Ben Settle

Recently, I’ve been listening to an audio book (KISS: Keep It Simple Salesman) by the late “world’s greatest salesman”:

Fred Herman.

If you don’t know who Fred Herman was and sell in any way, shape, or form for a living than you, my Pet, have been doing your studying in the wrong library.

Fred was easily one of the greatest salesman who ever lived.

And Earl Nightingale knighted Fred the best sales trainer on the planet.

He became especially famous after being on Johnny Carson and selling Johnny his own ash tray in front of 20 million fans.

Anyway, I highly recommend anything by Fred Herman.

And in the book he pulls a lot of sales tips out of the Bible.

My favorite being about customer curation, and selling to the right people in the first place.

Specifically, this quote from scripture:

“Why seek ye the living among the dead?”

Why indeed.

It’s astounding to me how many times an “Email Players” subscriber will take advantage of the opportunity to ask Yours Crotchety questions (a perk for subscribing) by email, and it’s completely obvious they are not selling to buyers, or are targeting leads that only buy on price or have never bought anything from anyone, or don’t have money to buy anything even if they wanted to buy.

Those are dead leads.

Why seek ye them, my Child?

Especially when there are so many living ones to sell to?

Which brings me to the December “Email Players” issue.

The skill it teaches inside its crisp, lily-white pages can make separating the living from the dead on your list not only a very simple task, but a potentially very profitable task, too.

In many ways it’s the single most profitable skill you can ever learn in business.

Far more profitable than even copywriting, marketing, or selling.

The deadline to get in on this action is almost upon you.

To subscribe in time, stretch out thy fingers and click this link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I suspect this subject line is a bit too “R-rated” for some.

Almost certainly offensive to others.

And I suppose for a bunch of my hoary & hairy horde of customers & spectators alike, it might even sound completely stupid at best and downright impossible at worst.

But I suspect everyone’ll agree:

If you could somehow make giving your business money a overwhelmingly pleasurable & exciting act for your list, market, customers, and clients… and if you can make it something they not only don’t mind doing but look forward to doing and can’t wait to do… and if you can make it an act where maybe even certain (natural & pleasant) chemical & hormonal reactions occur in their brains & bodies… I daresay you’d never have to worry about the income side of your business ever again.

I also daresay you’ll never have any real competition, either.

And, I further daresay you’ll have turned your business into something quite different than it is now.

A tall order?

We don’t deal in midget orders here in elBenbo’s Lair.

And as certain smart business owners on m list will see, the promise of this is not only possible, it’s something you can start doing almost immediately — even the same day you learn how it’s done.

Something I just happen to teach in great detail in the December “Email Players” issue.

I waited til December to publish this particular issue for a reason.

I want my Email Players of the Horde to end 2020 with a loud, thunderous BANG.

Not the limp, underwhelming whimper all your Facebook friends obsessed with fake 3rd world-style dictatorship elections & overblown virus hysteria can’t even begin to fathom in their small, pea-sized imaginations that have been clogged up with fear, social media addiction, and self-induced cognitive dissonance will end their year with.

Another reason to hop on the EP-train:

I’m raising the price of “Email Players” starting January 1st.

What that means is this:

Anyone in before that date is “grandfathered” in at the current price forever. Unless, of course, they squirt off into the sunset by canceling. By announcing this here, I run the risk of turning on the dopamine-addicted price shoppers — i.e., new product junkies who are addicted to the dopamine drip they get whenever they buy something new, and thus are always looking for excuses to buy, but never commit to anything, consume anything, or do anything.

But those losers never get any real value out of “Email Players.”

And, thus, should stay far away from me, my newsletter, my books, or even my free emails.

A word to the wise is sufficient…

Whatever the case, go here to subscribe in time to get the December issue:

www.EmailPlayers.com

The deadline is Dec 31, 2020.

After that, too late…

Ben Settle

Came a question from an “Email Players” subscriber.

I know you talked about how you don’t pay attention to open rates.

Still…

Even with my tiny-small list I can see, let’s say tendencies, with regard to ORs.

At what point (what list size) can I take those parameters serious?

The short answer:

Almost never.

It’s an almost completely pointless vanity metric, possibly only a little more useful than your last Frogger arcade game score from 1981. There is far more power in the consistency you send emails and in focusing on getting better each day. And while I won’t say open rates have zero value — as there are a few times where it makes sense to track them, like to monitor the overall health of your list for example — don’t fool yourself into thinking they have anything to do with sales or anything but maybe an ego boost or bragging points in a Facebook group full of copywriters who find such vanity metrics worthy of getting excited about.

On that note:

Following are 12 far more important markers than open rates.

1. Sales — the ultimate engagement (see the next one), plus if money is the game, sales is the scoreboard

2. Replies/engagement — ESPs like Gmail & Yahoo tend to give more inbox delivery love (instead of shunting you to the spam or promotions folders) to you when you get replies from your list, since they see you as a person and not a worthless spammer

3. Clicks — which means engagement, and are far more practically useful than opens

4. Opt outs — probably don’t count as “engagement”, but if you aren’t getting lots of opt-outs you ain’t doing it right

5. Complaints/trolls — which, ironically, help your overall delivery since they are engaging with you (i.e., why trolls are your unpaid interns if you let them be)

6. Testimonials — not just for the engagement factor, but the practical factor too

7. Questions — even more engagement, plus can make great fodder for future emails

8. Customer service requests — yet more engagement, plus probably the greatest opportunity for selling there is

9. Interview request reply to an email — not only means engagement, but interviews are great for list-building

10. Forwards — if people are forwarding your emails to their friends, social media, etc, that can lead to referrals & a bigger list

11. JV proposal reply to an email — not only does this mean engagement, but could also mean new business

12. Spam complaints — not a good thing, but does tell you your lead gen & curation is weak, an important thing to know in the grand scheme of things

The goo-roo fanboys won’t like this list much.

But if you care what they think, you got bigger problems than open rates.

All right, on to the business:

My “Email Players” methodology is designed to get you far more of the 12 actions above than you are getting now. The evergreen info is in the “Email Players Skhema Book” I give to new subscribers, with the ongoing stuff in the monthly newsletter.

Speaking of which:

The November issue is all about copywriting.

And, specifically, mastering copywriting.

Not just being good or even great at it — but mastering it.

If that appeals to you, go here before the looming 10/31/20 deadline to get this issue:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold an email I got not long ago:

For someone reason, I’m blacklisted from your emails

I’ve tried to opt into your list multiple times and with different emails. Each time I get the welcome email but not your broadcasts (weird I know).

My coach and mentor says I need to get onto your list ASAP to learn from ya.

Hope you can help me out.

My response?

Ignored.

And the reason why is because of the email addresses he was using. For the last several years, I’ve instituted a policy for new website subscribers where whenever someone with an email address containing the word “swipe”, or “swipes” or anything related to that subscribes… I delete ’em on sight.

Why?

Because they’re most likely clueless.

And almost certainly subscribing for the wrong reasons.

Yes, I used to be a big fan of swiping, too.

But when I started doing copywriting assignments in the really competitive markets, I discovered I could only keep relying on swipe files for as long as I could afford to lose. And these One Swipe Suzies who can’t think or problem solve, and who infest the online marketing world are not only doing themselves a disservice, but they make for terrible customers for Yours Unruly, too.

I’m not saying to not have a swipe file.

But, for emails, they are especially overrated.

And, especially stupid.

Here are a few reasons why:

• Ad appeals that worked before for an email (or for someone’s unique personality) may not work for you
• Sometimes ads that “killed it” (supposedly) did so only because the other ads they competed against sucked
• Market “awareness” often changes
• Market sophistication often changes (See Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising” book for more on “awareness” and “sophistication”)
• Possible copyright infringement
• You simply cannot “swipe” a personality — and the best emails are heavily personality-based

Again, I’m not anti-swipe file.

I’m just anti swiping the way a lot of internet marketers and copywriters do it. Swipe files are great for idea generation, inspiration, and templates for headlines, opening paragraphs, bullets, etc.

But the ways most do it?

Stoopid on a stick.

Especially with emails, where it’s the mark of a loser to swipe them.

So that’s that.

A few of these idiots who put the word “swipe” in their emails slip through.

But I catch most of ‘em.

And am always on the lookout for any I missed.

All right, on to the business:

As far as people obsessed with swipe files go, I highly advise against those types being in my World at al. But this goes quadruple for the November “Email Players” issue which is about copywriting mastery, and will go completely over the head of anyone relying upon, looking for, or bragging about their swipe files. If that’s you, realize you are the opposite of the kind of customer this issue is intended for.

It ain’t personal.

It’s simply how it is.

On the other hand, if you want to work hard, and if you are the type to embrace hard work, then I believe this issue’ll probably be right up your alley.

To subscribe in time before I send it to the printer, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An amusing fact:

Napoleon Hill’s original title for his mega-bestselling book “Think And Grow Rich” was…

“Use Your Noodle To Win More Boodle”

Almost painful to read.

Yet, that book is one of the best-selling books of all time. But, do you think it would have sold as much with that moronic title “Use Your Noodle To Win More Boodle”? Even with the exact same content inside?

Of course not.

Such is the power of titles.

Your title is the “headline” for your product.

If you write a lame title or (even worse) swipe someone else’s title because you’re too lazy to do your own title (making yourself look like a hack at best, and a fraud at worst), your sales won’t be anywhere near where they should and could be.

Anyway, here’s the point:

Over the years, I’ve helped certain people cook up many million dollar titles. Like, for example, my pal Ray Higdon with his bestselling “3-Minute Expert” program that my ego would like to believe (whether accurate or not…), helped it nab at least some of its millions in sales over the years.

In fact, after that, some of his friends asked for my help with titling.

Like Mark Harbert and his “No Fear Video Marketing” product I invented the title for.

And, even to this day, people ask me for help with this.

And because I’m sick of people asking me, and because I can’t be bothered to work for free or work for a consulting fee to help them, I’m going to give away my big “secret” for creating titles right here and now, and simply reference people back to this email.

I freely admit I got this secret from studying the late Stan Lee.

And here it is:

A title just has to SOUND good.

Stan Lee had no idea what a “gamma ray” was that created the Hulk or what a “cosmic ray” was that created the Fantastic Four. But they sure sounded good. In fact, he did such a good job creating the country Latveria (Doctor Doom’s country) that fans used to ask him if it was a real place! Same with the writers of “The Amazing Spider-Man” movie using “decay rate algorithm”, or the writers of the movie “Backdraft” dreaming up “Trychtichlorate”, or the writers of the TV show Fringe making up “Cortexiphan.”

And so on, and so forth.

More:

Sounding good is only half the battle.

You also have to sum up the “essence” of the product in two or three words.

Thus, why a lot of my titles are also a result of nearly two decades of practicing, honing, and digging deep into the art & craft of writing sales copy. And, especially doing the drills I give in the upcoming November “Email Players” issue. These drills are excruciatingly tedious, boring, and mentally taxing. But I did each and every one of them when I was getting started, and were based off what some of my favorite copywriters and also comicbook artists did to excel and master their craft.

This is why I say you cannot “casually” read this issue.

You have to be mentally, emotionally, and psychologically engaged with the material.

Otherwise, there’s no point.

If you still want in on this issue, go here right away before the deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This last Summer I watched one of the most titillating documentaries on Amazon Prime I’ve ever done seen called:

“Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan”

If you love those old stop-go animated movies like the old Sinbad flicks, etc, you’ll dig it.

As a kid I couldn’t get enough of it.

As an adult I find those movies far more entertaining and fascinating than all the overdone special effects movies Hollywood churns out. And if you want some great idea/copy fodder for your emails, sales letters, and other marketing, I cannot recommend it enough, even if you aren’t in to such movies.

I wrote down a list of ideas and lessons while watching it.

But there were two that stand out like a loud, wet fart in a library if you want to ratchet up your sales, response, and overall brand power.

The first of these notes I wrote down was:

“By just being super intense about what you do & the media you use, you can stand out even if that media is outdated”

Listen up, my fine feathered little Fledgling.

There is a reason why – for nearly the past two decades – I’ve been able to “get away” with, and make lots and lots and lots of sales, by stubbornly refusing to jump on all the various trends and bandwagons of technology and gimmickry other online marketers are always chasing.

Like, for example:

• Using ONLY plain text emails
• Preferring low quality – even hard-to-hear – audio to any kind of video
• Having zero production value to the videos I do shoot (including some in the pitch darkness of my bedroom)
• Writing regular books & not having multi-media products, online membership options, etc
• Using “archaic” software like 1shopping cart – which has gotten me laughed at while attending many-a mastermind…
• Selling exclusively with long scrolling online sales letters with near-zero graphics (and even those usually are just a pic of me with some cheap one-liner), video, or other bells & whistles

And the reason why is it ain’t the media or technology doing the selling.

It’s my passion for what I do, what I use, and what I sell.

That is it.

Period.

End of discussion.

Ray Harryhausen took technology nobody was using anymore or wanted to touch, and was so ultimately good at it… he inspired entire legions of filmmakers (like Peter Jackson, for example) to excel at and be at the top of their game in special effects that had nothing to do with the stop-go animation Ray did.

So it is in marketing and selling.

You don’t have to chase after every trend, innovation, or format you see.

And just because a format supposedly gets a better response or higher levels of engagement for Agora or whoever people reflexively parrot doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same for you. Especially if your natural attributes lend themselves to something else that you happen to do better than most others.

Anyway, on to the pitch:

It talk more about this, including a second powerful insight from this documentary in the bonus elBenbo’s Lair insert stuffed neatly inside the November “Email Players” issue.

If you want it, the deadline to get this issue is 10/31/20.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I once read an article about an extremely deranged man.

Who broke into a funeral home.

To do even more deranged things to a corpse.

And, I challenged a bunch of people in the Facebook group I had at the time to write an email about it. One of these fine-feathered little fledglings piped up and said they couldn’t possibly write an email about that to his market — as his business was relationship coaching, and a lot of his readers were high level academics, people with PhD’s, and that sort of thing.

To which I replied “watch and learn, my little mush cookie…”

And then showed how even something as deranged as that news story could be packaged in a way that could sell to snooty academics and professors, and the easily offended.

Which is an important and profitable skill to have.

As a wise person I never met once said to some mush cookie millennials:

“I’m so grateful I was born without the ‘gets offended’ gene that seems to torment so many of you. Lighten up. Toughen up. Life is better.”

Truer words have nary been spoken.

Anyway, if you want to stand out in a market full of high falutin’ sophisticates, the best thing you can do is hunt down articles like the one I wrote about and turn the deranged material into a respectable email.

It’ll be a valuable email exercise.

And, who knows?

You may even catch yourself having some fun doing it…

To learn more about my “Email Players” newsletter, go here while the going’s good:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A transcribed Steve Jobs sound byte for your inspiration & instruction:

People come to me and they say, well, I want to be an entrepreneur. And I go, Oh, that’s great. What’s your idea? And they go, well, I don’t have one yet. And I say, well, I think you should go get a job as a bus boy or something. So you find something you’re really passionate about because it’s a lot of work. And I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing. And there are such rough moments in time that most people give up. I don’t blame them. And it’s really tough. And it consumes your life. I mean, if you’ve got a family and you’re in the early days of a company, I can’t imagine how one could do it.

I’m sure it’s been done, but it’s rough. I mean, cause it’s a pretty much, you know, 18 hour per day job, seven days a week for a while. So unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up. So you got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about. Otherwise you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. And I think that’s half the battle right there.

An admission:

I didn’t post this just for your inspiration & instruction.

I also did it for your inculcation.

Yes, my Pet, I have an ulterior motive.

And that ulterior motive is to prep you for two things:

1. A veritable onslaught of emails I’ll be sending over the next several days.

2. The offer those emails will be selling.

And that offer is my newest book:

“elBenbo Press”

It’s my entire high-ticket book & newsletter publishing/business model on a hot, sizzling plate. And while the marketer in me wants to say it’s “quick and easy!” it’s anything but. I took my sweet time with this 400+ page tome. I didn’t really have a choice. As I wrote it, I kept realizing just how complex & rife with “moving parts” my publishing methodology really is. So much so, I also realized while writing the ad for it even I probably would not use my own publishing & business model if I was to do it all over again.

Yes, it probably looks easy.

And it probably looks simple, too.

And once it’s all set up – not while setting it up – it very much is simple.

But none of it is easy at any phase of it, and it took me nearly 20 years to figure it all out, apply it, work the bugs out of it, and ultimately be able to articulate & teach it in a way anyone outside of my own inner psyche can follow.

Everything Jobs said above applies to my publishing model:

The 18 hour days.

The necessity of having extreme levels of perseverance.

And, especially, how it consumes your life.

I am up and working every day around 3 or 4 am. I rarely ever take “vacations.” And even when I do I’m still working, even if that means doing customer service, stopping to write an email on the fly on my phone at a rest stop or while eating, or putting some kind of fire out. I certainly don’t have anything on “aUtOpiLoT!” either, because for me it’s a true 24/7 operation.

Most marketers frown on this sort of thing.

And frankly, they are right to.

They are likely wanting a business that works for them, and not the other way around like I do.

I’m admittedly quite nutty in my obsession with what I do.

And thus, my methodology is admittedly nutty, too.

Anyway, I bring this up to hopefully scare off the Facebook-addicted marketing proles and hack-chasing new product junkies who will want to buy this book thinking they are “ready!” when they clearly & demonstrably aren’t. And it’s the same with anyone who blindly clings to split testing & tracking data with their statistically irrelevant numbers… or lack patience with mail & shipping problems… or who can’t make a business decision without consulting their Facebook friends, their life coach, or their horoscope.

All the above’d be far better off with a $17 “info publishing 101” eBook on Clickbank.

Especially since elBenbo Press is easily my most expensive book yet (over $1,000).

And it’s really only intended for the “berserker” customers in my World.

All right, enough of this.

I release the Kraken & launch it tomorrow at a small discount.

If you don’t want to read a lot of emails then for the love of the Almighty opt-out below or simply delete them as they come in. Whatever the case, if you don’t like reading or writing lots of emails don’t even think of buying the book. Because, while it only teaches the publishing side of my business (it does NOT teach the how-tos of email, copywriting, launching, etc, that’s what my other books are for — and the sales letter goes into more detail about that), my publishing methodology is dependent on sending lots and Lots and LOTS of emails.

i.e., if seeing 20 emails in a 5 day span gives you the runs, you ain’t qualified, Bunkie.

Nor should you even be on my list at this point, either.

Go haunt yet another Facebook group or whatever it is amateurs do all day.

Otherwise, I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.

Rest up…

Ben Settle

Even though I find all-things Darwin to have about as much basis in reality as Narnia, there is a sort of “Darwinian” aspect to my business methodologies I cannot deny.

Take, for example, this email I got from an “Email Players” subscriber:

(Regarding this month’s issue about how to create your own marketing “universe.”)

I agree with Stephen’s comment beginning the last newsletter, “it’s to advanced for me” but I’m not quitting.

To tell you the truth I felt like a high school student reading something from a Phd level course.

But I took a different approach.

First I read the newsletter, then I read it again. The third time I start taking notes, then I read it a fourth time looking for something I understand. I then do my homework (watch the movies you recommend, read the books, etc). My level of understanding is growing.

I feel like my knowledge has brought me to an undergrad level

Thank You for making me smarter.

And, I daresay, stronger, too.

He “gets” it, and will become a helluva lot better at marketing as a result by default.

Most who have trouble with it won’t, and will wisely find greener pastures.

A fun fact that may or may not matter to you one way or the other:

Starting with last year’s April 2019 “Email Players” issue I made the decision to stop futzing around with giving people what they wanted (i.e., email swipe file material, hacks, tactics, tricks, etc) and talk more about what they needed:

Going deeper into marketing, psychology, selling, and copywriting.

A lot of this was because the former bored me.

While the latter excited me — and still does.

I knew it’d cause some heartburn amongst a few members of my Hairy Horde. But it was telling how so many of the confirmed low IQ marketers I know (not necessarily low IQ people, let me be clear about that, probably a lot of them are very smart otherwise, but just not all that bright or deep thinking when it comes to marketing specifically) on my list — some who’d been customers for years, who I’d had many interactions with, including seeing the shallowness of their questions and thought processes — were outright offended by that issue.

It was like I’d blasphemed their marketing religion in some ways.

Not because there was anything offensive in it.

But because they clearly wanted more swipes and tactics and “sell me the dream so I can continue to do nothing” type info.

It’s been a while, but from what I remember:

The ones complaining did NOT want to have to think beyond a checklist telling them what to do.

They abhorred me (gasp!) putting the blatant advertising in that issue I did.

And, they especially had trouble placing the information in any kind of context they could use — even though the info was universally applicable to literally any kind of business, in any kind of market/niche, and in any kind of product category.

Frankly, it wasn’t even an original concept I taught.

It was just my unique spin & applications on something that’d changed my entire business around.

But the low IQ marketers weren’t having any of it.

They basically said “I didn’t sign up for this!” and off they went.

While the higher IQ marketers, on the other hand — including a few especially brilliant marketers I’ve been studying for almost 20 years — loved every word of it, couldn’t get enough of it, and demanded more.

Short story long:

That reaction meant I was on the right track, and I’ve done many more such issues ever since.

And I’ve noticed the same reaction in a lot of them:

The info was either revered or reviled.

Incidentally, this has been especially true of this month’s October issue — which is currently getting almost exact equal parts lovin’ & leavin’. I have not run the numbers, but my guess is I have not gotten both this many raving testimonials about a single issue and how it’s changing their businesses along with this many cancellations in a single month since the April 2019 issue.

Of course, the next issue will have the same complexity.

And it’ll continue to be the same going forward as it has been since April 2019.

That way, over time, if all goes the way it’s been going… the passive sellers, the small thinking, and the low IQ marketers who can’t think past checklists & swipe files will continue to find somewhere else to learn from, that is more at their learning speed & level. While the aggressive sellers, the bigger thinking, and the high IQ marketers will continue to enjoy it.

This is the sweet spot I believe every marketer should be striving for:

Absolute polarity.

But not just for the long term sales, higher quality customers, and other obvious benefits.

It’s also because you are doing your market a real service, too.

After all, just as it does a 4th grade child struggling to read no good to put him in the advanced reading class, slowing learning down for his peers and further frustrating him, it does no good to put their equivalent in your own market into any kind of advanced training in whatever it is you teach — regardless of market, niche, or product category.

Yes, I know this might sound cruel & condescending to the sob sisters.

Probably even shamelessly arrogant.

But it’s anything but cruel & condescending or arrogant — it’s merciful.

After all, it saves people money, time, and frustration. And if you’re like me where you prefer having 4 shiny & new quarters in your pocket instead of 100 sticky & decrepit pennies, you’re being merciful to your own peace of mind too.

Again, I don’t know who this helps or not on my list.

But it is a demonstration of how I use email to do customer curation.

It’s also a warning of sorts:

My upcoming new book “elBenbo Press” about my high-ticket book & newsletter publishing model has this kind of inner game and way of thinking about customer curation embedded throughout it.

So if this email revolts you, then that book certainly will.

And, thus, you’re better off not getting it if that is the case.

More next week when it launches to my main list.

For now, if the “Email Players” newsletter sounds like your speed, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle