Ben Settle

I’ve been doing an unusual workout program lately.

I started it in August, and basically, I’m the “guinea pig” for a marketing pal who’s into all these whacky crazy ways to work out. Anyway, it’s based on pull ups. And when I started, I could barely do 12 in a row. But now, only two months later, I’m doing 25 (over 100% increase) and going up a rep or so each week.

Pretty crazy, isn’t it?

Guess what’s even more crazy?

It’s the EASIEST workout I’ve ever seen!

And believe me, with all the different sports I played, martial arts and being around athletes my whole life, I’ve seen a LOT of workouts.

But none like this one.

This one is a breeze.

That’s actually the whole point of it.

In fact, if it gets too hard, I scale it back so it’s easy again (something to do with your central nervous system yada yada yada). And the results are truly incredible.

Why am I telling you this?

Is there a point?

There sure is, boss.

Because this concept applies to business, too. And when you do it, you can usually accomplish way MORE with way LESS effort and strain.

Example?

OK, take writing.

You can do it the hard way — procrastinate, worry about what to write and freak out about getting all your ideas down and making everything smooth and clear and easy to read, etc. Or, you can do it the easy way by doing the opposite and giving yourself dinky little goals just to get started.

No pressure.

No getting “psyched up.”

And no strain whatsoever.

Just say, “my ONLY goal is indenting the first sentence of each paragraph!” Or… “today, all I’m doing is a spell check.” And so on, and so forth.

Make your goals SUPER easy.

What happens then?

Well, chances are you’ll get so bored you’ll do a little more… then a little more… until finally you’ve done WAY more than you would have originally.

Whacky crazy stuff for sure, my friend.

And perfect for us undisciplined types.

Ben Settle

P.S. Tomorrow is Doberman Dan’s “Direct mail for web marketers” webinar. When you attend you’ll get a free Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue (in PDF) I sent out in September.

Lots of value in them thar hills.

And you can get you some here:

I’ve been yapping away about direct mail a LOT.

Why do I keep going on and on about it?

Two reasons:

The first reason is because next week Doberman Dan and are doing a free direct mail training tele-seminar (actually, he’s doing the work, I’m just holding the clipboard). There will be a pitch at the end, but it won’t be necessary to buy anything to get mucho value out of the experience.

But there’s also another reason:

I flat out think it’s cool!

Yes, now that I’ve done it (and am continuing to do it), it’s like a whole new world is opening up. There are so many things you can do with direct mail you can’t do (not with the same impact, at least) online.

And nowadays it’s almost as easy as sending an email.

Examples?

OK, how about these apples:

• Bounce back offers (i.e. inserting your pitch in the same box or envelope as a product you are already sending someone. This lets your pitch get a “free ride” with a virtual 100% guarantee your prospect will read your ad.)

• Find JV partners (letters have FAR more impact than email)

• Get new clients (did you know Bob Bly, the great copywriting coach, got all his first clients by sending a short letter to a targeted list of potential clients? Again, it’s got IMPACT.)

• Special sales announcements

• Put OTHER business’s ads in your mail and charge for it (this is where other marketers pay you to let their ad ride along with your products or mailings — potentially covering your hard costs, making your mailings free.)

• Generate referrals

• Drive opt-ins to your website

• Profit from JV relationships (same as putting other business’s ads in your mailings, except, instead of them paying you to send their pitch, you share in the profits from their sales)

• Back-end sales

• Customer/client re-activation (this is such a no-brainer almost ANY business can get an immediate cash flow surge just by doing it)

• And so on, and so forth…

So those are just a few ideas.

Frankly, the profit-potential is enormous.

Especially if you understand direct marketing.

Anyway, to see how one of the few remaining direct mail masters does it, check out the free training Doberman Dan’s doing next Wednesday.

Details at:

Ben Settle

Many moons ago I heard a kick bootyus training.

It was a recorded “night owl” session at some Dan Kennedy event I’d gotten free as a subscriber to Dan Kennedy’s newsletter. The guy giving the training was Bill Glazier and it was about his rather sophisticated marketing funnel.

Wish I could remember all the details.

But there was one take-away I’ll never forget.

And that was how he’d built his funnel in such a way so his business was all but IMMUNE to being knocked off by copycat competitors.

How did he do it?

There were actually a lot of things he did.

But the big daddy of them all was mixing and matching media. In other words, he combined email and websites with FAX, direct mail, magazine & newspaper ads, tele-marketing, post cards and even Federal Express.

It was pure jeenius, too.

I mean… think about it:

How many people venture off the Internet at all… much less contact their prospects by phone or FAX or through the mail, etc?

Anyway, I’ve been learning a lot about this lately.

And guess what?

If you want to immunize yourself like this too then good news: Next Wednesday (October 13th) Doberman Dan Gallapoo is holding an intense “no screwing around” training tele-seminar about using direct mail with your web marketing.

Dan doesn’t do “pitch fests.”

So you don’t have to worry about wasting you time.

Yes, there WILL be something for sale at the end.

But the bulk of it will be hardcore direct mail training from one of the last few masters of the craft.

You can grab the details at:

Ben Settle

Here’s some of the best ad advice I ever done got:

“If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job…A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn’t fail, he’s no good. He’s got to fail. It hurts. But it’s the only way to get the home runs the next time.”

Who said that?

The late great grand puba of marketing Eugene Schwartz.

And he wasn’t just whistlin’ dixie, either.

Case in point:

Right now I’m writing a fartload of squeeze pages for a client. Not just 2 or 3 test panels… but before I’m done I’ll probably have 20-30 test panels being tested. Some of them play it “safe” (not veering too much from their current control) and some are so off the charts crazy different, they probably think I’m a nutcase for even submitting them.

But you know what?

I fully expect 95% of these tests to FAIL.

To me they are all dead ads walking to that great electric chair of cyberspace where probably only one of them will survive the onslaught.

In fact, my first test already failed by a fat 20%.

And that’s good!

Did not bother me one bit.

I knew it’d either win big or lose big.

And that’s really the name of the game.

I mean, what would you rather have — 100 “play it safe” tests that add up to a 100% increase over weeks or months… or one BIG winner that beats your control by 100% in a day?

Which do you think will make you money faster?

Something to think about.

To paraphrase one of the great American minds:

“Failure is COOL, Beavis.”

Ben Settle

P.S. Hey, those old school marketing guys knew their stuff. If you want to learn at the feet of one of the last few old school direct marketers (still teaching), then check out the free teleseminar Doberman Dan is putting on for web marketers who want to learn the ins and outs of direct mail.

Plus, when you attend you get a cool gift:

A free Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue (in pdf) about direct mail.

Details at:

Let’s rap about the so-called Internet marketing “syndicate.”

What’s that?

Basically, it’s a group of Internet marketing goo-roos (selling to the Internet marketing niche) who have cleverly figured out a way to (more or less) erase competition by ganging up and promoting to each other’s massive lists in a very deliberate way. I won’t go into the nitty-gritty here because, frankly, others have written more about this in far more detail already.

Some people are REALLY angry about it, too.

Me?

I find it extremely amusing.

No… not the syndicate part, necessarily.

But the fact anyone gets freaked out about it at all — especially when there are so many ways to immunize your business from the goo-roo boogeymen.

Like, for example…

1.) Building your email list properly

By “properly” I mean mail them on a regular basis (preferably daily, IMHBAO) in a way that doesn’t insult their intelligence or treat them like drooling idiots.

And for pity’s sake, don’t keep “moving the free line.”

It’s much more profitable to learn to SELL via email, instead.

2.) Not marketing to the hyper buyers

They’re the WORST people to sell to.

Why?

Mostly because they are serial refunders, pain in the arse customers, and only make up a small fraction of your overall market in the first place.

Nowadays I try to deliberately turn them off.

I suggest you do, too.

3.) Using direct mail

Finally, if you REALLY want to “stick it to the syndicate” start using direct mail. That means sending your customers a REAL physical letter in the mail.

It’s not nearly as hard (or expensive) as you may think.

In fact, it’s as easy as email now.

But, it is kind of a detailed subject to go into here. So if you want a free training on the subject, check out the tele-seminar Doberman Dan Gallapoo is putting together showing web marketers how to painlessly use direct mail.

Details at:

Plus, when you attend, you’ll get a free issue (in PDF format) of a recently Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue I wrote on direct mail, too.

Anyway, that’s it for today.

Cheers.

Ben Settle

Let me tell you about one of my failures.

I have many failures, but this was especially stoopid since it could have been avoided.

Here’s the low down:

In July I pow-wowed with Doberman Dan Gallapoo about doing a JV. I had this (100% unproven) idea that a webinar/coaching program showing web marketers how to explode their response with direct mail would be a hit.

I had MANY reasons for thinking this.

But, again, it was unproven.

So I wrote a special “bonus” issue of my Crypto Marketing Newsletter that explained some ways to beef up sales quickly and cheaply with direct mail, along with a pitch at the end for an expensive webinar, and snail-mailed it to ALL my customers who have bought any of my products who I had a mailing address for.

The result?

It bombed!

Not one single sale!

Question is, why?

Was it the sales pitch?

Was it the demand (or lack thereof)?

Something else?

Well, I’m pretty sure the pitch was solid.

And we got enough feedback from it to know many people wanted to buy but it was priced too dang high (we priced it at $2,995, as Dan was offering 30 days of unlimited support by email and phone — even going so far as to talk to letter shops and negotiate deals on printing, etc — so it had to be worth Dan’s time).

Long story short?

It was a total bust.

But, guess what?

It wasn’t exactly a total waste after all.

In fact, you can actually benefit from it if you want.

Here’s how:

Dan is going to use some of his notes for the expensive webinar we were trying to sell and instead put on a free tele-seminar on it. Yes, there WILL be something for sale at the end. (Another coaching deal, but nowhere NEAR as expensive as before.)

But it’ll be packed with info you can use no matter what.

Anyway, if you’re interested, go to:

Ben Settle

P.S. Also, if you want a free copy of that bonus newsletter I mailed my customers, just attend the free tele-seminar and Dan will send you a PDF copy afterwards. It’d be well worth getting on the call for that free issue, if nothing else.

Here’s where to go:

The other day I did a special coaching training.

It was for a friend of my brother’s who’s new to Internet marketing, wanted some guidance, and so I figured it’d be fun to record the call and let other people hear the advice I gave him.

I don’t have the MP3 up yet.

But there’s one thing from the call I can share now.

And that is about ye olde goo-roos.

Specifically, he wanted to know WHO to believe?

Which ones are full of you-know-what?

And did I have any advice on the matter?

My answer:

They’re ALL full of crap until proven otherwise.

And lest you think I’m “goo-roo bashing” or whatever, let me add that while I am NOT a goo-roo (or a guru) and never will be one (I reject the dorky label altogether), I include holding me and anyone else who sells “how to” info to the same standard.

Watch ALL of us like hawks.

And this is especially true of anyone making crazy income claims.

Fact is there’s a lot of lying going on.

Lots of exaggerations, too.

Recently, one IM goo-roo who claims to make millions of smackeroos per year wanted to hire me to write an ad, but then said they could not afford my copywriting fee.

Interesting, isn’t it?

So anyway, trust nobody until they’ve EARNED it.

And assume we’re all guilty until proven innocent.

Hey, it pays to be a little paranoid.

In fact, as Daniel Levis once told me…

“Only the paranoid survive…”

And, I’ll add, thrive, too.

Ben Settle

P.S. Alrighty, I am sending the October Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue to the printer tomorrow. So if you want it (it’s all about how to get clients) there’s no time to lose.

Here’s where to get your Crypto Marketing on:

Below is a sort of unusual testimonial.

Why?

Well, it’s for my Street-Smart Email course but in addition to being a testimonial, it also has a neat tip about getting clients (the subject of the next Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue that goes to the printer in a couple days).

Anyway, here it is:

Greetings Mr. Settle,

I purchased your Street Smart E-mail course a coupla months back.

Ran into a craftsman of high-end surf boards and his business mgr.Said they absolutely “HATED” marketers as they are getting inundated with all kinds of proposals.

They figured they would go the Social Media route and pay no one anything to market their very fine surf-boards. What they had not counted on was the amount of time needed to set-up and implement such a campaign with the various Twitter/Facebook/My Space/Linked In blah-blah-blah sites.

Plus, the maker of the surf-boards really “HATES” people.

Just wants to make his boards and surf in a Caribbean country. I did NOT tell them I was a surfer and had buddies and contacts that might be interested in his high priced boards.

My offer was this.

“How would ya like me to send out a few emails for you for $300.00 or I could sell a board or two on comission at no email fee?”

Fully knowing they would take the path of least resistance they told me to sell a surf-board or two and just make sure they got $3000.00 per board.

Long story short I sent out one and I mean just ONE email with photos to 9 guys [surfers] who have $$$$.

Received an immdiate order for one board at $3850.00.

And one on order for Christmas.

Nice profit for under one hour of work…

Now they want to do more business.

Still haven’t told them I’m a surfer.

Sometimes, it’s what you don’t say to potential clients.

Your Street Smart E-mail Course is FANTASTICO!

I find myself in NYC for the next three months and have lined up 4 more clients to just send out auto-responder emails.

Best Regards,

Mitchell A. Dominguez
New York

Pretty interesting way to get clients, yeah?

For more info on Street-Smart Email surf on over to…

Ben Settle

I was reminded about a cool “B” movie last weekend.

It’s called “They Live.”

Ever see that one?

It’s about a drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see alien beings hiding in plain site amongst humans. In other words, when he puts on the glasses, he sees alien space ships, propaganda messages written on billboards and the aliens’ grotesque faces clear as day (while everyone else sees just normal human beings, normal air craft, typical advertising slogans, etc).

Anyway, there’s lots of interesting symbolism in it.

Especially for entrepreneurs.

It’s like we got our own pair of super glasses.

And we see all KINDS of stuff we never noticed before.

For example…

Suddenly, politicians’ lies are more obvious.

Obscure laws hidden on page 3,094 of a bill start to matter.

And you FEEL it when the tax man cometh.

Sometimes putting those glasses on is scary.

Sometimes it’s exciting.

But it’s NEVER boring, is it?

Anyway, as an entrepreneur, you’re a special kind of person the majority of people sleep-walking through life will never truly understand.

Some will be in awe of you.

Many will DESPISE you. (Even if secretly.)

And many will be extremely jealous of you.

So it ain’t always peaches and cream.

And it CAN have its scary moments.

But no matter how tough the going gets, just take the attitude from the main character in “They Live” and tell the world:

Ben Settle

P.S. The October Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue about getting clients goes to the printer in a few days. If you want in on this training, go here before it’s too late: