Ben Settle

Contrary to what a few goo-roo fanboys think, I am not anti-testing.

I think some marketing tests make sense.

And, I think some don’t make any sense at all.

But, either way, I am always amused when people brag about their testing after they have a “lightbulb moment” where they discovered the most basic and obvious of marketing principles, as if they were the first to discover it.

Take the 2008 Obama email team.

There was a detailed write-up about how they got so much dough many years ago.

And, make no mistake, their emails made a lot.

In fact, their emails brought in $600 million worth of donations with emails — which blew away everything else they did for fundraising, including direct mail and social media. Everybody thought it was social media that brought home the bacon but it wasn’t. It was good ol’ “retro” email.

Anyway, they did a lot of good stuff.

And, I even wrote an Email Players issue about it several years ago.

They found lots of interesting insights from testing. But, it was as amusing as it was astonishing to me how they had to test to find out the most basic info you already probably know just reading my free emails, much less reading my monthly Email Players newsletter and accompanying Email Players Playbook.

And I believe this was the case because they sucked at research.

They had the brand.

They had the right message-to-market match.

They even had great “writers.”

But, had they known the right market intel going in, with the right research, using my not-so-secret way of doing customer research (that allowed my ads and emails to dominate handily, and without even breaking a sweat, including when I knew nothing about those markets, in overheated markets like weight loss, golf, and self defense) they’d have not only brought in way more bacon (I daresay in my infinite madness from my asylum, maybe even twice as much…), but wouldn’t have had to waste so much time testing to find out the obvious about their market.

Anyway, I talk about my way of research in the November “Email Players” issue.

Specifically, in the bonus “Ravings of an Adman” insert I am including.

To get your hands on this sucker, subscribe before the coming deadline.

Once I send it to the printer, it’ll be too late.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Reader Freddy Hustle helps build the case that I ain’t just whistlin’ dixie about how much my diabolical ways can make a difference in ye olde bottom line.

If anything, I probably downplay it.

Case in point:

I wrote [an email] the other day that has got the highest open rate and click thru and sales EVER for many of my eCommerce clients by email. The response rate on the email was so huge 4 of my clients called me to tell me how impressed they were n even they opened the email immediately

You inspired it

Thanks Homey (12k per month recurring from email clients plus they give me 5% royalty)

And so it goes.

Also, this also serves to prove my ways work for eCommerce, too.

They work for products, services, or anything.

(That I have seen at least — even commodities like socks…)

The November issue goes to the printer in a few days.

Grab it while the grabbins’ good right here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

^^ So saideth a famous life insurance salesman.

The meaning of which is this:

If you want to sell life insurance, painting pretty images of flowers and happy families washing the car or whatever isn’t going to cut it. You have to get the prospect into that state of mind where they can see themselves at death’s door, family destitute, kids living a life of misery and chaos because daddy didn’t take any life insurance out, or didn’t take enough out, or didn’t take the right kind out.

And you know what?

This is even *more* important in emails.

This is why I like to write emails that are full of pain and despair if’n the product/market lends itself to such a thing. This means getting deep down and dirty with your market.

That’s the easy part.

The hard part?

Most people do this completely wrong.

Instead of being someone that a prospect wants to do business with, they come off as a manipulative douche bag.

But fear ye not.

The November “Email Players” issue to the rescue.

I show you several examples of how to write “hearse pulled up to the door” email copy (with a couple real life successful examples) in a way your list will love, appreciate, and want to buy from.

But time is short.

If you want in go here before it goes to the printer:

http://www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the most amusing things I’ve seen on Flakebook is coaches who revolve their advertising around dark moons and when Mercury is in retrograde. And, especially, the ones who claim to manifest wealth by masturbating and thinking of money when they orgasm.

Napoleon Hill ain’t got nuttin’ on them chicks…

Anyway, here’s why I bring this up:

I got this question from an “Email Players” subscriber who was concerned about how her feedback was going up, but her opens and clicks have gone down after using my hate & dark ways.

Here was the question:

Okay, so I have a question for you, Oh Evil One: Ever since I started emailing Email Players style (which was quite a departure from my previous once-in-a-blue-moon-when-mercury-is-in-retrograde frequency), I’ve noticed our open rates have tanked. Also our click through rates.

I do great great positive feedback on how hilarious, awesome, different the emails are from folks, but I want to make sure I’m not playing to my ego rather than taking care of bidness, you see.

We sell high ticket, so our CTA is almost always “watch our masterclass” or “book a call with our team”.

My answer?

For that, you’ll have to read the November “Email Players” issue.

Wherein I show a 6-point solution to this problem, that applies not only to email, but whenever you see your sales or other metrics take a dip — whether it’s during a dark moon, when Mercury is in retrograde, or even when it is in gatorade.

This is something that happens to everyone eventually.

And, the answer will not only solve the problem, but add more sales to your evil coffers.

The deadline to get this issue looms.

If you miss it, it’ll be too late to get it.

Here is the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben “Dark Moon” Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Vicente Pollino recently asked a great writing question for people whose minds suddenly go blank when writing emails for other people in markets they aren’t familiar with.

Or, even their own markets and for their own products or services.

Anyway, here is the question:

Before writing, sorry for my English. Not good.

I just want to ask a question.

I’m going to write emails for a major company that sells courses for vegetarians.

Each email takes three or four hours to write and the result is not good. I do not know the vegetarian world.

When I write about my things, I can make emails in 20 minutes and I like them. But if I write for others, I am incapable.

I’m left blank looking at the screens of my computer. I am taking my first steps as a copywriter and I am very worried. I am not able to write emails for others.

Do you know if I can do something to avoid getting stuck?

Thank you very much for your time, Ben.

An admirer from Spain.

Answer:

It’s not uncommon at all for people to have no problem banging out emails for their own products and services, but clam up when having to write in someone else’s voice, for another market they are unfamiliar with, and when on a deadline.

In fact, I just had a discussion about this yesterday with someone at a masterclass I spoke at.

The good news is, this is an easy problem to solve:

1. Know the best places to research your market so you know it backwards and forwards, and can so naturally write as if you are one of them they would never know you’re not

2. Read the November “Email Players” issue

Inside the next issue I answer his question on pages 14-15 via a 7-point game plan that can make anyone near-instantly faster and more effective at writing emails (for both yourself and clients) while putting far more sales in your righteous piggy bank.

Knowing this info should “de-stress” anyone about writing copy.

(For emails or any other kind of sales pitch.)

And, put a lot more pennies in ye olde piggy bank, too.

I’ve seen it happen time and time and time again. And, I recon it’ll happen for people who have the November issue, too.

The deadline to get it is Halloween.

After that, it goes to the printer and it’ll be too late to get it.

Here is the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Back in my client days and through today, I gleefully break the cardinal rule of copywriting, which is:

• Get on everyone else’s lists
• Create a swipe file of their ads
• Study what the really successful ads that keep running are doing

It’s certainly not a bad idea to do those things.

Probably, you should do them.

But, I can say I did very little of that in the niches I was most successful at.

Especially in this day and age of email and pre-selling and product launches.

(Where the “sale” is often made well before someone sees your sales letter.)

That is why, when I did client work in other niches I was unfamiliar with, I was far more interested in uncovering info about the market that went beyond the obvious or what everyone else was focusing on. And I did it by playing upon a sales technique where you ask people a question about why they might want a particular benefit or why they might not want to buy. Then, after they answer that, you ask them if there any other reasons they might want it or are there any other reasons for not buying? And then what happens is, the salesman finds out the “under the radar” emotional reasons that people will buy or why they aren’t buying.

Anyway, it’s something I adapted a long ago to online selling with email.

I call it “stealth research.”

And, it allowed me to do things like:

• Write control-winning copy in the golf niche when I had never played in my life — and without carefully studying any other golf ads
• Write emails and ads that converted 40%+ of a weight loss list to buyers — again, knowing nothing about the market going in and not even bothering to look at any competing ads
• Create the ad copy for the biggest company in the self defense niche’s entire arsenal of products (info products and supplements) without looking at that industry’s ads, either — especially after we found out all the other companies were targeting the wrong people and missing out on multiple millions of dollars in business

Anyway, point is this:

I didn’t have to scour the competition’s ads.

Nor did I have to be the best “copywriter.” (I never was.)

All I needed was the right marketing intel.

Intel I show you how to get for your market in the bonus “Ravings of an Adman” training in the November “Email Players” issue, which goes to the printer soon.

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

To get your grubby hands on this info zip on over to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the valuable things the October “Email Players” issue (which goes to the printer later on today) contains is my official “troll response” swipe file.

I compiled this for my subscribers to study, model, and adapt.

(Not copy & paste)

And, it contains 18 pages (making up 8 separate emails) of some of the most profitable emails I’ve used to make out like a bandit from everyone from a garden variety troll whose heart was filled with envy… to an outright hater wishing outright destruction on my business… to a Kindle reviewer who left a dorky 1-star review (that prompted him to change it to a 4-star review the next day)… and even someone who wrote a long email to his list saying I was a psychopath.

You’ll see the subject lines I used.

The way I used the info inside the October issue to create emails out of them.

And, how I not only shut them up, but made money from them.

Again, this issue goes to the printer later today.

After that, it’ll be too late to get it.

Here is the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Today’s the deadline to get the Email Players issue that’ll send trolls, haters, and other mob-mentality boogeymen fleeing into the streets, weeping and gnashing their fangs.

Here’s what’s inside:

• How one of my subscribers turned being bum rushed by an online mob of drooling psychopaths (and even Snopes!) out for blood into lots of sales, new traffic, and leads on her list.
• How the great Bruce Barton used his advertising knowledge to “troll proof” the General Steel Corporation.
• The absolute worst thing you can do if anyone launches a personal attack against you (that, unfortunately, most people do instinctively).
• The professional pick-up artist’s secret (that is also used by President Trump almost every week) to turning the tables on anyone who mocks, insults, or accuses you in an attempt to tarnish your name or business reputation.
• 8 words any man can use to calm down a seething angry wife or girlfriend! (Nothing to do with business or marketing, but if you’re a man, these 8 words can make for a far more pleasant time with your woman.)
• A 7-step battle plan for shutting the yaps while making money off any trolls who try to smear your name, your reputation, or your business dealings.
• The secret psychology behind turning personal attacks into big paydays.
• 2 copyright-free email templates (you can use, modify, or adapt however you like) for making money off of anyone who calls you a nazi or any other label intended to ruin your credibility and reputation. (Can also be used as social media posts, too.)
• 3 “real life” examples of how trolls and SJWs attack businesses, and how to turn those attacks into money in the bank.
• What exactly to do to make a windfall whenever someone uses YouTube to put you on blast.
• The real reason so many amateur trolls (in the online marketing world especially) are making videos trying to attack marketers with bigger names and reputations. (HINT: A certain guru taught some people to do it, and a few fruitcakes with nothing to lose decided to run with it.)

Plus:

I am also including a bonus “Ravings of an Adman” training containing a special sale structure you can use to make a small windfall this Halloween, as well as an 18-page “troll response” swipe file of proven-to-work emails I’ve written that you can adapt (not copy & paste verbatim, only losers do that) for your own troll-to-sales flipping endeavors.

I’m sending this issue in to the printer later today.

So if you want in, now’s the time.

After I send it in, it’ll be too late.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Couple weeks ago, “Email Players” subscriber Stefanie Arroyo got stalked and harassed by a mob of white hipsters on social media calling her a white supremacist (she’s not even white…), amongst other pleasantries.

And, using what I taught her, made a tidy profit from it.

Here’s how she did it (in her own words):

Over the past 24 hours, I’ve been called a racist, a white supremacist, an MLM scam artist, a Nazi, a spammer, all-around terrible person, a scumbag, a 9/11 apologist, a “garbage human,” and several other colorful things… hundreds of times.

(And that’s not Latina-drama numbers, that’s what Twitter analytics has told me—and that’s not counting subtweeted screenshots and deleted tweets.)

And, in the midst of this shytflinging in my Twitter mentions, I was able to get 3 new Biz Typology members, 2 new consulting clients—and increase my list by 10%

How did I do this, you ask?

Well, here’s what happened:

Talib Kweli, a rapper who was popular about 20 years ago, got offended when I noted by tweet that, in my disastrous foray in the NYC dating scene, most of my bad OkCupid dates were 1- fans of his and 2- white.
?Thing is: Talib doesn’t particularly like white people.

In fact, he was openly complaining about white people when I mentioned this fact—which, it turns out, he didn’t like being reminded of.

So, naturally, he called me a white supremacist and a racist—multiple times.

Then, like a good little (white) fanboys, they took upon themselves to “investigate,” where it was “discovered” (in plain sight) that I, and a few other people who were roped into this racist rodeo, have online businesses.

According to them, I am:

– A part of a MLM scheme
– Specifically, a *Nazi* MLM scheme
– Even more specifically: a Nazi MLM scheme that pays by clicks.

Not leads, or even customers or buyers—just literal clicks.

(Their evidence for this? A Facebook ads webinar that describes an ad being “10 cents per click.”)

According to their “findings,” Ben Settle is my upline—the Grand Dragon of the whole click-collecting scam—and, as a group, we were purposefully kicking the POC beehive while cackling and clicking our claws like Smaug gobbling up these shiny click-coins.

And, with their troll-like, bulbous eyes glittering over their new-found treasure, they went to town—tweeting and subtweeting me left and right about my slimy, scummy MLM business, my terrible taste and broken moral compass, being a “garbage human,” and being a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, white racist.

Because, according to them, I’m also laughably, horribly white.

(Which, if you didn’t know by now, I’m not.)

But, of course, as a good little MLMer, I learned from my wizard upline Ben Settle’s teachings. Specifically:

If you’re going to be painted a villain, you might as well play the part well.

Now, much to Talib’s chagrin, I didn’t burn a cross on Ben’s yard. But, if I am going to be “trolling for clicks,” I made sure that they had the right URL.

Amusing stuff.

And, this sort of thing is only becoming more and more common on social media, and from anyone who even has an email list — where these creepy SJW-types are now stalking people, trying to dox people, and have nothing but time between watching pourno and eating cheetos in their moms’ basements to attack whoever offends their fascist sensibilities.

All of which is good for you and me.

How?

Because, as Stefanie and several other “Email Players” subscribers are find out, profiting from these dorks is not only easy, but far more rewarding than they could possibly have imagined.

Enter the October “Email Players” issue.

(Which goes to the printer tomorrow.)

I show you how to turn attacks (whether from political nutcases or just harmless trolls) into sales, with case studies and an 18-page swipe file of my most profitable “troll response” emails you can study, model, and adapt (not copy & paste) for your own situations.

But, not it won’t just help you get lots of sales.

It can also help you get lots of long term customers and other business, too.

There is simply no reason to fear the online troll and hater boogeyman. Especially when there is so much profit in turning its nonsense into cold, hard, cash in your hot little hand.

But time is short to get the October issue.

I am sending it to the printer tomorrow.

After that?

It’ll be too late.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle