Ben Settle

Recently, my woman was telling me about a time not all that long ago when a producer of some kind of TV show tried to get her to be on it.

It was a show about business women, I think.

And, it was supposed to be some kind of reality show.

Plus, it was set to have a big audience, be seen on multiple outlets, and could bring the people on the show potentially a lot of leads, fame, money, whatever.

Then she let the hammer drop:

“Yeah, it sounds great… except they want us to pay $10k to be on it.”

Needless to say, it wasn’t an option for her.

And, last I heard, the thing never got off the ground — with probably, I would guess, more than a few chumps who bought into the promise losing out on the $10k or whatever it cost to be on the show.

Which brings me to the point:

I have noticed a small, but rising, number of podcasts and online summit hosts trying to get away with the same thing. They will put you on their show seen by everyone in the country or whatever. (They never have exact numbers that can be verified, I have noticed…) But, you have to reach into your sweating little pot-bellied piggy bank and fork over a bunch of money for the privilege.

You can do whatever you want.

But in my opinion, if you’re going to pay for it, you might as well do it right and try to buy infomerical time on a radio show or podcast, instead.

At least then you get some accountability.

But besides that, that is not how the game is played.

The whole point is you go on a show and share your valuable knowledge with that show’s audience, and they let you plug your product/site, whatever it is.

This is publicity 101.

But, like copywriting and marketing and lead gen, people foolishly think the laws of direct response magically change on the internet.

Bottom line?

Don’t whore yourself out to podcasts.

Let them pay you — i.e. have you on the share valuable info and plug your business.

It’s some of the best free “advertising” you can ever get.

And, can generate some of the best leads you ever get, too.

Speaking of which:

The March “Email Players” issue talks a lot about how to grow your email list with potentially many ready-to-get-started buyers by getting booked on podcasts. I’m talking about free podcasts nobody is going to ask you to pay to be on. But, that you can get paid quite a bit to appear on, if you follow my sneaky ways for monetizing podcast appearances to get more opt-ins and more sales.

It goes to the printer next week.

To subscribe in time, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last Fall during the Q&A part of the talk I gave at the great Brian Kurtz’s Master Class, the subject of list-building came up.

And, so, Brian and I talked a bit about it.

And, one thing we both agree was great (if not underrated) was…

Podcast interviews.

And, it was interesting how Brian and I shared the exact same philosophy of:

“Never turn down an interview”

I first learned this from the great Paul Hartunian.

And it means it doesn’t matter if it’s a small, start-up, a medium sized show, a giant show, a low tech show, a high tech show, a show with a great host or with an incompetent host… none of that matters.

Why?

Because you simply don’t know what you’re going to get.

I’ve gotten lots and lots of not just leads but buyers from small shows with a trickle of downloads, and barely anything from giant shows with over 100k downloads. I’ve been on big name podcaster shows and gotten nary a sale, while hopped on a newbie podcaster’s show and have traced dozens of cash-in-the-bank sales from it.

You simply never know until you do it.

Plus, you don’t know how big a show is going to get later.

I’ve been on start-up shows hosted by newbies bumbling and nervously fighting their way through the show (with me gently helping them along the way… I got their backs…) that ended up being big a few years later, with my interviews being listened to and downloaded by people who go out of their way to say, “I heard you on that ___ show…” after they bought. On the other hand, I’ve been on podcast guru shows, with tens of thousands of listeners and downloads with seasoned interviewers with smooth voices, only to get a small handful of leads (but still usually some sales, so it’s all good).

More:

The small shows are good for honing your podcast game, too.

When I get on a dinky show, I sometimes practice certain stories, or calls to action, or showing different aspects of myself I wouldn’t normally.

To paraphrase a wise person:

There are no small podcast shows, only small interviewees.

And that’s where my March “Email Players” issue comes in to save the day.

It shows you everything I use myself to (1) get booked solid on as many podcast shows as I want (big, small, or in between) and (2) keep the audience and host interested and listening to you the whole way and (3) monetize those interviews via getting as many listeners as possible on your list, and some other little tricks I know for monetizing and getting more mileage out of interviews.

Best part?

It works just as well for newer marketers as seasoned pros.

In fact, I daresay it works even better for newer ones, because you’ll know how to use these podcasts to not be “new” or be without a list to sell to for very long.

The deadline to get the March issue is coming up fast.

Go here to subscribe in time, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. The only exceptions I make to the “never turn down an interview” rule is if a podcaster doesn’t have their shyt together with no calendar ready, making a lot of small talk, and back and forth, insisting I mail my list about the interview on their site (that’s not how the game is played), etc.

This is important.

Why?

Because if you use my method in the March issue, you could very well end up inundated with so many podcast interview requests, you’ll be forced to start turning some down if they even come close to wasting your time. Time is valuable. And, I don’t recommend wasting on people who don’t respect it.

In my completely biased opinion:

This month’s February “Email Players” issue (which is no longer available to anyone, at any price) contained my all time favorite, but ultimately second-best (as far as overall results), list-building method I’ve ever used to get lots of hot, often eager-to-go leads on my greasy little email list. It was also a big hit with the Email Players. And, I’ve already seen some smart blokes putting it into play.

But why do I call it the second best?

Because my #1 method is quite different.

A method that is the opposite of secksy and exciting, and while not necessarily my “favorite” (it’s usually a bit slow), it has put more people on my list than any other method over time. It has also generated the most paying customers, speaking invitations, JV opportunities, etc, too.

(By my guesstimate, at least.)

Plus, like the method I talked about in the February issue, it can be used by anyone — newbie or seasoned marketing pro — in most any market, while also letting you “siphon” away leads generated by other people (at their expense) they got from paid advertising, such as Facebook, Google, etc, without anyone caring, much less knowing, or getting mad even if they know you are doing it.

What is this method?

Podcasts.

But, I am not talking about running your own podcast.

I’m talking about using my wily ways to get booked on as many podcasts as you want, including on big shows with big audiences (yes, even if you are a relative “unknown” in some cases), and turning those audiences into loyal opt-ins, customers, and buyers for years and decades to come.

And if you think you there aren’t big audiences waiting to hear from you, think again, Chuckles.

Next week I am scheduled to be on a show that reaches some 12 million listeners in 190 countries.

(Think that might generate a lead or two?)

And not a week goes by when I don’t hear from someone:

“I heard you on XYZ podcast… joined your list, and bought…”

These leads are some of the highest quality you can get, too. Imagine someone tuning into a podcast, being “edified” by the host they trust, and hearing you talk about the problems your business solves for 20, 30, 45, even 60 minutes straight… then go to your site… and opt-in.

Well, guess what?

That is one helluva valuable lead.

A lead that has invested in you — intellectually, emotionally, and temporally. That lead is already pre-sold. And even if they don’t (or can’t) buy from you now, if you stick with them long enough (i.e. mail them daily using my Lucky Ways), you will very likely get them eventually.

And guess what?

I teach my entire methodology for getting booked on as many podcasts as you want, to grow your list, rapidly build your brand, and give yourself “celebrity-appeal” (the benefits are endless), in next month’s March “Email Players” issue. And if you do exactly as I lay out in this next issue (which goes to the printer in less than a week), you can practically manufacture more “luck” building a list than if your computer was a giant four leaf clover.

I show you exactly how to find the best shows that will want you on.

Exactly how to contact them and not sound needy or annoying like everyone else cold pitching them.

(Including a tried-but-true email template I have used many times)

And, what to do while you are on shows to get the maximum number of leads, coming to your site, and already pre-sold on you, ready to gobble up your wares in many cases.

I’ve used this info to get on both podcasts and broadcast radio.

(Although I think podcasts are far more profitable usually.)

And, I teach it in depth in the March issue.

Here’s where to subscribe before the deadline, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A reader asks:

By the way, quick question:

Who’s your mentor?

Just curious. Some said it’s Matt Furey, some said you’re Gary Bencivenga’s prodigy…

I’ve never had a one-on-one mentor, coach, or anyone like that.

And I’ve never been anyone’s prodigy, either.

For the past 20 years, I’ve learned from many different business, marketing, copywriting, and persuasion minds — only 2 or 3 I’ve met in person. Call them “virtual mentors” if’n it pleases you. And, I even did a podcast series about this last Summer about my “Mount Rushmore” of influences. But, all of my learning and training has been “virtual” — via info products, and not personal coaching, consulting, seminars, workshops, or events which I never attend unless I am speaking/training there.

And even those I am starting to turn down more and more.

Especially since plane travel is becoming intolerable to the point where I find airports only slightly less depressing than casinos.

That said, some of the great men of business & marketing who’ve influenced me most include:

• Matt Furey
• Gary Bencivenga
• Gary Halbert
• Ken McCarthy
• Dan Kennedy
• Jim Camp
• Brian Kurtz
• Earl Nightingale
• Gene Schwartz
• Sean D’Souza
• Clayton Makepeace
• John Carlton
• Bruce Barton
• Stan Lee
• Paul Hartunian
• Stan Billue
• Barry Maher
• Jim Straw

I probably am missing a few, in fact, I know I am.

(Writing this fast…)

But, basically, it’s all the people who have most changed, enhanced, or given me the most dramatic options for thinking differently that resulted in the most impact. I suggest Googling all of them and learning all you can from them.

It’s a rabbit hole that will last you decades.

And, I daresay, pay you for decades, too.

Certainly has for Yours Reclusive…

All right, onwards to the fun stuff:

To check out my “Email Players” newsletter — scoot on over to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. Whenever I write emails like this, people will ask for specific books/programs/products… and the answer is to curate. Curating your content (as well as curating your customers, friends, JV partners, etc) is a powerful attribute to hone, strengthen, and sharpen, and if you want to develop that attribute, here’s a great chance for you to do just that by doing your own research…

The video at the link below contains no sales pitch (ironically…), but it will show you how shunning using them is not only foolish, but hurts your market, customers, and prospects, too.

Here you be…

True story:

I stopped doing freelance copywriting work back in the Summer of 2011. I hated doing client work then, and the thought of doing client work today still gives me heartburn (I prefer to be my own client).

But, a few years ago, I made an exception.

I won’t bother with the details on why.

But, I made the exception and, because I hate doing client work so much, I banged the entire long form sales letter out in about 48 hours from stem to stern. At the time, the ad (still running today) nabbed the client almost $2k in sales for every $150 he spent when he tested it.

I know this because he sent me a voicemail about it.

Anyway, that ad had a lot going for it outside of me.

Like a rabid market.

A highly credible and ever-growing brand.

Leads looking to spend money.

A super high quality product that changes lives.

And, the list goes on.

But, still, those numbers ain’t too shabby.

And, one of the reasons why it did so well was because of a single question I asked the client. A question it took him all of 2 seconds to answer, and took me all of 5 seconds to write down, and then turn his words (more or less) into the headline. In other words, I did not have to write out 100 headlines like a lot of copywriters do. I did not sit there and have to trick my subconscious mind to slip me the headline, either. Nor did I even give it more than a moment’s thought. Yet, that headline worked on ice-cold traffic, and is presumably still working today.

What was this question?

And, can you ask the same question to help write your own headlines?

The answer to the second question is, yes, you can.

But the answer to the first question is on page 2 of the bonus “Ravings Of An Adman” insert inside the February “Email Players” issue.

The main issue is all about building a list.

This bonus insert is all about market research.

Together, this is, in many ways, one of the single most valuable issues I’ve written to date for those wise enough to apply the info and not nod, file it away, and then ask what else do I got. Or, even worse, pretend they already know it, but never actually do it and consider it beneath them.

Those types should go haunt someone else.

More:

I’m sending it to the printer shortly.

After that, it will be too late to get it.

And, the only other way to get what I am teaching (exactly how I am teaching it, I don’t know of anyone who does it the way I do it) is by getting a much more expensive product I will be creating some day on the subject.

Ain’t no time for dilly dally.

If you want it, here it is, come and get it, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A reader asks the magic list building question:

Hi Ben,

This prob will sound like I’m an idiot when I ask you this.

How do you build a list without the visibility of social media ?

Just to clarify my background, I am about to turn 51, and I’ve been a pharmacist for 30 years. I’m burned out and have been following you for about 2 months. I was trying to figure out how to build a list by using social media, and now this advice

You told me recently not to sign up for email players til I had an offer. I still got nothing.

Props for your Villians book. Have actually been giving some “life” advice to my 21 year old son based on some of your observations.

You can still build a list using social media.

I just don’t mess with it anymore.

Mainly because of its incessant thought-policing, politically-motivated de-platforming, blatant privacy abuse, and their data-sharing/leaking schemes… plus there have been many unintended marketing benefits I wasn’t expecting such as the massive increase in productivity, clarity of thinking, freed up time, less accessibility (which has resulted in more demand for my attention i.e. buying what I sell, a nice side benefit…), etc. But I would never say not to use paid social media ads if you want to use them. I have used paid ads from Facebook, Twitter, and Google to build my list in the past. And, I have gotten many leads doing so. And while you can scale those leads, the quality paled in comparison to the leads I get now. Plus, I don’t have to follow all these sites’ goofy ever-changing rules, either.

The trade off is, I don’t get as many leads.

But, since I’m a 4 quarters vs 100 pennies kinda guy, that suits me just fine.

Plus, it’s rare for a long-term customer to have found me via a Facebook or Google ad. Almost all come from referral-based leads. And, I can “siphon” away the best quality leads from the above platforms, free, now.

How?

By using a couple ways I talked a little bit about in the December “Email Players” issue, one of which I am “zooming in” on in depth, with an example of how it’s done, in the upcoming February issue.

But, a word of warning:

This method can help someone build a list from scratch.

And, the leads will very likely be high quality.

Certainly higher quality than random social media leads.

But, it takes time and it takes patience. And, I don’t recommend someone who has no list or presence in their chosen market subscribe thinking this is going to be the magic list building method that liberates them from the 9-5 world.

It’s a tool for the toolbox.

And, you can’t build a house with just one tool…

The deadline to get this issue is later today.

(When I send the list to the printer)

After that, I’m disabling it in the shopping cart so nobody can subscribe until next month, when it will be way too late to get it.

Here’s the link:

http://www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, I got this ditty from an MBA:

(I know he’s an MBA because it’s stated in his name attached to the email he sent me)

Please know that I absolutely adore your stuff. So much so, that it took me a couple of weeks to actually accept the fact that I needed to do this. But with the government shutdown, my business has tanked and I need to conserve every dollar I have right now until it’s over.

So I need to cancel my newsletter subscription before it renews on Sunday. It pisses me off beyond belief that I have to do this, but business is down 60% since December and I have to cut every cost I can. I realize this means I probably can’t come back. I’m not okay with that, but I have to feed my family first. I’ll keep reading your stuff and buying your books.

Thank you, but please cancel my membership.

My response?

“It is cancelled, and you are correct, there is no coming back”

And, just like that… he was banished from elBenbo’s midst ever after.

Cold?

Harsh?

A bit extreme to someone who seems down on their luck?

No, it’s just the opposite.

First, I carefully curate who I want around my business.

I do this mainly because if I sell to and waste time with people who are unmotivated, unwilling to learn, lazy, or simply full of excuses, then I won’t be giving my good customers my very best. And this bloke’s defeatist, victim-hood mentality, hiding behind the Fed government shut down is a loud bullhorn signaling the exact opposite of what I demand in my customers.

In fact, my first thought was:

All that MBA education and he can’t use the info he admittedly adores to write an email each day that recoups his whopping $3.23 per day investment (which was preventing him from feeding his family?) and have the wisdom to sell something on the backend that makes him many more sales to boot?

Instead he treats the info as an “expense” to be cut.

And not an investment to be used and profited from.

And while I’m not saying he’s a bad person — he sounds like a good guy, salt of the earth — or that his plight is to be made light of (it’s not)… people like that have no place amongst us in the Email Player-hood.

Why in the world would I want him back?

Or anyone else with a similar prole-mind who just thinks in terms of “cut!” when it comes to doing the things that build a business, specifically ongoing education and marketing.

Speaking of prole-minded:

How do you know if you have one?

You discontinue and “cut back” on services and programs that make you sales (i.e. assets) before you discontinue your cable, your overpriced morning sugar coffee, your satellite subscription, magazines subscriptions, music site subscriptions, software subscriptions you never use, eating out 5x’s per week, and other entertainment and consumable expenses (i.e. liabilities) that are, by design, created to keep you entertained and passive, a servant of the system, building a lifestyle for someone else and his family, and not a master of your own destiny building a lifestyle for you and your family.

More:

Being temporarily broke is certainly no crime.

But it’s never the money. Even a street bum rattling a coffee-stained styrofoam cup with holes in it can afford $3.23 per day, and if he can do it, an MBA should be able to do it and easily make more than his investment back, and build from there.

i.e. it would not have “cost” him anything if he was using it.

And to me, that’s the “crime” — not doing something about his situation.

For example:

I would bet someone else’s kidney he never once bothered using the two issues and book he got other than to send an email or two out, at most. I’d put my money on zero times. And also, it clearly never even occurred to him to take advantage of the perk I give “Email Players” subscribers where they can ask me questions (not copy critiques, I don’t do critiques) via email about anything I’m qualified to talk about. Now, admittedly, there are many, many things I am not qualified to talk about. Too many to list here. But, there are a few things I’m good at and can help people with, and have helped people with, and making sales with email — even when someone’s back is to the wall — is one of them.

He didn’t even bother to ask, before quitting:

“Mr. elBenbo, I am in this pickle… yada yada yada… any ideas?”

To which I might have been able to rattle off some ideas he could quickly implement.

Like, for example:

Having a Federal Government Shutdown sale or special on whatever it is he sells (which may very well be marketing advice going by his email address — ironically).

If he at least tried, that’d be one thing.

But he didn’t even bother.

Instead, it was just react, then despair for two weeks, then quit.

Still more:

The social sciences are bull shyt in a lot of cases. But, there is observable truth to, “you become the sum total of the people you spend the most time with.” And since I interact (i.e. spend time with) my customers via email, I don’t want anyone’s sad sack attitude getting on the bottom of my shoe, which can then get tracked around my business like mud, and have to be scrubbed clean.

“But Ben doesn’t this mean losing sales if they want back in later???”

In the short term, yes.

But in the long run?

That old business is always, without exception, replaced with better, higher quality, and more serious customers, and my business grows as a result.

The point to all this?

People are always looking for a boogeyman to hide behind (government shut-downs, the economy, Trump, Obama, the weather, the stock market, whatever it is) to justify their inaction.

And to those types, I sincerely wish them the best.

But, they’ll have to practice their in-action somewhere else.

Because they are not welcome back in my business once they – on their own volition – foolishly and short-sightedly cast themselves out into the void…

Anyway, this is one reason I’m teaching list building in the February “Email Players” issue. Your *list* is the beating heart of a direct marketing business. Not your puffed-up-in-numbers Facebook or Twitter friends. Not your podcast listeners. And certainly not your Instagram following. Those can be great to have, but only work as a way to make sales directly until they don’t — because you don’t control those platforms, and can’t export (to my knowledge, at least) your followers, friends, and audiences to a spreadsheet you can then “plug” into another platform like you can with email.

One more thing, before I let you go:

I once had a brilliant client in the self defense niche.

This was right smack dab in the middle of the worst part of the last recession in 2009.

And the client said something I will never forget.

He said (paraphrased):

“Direct response marketers who know what they’re doing love down economies. We make a lot more sales during these times, because all our competitors react in fear, and immediately ‘cut back’ on their marketing expenses and education, instead of ramping them up and seizing market share.”

And so it is, but only if you have:

1. An offer people want

2. A list of those people to sell your offer to

3. Something else to sell those people who buy your offer

The offer parts are on you, but if you want to learn the list part, check out the February “Email Players” issue, which goes to the printer tomorrow. It shows you one particular way of building a list that, while it takes time and patience (and a network — even if it’s a small network), it can pay you many dividends over time, and in a consistent way. And because it’s slow and takes time, the sooner you do it, the better.

After tomorrow’s deadline, it’ll be too late to get it, no exceptions.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the formative experiences of my entire business career was in an old, obscure teaching the great Dan Kennedy did about a wildly successful plumber.

A plumber who got all the customers he could handle.

Could charge far more than any other plumber probably could.

And, that impressed DK so much, he used it as a case study in his Peter Lowe Conference talks.

And, even though Dan was talking about direct mail lists, the lesson behind the story has been one of the single greatest email list building methods I’ve ever used, and continue to use, and will continue to use for many years into the future.

Plus, it’s free to use, too.

(Unlike the direct mail version of it.)

And, I have found it lets me connect a pipe (so to speak) to the faucets of paid traffic platforms and, in a completely roundabout sort of way, drain some of the best leads from those sites onto my own in many cases, and in a way that is much simpler than it sounds.

The February “Email Players” issue is all about what this is and how I do it.

There is nothing at all “new” about it.

But, I believe the way I’ve systematized it can help almost any business — new or old — start to build a responsive email list fairly quickly. Maybe not a big list, certainly not as much as paid advertising. But, I’ll take the Pepsi Challenge using this against paid ad lead quality any day.

The only caveat is, of course, you have to be subscribed.

And, just as important, subscribed before it goes to the printer tomorrow.

After that, it will be too late to get this issue.

Time is short on this.

If you want it, high-tail it over to this link immediately:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. I have admittedly make this method sound a lot secksier than it probably is.

But make no mistake:

That doesn’t mean it can’t work as well, if not better, than I have described…