Ben Settle

Having “shy bladder” sucks.

I suffered from it for years.

And it’s where for whatever reason I couldn’t uhm, er, do my business… in a public rest room if anyone else was in there (or if I could hear people talking outside or thought someone was going to walk in).

Yikes.

Kinda made going to the movies miserable.

Anyway, there’s an email version of this, too.

Where people say something like “Ben, I sit there at the computer and can’t think of anything to say! Nothing comes out! I just freeze up!”

Again, it’s just like a hot case of shy bladder.

They can’t do their “business.”

It’s the cyber equivalent of standing at the stall for several minutes shuffling their feet, getting frustrated and not being able to squeeze out a single word — even though they really have to “go.”

Well, methinks it’s time to put a stop to this.

Writing a profitable email should only take 10-15 minutes.

Often times even less.

And this is why when you subscribe to the “Email Players Newsletter” you’ll get a book showing you ways to write profitable emails without fear or hesitation. It also includes a step-by-step email marketing calendar where I tell you what kind of email to write each day with explanation of how to write it.

That way you just sit and crank.

Minutes later your email is sent.

And, if you do it right, money starts flowing into ye olde bank account as a result.

It’s a wonderful thing.

To subscribe at a discount, go to:

Ben Settle

One of my biz “heroes” is Bruce Barton.

I’ve rapped about him before.

In fact, it was just a couple weeks ago.

It was the email about how he taught the lesson of Joseph in the Bible. How Joseph was the top dawg in Egypt (second only to Pharaoh) and everyone knew him.

At least, until he joined the “choir invisible.”

After that, a new king arose who had no idea who Joseph was.

And he then went from celebrity to nobody.

Ouch.

The lesson?

It’s very easy to be forgotten, and it’s extremely important to stay in your market’s psyche at all times.

Well, guess what?

There’s more silver in them Bruce Barton hills.

Just pick up Joe Vitale’s “The 7 Lost Secrets Of Success” (which I’m currently re-reading) and you’ll be awash in these kinds of insights. Take, for example, page 32 where Vitale adds to the “Joseph” story by saying how every day new customers are appearing (and, I would add, on YOUR email list). How they don’t necessarily know your story, services or products. And if you don’t tell them about those things they’ll go to whoever they have read about, heard about, or seen advertised. In that sense, these new buyers are the new king… and they know you not!

You gotta keep telling them about yourself.

Let them know who the sheriff is in town.

So get those emails out — every day.

Stay in touch with your market.

And read Joe Vitale’s book.

Somewhere, Barton is smiling…

Ben Settle

P.S. Keep getting asked this “Email Players” question:

“Ben, I don’t yet have your Street-Smart Email system. I know you said it won’t matter but I want to make sure. Is there anything I should be reading or buying to get up to speed?”

Answer:

It’s a non-issue.

Don’t even worry about it.

Why?

Because the first thing I’m sending you upon subscribing is a 100 page book (a real book you can hold in your hot little hands, not a pdf) that’s a sorta Street-Smart Email “cheat sheet” for getting you up to speed. That way, even if you’re brand spanking new to email marketing, you’ll be grounded in the basics of my way of doing email before you even see your 1st issue.

So again, no problem at all.

To get on the discount notification list, go to:

You can also see the pricing and other details, too.

Friday’s email disturbed a few people.

And also, it prompted some questions — specifically “OK Ben, how exactly can I advertise and be seen as a trusted peer???”

There are lots of ways.

Let’s take Oprah, for example.

I’m not a big Oprah fan by any means.

But the girl is an extremely savvy business woman who knoweths what she’s doing. Especially the way she pulls off being a billionaire media mogul… yet still the token “girl next door” at the same time.

Brilliant.

And, something we should all strive for.

After all, Oprah is the kind of woman who complete strangers will come up to and start telling her their most intimate and private problems… like she’s their best friend.

You think Bill Gates can pull that off?

Or Warren Buffet?

Or some Colombian cocaine billionaire?

Hardly.

But Oprah does.

And she did it by developing an audience, talking to them each day, getting personal with them, and letting them get personal with her.

The result?

She’s a peer AND a trusted source.

Heck, she’s trusted by her fans even MORE than they trust their loved ones and friends. (I know this because I once gave sage health advice to a female family member, only to have that advice SPURNED… but when the exact same advice was given on Oprah’s show, it was taken as “gospel”… go figure…).

So that’s how you do it.

There’s no “course” for this.

No magic pill or button.

You gotta work at it every day (just like Oprah did).

Personally, I do it via email.

And “Email Players Newsletter” subscribers will get an ongoing education on exactly how I do it (with real-life examples) each month — assuming you implement the lessons.

That’s the rub.

You gotta do the work.

So it’s not for “do-it-later’ers.”

It’s for “do-it-TODAY’ers” who rip it open, implement that same day, and see results in their piggy banks that same night.

Anyway, so that’s that.

To get in on this action go to:

Ben Settle

Don’t shoot the messenger.

I know the social media addicts hate when I even so much as suggest social media isn’t the marketing panacea they think it is. Not saying it doesn’t have its place. But people seem to miss the point with it.

Let me giveth you an example.

Recently I read this in an ezine:

“90% of consumers trust peer recommendations… but only 14% trust advertising. The ROI of Social Media is your business will exist in 5 years!”

Okay, let’s put this under ye olde microscope.

Yes, it speaketh the truth about trust.

No argument there.

But that’s a function of bad advertising.

Not advertising itself.

Take email, for example.

Do it right and you ARE a peer. You’re also a trusted source. And (if you know what you’re doing) you’re also perceived as a leader in your market/niche/industry by a good portion of your list.

Who do you think wins the fight?

The “peer”?

Or the peer/market leader?

So go ahead.

Tweet your can off.

Spend all day on FaceBook.

But unless you’re perceived as a leader (or at least an expert) then why would your peers listen to you over their other peers?

So be a peer AND a leader.

IMHO, email is perfect for this.

Do email right and no goo-roo can compete with you.

(To the people on your own list.)

And no “syndicate” can steal your thunder.

(You’re your own syndicate.)

To take your biz to the next level, become an Email Players subscriber. My goal is for subscribers and I to make a crap load of the green stuff together using email.

But it’s not for the wannabes.

And it ain’t cheap.

To see if you qualify, go to:

Ben Settle

Someone made a request last week.

He wanted me to NOT use the word “goo-roo” for a while. Of course, I told him his request was received… processed… and — BZZZT!!! — denied!

I just can’t help it.

There are too many lessons to be learned.

And I ain’t talking about “how to” lessons, neither.

Case in point:

A while back someone asked me what I meant when I said the word “goo-roo.” Who am I talking about? Is that code for ripping on anyone specific?

Uhm… no.

It’s simply a way to describe a certain kind of “teacher.”

Probably the best definition for a “goo-roo” I can think of is someone who brags about having $10,000 worth of info products on their shelf they’ve never actually consumed… and thinks they’re an expert by “osmosis.” Kind of like sleeping with a book under your pillow and thinking all that knowledge is going to seep into your brain.

Just doesn’t work that way.

But really, I like goo-roos.

They make me (and a lot of other people) look good.

For example:

I’m enjoying watching all the email “experts” popping up. Some are even trying to recycle what I teach and then pretending to be masters at it, even though they rarely even write to their lists.

Back in the day, it’d irritate me.

But now?

It’s amusing.

And it’s amusing because I know as soon as they see you can’t fake it, they’ll move on to the next shiny new object (probably social media).

Happens all the time now.

Anyway, so that’s that.

If you want to learn email at my feet, go to:

Ben Settle

Ever see “Faces Of Death”?

It’s a 1980 “cult classic” horror film.

It’s basically nothing but a movie (with narration) about animals and people… dying. It was deemed so disturbing it was banned in several countries, and even though most of it’s fake (the flesh eating “death cult” scene is my favorite), there are some scenes that were real.

Fake or not, the movie is quite gruesome.

And the filmmaker was just obsessed with dying.

Anyway, reason I bring it up is because I was recently thinking about how easy it’d be to create a movie about all the ways businesses die.

Kind of a “Faces Of Death” for entrepreneurs.

It might include such grisly horrors as:

• Zero customer service

• Mindless swiping

• Relying on “one” of anything (i.e. Dan Kennedy’s “1 is the most dangerous number in business”)

• No long term planning
  • Moving free lines (instead of selling)
  • Never thinking outside the box
  • Listening to people who have never actually done what they’re advising (i.e. consultants with lots of book smarts but no “street smarts”)
  • And the list goes on…

  There are millions of ways to kill a business.

  Probably the easiest-to-avoid business death is simply not following up enough. No follow up (or weak follow up) can kill a business lickety split.

  That’s why I’m big on email.

  It makes follow-up a no-brainer.

  And it’s one reason I’m creating the “Email Players” newsletter (coming soon).

  To get it at a discount go to:

  www.EmailPlayers.com

  Ben Settle

It’s Independence Day weekend here in the US.

And I want to celebrate by giving you a special gift: A free (digital) copy of the FIRST “Email Players” newsletter issue (it’s normally in hard copy print format, but this issue is digital).

To get your email lovin’ simply subscribe to my daily tips at:

They’re proven.

They’re pithy.

And they can increase your sales quickly.

Ben Settle

P.S. This is actually the August issue.

Due to a number of reasons, I won’t be launching the newsletter until mid August (with the September issue). So I figured, “why not give this issue to my list free, to give you a taste of you can expect from it?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

And (even more importantly) PROFIT from it…

“Ben, why do you block AOL, MSN and Hotmails?”

A very good question — and timely, too, as recently I decided to change this policy due to it outliving its usefulness.

Here’s the dealy-ho:

A few years ago I noticed a weird trend.

For some reason, whether sending personal email across the house (we had MSN at the time) or via my aweber account, a lot of people using AOL, MSN and hotmail addresses were not getting my emails.

This wasn’t the case with everyone.

But it happened enough.

Both with free info and customer service emails.

It’s not a huge problem with free tips.

But it IS a problem for delivering paid products.

So what I did was use aweber’s blocking feature to block AOL, MSN and hotmail emails. The way I see it, if you use those emails you’re not going to receive the information you asked for, anyway.

However, here’s the rub:

I don’t know if this is the case anymore.

Mayhaps spam filters are getting less aggressive.

Or maybe they’re more intelligent.

But with my 1ShoppingCart email program, people get their emails at those blocked addresses all the time, with little or no problem (if anything, yahoo emails get lost…)

So I decided it’s time to change my policy.

We’ll see what happens…

Anyway, here’s the take-away:

Email is ALWAYS in flux.

It’s one reason I’m doing an ongoing hardcopy newsletter just about email, so my subscribers and I can stay informed of changes, what’s working (what’s not), what spam filters are up to, etc.

For details sally forth over to:

Ben Settle

Today’s client tip should make you happy.

Especially if you hate writing long ads.

Check out these grapes:

A while back in the private yahoo forum for my Crypto Marketing Newsletter subscribers, someone was asking for advice on how to sell their services. He was thinking (like a lot of people do) that you need a long form sales letter to get the job done.

My advice was to go the opposite way.

And that a long pitch is unnecessary,

Sure, you can do that if you want.

But it’s kind of a waste of time.

This is especially true with copywriters selling their services who spend all their time trying to “convince” people reading their ads why they need copy (a big mistake IMHBAO). Instead, just put up a menu of services, and go after people already spending money on ads by demonstrating and pitching your wonderfulness with samples, testimonials, and tips via your blog and emails.

Hey, it works.

That’s all I can say about it.

On a related note…

Tomorrow is Jason Leister’s webinar:

Jason is “the man” with profiting from clients.

Plus, check this out:

As a “carrot” to get you to check out his webinar, if you use my affiliate link to attend at:

… I’ll give you two kick assimus bonuses.

One is by Ryan Healy.

And the other by John Anghelache.

Both are masters at getting new clients and the information they reveal in these MP3’s (which you can usually only get via buying my $297 Copywriting Grab Bag product) are intended to get you paying clients (especially copywriting clients) right away.

I’ll send them to you free.

Just email me your receipt when you use this link:

(My affiliate link)

Ben Settle