Ben Settle

Below is a note I got from “Email Players” subscriber Jonathan Rivera.

He took my system and has RUN with it.

And thus, he regularly keeps eagerly coming back month after month, and sends me new updated testimonials along the way. In fact, he reminds me each month to send his issue “just in case” so there is no delay.

I have several subscribers who do this.

And, it’s awesome how much success they’re having.

Anyway, below is Jonathan’s latest one:

Yo Mr Settle – what’s up my friend.

I’m sorry I dropped of the grid for a while, but it’s pretty much your fault.

In August I redid my autoresponder for my big ticket subscription product (people pay me $600 per month for 1 year) Instead of the 3 emails I was sending in the first 30 days I opted to put the Settle magic to work and upped the anti – sending 12 emails over thirty days.

The results…

I signed $28,800 in new business that month with a list of less than 40 people!

Wondering what people pay me $600 per month for?

An apartment.

Anyone who thinks this stuff won’t work in their business just needs to figure out how to translate it to what they do.

The point to this email is not to swell your head, but merely to let you know I just sent you $97 for this month’s eMail Players – make sure you send it to me pronto so I can make even more money off what you teach me 😉

Thanks for everything,
JR

Hey, I’m not guaranteeing everyone will make out like bandits.

But mostly, those who don’t aren’t applying the info.

(And will often admit it.)

So let me be crystal clear with your righteous bootay:

“Email Players” is NOT intended for everyone.

Its NOT for “price shoppers.”

And, it’s NOT for people who don’t apply what they learn. (Or who read, nod and go “okay, what else ya got???” before applying the info first.)

I can’t stand people like that.

They suck the life out of you.

And so, I don’t want anything to do with them.

What I want are doers.

Implementers.

And, yes, players.

(Or those who want to be players in business.)

Thus, the name of the newsletter.

Anyway, here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold, this note from “Email Players” subscriber Alan Sawyer:

Yo Ben,

Hope you’re good.

Just got this back from some dude:

“I was wondering if you offered any email copywriting services? 
I wanted to get some custom emails written… Let me know.”

I read a little about copywriting, I subscribe to your email players newsletter and I’m a bad student only sending out a couple of emails per week. I shoulda just gone ‘full bore’ and emailed daily. Would probably be a whole lot better at writing copy in general and emails in particular. Anyways, this week I’ve had someone ask me to do a headline for them. And an old employer ask me to write a sales letter for his Carpal Tunnel Syndrome product. And now this dude asking for emails.

More than a co-incidence?

And thanks for the add to the Google group.

My intention was never to be a copywriter. Nor did I think I was anywhere near being able to charge money for it.

But not going to say no to the experience (or the money).

My point… you’re right. This stuff works.

Alan

And another validation my system kicks booTAY.

Ponder this:

A lot of people don’t realize how my way of writing emails not only makes you *instantly* stand out from your lame competition, but would-be clients are attracted to you like a goo-roo to a get-rich-quick scheme.

After all, my methodology makes you unique.

Makes you interesting.

And, makes you valuable.

This is a whole *other* benefit to learning my system.

Anyway, food for thought.

Especially if you are a freelancer.

To subscribe to “Email Players” go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I knew this would happen.

After last week’s email about why I think many (not all, and common sense must prevail…) entrepreneurs would do well to be more “anti-professional”, I got a slew of questions on the subject. Some thought I’m saying to be an insulting asshole to everyone (the copywriting fanboys seemed especially taken with that idea for some reason…)

No!

Easy there my eager little whipper-snappers.

I said anti-professional.

Not unprofessional.

And, certainly not outright asshole.

Lemme give you an example…

Let’s say you get some mindless and completely pointless complaint email about an email you send your list that says… “THIS WAS A WASTE OF TIME, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ANYMORE, TAKE ME OFF YOUR LIST!!!!”

Yes, in all CAPS.

You know the type.

(And it’s a sign you’re doing something *right*, by the way).

There are 3 ways to address this:

1. The professional way
2. The unprofessional way
3. The anti-professional way

The professional way is like you’d get from a big eCommerce company:

“I’m sorry, I will remove you immediately, have a great day.”

That isn’t terrible.

But, it doesn’t really do the world much good.

After all, the complainer has just had his brain’s whiney little complainer hamster fed and watered and feeling empowered to continue his wicked deeds (misery really does love company…)

Then, there’s the unprofessional’s response.

He does the exact opposite — telling the complainer he’s a loser while insulting (even threatening him with physical violence like “I’ll kick your ass I ever meet you in person…” etc).

Finally, there’s the anti-professional’s response:

No butt smooching.

No arguing.

And, no drama of any kind.

Just…

Radio silence!

Or, if it’s a particularly nasty complainer, you might say what I recently told a guy who didn’t like one of my emails and yelled at me in all CAPS:

“Do you always whine like a little bitch instead of just clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link”

But, I wouldn’t recommend YOU doing this, necessarily.

I’ve been at this a while and my haters have a certain predictability.

So I suggest you use “radio silence.”

Anyway, that’s that.

Writing like an anti-professional is what I teach in “Email Players”.

All my emails are in this style.

And, I find it highly effective.

(As have others.)

Go here to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An explanation is long overdo…

Nearly every week someone asks if they join “Email Players” do they get the back issues, etc.

The answer is…

No.

I realize mine’s not the goo-roo way.

You know — letting new members access content free others had to pay for.

But really, it’s insulting to current subscribers.

Many Email Players subscribers have been around since day 1.

How does giving others free what they paid for show them loyalty?

Answer:

It doesn’t show loyalty.

It shows I’m willing to sell out for a few extra dineros.

Fact is, I could probably make substantially more sales if I did the goo-roo thang and gave people instant access to pdf’s of the back issues upon subscribing or allowing new subscribers to buy back issues at a big discount or whatever.

And I suspect sales would double.

But, so would the number of people who I don’t want subscribing and actively try to turn off in the sales letter.

More:

I wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors with the goo-roo thing anyway.

I’ve been publishing “Email Players” since August, 2011.

And I’ve noticed people who sign up “just to get the free stuff!!” are clueless about succeeding at anything.

They don’t have the right mindset.

They look at info products as a cost instead of an investment that can (and should) pay them far more than their monthly subscription.

Frankly, just applying (for example) the 30-day challenge or modeling/adapting the emails I show as examples EACH month in your own voice for your product and market can save you a ton of time and yield a nice ROI.

I don’t know how to make it more simple.

But, maybe that’s the problem?

I’m not complicating it and “goo-rooing” it up.

People tend to value the complicated more than the simple, after all.

And I want nothing to do with them types.

If you want complicated get thee elsewhere.

I don’t play that.

If you want simple and proven, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my favorite copywriters is Doug D’Anna.

Doug doesn’t have the “rock star” reputation amongst the copywriting fanboys like, say, a John Carlton or a Gary Halbert. But nevertheless, the guy can write a mean ad and he has the track record of controls to prove it. (Even the great Gary Bencivenga — universally considered the world’s greatest living copywriter — raves about Doug, and calls him one of his most ablest competitors.)

Anyway, I interviewed DD in 2007.

And he was FULL of cool tips.

My favorite was his “spotting the open man” teaching.

He happily admits he’s not the “best” copywriter.

Nor the most talented.

Or probably even the most disciplined.

But he’s TOPS at spotting the open man.

As he puts it… knowing your market (and what to say to them) is like the quarter back who can spot the open man and get him the ball, but doesn’t have the strongest arm, most balance or quickest feet.

In other words…

It ain’t about swiping.

Or mindlessly writing ads out by hand.

Or buying $10k in copywriting books/courses.

Those are all fine and dandy but they pale in comparison to having the ability to spot the open man.

Pretty groovy, eh?

And you know what else?

It’s even MORE profitable for email marketing.

That’s the beauty of email.

It lets you get intimately familiar with your list in ways you simply can’t by blogging, tweeting, reading magazines or getting an “estrogen bath” on FaceBook all day.

You send an email, you get INSTANT feedback.

(i.e. you either get sales… or you don’t.)

Plus, it’s fast.

When you know what you’re doing you can bang out a profitable email in 5-15 minutes. If you have a big enough list, you can make a nice living by waking up, hammering out a quick email, and goofing off the rest of the day. (Play golf, hang with your family, whatever floats ye olde boat).

It’s amusing this is still a mystery.

Anyway, if you want that lifestyle, here’s good news:

I teach this skill (writing emails in a way where you can learn to spot the open man) every month in my “Email Players” newsletter.

It ain’t cheap.

And I won’t say it’s for everyone.

But if you want “in”, go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my droogs Caleb Osborne asked:

“Ben how did you find a photographer who would take your ugly mug and make it look so cool and stuff? I need some pro photos taken for all my various websites/identities …”

Very good question.

And, something not enough people think about.

Here’s what happened:

Back in 2011 I was doing lots of media interviews about email marketing, and some of the producers were looking for high resolution photos for the station website. Well, since all my photos were low resolution shots of me farting around and not really suitable for such a thing, I figured it was time to find a photographer.

So I looked around to see what’s what.

Luckily, there was one whose worked I liked.

A lot of his photos were a bit… “edgier”… than most.

Light on the syrupy sweet & cheese.

And heavy on the laid back & cocky.

Which was exactly what I wanted.

It only cost like $100, and took only 15-20 minutes.

Now I have several high resolution photos for book covers, websites, media pages (producers like having a high resolution image), etc. Probably I’ll get some new ones next Spring to stay up to date. And also because, even though I don’t wear a suit in the current ones… even though I didn’t even bother shaving that day… and even though I didn’t smile in them… next time they will be even MORE what I call:

“Anti-professional.”

Not unprofessional.

But anti-professional.

Think of anti-heroes in stories.

Like the Incredible Hulk.

Or Walter White of “Breaking Bad” (before season 5, at least).

Or Dexter Morgan (from “Dexter”).

These are fan favorites for a reason.

And, that’s why I believe this kind of personality (in your emails, ads and, yes, photos) helps sales over time for many entrepreneurs (at least for males). The trick is finding a photographer who knowseth what he’s doing and not some hack off Craigslist or whatever.

What I suggest is asking for unpolished, but not sloppy.

Kinda like how good EMAILS are.

Because let’s face it:

Even your “Rico suave” photo won’t matter if you don’t know how to sell.

That’s where “Email Players” steps in.

It’ll take your ugly mug emails and make them cool.

Make them fun.

And, yes, make them profitable.

Go here to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

So my marketing droogs and I had a discussion yesterday.

And it was about all these recent auto-responder “black listings” going on. Like, for example, aweber’s spam assassin said using shortened “bit.ly” links for amazon were on a black list. This past weekend Infusionsoft users had a 95% bounce rate to single opt ins. And just yesterday turns out 1shoppingcart tracking links are on a black list, too.

(According to aweber’s spam assassin, at least, I have not investigated this further).

Anyway, a lot of people stress over this.

And, the first reaction is:

“I need to change auto-responders!”

Hey, I get it.

Especially when there are big lists and big numbers involved.

But I think it’s a mistake to change your auto-responder (whichever one you use and are comfortable with).

One could spend their whole business lives switching auto-responders (which is always a big, fat pain in the gluteus assimus) — losing sleep, causing themselves stress, etc over changes that come and go.

What I do is back my lists up regularly (in case one of them flat goes out of business).

But other than that, I just don’t worry about it.

I don’t think you should, either.

This is just how it goes.

There really is nothing new under the sun.

One day something is blacklisted, the next it ain’t.

One day Infusionsoft is God’s gift to email, the next they have 95% bounce rates.

One day aweber has a user-friendly interface, the next they complicate it (thankfully leaving the old one in place).

One day 1ShoppingCart is a gift from the Almighty, the next they can’t even allow us to export recurring orders.

And so on, and so forth.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

In almost every case, none of these things are permanent.

They work themselves out.

And, the game goes on…

So yeah, all this recent black listing stuff sucks.

But whatever happens, realize this too shalt pass.

That’s why you’re MUCH better off concentrating on getting those emails out every day.

Making your case.

Bonding with your list.

And, as a result, making you the ONLY choice to buy from.

For more on this, go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A couple people have been getting worried about me lately.

Why?

They think I’m being too… negative sometimes.

That I seem almost angry.

And, that I must have some bad stuff going on in my life or something.

Of course, they’re all wrong.

They’re “projecting” their own BS onto me and others. My life has never been better — so much so, I can’t help but wonder when some hammer is going to drop on me out of the blue.

Angry?

Please.

If anything I would like to conjure up some anger sometimes, as it’s great for productivity.

Negative?

How so?

Writing emails that are designed to protect y’all from getting screwed is positive, not negative. Only a cynic would consider any of my emails (which I am often laughing while writing them) “negative.”

But, at the same time, I don’t pretend to be a nice guy, either.

You can’t be.

Not in this business.

This goes for anyone online.

But especially for service providers.

In fact, my droog Doberman Dan put it perfectly when we were talking about clients and how so many of them are simply not decent people (and who happily take advantage of service providers and screw people over without even thinking about it).

I joked how I think people should be more like Heisenberg.

(From “Breaking Bad”)

Here’s what he said:

Yeah. Me too.

I’m feeling like the reason these fuckers keep wanting me to work for peanuts or free is because I’m perceived as a nice guy.

And my politeness is mistaken for weakness.

I’m thinking about bringing out my inner Heisenberg and turning myself into something downright fucking scary and borderline evil.

And making myself almost a ghost like Heisenberg.

I’m beginning to see it’s better to be feared than liked.

Yeah, baby!

That’s *exactly* it.

You can play the nice guy for a while.

But I can tell you from experience, you WILL get screwed over.

It’s just a matter of time.

People have very fine tuned rationalization hamsters which will spin even the most vile and sinister things they do into gold, as if they’re the victims and are perfectly justified to do whatever they want to others in pursuit of the almighty dinero.

It’s not guys like me and Dan who are negative.

It’s not us who are angry.

And it’s not people who refuse to take crap who are the problem.

It’s the people walking all over their employees, service providers and partners who are negative and angry and the problems.

As they like to make up rules to the game as they go.

We simply do what we have to do to win it.

Ethically?

Definitely.

But win we do, which makes the bad guys even more angry and negative and hellbent on screwing over the next generation of noobs and steal their innocence.

So don’t whine to us about negativity.

Don’t cry because we use some “bad” language once in a while.

And, don’t worry about our well being.

We’re simply playing (and winning) the game.

And that’s the point I want to make:

Don’t hate the player.

Hate the game.

We don’t make the rules.

We simply learn how to win with the cards we have.

You should, too.

Quit being so friggin’ nice already.

Call people out on their bullshit.

Tell dishonest clients where to go.

And, don’t take flack from anyone.

One of the reasons I call my newsletter “Email Players” is because of this. I teach my subscribers how to win the game by writing emails that make lots and lots of sales. That liberate them from relying on client work or worrying about if their sales letters are any “good” (it’s almost irrelevant with email done right) or wasting their lives doing everything the hard way.

There’s a whole other world out there with email the Settle way.

I hear it all the time from subscribers.

They almost can’t believe it when the extra sales roll in.

When they start winning the game.

You can experience it yourself.

But you have to take the first step.

I can’t do it for you.

This is YOUR life.

It’s YOUR business.

And it’s YOUR future.

You can keep playing not to lose.

Or you can play to win.

If you want to play to win, then check out “Email Players” at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Some of y’all BenSettle.com readers got issues.

Specifically, I’m talking about people who ask me questions about how to sell online without selling (wtf does that even mean???) It’s like people still think “selling” is a dirty word — sort of like the “F-word” of business.

I can kinda see why, though.

Especially with all the shady “persuasion” tricks out there.

It reminds me of the old TV show “The Munsters.”

The whole family were basically monsters — like Frankenstein, the were-wolf, the ghoul, dracula, etc. And whenever the mailman or the water meter guy or whoever popped in they’d get freaked out by the look of them.

Because they LOOKED like monsters.

Except, of course, for the blonde hottie cousin living with them —

Marilyn.

Everyone liked and trusted her.

Nobody was scared of her.

And, people liked her.

Why?

Because in that family she looked like a nice, normal person — not a monster.

And that’s how selling is, too.

You can use the lame manipulation, gimmicky, hype-filled tactics everyone on the Internet uses and come off as a monster.

Or, you can be like the blonde chick in the Munsters:

Inviting.

Attractive.

And EASY (to talk and do business with).

That’s why email is so effective.

Even if you succumb to goo-rooitis and put up a hype filled nonsensical sales page that turns off cold prospects (or if you’re selling as an affiliate and you have no control over the sales page) it don’t matter.

Your emails do all the heavy lifting.

Many won’t even read the sales page.

Test it yourself and see, amigo.

Go here to see how it’s done:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle