Ben Settle

If there’s one lesson us marketing types can take from the casting out of Bill O’Reilly from Fox Shnewz, it’s this:

You’re never too guru to fail.

I don’t care how innocent you are.

I don’t care how much your adoring fans love you.

I don’t care how much of the green stuff you make.

I don’t care if you’ve been with a platform (auto-responder, FB ad account, AdWords account, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, etc) for years and have paid them lots and lots of your hard-earned rupees… you’re never to big to fall.

Again, just ask Bill O’Reilly.

He was Fox’s biggest draw for years.

And, had the biggest audience on cable news.

Now?

Gone like a virgin on prom night just like that.

The lesson:

It goes back to last Thursdays’s email. If you stubbornly rely on platforms outside your control for your income like Flakebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, article directories, SEO, iTunes, JV’s, etc, (even your *web hosting* or auto-responder provider) you’re as good as screwed when some executive, bean counter, banker, pencil-pusher, bureaucrat, politician, or even some muckety-muck’s wife (like in O’Reilly’s case, to an extent) deems you dangerous or not someone they want to do business with — for any reason, real or imagined.

So back your email list up regularly.

(You can never back it up too often.)

Get your customer’s *snail mail* addresses.

Build an overall *audience*.

(Like Bill O’Reilly did, and so will be just fine)

But don’t stop there.

Back up those lists to *multiple* places — hard drive, external disk, cloud, and if you’re *really* hardcore, even a thumb drive on your car key chain that goes where you go. (i.e. so if you have to leave the country or something on a dime your business essentially goes with you).

What’s the bottom line?

You’re never too big or too popular or too “guru” to fall.

All right, on to the fun stuff:

Me selling you something that can improve your life.

The June “Email Players” issue won’t protect you from the forces of Evil trying to undermine your business, but the information inside it and all the issues shows you how to write emails people like reading and buying from.

If that’s your bag, check it out here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I recently read the late, great ad man David Ogilvy’s:

“Rules for respect in business”

The one that I dug on most was:

“In meeting with clients, do not assume the posture of servants. They need you as much as you need them.”

Reason why is, it reminded me of a real life story of persuasion.

Checky:

A few month ago, I took a firearms class from one of the world’s top instructors (according to the NRA, and hundreds of military and law enforcement professionals). And, I was floored by not only what he was teaching but *how* he taught. (I took written notes — and I never take written notes, I hate long hand — on his teaching techniques more so than the info he taught, if that tells you something.) Anyway, this dude’s classes are routinely sold out, and his trainings booked well in advance. He competes with at least a few dozen others in this small county and, while they all struggle for bid’niz, he always has more than he can handle (having to take months off at a time just to take a break).

His secret to having all these customers?

Well, there’s his knowledge, true.

And his incredibly sharp infotaining style of teaching.

But, that doesn’t explain how he gets complete strangers (who have never heard of him before) practically begging to sign up.

No, he does something else.

Something anyone — especially freelancers and coaches — can do.

Something that worked like gangbusters for me when I was freelancing.

Something that, yes, I show you in the June “Email Players” issue. If you want to know what it is, simply subscribe before the deadline and when it arrives, turn immediately to page 4 to see what I am nattering on about.

Best part (or worse part for ninja tactic-chasing goo-roo fanboys):

It’s not a “technique.”

It’s simply a *mindset* shift.

An option for thinking differently.

And, while it takes balls to do (which is why most won’t do it) it’s one of those things that, when you get a customer or client doing it, that person will very likely bond with you forever — not wanting to really do bid’niz with anyone else.

The deadline to get the next issue approaches.

Get in while the gettin’s good right here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

There’s much Value and packed into this cautionary tale if you have ears to see, and eyes to smell:

Yo! elBenbo!

Dude, I have got to tell you… You’ve changed my life.

I started stalking you a couple of weeks ago.

Don’t worry, I am not outside your place mouth breathing on your window and fogging it up with my smelly breath or anything, I just mean that something in your writing grabbed me and i started BINGING on all the free stuff I could find of yours.

Russell Brunson has some training with Deagan Smith and the invisible funnel where he talks about your stuff and I jumped on the list to get some knowledge…

First… I was like Whoa… who the heck does this guy think he is?

Then I was like “what an arrogant a-hole” with a smirk and a chuckle…

Then I realized I was hooked… and I started checking out your offers…

And something in your copy called me out. I realized to my horror…. That I wasn’t good enough to buy your stuff…

If I couldn’t maintain your subscription I might be BANNED from ever buying your stuff again?!

WTF?

I can’t try it out and SEE if I like it?

The positioning of that blew a fuse in my head somewhere and I started seeking out EVERYTHING your mystical fingers had typed out or your angelic voice had sung… (haha)

I honestly can’t tell you where I heard it in my elBenbo haze, but something you said kind of off hand hit me like a brick and has changed the way I am operating in a big way.

“Disqualifying your prospects does two things… it not only filters out those that you don’t want and magnetizes the ones that you do… it also has those that are capable rise to the occasion to become more like the prospects that you want…” [paraphrasing from my own notes]

But DAYUM.

As soon as I heard that, i saw all the places that I was worried I wouldn’t measure up… all the places that I like to consume more information instead of practicing or doing the work… all the places that I doubted that I could stick to just doing the damn thing that works…

In that moment I saw myself clearly, and that I HADN’T EVEN READ THE FREE ISSUE you gave me, let alone IMPLEMENTED ANYTHING… and like smeagle with “my precious” I saw a shiny new object that I wanted… but I was pissed that some Lennox told me i wasn’t ready… but I knew why… cause it was true.

So I changed it up. I did something crazy… I actually read the FREE thing.

Better yet, I’ve been writing emails every day to a timer using a random one of those 24 email cheat sheet secrets as a writing prompt, and I’ll tell you what, it may be a while before I am up to the Email Players Level, but I am coming out of the shiny-object haze I’ve been in for years and I have you to thank for it.

Keep up the good work, and thank you for the education.

Kellen “Saw the Light” Chase

P.S.

It is so much fun to write this way too.

There are many pockets of raw Value in Kellen’s words.

Especially if you are the newbie type who’s either on the fence about subscribing to “Email Players” or are simply someone who is confused about this business, don’t know who to trust, or no where to turn.

You can read more about the paid subscription newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Lisa Rangel (owner of one of the world’s top executive resume writing service and leadership job search companies, and hardcore email marketer) says:

“I was a women’s president’s conference last week and a marketing consultant told me ‘yeah, email marketing is dead.’ I had to get all Benvangelical on her and Bensplain to her the error of her ways… foolish mortal…”

“Bensplain”

“Benvangelical”

I will, of course, use and abuse those words henceforth…

Anyway, back to the microphone:

People keep beating this silly email-is-dead drum.

Apparently, Instagram is better.

Or is it Snapchat?

Or Facebook live videos?

I lose track.

I’ve observed over the last 15 years since being in this crazy bid’niz that email goes from being secksy and “cool!” to dead off and on. It all depends on which gurus combing the affiliate marketing circuit are selling a how-to email product or not.

When they do, you’ll see the fanboys getting boners over email.

Then, soon after, email is suddenly “dead.”

Then it comes back to life when those products are sold again.

Then it dies, replaced by Snapchat or whatever.

Then it’s suddenly big again.

Then dead.

Big.

Dead.

Big.

Dead.

Big.

Dead…

And so the trend goes.

If you don’t believe me simply pay attention to what the wagging tongues say on social media and in other places where Internet marketing newbies and affiliates congregate like flies on the same turd.

Anyway, if you want to stop being a trend follower, I have a solution:

My “Email Players” newsletter.

Each month it shows you how to wrangle up all the sales your greedy heart desires by writing emails people look *forward* to reading and, most importantly, buying from.

There’s nothing trendy about it.

And, I mostly stick to the fundamentals.

(Rarely talking about anything secksy or new.)

But, I go deep into those fundamentals and tread where few can because they simply don’t think deeply enough and use email enough consistently to go that deep.

The result?

You save a lot of time and energy and make more sales.

And, I profit from you consistently saving time and energy and making more sales.

If that doesn’t give you heart burn, go here next:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A daily email reader says:

You silver tongued devil child….

Although I am a lurker jerker to your internet presence, I have never actually purchased any of your products, yours is the only email I actually look forward to receiving.

However because of the good shit you giveaway free, ie your emails, you have revolutionised the way I write my copy.

No longer am I handcuffed to crappy content, no more rigor mortis inducing research.

My own inner silver tongue slithers over the keyboard now when writing.

Ironically the next email I received after yours was entitled email marketing is dead – long live SMS marketing, or some shit like that.

As you can imagine I snorted my tea quite loudly through my nose whilst a small stain of enjoyment spread across my jeans…..at once I unsubscribed from such malarkey and felt compelled to type this waffle to you.

Keep the good shit coming, one day I shall purchase some of your goodness and line your pockets…

Until that day……

I am always (without exception) amused by the death of email subject lines.

The irony alone is worth the price of admission.

It’s also fun to read because it is so blatantly desperate and overdone — the death of Internet marketing, the death of print sales letters, the death of social media, the death of this, the death of that…

Meh.

They can keep thinking email is dead, and I’ll keep making a living off it.

And on that note, if email is your bag, check out my “Email Players” newsletter. It shows you how to write emails people *like* reading and buying from. With my wicked ways you aren’t an annoying pest, you’re a welcome guest.

Actually, I take that back.

To freebie seekers and parasites you’ll be an annoying pest.

But who cares what they think anyway?

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Kate Stelmaszek realizes early what a lot of people — including seasoned marketers who have been in the game for years — learn way too late:

…I wanted to say thank you again for doing what you do and teaching us all about email marketing. Because I might have gone in another direction – one that currently has a lot of previously successful people in deep doo-doo.

?I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it, but YouTube has begun de-monetizing a whole bunch of their creators’ videos. It’s all got to do with creating a more “family friendly” YouTube experience and attracting back the ad guys, who have been running away due to some recent drama (certain videos with black humor they didn’t want their ads running alongside). In order for your videos to bring in any ad revenue now, you have to watch your references to violence, your language, sexual innuendo etc. Sure, a newbie might be okay since they know how to play by the new rules. But someone who’s been on the platform for years, well, much of their old content is now free to watch. And some of the big guys are losing millions of dollars in advertising revenue. ??But you’ve taught us from the beginning not to rely on third-party platforms like YouTube and instead to focus on creating our own website, list, etc.

?Now I’ve still got a long way to go, but I’d have an even longer way if I’d gone with relying on a YouTube channel, where the rules change depending on the whims of someone outside of your control.
?So thank you again for steering our courses straight and teaching us well.

?Best,

?Kate

??P.S. I just got my May EP issue over the weekend – my first one! – and I already can’t wait for June’s. Keep the awesomeness comin!

Kate speakeths the troof.

If your entire income is tied up in Flakebook or any other 3rd party platform, don’t think this couldn’t happen to you.

It’s not just YouTube that moves the goal posts on a whim.

Take Google, for example.

Lots of marketers were standing around with their John Thomas in their hand when they slapped AdWords and, later, article directories. It also happened to infomercials at one time when the government deemed them illegal (then legal again). It happened to 900 numbers. It happened to broadcast fax. It happened to cold calling. Most recently, it is happening with Amazon and Twitter (to political conservatives, at least).

And the list goes on…

SPURN ye not the words of the esteemed Dan Kennedy:

“One is the most dangerous number in business”

Go ahead and use 3rd party platforms.

Just don’t *rely* on any one of them.

Or, suffer the fate of these YouTube guys you will.

Anyway, this is reason #74839 to be always building your email list, direct mail list, and your overall audience. No platform can eliminate your list and audience — assuming you are backing your lists up.

That way, if one platform defecates on you, so what?

You control your own media.

The powers that be can’t take that away from you.

If you want to start using email to inoculate yourself — like a vaccine — against the forces of Evil always hard at work to undermine your livelihood, check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

It ain’t cheap.

And it ain’t for people who chase bright shiny objects like a dog chasing a laser pointer.

But it works.

And, I believe, it’ll work for you, if you work it:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my Horde sent me an email yesterday I found quite interesting.

Basically, it was a guy complaining to a ClickFunnels official.

And, he was distressed about why nothing was working for him.

He said he has exit pop ups, scarcity reminders, trust symbols (ooh), only puts some things on sale (okay…), etc but nary does a person even go to his check out page much less buy from him. He wondered if it had to do with making people click his terms and conditions? (It’s amusing there are people pushing that as some kind “coooool tactic, man!” instead of just a good, smart principle of doing business and getting along with Google, but I digress…)

Anyway, he wanted to know why?

Why??

WHY???

Why is nobody buying?

With all those super goo-roo tactics, how could it all NOT be working?

If he’d asked me, I’d have told him:

“I dunno, Son. Maybe nobody wants what you’re offering. Or maybe your traffic is garbage. Or that you’re out of touch with how your market wants to be sold. Or any number of things that are far more important than having trust symbols or whatever on your site.”

More:

My “Email Players” subscribers get to ask me questions via email.

And, you know what?

By *far* the answer I give more than any other is:

“You don’t have an ‘email/copywriting’ problem.
You have a traffic/offer problem.”

Super cool copy and subject lines won’t sell a turd.

Or, sell to people not interested in buying turds.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.

There is so much nonsense being taught — especially free on Flakebook — it’s almost a full time gig dispelling all this horse shyt.

As soon as I shovel one pile, three more piles take its place.

But, I’ll keep fighting the good fight.

It bothers me seeing good people flounder like this.

Enter the June “Email Players” issue.

It’s full of proven persuasion principles that have worked for centuries, will work now (yes, even for *your* snowflake unique product/market), and will continue to work for any of your selling endeavors regardless of what media you use (email, social media, whatever) for as long as human nature exists.

To read more about my paper Baby, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Few months ago I heard one of the world’s top firearm instructors say something that got me to thinking about bid’niz.

Specifically, he said:

“You’re gonna do what you want, I’m gonna do what I want, bad guys are gonna do what they want, the cops are gonna do what they want, the judge is gonna do what he/she wants, and the jury is gonna do what they want.”

And so it is in bid’niz too.

There are so many other peoples’ decisions that can affect the sale.

Decisions you have zero control over.

And this is why (GASP! Oh noes! Now I’m in trouble…) I don’t spend all my time obsessing over sales, clicks, opens, conversions, etc goals with giant white board flow charts and drama queening on Facebook live videos about them. The way I see it, my list is gonna do what they want. My competitors are gonna do what they want. Trolls are gonna do what they want. My auto-responder company is gonna do what they want. My bank is gonna do what they want. Google is gonna do what they want. Facebook is gonna do what they want. The government compliance people are gonna do what they want, yada, yada, yada.

I cannot control if someone buys or clicks or takes any action.

So what do I focus on then?

What I *can* control, Silly.

Specifically:

Making myself better at what I do each day.

Consistently mailing my list.

Edu-ma-cating myself on things that will make me a better and more persuasive copywriter.

Split testing certain pages.

And the list plays on…

I’m a unrepentant control freak about those things.

You should be, too.

That is, if you want to conquer your little corner of the Internet.

Anyway, I bring this up because I talk about this and a lot of other profitable business-related num-nums I got schooled on in the June “Email Players” issue by this instructor — including some of the finer points of infotainment (I took more notes on his *teaching* skills than the content of the course… shh, don’t tell anyone…)

All right, enough writing.

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last week I read an unusually Valuable comic book story about Doctor Doom (one of my all time favorite Villains) analyzing why he is superior to 4 other major Fantastic Four villains.

Quotes from this ditty include:

“Recently I read a newspaper report referring to me as ‘one of the many scientific geniuses who have battled the Fantastic Four.’ This is the sort of arrant nonsense I expect from the press. Doom has no peers!”

And…

“Take the Mole Man, for example… he has no real creative genius of his own.”

And…

“Kang [The Conqueror — a warlord from the future] is merely a man of his time, while I am a man far in advance of my own.”

And, my personal favorite:

“[The Thinker] has succeeded in tapping into almost every computer network on Earth, even the most secret. Except, of course, MINE. I know this because I have gained access to his.”

How can you not love Doom’s confidence?

His tone of superiority?

His certainty he will always win and is the best?

He even ends his monologue saying he wishes he could actually meet someone who truly challenged him, and who was worthy. But then quickly dismisses the desire, because the mere thought of it is unworthy of the unequaled greatness that is Doom.

The point of all this drivel?

Doom’s attitude, success, and mindset come from having a Mission.

A clearly-defined Mission.

A Mission he falls asleep thinking about each night, and wakes up each morning obsessing over.

That Mission is, of course, to rule the world.

Having a Mission is #1 for any Villain.

Want peace of mind?

To be more attractive (to your peers, dames, JV partners, clients, etc)?

To automatically not be needy or care what others think?

To truly “give zero fugks” all the wannabes on flakebook claim to have, but obviously do.

(Or they wouldn’t have to declare it.)

Then put on your Villains cape and armor, and grab my “Persuasion Secrets Of The World’s Most Charismatic & Influential Villains” book. It not only gives you valuable guidance on your Mission, but it also teaches 12 other vital persuasive attributes the greatest Villains share.

More:

Unlike my other products its inexpensive.

And, it’s short enough to read in one sitting if you want.

Details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com/villains

Ben Settle