Ben Settle

A couple weeks ago, my pal and long-time business confidant (I can count the number of those on 3 or 4 fingers) Doberman Dan Gallapoo asked how posting videos — which I will be doing more of — was working out for me as far as income generation, traffic, etc.

As well as how well my old podcast did for such things.

And, some other private stuff we talked about I won’t mention here.

My answer:

This would probably mortify any marketing guru snooping in on this email:

But I find it nearly impossible to track these sorts of things to a transaction, as with pretty much anything else I do online. I do know people tell me they have found me via my old podcast, videos, of someone mentioning me on social media, heard me speak somewhere, random Google search, word-of-mouth, and other ways I have zero control over or can track, test, or quantify. It may take several emails over several months, combined with multiple other media to ultimately make the sale. I just throw as much out there as possible, and focus on writing emails each day and putting new offers out, building-up my publishing empire, curating out and repelling those I don’t want, etc, and things keep growing, building, and booming.

That, my little fledgling, is my official business plan in a paragraph.

But, there is something else I do I left out.

Something I have been doing for 18 years, but even more deliberately over the past 18 or so months, that makes all the above work so much better, faster, and consistently, it’s like injecting my business with Captain America’s Super Soldier serum.

What is this “thing” I am teasing you about?

That’s in the September “Email Players” issue, Chuckles.

The entire 17-pages of content is just about this, in fact.

And, even a couple of the full page ads I stuffed inside talk about it.

The deadline is coming up lickety-split.

To subscribe in time, go here immediately:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the things the late, great copywriter and marketing mind Gary Halbert used to do when he held his $7,000 seminars (almost $14k in today’s money) is, he’d wear a hat with big, emboldened letters that said:

“Clients Suck”

And, inevitably, he’d get clients lining up to hire him.

Or so I’ve been told, at least.

But, I believe it.

And, I believe it because he was, more than any other person I’ve seen since, tapping into a powerful “law” of marketing, advertising, and selling that made it so he practically couldn’t lose when it came to getting new business.

What is this “law” I speak of?

Well, a shallow mind will assume it was repulsion marketing.

i.e. By trying to repel he attracted.

Same with merely being controversial, fearless, non-needy, etc.

Those are certainly an aspect of this law.

But if you wade deeper into the pool of persuasion I’m talking about, it goes beyond that. Way beyond it. So far beyond it, you’ll be hard-pressed to find it written about or codified in any marketing or business book you’ve ever seen. And, just in case it isn’t obvious… it has nothing to do with saying your clients suck or showing outward contempt for them or whatever — which, unless you are Gary Halbert, I would highly advise against doing.

This is a subject that can’t be adequately covered in a mere email.

Thus, I’ve written extensively about in the September “Email Players” issue.

The issue is not about “getting clients.”

But, applying the admittedly hair-raising info inside can potentially get your business swamped with so much new business if you are a freelancer (copywriter, coach, consultant, designer, whatever your service is), you may very well have to turn people away.

Or, at the very least, jack up those nasty prices of yours.

And yes, it works for selling non-services, too, of course, I’m just writing this email to give some lovin’ to freelancers, for a change.

Anyway, I’m sending this puppy to the printer soon.

If you want this issue, and if you have a winning long-term, investor-minded view as opposed to a losing short-term, opportunity-minded view (i.e. “I’ll just subscribe to get this one issue!”) I predict this will be one of the most valuable things you ever read.

Not because I wrote it.

(I did not “invent” the law of persuasion inside)

But because I believe it just flat out works if you do it right, work hard, and have patience.

Here’s the link to subscribe before the 8/31/19 deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A true life story of hair-raising proportions for swipers:

One of my longest business-related business friendships is with a marketer, copywriter, and public speaker I’ve personally learned much from over the years. He has built an extremely successful business, has probably the biggest list of “Who’s Who” clients in the entire internet marketing industry and is, overall, one of the best human beings I know on this planet, and someone I strive to be more like myself in many ways. And, to pay Your Pal and Humble Narrator homage a few months ago, he blatantly used one of my most popular and longest-running subject lines in an email to promote his podcast.

Being on his list, I received this email the day he sent it.

And, my first thought was:

“Uh-oh…”

Not because he used my subject line.

I have enough respect and knowledge of him to know what he was trying to do (he wanted to promote and honor Yours Crotchety, not steal from me — I want to be 100% clear he did nothing wrong, per se). But because I knew — the second I saw it — the fallout would not be pleasant for him, since our lists overlap to the tune of several thousand email subscribers.

And, right on cue:

I got a bunch of people forwarding his email to me.

Each essentially asking:

“WTF! He is stealing your subject line!”

… along with how they lost a lot of respect for him, and some other things that did not bode well for my friend. And this was even so despite the fact he was promoting an episode of his podcast in that email which paid lots of homage to me about that very subject line.

i.e. That’s why he used it.

Not to be lazy or steal, but to promote me.

So again, his intentions were 100% noble, and he did nothing “wrong” at all.

He was trying to lift me up, and promote me, as friends do for each other at times — and as I have done for him, and will continue to when it is relevant, as he’s one of my oldest pals up in this business. But, he did not mention me or anything about the subject line not being his anywhere in his email. Thus, he was subject to the reactions, whims, and assumptions of potentially hundreds — if not thousands — of people who would never know how he was actually trying to promote me in his podcast, because they would never listen to the episode anyway. And even if they were normally going to listen to his show, they decided on the spot not to, on the strength of that one goof-up, which prompted them to lose respect for him.

Anyway, long story even longer?

He felt horrible about it.

And he did the best damage-control job he could, by sending another email out immediately clarifying what he was doing. Which, ironically, only prompted more people to forward that email to me, and make comments like:

“I used to like his stuff, but now I wonder…”

And other assorted comments, despite me telling them what was going on.

Plus, the reality of the internet is, for every one person you hear from about any particular matter (good or bad), there are often 5, 10, 15, 50, 100, or more people thinking the same thing but who never mention it. And lest you think this is relegated to just this one instance, think again. Just recently, another one of my biggest fans got nailed for doing the same thing, and for far less of a swipe. In fact, he didn’t even “swipe” at all. It’s simply that he sounded too much like me (still finding his voice, probably) and suffered the same fate. With my friend, who has been established for two decades, it was not much of a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

But for these newer young un’s who think trying to “sound” like me or anyone else is a good idea?

They are destroying their businesses before they even begin.

All of which brings me to the point:

How has your long-winded story-teller built up this kind of loyal fanbase, this kind of instantly-recognized brand, and this kind of rock-solid positioning where even some of my sworn enemy trolls will call out people they see copying me (my trolls are endlessly useful, a topic I’ll be touching on more next month)?

The answer to this question is both simple and complex.

And a small thinker would assume it’s because of my writing style, or because I inject my personality into all my emails, or because I try to write emails that make people think and not just emotionally react, or something else “mechanical” they can can, clone, and deploy.

And they’d be wrong.

Those are a part of the madness behind the method.

But a wiser, deeper-thinking guy or ghoul will know it goes way beyond that.

And, such wiser, deep-thinking guys and ghouls who make up my paying “Email Players” subscribers will find out the answer to this question in great detail soon… when they receive the September “Email Players” issue.

This is, in my obviously biased opinion, a special issue indeed.

One that’s been 8+ years in the writing.

One that will introduce those smart enough to be subscribed (and wise enough not to have quit in the past — as I don’t allow people who have quit to return) to a whole new world of thinking, marketing, selling, business-building, publishing, freelancing (if’n you freelance), copywriting, email strategy, and (dare I say it?) existing.

One where sales come to you with far less effort and work.

Where trolls attack you with far more gloriously spiteful ankle-biting.

And, one where new business can potentially flow to you in far greater numbers over time than you ever imagined possible. I am talking about a business world whose laws are not governed by outdated lazy reliance on swiping and admirable, classy books like “How To Win Friends And Influence People” (far less effective in today’s broken, celebrity-obsessed culture, unfortunately)… but by the irresistibly (and, at the same time, repulsively) attractive business-building law I talk about inside the September issue.

But, a word of warning, my fine feathered golden pigeon:

Following this Law will almost certainly be uncomfortable.

Maybe even intolerably uncomfortable.

But, it’s not only the best way to build your business — especially with email — in this day and age of social media chest-pounding, market over-saturation of free information, and overheated market places packed with copycat competition… but also to do right by your customers, keep your market from falling for bull shyt, and building a business that is nearly impervious to being knocked off… with an audience and fan following that are intensely loyal to you in ways few — if any — of your competitors or colleagues will ever experience.

A tall order, you say?

Of course it is.

But I do’t deal in short orders, and, as everything I teach in “Email Players”, if you hate long-term business planning, if you hate hard work, and if you hate any kind of insistence you think & implement instead of can & clone, this issue will be a huge disappointment to you. This is triple true if you are a new product junkie or goo-roo casino bar fly who just wants to subscribe to get this one issue, thinking it will do you any good with that sad sac attitude, and not realize the power comes from long-term learning and implementation of everything else I teach in compounding, synergistic application.

Whatever the case, it goes to the printer soon.

And once it does, it will be too late to get this issue.

If you want in on this, here’s what to do:

1. Go to the URL below before the looming 8/31/19 deadline

2. Read the sales letter very carefully, especially the Q&A — don’t be lazy and just skim it, know what you are buying so you make an informed decision

3. Sit back, and await the September issue

Here’s the horrifying link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Once upon a time, I used to do email critiques.

Specifically, for “Email Players” subscribers who would get one critique per month. This was when the customer list was much smaller, of course, and I could manage to do it for the handful of people who took advantage of it.

Nowadays?

I not only don’t do critiques, I actively discourage them for most people.

Why?

Many reasons:

1. If I did a critique for one person, I’d have to do it potentially for several hundred others, which is impossible if I want to actually build my business and have some time to eat, sleep, and use the latrine.

2. I hate doing critiques anyway.

3. Like the great A-list copywriter Doug D’Anna once told me:

(Paraphrased)

The best critique you can get is not from a copywriter, it’s from your market.

I’d bet you someone else’s left testicle, that if you gave your copy to two people — a professional copywriter who does not know your market and someone who is in your market who knows nothing about “copywriting”, the latter guy will give you feedback that is 10x’s more useful. Yes, a critique from a smart copywriter who does not know your market can still be helpful from a mechanical point of view. But if they don’t know your market’s unique hot buttons, peculiarities, trends, pains, desires, anxieties, insecurities, values, etc… they will very likely miss the many nuances of that market, and either miss many opportunities to help you strengthen your copy and emails, or possibly even give you outright bad advice without realizing it.

Thus, I don’t do critiques.

And, unless you are willing to pay a very expensive copywriting coach or teacher like the great David Garfinkel or “Email Players” subscriber Kim Krause Schwalm, I discourage it.

That’s the bad news for people asking me for critiques.

The good news?

While I don’t offer “Email Players” subscribers critiques anymore, and haven’t in some 5 years or so, what I do offer is to answer subscriber questions — via email only — about topics I am qualified to give advice on.

The only caveat is I don’t do small talk.

i.e. we won’t be penpals.

Got too many people I have to talk to and deal with as it is, thank you.

Plus, if the question is something that can’t be summed up in a quick reply, I refer them to a book I sell that will answer it.

All right, so that’s that.

Maybe this added to your life, and maybe it didn’t.

But there it is…

To learn more about the newsletter, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I josh-eth you not:

Last month, a man decided to leave the protection of my Email Players sanctuary, and said he was going to write me an email telling me why. When I told him it wasn’t necessary and that “I couldn’t care less” why, his wife sent me a long email telling me how that reply cut deep, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back (it sounds like the guy is having some serious problems right now) and that I should be less flippant and more caring in my replies to people, etc.

All of which I found ironic.

Why?

Because many times, people on their way out tend to fall into one of two extremes:

1. They think I am mad at them

2. They think I have no heart or soul because of my complete indifference to them leaving

Apparently, if I don’t hold a candlelight vigil when they leave, I must be some kind of sociopath at best or monster who curses them with death and destruction at worst.

The truth is neither, of course.

My policy is very simple:

I silently eject those who quit – without any comment from me – upon request, as they are always, without exception, replaced by newer and better customers anyway.

In other words, they do us both a favor.

Thus, no emotional-dripping explanation from them needed.

The only people I bother responding to are the join & quit muppets who say “I will be back!” in their request, who I tell my no-coming-back policy to, so they don’t waste theirs or my time in the future. People like that who flit from one offer to another demonstrably have no financial, time, or educational discipline. And, thus, no place amongst my customers.

More:

Piggybacking off yesterday’s “escape th US” email, we really do live in interesting times. And the shyt storm that’s coming on the political, social, and economic front, in America especially, is not going to be pleasant for those types of businesses who are (1) non forward thinking (2) rely solely on social media as a platform to sell on and (3) don’t have the discipline to pick a skill that can help them produce, and then learn it, hone it, master it, and, of course, use it.

Far as #3 above, if you want to do that with email, I’m your guy.

Or not.

It all depends on you, your tolerance for me, and your willingness to work.

But, I can say this:

The September “Email Players” issue is going to horrify the weak, undisciplined, and small thinking join & quit types. But of all the skills I’ve ever learned, honed, and sharpened, this is #1.

It’s not a mechanical skill, though.

By that I mean, it’s not copywriting, or email, or selling, or infotainment, or anything I have taught before.

It’s about a way to use marketing skills you have or gain in the future (for whatever media you use) in such a way that brings you top-of-mind status in your market — and fairly quickly. And this is especially true if you are wise enough to focus on email over and above social media.

I’ll yap more about this soon.

In the meantime, to subscribe go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben “ol’ heartless” Settle

P.S. Speaking of the join & quit types:

Heed ye the warning of this rare and pleasantly intellectually honest one who wishes he could do it all over again, after being barred re-entry into my gnarly gates:

Fair enough…

Although that was some time ago, when I was admittedly a raw, wriggling BSO buyer with very little way of putting your teachings into practice.

I’m now a full-time copywriter working for an 8-figure health company and have written emails and other short copy for some Agora affiliates.

Having said that, I respect your decision and don’t expect you to change your mind.

(I would, however, like to clip that younger, dumber version of me ’round the earhole for being such a doofus.)

i.e. Actions have consequences.

And my customer curation methodology demands a sacrifice of the fattest and most valuable would-be customer offerings sometimes…

Reader Daniel asks the doomsday question:

Do you have an escape plan for leaving the country if it gets too bad here?

If so, where would you go?

My online business is blowing up and I’m probably going to be making $400k-$500k this year ( made 303k in 2018). I’m thinking of using that money to get out while the getting is good.

But I’m wondering if perhaps I’m too paranoid. Or ungrateful.

Would love your perspective on this.

Maybe could even be an email!

My thoughts on this are:

1. I have no plan to escape the US

2. But I do believe the US is likely to break up into multiple countries, probably in the next 15 years, and certainly when the politicians inevitably get rid of the electoral college

3. I suspect my state will go even more insanely leftwing than it is now, but there is a small chance the part I am in will “break off” into something of its own and much more along the lines of where I’d want to be

4. I do not know exactly how this will look overall, but I have my suspicions I’ll keep to myself for now

5. Whatever happens, wherever you go, you cannot go wrong learning, honing, and mastering your ability to produce

6. For me, that ability to produce is not gardening, fishing, gathering, etc (all of which I suck at) it is selling

7. Thus, I am more focused than ever on that

8. The way I see it, wherever I end up, here, there, or anywhere… there will always be a need for people who can build businesses, sell products & services, and persuade & influence in other ways

So that’s my 8-part answer.

But since the lights are still on, the indoor plumbing still works, and the politicians in my state haven’t yet reduced my standard of living to 3rd world status (give them time…) with their inane so-called “woke” policies and legislation and the horrifying unintended consequences of such, let’s get on to the business:

The September “Email Players” issue goes to the printer next week.

The skill it teaches can be used anywhere in the world that still allows commerce to build a brand, a business, a list, and an audience of people who look forward to hearing from you, buying from you, and associating with you.

It also can help repel those you don’t want to deal with.

Very powerful info, in my biased opinion.

And, it’s all wrapped up nicely in a tidy 17 pages of content.

Here’s the link to subscribe before the deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the businesses my woman has is, a company where she buys high quality items (clothing, jewelry, etc) online, and then resells them at a profit.

One of the businesses my woman has is, a company where she buys high quality items (clothing, jewelry, etc) online, and then resells them at a profit.

And, thus, she uses UPS a lot.

And, not long ago, I took her to the local UPS drop off.

It’s in a store that primarily sells to hunters, fisherman, hikers, outdoors enthusiasts, gun owners, yada yada yada. And, since I live in Bigfoot country in the Pacific Northwest, stores like that tend to sell books about Bigfoot. In this store’s case, they had probably a dozen titles on the rack next to the UPS counter. And, I found myself thumbing through one of the titles, wanting to buy it, since the Hairy One makes an appearance in a novel I wrote and am editing, and it may have given me some good twists or ideas for it.

Anyway, short story long:

As I was ready to get it, my woman asked me something about Bigfoot.

And then the UPS schlub interrupts our conversation:

“There’s no Bigfoot, that’s just a myth, he’s not real.”

After which I proceeded to put the book down I was going to buy and left.[[image:20190801_172619.jpg|right|small]]

Why?

Two reasons:

1. Nobody likes a skeptic, being the insufferable bores they are, much less likes giving them money

2. He engaged in “anti-selling”

It’s the height of stupidity to tell people the product/service you’re selling doesn’t work, you don’t believe in it, etc. I’m not saying the little skeptic had to lie. All he had to do was mind his own business or else say something like, “you know, can’t say I’m convinced, but a lot of other people are, and they say that book in your hand has a lot of new proof…”

Anyway, as a matter of principle I don’t buy from anti-salesmen.

And, neither do most others.

Do with this info what ye will…

For more information on my skeptic-proof ways of selling via email, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

True story:

Around this time each year, I pull all my old Dan Kennedy NO BS Marketing newsletters out and read them, one-by-one. The first issue I ever got was the September 2002 issue (front page has a picture of a dwarf stuck in a airplane toilet…). I’d just started learning copywriting a handful of months earlier. And, I remember the “back page” of that particular issue (titled “The Fallacy Of Security”) having a profound effect on my mindset at the time — and has through all these years, as it’s kept me healthily paranoid and discontent no matter how good things get.

I just re-read it again, and everything he said was true then, and is even more true now.

What was that back page about, exactly?

About the fallacy of security.

i.e. Security (personal, financial, business, etc) simply doesn’t exist.

Dan starts the article off by talking about how that month was the one year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. One day, Americans thought they were secure, the next they weren’t. Yes, even with Pearl Harbor having happened, and multiple examples of our embassies and terrorist attacks in Europe showing it was possible, Americans (thinking we are somehow immune to such atrocities, because America) got complacent and forgot that there is no security.

He then related it to the financial and business world:

One day huge numbers of people were feeling secure in their investments and nest eggs… the next (thanks to Enron/Global/Adelphia/Big-8 Accounting, etc… combined with the stock market turning to mush around the whole affair) they had nothing.

These fellows thought they had financial security and were “set.”

Reality declared they weren’t.

And, just like with Pearl Harbor et al. as a precedent for being attacked, there had been many prior historical demonstrations of just how insecure people are financially — like the 1929 depression, Black Monday, the confiscation of gold, numerous retroactive eliminations of tax shelters, etc.

As Dan put it:

“Could they retroactively change the IRA laws and tax and confiscate your savings to save social security? Of course not, you say, yet history says, you betcha. Could a trusted, big-name corporation in which you’ve invested actually be a charade run by criminals? Of course not, you say, yet history and current events say yes.”

Sobering thoughts.

“But Ben, I’m a business, I don’t rely on investments!”

Well, according to Dan’s essay, you ain’t any safer, Chuckles.

He brings up all kinds of examples of entire types of businesses, media, and products that were legal one day, then outlawed the next. Like the Sherman anti-trust law that destroyed numerous companies instantly. Or the various laws defining what “pyramid schemes” are. I am friends with some players in the MLM world. When one of the big companies Vemma was declared a pyramid in mid 2015, it had an impact and scared a lot of big time distributors doing tens of millions per year into getting serious about marketing themselves instead of their companies. Good for people who understand how to mine gold from adversity like my pal Ray Higdon, who now trains many of these top earner blokes to build their own brands instead of their main company’s. Not so good for someone who’s income and whose team’s income were dependent on a so-called “secure” business structure that collapsed with the pound of a gavel.

And what about infomercials?

As Dan observed, there one minute, gone the next.

Then, brought back again.

Who’s to say when they won’t be outlawed again?

Even flipping properties and JV’s between certain professional practices have been targets of states.

In Dan’s words:

(This was 2002, the marketing *medias* have changed, not the specter of the threat)

“If they can outlaw broadcast FAX, what makes you think they cannot outlaw all telemarketing or all ‘junk mail’”

And, I would add email marketing.

Or text marketing.

Or even marketing on social media.

“That would never happen!”

Don’t be so sure about that, Mr. Miyagi.

History says you’re wrong — and, even though a lot of people seem to think direct response marketing didn’t exist prior to the internet (and, for certain clueless millennials, before Facebook), there has always been a battle between marketers and the U.S. government, and there always will be. Even the late, great copywriter Gene Schwartz went to bat for all of us at one of the higher courts (maybe even the Supreme Court, but I don’t remember exactly) to make sure we could advertise what it actually says in the books we sell.

But, even that could easily be overturned some day.

Imagine having to get a bureaucrat’s opinion of your copy in addition to your client. Or, needing a government-sanctioned license to practice copywriting, coaching, consulting, etc. (I hear tell certain states like Utah are cracking down on “Life Coaches” if they aren’t licensed…)

Something to ponder, if you’re a freelancer.

But wait, I know, that would NEVER happen here, right?

More:

The myth of security doesn’t stop with money and business and marketing. Dan even went into how there is no real security in romantic relationships or even personal and familial relationships. At the time, he’d just been abruptly divorced at a time where he was 100% convinced any problems could be worked out in his marriage.

Yes, I know, *your* unicorn would never leave.

And, hopefully you are right.

But, there are millions of examples each year and multiple millions of historical examples (and a proverbial horde of rich divorce attorneys) of people who had the “perfect” marriage who have demonstrated otherwise.

Fact is, unless you have mind control powers, you cannot control others.

To paraphrase what a popular concealed carry handgun instructor said:

You’re going to do what you’re going to do, your person is going to do what he/she is going to do, the lawyers are going to do what they’re going to do, both your families and friends are going to do what they’re going to do, the marriage counselor is going to do what they’re going to do, the family court judges are going to do what they’re going to do…

Anyway, point is this:

There’s a Pearl Harbor and a 9/11 and an Enron for every aspect of life.

There is no “security” and never has been, and never will be.

Even the “impenetrable” Helm’s Deep in The Lord Of The Rings had a drain the orcs could get through.

Which brings me to the hook:

I distinctly remember this particular back page essay having a huge impact on my mindset, my beliefs, and the realities of life. And, while it seems like it was a lot of doom and gloom, Dan’s message was ultimately optimistic.

(In my way of thinking, at least.)

Specifically, when he got to the entrepreneurial lesson, which was:

“The only real security is your ability to produce”

This one sentence has stuck in my psyche for the past 17 years.

So has this part:

“… you had better sustain a very, very serious commitment to maintaining, improving, enhancing and strengthening your own ‘ability to produce’, because, in truth, it is all you’ve got and all you will ever have. Anything and everything else you see around you, you acquire and accumulate, you invest in, you trust in, can disappear in the blink of an eye.”

Yahtzee.

The point?

The goal of that issue was to get people thinking about getting (if you don’t already have one) a “gigantic, awesomely powerful ability to produce”, and having that be the only goal (I would even say “Mission”) you put all your energies into. And then, to nurture, feed, exercise, strengthen, and invest in it.

For me, that ability was copywriting.

And, I worked as hard as anyone for many years at that.

(Still do.)

Then, it became email copywriting, specifically.

(Still is.)

But, over the past few years it’s become more than the skill of writing words that sell and pushing that “send” button on the email broadcasting platform I use.

It’s about persuasive communication as a whole.

When you have that, you can apply it to pretty much any media you want. Some of the nuances and dynamics might be different (i.e. daily emails are not the same as long form sales letters or 3 line classified ads — something I notice even some very smart, old school copywriters get wrong) but, the same principles work for and apply to all of it, if’n you catch my drift.

The same *principles* I use in email, for example, I use when speaking.

Or when I did my podcast.

Or when writing sales letters.

Or when I would post something in my old Flakebook groups.

Or even when writing articles, content, or press releases.

Another true story:

I got probably my best copywriting edu-ma-cation when I had a several month long dry spell not getting clients about 12 years ago, and wrote well over 100 ezine articles with the goal of “selling” people on clicking my resource box and joining my list. And then, later, when I wanted to learn Paul Hartunian’s PR system, writing press releases in his style. Same principles for both, just different media, all applied to every other media I communicate with.

Anyway, this is one of the longest emails I think I ever done wrote.

But you know what?

I’d best your left arm someone needed to hear it.

If not you, or someone else, then certainly I enjoyed the reminder.

Never forget:

There is no security but your ability to produce.

If you want to learn what I am doing to build, strengthen, apply, practice, and make sales and a living from my ability to produce, check ye out the “Email Players” newsletter.

It’s only expensive if you look at it as a cost and not an investment.

If you’re the former, that’s your first road block.

(Thinking of skills that can make you the muhney as costs and not investments.)

If you’re the latter, then here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, “Email Players” subscriber K.G. asked:

The most common objection I seem to face is (since I’ve entered a new market with no prior visible presence)… “If you’re so great, how come when I’ve never heard of you” or “why is there nothing when I google you”, “why should I trust you”, etc. The market seems to have been completely sucked of trust by ever evolving claims etc. I have some good proof, but since everyone else is using similar proof, it doesn’t have much of an impact as far as trust goes.

The answer is to use what I refer to as:

“Anti-proof.”

I’ve never heard anyone talk about this before.

But, it’s something I use to the hilt whenever selling something I don’t have a lot of credibility with, but that I know works, especially when dealing with hardened skeptics always looking for any whiff of an excuse to click away.

The August “Email Players” issue talks about this in depth on pages 18-19.

The deadline to get it is tomorrow when I send it to the printer.

So procrastination is not your friend if you want this issue.

Go to this link right away to get in on time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle