Ben Settle

Not long ago, I got a question from an “Email Players” subscriber about how to begin your emails, that illustrates something I’ve long observed up in this business.

The question?

It was about some email copywriting advice an 8-figure course creator – who is not an “email” copywriter, and I know this because I gave the guy a consult once and know what he is particularly strong at, but it ain’t email copywriting – is giving about how to begin an email.

The advice was completely wrong in almost all cases.

And, this is especially true for anyone using anything I teach.

What was the question?

Actually, it’s not all that important.

As it’s not something any of my boys & ghouls is likely to do anyway.

What is important though is, it reminded me of something I’ve long advocated.

And that is, beware ye taking copywriting advice from a business owner/marketer, or taking business owner/marketing advice from a copywriter. Especially since they often can come from completely different points of view in many cases.

For example:

A copywriter is likely not as concerned about the potential longterm problems and fallout aggressively only going for the transaction (what they are paid to create, and may even get royalties from) is versus putting the relationship first – even at the risk of losing short term transactions – by keeping legally compliant, maintaining a consistent brand, bringing customers in with the right expectations, not wanting to be overrun by refunds, giving a buying experience that ups the likelihood of more backend sales, etc.

At the same time:

I’ve lost count of the inane copywriting advice I’ve seen 7 and even 8 figure marketers who have never written a word of copy in their lives give about writing ads & sales letters. There is a reason so many 7 and 8 figure marketers invest in hiring the best copywriters, after all, even if those copywriters only make a fraction of the income those 7 or 8 figure marketers do.

Another example:

I can count on the fingers & toes attached to multiple pairs of hands & feet how many freelance copywriters — who do not sell their own offers, do not do any customer service, do not have to pacify any merchant account’ fears, and do not deal with website maintenance, printers, corrupt & incompetent postal systems, digital product delivery/bandwidth glitches or limitations, etc — have given your humble storyteller awful unsolicited advice based entirely on their silly theories or their clients’ test results in completely different niches with completely different agendas than Yours Crotchety.

Like, for instance:

Not selling “Email Players” back issues.

“Ben, something you might want to consider…”

I have not only “considered” doing it, but actually did it during most of the nearly 9 years of selling the rag. In fact, for the first 7 years of its run I tested a back issue catalog and tested inserts selling specific higher-selling back issues.

Then, I wised up and stopped selling back issues & tested doing something else.

Something far more in line with the laws of direct response marketing.

The result?

From 5x more revenue (on the low end) to as much as 15x more revenue (on the high end).

Every month since.

And, by doing less “work” than selling back issues.

There are many other benefits to doing this, too, as well as ways to still offer back issues, which I will talk more about in my next book about my publishing model.

And this back issue shtick is just one example of the phenomenon.

Not a month goes by when some over-achieving dispenser of unsolicited advice I don’t know or ever heard of tries to get me to change one of my long-proven profitable policies – from my not allowing people who quit “Email Players” to return… to my not giving a flying fart about open rates… to not filling my emails with “value!” or “benefits!”… to my contempt for and aggressively turning away new product junkies… to selling regular ol’ print & ink books vs digital & multi-media products… to using plain text emails with zero tracking or html embedded… and the goo-roo band marches on and on and on and on…

Copywriters who have never run an actual business outside of billing clients love giving advice on the business side.

Marketers who have never written a word of copy love giving advice on the copywriting side.

And your friend and long-suffering storyteller elBenbo loves to mock, ignore, or use their comments as figurative orc heads on a spike to warn away other orcs like them from wasting either of our time.

Which circles us around to the point:

Be very wary about taking marketing/business advice from freelance copywriters who are not marketers/business owners, and copywriting advice from marketers/business owners who are not copywriters. Do your own tests, your own experiments, and listen to your own instincts based on your own experiences with selling to and communicating with your own list/audience.

I am not saying never to listen to these other blokes.

But, if they veer off into some kind of theoretical nonsense and especially if they start name-dropping to prove their case, take it all with big, fat shake of chili pepper.

Or, even, better, do the exact opposite of whatever unsolicited advice they give.

I’ve had some of my biggest sales paydays doing just that…

All right enough of this clacking.

For more insider discussions, subscribe to “Email Players” here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

My pal Garrett Daun recently highlighted a very important point, after reading one of the gazillion of emails I sent to launch my Breakneck Content book this past weekend.

The email was about something James Altucher wrote a few years ago re: 30-day challenges.

Specifically, this:

“Write down 10 ideas a day for 30 days.”

Followed by how doing something similar has effected my own business.

Anyway, Garrett replied to all that with:

Hey Ben-

You totally gave away like 90% of the “secrets” for literally anyone to:

-resurrect their dead creativity

-improve their brain functions

-improve all their relationships

-quit their stupid jobs

-feel a sense of celebration about every single moment

-find their natural, empowered voice

-live an amazing life, designed the way they’ve always wanted…

In the email you wrote below.

The funniest thing about it all is that the “missing” 10% is that people have to get a notebook and pen and actually do what you revealed for them to do.

And my guess is that maybe 1% of your readers will do it.

Which is amazing, that they’ll all go spend countless thousands of dollars to try to find some secret business tactics that will never work for them…

It is difficult for me to argue with his 1% number.

Frankly, from what I can tell, the vast majority of people up in this business are far too busy trying to chase, find, and collect a bunch of “hacks” or whatever, instead of developing the patience and work ethic to do the boring grunt work to blow right past the bleating herd. This is especially true of my recent “Breakneck Content” book I just launched, which is almost all quick-reading (some chapters are a single paragraph!) meat & potato solutions that sometimes take lots of effort (with a few taking almost no effort at all), and are not at-all exciting… but that I’ve used to in some cases bang out more content in any given month, than a lot of people I know do in a year.

Which brings me to the punchline:

Success is sekzy.

Making lots of sales is sekzy.

But the hard, often boring, and almost always not-very-fun work it takes to get that success and make them sales?

Not so sekzy…

In fact, not only is it not sekzy, but people will often have contempt for it.

And, in some instances, have contempt for the messenger, too.

I suspect this has always been the case since the beginning of time…

Whatever the case, a bit of housekeeping for those who bought Breakneck Content last night or weren’t able to:

• I turned it off in the shopping cart after the deadline.
• Thus, if you had trouble ordering last night after the deadline, that’s why.
• I only printed 150 copies for the launch, since the 800 or so people who were subscribed to “Email Players” (i.e. my best buyers) this past July had already gotten the info inside the book, and so I simply did not expect all that many sales beyond what was printed.
• But, we ended up doing almost 100 more sales than what was printed
• Which means if you bought on the last day (right around yesterday afternoon PST) it is going to take longer to get your book to you than if you’d not procrastinated and waited, since we have to print a bunch of fresh copies up.
• Probably a good week longer, maybe two weeks, if it takes longer than that let me know immediately
• There’s a lesson about procrastination in there somewhere.
• One person complained about getting 5 emails in a day yesterday, which was amusing considering I sent 7 emails…
• More emails = more sales when you do email right, in my experience
• To learn how to write emails people enjoy reading & buying from go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Earlier this year, I was interviewed for the great and esteemed Ken McCarthy’s “System Club” trainings.

We talked about all kinds of advanced info.

Including how to write “swipe proof” email subject lines that make all the wannabes swiping, copying, and “lifting” your emails & other content look like the hacks & losers they are.

Anyway, Ken graciously let me put it on my Media page.

To listen to it, go to the link below:

www.BenSettle.com/media

Ben Settle

A couple weeks ago I was asked why I have no an affiliate program.

The answer to that question turned into a near 20-minute advanced business-building lesson — partially about something I learned from how the old Catholic Church grew so big — about how to get the maximum life time value (LTV) possible from as many of your customers as possible.

Here’s where to listen in…

Back in 2013 when I was still writing my first novel “Zombie Cop”, I asked my publisher Greg Perry about what he thought of the little “Easter eggs” I peppered throughout the books.

Were they necessary?

Dorky?

Waste of time?

His answer:

I am paraphrasing, but he basically said yes, keep those in, those are the little things 90% of people will miss, but the 10% who do get them will treasure the stories more, become much bigger fans of the stories, and enjoy the stories in ways they never would otherwise.

Turns out, he was spot on correct.

And, ever since then, I’ve doubled down on including such “Easter Eggs” in all my emails, content, videos, podcasts, and even customer service. All of which, I believe, has created a much stronger, more fanatical, and more prosperous/successful fanbase of customers and subscribers who “get” these things, and profit and/or benefit from the content far more as a result.

And if you think this is some fluke, think again.

Fast forward several years to this last summer.

I read about how Disney World has been doing this for decades to build its irrationally fanatical fanbase.

Like the “Be Our Guest” restaurant, for example.

They use expensive & painstakingly created little carvings of the Beast’s head instead of customary (and much cheaper) little circles on the ceiling.

A very small percentage of people will ever notice much less get it.

We’re talking probably less than 10% of customers.

Yet, those are almost certainly the most fanatical, most likely to return many more times in their lives, bring entire generations (kids, grandkids, great grandkids), watch all the movies, aggressively defend the Evil Mouse’s most insane decisions, and work tirelessly to give the company as much of their money as they possibly can, and train their families & friends to do the same.

The Evil Mouse does this sort of thing in probably hundreds of other ways, too.

Like using real plants vs fake plants maybe 2% of people would notice.

Or applying a fresh coat of gold paint daily on their castle.

And the list goes on.

Little, tiny, seemingly insignificant things, often done at enough expense to make the accountants wince since they can’t be tracked or measured… that add up to a far bigger, more powerful, and fanatically followed brand.

No, you cannot “measure” or “track” or “test” these things.

(Thus, the screaming accountants.)

But show me a business that does this, and thinks about it and, even most importantly, has a methodology for this, and I’ll show you a business that has a brand people love to follow and will cheerfully buy from for years and decades into the future.

As far as a methodology for this, I can’t help you.

I have my own little ways of doing these things, but they aren’t at-all methodized.

They are all in my head.

And, really, even if I did, I wouldn’t be the guy to learn it from.

So, instead, I found a resource to begin (just a first step) help teach how to think like this I am gifting to my loyal Email Players of the Horde as a Christmas gift in the December “Email Players” issue.

No, it’s not anything super “ninja!” or anything like that.

It’s simply a book I bought in bulk.

And, again, it’s merely the first step in creating this kind of mindset.

So if you are looking for a “hack” or a “trick” or whatever, this ain’t it.

Nothing I offer deals in those things

Amateurs & newbies seek trick & hacks, professionals seek Wisdom, after all.

And, Daddy doesn’t cater to amateurs & newbies…

Whatever the case, the deadline to subscribe in time to get the December “Email Players” issue is tomorrow (11/30). If you are growing tired of chasing petty hacks & tricks, and want to build a foundation for a business that can potentially grow bigger than you ever imagined over time, this issue and this bonus gift can possibly do just that for you.

Or not.

It really is up to you and what you do with the info.

Only fools think they can get heat from a cold stove…

If you want in, you best be quick about it if you want to make the deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. I recently got an email from the great and esteemed Shameless Shamus Brown — one of my favorite sales & persuasion teachers, and easily one of the best sales trainers in the game. And what he said perfectly sums up who should and who should not be subscribing to “Email Players”:

Funny, I was just reading over your yesterday email about the December newsletter… I came onboard after you made this big shift in your focus.

I think I held off buying your newsletter before as it seemed tactics oriented around email. And while I can always use more tested tactics, that was not what I was focused on, I didn’t sign up. Until you changed focus, and the broader business building message appealed to me.

Now, what I am really enjoying about your newsletters, is they remind of the good ol days back in the early 00s of reading my Dan Kennedy newsletters.

i.e. I don’t cater to One-Trick Tommy’s.

If you are looking for tricks & hacks, go haunt someone else.

If you don’t have a business, a list, or an offer, go haunt someone else.

And, if you are not a long-term thinking business builder, go haunt someone else.

Plenty of more conventional places will be happy to service you.

Otherwise, if you want in on time, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Not long ago, I was privy to a couple private, insider phone calls with two of the savviest and most experienced email deliverability experts in the business.

There were many things I learned about deliverability.

Specifically, about all the ways people screw up their deliverability by listening to pretty much any mainstream internet marketing advice. Plus, these calls also confirmed why my deliverability is so high despite — for nearly 20 years — putting nearly zero thought into it at all… and pretty much ignoring what everyone in “internet marketing” says you have to do.

I have found that just by following the fundamentals I teach, delivery takes care of itself.

For example:

Asking people to send me their receipt in order to collect on a bonus promised during affiliate or launch campaigns.

I do this for multiple reasons that have zippo to do with “deliverability.”

But, the effect of the unique way I go about doing it – that goes beyond the obvious surface reasons for doing so – is way higher overall deliverability.

And, yes, this is the case regardless of the email broadcasting platform.

More:

One of the many secrets I teach in the upcoming December “Email Players” issue is one of those more profitable reasons I do this that goes way beyond the obvious… and exactly how to do it in a way — you won’t see via merely watching and trying to foolishly “reverse engineer” what I do — that can lead to sometimes thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, of dollars in extra sales for your business over time.

You can read all about it on pages 8-9.

At least, if you are subscribed to the newsletter, that is.

If not, good luck trying to guess, Maynard.

An admission:

One of the things I enjoy most about promoting “Email Players” each month, is deliberately teasing people like I am doing here, and watching the gaggle of new product junkies and know-it-alls on my list who literally know nothing about anything of significance thinking they are guessing the answer — which none of them ever does. And the reason they never do is because I like to word things in a way where it looks like I am talking about something obvious, but is anything but obvious when the real secret is revealed.

I do the same thing in my sales letter bullets too, most of the time.

Such are the mind games I play with you, my Pet.

I especially enjoy tormenting the marketing hobbyists who get all their education free on social media around like a cat does to an exhausted mouse.

And, this email and the December issue are no different.

To subscribe before tomorrow’s deadline, go here right away:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. On a related note:

Chances are, you are getting a lot of “Black Friday” sale emails today. If not, you are to be congratulated for curating your daily reading so well. But, most people up in this space are doing Black Friday sales.

All admirable attempts.

But, also magnificently ironic.

Why?

Because even though I don’t say a peep about Black Friday anywhere in the December “Email Players” issue, I can say on pages 13 & 14 I talk about what I did to my promotional schedule a couple years ago to not only make doing “Black Friday!”, or “Cyber Monday!”, or any other trendy internet market-ey holiday sales other people do completely obsolete… but I daresay I burgled (legally & fairly) many would-be Black Friday customers away from my competitors months in advance, simply by virtue of doing what it teaches.

Business can be quite fun, Chuckles.

And I reckon the December issue, if you apply it all, will show you how:

www.EmailPlayers.com

One of the many books I recommended to “Email Players” subscribers recently, is a book called “The Marvel Comics Story” by Sean Howe.

Not so much as a “what to do” book.

But, more of a “what NOT to do” book.

As a long-time Marvel fan — decades before it became trendy to be a fan when all these recent fair weather fans created by the Marvel movies were making fun of true comicbook fans — I can tell you, the book is quite depressing in many ways. Overall, it was NOT the jovial place the late, great Stan Lee made it out to be in his monthly Stans’s Soap Box column, with a happy and go-lucky bullpen of creators taking over the world.

Yes, there was a lot of that in the 60’s and 70’s.

But, come the 80’s and beyond, it became a horror show of disappointment & despair, with broken lives, early deaths, and even outright suicides resulting in some cases.

Why?

The short answer is greed.

As the company got bought by a string of ever-greedy publishers & stock holders who simply saw it as a cash cow to be picked clean of its meat at the expense of its soul, it turned into something that, today, is barely treading water compared to what it once was financially. The comicbook side has become a huge joke full of inane wokeness & convoluted continuity, written by some of the most emotionally damaged & inept writers you’ll ever see — with the movies & character licensing now being the main source of Marvel’s income from what I can tell.

And if you think the movies are going to have a different fate, think again.

It will likely still take some time.

But, it’s already going in the same direction under the watch of the Evil Mouse. And if you are paying attention to Star Wars’ free falling brand right now, that is but a taste of what awaits the Marvel brand.

The mindless fanboys will “LOL!!!!” at this because they are stupid.

But, time always reveals all…

Which brings me to the point:

I once read a Chinese proverb from the great, and esteemed Matt Furey:

“A strength overextended becomes a weakness.”

And if Marvel Comics ain’t an example of that, I don’t know what is.

It’s also something that can happen with some of the info I reveal inside the upcoming December “Email Players” issue. Word-for-word I believe this year-end and 101st issue of my noble tabloid-like publication can be some of the most immediately profitable info a business can utilize.

I know it has been for me.

And, especially used in the exact ways described inside its pages.

But, it can also be overused just as easily if you start looking at your list and market as mere numbers & transactions who exist for no other reason than to make your long-suffering piggybank squeal with new profits with short term profits and one-time buyers… vs looking at it as a way to serve and enhance the lives of your market with long term profits & lifetime customers. “Customers”, as I once read “Email Players” subscriber Ken McCarthy say it, make a “custom” to buy from you over and over, for years into the future.

Greed’ll get you every time, Hoss.

And, I believe this is quadruply true with the info inside the December issue.

Whatever the case, the deadline to subscribe in time to get it approaches fast.

Here is the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Not long ago, I was asked by a bloke in France why I don’t use a printer in Europe for European subscribers to cut costs and (I quote) “protect planet earth a bit in terms of carbon footprint.”

My answer:

If anything, due to my self-imposed airplane travel moratorium the past 12 months, my righteous carbon footprint is way too small.

True rookie numbers.

Gotta Bigfoot that carbon footprint up…

That said, I am a big fan of recycling.

At least, when it comes to emails.

Enter another question from new “Email Players” subscriber Tyler Stokes, when he asked me about the idea of “recycling” emails that I not only teach, but openly do all the time, oftentimes making more sales the second, third, or fourth time I use an email than the first time I use it.

Yes, Bernie, it’s true.

When it comes to making your bank account greener, recycling those evil emails is just fine by be.

In fact, here’s another amusing thought:

If I wasted time A/B split testing emails and, even worse, being a mindless little goo-roo fanboy about the results by only reusing the ones that “worked!”… I’d be killing my own sales. Especially since, so many of my most profitable emails did bupkis the first time I used them, but pulled all kinds of new business when recycling them months or years later.

Which is why I told him:

Yes, by all means recycle good emails.

It can do wonders for your bank account’s environment.

But, there is one thing I did not tell him about recycling emails in my reply. Specifically, a way (and the exact time) I do it to make even more sales. And I talk about this way in glorious detail in the December “Email Players” issue on page 8.

To get this issue in time, go here immediately:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I’m like the proverbial lone wolf howling in the cold wilderness about this.

But over the years, certain of my customers have admitted they have a hard time wrapping their heads around my policy of blocking people who quit your continuity programs, not letting them come back later when they think they are finally this time “ready!”, and exiling them forever into the Outer Darkness of your business, never to be allowed back.

The reasons for this are many and beyond the count of mockery.

But, following are 17 reasons I do so:

1. People who quit are reliably & consistently and often immediately replaced by better, higher quality, and less in need of hand holding & being coddled customers. It’s an almost eerily predictable phenomenon I see happen all the time, and twice just yesterday, in fact. This alone makes allowing people back completely counterproductive for my business.

2. If they cite money as having left when they try to come back, they are almost certainly not telling the truth, and it’s not a good idea to do business with such people. After all, even a street bum rattling a dirty coffee-stained cup full of sticky change can “afford” $3.23 per day. But, instead of putting the info into practice to make that modest sum back in multiples so it would not “cost” anything… they cling tightly to the skirt of price – or worse, their wife’s skirt, in far too many cases – to justify their inaction or avoiding admitting to themselves they are simply not ambitious enough or interested enough to apply the info. It is hard work, after all…

3. It makes the newsletter legitimately more exclusive.

4. I don’t cater to quitters.

5. The mere existence of my policy rattles my trolls, as well as other new product junkies (i.e. people addicted to the dopamine drip of buying new products, but never implement anything), marketing hobbyists, and other contemptible opportunity-minded buyers who lack the character to stick by a decision long after the excitement of the moment when they subscribed has passed.

6. I prefer 4 quarters to 100 pennies. i.e. fewer high quality customers vs many low quality customers.

7. I have been carefully building a small All Star roster of customers that are taking over their markets, and letting low quality quitters return would reduce my customer base and my brand to Bush League or T-ball level, like everyone else’s who accepts the “I will be back!” types.

8. I like having more customers for life – which is, I hear, a great way to amp up the LTV (lifetime value) of your list for those who obsess over such metrics.

9. Quitters make for great Orc heads to display to warn away other orcs (like this email is doing) from bothering to waste their money or my time.

10. Makes for better people — as the policy forces people to take responsibility for their actions & decisions. This is something sorely lacking in today’s victimhood-celebrating society.

11. Makes people far more likely to take what I teach and then consume, implement, and succeed with it.

12. Identifies the players vs the spectators for future would-be affiliate, JV, client, and other potential deals down the road should I ever look for such opportunities.

13. I don’t like encouraging new product junky-ism.

14. I can’t realistically help people in the long run if they have a quitter mentality. It’s like someone taking a supplement for having better workouts and not being jacked after month one, and then quitting saying “this doesn’t work!” then trying to come back later, with the same loser mentality. What I teach in “Email Players” is a lifetime marathon, not a sprint. Some of it works fast, some of it takes months and even years to see a payoff. But none of it works if it’s not consistently applied day in, and day out over months and years.

15. Wards off the newbies & non-forward thinking types who I can’t help anyway.

16. Makes for overall greater long term profits, I have found over the years.

17. It helps protect the integrity and value of what I am building. There is a reason ancient societies exiled those they deemed unworthy and disrespectful of their laws, customs, and rules. Ain’t nothing new under the sun…

Again, there are many more reasons.

These are just off the top of my head.

And, my reasons for doing so will likely not jibe with most people’s personalities or goals, and that’s fine. I’ll be writing more about this next year in an extremely expensive book I am going to sell about my publishing model.

But until then, let’s move on:

If you sell a subscription/continuity offer, there are many financial — immediate and long term — reasons to create content meant for and that will only probably appeal to 10% of your customers, ie the ones who are likely making up 80-90% of your profits, and who are also very likely making up the vast majority of those who promote you and refer to you in abundance.

Thus the purpose of this long email you just spent all this time reading.

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

Like I mentioned yesterday, it will be one of the more revered & reviled issues. I suspect many will despise it and hopefully leave… never to waste my time trying to return. While others will love it and profit from it beyond the dreams of avarice for years & decades into the future.

The difference in the two types of people will be night and day.

As will be, I further suspect, the state of their business affairs.

Whatever the case, here is the link to subscribe, if you dare:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle