Ben Settle

Today’s my birthday.

And to celebrate, I’m gonna write about one of my FAVORITE subjects:

The foolishness of “social media marketing”.

Let’s pick on FlakeBook this time.

What is it with all these people obsessed with getting FaceBook “likes”? People are even spending money to get FaceBook likes (loco). And yet, a FlakeBook like is basically the same as a person driving by your store, honking his horn and giving you a toothy smile and a thumbs up (and not spending any money or even stopping in to say hello).

Whoopy.

Maybe that’ll give ya the warm fuzzies.

But will it put coinage in ye olde pocket?

Not likely, Chuckles.

Hey!

I know the social media addicts seethe like hippies at a gun show when I even so much as SUGGEST all those FakeBook likes are about as useful a marketing tool as the Good Year Blimp is.

But tough diddles.

I’m not here to make friends.

Or get a pat on the back from the goo-roo brotherhood.

I’m here to speaketh the trufe.

To keep you away from nonsensical theories.

And, to make you $$.

SPURN me at your peril.

OK enough!

I know email is like so, you know, 1996.

But it works like crazy.

In fact, it’s never worked better.

It’s also what I teach each month in “Email Players.”

Get the lowdown at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my website subscribers said something that was kinda cool.

He was replying to that “Ben up” email last week.

And he said:

“Dude… you’re the shit… your enemies secretly worship you…”

I like that ha ha

Now, I don’t know if they worship me…

But I definitely have enemies.

And the list of those enemies is growing faster than a super hero’s rogue’s gallery of villains. In fact, it’s growing so fast, I’ve started kicking around the idea of a writing a new book called:

“How To Make Enemies And Anger People”

(Dale Carnegie ain’t got nothing on me…)

Apparently, I EXCEL at both.

In the past 6 months I’ve been called everything from a huckster and chump… to a liar and asshole… to even an honest-to-goodness psychopth by one Internet marketing teacher.

Anyway, the point?

For better or worse…

I’m world class at this making some people angry thing.

(I’m SO good at it, I do it without even trying!)

But, you know what?

My ability to anger and make enemies is small potatoes compared to my friend Jim Yaghi’s ability to get people riled up.

Talk about tipping sacred cows.

He pretty much attacks everything.

Split testing.

Tracking open rates.

Swiping.

People who claim high squeeze page conversions (i.e. people will say they have a 90% opt in rate, but they don’t tell you they sent their house list to that page…not cold traffic…)

And the list goes on.

He finds sacred marketing cow.

Walks up to it.

Tips it.

The result is anger.

And, in some cases, probably even threats.

Never a dull moment on Planet Yaghi, I reckon.

This is why I insist you get on his list.

You won’t agree with everything he says. You won’t like everything he says. You may not even respect everything he says.

What matters is you DO what he says.

Trust me.

It’ll put more $$ in your pocket.

Here’s where to go:

www.jimyaghi.com/start2/dfyt-leads.php

Ben Settle

What?

You can’t get enough Jim Yaghi?

You want MORE Jim Yaghi?

But you still have SPURNED my advice to get your bootykis on Jim Yaghi’s email list?

Sigh.

You sure are stubborn.

So here’s yet another email Jim wrote (that I am reprinting with his permission) about another cool way to ramp up ye olde response. Something nary a goo-roo really understands, thus you don’t see them trying to teach it or pretend like they invented it.

(Goo-roos are funny like that…)

Ready?

OK Jim, hit it…

Why SWIPED Copy Fails

Haha this is hilarious!

Was doing, some err…”TV show swiping” online, when I saw two landing page pop-unders for two different BIG Gooroo clients of ours.

Normally, I just shut those annoying windows before they even load, because they’re noisy and irritating. But since they belonged to my clients, I gave them a second look.

The first, was an autoplaying video which brought me to tears.

The second had a REALLY familiar headline pattern.

Turns out, the headline itself was a near-exact swipe of one I developed for my Email Expert friend Ben Settle.

Now, Ben is an incredible copywriter; one of the best and highest-paid in the industry. He wrote the sales letter for my PPC Domination course, which set an industry sales record in its launch week.

But I’m the God of Traffic and landing pages are MY area of expertise.

Several months ago, I shared with him a landing page technique that I discovered works EXTREMELY well on cold-traffic.

Since he was launching his Email Players newsletter at the time, he asked my help to brainstorm a headline that uses my technique.

We called it Time Continuum Landing Pages…

Because of the way it works.

Essentially, the theory I based it on is to do with linguistic tense. My MSc and PhD topics were both on computational linguistics – knowledge from which I borrow heavily.

The theory:

Things that occurred in the past are EXPIRED and no longer valid. (i.e., false). And things that are to happen in the future, e.g., conditional statements, “you’re about to”-type statements, are unproven and hard to believe (also false).

But things that are in the present, are currently happening and cannot be disputed (i.e., true!).

There’s a lot more to it – and even Ben had difficulty doing it alone…but that is the gist of it.

So the landing page copy we came up with was:

“Simple Email Tips Putting Money In Bank Accounts RIGHT NOW…

“Top email specialist is divulging 24 proven ways to get people reading and buying EVERY TIME you send them email…Use the form below to open it now…”

Although Ben and I both agree that split-testing is a waste of time, Ben tested this headline for MONTHS against everything he could think of, and it ALWAYS out-pulled his new headlines.

ONLY for cold-traffic though. We had differing theories as to why, but in the end we agreed that Time Continuum is an amazing conversion strategy for cold traffic.

Why I’m laughing now is that the Gooroo Client who swiped the headline pattern had NO CLUE as to why it was working so effectively.

And although they probably increased conversions a little bit, they missed the theory that makes this technique effective.

Their swipe-modified headline still had “promises of future” (false) and didactic instantaneity (i.e., the button said “get instant access” instead of making a person FEEL immediacy as we do with ours).

This, I think, is a PERFECT example of what Gooroo Fanboys do to stay just Fanboys instead of business owners.

They swipe and copy away without understanding the intricacies of why things work and when.

Then they wonder why they don’t have the same results as the originator.

Look, if you want to get high converting copy, you have to become so intimate with the field of marketing, that you are a PHILOSOPHER.

In Academia, the highest degree of specialty you can get at university is called a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)…and you can get it in ANY field: computer science, business, linguistics, psychology, medicine…anything.

Because any TRUE expert must be a PHILOSOPHER in their field.

And if you don’t have years to master copywriting, traffic, and all the other components of marketing…well you’re not going to have very good luck in online business.

How’s that for a mind churner?

See why I insist you get on his list?

And, why I insist you do it TODAY (in the present)?

Here’s where to go:

www.jimyaghi.com/start2/dfyt-leads.php

Ben Settle

P.S. Happy Independence Day to my American subscribers.

Not that independence is a cherished concept in the US anymore (too many would rather suck on the government teet), but what the hay, might as well enjoy the fireworks…

Yesterday I told you about Jim Yaghi.

The computer scientist and lead generation master.

Remember that?

Well, today, with his permission, I’m reprinting an email he wrote about why split testing is (GASP!) a waste of time.

Yes, I know this goes against the grain.

But, most truth does.

In fact, I’ve been doing what he says (below) and my opt-in conversions are overall higher.

Definitely worth seeing if you get the same results.

So, without further ado…

Take it away, Jim:

Last night, I went to bed with the SPLITTING-EST of headaches.

Was gonna pass out; even after 3 pills of the strongest kind, and Voltarin cream on neck and head…the pain got the better of me.

Lack of sleep is the culprit – but like I always say – plenty of time to rest when I’m dead.

Speaking of SPLITTING…

How about what I said a while ago?

“Ben and I both agree that split-testing is a waste of time”

I knew someone would challenge me on it…and it was an Engineer client of ours who ended up asking, “What do you mean it’s a waste of time?”

Oddly enough, I was on a call with Ben Settle at the exact moment the email came in, discussing that exact topic.

When I told Ben YEARS ago that split-testing is stupid…he was shocked!

“Jim,” he said. “You are a SCIENTIST! Don’t you even have a Math degree or something? I thought you’d be the ONE guy who’d RELIGIOUSLY split-test everything.”

Yes I do have a math degree somewhere. But Nope, I split-test NOTHING.

Skeptical as Ben was, when I told him split-testing was stupid, he figured I knew what I was talking about and gave MY method a try.

Today, he and I laugh (all the way to the bank) at people who split-test.

Split-testing is an attempt to make SCIENCE out of marketing…which, let’s be honest, marketing is more a TRADE than a science. Or if you’re me – Handsome and Awesome – then it’s more of an ART than science.

Engineers and people from science backgrounds, they tend to enjoy the idea that marketing could somehow become scientific and predictable…although it NEVER really is.

It’s virtually random. Without order. It’s all grounded in PEOPLE’s EMOTIONS – no logical thing can describe or model it.

– Does this red button work better than this green button?

– Does this headline perform better than this other?

– Does this landing page convert higher than the old one?

All good questions.

But running the split-test itself could be DANGEROUS.

Not only do you risk killing a money-making version of your ad…

You also risk keeping the LOSER version instead of the WINNER versions over time, which will progressively DROP your sales rate.

It’s true.

Look, the whole concept of split-testing relies on statistics, which is the science of APPROXIMATING the FUTURE from OLD DATA.

All statistical tests start on the premise that a sample should on some level represent the population.

Meaning, if you run a statistical experiment in marketing, you’re doing it with the belief that the 1,000 or 10,000 people who see your sales message, behave like, and are a “good-enough” representation, of your ENTIRE market.

You certainly don’t show your ads to the ENTIRE market during a split-test.

And the ENTIRE market does not behave the exact same way as the 1,000 people you test.

And 10,000 people don’t behave exactly the same as 1,000 people in a test.

We know this much.

Sure there could be patterns in each group’s behavior, but it differs from one group to the next.

And theoretically, the bigger the group, the closer you get to describing the entire population of your market.

So split-tests may be MORE meaningful when you’re dealing with a sample size in the order of 10,000 – 100,000 hits/day…but that’s rarely when marketers are using split-tests.

One thing we can be certain of, is that SOME of your market will respond to Version 1 of your ad while others will respond to Version 2 of your ad.

And those who respond to Version 1 may not ever respond to Version 2 and vice versa.

This in itself is a good enough reason to NOT split-test.

Add don’t forget, that when REAL scientists run statistical experiments, they attempt to create a COMPLETELY controlled environment with as close to ZERO bias one way or the other.

Something you can ONLY pull off in a lab, with lab-rats, which we don’t have the luxury of online.

And they use tests like Chi-Square, Kendall’s, Pearson’s, or Spearman’s correlation to understand if the results of one variation against another might somehow be due to PURE chance.

(Meaning, they ALSO test HOW WRONG THEY MIGHT BE in reaching their conclusion!)

It’s so complicated; it’s enough to give YOU and ME both a splitting headache.

Let’s put it this way:

Split-testing is a dangerous tool in untrained hands.

Plus there’s a much simpler alternative that works better.

Whether your ad is Version 1 or Version 2, or V.3 or V.10, all you REALLY care about is that your ad is making money (or generating leads).

So if you run two versions and BOTH succeed in doing that (eg v1 gets 10% optin and v2 gets 30% optin), DON’T kill v1!

If you kill v1 because it scored worse than v2, you’re assuming that ONE ad is going to be responded to by 100% of your market.

That’s not true is it?

V1 got 10% of your market to respond. So keep it. Unless you want to turn away 10% of the population.

Instead, create a v3 based on v1’s success and run all 3 versions of your ad.

This way, you INCREASE your odds of getting an even LARGER share of your market to respond to your ads…WITHOUT turning away anyone else who behaves like those who responded to v1 or v2!

Hey, now you don’t suppose that’s the ONLY marketing trick I know, do you?

See, the point here is that I know GANGS of marketing tricks that make life easier, less complicated, and make much more money.

You can read about them here:

www.jimyaghi.com/start2/dfyt-leads.php

A question rolls in about testing…

“I’m totally confused by this testing vs. non-testing debate. If the concept of testing is not sound, then how does anybody know if anything works (other than generating a random quantity of sales?) What’s to say you should use one headline over the other if you can’t trust the results of either? Was Claude Hopkins full of sh*t when he coined the term “scientific advertising” for his book? Testing has to have *some* validity, right? Maybe only in broad strokes, but still usable.”

Who said you shouldn’t be testing?

I’m ALL for testing.

But realize testing emails is very unreliable.

And, can even harm your sales over time.

Example:

I’ve written many emails that kicked bootykis the first time I used them, but BOMBED the next time. I’ve also had emails do little or no sales the first time (and this spans multiple markets, btw), but drive in lots of sales when I lazily recycled them later.

See the problem?

The danger?

If I’d dogmatically relied on so-called “testing data” from tediously setting up A/B tests each day, I’d have missed out on lots of sales.

So I’m all about sales trends with email.

Not measuring metrics that are (at best) unreliable.

BTW, as a side bar…

This “testing” email stuff makes some people VERY emotional.

One blue-flame special went especially batty — including threatening to punch me in the face, demanding I show him a tax return, yada yada yada.

Amusing stuff.

My buddies and I found it hilarious.

Hey, I DO so love them haters.

They… complete me…

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, now, static pages are great for testing.

Especially opt in pages.

(And especially the kind of opt in page I’m teaching in the July “Email Players” — www.EmailPlayers.com — newsletter issue, which goes to the printer in a few days…)

But email testing data is highly unreliable.

Not always repeatable.

And, can cost you money as a result if you blindly follow it (it’s not a total waste of time, but you have to be careful).

Bottom line?

The real power is in regular communication.

In being consistent.

And, in knowing how to write to your market.

That’s my opinion.

And, as you know, I’m always right.

You can learn my email system at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Joe Gilder writes:

“Do you do an affiliate program for ‘Email Players’? Random update: This month will be the SIXTH month in a row where I’ve beaten my previous month in gross income. ridonkulous.”

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Yes, some think I hype my newsletter up.

Usually, those are people who have been burned by someone else, and now take their righteous indignation out on anyone who makes any kind of claim about any kind of product.

Kinda sad.

Because, usually, those types continue to fall for nonsense.

(And then get even more zealous in their cries about hype, etc).

Anyway, onto Joe’s question:

Is there an “Email Players” affiliate program?

The answer is no.

And probably there never will be one.

BUT…

I am toying with the idea of licensing the newsletter.

Basically what that would mean is, interested people would buy the rights to sell the newsletter (an expensive licensing fee up front, plus paying me a small royalty on the sales each month), and have to agree to use my printer and a few other odds and ends.

Not sure I’m going to do this yet.

And, I do know I want only serious people selling it.

Not any old yahoo with a clickbank ID.

Anyway, so that’s what’s going on.

More info forthcoming.

In the meantime, subscribe at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. Joe Gilder (the guy who asked the affiliate question) also sent me another email saying how it’s not like he went from $20 to $30. He was around $7,000 in January. Now he’s pushing $15k.

All from using my system.

And, from doing it consistently.

Hey, this stuff ain’t magic.

But the results can sometimes seem magical, eh?

The next issue goes to the printer in a few days.

If you want in on time, go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

What’s with this anti-blatant pitch attitude online?

It’s like people have been so indoctrinated with one goo-roo after another telling them to never pitch… just give away all your best ideas freely… or just do some lame half-assed pitch in the PS or whatever, safely hidden away so nobody (GASP!) unsubscribes.

Well I’m here to tell you it just ain’t so.

You CAN pitch blatantly.

You SHOULD pitch blatantly.

And, dang it, you WILL pitch blatantly (and LIKE it) when I’m done with you.

There are many reasons to blatantly pitch.

Maybe not every day.

But, at least sometimes.

A few big reasons include:

1. More sales (isn’t that reason enough?)

2. Sets the tone you’re in business (and not a charity)

3. Gets your solution into more hands (isn’t that what it’s ultimately all about?)

4. Saves money (contrary to what the Internet marketing igits say, you want high unsubscribe rates, especially if you have a lot of website traffic)

There are many more, of course.

Probably dozens more.

Now, there is a bit of art & science to this.

The key is knowing how to do it in a way where you don’t freak anyone out or come across as just another affiliate or goo-roo looking for a “booty call” (figuratively speaking).

That’s where I can help.

Getting away with pitching is my speciality.

It’s something I’ve gotten VERY good at (modestly speaking…) via writing thousands of emails total for multiple different markets selling all kinds of various products.

And guess what?

I’m teaching this in the July “Email Players” issue.

It’s gonna be a doozy, too.

There ain’t nothing more profitable than knowing how to blatantly pitch in an email in such a way where people not only don’t mind, but actually love reading it (and, yes, buying from it).

Wanna see how it’s done?

And, how you can do it too?

Complete with a couple real life examples?

Then at the risk of blatantly pitching you…

Go here to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

It goes to the printer soon.

No time for dilly-dally…

Ben Settle

I just love the smell of hate mail in the morning.

Check out the doozy below that came in yesterday.

WARNING for ye with tender eyes:

Strong and (even worse!) unintelligible language, read at your own risk or scroll down past it:

Message:
fuck you scum suckers and nazi fags.

eat shit and die assholes.

Aaaah.

Hate mail is truly my morning brew of choice.

But methinks we need some balance.

So, here is an actual intelligent question about yesterday’s “Web 1.0” email:

You mean there’s hope for me yet? Too many balls to juggle.Would love to just focus on the basics.

But, the truth is, that FB done right, can gain a hell of a following of a hungry crowd. And, I look at FB and my cell phone more than emails. Lots of emails don’t get opened (even a few of yours, unless there’s vulgarity in the subject line, in which case it gets opened first).

Many people seem to do very well with an integrated approach.

But you’re saying if you can’t be bothered with SM (a true form of S & M) (and I don’t get Twitter at all) not to worry, just stick to good ol’ email?

People incorporating SM aren’t making more sales just by virtue of being in front of more people? I may not open someone’s email, but I may see something they post or a friend posts.

In any case, interesting counter-conventional wisdom.

I say (and I’m right) use it all if you want.

The more the merrier.

But if your life was on the line, and you HAD to make a sale, and you had to pick either sending an email to your list or lobbing a link at your FaceBook friends, hoping enough of them are going to see it at THAT particular time for you to get the sale… which will you choose?

I know what I’d do…

Hey, email is KING.

At least, if you do it right.

(Sadly, hardly anyone does.)

But social media is more like the court jester.

It’s amusing.

It’s fun.

It can at times even be useful.

But at the end of the day, compared to email… it’s a joke.

Email is where the real $$ is made.

To get your piece of that pie, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Social media blah blah blah.

Everyone’s an expert at it.

And if you ask some of these “experts”, they really do believe Twitter and FaceBook are the 8th and 9th wonders of the world — the twin messiahs that will usher in a new age of business peace and prosperity.

I kinda don’t think so, chief.

Yes, they have their uses.

But the REAL profits are not made on Twitter or FaceBook or any “social media” site.

They’re made with ANTIsocial media.

Media that’s one sided conversations.

With little or no interactivity.

Take for example…

* Direct mail

Last year I briefly worked with one of the top direct mail consultants on the planet. He routinely was mailing something like 50k postcards per week selling a “how to make money in real estate” product.

Real estate?

Isn’t that dead?

Not in direct mail apparently…

* Magazine ads

I remember a few years ago, Dan Kennedy talking about a small display ad for men who want to be taller, how it had been running non-stop since… before he was even born!

Just chugs and chugs along, year after year.

Decade after decade…

Try doing that with a Tweet.

* PPC ads

Even though most of the goo-roo fanboys are banned from AdWords (how are those sneaky little “ninja tricks” working for ya?), that doesn’t mean PPC isn’t kicking major gluteus bootyus.

There are people doing HUGE numbers with PPC.

Yes, even with all of PPC’s silly rules.

* Email

Like it or not, you’ll build your business far faster regularly mailing a list of 500 email subscribers than you will with lobbing tweets at 100k twitter followers all day (assuming you know what you’re doing, of course…)

Awright.

Enough!

I’m not totally knocking social media.

After all, I use it myself.

But it’s like sitting at the kid’s table trying to out-scream each other for attention, while the REAL business is being done at the adult’s table.

That’s my opinion, leastways.

And methinks the numbers agree…

Ben Settle

P.S. Of course, my favorite antisocial media marketing tool is email. If you know what you’re doing, you can profit quite handsomely even from a small list.

I’ve taught many others how to do it.

And can show you how to do it, too, at:

www.EmailPlayers.com