Ben Settle

Ever hear of Netflix?

It’s got to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

It’s basically a deal where they send you DVD’s through the mail for a low monthly fee. You watch them, send them back (at your leisure), and you’re done.

No late fees.

No leaving home.

And no driving to the stoopid video store.

But, that’s not even the cool part.

You see, what’s REALLY great about it is you can now also STREAM movies directly into your TV and not even have to wait for the mail.

Offers don’t get much better than that.

But you know what?

I didn’t hear about it from their advertising.

We discovered it by complete accident.

Because even though they’ve been advertising this service for months… their commercials are so mind-numbingly bad, you pretty much tune the commercial out before they get to the offer!

The current one is ESPECIALLY lame.

It’s a mock game show type thing, basically.

And by the time it gets to the offer, you’re already bored stiff. I would bet this has probably cost them MILLIONS of smackeroos, too. Frankly, methinks they’d probably DOUBLE their sales within 30 days if they simply said what needs to be said without all the fake game show nonsense and “hootenanny.”

Something really simple would do the trick.

Maybe something like…

“If you rent movies, then listen up: Netflix is now offering movies streaming right to your TV for just $8.95 per month. You don’t have to leave your home or even get up out of your chair to watch your favorite movies. Plus, you can use it free for two weeks without pressure or entering your credit card. However, this low price won’t last long. For details rush over to…”

OK, not the grooviest ad in the world.

But it’d get the job done better than the slop they have out now.

Anyway, the point?

If you have a REALLY hot offer, don’t beat around the bush.

Get it out and get paid.

Otherwise, you just sabotage your own sales…

Ben Settle

P.S. Street-Smart Email launches Monday. Grab it during the launch period and you get all my BEST, most profitable email strategies for $500 off.

It’s been happening more and more lately…

People have been “befriending” me on Facebook and then immediately trying to pitch me on their latest “ground floor!” business opportoonity or fancy-shmancy product.

In fact, it happened just the other day.

Some lady befriended me on FaceBook only to start spamming my wall with links to her site 5 minutes later.

Ugh.

I don’t know about you, but it’s kind of offensive.

No… not the spam part.

I speaketh of the the SALES part.

You see, it’s like in that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry’s dentist converts to Judaism just so he can get away with telling Jewish jokes, and Jerry tells the dentist’s ex-priest about what he’s up to.

The priest asks, “Does that offend you as Jew?”

And Jerry says, “No it offends me as a comedian!”

It’s the same with these social media carnival barkers screaming out links to anyone who will see it — they don’t offend me as a consumer, they offend me as a salesman.

It’s actually kinda brutal to watch.

I mean hey, I’m no social media goo-roo.

But I bet they’d have lots more success doing a few “sales 101” activities FIRST — like asking questions, getting to know people before pitching them, and finding out if someone even has the problem their product solves before mentioning the product in the first place.

Pretty simple, really.

Maybe that’s why so many hate true salesmanship?

Because they complicate it?

Ben Settle

P.S. A reminder… The Street-Smart Email System launches Monday, and early cats get a $500 discount.

To hop on the notification list, go to:

Yesterday’s email was… incomplete.

It was about how goo-roos are always inflating everything, and how that’s one way to tell the difference between a legitimate guru (a real teacher) and a goo-roo (a wannabe).

Well, guess what?

Here’s another page from the goo-roo “playbook”:

They COPY everything.

Case in point:

In a golf business I work with, someone recently decided to rip off (more or less) the entire look and feel of the site, products and blog. Everything from their ads… to their blog skin… to the claims they use… to their product design… to even the URL are (as one person observed)… “eerily familiar” to ours.

Of course, this happens when you’re top dawg.

You might as well expect it.

It used to annoy me, too.

But nowadays, I find it kind of amusing.

It’s entertaining to watch the goo-roo in charge of such sites (and yes, there’s always a goo-roo at the controls of such operations) try lifting certain words, designs, sales funnels, etc to create their own “Frankenstein’s monster” of sorts.

It always looks… fake.

And the best customers smell it a mile away.

It’s like looking at a xerox copy of a FAX — where even if the “form” is there, the substance is missing.

Which is why they’re never “the man” in their markets.

And are instead just faded copies of someone else’s original.

And let’s face it, the old saying is true…

“An original is always worth more than a copy.”

Ben Settle

P.S. Originality is VITAL in emails, too. Wannabes don’t last long at all. To learn how to bat out original (and highly profitable) emails in just 15-20 minutes per day (even if you can’t write your way out of a paper bag now), check out my Street-Smart Email System at:

Launch period customers will get $500 off.

Contrary to popular belief, I’m not anti-guru.

I think there are a lot of good ones out there (and have listed my favorite ones before on my site). And you can always learn something from just about anyone who’s had any kind of success (even if you learn from their mistakes).

So gurus are cool in my book.

It’s the goo-roos I don’t trust.

And one way to tell the difference between a legitimate guru and a mere goo-roo is EVERYTHING a goo-roo says is inflated.

Like, for example:

• Inflated sales numbers

• Inflated list size

• Inflated lies

• Inflated response rates

• Inflated claims about the number of people on a tele-seminar

• And so on, and so forth

Anyway, bottom line?

If you want a great “red flag” if someone is lying to you, just notice how much everything sounds inflated.

Do that, and you’ll be a-okay.

Ben Settle

Been thinking about AdWords lately.

I’ve written lots of AdWords ads (for other businesses), but haven’t actually got off my lazy gluteous rumpus to run any of my own campaigns yet.

But, when I do, I’ll have a big advantage over most.

What advantage?

Drum roll…

Batman.

And Spiderman.

And The X-Men.

And all my other comic books.

You see, one of the best pay-per-click ad “cheat sheets” you can find is no farther than the back issue bins of your local comic book store. In fact, whenever I write pay-per-click ads, I raid my box of comics and study the short, pithy direct response ads they used to run in pre-1990 comic books.

They’re masterpieces of persuasion, too.

Those guys were probably the best copywriters in the world.

They knew how to get into your psychology and push all the right buttons to make you buy the stoopidest things — including booklets about packing on muscle, X-ray glasses, sea monkeys, ninja training booklets, and everything in between.

Just excellent stuff.

And they make awesome pay-per-click ad “templates” that let you hammer out new ads in mere seconds.

But hey, don’t take my word for it.

Get ye to the comic book store.

Or check out “The Copywriting Grab Bag”:

I put a bunch of my best ones on the bonus disk.

Either way, I highly suggest trying it.

Ben Settle

Ever hear of the Bridgewater Triangle?

Me neither (until recently).

But for hundreds of years it’s been known as a “hotspot” for paranormal phenomena — with UFO sightings, and reports of Bigfoot (bring it!), giant snakes, poltergeists, phantom dogs (and hitchhikers), and other bizarre phenomena.

All in one spot.

And, in many cases, with multiple reliable witnesses, too (like police officers and local news teams).

I haven’t been there myself.

(At least, not yet!)

But methinks it’s not only a hotspot of paranormal activity, but also a hotspot of TOURIST activity, too (with local towns raking in plenty ‘o the green stuff as a result).

Anyway, why am I telling you about this?

Because your business can be a “hotspot” like this, too.

No, not with monsters (I hope).

But with customers.

And you can do it just like Bridgewater Triangle does, by telling people about your “legend” (your STORY) in a way that gets them buzzing and burping with excitement.

Frankly, you almost can’t not see success with this.

How can I be so sure?

Because I’ve tested this myself and seen the results.

In fact, can you guess what my blog’s most visited pages are?

It ain’t the content stuff.

No… it’s my bio (my story).

It’s nothing fancy, either.

Just a simple telling of my story, letting it all hang out. But even today (6 years after writing it) people email me about how they remember the story about going from living in an office to building a successful business.

It’s become my “legend”, in some ways.

And it STICKS in peoples’ minds.

You can do the same thing, my friend.

Just figure out your story and tell it to the world.

Yeah, it really is that simple.

Ben Settle

P.S. Many prospects (spanning just about every market I’ve ever seen) love buying from ads that tell a good story when told correctly. If you want to use this nifty “persuasion tool” in your ads or sales letters, check out the July Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue (which goes to print in less than 2 weeks) over at:

Sometimes this gets me in trouble.

Especially with the copywriting fanboys.

But it’s my contention (and I’ve seen it happen) that a story can potentially carry the entire sale in an ad even if everything else is technically “wrong” (no clear call to action, confusing copy, weak headline, no offer, etc).

Prove it, you say?

Okay, how about these oranges:

Back in 1986 a movie called “Top Gun” hit the theaters.

Top Gun is about a couple hotshot Naval pilots given a chance to train with the “best of the best” pilots in the world at the “Top Gun” fighter pilot school. Now, whether you like Top Gun or not (I love it!), it was, in some ways, an extremely profitable “sales letter.”

How so?

Couple reasons:

First…

After the movie hit the screens, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses (the kind Tom Cruise’s character “Maverick” wore) jumped 40%.

That’s a HUGE increase.

And secondly…

Air Force and Navy recruitment (both sometimes very “hard sells”) shot through the roof.

Crazy, isn’t it?

But apparently, the movie was so good at “selling” all the young whippersnappers of the day on how cool being a fighter pilot is, recruitment booths were set up inside many of the theaters it played in!

Hence, the selling POWER of stories.

And of giving people a fun, thrilling ride.

After all, there was nothing in the movie telling you to go buy Maverick’s brand of sunglasses or to join The Navy. Yet, the movie “sold” great hordes of people on wanting to be like Maverick.

To live his exact lifestyle.

And, yes, win over the hot babe at the end.

So anyway, what about you?

Would you like to tell stories that SELL like that?

Then check out the next Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue (that goes to print July 1), which is ALL about writing stories that sell in ads.

You can subscribe over yonder at:

See ya on the other side, Maverick…

Ben Settle

My #1 business book is “The System Club Letters.”

It was penned by Ken McCarthy.

And I never get bored of it.

Anyway, one of the best chapters in the book has got to be the one about Independence Day (July 4th here in the US).

Why does Ben likey so much?

Because it talks about how when the US was founded, about 90% of the country worked (and thought) for themselves. Most voters and politicians were farmers, business owners, etc. Today, those numbers are flipped upside down — with 90% working for someone else, and only 10% working for themselves. (And as Ken explains — of the 90% who work for a paycheck, over 55% work for institutions with 500 employees or more.)

So what?

Who could care?

Well, think about it:

Over HALF the country is financially dependent on a big bureaucracy.

Not good for a so-called free society.

At least, not if you’re an entrepreneur.

Ken’s solution?

Become financially indepenent.

And then, instead of just using your “powers” for your own benefit, use them to help take a stand against the big fatty bureaucratic forces eating away at your freedoms — big government, big media and big business.

(Or, “the trinity of tyranny” as I call ’em.)

After all, as Ken puts it…

“If we don’t do it, who will?”

Ben Settle

P.S. If I could only learn ONE skill to start working towards financial independence online… it’d be email marketing. No ifs, ands or bootays about it. Email has been worth FAR more to me than any other skill bar none, period. You can use it to sell your own products, hire yourself out to clients looking for email writers and maybe even find someone who knows traffic, and joint venture with them on a project. (Like I did recently.)

Either way, it can bring in the bacon.

To learn my way of writing and using emails, sally forth over to:

Recently, I confused some of my email subscribers.

It was in the email about all the reasons I like using email over blogs, videos, podcasts, etc, where I said email is “forgiving.” And apparently I wasn’t clear enough about what this meant (hey, my bad).

So maybe this will make it clearer:

Ever seen the movie Superman 2?

Specifically, the scene where Superman “threw the S”?

No?

Or maybe you just don’t remember?

That’s okay.

I’d gladly block the memory out too, if I could.

But in the final fight scene where Superman is battling three other Kryptonian criminals (who have his same powers), out of nowhere he rips off his “S” emblem and throws it at one of the villains — which grows and turns into what looks like a giant fruit roll-up that temporarily covers ye olde villain up like plastic wrap.

Yeah, it was as dumb as it sounds.

So dumb, you lose IQ points just watching it.

In fact, I recently saw it referred to as “throwing the S” — a term now applied to ANY bad movie scenes. (Kinda like “Wow, George Lucas sure threw the S with that Jar-Jar character!”)

What’s this got to do with email?

Well, if you do a lot of email, you’re gonna throw the S, too — where you send an email (you wish you hadn’t) with something stoopid in it or with an embarrassing mistake, etc.

It happens to me sometimes.

And chances are it’ll happen to you, too.

But guess what?

If you mess up and say something stoopid or whatever, you just roar back the next day with something cool and all is forgotten (or, at least, forgiven) which could possibly even result in a sale.

No harm, no foul.

So that’s what email being forgiving means.

If you throw the S, who cares?

You can easily make things right tomorrow.

And maybe even profit from it.

Ben Settle

P.S. I should get the proof for the Street-Smart Email course this week. I just have to whip up an ad for it and it’ll be for sale probably in a couple weeks (give or take).

You can jump on the notification list at:

Early bird customers get a juicy worm (i.e. huge discount).