Ben Settle

I was re-reading one of my old NO BS Dan Kennedy newsletters, and he was lamenting how one of his Gold members wrote him a long, foolish letter explaining that he wasn’t renewing his newsletter subscription because he was already doing so well thanks to Dan’s advice, and was too busy to implement anything else — or even read the current issues.

As Dan put it:

“Those are the FAXes that send me up the wall. These people who just don’t ‘get it’ or are so undisciplined or unmotivated they can’t reap the harvest filling the fields right outside their windows.”

I have to admit, I get emails like those sometimes.

But, unlike Mr. Kennedy, they don’t send me up a wall.

Just the opposite:

They amuse me and do me a favor, in a strange way.

How?

Because, I agree with the drug lord in “Breaking Bad” when he said there are two kinds of people in this world:

1. Those who drink
2. Those who pour

And, those kinds of excuses remind me how great is is to be in the first group, and to be further disassociated with people in the second group by virtue of them leaving.

Fact is, those who pour are always sabotaging themselves.

They won’t allow themselves to get “too” successful.

They are always cooking up excuses.

Always saying they “can’t” when, in reality, it’s not that they can’t, it’s that they won’t.

I have never met anyone in the upper levels of the marketing world complain about info overload, no time to implement what’s working, or foolishly (and amusingly) thinking they know it all because they read one issue of a newsletter, etc. They simply find ways of ploughing through it, implementing it, and continually profiting from it. The idea of stopping something because it’s working is insane to anyone but people content to be pourers.

But, pourers gonna pour, and there’s no changing them.

So why let it upset you?

After all, without the pourers who’s going to pour for us?

On the other hand:

To see an example of a drinker, look no further than this random Facebook testimonial I got yesterday from “Email Players” subscriber Craig Perrine:

“I recommend Email Players to anyone serious about copy. Been subscribed since 2013 I think. Paid for itself countless times over. A monthly dose of high-octane brain food for email copywriters. Haven’t looked forward to getting a monthly print newsletter as much since the 90’s when I subscribed to The Gary Halbert Letter.”

You think guys like Craig are lamenting having “too much!” info?

And neither do any of my other long-term subscribers.

Anyway, bottom line:

If you’re a pourer, nothing I sell will do you any good until you get your shyt together (mentally and emotionally, and get rid of that bad wiring holding you back). Not my newsletter, not my books, not my podcast, nothing. You are better off going to someone who will happily take your money while blowing sunshine up your skirt making you feelz good about being content to be a pourer, instead of guys like me, who ruthlessly mock you into either leaving us or changing your wicked ways to becoming one of us.

Only one way to find out:

And that’s to subscribe, read, and implement.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Many moons ago (circa 2003 A.D.) I spent the fee from one of my first copywriting gigs on a book the late, great copywriter Scott Haines had the rights to sell at the time:

The 24 copywriting-specific Gary Halbert Letter issues.

It’s still one of my most prized possessions.

Specifically, the issue within where Gary taught bullets. He did it in a way that made it very easy for me to learn the craft. What he did was, he talked about a book about making mooney from real estate he wrote an ad about. And, he showed:

• The bullets he wrote
• The specific content he pulled the bullets out of

That way, the reader could see the mindset and psychology and *ideas* behind the bullets, and then the end result after he “twisted” (as he put it) the content into bullets.

Very edu-ma-cational.

And, a brilliant way to teach.

And guess what?

I had an idea for the September “Email Players” issue to do a similar style of training for writing emails selling products as an affiliate. Specifically, the last day of emails (where all the real sales are made when you use my unsavory ways).

Here’s what I did for that issue:

1. Pulled all the last emails from my last affiliate campaign

2. Found the exact content from the product I was selling to write those emails

3. Put the content and emails I crafted from the content side-by-side

Anyway, there isn’t a lot of how-to in the next issue.

It’s pretty much all observational.

i.e. you have to think

These emails (along with the others I sent that weekend) resulted in almost 400 sales over a short weekend to my meek-sized list. If you can think and want to get great at email, this issue will be like gold to you. If you are just looking for “swipes!” and templates (like most copywriters) it’ll confuse and disappoint you.

The “initiated” in my world, will find this one of the most valuable trainings I’ve done.

The uninitiated BSO-chasers will go “meh. What else ya go?”

If you’re the latter, back to fapping to your swipe file you go.

If you’re the former, subscribe here to get this issue in time.

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, I made a special trip to my office to retrieve all my Dan Kennedy NO BS Marketing newsletters.

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 having a profound effect on my mindset at the time — and has through all these years, as it’s kept me healthily paranoid and uncomfortable no matter how good things get.

I just re-read it, 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.

Security is a phantom — a figment of human imagination.

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, 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 suddenly vanished overnight.)

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 spirit 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 marketing didn’t exist prior to the Internet, fact is there has always been a battle between marketers and 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.

Something to ponder, if you’re a freelance copywriter…

But wait, I know, that would NEVER happen, 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 during a period where he was 100% convinced any problems could be worked out in his marriage.

Yes, I know, *your* unicorn would never leave, right?

Hopefully you are right.

But, there are millions of examples each year, and multiple millions of historical examples, of people who had the “perfect” marriage who have demonstrated otherwise.

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

You can only control your own actions.

(To paraphrase what my concealed carry 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, 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.

To use a Lord Of The Rings analogy:

Even the impenetrable Helm’s Deep had a drain the orcs could get through.

Which brings me to the hook:

I distinctly remember this particular back page essay having a profound 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 15 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.

Random brain fart:

Now that I think about it, I’d been thinking about digging this particular issue out again over a week ago. And, just a few days before digging it up out of my files in my office and re-reading it I spent a over $6k on various Dan Kennedy trainings I didn’t already have. Either I’m easily inspired… and/or Dan Kennedy truly is the greatest salesman on earth.

(And I wouldn’t argue with either accusation…)

All right, back to 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 in Aweber.

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 doing my podcast.

Or when writing sales letters.

Or when posting something in a Flakebook group.

Or even when writing articles, content, or press releases. (I got probably my best copywriting edu-ma-cation when I had a several month long dry spell not getting clients about 11 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 think 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 muney as costs and not investments.)

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

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Just wanted to let you know, our buddy Art Hamel Died in June. I just got a call this morning. He was something else.”

So came an email a couple days from my friend Michael Senoff.

“Art who?” you ask?

A lot of people don’t know who he was.

But, he was called the “Dean Of Business” back in the 80’s (on infomercials, etc), and he bought over 200 business over 40 years — starting with a small 25 unit motel in California that was barely profitable and took all his time, energy, and money, and was extremely stressful. It wasn’t long after that when he stopped Mickey mousing around and being chintzy (as he would have put it) with small time businesses, and transitioned into buying only multi-million dollar business that gave him zero stress, and that took none of his time, energy, or money.

After that, he started showing other people how to do the same.

(Via his home study course and seminars)

Eventually, he had tens of thousands of students worldwide.

Then, he sort of drifted off into obscurity. One day he was so well known people recognized him at airports. The next, nobody had any idea who he was.

That is, until Michael Senoff saw his course being sold on eBay back in 2004.

Michael is a true hustler.

And, he loves to find obscure old info products, get the rights to sell them, and then offer them to his list.

That’s where I first heard of Art.

Michael and I had just started talking. (He saw some articles I wrote on copywriting and wanted to hire me.) And he called me up and said, “I’d like to hire you to write the sales letter for this course I got the rights to. It’s completely unproven to sell anymore, and I have no idea if it’ll make any money at all. I can either pay you $2,000 or you take a chance and write the ad and we split the sales 50/50.”

Of course, I took the 50/50 offer.

And, I worked my arse off on that sales letter.

I listened and re-listened (dozens of times) to a couple interviews Michael did with Art while driving to my job at the time and while on my breaks and lunch time at work. And, I studied his home study course over and over until I had to peel my dry contact lenses off my eye balls.

The result?

It was a huge success.

So much so, it got the attention of other list owners on Michael’s list in the real estate and biz opp worlds who wanted to sell it to their lists, with me tweeking the sales letters to their voices and country’s vernacular (Australia, the UK, etc). We even did a joint venture with the late Jim Straw (one of my marketing and copywriting heroes) selling it to his list, too.

But, we didn’t stop there.

We also put that bad-boy course up on eBay and got sales.

Then, Michael had the idea to “customize” my ad to appeal to and sell to various different people.

Like, for example, people looking to start vending machine businesses.

Or, people wanting to buy franchises.

Or, people wanting to invest in the stock market.

Or, people who wanted to learn how to invest in real estate.

As well as service business owners, biz opp seekers, and we even had an eBay ad selling Art’s system specifically for Jewish business owners. (It was a tremendous hands-on education — we were learning as we went along on how to sell the same product on eBay to various different markets and niches with a few changes in copy.)

What else?

One of my favorite memories of the whole thing was the Fart Hamel sale.

There was some kind of glitch and we had sets that were printed up with “Fart Hamel” instead of “Art Hamel.” And, in a non-crooked version of Rahm Emanuel’s sales strategy — we weren’t going to let a good crisis go to waste, and had our own “scratch and dent” sale using those.

Anyway, I never met Art Hamel.

Never spoke to him.

Never even exchanged a single email with him.

But, you know what?

He had one of the biggest impacts on my business, my copywriting (I had a helluva “earn as you learn” edu-ma-cation about copywriting during those adventures, and it was that letter where I first used and started refining my Copy Slacker method), and my lifestyle (I was able to pay off a ton of debt — including my car and credit cards — and afford to move out of the butt-hole of the universe I call “Illinois” from my half of the commissions).

One day, I’ll likely even use his system to buy a business, too.

(When I get the bug to.)

Anyway, RIP Art Hamel, you crotchety old genius.

You had one helluva impact on me.

And, in many ways, you had one helluva impact on all the people I’ve helped.

All right, enough beef soup for the soul.

To get the low down on my monthly “Email Players” newsletter, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Another tale from the marketing funnel crypt:

“I know you do the players newsletter for 100 a month. Is that really the best way to learn email copyrighting you do? It just seems that to learn that would be incremental approach not based on something that is really a periodical? Also I didn’t know you had books so I looked it up and you have 10 bazillion of them. Confused now which to get if I am looking develope some funnels. Not sure I am up for an email a day unless you show how to make it real real easy.”

You know, I can’t say I know much about email copyrighting.

(I never went to law school.)

But, if he means email copywriting — then, yes. Of course it’s the best way to learn it, which is why I teach it that way.

But, that’s not the real issue at hand.

Nor is which book to start with.

The real issue is lack of personal discipline. If someone doesn’t have the mental juice to write a (gasp!) whole email per day, and if they need everything easy, then there is nothing anything I offer can do to help you.

And, frankly, nobody else can, either.

(The usual name dropping of pie-in-the-sky promises gurus notwithstanding)

You can have all the fancy funnels you want.

You can possess a library full of all the best books and products.

You can even drop tens of thousands of dollars per month on building a list.

But, if you don’t communicate with your leads in a way where they (1) look forward to hearing from you (i.e. you’re what Dan Kennedy calls a “welcome guest”) and (2) enjoy the process of buying from you (i.e. they want what you have) then you’re dead in the water if you want to use email.

I don’t think my wiles are easy.

But, they are simple.

And, they don’t take long to implement.

I have customers who go through the “Email Players Playbook” and are writing emails making them sales that same night. On the other hand, I know people who sit on the information, lazily let the newsletters pile up, and never do anything with them.

If that’s you, I really can’t help you.

Save your money.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

If it didn’t take effort, everyone would be doing it.

If it didn’t take a bit of discomfort, everyone would be doing it.

To paraphrase the movie “Miracle” (while the U.S. Olympic hockey team is puking their guts out from being worked to the point of almost passing out):

“You cannot be a common man, because common men go nowhere. You have to be uncommon”

And so it is, Boys & Ghouls.

Want to be common?

It’s easy:

Go follow the latest email ex-spurt or social media goo-roo blowing hot air who has obviously never studied the fundamentals of direct response marketing, copywriting, or persuasion in any kind of depth. Never studied the great direct mail copywriters and marketers, sought out their bios, or read their books over and over and over (and over again). Never taken the time to learn the history of our industry (direct response marketing) pre-Internet.

On the other hand:

If you want to be uncommon, then you gotta work and seek out knowledge.

You gotta think.

And, yes, you gotta consistently implement and go after your goals each day.

To learn my way of making a lot of sales with email… and that requires time, daily effort, and an investment each month… then go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Or, more accurately, *Playboys*

Here’s what I mean:

One of the few people I follow and pay attention to on Twitter these days is Wall Street Playboys?. They are always dropping some wisdom about the realities of being in business.

One of my favorites was the other day when they said:

You cannot “teach” someone to be an entrepreneur. They either *do* or they don’t

Most you can give is the tools

“Be your own boss = myth”

This is exactly why I don’t cater to people in the “make muney online!” niche. Most of the ones I’ve dealt with (especially the few that have somehow slipped past my defense grids and skimmed their way into “Email Players”) simply aren’t business people. They simply don’t have the mindset to not have someone telling them what to do. Thus, why I grow tired of their endless questions that a direct response marketing 101 book would teach them.

It ain’t personal, either.

It’s simply the reality of the situation.

A lot of these blokes would be better off trying to get a better job where they can run errands, jump at orders, and carry reports to their superiors.

Instead, they go around trying to “make muney online!” instead of building a business.

They chase bright shiny objects instead of boning up on the fundamentals.

And, they buy every product under the sun they never consume, instead of seeking out a few key resources they consume over and over, imbibing what they need to know and learn to succeed.

Anyway, I’m mostly preaching to the choir here.

But, maybe someone needed to hear it.

Let’s move on to the fun stuff:

If you are building an actual business and not trying to simply “make muney online!”… if you have the discipline to implement what you learn and not just read, nod, then file it away… and if you have the character to show up every day (at the keyboard) and write one email per day selling something people want using my unrighteous email copywriting system, then my “Email Players” newsletter might be just what herr doktor ordered.

Or not.

Fact is, it’s not meant for everyone.

And, if anything, I will be making it harder to subscriber to eventually.

(For my sake to save time, and the sake of others’ to save their money)

To see if it’s something you can use, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A faithful member of my Horde named Shlomi declareseth:

Hi Ben,

I’ve Ben following you around online for awhile now, listening to your podcast and read 2 of your books. 

I’ve been speaking with a lot of North americans and I feel like the barbaric Israeli when I’m engaging with you guys. 

Your fresh “in your face” approach is a real breath of fresh air for me. 

After just hearing the negative emotions podcast episode you’ve even maid me a proud and wrathful Jew lol. 

I must confess I’m nor part of your Israelites (email players subscribers) but hopefully soon enough I will be. 

Thanks for laying it out like it really is and not sugar coating shit like a lot of marketers or there!

Thank you good Sir, for the props.

Shlomi’s email got me to thinking about this whole idea of “engagement” and how to be “engaging” and all that jazz. For reasons beyond my ken people not only struggle with being engaging, but buy expensive products, seminar tickets, and programs promising to show them how.

If only they made the pilgrimage to my Promised Land of milk and money:

The “Email Players” newsletter.

By virtue of implementing the knowledge in the newsletter and “Email Players Playbook” (that comes with your subscription), you are automatically engaging, assuming you know your market.

But alas, so many people want to chase after the false gods of social media.

Worship goo-roo idols made of wood and golden calves.

And, play with strange fire — striking their sales dead.

Bah!

elBenbo is a jealous non-god.

He doesn’t like his Horde being beguiled by bright shiny horse shyt.

Thus, if you want to learn my simple system for banging out emails people look forward to reading and buying, and do it for a measly $3.23 per day, then stretch forth thy fingers and click this link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my prized possessions is an NES game genie.

Some smart bloke figured out how to manipulate NES (the original Nintendo system) games by plugging them into a gold game cartridge-looking thing. And, what it lets me do is, cheat at games to win them faster and easier.

For example:

I can give my characters unlimited lives.

Or invulnarability.

Or 100x’s the gold or experience points they would usually get to advance in levels and power.

And so on, and so forth.

It’s not just playing these games on easy mode — it’s playing them on god-mode. And, it makes the game a lot more fun and exciting.

Who cares?

What’s this got to do with you?

Probably nothing.

But, it came up in a livestream I did with Shane Hunter last week when he was visiting my house, where we were giving someone in the “how to write resume” niche advice. He was making his marketing endeavors a lot harder by targeting a niche that may or may not have a lot of money, instead of a niche that not only has a lot of money, but are always hungry for better jobs.

And, the game genie was our analogy.

Why play the marketing game on hard mode when you can plug in the game genie?

Anyway, something to ponder.

Of course, if you are using the game genie of business mindset, then using my email system to make a lot more sales and close a lot more clients without the usual struggle, drama, and anxiety is as easy as falling off a log.

Simply sell to people with money.

Send them daily emails using my twisted ways.

And, watch the sales flow like lies from a politician’s lips.

To learn my email copywriting wiles, go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Few days ago a bloke on facebook declared:

“LOL you can tell marketers who use Ben Settle’s teaching a mile off! It IS really good stuff though in terms that it must work because so many name marketers use it.”

He further commented that my methods are:

“More the abrasive, repulsion marketing style”

My take on it?

I don’t teach this idea of being abrasive and repulsion marketing as a tactic or to make you look “cool” or whatever. It’s simply a natural byproduct of being honest with your market. On the other hand, it has become trendy for people to act like pricks in their marketing to show how “totes repulsive and abrasive!” they are. Not-so-coincidentally, my pal Shane Hunter and I just had this conversation, about how this sudden crop of repulsive and abrasive people are like guys who learn the PUA (pick up artist) concept of negging, and start going around insulting girls, turning the high quality girls off.

In marketing, it works on fanboys and hyper buyers who buy anything.

But to thinking people?

To the high quality customers?

And, to the skeptics?

(Who make up 2-5 times more people than the hyper buyers)

Good luck with that.

It’s not about insulting your market or pounding your chest declaring how you have “tiger’s blood!” (as I saw someone do recently, it was amusing) or whatever.

People who do that have missed the point entirely.

All right, enough of this.

Let’s sally-forth to the pitch:

If you want to learn how to write emails that make sales practically every time you push that “send” button (assuming you have an offer your list wants), and do it without having to act like someone you’re not, then check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

It’s not cheap.

And, it’s not for people who don’t like to think.

(Especially the next issue in September.)

But, it works — assuming you apply it.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle