Ben Settle

A subscriber wants career advice.

Oh boy…

“Ben, currently I’m a freelance copywriter and have been offered a job at an advertising agency. What would you recommend should I take the job or keep freelancing what is better???”

It just depends, dude.

Personally, I always took the “Michael Westin” approach.

Michael Westin is a burned spy in the show “Burn Notice”. When you’re burned, you’ve got nothing. No cash, no credit, no job history. You’re stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who’s still talking to you — a trigger-happy ex-girlfriend… an old friend who used to inform on you to the FBI… Family too… (if you’re desperate…). Bottom line? Until you figure out who burned you…you’re not going anywhere.

OK, so what’s the point?

The show is about Michael Westin finding out who burned him.

But, he still has to live, too.

So while he’d love to spend all day finding out who burned him, he still has to take on “jobs” for cash (saving people from criminals, mobsters, gangsters, whatever… like a one-man “A Team”).

That’s the Michael Westin business model.

Freelancing is a “necessary evil” while doing his own projects.

It can be frustrating serving two masters like that.

But Westin never takes a steady job.

Only freelancing, baby.

That way he can control his time and resources.

And that’s how I did it, too, when freelancing.

But at the same time, the vast majority of people online don’t behave like business owners, and probably SHOULD be at a job taking orders, running errands and carrying reports to their superiors.

That’s for you to determine, of course.

Just my too many cents.

But if you decide to sac up and do your own thing, then I’ve got some good news for you:

My friend Daniel Levis is putting a special webinar on Thursday for freelancers, coaches and consultants who want to get booked solid with clients called:

“The 7 Hell-Fire Commandments
of Internet Riches — And the Systems That
Support Them”

Gotta hand it to Daniel Levis.

He sure knows how to name ’em, doesn’t he?

Anyway, I’m in a mastermind group with Daniel and I can assure you he’s got the goods when it comes to this topic and what he’s gonna teach on this content-packed webinar.

Like, for example:

• How to charge way HIGHER fees while doing way LESS work.

• How to find clients who are pleasure to work with and eager to pay you whatever you charge.

• How to get clients excitedly seeking YOU out.

• How to get booked months (even years) in advance.

• And much, much more.

This call is 100% “for real” free.

And there’ll be lots of content.

However, Daniel will also have something for sale, too.

Something designed to fill your schedule with all the clients your greedy little heart desires (so many, you very well may have to turn clients away or charge more to keep the line shorter). So if you are someone who is going to shriek like a scared little girl about being (gasp!) pitched something at the end, then don’t waste Daniel’s time.

This is for grown ups.

It ain’t cry babies.

More:

If you register with my affiliate link at:

… and if you buy the product Daniel is offering at the end… I’ll give you two advanced MP3 trainings about how to get booked solid with paying freelancing or coaching clients (this info works for most any kind of service) in the next 30 days or less.

The material on these bonuses aren’t complicated at all.

And, they work even if you’re brand new.

Anyway, here’s where to register:

(This is my buck naked affiliate link)

See ya on the other side…

Ben Settle

Got this response to yesterday’s email.

(About how giving away products free doesn’t help anyone.)

It’s from “Email Players” subscriber Joe Gilder.

And, it perfectly illustrates my point.

Preach it, brother Joe…

There was this in-person $1000 workshop I did earlier this year. We had 7 spots, and we gave away one for free to build up some buzz (and a sublist).

The guy who won the free seat bailed on the event at the last minute.

‘Twas free, so he had no real reason to commit, and therefore it wasn’t valuable to him at all.

ALSO…you give away a free pdf issue to every website subscriber, right? I was subscribed for 6 weeks before I joined EP. I DEVOURED the free issue you gave away, and went through with a checklist and did at least 2/3 of the email types/subject lines you suggested.

Once they worked, I decided you were indeed not full of poo, so I signed up. Almost a year later, and I more than doubled my income from last year, and last year was a REALLY good year.

Thanks again, and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Awesome stuff.

Just goes to show APPLYING the info is key.

If Joe just let the issues build up in a corner in his office to get to them “some day” (as if it’s a chore) or complained about information overload (instead of making it a priority so info overload isn’t an issue) he’d be missing out on a lot off coinage, yeah?

It’s so, so, so simple.

You subscribe.

You read.

You apply.

Joe and I profit from the info.

And so do a lot of others.

If you got the right stuff, join us at:

Ben Settle

So I got this interesting email recently.

It was from a website subscriber who is new to the marketing game, and has fell on some really tough times both financially and in other ways (dark stuff) and basically asked me two things:

1. A free Email Players subscription (i.e. a gift)
2. If I say “no” to not publicly humiliate him

Yikes…

Below is an edited version of my answer to him:

Hey man,

I would NEVER publicly humiliate you or anyone else who asks a sincere question in good faith or has a rational disagreement, etc. I only do that to people who all but ask for it. (i.e. angry goo-roo fanboys looking to pick a fight, petty losers who are blatantly insulting just for the sake of it — or, even worse, nasty tempered freebie seekers with an entitlement mentality acting like spoiled children).

But even then, I don’t name names.

And, never have.

Not even those who have publicly tried to harm my reputation.

Why?

Because it does no good.

And I am more interested in warning about “types” than I am specifically singling anyone out, especially without me having all the facts.

So no worries there.

It’s ALL good.

Now, on to your other question:

I suspect a lot of people who hear your story would consider you more deserving of something like a gifted product.

But deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

And, it would hurt more than help you.

You did not ask my advice on this.

But that doesn’t stop me from giving it anyway:

The best way to make it in this business is to get creative and have patience. In fact, having NO money and nothing given to you is actually a HUGE advantage. It forces you to do what others are not willing to do and think differently than the unwashed masses. What I did is just start with the free stuff like at thegaryhalbertletter.com and low cost books like Dan Kennedy’s “Ultimate Sales Letter” and “Ultimate Marketing Plan” books.

Then, I *applied* what I learned.

That’s important.

Apply what you learn ASAP.

Don’t wait.

Do it right away.

Then, what I also did was, I reinvested any monies I made (which wasn’t much at first) into buying more advanced products.

This gave me a finely honed “BS detector.”

Especially since, I had no $$ to waste on nonsense.

(I don’t think I ever bought from a big guru product launch.)

It was the best edu-ma-cation I could have gotten.

It took time, and patience and thinking outside the box.

It took letting go of my desires and fears.

And, it took persistence.

Yeah, it was kinda hair-raising at times.

But I wouldn’t trade it for anything, nor would I dream of depriving you or anyone else of that experience.

Anyway, I wish someone had told me the above.

It’d have short cutted my progress by years.

So hang in there.

Don’t give up.

And, never stop pushing forward — especially when all the crabs in the bucket (family, friends, jealous co-workers, whoever) try to pull your righteous self back in as you desperately try to escape.

Just test out the free and low cost stuff online (there’s tons of it).

Make friends with other marketers on forums, etc.

And then invest wisely with your profits.

But above all…

Enjoy the ride.

Yeah, it can suck at times.

But it can also be a lot of fun, too.

And when you’re ready?

The “Email Players” newsletter will be waiting.

I don’t recommend people subscribe unless they’re ready.

And by ready I mean:

1. Are building an email list (even if it’s a small list)
2. Not afraid of what others think
3. Don’t rely on swipe files (swiping emails is dumb)
4. Are not going to go into debt subscribing
5. Are going to APPLY what they learn

(That last one is key.)

It ain’t for everyone.

Nor is it intended to be.

Here’s the link:

Ben Settle

There’s been a disturbance in the force.

Far too many good, hard working (but misguided) people still stubbornly cling to the great email myth of our day:

That unsubscribes are “bad.”

That they’re the devil.

And, must be always be low.

Me?

I celebrate them.

And, I purposely write emails that turn off those who are not good prospects (or customers I wanna deal with) so they hopefully unsubscribe themselves fast.

Why take this attitude?

And, how are unsubscribes good?

Here are a few reasons to chew on:

1. Saves money

Some auto-responder companies are more expensive than others. But all will start racking up the $$ on your righteous self when you reach a certain subscriber count. That means, too many people on your list who never buy (or have no intention of buying) cost you money.

2. More sales

How could having lots of unsubscribes help your sales?

Well, they don’t directly.

But, if you do email the way I teach, you will almost certainly find your sales going up.

You’ll also see ye olde unsubscribes go up, too.

Why?

Cuz you’re turning ON the buyers, and turning OFF the non-buyers. And if you’re playing to WIN (and not to not LOSE) more sales trump less unsubscribes.

And finally…

3. Less spam complaints

When you mail daily (and you are mailing daily, right???) and people leave your list quickly using the unsubscribe link, then that means they won’t later push that friggin’ spam button.

And too many of those can be a nightmare for you.

So the faster non-buyers safely unsubscribe the better.

Anyway, so don’t worry about unsubscribes.

They’ll put hair on your chest.

And, even put $$ in your pocketses, Gollum.

Go here for advanced email training:

Ben Settle

A question about “asshole” emails:

“Ben I found your brief explanation about what you call ‘asshole’ emails this week intriguing becauase I have noticed a pattern where you write emails that are controversial then change up to something softer and then go back and forth. Is that on purpose or random? Thank you for all you do!!!”

Ah yes, asshole emails.

I talk about it in the January “Email Players” issue.

So I’m not gonna get too detailed here.

But yeah, I do mix it up.

Think of it like this:

Imagine there are two Ben’s on your shoulders.

On your left shoulder is devil Ben with his pitchfork and red long handled underwear and horns whispering something controversial into your ear… or demolishing some myth that everyone takes as “fact”… or mocking some dorky goo-roo fanboy who sends him random nasty hate mail, etc.

On your right shoulder is angel Ben.

He’s the opposite.

He’s the one with his halo and wings who puts his loving arm around your shoulders and, with a twinkle in his eye, gently guides you towards the solution to the problem you want solved.

Both Bens are selling you something.

And, both Bens want you to succeed massively.

The secret is in the dosage.

Too much of one or the other and you’ll get bored.

And boredom kills readership.

So I vary it up.

One day I mock the hamster spinners.

The next, I talk about how to write better.

Another day I may write about something inspirational.

Then maybe I go back to cracking the whip.

And so on, and so forth.

So you never know what you’re gonna get.

Every day is a surprise.

Each email is different.

That is a big part of my system.

It’s not the whole thing.

But it is a key part of it.

If you want to learn ALL the mysteries of the Settle way of writing emails that make lots of sales, then check out the “Email Players” newsletter.

It comes with a book showing my system from “A” to zebra.

The next issue goes to print shortly.

If you want in, there’s no time to lose.

Zip on over to:

Ben Settle

Whoa!

Yesterday’s gun email touched a few nerves.

The responses have varied from total agreement (from the smart ones, of course…).

To rational disagreement (the ones open to being edu-ma-cated)

To outright hamster spinning.

Take this one, for example:

“No, the rationalization that’s crazy is the one that thinks that something that was written by some dudes in the 18th century applies to today without a look at current society. You don’t NEED your guns and really, no one is trying to take them away…so keep touting your loony-attracting rhetoric to your email marketing list. Maybe you’ll convince someone to buy a gun.”

Run little hamster!

run!

Run!

RUN!

There’s nary a single fact in that reply.

Just mindless hamster spinning complete with another lame citation of a cliched argument that makes no sense whatsoever.

But don’t ye worry.

She’ll come around to my way of thinking some day.

I am, after all, always right…

Now, let’s talk about something else:

I got a ton of unsubscribes from that email.

(Shocking, eh?)

And, it was completely by design.

Unsubscribes are GOOD.

In this case, I’ve been getting a lot of new names on my list lately from various ad drops, etc and whenever I do that I like to ramp up what I call “asshole emails” like yesterday’s.

Sounds kinda mean, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s not.

In fact, it’s a NICE thing to do.

You’re doing people a favor.

And guess what?

I explain why in the January “Email Players” issue.

She goes to print soon.

To subscribe in time, go to:

Ben Settle

Do you know what the “rationalization hamster” is?

If not, here’s a good summary:

“The rationalization hamster is a legendary creature dwelling deep in the minds of the self-delusional, and is particularly common among young liberal women. From birth, the rationalization hamster enters a symbiotic relation with its host, whereby whenever the host feels a craving to do something completely insane and malicious that will have horrible consequences for everyone in the long run, the rationalization hamster will jump on its wheel and run really, really fast, getting the magical hamster wheel to spin out a long sheet of paper full of neat rationalizations for the ultimately devastating action.”

-UrbanDictionary.com

Too bad you won’t read about the rationalization hamster in books.

He’s not taught about in schools.

Nor do parents warn about him.

Yet, he’s an insidious little creature that inhabits the minds of many people (particularly in America and European countries) and can be quite dangerous.

How so?

Take the recent Connecticut school murders:

26 people (mostly innocent children) were ruthlessly slaughtered for no reason at all by a psycho who barged in to this “gun free” zone school and shot these innocent people down in cold blood.

A truly evil act.

And yet, the solution from the rationalization hamsters?

“More gun control!”

“More gun laws!”

“The politicians should ‘do’ something about it!”

Ah yes, the rationalization hamsters runneth overtime saying more laws (or outright banning guns) will prevent this sort of evil from happening. Yet, none of the existing 10k gun laws (however many there are) stopped this psycho… cities where guns are banned or highly restricted often have incredibly high gun violence (Chicago, Washington DC, etc)… and the murderer did it in a supposedly gun-free zone (i.e. school) where guns are not even allowed.

That is how the rationalization hamster works.

He doesn’t stop and think.

He just hops on his wheel and runs ’round and ’round mindlessly citing silly cliche’s like:

“The 2nd amendment applies to muskets!”

“The murderer shouldn’t have had access to weapons!”

“Only the cops & military should have guns!” (Cuz, you know, historically, that’s worked out so well for the Jews, Russians, Armenians, Chinese, Guatemalans, Cambodians, and every other people who was slaughtered by their own governments after gun bans… and our Attorney General has outright said that killing American citizens is acceptable when *necessary*…)

So run little hamsters, run!

Go!

Go!!

Go!!!

No facts or common sense needed.

No context (historical or contemporary) necessary.

Just one *rationalization* after another…

Ironically, I was practicing shooting at the gun range on or about the time of Friday’s murders. And it was a thousand times safer in there, with weapons popping off around me (none of us licensed or carrying any silly “FOID” cards or whatever), than in any “gun free” school parents send their kids to each day.

But, the rationalization hamster doesn’t want to hear that.

Too much thinking.

Not enough rationalizing.

Oh, I know some people reading this are SEETHING angry. Maybe even preparing multi-page responses desperately trying to rationalize their rationalization hamsters’ irrationalizations on how wrong I am by quoting some nitwit on the newz or celebrity like Piers Morgan (who got publicly spanked on this topic on Twitter recently).

Hey, don’t let me stop ya.

If I can help poop that hamster out, I’m delighted.

For everyone else reading this?

There’s actually a marketing lesson here:

Depending on what market you sell to (weight loss and political fund raising, for example), you might have to appease some crazy rationalization hamsters in your ads, emails and pitches.

You can’t just use logic and reason.

You gotta feed those rationalization hamsters a pellet or two.

It’s all about knowing your market better than anyone else.

What their biases are.

What their prejudices are.

And, who they *blame* for their problems.

Deep stuff.

And well worth thinking about.

For the “how to’s” of email, check out:

Ben Settle

A subscriber inquires…

QUESTION: When I read your material, it feels like you’re right there talking to me in person. I know you didn’t come out the womb with a pen in hand writing like this, so what did you do to develop your writing style.

BEN: I have three answers for you.

People serious about wanting to get better at writing will bite the bullet and OBEY the following advice.

And everyone else?

They’ll SPURN it!

Figure it’s too hard.

Pronounce it too much work.

And resume their quest for a “shiny new object” way to write (like putting a book about writing under their pillow and learning via “osmosis”).

Whatever the case, here’s the advice…

1. I mindlessly wrote Gary Halbert ads out by hand

That includes all his ads I could get my hands on… many of his newsletter issues (especially the ones that were disguised sales pitches) and even one of his books (The Boron Letters).

I recommend doing this with your favorite copywriter.

Especially mail order writers.

(Stay way from Internet copywriters — too sloppy).

The second answer is…

2. Write!

Write, write, write, write, write!

The more you write, the better you’ll be.

That whole 10,000 hours thing is really true (i.e. if you want to master something, do it for 10,000 hours). This is why I suggest practicing via daily emails to your list “Email Players” — www.EmailPlayers.com — style. Not only will you get better at writing extremely fast… but you’ll make some more of the green stuff, too.

(“Earn while you learn”, baby!)

3. Write like you talk

If you want to write in a conversational tone… have a conversation with your audience.

Yes, warts and all.

And that’s it.

Maybe not the most inspiring advice.

But hard work rarely is inspiring…

Ben Settle

Once upon a time, my email droog Roger Haeske told me:

Hi Ben,

Just watched Seinfeld last night for the first time in months.

“The Soup Nazi” episode if you must know.

Anyways, I’ve realized that you’ve actually become the Seinfeld of email. What you’ve done is managed to create a whole new field within email.

The strategies you use are really complex and well thought out.

I doubt most people could figure out all of the stuff you’ve been doing.

In fact, there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t even realize until you helped me out. And you know I’m constantly studying email courses including your course and using a lot of email in my own business.

Anyways, I just wanted to congratulate you on paving the EMAIL way and truly becoming the Seinfeld of email.

Cheers,

Roger

P.S. You’ve created a whole new art form so to speak.

But after all of this pondering (also analyzed your last week of emails to determine what kind of theme elements you were using) I realized that you’ve sort of taken Seinfeld like concepts and applied it to email marketing.

Wow!

That’s gotta be one of the single coolest things anyone has ever said to me. And it’s true, this really IS an art, no doubt about it.

That’s why it’s not very easy to “reverse engineer.”

(Although people try all the time… and fall WAY short.)

Well, guess what?

In just a few weeks (in the January “Email Players” issue) I’m going to hand subscribers a swipe file of ways to “segue” into the call to action.

Almost nobody does this right.

(Especially the Ben Settle copy cats.)

Powerful information, Sunshine.

And, very profitable, too.

To subscribe in time, go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle