Ben Settle

In which the question was asked:

Why do you choose not to use a greeting at the top of your emails?

You go right into it.

I thought personalization helps connect with the audience. Did you once greet the subscriber by their name? Why did you stop?

I stopped doing salutations probably around 2008 or 2009.

And here are a few reasons why:

1. They don’t matter to the audience I’ve built, and if they did matter to someone that person is in the wrong saloon anyway

2. Less info for someone to screw up on inputting in the opt in form — as it is, the number of people who reply with “I agree” to the confirmation email telling them to click the button to confirm (instead of clicking the button they’re told they need to click to confirm) is astounding… and I legit wonder how some of those types dress and feed themselves

3. A lot of blue flame specials desperate for attention or who want to look like edge lords put in some dumb word for a first name on those forms for fun or to try to troll or whatever, and I figure why encourage ‘em?

4. The subject line is far more important than the salutation

5. The from line is far more important than the subject line

6. In my experience if you get those two right then salutations not only don’t help or matter one way or the other as far a sales go… but might even hurt depending on the market/list/people on that list

7. People I want to sell to or do business with already know it’s not me really writing them one on one

8. If the people you want to sell to legit think your salutation means you are writing to them personally, then maybe you should use one — and if by some miracle they are good buyers all the power to you

9. I don’t believe a single word anyone who claims to have tested salutations in emails to the sale (lots of people claim “clicks” and “opens” – neither of which I care about) says for a whole laundry list of reasons I won’t bother going into here

10. All that said, I have never said people “shouldn’t” use them, I simply don’t

11. I say that for the little peabodies who will now run around saying I am telling everyone not to use salutations in emails when I am not saying that at all

Lots of people put words in my mouth I have noticed.

And, in some cases, even give me credit for saying things I have never said.

So it goes on the internet.

To learn my full email methodology go here next:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This’ll probably rattle a bunch of guys on my list — young and old.

But following is my (totally unsolicited) advice to the 4 generations of men selling online.

Here we is:

* Boomers – that same resistance you had to the internet that held you back (still holding some of you back) is probably not helping your business now with mobile app tech. Forcing everyone to consume your digital content only on a desktop in a browser-only-accessible membership site or on CD/DVD or USB flash drive is not the end of the world, still profitable, but not doing your clients and customers any favors when the vast majority want to consume digital content on a phone via a mobile app with ability to control the experience beyond what a web browser or even “mobile optimized” (which means nothing) allows. People literally sleep and shower with their phones, and stroke it in the middle of the night like Gollum stroking the One Ring in his cave of gloom.

That’s where your customers are 24/7, not hauling their desktops around.

There are some exceptions, of course, but not all that many.

And no, I don’t like any of this any more than you do.

(I want the internet to go back to plain text).

But embrace the mobile app technology if you dare..

* GenX – it’s endlessly fun watching Millennials & Boomers yell at each other, while simultaneously mocking Zoomers who think they are the “rEsiSTanCe!!” on their $800 iPhones simping for big pharma, big government, big corporate, and whatever foreign country the warmongering neocon media tells them to wave flags for. But all our GenX apathy, doom-pilling, & angry-celebrating the coming inevitable collapse probably won’t help your own long term business survival.

Especially since more and more Boomers are retiring and/or dying.

Millennials still don’t know if they want to be capitalists or socialists when they grow up.

And Zoomers can’t seem to even figure out what gender they are.

So if GenX doesn’t make business great again who will?

* Millennials – yes you were targeted by greedy bankers and clueless teachers about “needing” to get into over $100k in debt to go to college, only to find yourself with a near worthless degree and still living at home as your boomer parents (who bought a house for $50k that would cost you over $500k today, while flooding your country with 3rd world invaders to do the work you supposedly won’t) who just tell you to have more “grit.”

It’s no wonder socialism & drinking yourself into a stupor at brunch is so attractive.

But if you don’t want to eat bugs (or your pets, like in other socialist paradises) some day… and if you enjoy indoor plumbing… you’re gonna have to get sac up and get to work.

Who knows?

You may even like it…

* Zoomers – even mainstream doctors are worried your testosterone levels are abysmally low for your age even as the mainstream media pushes for you to put on a dress and cut off your John Thomas. And it’s wreaking havoc on your work ethic, butchering your inability to handle criticism or differing opinions… and has you desperately chasing every bandwagon the corporate media and educational establishment dangles in front of you making you think you’re some kind of rebel, when it’s the exact opposite.

Following is a 30-day challenge virtually guaranteed to drive up those flaccid numbers.

For the next month:

* abstain from watching any pornos

* delete TikTok cold turkey

* lift heavy weights

* start learning a combat skill where you might get hit in the face on the regular

Come to think of it:

The above 30-day challenge is good for any man — young or old.

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but I will for the solipsistic reply guys:

All of this is obviously generalizing, the macro is not the micro, and this email is not about “you” or any one individual. There’s good and bad, smart and dumb, productive and unproductive, successful and unsuccessful in every generation. The above is simply my observation of generations as a whole, after collectively hearing from, dealing with, selling to, and buying from probably thousands of peoples’ businesses in these various categories in this direct marketing game.

You can reject or ignore it at your displeasure.

But I wouldn’t recommend doing so.

There’s a lot of market research packed into this email between the lines I’ve used quite profitably.

And you can, too, if you parse it correctly..

Over the years many have asked your humble daily email horror host about ways to motivate themselves to do the writing they want to do for emails, sales copy, courses, books, even things like fiction.

The obvious answer to them is to just sac up and do the work.

But, one tip I can trace a whole lot more content written, created, sold in my business to is simply reading lots and lots and lots biographies from people who accomplished a lot of work and projects in their lives.

I started doing focusing mostly on reading bios back in 2019.

And since then, I don’t think the sheer output of writing dwarfing everything I did the 17 years before that up in this copywriting and marketing business is a coincidence.

The reason for bios ain’t so much instructional though.

Very little “how to” info in bios.

No, it’s just practical:

i.e., You realize real quick how little time you have in this world.

If you’re a young turk full of piss & vinegar, fresh off the chair with the barber cape removed after getting your latest broccoli haircut this won’t be as easy to grasp than if you’re an old fart in his 40’s, 50’s, and beyond. But when you read lots of biographies of people who got a lot of things accomplished in their lives, and see them from birth (or before birth — most bios start with their parents’ lives) all the way to the moment they wheezed out their last breath, it can’t help but give you a better sense of your own mortality.

It’s no different than when you hear about someone dying.

Funerals and death remind the living that we’re all mortal and gonna die.

My pal and the guy who has the privilege and honor of publishing my deranged Enoch Wars and Villains books titles on Amazon Greg Perry likes to talk about how old school preachers used to get people’s heads on straight. And they did it by simply pointing out the window at the graveyard, and reminding them they’re all gonna end up there sooner rather than later, with no other lecturing to stop sinning and get right with God needed.

The grave has always been the “great equalizer.”

Once you’re there, that’s it. And while this may or may not apply to anyone else — I can say after reading quite a few good bios over the past several years, it definitely has given me more of a sense not just or urgency…

But emergency.

I don’t have to coax or force myself to get up and write.

If anything — and Stefania can attest — I’m up an hour or two earlier than I have to, in my office, banging away at whatever project with reckless abandon. I have way too much work to do to do anything else but either write or think about writing whenever I’m not writing, in order to better prep for the next time I sit down to do some more writing.

The money is obviously one motivation.

As is legacy.

(Which having a son has certainly gotten my head out of my arse about.)

But so is this impending specter of doom constantly hovering over my shoulder and whispering in my ear, letting me know I better hurry up because I only got so much time left… thanks to reading all these bios of people that ultimately died, and some of them frustrated with lots of unfinished work.

Another thing about bios:

If you read ones about people who died young it’s even more motivating.

It is a powerful reminder that you got things you want to get done, and if you’re like me where the more you get done the more ideas you’ll get for other things you want to do… reading bios of long dead people (I rarely read bios of people still living), seeing their entire lives from tugging on the teet to being put in the ground can be a tremendous motivation for doing a lot of writing, creating a lot of content, growing your business a lot bigger and faster than you would have otherwise.

A caveat about all the above:

This all could admittedly be just a morbid quirk of my personality though.

As I’m the kinda guy who watches a Hitchcock movie, for example, and constantly pauses it throughout just to Google how the actors in the movie ultimately died. I also thought the first Faces of Death (not the sequels) movie was extremely fascinating, too, in its own gruesome way for much the same reason.

So I really have no idea how many people will find this bios tip useful much less will do it.

But it’s not something I’ve seen anyone talk about.

So that’s that.

I talk about purely writing stuff like this on in the paid Email Players newsletter at times.

More about that here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last month I sent out an email that gave advice to a Nigerian copywriter.

Specifically, it was all about how they can be more trusted, write sales copy that doesn’t get them deleted on sight due to stigma, & get clients & customers all in on them by focusing on what I described as a market-first vs marketing-first approach. And that email got me several more replies than usual.

But two of the replies were more interesting than all the others.

I’ll let you see why I say this for yourself:

Response #1:

“People are gonna be so mad because of the lack of specificity your answer provided”

Response #2:

“Wow, this is actually me you are talking about here. I was the Nigerian guy that sent you that message. It was last year I sent it. This is the second time I am seeing that email advice. Well,  I had learnt from that message. I really want to say thank you.”

Two totally different responses.

From two totally different people.

Who had two totally different experiences with the exact same email.

Easily the most ironic feedback I’ve received all year.

No real point to this.

Other than the lesson about how two people can read the exact same email copy and walk away with two totally different experiences, and knowing which one to focus on, and which one not to focus on.

More about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold a cautionary tale:

One of the reasons I am so skeptical about AI-generated content of any kind (not just emails and sales copy) is because every time I’ve seen it, I’ve been reminded of a guy I know up in this business who I suspect is a bonafide sociopath. No, not the “Dexter” kind of sociopath who’ll drug you at an event, and then you wake up in another room bound by plastic wrap to a table with pictures of all the people you’ve wronged kind of sociopath.

This particular guy is more of a benevolent sociopath.

A sociopath is simply someone who’s not “wired” to care about anyone else. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t. And while probably 95% of people reading this email probably know who this fellow is, those same 95% would have absolutely no idea he is a sociopath by talking to him if they didn’t know how sociopaths operate, communicate, and, frankly, survive in society without being exiled, jailed, or even executed (by the state, someone they wronged, whoever).

Personally, I don’t think they live very easy lives.

And before anyone asks:

No, I am NOT going to say who it is, or give a single “clue” or anything like that — so don’t bother asking. It’s not the point of this, and I have no desire to dox him, or do him any harm whatsoever, as he is not out there screwing anyone over from what I’ve seen, even if he’s racked up quite a few enemies (as well as intensely loyal friends and fans).

But let me give you an example of what I mean:

I remember being at a seminar we both spoke at many, many years ago. And during his talk I remember him starting to cry at an odd point when telling his story. It was odd because, one, it wasn’t really all that sad of a story in the first place. And, two, he did it during a part of the story where it made zero sense to cry.

He was off by a few “beats” at least.

And it was kinda jarring.

The person sitting with me noticed the same thing:

“Why’s he crying?”

And when I looked at other people around us, you could see the confusion on some of their faces, too, while the majority were intensely engaged totally oblivious they were listening to utter bull shyt.

It was just a very strange thing.

And that was when I realized he was almost certainly a sociopath — meaning, he lacks the ‘wiring’ to care about people. Again, I am not saying he screws people over (to my knowledge, at least). But he does seem to lack humanity: that piece of what makes normal people human, makes us feel empathy, makes us feel guilt, fear, sadness, shame, loss, whatever.

In other words:

He thinks more like a machine than a man —

Very cold, very calculating, and with zero remorse.

If I am correct about him, and I may no be, admittedly (this is a cautionary tale, not an FBI investigation), then even if he did screw someone over, he wouldn’t really be bothered by it. Or if he fleeced someone of everything and got them framed for a crime, he wouldn’t even bat an eye. It just wouldn’t emotionally register.

Personally, I do think he’s been taught the difference between right and wrong.

And that is why he doesn’t do these things.

This isn’t a seminar on how to ID sociopaths though.

(See Ken McCarthy’s magnificent copywriting course for that.)

It’s simply an example of how someone with little or no empathy — like AI — thinks.

It will always lack humanity.

Just like the guy above who is great with statistics, looking coldly at numbers, and being an overall Psychological Marketer (like I described in the September 2023 Email Players issue)… but he has to fake human emotions and behavior in order to fit in. Some of the really dangerous sociopaths are almost supernaturally good at faking humanity and do a lot of evil things. Think Ted Bundy who was almost supernaturally good at being “more human” than regular humans when it came to faking humanity. But if you know what to look for, you know something is “off” and can adjust your action accordingly.

On a side note:

This was very accurately shown in the TV show Dexter with the Sgt. Doakes character.

He got a creepy vibe from Dexter, but couldn’t rationalize it, just knew it was there.

Point is, there is no real human connection there.

No humanity.

And it shows in how the guy I am referring to sells and even tells stories.

Which brings me to the point:

That’s your AI like fapGPT, etc, too.

AI cannot be human, so will always lack humanity, even if it tries to pose as human, copies humans, pretends to be humans, takes that data and improves at trying to be human even though it’s not human and never will be human. There are many legit uses for AI, and I have to make that clear for the peanut gallery obsessed with all-things AI. And while you can obviously do whatever you want, I would not rely on it for anything other than cold calculations, brainstorming (like you would a swipe file), research, and other tasks that require no real humanity. I certainly would NOT use it for creating — whole cloth — emails, sales copy, content, customer service (does you really like talking or chatting to prompts when you have a serious customer service question?) or anything that requires genuine humanity.

And just to be clear about something else:

When I say “humanity” I’m referring to that unique spark of individuality that is you and nobody else. Humanity cannot be copied, it cannot be “prompted,” and it can’t really even be “reverse engineered.” You cannot “prompt” your way into a relationship — romantic, friendship, or otherwise — unless you’re one of these deviants who buys secks dolls or, I suppose, a character in Black Mirror.

Something else to compute:

If you ever saw the movie Watchmen (or read the comicbook) there’s a scene that perfectly shows what AI does when it tries to create a relationship by doing everything “right” and checking all the humanity-boxes.

The scene is when Laurie is having sex with Dr. Manhattan.

(Who is a being of basically unlimited power who can bend matter to his will).

And she’s in to it and it’s hot and heavy until she feels another pair of hands.

And then she sees another face.

And then she realizes she’s not doing the horizontal polka with Dr. Manhattan…

She doing it with half a dozen (I forget how many) Dr. Manhattan clones!

Dr. Manhattan (whose humanity was all but gone by then) assumed pleasuring her like that would make her happy, while the “real” him was in another room working on this machine to save the world, and he’s not really focused on her at all, and not emotionally engaged with her on any level whatsoever even if he was ticking all the right boxes for pleasuring her.

So there is no connection, no empathy, and no relationship.

He’s just going through the motions, phoning it in based on algorithms he calculated from his years of knowing her, talking to her, listening to her, being in close proximity with her.

Thus, there was no real connection.

Because, let’s face it, there was nothing there to connect with.

That, to me, is a very good metaphor for using something like AI (fapGPT, whatever) to write your emails and sales copy and content and grow a relationship with your list, customers, and clients with. Because the relationship transcends marketing and copywriting. There’s a transfer of energy and emotion (not in a woo-woo sense, this is all very rational) between you and the person you’re trying to serve.

The old Roman legal meaning of a client was someone under your care and protection.

They considered that relationship sacred.

Which is interesting because in the book “Ten Greatest Sales Persons” the late master of selling Joe Girard used that exact same word — sacred — to describe his customer relationships.

fapGPT or any other AI cannot do that.

Because it’s not really human.

It’s just a tool — like a calculator.

And while a calculator is a useful tool for pushing in numbers (prompting numbers?), I don’t think you’re going to let it negotiate with, deal with, or try to form a relationship with your accountant, stock broker, or friendly neighborhood IRS agent.

I fully realize those with a vested interest in AI disagree with this.

I’ll get a reply with “what about ___” with half a dozen AI marketing guys.

And while I don’t doubt the sincerity of all the AI guys (although some are clearly selling utter bull shyt, tapping into the gold rush, going by what people who buy their offers are telling me lately), I don’t believe a single prompted word I hear about it at this point except from a very small handful of people I know, like, & trust — such as my pal Shane Hunter, who intelligently approaches the topic from the perspective of wanting to better serve his clients vs just selling stuff.

Anyway, this is all a very small part of a very long conversation.

I’m sure I’ll write more about it.

And no, I’m not saying AI is totally useless.

There are legit uses for it (research, etc).

But nothing can replace the physical act of writing, editing, rewriting, and the forces you set in motion in doing so to create a bond with your readers, list, customers, audience.

My opinion.

For more opinions see the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Following is a “secret” to creating tighter, more pithy, more engaging, and, dare I say… more ruthless writing.

Not just for emails and sales copy-related purposes.

But also for any and all other kinds of writing you do, too.

Frankly, what I am about to show you (I won’t obnoxiously just tease it, gonna tell you exactly what to do) is something that has dramatically improved my own writing in probably every single email I pound out, every single sales letter I write, every single bullet I fire off, every single book I author, every single Twitter post I brain fart, every single video or audio bit I record for the BerserkerMail YouTube channel (and, starting tomorrow, inside the BerserkerMail Facebook group we are launching, ooh…), and every single customer service reply I respond to… as well as every random text sent to friends & family, and even every piece of fiction I write.

Are you ready?

Are you set?

Are you sure?

Okay, then here goes — Stefania as my witness:

I recently finished the screenplay adapting my Zombie Cop novel. And while writing it (during October and November) I worked on it all morning, and again a couple hours before bed while Willis took his bath. I couldn’t not work on it. It was (still is, I just this week re-adapted the screenplay which was adapted from the novel back into rewriting the novel to make it much better — I call it “reverse osmosis content creation”) in my head, and I legitimately lost sleep sometimes because I was so anxious to get back to working on it the next morning.

Yes, it’s fun to adapt my own IP.

But that is not the only reason it’s so fascinating to me.

Another reason is the process of writing a screenplay has easily been the single best power lesson in pithy, tight, “action-only” writing (ideal for copywriting — long form, short form, emails, whatever it is) I’ve ever gotten. The last time I got this kind of power education in writing was when I learned Paul Hartunian’s method for writing press releases. I probably learned more about the mechanics of “pithy” and downright ruthless writing from banging out lots of press releases via his system than any other writing, copywriting, or email source.

But writing screenplays has taken even what I learned there to a whole new level.

Every word must count in a script.

You cannot meander or have even a single punctuation mark of fluff.

And it’s like a game to eliminate as many lines and pages as possible, while making the story better, more engaging, more likely to be read by some low paid script reader looking for reasons to toss the script out and get through the giant pile of scripts he has to churn through each day. You also cannot cheat margins, font size/type, or anything else.  (Has to be 12pt courier font, strict margins, etc which is very important for producers and directors to calculate projected screen time, budgets, etc)

Frankly, if you want anyone to read it, it has to be way shorter than you want it to be.

To give you an example of what I mean:

The first draft for this screenplay was a whopping 174 pages! On the second pass I had it down to less than 120 pages. Now that it’s done after 10 passes (as per my Copy Slacker methodology, incidentally) I got it down to 103 pages and it’s probably 103xs better than it was at 174 pages, which is why I spent all week rewriting the novel based on the screenplay.

To do that, it’s just cut, cut, cut…

Every nibble of fat trimmed.

Every corner smoothed down.

Every dangling mite zapped.

Every bloated description pared down to its core image/idea and every bit of dialogue ruthlessly curated, and the list goes on.

Overkill?

Well, maybe, but realize this:

Years ago, screenplays — especially from new writers — would not even get looked at if they were over 120 pages. Now it’s much worse. They have to be around 90 pages due to lazy script readers and bean counters wanting a movie to be played more times each day to increase ye olde box office gross. This, and the shyt product Hollywood has been putting out over the last few years is just one of many reasons I believe the entire Hollywood system as we know it will crash in the next 10 years or so, and maybe earlier… with whole new opportunities rising from the ashes.

Immoral of the story:

Writing that screenplay forced me to become a better, more pithy, and more discerning and, yes… ruthless writer. Ruthlessly cutting, editing, re-writing, thinking how to say more with less words, and use more imagery and Vision than cold descriptions and facts. Not to mention being more ruthless about knowing what I leave out can often speak far more loudly than what is left in.

Which brings us back to your business:

This one tip alone — writing a screenplay — is a writing technique that can serve your emails, sales copy, and other writing quite well and radically transform all your writing in ways you cannot possibly fathom until you’ve done so.

All right, on to the business.

If you want to learn more about writing check out my paid Email Players newsletter.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A woo-woo coach who teaches about attracting the guardian of your soul (or some creepy shyt like that) insists:

“You really should keep politics out of your messaging unless you’re a politician. Too bad. I really thought you were someone I could learn from. I guess I learned what NOT to do. Don’t worry. I’ve already unsubscribed from your list.”

Even though my list ain’t an airport (no need to announce departure) I’m glad she did.

Otherwise, I never would have known.

And while I try my hardest to gird up my loins, pick up the broken pieces of my shattered & broken soul, and somehow move on without her haunting my list from the astral plane anymore… her comment was very useful in this case.

Like, for example:

The email she was complaining about (one of the promos selling Jon Buchan’s cold email product last month) was one of the most responsive and profitable emails of the entire campaign, that also happened to be the most amusing for people going by the feedback.

Another reason:

It’s related to the evils and dangers of bending over for the “DEI” shtick that is destroying not only a rising number of failing corporations out there, but also infecting a rising number of email broadcasting/autoresponder platforms, too. And with but ten minutes of research on Google you can see for yourself how the “corporate cancer” (as Vox Day writes in his excellent book on the subject) of DEI infects, metastases, and ultimately destroys the hosts of all it enters. In some cases it happens fast (Budweiser), and in some cases it takes a decade or more (the current Marvel and Star Wars movies’ plunging box office gross receipts with every new movie or tv show).

In a few cases, businesses are reversing course.

Like, for example, Victoria’s Secret.

I’d even argue Basecamp falls into this category, last I checked.

A couple years ago they (wisely imo) fired all the political (i.e., social) activists at their company.

But in far too many cases, a lot of these companies don’t even know they’re sick yet, still feel great, and have no clue that anything is amiss inside, even as the very forces that are bringing other companies down are starting to multiply, spread, and soon display symptoms in their host bodies.

It always starts out the same:

* Business is created to serve a customer need/demand

* Business does well, grows, needs more people to keep growing

* A social activist or two gets in, usually to Human Resources

* Social activists hires more of their own, while firing those they hate

* While founders and managers are distracted or scared of being called names, social activists start working their way into management and leadership roles

* Eventually, they are making rules, policies, & demands

* The focus of the company radically shifts from serving the customer and making a profit to serving the social activists agenda(s), with profit & survival of said business taking a back seat & even outright deliberately sabotaged

* Business starts to waste away until it no longer can serve its original purpose

This is why logical, normal people get so surprised by it happening. They assume that the business will eventually course correct when the bean counters look at the numbers. But what they don’t understand is it is not about that anymore for the company. It’s about serving the social cause(s) until, eventually, the host dies while taking everyone down with it.

None of this is controversial for those who look into it.

Often it’s not even done in secret — it’s literally mandated.

In fact, here’s something to think about:

If a company takes any kind of corporate, banking, or other big funding, it is almost certainly all but mandated. And yes, this includes email platforms. Do your own research on this. Look up the bigger ones. See which ones have whole pages on their sites and programs dedicated specifically to DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) .

Sounds so nice and good and wholesome doesn’t it?

So spiritual even, no?

The Yellowstone meme boomers tend to love it.

Well, take a look at who’s doing the training and do a little research on some of their backgrounds and the creepy things they publicly say about children, especially. And while you are at it, look at their price increases (especially after taking corporate funding), their customer service approach, the increasingly complex and/or bloated software, and, yes, who is most likely to engage in cancel culture for those daring to engage in wrong think… including wrong think that has already been proven to be correct think.

Maybe you will look into it on your own and maybe you won’t.

And even if you do, maybe you will not see what I am talking about.

Or maybe you will see, but still won’t care because you agree with it or think it won’t affect you.

But I can assure you, the cancer has already worked its way into a lot of companies — in a lot of niches and industries. And in the email world, it’s astounding to me how many supposed and self-identifying “conservatives” and “Republicans” and “non-woke” and even firebreathing MAGA email marketers are not only using  and simping for but are also shilling as affiliates for platforms that actively and vocally hate everything they stand for, believe in, vote on – thinking they will not be jettisoned at some point because they think they make that company so much money the powers that be running it wouldn’t dare.

But it ain’t about profit for that company.

YouTube proved that when it de-platformed creators making them millions per month.

Profit ain’t the motive only their Cause is.

I’ll probably talk more about this in the coming months.

Especially when the mass de-platformings begin anew leading up to the 2024 election.

Until then?

You can read more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Maybe it’s time to switch up my email game?

Ben, I found you lately and been loving the paradigm shift around daily e-mails.

Here’s my skepticism about using it in my business:

You’re selling the strategy of selling daily emails by sending daily emails.

It’s like the marketers selling marketing tactics. Yes we gobble them up, but it’s ok for you to sound really salesy because we know you’re selling.

In my business, I don’t want to sound overly salesy in my emails because I think it will turn off a lot of my audience. I have 50,000 YT subscribers and a 5000 person list. 

Trying to think through how to do this.

I guess what I’m saying, is you can get away with more because you’re treating your business like a direct response marketer. 

I don’t want to build a business where I just burn through leads and don’t care about my reputation. I want to be for the people. Does that make sense?

Anyways I love you dude, listening to podcasts of yours on YT all the time and already have been sharing your stuff with friends of mine.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of the question.

It’s the same question/assumption online marketers have had since 1993.

But in his case, I’m pretty sure his 50k subscribers who do not enjoy being forced to sit through multiple 15-second unskippable ads that blatantly sell them crap they don’t want or need and adds literally nothing to their lives appreciate him being “for the people” and not selling them.

The question is not unreasonable, though.

And I understand why people ask it, don’t get me wrong.

But these guys always think “they’re” business is different.

That they need to be seen as nice guys who don’t just want to sell.

That they are somehow “above” it all.

And it’s all pure, unadulterated self-projection and, I would add, self-delusion.

It reminds me of a question the late, great “World’s Most Feared Negotiator” Jim Camp got from someone on a call once, asking how, as a consultant when he’s prospecting, he can do it in a way where he doesn’t come off as a greedy vulture who just wants to get inside the client’s wallet and squeeze out profits?

Mr. Camp’s retort?

“I think, unfortunately, the real problem there is the person that sees himself as just the consultant squeezing out profits. That’s not a problem that the vendors have; that’s a problem the consultant has.”

And so it is with the boys & ghouls worrying about these things.

They’re problem isn’t daily email, or selling, or whatever. It’s getting out of their own heads, and thinking in such a way where selling is not only the right thing to be doing but the only thing you can do to truly help someone with whatever problem your offer sells.

In order to do that you have to use the R-Word:

Relationships.

You don’t build relationships by giving stuff away free. All you do is build entitlement, get zero consumption of whatever it is you are generously giving away to play Mr. Nice Guy, and, eventually, earning lots of resentment when you DO finally sell something.

Real life story about that:

I learned this lesson the hard way in 2006.

My list was small, and I bought into what Gary Halbert taught that you don’t sell anything online very often unless you really have something to sell, yada yada yada. He also said phone ordering ONLY does better than a link with an online sales page. Go ahead and do that if you want. Let me know what happens… Anyway, so I did that and used to get lots of praise, lots of people thanking me, and lots of people saying how I had the best list, the best info, the best this, that, or the other, thinking I was on to something.

But then… I sold my first affiliate offer.

It was for a course for freelance copywriters.

Extremely valuable, too.

And I was excited to mail about it.

So I did the PLF emails my buddy who was selling the course gave me where you give stuff away free, don’t sell, then, eventually send an actual pitch.

When I got to the pitch?

Bam!

F-bombs.

Insults.

Cursing.

Accusations of being a “list pimp”, and all that.

I learned real quick that if you do nothing but give stuff away free, become known as the guy who gives all the stuff away free, never sell anything except once in a while, and do the “moving the freeline” dance you get (1) LESS customers (2) a smaller business and (3) you attract nothing but the worst of humanity who will absolutely turn on you when you do any actual selling.

It’s probably not as bad these days.

(I like to think I have helped at least play a small part in breaking the selling “taboo” over the years)

But that entitlement attitude those who are used to free stuff foster and hamster spin in their heads is always there, and always will be there, because that is just how humans are. And even if you do just give free stuff away, you’re not really doing them any good anyway since they’re never going to value what you give them.

And certainly not as much as if they pay for it.

And, especially, if they pay a lot for it.

The best relationships I have, with my best customers (and I am NOT unique with this, this is something anyone who does any significant numbers over 10+ years straight knows is true) is with those who have bought, consumed, and used what I sell.

This goes beyond “my” niche.

I saw it first hand when I co-owned a weight loss biz too.

And when I worked in the golf niche.

And the self-defense niche, prostate problem niche, dating niche, and the list goes on.

B2B or B2C — I don’t care who you’re selling to or what you sell:

If you want to build a strong relationship, genuinely improve lives, and solve real problems then you can’t pussy-foot around trying to sell without selling and dishonestly acting like you don’t really want to make any money in your business by pretending to be the nice guy.

A servant is always worthy of his hire.

And the more you serve, the more you get hired.

But you can’t serve if they don’t appreciate.

And they won’t appreciate without skin in the game.

An attitude that is required to embrace if you want to use what I teach in the paid Email Players newsletter.

Something you can get more info on here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a question:

“Ben, I hope you are doing well. Is copywriting agency something you would make if you are beginner?”

My answer:

A couple years ago I was interviewed by a digital agency owner talking about email and using it with agencies, and how agency owners can use email, benefit from email, profit from email, get clients from email, and all that jazz.

And during the call I kept hearing a lot of ignorance.

By that I mean not in skill or marketing, but ignorance of their own industry (agencies).

And eventually I asked:

“Haven’t you guys studied Ogilvy, Burnett, Foote/Cone/Belding, Thompson, Norman, Barton, or any of the old school agency guys who literally build the modern marketing world as we know it?”

“…”

Yeesh.

If anything qualifies as what Email Players subscriber and the man universally known as the World’s Greatest Living Copywriter Gary Bencivenga describes as “Marketing Malpractice” that does.

It reminds me of this professor I had in college.

401-level class in radio/tv major.

Last day of the semester, and all of us graduating, and someone asked what the difference between AM and FM was! The professor — who was no mere professor, he owned several radio and TV stations, I always respected him — asked:

“How can you people accept a diploma from this university and not know the difference between am and fm?”

A good question.

And I would ask today’s digital agency guys the same thing:

How do they expect to make any real money, grow any kind of immortal brand, make any kind of real impact in their industry without studying the old school ad men (and Mad Men) whose names are STILL on the buildings of the companies they founded nearly 100 years ago?

It’s all rather amazing to me.

Whatever the case, for more info on the Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle