Ben Settle

Let’s talk about thieves who like to rip off emails word-for-word, or change enough of it so they think they are “getting away” with something.

I know, I know… we’re not supposed to care about such things.

Being ripped off word for word is a badge of honor.

Something you can’t do anything about so why worry?

Just send some toothless cease and desist (scary!) and move on with your life.

In a lot of ways, I agree with that assessment. But, at the same time, copyright and IP laws are there for a reason. I once had a lengthy talk with an IP attorney and she explained to me how, if you can show how a swiper has cost you sales (like by using your emails word-for-word, or just changing a few little details), you can go after them for quite a bit of loot if you have your affairs in order.

(Which Yours Crotchety has.)

I remember reading a newsletter from the great Matt Furey about this years ago.

He got all his stuff copyright protected and trademarked.

And, was just waiting for some IM idiot to try to steal his copy so he could drill them for over $100k a pop.

But, never fear, if you don’t have all that in place, my little droogie.

Why?

Because in the August “Email Players” issue I show you 3 things you can do in your emails that will make them all but impervious to being ripped off, knocked off, or swiped off by some mindless IM goo-roo who is incapable of thinking for himself.

It has nothing to do with courts, lawyers, or IP laws, either.

It’s simply something you “embed” (so to speak) in your copy.

Anyway, this isn’t a problem for a lot of people.

But, for people who get irked by the idea of someone blatantly stealing your intellectual property, using it to sell in the same market to the same people as you, then this issue will have your righteous back.

Time’s running out to subscribe to get it before I send it to the printer.

Get your lovin’ here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Carlos Castillo proves the power of what I babbleth about:

This whole thing about emailing daily(ish) isn’t something I made up. I have an email coach that teaches me the value of keeping in constant contact with my fanmunity.

His name is Ben Settle. I highly recommend checking him out. 

Now that I’m approaching a year of writing daily emails, I can say with authority that the more I email the better things are.

In the last year I have flushed most of the the non-action-taking, self-entitled, freebie-seeking trolls and snowflakes out of my life and turned the Schwilly Family Musicians community into a raving horde of awesomeness that supports me in more ways than I ever imagined!

The musicians I teach to write emails that stand out from the standard “here’s where I’m playing and here’s where you can buy my stuff” newsletters that most musicians relegate themselves to are seeing similar results too.

It ain’t just info marketers using my ways.

They’re used by musicians, brick and mortar, B2B, eCommerce, freelancers, service providers, people who help churches raise money, and the list goes on.

It ain’t rocket science and it ain’t magic.

But, it works.

To get the August issue before I send it to the printer, hit the jump here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the marks of a superb marketer and personal brand is how little indifference there is towards you. If people think about you and think either “I can’t STAND that bastard!” or “I LOVE that person!” you are doing it right.

If they are indifferent to you, (don’t react at all) you’re dead in the water.

My favorite personal branding expert Peter Montoya once told Dan Kennedy in an interview:

“The most polarizing brands attract the most wealth.”

Think about any major religion.

Any major political party.

Any giant industry (big pharma, big government, big media, big oil, etc) people either love and defend them or hate and attack.

Ronald Reagan.

Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton.

Obama.

Trump.

Dennis Rodman.

The Kardashians.

Jesus Christ.

And the list goes on.

People either love them or hate them — all very polarizing brands.

And, they’re profitable brands that attract/attracted a ton of money, press, attention, followers, etc. All of which is why I declareth that, if you fear being polarizing you will be holding yourself back and leaving so much of the green stuff on the table it’s borderline criminal. On the other hand, if you embrace it, own it, and go with it (as long as you do it in honesty, not fake it declaring you “give zero fugks” or whatever the trendy flakebook one-liner is these days when you clearly do care what people think) you might be surprised how much more profitable your business gets.

And, yes, email lets you play this like a fiddle.

Enter the August “Email Players” issue.

I show you an example of an extremely polarizing brand, a guy who people either loved or hated with a passion — and who not only attracted a huge audience (and gaggle of enemies), but his entire “business model” was so simple most people clinging to their complicated “funnels!” that have more circles than an MLM presentation would scoff.

It’s the model I patterned my business off of in many ways.

And, I’d take the Pepsi challenge laying it next to any of the complicated ones out there.

I’m sending it to the printer soon.

Subscribe here to get it in time, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last week a (I will assume well-meaning and good) bloke said about my emails:

“Ben has a lot of good stuff but I had to unsubscribe when he sent 6 EMAILS IN ONE DAY selling some affiliate thing. 6!”

Oh noes!

6!

The irony of a copywriter complaining about getting too many emails never ceases to amuse and entertain me.

Especially when they say it’s good stuff.

And, especially with the invention of the delete key…

As my HBIC Misty said:

“6 emails Ben. 6!! The horror. You just left his inbox beaten, bloodied and left for dead. SHAME.”

More fun:

Approximately 58 minutes before 6 email guy’s post… I got this zinger in my inbox:

“I have learned more from your promo emails, than I have even from the things I’ve paid for. Will be giving you money soon.”

Guess which of these two is:

(1) the more serious student
(2) more likely to be successful

But the best part was this:

Apparently, according to that same fb thread, it’s a FACT (fact was capitalized so it must be true) I often promote other peoples’ stuff as an affiliate. I think I’ve done only 3 this entire year: Sean D’Souza’s, Danny Iny’s, and a one off email as a favor to Jon McCulloch I didn’t even care to get paid for (asking him to donate the commissions to a cause on my behalf).

But, be warned:

I have 2 more affiliate campaigns planned this year, and that’ll probably be it.

Total of 5 in a year.

Not sure that qualified as often, but I’ve been wrong before…

Anyway, to paraphrase Mia in “Pulp Fiction”, sometimes when copywriters get together they’re worse than a sewing circle…

Immoral of the story?

People will come and go from your list for any number of reasons.

Might as well sell them something while they’re there…

To learn how I sell via email, go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last week I posted about my uncensored (and, frankly, unsolicited, but that doesn’t stop me from blabbing about it) opinion of the economy.

And, one tip I gave was:

“Don’t get into any more debt, pay off whatever debt you have”

To which I got a question asking if I knew some ways to do it quickly rather than slowly, over several years and having to give up some of their luxuries, etc (ironically, last week there was an article on Drudge with the headline “Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries” — I’m shocked, *shocked!* I tell you…)

Anyway, back on the ranch:

I do have some experience climbing out of debt quickly.

Reason why is, I hate debt.

I want nothing to do with it.

And, I was obsessed with how to climb out of a pile of debt when I first started in this whole copywriting-marketing bid’niz thingy 15 years ago.

But climb out of it I did.

And, it didn’t take all that long.

In fact, I was recently talking to an “Email Players” subscriber who is in a pile of debt (to the tune of well over $100k, the majority of it can’t be got out of via bankruptcy, etc).

My advice to this debt-ridden citizen?

Before I tell you, some context about him:

• He has approximately $15k in credit card debt (over a dozen of so cards — paying about $500 per month in minimum payments, not paying anything down).
• He owes approximately $120k in other loans (college, car, what have you) — paying about $700 per month on the minimum.
• He is a copywriter and works from home (so has time)
• He estimates he has $15k worth of stuff he doesn’t need (clothes, electronics, useless furniture, luxury items, basically status items people waste money on in the good ol US of Debt).

Following is what I said to do:

1. Sell the $15k worth of crap ASAP. On eBay, Craigslist, and other sites (depending on the item) wherever it makes sense.

2. Put the first $3k of it in the bank as peace-of-mind money (not the same as screw-you money, or to spend, in fact, if he never uses it, that dough has fulfilled its purpose)

3. Take the $12k left over and pay off *all* the credit cards in one shot (freeing up the $500 per month he pays in mininum payments now).

4. Take a roommate on (freeing up about $800 per month).

5. Take the $700/month paid on the student and car loans currently, and combine with the $500/month he was paying towards the credit cards and the $800/month he was paying towards rent and pay towards student loans each month (combined $2,000/month).

6. Spend one day per week (Sundays?) looking for things to buy and re-sell like they did with all the other crap before (big ticket stuff only — since he lives in a big city this is not that hard to do) and immediately pay any profits made towards student loan debt.

7. Take on at least one extra copywriting client per month and put the entire fee towards the debt.

8. Take any extra money made each month and put towards the loans.

9. Build a list and email it offers (duh) daily.

Anyway, even with all his debt, I estimate he could pay it all off in 1-2 years.

We’ll see.

But, that is more or less what I did.

Maybe it’ll work for you, too, if paying off debt is your bag right now.

Since we’re talking about saving and finances:

If you haven’t checked out my “bargain basement” of books on Amazon, go ye here:

www.BenSettle.com/kindle

Ben Settle

Today’s the deadline to get the July “Email Players” issue.

Here’s what’s inside:

• The “Frank Sinatra” secret discovered by the world’s greatest living copywriter when he was desperate — that anyone can use to never struggle for ideas for emails, sales letters, videos, content, or anything else you are selling with.
• A copyright-free email (use it however you want, it’s yours) for responding to trolls who accuse you of being greedy and wanting to get rych off their pain.
• The clever way Arsenio Hall used to not get killed in ratings by the late, King of Late Night Johnny Carson. (And how to apply it to any market where you’re an underdog surrounded by gurus and other people with more credibility than you.)
• A quick “tweak” you can make to your natural personality that can make your emails instantly more fun to read and buy from. (If you struggle with finding your “voice” in your emails — this will solve that problem lickety-split. And it’s fun, too…)
• How to profitably swipe old school ads written decades ago for your emails today.
• And, much, much more…

Including a bonus training that talks about everything from print newsletters… to telling stories people can’t stop reading (even if they have better things to do)… to using Disney villains to sell more products via email… the easiest way to analyze a market you want to sell to… how to use a would-be client’s imagination to want to hire you, and much more.

Time’s running out fast.

Subscribe here ASAP if you want it, before I send it to the printer today and it’s too late:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said another financial crisis is unlikely anytime soon.

Translation:

“Get ready for a terrible financial crisis.”

Probably soon…

If you believe Janet by all means put your head in the sand.

Otherwise, here’s your pal elBenbo’s unsolicited advice:

• Don’t screw around with anything but the fundamentals of direct response — that means (in case you didn’t learn this from your favorite guru pounding their chests on flakebook livestreams) putting attractive offers in front of receptive leads, and then selling those buyers something else
• Put away the dorky motivational memes and shut off the live streams and podcasts that just try to inspire you created by people who pretend to be wealthy while they live like royalty on $6 US per day in a 3rd world country.
• Keep boning up on your sales, persuasion, and marketing skills — I am partial to using email for speed and profitability (biased though I am)
• Put some money away — 6 months to a year’s worth — as fast as you can
• Don’t waste your time JV’ing or partnering with anyone you wouldn’t trust with your house keys for a month (*tips my hat to the great Terry Dean for that advice*)
• Realize that there is tons more credit than cash in existence, meaning cash is valuable and not “trash” — when things go south, a lot of things will be for sale to those who have cash, be ready to capitalize
• Only invest in products that give you advice that is (1) immediately actionable (2) evergreen (i.e. isn’t dependent on a specific platform like Snapchat or Facebook or whatever) and (3) can be adapted to any media (i.e. like the principles in Email Players which can be — and are — used for videos, webinars, direct mail, blogging, social media, anything — people do it all the time)
• Don’t get into any more debt, pay off whatever debt you have
• Be paranoid — assume there’s a ticking clock

Anyway, even if I’m wrong and Janet is right, the above is sound advice.

If you want to learn how to write emails that can bring in the bacon faster rather than slower, without any big learning curves, the July “Email Players” issue goes to the printer tomorrow.

The information inside (and in the bonus training) won’t change your life overnight.

But, it (and the Email Players Playbook that comes with subscriptions) can get you on the road and driving.

But, only if you’re subscribed before it goes to the printer tomorrow.

Details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A couple months ago, someone on flakebook talked about how they were about to subscribe to my sinister print newsletter, and “Email Players” subscriber Lauren Hazel replied in the thread:

“All I know is three little old churches got new bathrooms and 2 new church vans because I am a email players subscriber”

If you think my methods can’t work for you, then get ye behind me, marketing heathen.

It works.

Doesn’t matter if you’re selling a product, a service, a non-profit, or anything else — as long as there is demand for what you’re selling and you can string words together following my ways, you’re in.

The July issue goes to the printer in a couple days.

To subscribe in time go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently, I was re-listening to an interview Michael Senoff did with a special effects cookbook author, who is also a master at doing space ads.

During the talk he mentioned comic book ads.

Specifically, the old school direct response ads.

(From the 60’s through the 80’s)

He was talking about how those old comic book ads were just able to crawl right into a person’s psychology and tell you exactly what you needed to hear in order to pull the trigger and buy.

And same goes with a lot of old school direct response ads.

Those old school copywriters beat us new guys all to hellz.

They didn’t have free and cheap testing.

In fact, if you think about it, they didn’t even have credit card ordering much less PayPal, etc. That meant, an ad — sometimes in just a few sentences — had to persuade someone to take the time and effort to get dressed, put together a check or money order, maybe even having to go to the bank or walk or drive to the post office (or take public transportation), and mail it in.

Anyway, I ain’t a big fan of swiping.

But, you can do worse than model those old school space ads.

And guess ye what?

While swiping old ads verbatim is likely going to get you killed (different marketing/product/timing relationship 30+ years ago) there are ways to “swipe” (not copy) them for your *emails* I’ve used many times, to make out like a bandit in several different markets — like golf, weight loss, bizz opp, etc.

And guess what else?

I show you how to do this in the July “Email Players” issue.

This puppy goes to the printer Friday.

If you want it, stretch out thy fingers and go to this link today:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle