Ben Settle

Not that it’s a huge deal anymore…

But I am no longer married these days.

Yes, the Nerd Girl and I parted ways 6 months ago.

(So no emoting or sympathy necessary, it’s old newz.)

And while everyone is doing 100% fine, there are also some extremely valuable lessons you can gleam from my experience that apply directly to business if you are looking for them.

In fact, that’s the “warm-up” lesson:

Always keeping your “antenna” up.

Every email marketer should do this.

And, in my case, I knew the minute it happened I’d end up writing about the experience eventually.

Anyway, enough warm up.

Here are a few lessons to think about:

Lesson #1: Negative experiences are profitable

I’m going to write about this later in more depth.

But for now:

Most people never take advantage of their negative energy — and instead use it to mope, overeat, and do other “self medicating” (i.e. self destructive) things to themselves.

Screw that.

Sac up and USE bad experiences to your advantage.

How?

Turn them into emails that make you more sales.

That way, even if something REALLY sucky happens then at least you’ll cry all the way to the bank.

I even taught this in this month’s “Email Players” issue.

If you want it, I kept a few extra issues in stock.

Subscribe today and I’ll send it to you:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Lesson #2: Get a REAL edu-ma-cation

Most people avoid challenges.

Avoid pain.

And avoid making tough decisions.

Thus, they avoid REAL education.

The kind you can’t find in a book or at a school or at a goo-roo seminar or whatever. It’s only when you make hard, unpopular (even impossible) decisions and push through the fear and anxiety when you REALLY get your learn on at the street level.

You can’t buy wisdom.

You can only earn it.

And it’s rarely an easy acquisition…

Lesson #3: Embrace the unknown

This is a strange (in a good way) time for me.

You see, when I was married, my entire life was basically mapped out. I had a good idea where I would be living and what I’d be doing and who I’d be doing it with.

Now?

Well, now my future is a big fat flashing neon “?”.

I have no clue where I want to settle down.

Where I belong.

Or, where I’ll end up.

I just recently moved, but I’m already plotting my next move. The beauty of owning a business online is it doesn’t really matter. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can do your thang anywhere you want.

Where will I go next?

I really have no idea.

But I must admit, it kinda EXCITES me, babycakes.

The unknown is fun once you embrace it.

And that, my friend, is the greatest lesson of all:

Seizing the unknown.

Not avoiding it, but clamping on to it.

In my case…

My recluse days are pretty much over.

My marketing posse and I are already plotting a small intensive training in Las Vegas this year (details forthcoming). I’ll be going places I used to have no desire to go to, probably dabbling in speaking and maybe even doing in-house email marketing training for entrepreneurs and companies who want it.

To paraphrase my boy Samuel Jackson in “Pulp Fiction”:

I’ll be like Caine in the TV show “Kung Fu”…

Wandering the earth.

Getting into adventures.

And helping people double sales with email along the way.

Anyway, so that’s that.

Those are a few lessons from my divorce.

Read ’em.

Use ’em.

And (most importantly) PROFIT from ’em…

Ben Settle

P.S. And of course… if you’d like to join my inner sanctum of email marketing badasses… and “divorce” your bad self from all the wannabes out there (and there are many)… then check out the “Email Players” newsletter at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Remember last week’s print vs digital email?

About why I do a PRINT newsletter… and not a digital one?

A would-be subscriber doth protest:

With all dueth respect, I disagree.

OK, I’m probably a thin slice of your pie, but I’m willing to be there’s quite a few folks like me who don’t really get snail mail. I’m very mobile – live in 3 or 4 places throughout the year – and snail mail often misses me. For that matter, I don’t like snail mail.

I get your point about snail mail being a little dressier but if the info’s good, I don’t care if it’s bits or paper. Well, I do care. I prefer bits – in fact that’s all that works for me.

I’m one willing but unserved buyer.

He makes an interesting point.

But, IMH(but accurate)O, it’s just the opposite:

If you wanted it bad enough, you’d find a way to receive it (despite the inconvenience), and devour it probably 10x’s more intensely than everyone else, and profit from it 10x’s more abundantly than everyone else, precisely because it IS so inconvenient.

This analogy isn’t exactly the same, of course.

But, I’m the same way with some things:

I hate video, for example.

I prefer audio.

That way, I can listen/learn while walking on the beach.

(Yes, I have a very rough life…)

So I tediously take the time to rip the audio off of videos using an RCA cable and a voice recorder.

It’s a total pain in the gluteus assimus.

But guess what happens?

I use and benefit from it FAR more as a result. What I don’t do is ask the publisher to change their formatting just for my sake.

After all…

If the product’s good, they’re doing me a favor.

Not vice versa.

Anyway, that’s my take on it.

Besides, didn’t you get the memo?

I’m ALWAYS right…

Speaking of “Email Players”…

The May issue goes to the printer tomorrow.

It includes:

• A “cheat sheet” of my launch process (by popular demand)

• Why racist-obsessed movie geeks write the best email subject lines (and where to swipe their work free)

• How to sell your product without making a single claim

• How to use “vintage” ads to write super profitable emails

• How to use email to profit from a bad day

• And a ho’ bunch more…

Subscribe while there’s still time here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Your King,
Ben Settle

Curious and curious…

Since launching my print “Email Players” newsletter — www.EmailPlayers.com — last year, several people have suggested (or asked about) it should be delivered via email (instead of hard copy) since it’s about… email.

Could they be right?

Is there a disconnect?

Is it smart sending an email newsletter via snail mail, not email?

I kinda see why one might wonder this.

And so it deserves an answer.

But worry ye not.

Methinks this’ll be educational no matter what you sell:

1. Do what works

Saying I should deliver paid content about email via email instead of snail mail is like telling someone they should only use sales letters to get clients for writing sales letters.

Mayhaps that makes sense on the surface.

But, not when you look deeper.

For example:

During the 8-9 years when I did client work, I don’t think I’d ever gotten a client by sending them a sales letter. Instead, they were almost ALL gotten via the phone (especially my top 3 paying clients).

Yes, I could have used sales letters.

Not saying they don’t work.

But the phone always got better results.

In fact, one of my friends built his entire copywriting business attending seminars (not sending anyone a sales letter). And the fact is, a lot of top sales letter writers get their best clients with the phone… not their keyboard.

So you do what works.

And the print format has been extremely successful so far.

Yes, even teaching about the Internet.

And speaking of format…

2. Format

Some say format doesn’t matter.

After all, if the info is good, who cares about format?

One guy used the analogy “if a hot super model gave you her telephone number written in crayon on a wet used napkin, would it matter???”

I dunno, Spanky.

Did she SELL it to you for $100 bones per month?

If not, it’s comparing apples to oranges.

I’m sure you’ll agree, if you want to sell a $50 steak dinner, you probably would not put it on a dirty garbage can lid or cheap paper plate, and say, “yeah, but it tastes good!”

The point?

Email is not a high quality format to deliver premium priced info.

If you want to convey quality, “dress” accordingly.

This goes whether dressing your body for appearance or dressing your product for purchase.

Which brings us to the next reason…

3. Impact

Hey, I loveth email.

And I have profited from it tremendously.

But for having impact, it’s not even in direct mail’s league (it ain’t even in the same sport). It’s almost like Christmas when a piece of valuable snail mail arrives. It generates good feelings in people about you and your business. But most people don’t exactly drool over downloading “air.”

More:

There’s a neurological reason for this.

It’s now a documented fact your body dumps a “pleasure chemical” in your brain every time you get an email (this is why people check their emails compulsively, and why it’s such a great medium to sell with). But what most web marketers don’t realize is that, with direct mail (like a print newsletter…) that “pleasure effect” is amplified 100 fold!

After all, there’s a physical presence.

You’ve entered their home.

You’re now sitting with them in their most secure and intimate environment — and they’ve actually paid you to be there.

It’s not quite the same with email, is it?

No sir, it ain’t…

4. The pain-in-the-ass factor

The first person (a good friend) who suggested I should deliver Email Players by email (instead of direct mail) said there might be a disconnect.

And, maybe he’s right.

For some there could be a disconnect.

But you know what?

Anyone wound up so tightly they wouldn’t subscribe because it’s in paper & ink format instead of digital “bytes” in an email would be such a pain in the ass customer I wouldn’t want them anyway.

I hope it DOES turn them off.

Those types suck the life right out of you.

Anyway, that’s it for now.

Those are four reasons why I’m right and the people who think I should email the content are simply…

Wrong.

The next “Email Players” issue mails soon.

It covers all kinds of info, too.

Including:

• A secret subject line “swipe file”

• How to sell without citing benefits

• How to convert vintage ads into hot selling emails

• Bill Clinton’s email secret that got him elected

• And a ho’ bunch more…

Subscribe while you can, here:

Ben Settle

No time for dawdling today.

Yesterday I said:

“You’ll make more of the green stuff batting out a ‘C’ level email 5-7 days per week, than you will spending hours writing and testing one ‘A’ level email 1 day per week.”

And I said I’d explain why today.

Since it’s baseball time…

Last week I was watching the White Sox game and saw a perfect example of how even so-called “loser” emails (i.e. emails that brought you little or no sales on a given day) can still make you mucho smackola. In this case, there was a man on second base who had gotten there on a double. The next batter hit a slow grounder to the second baseman, who threw out the batter, but the guy on 2nd had advanced to third. Then, the next batter flied out, but it was deep enough where the man on 3rd could score a run.

And that, my friend, is how email works.

The man scored due to two outs by two other batters.

Those were not base hits, but they served the purpose of advancing the runner to home for a score.

In “email land” this happens all the time.

Someone sees your email from last Tuesday.

Is “sold” on your product.

But due to any number of factors (money, time, computer problems, whatever) they could not buy that day. But the proceeding emails keep “advancing” the sale (like a runner) each day, until they eventually buy.

And, often, they buy on a day when you didn’t get lots of sales.

(Yes, even from a weak email.)

I hear this probably once per week now.

Someone says:

“Ben I want to buy today, but can’t, but I’m going to!”

And, lo and behold, a few days (or even a few weeks) later they do buy, and they will sometimes even THANK me for reminding them each day.

Moral of the story?

Quit screwing around.

Get those emails out.

And start playing the email game.

Every day you don’t you’re losing sales.

To learn my system for emails, go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, Ryan Healy did a great blog post.

It was about email metrics.

And specifically what to test and measure.

He was saying how, when testing one email against another, he tests open rates, clickthru rates, unsubscribe rates, conversion rates, dollars per click, etc.

And when doing that, I think it’s a great idea to test all those things.

But with daily, “off the cuff” emails?

When you’re just batting them out?

My attitude is, get it out there.

In fact, here was my response to him:

(Paraphrased)

“I’ve had emails that bombed the first time, and then killed it a few months later because (on a whim) I used it again. If I’d let metrics (or even sales, which I pay more attention to these days) totally dictate my future emails, I’d have lost out. Also the converse has been true, I’ve re-used emails that killed it and a few months later nothing. It’s funny, but the longer I do this, the less scientific I believe email needs to be, and it’s more important to just get them out consistently each day. Many times the ‘sale’ is made sometimes weeks earlier in one email, but they procrastinate and buy later because another email reminds them of it. (I know this because people have told me, ‘man this email got me, when I can afford it I’m buying…’ and lo and behold, a few days/weeks later they bought (from a different email).”

I’ve seen it over and over:

You’ll make more of the green stuff batting out a “C” level email 5-7 days per week, than you will spending hours writing and testing one “A” level email 1 day per week.

And tomorrow, I’ll explain why.

Of course…

If you bat out B or A level emails each day (instead of F, D or C level emails, like most people) you’ll make far more sales.

That’s where “Email Players” comes in.

The difference (in sales) can be night and day.

Details at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. The next issue is chock-full of tips.

One of which is perhaps my best secret:

How to sell in emails without making a single claim or benefit. The copywriters will weep & gnash their teeth over this.

Should be fun:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Last year I had a rare opportunity:

To be interviewed for Ken McCarthy’s elite “System Club.” Ken is like the “founding father” of Internet marketing (certainly one of them), and it was a great time and a lot of cool info was discussed.

Anyway, one thing we talked about was email.

Specifically, email frequency.

A lot of my website subscribers think I’m some kind of weirdo for sending out daily emails.

That I must be crazy.

And that I just tick off my lists, yada yada yada…

Of course, they’re all dead wrong.

They couldn’t possibly be wronger.

(Not about me being crazy, but about email frequency…)

It’s just the opposite.

Not only do you not tick your list off… but if they barely hear from you and you only mail them when you have “something to say” you have a MUCH greater chance of ticking them off since they aren’t used to hearing from you.

“Who is this jackanape sending me mail?”

“When did I join this list?”

“Where’s the spam button!”

Yes, mi amigo.

That’s exactly what goes through their minds.

But besides that, there’s a clear financial reason to bang out an email every day to your list. And when talking to Ken I learned he has a few other extremely profitable websites (non-marketing related) and I was floored by the numbers they get.

So naturally I asked…

“What’s the secret?”

“It’s that daily communication.”

Guess I should have known!

Oh well.

Is any of this getting through?

Or will you keep SPURNING my advice on this?

I hope not.

Because you’re leaving mucho $$ on ye table.

Go here next:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Hey,

This will be a “quickie” today.

(Got to get ready to move tomorrow.)

But that Survey Funnel plugin sale is ending this week. If you buy it from my affiliate link below, you can get it for 50% off.

Here it is:

http://vantagenet.surveyf.hop.clickbank.net?tid=47special

Ben Settle

P.S. If you want to read the interview I did with Ryan Levesque (talking about this plugin and some cool ways to use neuroscience to make more sales) here is the link:

www.BenSettle.com/list

Imagine you’re a social media goo-roo.

And, imagine you sell “how to” social media products.

(haha imagine that…)

You know, for Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and any other social media platform you can think of.

But, you have a bit of a problem.

You get lots of traffic.

But you don’t know which product your traffic is interested in!

Do they want your FaceBook product?

Your Twitter product?

LinkedIn?

What?

And you KNOW you’re losing sales because on days, for example, you promote your LinkedIn product, you’re boring the shizzit out of the people on your list who are NOT interested in LinkedIn.

Probably many of them will even leave.

“Meh. This isn’t for me…”

Sucks, doesn’t it?

Hey, I know.

Many affiliate marketers run into this all the time.

And you know what?

Until recently I had this same kind of problem (in a different market) where we have lots of different leads coming in with different sub-interests.

It’s been a big pain in the assimus, too.

Then, I met Ryan Levesque.

He’s the dude I’ve been yapping about all week.

He figured out a way around this.

How?

Well, Ryan has studied advanced neuroscience at an Ivy League university, and has even taught college level classes on the subject. And, recently, he created a WordPress plugin that lets you immediately (right when traffic hits your site) segment your traffic out, so you can send them to a capture page or sales letter that targets what they are interested in, so you don’t have to guess.

Take our imaginary social media goo-roo above.

If he used this plugin, he’d pwn.

People interested in FaceBook, would be sent to a capture page or sales page JUST about FaceBook.

Ditto with Twitter, LinkedIn, etc etc etc.

Think that might help sales?

You’re darn tootin’ it would.

This is the cyber equivalent of what the big direct mailers (who do $100 million+ per year) do. They slice and dice and segment their lists like crazy, making sure people get offers they’re interested in, and not a bunch of offers they’re not interested in.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Hey, it IS simple.

And very powerful, too.

(Plus, it’s “point-and-click” easy to use.)

Best part?

If you get this plugin via my affiliate link below, you get it for half off (for this week only).

And here it is:

http://vantagenet.surveyf.hop.clickbank.net?tid=47special

Ben Settle

P.S. If you want to read the interview I did with Ryan Levesque (talking about this plugin) here is the link:

www.BenSettle.com/list

Did you download that free PDF yesterday?

The one of the interview I did with my new marketing pal Ryan Levesque (who’s like a neuroscience “scholar” — having taught the subject on a college level), and who has been using all kinds of interesting ways to build lists and make sales using some VERY simple neuroscience principles?

If you missed it, it’s good stuff.

One of my favorite parts is when he described:

“The neurotransmitter ‘cocktail’ buzz”.

And how to use this strange little quirk of the human brain to hold peoples’ attention (by mixing a bunch of chemicals around in your readers’ brain — and don’t worry, none of this is unethical or anything, people WANT this).

Anyway, if you missed it no worries.

You can still download it free here:

www.BenSettle.com/list

Also, another reminder:

If you buy the list-building product from the link inside the PDF (my big bad affiliate link) you’ll get the product for half off.

But, only for this week.

And, only from that exact link.

More tomorrow…

Ben Settle