

Testimonials like this make it ALL worth while.

It’s the quintessential “Email Players” subscriber — excited, eager to implement and latches onto ideas and concepts because he knows just using ONE tip buried on the middle of page 11 or whatever can mean many extra hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars per month in his hot little pocketeses.

Brings half a tear to my eye let me tell ya.

Alright enough.

If you want in, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This may disturb you a little.

(It’s disturbing to me, and I don’t disturb easy…)

Last week while hanging out with this ER doctor friend, we got to rapping about when she was doing her residency, and how she and her colleagues would work 100+ hour weeks getting barely any sleep at all. (She said she would just sleep in the break room of the hospital for a few hours — wasn’t even worth going home since she’d have to be back in 4 hours anyway).

And no, that’s not the disturbing part.

The disturbing part is:

They would perform surgeries that way!

Can you imagine that?

Right now, there are people in hospitals having surgery performed on them by people who have been working for days with little (and maybe no) sleep at all.

Nice thought isn’t it?

But, here’s the way I see it:

That’s how you get truly GREAT at something.

Anyone can perform tasks when it’s easy.

When there’s no pain involved.

And, when well rested.

But when you’re pushed to your physical, mental and emotional limits… when you’re going on pure adrenaline… when your body is about to collapse and your mind is about to shut down… and you still keep going… that’s when you get truly great at what you do.

It can be for anything, too.

Not just performing surgeries.

But also in business.

In fact, here’s another true story:

The biggest “growth spurt” I had in email was in 2011.

I had this burning desire to be liberated from client work and the path I’d chosen was to do what one of my business partners Rich Bryda had done:

Article marketing.

The plan went like this:

I’d write 1,000 articles in this special SEO way he invented.

He had built a business of $70k per year doing nothing (and I mean literally nothing but play with his kids all day) by throwing up 1,000 or so articles using his method, and those articles closed in on nearly $100k per year (like clockwork) for 2 straight years.

That was without affiliates.

And, without a back end.

Yeah, I wanted in on that!

So, that January I got started.

I was writing up to 20 ezine articles per day for article sites, plus 5 articles per day for the site I was building (unique articles, not the same as the ones I submitted to article sites), plus 5 emails per day to add to the auto-responder I was building (different content than the articles, too)… plus my BenSettle.com daily email, plus writing and editing the Crypto Marketing Newsletter I was selling at the time. Plus, countless numbers of emails and sales letters I was doing for a client who had me on retainer (i.e. I was their bitch) where I wrote over 100 emails for their auto-responder and a crap load of sales letters, video scripts, tele-seminar pitches, splash pages, and the list goes on. (They had just partnered with a celebrity author, and so I also had to create all NEW funnel emails and ads for that guy’s stuff…)

It was nutzo.

I remember going to bed at 1 or 2 am each night.

(If I was lucky.)

Waking at 5 or 6.

And hitting it hard — 7 days per week for almost 2 months.

I’d go to bed with my mind frazzled.

Often, I didn’t sleep at all.

(I went entire consecutive nights without sleep.)

All that writing was playing tricks on my brain making me hear and see things that weren’t there… my eyes were constantly bloodshot with dark circles around them… and, frankly, my health was starting to suffer. (On the bright side I got into kick ass shape, though, as between each article or email I’d bang out a set of 10+ pull ups.)

Did all this work?

Did it liberate me from client work?

Uhm, no.

Not even close.

And you want to know why?

It’s because the very NEXT week when I finished all this work I took a trip to visit my dad to get away… and when I got there, Google did their “slap” on the article directories!

I went from getting 2-3 sales per day to goose eggs.

Articles that were ranked on Google on page 1?

Not even on page 10.

The whole thing just collapsed.

And, needless to say, it sucked.

But, something interesting happened.

When I got back to work, working normal hours again… and getting sleep again… it’s like my writing abilities were genetically enhanced!

I was writing FASTER than I ever thought possible.

And with way less editing.

(Often no editing.)

And, with a much higher quality of work.

My emails and ads also had more “depth.”

They were more entertaining and fun.

And, they made LOTS more sales.

It’s like all that writing and slaving away gave my brain super powers. And even now, I can bang out emails and sales letters in a small fraction of the time it takes everyone else I know in this business. Ideas for content and ads come to me without effort 99/100 times. And, I’m banging out more projects in a month than most people online probably do in a year.

It’s just automatic now.

I don’t even have to think.

If I need to write an email or a new issue of my “Email Players” newsletter or a sales letter or a new kindle book (even an entire novel which I recently finished the first draft of) or an article/email/ad for one of the businesses I joint venture in… it just flows out as easily and effortlessly as lies flow from a politician’s lips.

Anyway, here’s the point:

You want to get GOOD at something?

I mean REALLY good?

Where you’re in the top 1% of performers of whatever it is you do on the entire planet?

Push yourself.

Make yourself do the impossible.

Go longer than possible.

Last longer than possible.

Grow some balls and make it HURT.

Yes, it’ll suck.

And yes, make sure it’s something you like doing.

But the results will speak for themselves.

Just ask my doctor friend. Her and her colleagues don’t even think about it. Performing surgeries is routine. What was once complicated and hard Childs play.

And it’s the same with writing emails, etc.

I don’t know who said it.

But I like this quote:

“Don’t wish it was easier, which you were better.”

Hey, you want to get good (really good) at email?

Blow right past your competition?

Make more sales than you thought possible?

Then I’m your huckleberry, babycakes.

Each “Email Players” issue gives you lots of ideas to start applying day after day. Some issues even include the “short cuts” I had to invent during that time when I was writing like a fiend just to keep up with everything.

Best part:

If you have a good list and offer, you earn while you learn.

Ain’t nuttin’ better.

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Got this comment Wednesday:

Hi Ben,

Just two quick things…

1) I was seriously impressed with your testimonial listings. I mean Mark Ford and Bob Bly saying your good counts for something, hah?

2) Referring to your “pain and suffering” email, was there anything in particular that turned out to be the catalyst in getting you back on track?

Re: #1 I was honored to get their attention.

They’re both GIANTS in the copywriting world.

And, in many ways, the reason many of us whippersnappers even got into this game in the first place. Personally, I think (and I’m right) everyone should study Bob Bly’s and Mark Ford’s products and ads and marketing philosophies.

As for your other question…

The stuff I talked about was TAME.

Especially compared to what others I know have endured.

Really, I got off lucky.

That said…

The thing that kept me going… even when I was depressed off my ass laying in bed all day feeling sorry for myself for an entire summer back in 2006… even when I was getting betrayed and screwed over by clients left and right (the danger of doing work on commission only, it was my bad for getting into those situations in the first place)… and even when I was on the verge of saying “to hell with it all” and just giving up on multiple occasions… was anger.

But not petty, pointless anger.

I’m talking about RIGHTEOUS anger.

Anger at myself, mostly.

(For making so many dumb decisions.)

But also at the naysayers.

Nobody… and I mean NOBODY, with the exception of my grandma on my dad’s side of the family, a couple of my uncles and the dude who recruited me into an MLM business out of college (MLM wasn’t ALL bad in that sense)… ever encouraged me to go forth and conquer in the business world.

Everyone else?

All I got was snickering.

And mockery.

Or, just rolled eyeballs.

That gave me a lot of righteous anger.

And that anger would keep me going even when I had only about $100 in the bank with rent, bills and loans due and it was “nut up or shut up” time.

And therein lies the lesson:

Forget what you hear about positive thinking.

Ignore the magic Facebook fairy dust quotes.

Pay no heed to the success “theorists”.

The strongest motivation is negativity.

As someone (I think it was John Carlton?) taught:

Embrace your “dirty” motivations!

I do this even today.

Something royally pisses me off?

I use the massive, near-limitless (although usually temporary) power that experience gives me to go forth and conquer and do great and profitable things I never would have done otherwise — both personally and professionally.

Anger.

Fear.

Frustration.

Pain.

Suffering.

Despite what that shriveled up green “nut sac” looking thing Yoda thinks — these things don’t lead to the dark side, necessarily.

They can also lead to prosperity.

To success.

And, paradoxically, to joy.

So don’t suppress your dirty motivations.

Embrace them.

Use them.

Even learn to love ’em a little.

Only then, a marketing jedi will you be…

Ben Settle

P.S. If you’re in business, I suggest pouring any righteous negativity you experience into being better at sales and marketing.

Hey, want to get better at sales?

At marketing?

And do it without spending hours going blind reading dry, dusty boring sales books packed with theory, outdated stories and fluff?

Then go ye here:

www.CrackerjackSelling.com

Recently one of my “Oceans 4” droogs and business partners Jack Born sent me a t-shirt from Stone Brewing in San Diego with their “Arrogant Bastard Ale” logo.

I loooooove that shirt.

(It’s even tacked up on my office wall…)

And, he sent it as sort of a funny message:

That I’m an arrogant bastard.

He meant it as a joke (kinda…)

But people have “for real” accused me of this before.

Is it true, though?

Probably.

However, at the same time, a lot of people confuse high levels of confidence in what you know you’re good at (and demonstrate you’re good at) with arrogance — usually out of jealousy, pettiness and feelings of, uhm, inadequacy…

Either way, I’m in good company.

Take the great late night TV host Johnny Carson.

My droog Doberman Dan referred me to a documentary about him.

And, that guy was the MAN.

All today’s talk show hosts model him.

And, sort of worship at his late night alter.

(Admitting they mimic him.)

He was truly one of a kind.

(Plus, he’s also from the midwest like I am, too — a lot of us arrogant bastards seem to come from the midwest…)

Anyway, the best quote from the documentary was:

“I was raised as a kid that you should always be modest. But unfortunately in the entertainment business that doesn’t work if you don’t have a certain amount of ego… that doesn’t mean cocksureness… it means a confidence in your ability. That I know what I do, I do it well, and when I go out in front of an audience I know that I am good. If you don’t have that attitude then you shouldn’t be up there.”

That’s what I’m talkin’ about, JC.

False modesty never gets you anywhere.

On the other hand…

Confidence… in knowing you’re good at what you do… in believing that you’re product is the best… and, that, as a result, you can sell it, will get you everything your greedy little heart desires.

It’s ALL about selling, babycakes.

Selling is the world’s highest paid profession.

And online marketing IS selling.

But, here’s the irony:

Most marketing books and courses don’t really teach selling. They teach tricks and tips and tactics — but rarely do they teach you the *psychology* of selling that works across the board: Online, direct mail, belly-to-belly, email, copywriting, phone sales, selling from the stage, campaigning, negotiation… and the list goes on.

It’s something I spent hundreds of hours learning.

(And still am learning.)

Through years of painful “trial & error”.

And, via distilling the 101 best sales methods I personally use (that work for anyone — introvert or extrovert, online or offline, and even if you can’t sell ice to eskimos now) into one easy-to-follow guide.

The result?

I wrote these 101 methods down in a book called:

“Crackerjack Selling Secrets”

It started off as my own personal selling “cheat sheet” with 101 easy and ethical ways to sell almost anything, to anyone (online or offline) — without struggle, frustration or using any black hat or manipulative nonsense.

The book soon became an instant hit.

In fact, it originally sold for $97.00.

(And even then people thought it was a bargain.)

Since then, it has become sort of a “cult classic” amongst entrepreneurs and has gotten rave reviews from some serious players. Like, for example, Ken McCarthy. (7-figure copywriter, seminar promoter and one of the “founding fathers” of Internet marketing — having been the original mentor of many of today’s so-called gurus) And John Anghelache. (Another 7-figure earning copywriter who’s clients include Gary Halbert, Joe Vitale and Yanik Silver). And Jen Jolan (Who is the #1 selling weight loss author on Amazon). And Gina Parris (Peak performance coach to professional athletes, and world class market traders and entrepreneurs) And Greg Perry (The most published author of computer books on the planet, and top eBay power seller)

And the list goes on…

In other words:

It ain’t a bunch of theory.

It ain’t a bunch of boring content that never gets to the point.

And, it ain’t a long read.

Instead, it’s fast… designed to be read in one or two sittings… and, the info applied the same DAY, if you want.

(To any kind of sales you do.)

Again, it used to sell for $97.

But today the eBook version is just $19.

You can download it here:

www.CrackerjackSelling.com

Ben Settle