Ben Settle

Recently I dug up all my old Dan Kennedy NO BS Marketing Letters for some annual re-reading & note-taking.

Specifically the ones where he wrote the entire issue.

They were the finest newsletters ever published.

Take for example, this ditty from the October 2002 issue:

“Warning: do not subscribe to “recession think.” Do not let whatever the media, your peers, your competitors, even your customers may be saying about “things being tough.” People find money for what they really want, period.”

That was a rough economic time.

It was right after I’d just gone from living in an office into a cabin in the woods.

And that advice served me extremely well then.

And, again, after the 2008 economic meltdown.

And now, today, with the current Depression a lot of people haven’t even really felt yet, and with deflation having not even kicked in yet. But it will. In fact, I hear tell some banks are already putting up signs about how they don’t have any new money, ATM withdrawals are being limited, and all the other fun parts that come with the start of a deflationary economy.

But Dan’s prophecy stands:

Not a few people are in “recession think.”

And they have been for approximately two years now, since the lockdowns.

I remember how “business” people sounded then.

And I am ready for the same business people to start prattling on about cutting expenses, firing people, etc when they should be RAMPING UP all their marketing, investing harder in marketing education, and seizing all the magnificent marketshare ripe for the seizing.

I am not saying bad economies are good.

But they can be opportunities for direct response marketers who know what they’re doing.

It’s why I’ve had clients who used to get downright giddy when it happened.

Some of them who I keep in touch with are like kids the day before Christmas or a birthday now — knowing soon their lesser competitors are about to hand their kids’ birthrights over to marketers like themselves out of sheer, emotionally-driven fear and being so easily-manipulated by a mass media agenda that keeps moving goal posts and pulling the wool over their eyes day after day after day, getting ever-more emboldened to keep doing as such due to the compliance of the unlearned on such matters.

Too bad for them.

They’re about to miss out on some serious “fire sales.”

And, also, some serious business opportunities.

Not all Dan’s “prophecies” from those old newsletters came true.

(The government still hasn’t seized and started charging for email… yet… but if/when it does, my Email Players subscribers & I are going to be like the proverbial fox in the unguarded henhouse… I almost want to lobby Congress to make it happen…)

But a surprising number of them have.

All right, that’s that.

If you want to be around recession-thinkers, I got nothing for you.

But if you want to join a room full of winners, then “Email Players” is here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

City slickers who bring their feces voting with them to small towns

Reader Glenn M drops me a righteous line:

As an avid reader of your emails and a former resident of Gov. Kate’s Oregon, how long do you think you will last there?

Idaho is “politically correct.”

Keep up the good work.

I don’t anticipate going anywhere.

Frankly, there is no “escape” from what’s going on.

Anti-business city slickers are spreading like a virus themselves everywhere:

North, south, east, and west.

In my case, the state is already screwed beyond repair with its extended lockdowns & inane politics, and enough people cheering it on even as their cities are covered in equal parts homeless, feces, and drug needles.

So it’s all pretty irrelevant to me.

In fact, there was a movement in Idaho that even recently tried to annex my county probably knowing they need more fed up country-folk influence over their body politic. This is a healthy trend you can already see playing out more and more if you live in the U.S. And in my opinion it is a good indication of how far along we are towards the inevitable break up of the U.S.

It’s all going to come crashing down eventually.

And this last election only accelerated it.

And if you ask me (and you didn’t), it can’t happen fast enough.

But until then, my attitude is:

Do you like it where you are?

Yes?

Then don’t run — stand your ground, and dig in.

Starting today.

A perfect and timely example:

In my county last month, there was some chatter about catering to the homeless.

I doubt very many knew about it.

But, a citizen decided to have a postcard written and designed, and mailed it to God-knows-how-many people — presumably with his own money, at his own expense, and with this own resources.

The result?

The county commissioners got something like 200 emails or calls.

And the proposal was dead in the water before it could even be considered.

You can do this sort of thing too.

Especially if you have even mediocre marketing chops.

Very important if you don’t want the idiots fleeing the very feces & drug-addled cities their own voting patterns created coming to where you are, and wanting to then recreate it in their own image.

They are easy to identify.

They always manage to slip in “how come we don’t do like ___ does?”

Insert whatever big city they just came from, that they fled, due to their own voting.

Anyway, I bring all this up for 3 reasons:

1. To troll the big city refugees fleeing to small towns who want to recreate wherever they land in the image of wherever they just left.

2. To answer the question asked at the start of this email.

3. To inspire people who are scared of what current events could mean for their business.

To them, I quote the wise Frank Castle:

(AKA The Punisher)

“Pissed off beats scared every time.”

All right, that’ll do it for today.

I don’t see business as business anymore.

I see it as warfare.

And my Email Players newsletter has become my own playbook — what I am doing in my own businesses, ain’t none of it theory — on how to wage this kind of war, using email and strategy as the weapon.

More info on the newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last month Stefania and I had a weekend meeting here at the house for the software companies we are embroiled in these days. Troy Broussard came here with Tom Beal who does a lot of work with us, and Nicole English (our Operations Manager) was on Zoom from Australia.

And for three days we hashed out all kinds of ideas & plans.

During which the topic of “balance” came up.

Or, rather, imbalance.

Turns out almost the entire software team (all exceptionally brilliant) is imbalanced. The head developer especially so — as he is a true savant and can do the work of 10 coders in 1/10 of the time, and still have multiple other projects going simultaneously, and is mentally able to keep track of it all.

Not even an exaggeration.

Guy can’t turn his brain off if he wanted to.

And, of course, the inevitable crash from operating at that level is as devastating as the brilliant times are productive.

Troy is much the same way, which I can attest to.

But when I laughed at these guys and told them how that sucks, and thankfully I am balanced, everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy.

“Uhm Ben,” said Nicole, “you’re not at all balanced.”

i.e., waking up at 1 or 2 am, gagging down (literally) 150 capsules per day, 3+ hours of hiking per day 3-4 days per week literally to the point of having to get a new pair of shoes every other month just to function, and be completely alone for at least 12-14 hours per day to feel somewhat human.

And so it is.

All of us in that room, and everyone on the team, is completely imbalanced.

Some in healthier ways than others.

And whether or not that is ultimately a “good” or “bad” thing depends on the when and the what. But there is a good chance anyone reading this who can’t do things without going to extremes, has a hard time quieting your brain, and has a constant life-or-death battle with burnout & obsessively works to get as much done in as little time as humanly possible… while always slipping farther and farther behind where you want to be at in business or other goals, is the same way.

If that’s you, I have no Yoda-like words of wisdom.

We all cope in our own little ways.

And what works for me won’t necessarily work for you.

One of the things that works for me though is writing a lot.

Not just emails though.

But writing books, Email Players issues, comicbook scripts (for comicbook-style ads that sell things as well as a graphic novelization of my Zombie Cop book I am working on), and some epic fantasy fiction I’ve been engaging in lately.

The most profitable or those activities is the emails.

It’s what my Email Players newsletter is all about.

Although it’s far more strategical than tactical.

Thus, no hacks, swipes, or tricks.

Just broad, sweeping email strategies you can use with what I teach in the book I send to new subscribers to ratchet-up them email profits of yours.

To learn more, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A newbie raises his head above the fray:

“…read one of your emals saying you don’t want to deal with newbies. But if you have some good advice at all for those of us starting out I can really use it!”

The reasons I don’t cater to, sell to, or deal with newbies are many.

But I’ll give the question a wack.

Here’s advice I’d give to 20-years ago me:

1. Detach from caring what anyone but the market thinks about a product idea, marketing idea, or copywriting idea

2. The ONLY purpose of a website (if direct response) is to build a list, and probably every single copywriter, writer, or writing-related person you know will fight you on this – but ignore them, as they know not what they are saying, and are most likely following my advice about this without even realizing it

3. Invest in and study Earl Nightingale’s “Lead the Field” audio program ASAP

4. Don’t pay for informational products, but do buy them (will not explain further here)

5. Polarization is far more effective than moderation

6. Ignore all marketing-related advice you see on social media until you can discern what is good advice and what is baboon shyt

7. Strategical thinking will make you far more than tactical thinking

8. Don’t think like a writer, think like a publisher

9. Never engage one-on-one with a troll who has less influence than you

10. For sales skills read everything you can get your hands on by Jim Camp, Barry Maher, and Joe Girard

11. Superior customer service will forgive a lot of marketing sins

12. Build a network as quickly & aggressively as you can

13. Stay out of debt, and don’t put any business-related products or trainings on a credit card – go dig ditches or something until you an afford it

14. Problem solving is a far more valuable skill than solution giving

15. Everyone (yes, me included) is full of crap until proven otherwise

16. Understand that being popular is not necessarily the same as being in-demand and vice versa

17. Learn the difference between selling & pitching and know when to do which

18. You can never have too many merchant accounts

19. Finally, do NOT buy any of my higher-ticket books or subscribe to the Email Players newsletter.

You aren’t ready.

Especially if you don’t have a real business yet.

Besides needing a real business how will you know when you’re ready?

The answer:

If you have to ask, you aren’t ready.

But if and when that day comes, simply go to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A few weeks ago I saw a rather amusing meme that explains the utter futility of arguing on social media (back when I bothered), or with trolls on my list, or anywhere else.

Especially about showing them any stats, numbers, analytics, etc.

The meme went like this:

Study 3 years for degree.
Study 3 more for PhD.
Join lab, start working.
Spend years studying problem.
Form hypothesis, gather evidence.
Test hypothesis, form conclusions.
Report findings, clear peer review.
Findings published, reported in press.

Guy on internet: “Bullshit.”

Some more thoughts:

It’s the exact same with people up in the marketing world who have spent many years figuring out, testing, experimenting, and honing a way of doing things, only to teach it and then get naysayed by a bunch of newbies and goo-roo fanboys who aren’t even qualified to pour water out of a boot, much less comment on such matters. In fact, I remember many years ago Sean D’Souza giving a talk at one of Ken McCarthy’s System Seminars about his sequential selling and consumption model of marketing — which is almost the exact opposite of a lot of what people were doing, teaching, and selling at that time especially.

Still is in many ways.

And yet, the naysayers just couldn’t help themselves.

“Where’s your stats & numbers proving this works!”

Sean’s answer:

“We don’t use analytics or any of that and I don’t have any data — I started out as a cartoonist and I moved to marketing and this has allowed us to take 3 vacations per year, buy houses, travel, do all the things we really wanted to do. We earn more money than we need.”

My experience:

When people clamor for stats & analytics, tests, etc they aren’t looking for truth.

If they were, they’d simply test out whatever they are asking about.

Which is always ironic.

Because for people — i.e., so-called internet marketers — whose only answer to every question is “test!” they don’t seem want to test much.

More:

I got a question from a newbie lately that was similar.

He asked:

“It seems you avoid talking what what your profit per month per lead is, whys that? I know its because you will be inaccuratley jugged but im still quite curious. Its like the guy who teaches game but doesn’t show his girls.”

I literally have no idea what my profit per month per lead is.

Nor do I care.

If I was paying for traffic I probably would, but I don’t.

So I look at my sales and see how they trend over time.

And I also find talking about numbers turns on the derelicts on my list who I like to avoid.

(The low information types who get excited over fake photoshopped bank statements, etc)

But, sometimes I break that rule of not showing my numbers.

Like I did last Summer during our BerserkerMail launch:

To show the pointlessness of constantly obsessing over “open rates” I posted a screenshot in my SocialLair of my open rates during an 8 week time frame along with another screenshot of my shoppingcart with my sales over that time — showing my exact gross sales broken down by product.

The results were something like $217k in sales with lowly 13% open rates.

You could buy a decent house in some neighborhoods with that.

Maybe not guru numbers claiming to be $900 million copywriters or whatever.

But my business gets by…

Plus, I am not even counting the sales from my software companies & coaching program (Learnistic, BerserkerMail, SocialLair, and Profit Pirates – which ain’t exactly chicken feed), sales from one of my licensed offers, Kindle book sales, affiliate campaigns, etc. And yet I still had some people since then clamoring for more test results, tracking, etc.

And that was a reminder of this truism:

Not only can you not fix stupid, but stupid people are never convinced anyway.

So why bother?

As for the newbie’s PUA analogy:

I post testimonials all the time.

Every month.

Probably more often than I need to.

And unless they ask me not to name them, you can look them up.

Even ask them yourself to verify.

Thus, his game analogy was as silly as saying Fonzy surrounded by multiple girls while walking out of Al’s on a Friday night sucks at picking up chicks because he doesn’t give field reports in a Yahoo group talking about his exact ratio of picks ups vs rejections, money spent, and how many dates until he gets the average woman he pursues in bed, etc.

Anyway, lots in this email for the discerning marketer to pick out.

But probably not so much for the goo-roo fanboy reading this.

Although, as I say a lot, I don’t know why those mopes are on my list at all.

Nothing I can say or do will help them.

As for the the grownups?

That’s what my Email Players newsletter is for.

Something you can read more about here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Following is for podcasters and others wanting to interview me.

Recently I came to a decision:

I am no longer doing video interviews.

I’ve made exceptions here and there over the last couple years. But starting today that is no longer going to be the case. And, in fact, I’ll be sending anyone asking me to appear on their podcast, mastermind, masterclass, training, or other ventures via video to this (it will be put up as a page on my blog) so they know I won’t be appearing on video.

If they want me on their zoom or whatever, my video will be turned off.

And they will simply see my still shot face.

Why am I being such a video nazi?

The answer is simple:

I give my best performance via audio & far more enjoy the experience that way.

For me, being tethered to a desktop computer doing interviews is stupid.

I’m not saying people who like being tethered to a desktop doing interviews are stupid.

And I’m not saying those who insist on video interviews are stupid.

I’m simply saying for me it is stupid.

I do my best thinking & strategizing walking around, not having to look into a screen, and free to just talk, think, and give information unbound to a desk, not looking into a camera, and not even frankly being fully dressed in some cases.

A Stefania often says:

“Ben, you gesticulate a lot when you are talking.”

And she’s right.

People who listen to me live in our Profit Pirates coaching program know this.

And it doesn’t work sitting down in one spot looking into a phone or computer camera.

On a stage when speaking?

Fine.

In fact, I enjoy that.

But on video?

No.

More:

Audio is far more direct response friendly than video anyway. That is why most direct response ads are on radio not TV. And the information is far more important than the format. Anyone who doesn’t get that is simply too short for the ride. And, they should find someone else to interview.

This is not an attack on anyone specifically.

In fact, I fully realize this will kill many opportunities for me.

I also have good friends who I highly respect up in this business who not only disagree with every word I am writing here, but insist on video being on, and will probably not invite me back on their shows, masterminds, whatever it is.

And I am perfectly okay with that.

This is not me arguing with anyone, nor is it up for debate.

It’s simply stating how it’s going to be for now on.

One last thing:

I have heard video podcasters say that video helps audiences connect more with whoever is being interviewed.

And there is some truth to that.

But the reality is, engagement has very little to do with format.

And everything to do with communication & conflict.

Will not explain further.

That’s all I got for now.

Just realize this, Mr. Podcaster reading this:

If it were up to me, the entire internet would go back to plain text.

So my biases are now obvious.

All right, enough.

Let’s move on.

To learn about my 100% TEXT print newsletter Email Players, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben settle

Came a great question from an “Email Players” subscriber:

…you talk about always plugging something in every email. Since I am an email copywriter, I always write something interesting and transition into a product pitch. But I feel the list may not be happy in the long term. What is a good ratio mix of sales and educational content in a week? Should I write blog posts and link them instead from time to time?

Your daily email horror hosts’s take:

He is making the exact same mistake a lot of email marketers — probably 99% of ‘em — are making. And that is, projecting one’s emotions & hangups about being sold to on to a list.

Listen up, listen good, and always remember:

Buyers want to buy.

Lurkers want to lurk.

Lukewarm people want to complain, whine, & bytch.

You have to decide which of those you want to focus on and serve.

If the answer is buyers, then write for & TO them.

That means, giving them something to buy.

Of course, that doesn’t mean not to make your emails worth their time to read. But it does mean at least giving your subscribers the opportunity to know your offer exists each day. Or, at the very least, sending them somewhere that will lead to a sale.

There is no perfect ratio of selling & content.

The art & craft is in seamlessly & naturally combining the two.

The last thing I do when I write an email is say:

“All right, I gotta make sure x% of this email teaches, and y% sells…”

Some of my emails are 100% teasing.

Others are even 100% pitching.

Once in a great while (2 or 3 times per year, max) they are 100% teaching.

But 90%+ of the time it’s a combination — all based on the content, the market, the market’s awareness and/or sophistication levels (ala Gene Schwartz’s teachings), what I want to write about, what I think my list needs to know, what is on my mind, what is on the market’s mind, the offer I want to tell them about, and a whole slew of variables that make any kind of perfect ratio of selling & teaching a complete myth with about as much basis in reality as Wakanda or Latveria.

That’s my take.

What’s far more important than the mythical content v pitch ratio is this:

Consistently writing & sending emails.

Getting to know your list, and build a relationship with it.

And do it with as little “friction” as possible.

Those are just a few of the benefits you can get by reading & applying Email Players each month.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

1. You’ll become a better writer

2. You’ll write better sales copy

3. Your writing will inevitably get faster

4. Generate more ideas (ideas beget ideas, emails beget emails…)

5. Clearer thinking

6. Accomplish more than your lazy social media-addicted peers

7. Generate more testimonials

8. Probably get more JV opportunities

9. More customers to which you can sell other offers to

10. More clients

11. Demonstrate your knowledge

12. Can be therapeutic

13. Might inspire others

14. It’s fun

15. Creates more financial security

16. Troll fodder handed to you more often

17. Entertainment when you see someone melt down over something you wrote

18. Can elevate your thinking

19. You can teach cool ideas to a receptive audience you wouldn’t be able to otherwise

20. Makes your other writing easier to pound out

21. Gets your business more attention

22. Lets you demonstrate leadership

23. Will very likely make you new industry connections

24. Can create other opportunities you never considered

25. Attracts better leads

26. Repels weak or unqualified leads

27. Less spam complaints (in my experience way less)

28. Creates friendly familiarity making the choice to buy from you much more likely

29. Builds & strengthens relationships with your list

30. New product ideas spring forth the more you do them and get feedback from your list

31. Gives you content to repurpose for other things

32. Better delivery rates (if you do email right)

33. You’ll make more sales

I could go on and on and on.

But if those 33 ways aren’t enough to light a fire under your righteous gluteus assimus, then probably nothing else I say will.

As far as training on how to write emails?

Go to this URL:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle