Ben Settle

Do you know who Methuselah was?

In the Bible, he was the oldest living human being — clocking in at 969 years old before joining “The Choir Invisible.” And recently, researchers have discovered what they’re calling the Methuselah gene, because they think it’s the gene that keeps even people who abuse their bodies for 50 years alive until 100+.

All of which got me thinking.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a “Methuselah” sales letter?

An ad that just runs and runs and runs?

And that’s profitable not just for weeks and months… but for years and maybe even decades?

Does such a letter exist?

I don’t know.

But you can give yourself a fighting chance with a little testing.

Like, for example, testing your headline.

I know a copywriter who has one of those guarantees where he’ll keep rewriting your ad until it pulls or whatever. When I asked him about what he does when rewriting, he said he just changes the headline and that usually does the trick.

So that’s one way to do it.

Another way to do it (that hardly anyone talks about) is the sale letter “lead” — the opening paragraph or sentence.

Almost nobody tests this.

Yet, it can sometimes make as big a difference as your headline!

Anyway, just something to ponder.

You can potentially keep an ad running for a LONG time just by testing the headline and lead.

And you want to know what?

The lead is what the next Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue is ALL about. In fact, it covers 10 “monkey simple” (but extremely effective) ways to create a lead for just about any kind of product or service imaginable.

Know what else is included with this special issue?

A “shortcut” way to research your market.

Research is my numero uno priority when writing ads

It’s truly what separates the men from the boys in this crazy business, and nothing else even comes close to it in importance (in my opinion, at least).

Get your research right, and ye old ad almost writes itself.

Yeppers, it’s that powerful.

Anyway, next issue goes out soon.

You can subscribe over at…

Ben Settle

Not that this shocks me, but…

Apparently, they discovered some schmuck mailman in Philadelphia (I keep picturing Newman from “Seinfeld”…) stuffed 20,000 pieces of mail (going alllll the way back to 1997) in his apartment — including IRS notices, college acceptance letters, paychecks, Social Security payments… the whole brick of wax.

Ouch.

That’s gotta HURT to be one of those recipients.

But you know what?

This tomfoolery happens ALL the time ONLINE, too.

I call ’em “cyber Newmans.”

ISP’s, junk mail software, spam arrest services, etc.

And they basically do the same thing:

Steal, intercept and “hide” emails (somewhere out there in cyberspace…) — including sometimes important ones where people are sending you money and business correspondence where time is of the essence.

There are lots of ways to thwart these cyber Newman’s.

But none are completely foolproof.

After all, the merry plump cyber thief is always cooking up new tricks. And just because a word or phrase or punctuation mark is “safe” from spam filters and software today… doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow. Nor can you always count on things like spam assassin to 100% protect you, either.

All of which is why I do daily emails.

(Well… usually, at least.)

In fact, you want to know something?

I’ve noticed that just by doggedly sending out something every day, people who might normally not have seen my emails end up getting them eventually.

It’s strange.

And I don’t pretend to know exactly how it works.

But I’ve had people who signed up months earlier tell me they started suddenly getting my emails out of the blue.

Who knows?

Maybe their ISP farted or something?

But whatever the case, this is why I’m big on mailing daily.

Not junk mail, of course.

But emails people enjoy reading (and buying from).

Anyway, I rap a lot about how to write emails people enjoy reading and buying from (and how to write them daily, almost without strain) in ye old Street-Smart Email course, which should be ready next month.

To get on the notification list, go to:

Launch day customers get a BIG price break.

So if you’re interested, watch for my email.

And tell cyber Newman to back off…

Ben Settle

This may sound kind of strange.

But one of the most profitable email marketing lessons I’ve ever learned did NOT come from a goo-roo.

Or a book.

Or even from turning on my computer.

No… it came from my dog.

Check out these oranges:

When we first got our dog (Zoe), and she wanted to go out in the morning, it didn’t take much to get us up and moving. This was before she was fully potty-trained. And so any movement prompted us to jump out of bed and take her (even at 2 or 3 am).

But as the months went by, that changed.

We started figuring out her schedule.

And we knew when she really NEEDED to go out and took her… or just WANTED to (because she smelled a skunk or whatever) and rolled over back to sleep.

So what did Zoe do after that?

Give up?

Hardly.

She simply got more “inventive.”

Instead of just moving around or sniffing our hands… she started doing things like scratching at the wooden bed frame. Shaking her body. Running up and down the stairs (again and again…). Sighing real loud. And even (and this one takes the cake) using her claws to rap the base of the metal antique lamp in the bedroom and making a loud “DING!” noise.

Clever little dog, eh?

She seems to think so.

But clever or not… one thing she definitely is, is RELENTLESS.

Even 2.5 years later, when this dog gets the idea to wake us up (no matter the reason) she usually doesn’t stop until mission accomplished.

It’s a true battle of wills.

With Zoe getting more obnoxious, and us struggling to ignore her.

In the end… Zoe usually (not always) wins.

Anyway, what’s the point?

You gotta be relentless.

I’m not saying to hammer your list with obnoxious sales pitches… but I do think you should mail often. Send out interesting info that fascinates (and inspires) them. And every time you do, ask for the sale.

Do it boldly and relentlessly.

That’s how the big dogs do it, after all.

Ben Settle

P.S. If you missed yesterday’s announcement about my coming “reveal everything” email course, click on over to:

Launch day customers get a HUGE discount.

OK, first thing’s first.

Gotta little piece of “housekeeping” to get out of the way before we barrel into the powerful email marketing tip below.

And that is:

In the coming weeks I’m launching my “reveal all” email marketing product. It’s everything I know about email on a plate.

And yes, it WILL be expensive.

But, launch day customers will get a HUGE discount.

How much?

I’m not exactly sure.

But make no bones about it, the “early bird” discount will be big.

If you want to be notified when it’s ready, go to:

Now, onto our regularly scheduled program…

Here’s a recent email question (how timely!):

“Ben, why in your emails do you not always include a PS? Everyone else I’ve seen who uses a lot of email uses a PS. Is that a conscious thing?”

Yeppers.

I like to mix it up.

People get bored of stuff they see over and over.

Take “Star Trek The Next Generation”, for example.

In the second season, they introduced a really nasty villain called “The Borg”. They are a freaky race of cybernetic drones stripped of any trace of individuality or decision making. Instead, they are linked to a collective that does their thinking for them, while they sally forth across the galaxy assimilating and consuming everyone and everything in their path (turning other beings into drones like themselves and taking their technology).

They were extremely popular, too.

And fanboys couldn’t get enough of them.

Yet, they usually (if memory serves) had no more than one or two “Borg” episodes per season.

Why?

Why not put them in every week if they were so popular?

Because it’d get OLD fast.

And it’s the same when emailing.

That’s why I try keeping things (like link placement) varied up.

If you email a lot (especially more than once per week)… and someone sees a link after the PS in every. single. stinking. email… it becomes easy to ignore.

Almost like it’s invisible.

Hey, if you don’t believe me, test it.

Maybe you’re market likes sameness (such as if you’re selling to the Borg, for example).

But most I’ve seen don’t.

Anyway, more on this in the email course.

Meanwhile, strap in and warp speed on over to:

Ben Settle

Took the Nerd Girl to see Iron Man 2 yesterday.

Was a GREAT movie, too.

And I highly recommend it.

In fact, on the way home (after my “nerdgasm” wore off and I could think rationally again), something occurred to me about the movie that’s directly applicable to selling, marketing, copywriting or any kind of persuasion.

Here’s the skinny:

Iron Man 2 had some extremely good special effects.

But, they did not take away your attention from the story.

In other words, they weren’t the focus of the movie, the story was (as it should be).

And you know what?

That’s exactly how selling should be.

All the cool sales “fireworks” are well and good.

But what a lot of marketers do (and it’s especially rampant online) is get so caught up in the hot new sales and persuasion “techniques” their favorite goo-roo has been using (usually on them)… they forget about the REAL part that makes the sale:

Helping people solve a problem or eliminate a pain.

To paraphrase the late (great) Eugene Schwartz:

You want the person to look through your sales pitch like they are able to look through a glass showcase and see the product inside. If that glass becomes dirty, reflective or calls attention to itself, you’re dead in the water.

No sale for you.

And that’s what focusing on the tricks and tips do:

Dirty the glass.

Just like too much attention on special effects does to a movie.

Anyway, the point?

It’s not about us and our fancy tricks and tips, it’s about them — their problems, needs, desires and pain.

Focusing on THEM is the key.

That’s the whole secret to speeding ahead on the highway of selling and leaving your competition eating your dust (while making more of ye old green stuff, too).

You can learn more about selling like this at:

These principles have been used by some of history’s most persuasive salesman, marketers, copywriters, politicians and negotiators.

They’ve even worked for geeky pick-up artists.

And you know what?

I’m pretty sure they’ll work for you, too.

Ben Settle

I’ve made some stoopid sales mistakes in my day.

Some real doozies.

The kind that, when thinking back, make me wince at the sheer idiocy of it all (this includes selling online, offline, belly-to-belly, by phone… the whole ball of wax).

Below are a FEW of those mistakes.

If you find yourself making any of them, fear ye not.

Even though almost everyone does at least 1 or 2 (probably more) of these at some time in their lives, they are quickly and easily fixed.

In some cases, even instantly fixed.

Ready?

Okay then, here goes…

• Waiting too long to take action (this has gotten me WAY too many times, and I shudder to think of all the sales I’ve flushed down the toilet because of this…)

• Not respecting the customer’s intelligence

• Bad customer service

• Not collecting mailing list info (I’m still amazed how few retail stores do this everytime someone calls, buys or stops by — it’s like stealing from themselves)

• And last (but definitely not least)… Using manipulative “tricks and tips”… instead of proven psychological principles that are in perfect harmony with the way people think, buy and actually LIKE being sold by.

Like the ones packed inside “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:

Oh mama.

Methinks the goo-roo fanboys using all the head games and so-called “mind control” techniques (right…) have no idea how much that nonsense turns people off.

Sometimes it’s actually kind of amusing.

Anyway, that’s it for today.

More marketing merry-making on the way tomorrow…

Ben Settle

Couple hours from where I live is a rather unusual house.

I won’t say it’s “haunted.”

(I don’t believe in ghosts.)

But methinks there’s some bad mojo going on there.

And it’s given the nerd girl and me an extremely… uneasy… vibe whenever we’ve driven past it. (It’s one of those places where you can almost feel the hairs on your arms bristle when you get near it.)

But you know what?

We’ve got freaky places like that online, too.

I’m talking about marketing so blatantly manipulative and dishonest (usually targeted at newbies) one can get a bad vibe from it without knowing anything about the product, the website owner or even the market.

Just reading for a few seconds is all it takes.

It’s truly freaky how easy it is for some people to lie, con, cheat and steal from unsuspecting (often gullible) people like that.

As if it’s “the thing to do” now.

But guess what?

These “haunted” sales letters open up a HUGE opportunity, too — especially for anyone who’s willing to put away the fancy tricks and tips… and go the opposite way.

For example…

We’re pretty much at the point where just having an ad that doesn’t scream “sales job!” ALONE flings you past the rest of the bleating herd of goo-roo fanboys.

Using “candor” is extremely profitable, too.

Frankly, just treating your prospects like thinking people (instead of cattle) can make you stand out like a fart in study hall.

Hey, go ahead and try it.

See for yourself.

Put away the marketing “mind tricks” and nonsense… and use simple, “meat and potatoes” principles, instead. (The kind used by history’s most persuasive marketers, salesmen, politicians, lawyers, negotiators, etc).

There’s 101 of them in “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:

And I think once you use them, you’ll find selling FAR easier.

Or, at the very least, you won’t freak anyone out…

Ben Settle

Last year we went through 3 accountants.

Why?

It is it because the nerd girl and I are sloppy with the books?

Or maybe careless?

Or, perhaps pain in the butt clients?

No, nothing like that.

The reason is because we were being cheap.

You see, we figured we needed a service more sophisticated than H&R Block… but didn’t think we needed anyone particularly bright or expensive.

I mean, numbers are numbers, right?

And with today’s software it’s not rocket science.

Or so we thought, at least.

And several months of unanswered phone calls from one accountant (can you believe that?), bad advice and other misadventures (too numerous to go into here)… we finally came to our senses, stopped being cheap, and sally forthed to hire an Enrolled Agent.

What’s an Enrolled Agent?

EA’s are specially trained accountants by the IRS.

They know the tax laws like the back of their hands. They know what’s legal and what’s not. And they know how the bureaucratic “game” is played.

Of course, our EA isn’t necessarily “cheap.”

But he’s WELL worth the extra investment.

Especially when it comes to saving time and energy.

Anyway, here’s the point:

It doesn’t matter if it’s an accountant, a lawyer, coach, copywriter, advisor, website coder, designer, doctor, vet or even someone to mow your lawn…

When it’s “mission critical” don’t scrimp.

Scrimping might seem like a good idea at first.

But, as the old saying goes: You get what you pay for.

Or, as a not-necessarily-wise man once said:

“Scrimps are wimps.”

Ben Settle

P.S. BTW, this is not a cheap shot (no pun) of people who simply cannot afford something. That’s certainly no crime. What I’m talking about is the dangers of being “cheap.”

There’s a BIG difference.

If you want to start attracting and selling to people who are buyers of quality instead of scavengers of cheap, check out:

OK, one more rant on testing.

I know I’m beating this subject to death this week.

But this tip’s especially important:

Testing CRAZY stuff.

And by that I mean, testing things that completely and utterly shatter all the popular marketing, selling and copywriting “rules” set down by the old marketing masters — like John Caples, Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, Robert Collier, Bruce Barton… and the list goes on.

All GREAT marketers.

And us whipper-snappers today owe them BIG time.

I mean, these guys paved the trail for us. And many of the best books, eBooks, courses, etc quote these guys chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

But you know what?

Letting yourself be enslaved to their “rules” is no good.

Yes, they make great guidelines.

And yes, it’s good to master the fundamentals.

But eventually, it’s time to break those rules and start testing crazy ideas everyone else would never think to. Take, for example, Gary Halbert’s coat of arms sales letter.

It’s arguably the most mailed sales letter in history.

And yet…

• There’s no (gasp!) headline.

• It’s not long copy.

• It wasn’t even targeted (they pulled names from the phone book!)

Three MAJOR rules ignored.

And yet, that bad-boy mailed to hundreds of millions of people.

Anyway, the point?

All the big marketing rules are mucho important.

But they’re kinda like the Biblical sabbath day.

There’s a story in the Bible where the disciples were collecting corn on the sabbath (when people were supposed to rest and not do any work) and the Pharisees start pointing the finger asking how they should be allowed to do such a thing.

Jesus’s answer?

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”

And that idea applies DIRECTLY to marketing, too.

The old time rules are great and have made FORTUNES for people.

But don’t be enslaved to them.

In fact, every now and then… ruthlessly break them.

You just never know what you’ll find.

Ben Settle

P.S. For dozens of ideas (including some that are a bit on the “crazy” side) you can test in your ads and sales letters (including ideas from some of the world’s highest paid copywriters), check out: