Ben Settle

A while back I read about a study that proved young children learn letters and words far more effectively through handwriting vs keyboards/typing.

And the test results showed:

The kids who wrote by hand’s skills at recognition, writing, unfamiliar word sequences, and pronunciation blew away the kids who used keyboards/typing. It also showed freehand writing, copying words out of guides, led to the best learning outcomes vs typing.

It’s almost like Gary Halbert was on to something.

He taught “neurological imprinting” by writing world class ads out by hand. A lot of new copywriters who hear about Gary Halbert’s take on that wonder if typing is as useful as hand writing for getting that effect. And my experience is handwriting was always much better, more useful, and effective when I did it.

Something else to think about:

Gerry Spence (the trial lawyer who in his day so otherworldly persuasive he was once accused of hypnotizing a jury by the opposing attorney) talks about the hand-brain connection, too. There is something about using your hands and doing creative tasks at the same time to get this effect.

Again, my experience is it’s much stronger writing by hand vs typing.

That said:

I do not like this fact any more than anyone else.

Frankly, I absolutely despise writing by hand.

I have trouble slowing my thoughts down to capture what I want to say when writing by hand. Not to mention my handwriting is embarrassingly bad. (I was sent to a specialist about that in 3rd grade, as well as for horrible word pronunciation gaffes, but it clearly didn’t take if you’ve listened to any of my old podcasts…). And my hand cramps up fast.

But I still spent 100s of hours copying ads out by hand.

And I still do in small ways – like writing great headlines I see on 3×5 cards.

But:

I wonder how many of us who write sales copy wouldn’t be better off if we did it by hand “Halbert style” vs typing on a keyboard. The only two copywriters I can think of off the top of my head are Gary Halbert and the late Scott Haines, who wrote about how he went back to writing by hand in one of his newsletter he wrote many years ago.

Couple more things to think about with this:

1. In his April 1995 Gary Halbert Letter issue, Halbert said he knew how to type, but when writing sales copy he did not try to be or care one iota about being “efficient.” The only thing he cared about was being effective. He then gave his readers 105 world class bullets to write out by hand (one to a 3×5 notecard).

And he said after you do that, go find 500 more and do the same.

Have you done that?

No?

Then you are truly missing out.

And it probably shows in your copywriting, too.

2. C.S. Lewis used to write with pen & ink – literally write a sentence, dip pen in the ink, write another sentence, tediously, one after another, until his books were finished. His good friend JRR Tolkien, on the other hand, used a typewriter.

Both were enormously successful.

But Lewis with his less efficient and totally primitive tech (pen vs typewriter) was far more proficient.

It took ol’ Tolkien some 17 years to finish Lord of the Rings.

And, I will add, with a LOT of nagging & prodding from Lewis.

Do what you want with that.

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Ben Settle

An exhausted guy on my list recently told me in broken English I write too long of emails.

He said he was tired & bored.

And he asked me to write shorter emails.

No.

If anything, he got me to thinking about one of the most profitable emails I ever done wrote that clocks in a fat 14 pages long. But instead of boring a bunch of people, it’s keeps them engaged, interested, and going by sales… buying.

The reason?

I believe because it’s based on pure, unadulterated, and uncircumcised…

Folk horror!

Yes my pet, Folk Horror tales are some of the best email “templates” you can ever use. If you want to get a power lesson on how to do this in your own emails I suggest you not only read lots of folk horror (my favorite kind of story growing up, very fun), but watch, and then re-watch a documentary about it on Amazon called:

“Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched: A History Of Folk Horror”

Listen up, listen good, and remember ye for the rest of your days:

The very same powers that make folklore endure and last the test of time are the exact same powers that make great emails and other advertising last the test of time. You could even say a great ad IS folklore of a copywriter’s own creation. And, in many cases depending on the market (like my 14 pager), Folk HORROR.

And, of course, it’s all infotainment.

In this case, that infotainment was in the form what the documentary described as:

“When the prozaic meets the uncanny.”

i.e., when the ordinary meets the extraordinary.

This is the best and most enduring kind of storytelling.

* Think Spider-Man: bullied nerd gets bit by radioactive spider.

* Or The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe: little girl walks into wardrobe and finds herself in a magical land with talking animals.

* Or Charles Atlas’ “The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac” ad that ran for decades nearly unchanged: deathly skinny, “girl repellant” teen gets humiliated at beach, orders book that lets him kick the bully’s ass, and gets the girl.

* Or nearly every Gary Halbert or John Carlton ad in weight loss, golf, self defense, finance, niches: fat woman goes literally insane with worry and doubt about husband leaving her then gets report and is skinny, happy, has her man back… or “old, out-of-shape, pain-ridden golfer hobbles up to the tee and whacks it 500 yards straight down the middle winning bets and having all his friends beg him for how he does it.”

And so on, and so forth.

These are not merely “ads”, they’re solid examples of…Folklore.

And, I’d argue, Folk Horror, depending on the market/niche/story.

Like, for instance, John Carlton’s infamous headline:

[Your Name] And Family Seriously Injured In Vicious Attack By Gang Members!

Imagine getting that in the mail.

With YOUR full name in the headline which is the way they mailed it. The Vision, the emotional impact upon seeing it in your head, the anger, and perhaps desire to call up the advertiser and tell him to:

“Go to hell!”

But you keep reading, because you just can’t resist.

And you start to read about a “chat” the guy writing you had with someone in the FBI about all the reports suddenly popping up about ultra violent street criminals attacking women and children in the Denny’s parking lot for no reason… or, like I read in another similar kind of as: a grinning sex-crazed psychopath breaking into your home and shitting on your bedroom floor, bypassing your security alarm, then hovering over your kids’ beds, drooling, while they sleep watching them, then snatching one of them… etc.

In other words:

Stories of ordinary people overcoming extraordinary setbacks and problems to achieve whatever it is they want. Only difference between this kind of folklore and ancient tales of yore is we sell stuff in ours.

And there’s no need to complicate it.

Of course, people will and do complicate the simple.

But that is another topic for another time.

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Ben Settle

It’s been quite a show seeing the inevitable play out in real time:

Many boys & ghouls who were hyping generative so-called AI up as the Second Coming of copywriting just a few months ago are now quite vocal about calling out its obvious flaws & limitations. It’s always been a bubble, and when that bubble pops it’ll be quite a sticky mess, I suspect.

“BUT BEN! I ONLY USE IT FOR RESEARCH!”

Sure, and let me guess… you use it to “brainstorm” with?

Personally, I prefer to “brainstorm” with the market directly like great salesmen have always done.

Take, for example, the late, great Gary Halbert who did it to write his family crest sales letter that is, from what understand, the “most mailed” sales letter in history. Yes, Gary literally knocked on doors after a series of failures selling it, showed his market his report, got their feedback, figured out where he’d been going wrong… and then knocked out a one page letter that changed the face of direct response marketing forever.

So-called AI could not have given him that info, only his market could, directly.

This reminds me of something another great A-list copywriter Doug D’Anna taught when I interviewed him back in 2007. He spent more time in that interview talking about the importance of knowing one’s market at an intimate, personal, and, yes, human level than any copywriting technique.

It was not what my nubile copywriting fanboy brain wanted to hear.

But it was desperately what it needed to hear.

Here’s the example he gave:

Every day is different. Like today. Yesterday the market dropped 300 points, today I haven’t checked it. I have three versions over at the one publisher of a couple of different ads that I think are on the pulse of the market. . . The best way to learn isn’t with another course, it’s an OJT, on the job training.

“I need this back in two hours, we need a new headline and the close is weak.” Can you correct it for me?”

Do you think you can work that way?

That’s why I guess I do the little coaching. Because I believe in my heart that the better salesman you are outside of copywriting the better copywriter you will be because you’ll get the ebb and flow. You’ll instinctively know how to deal with a human being.

“Ebb and flow” is the key phrase.

You get that by interacting directly with your market, not a robot spitting back what could very likely be lies, fantasy, and/or outright bull shyt. That can get you ganked in business if you aren’t careful.

Or maybe you think so-called AI is going to help you deal better with human beings.

At Low Stress Trading we have been doing some market research to sell the offer to the Chiropractor market. And Troy’s former chiropractor – who is cleaning up using the trading framework – is not only going to be the voice & spokesman for us to that market, but he spent a lot of time filling out a detailed market analysis I sent to him.

I also spent a lot of time using so-called AI to help with research while waiting.

Yes, the so-called AI had some useful stats, numbers, assumptions.

But just the first page ALONE of what the human told me was light years more useful than the data – much of it laughably inaccurate and inconsistent – the robot spit out when asked.

Anyway, all this is on my mind because of a question I got about how to stay relevant:

Amongst the grifters, AI prophets, and people who all sound the same – you stand out. For some reason, it feels different, and authentic.

I believe this is the most important question of 2025, which is:

In a world where the amount of content, maturation of markets, and general consensus of knowledge is speeding up – how do you stay relevant without doing the same?

If someone in my niche is giving the free exercises and secrets way, and I don’t, how can I possibly compete or achieve any comparable market share with that person? 

Of course I can create content around other “soft teaching”

However with Tik tok brain at an all time high, people want NOW, give me the answer in 3 bullet points. 

And I could give it to them. So I suspect some pushback if and when I don’t.

Anyway, would appreciate your thoughts on this. I am sending because I think it could help others as well.

All the best this year, 

The answer:

1. Know thy market better than anyone else by talking to/mailing actual humans, getting their reactions, studying what they say/do/feel, not trying to outsource it for better “efficiency.” It is far better to be more effective than more efficient when applicable.

2. Outwork everyone else.

Rest takes care of itself in my experience.

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Ben Settle

Where the question is asked:

Hi Ben, 

Not sure why I haven’t emailed you sooner (maybe cause I’m scared the great email copywriting legend will humble me too much with this idiotic email haha), but I just wanted to say that I love your emails. I find value in them, like, 99% of the time. I’ve had eureka moments just from your free content, which is insane. I want to buy your books, but here’s my thing: 

I trust that your teachings work, but I am not sure I can trust myself to implement them.

What would you say to someone like me? I think I’m good at writing… But executing what I learn is hard.

I tend to be timid, maybe because I don’t always know what I’m doing or my mind is blank. Really just depends on the day I guess LOL. 

You’re the copywriter that I always come back to, and I always wonder how you know so much and come up with such amazing content. I aspire to be an email copywriter like yourself (not copying you, of course LOL), but I really think your content is gold. Also, I vibe with your bluntness and agree with you on many things. I’m a Christian also, and I appreciate you being bold and also touching on some topics even normie Christians wouldn’t.

Anyway, again, love your stuff. 

The last kind of person I’m going to “humble” is someone asking a sincere question.

It’s the spittle-on-the-carpet snark bois who I have fun with.

But as for her question:

If you make writing fun, you don’t have to motivate yourself, trick yourself, or otherwise manipulate/coax yourself into getting work done any more than someone who likes watching TV and finds it fun has to be motivated, tricked, or coaxed into watching TV.

When it comes to email:

If it ain’t fun to write, then throw it out and find something that is fun to write about. After all, if it ain’t fun for you to write, it won’t be fun for anyone else to read.

Enthusiasm “trickles down.”

It’s why, for example, I have never once been tempted to use fapGPT to write with.

That’s almost like outsourcing watching my favorite movies to Grok.

I want to experience the writing, not hide from it like the generative AI crowd.

Writing is fun, exciting, and the ultimate rush if you do it right (or write).

This email I am writing now is the fourth one I’ve written today (I write a lot of my emails in batches). And it’s not work, it’s play. I woke up this morning eager to get to it, especially since I just spent the last several days tediously editing audio for a 10-hour course about a topic I’m launching next year.

I was up at 3:15’ish am and working within 30 minutes having the time of my life.

It’s not a “chore” to write these emails, it’s a privilege.

It’s like eating dessert first.

In many ways, for me at least, it’s also therapy.

Will not explain.

More:

Later this year I’m wanting to get back into writing fiction. Fiction is a lot harder than writing emails. It can be a lot more nerve-wracking too, because of the uncertainty aspect to it. In the introduction to my newly updated Zombie Cop novel (the one I have free in the Enoch Wars mobile app) I put it like this:

“It’s a strange phenomenon that is as nerve-racking (not knowing the ending and hoping it’ll be good) as it is exhilarating (also not knowing the ending and hoping it’ll be good).”

This is not something to avoid, it’s something to chase.

Anyway, I don’t know if this helps anyone else or not.

The vast majority of people want to “have written” but not actually write.

That is why fapGPT, AI, etc is so popular.

It reminds me of a scene in the movie “Warrior” between Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte. Tom plays a guy about to compete in an MMA tournament and wants his ex-alcoholic and wife-abusing father (Nolte) to train him. He hates his dad, but he also knows his dad is the best trainer for him.

So Tom walks into a diner to meet with his dad to discuss his training.

And his dad immediately says:

“Hand ‘em over right now. I know they’re on you, Tommy. You sounded like a goddamn maraca coming through the door.”

Tommy reaches into his pocket and slides two bottles across the table.

i.e., performance enhancing drugs.

His dad then says: “This is for losers and old men.”

That’s the perfect analogy for generative so-called AI for writers.

Forget all that shyt and just sac up and write.

If you have doubts as we all do at times, confidence problems as we all do at times, or think you won’t be any good as we all do at times… well, guess what? Just means you’re a flawed human being like the rest of us. And all that doubt and head trash can only make your writing better and more human if you harness it, instead of trying to fight it.

Don’t worry if it’s good, bad, fugly, or anything else.

Just do the work, every day, whether you “feel” like it or not or have time or not.

That’s what separates the winners… from the terminally online using generative AI.

End of pep talk.

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Ben Settle

“Are everyone’s unsubscribe rates skyrocketing now that Gmail has this 1-click unsubscribe button BEFORE opening?”

These email chicken littles sure are a neurotic bunch.

People really worry about this sort of thing.

And the reason they do is because they are focused on the wrong things and majoring in the minors. Really, there is no other explanation. We saw this exact same panic when Apple did a similar shtick a few years back. It had people running around on their head in circles like Larry in the 3 Stooges, looking for hacks and tricks to game the tech instead of just giving it what it wants.

The hacks & tricks bois never get this.

But there is a totally free resource I recommend for this.

No opt-in necessary, either.

And what, pray tell, is this resource you can download free online?

The Can-Spam Act

The US government has made it freely available for over 20 years. Simply download, read it, and apply it. Not only will you almost certainly get better email inbox deliverability, but if you’re selling offers people want to buy you’ll almost certainly get more sales, too.

Listen, I hate the government as much as anyone.

But if it’s got something that can help my business, I’ll use it.

I’m biased of course.

But I dare say if you combine what’s in the Can-Spam law with what I teach in Email Players, I suspect you will find your business gets ever more sales, more engagement, and more customers/clients than you ever thought possible from such a simple document.

Anyway, that’s the tip for the day.

If you want to learn my Email Players methodology go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a question:

I have recently discovered that I love writing and I would really love to have my own email list to talk to

I call it my ” multiple fan girls fantasy “

The problem is I dont have any digital product to lure readers into

So what should I do

The answer is the same answer I’ve been giving for many years, to online businesses, with or without fan girls fawning all over them. Although, admittedly, I don’t think anyone really wants to hear the answer. But that doesn’t stop me from giving the advice anyway, though.

Anyway, the advice?

1. Grow an email list you mail every day with interesting and useful content

2. Sell ‘em something that gives a great experience & improves lives

3. Sell those buyers something else

When you get there, you’ll see further.

But most people never get there.

I would argue the majority never even do step 1, much less steps 2 & 3. They not only can’t see the horizon line from which, if they make it there, they’ll see further, but they never even get outside to see the horizon at all. It’s a strange time we live in where so many are terminally online but don’t actually do much selling online.

I can’t really help those schlubs.

I don’t think anyone can.

Not really.

Not until they pull their heads out of their arses.

For those who can do the above steps, though, I refer you to the paid Email Players newsletter.

More info here:

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Ben Settle

1. I recently heard about a report by an organization called Europol predicting that by 2026, 90% of online content could be AI-generated – which is not really all big a shock, especially considering how much is already AI-generated already.

2. The more so-called AI content, the less valuable it becomes if for no other reason than anyone can do it.

3. A lot of people can’t see how that’s a problem from the sounds of it

4. So-called AI needs human-created content to sustain itself, be trained on, etc.

5. A lot of people can’t comprehend why that’s a problem either.

6. Content that IS human-generated, from human brains, flaws and all, will automatically become more valuable and more of a novelty.

7. Copywriting clients who are firing copywriters like it’s a sport to “save money” by using so-called AI will find this out the hard way, as will copywriters who stubbornly refuse to become their own clients, selling their own offers to their own lists, instead of, or at least in addition to, doing client work.

8. The more so-called AI content generated, the less unique ideas/insights/experiences that content will have.

9. The less unique ideas/insights, the more valuable legit unique ideas/insights/experiences become, as it is with any novelty.

10. So-called AI content trained on more and more so-called AI content and less and less human-generated content will inevitably collapse, just as rampant incest collapses the families of those who engage in it.

11. Combine that with what our Chief Architect at BerserkerMail/Learnistic, and one of the most brilliant software developers I have ever dealt with (guy literally has created software/platforms to contribute to brain cancer research at a major university, if that tells you something), Pedro, put it perfectly when he said:

“AI is trained and normalized in aggregated human knowledge, the most pure average… And have you seen how stupid the average person is?”

I see a lot of people declaring the “death of copywriters” now due to so-called AI.

But I ain’t holding my breath.

I’ve been around in this game a long time, and have yet to see a single “death of” prediction come true. Email, for example, has been pronounced dead for 20+ years (always sent by email, of course). Text sales letters have been pronounced dead. Lead magnets (i.e., the good, old shameless bribe) has been pronounced dead.

And the list goes on.

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Ben Settle

Last month Star Wars creator George Lucas celebrated his 81st birthday.

I’ve long said his biography (the one by Brian Jay Jones) is arguably the single most valuable biography I’ve ever read as far as business goes. And it’ll never not be ironic to me how much he absolutely hated writing, put it off as long as he could, struggled with it… getting nothing but mockery & disdain from the critics… yet created arguably some of the most profitable stories ever written.

He also dropped another zinger in an interview with Turner Classic Movies recently.

Specifically about Yoda.

And, even more specifically, why he had Yoda speak backwards.

Yoda was really the make-or-break it part of The Empire Strikes Back. If the puppet didn’t work, if it came off as fake and stupid or silly… if Frank Oz didn’t nail the nuance/voice/personality just right… the entire movie would be a gigantic flop, and his career mostly likely coming to a fast end.

To which Lucas admitted about why he had Yoda speak backwards:

“Because if you speak regular English… people don’t listen that much. But if he had an accent, or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying. . .He was basically the philosopher of the movie. I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen… especially 12-year-olds”

That could be an entire copywriting seminar unto itself.

Will not explain.

Not here, at least.

In other news:

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Ben Settle

So the Apostle Paul more or less said in Galatians 5:12.

(about a bunch of agitators still pushing circumcision haunting them)

Before the sob sisters who’re too nice for God hold a candlelight vigil:

Paul spoke colloquial Greek (“street Greek”). Lots of plain speech normies would understand, even if the snob class were offended. Just like when he said his whole life (guy helped murder Christians before his conversion) was dung before turning to Christ, which is probably more accurately translated into English as a big pile of shit.

General Patton used to say if you NEED to get a point across to save live give it dirty.

Not from the pulpit, obviously.

But sometimes you have to say crude things to get attention.

Paul certainly did, as did God throughout the Old Testament.

The irony:

Social media and the glut of books with “f*ck” (misspelled exactly like that) in the title by the edge lords has switched this all around – where now NOT sounding like a slurring lunatic raving obscenities is more likely to get you noticed.

Anyway, something to learn and profit from by reading the Bible.

Yes, even if you’re a hell-bound atheist or heathen slowly turning on the “Rotisserie” now. If that’s you and you still draw breath then there’s still time to change those wicked ways.

As for everyone else?

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Ben Settle