Ben Settle

Last week I got an email from a blue light special wanting to hire me.

(Yes, even though I don’t do client work.)

And, he sent his proposal in some kind of weird blue highlighted text that was difficult to read. Anyway, he ends his proposal with:

“Can you help?”

elBENBO: nope, not when all your text is highlighted in blue

WANNABE CLIENT: I simply copied it from the website enquiry that you never bothered responding to in the first place. Don’t worry – there’s plenty of respectful, kind and courteous copywriters that would be grateful to work on such a project. Must be an Amercian type of thing – rude and arrogance?

elBENBO: I don’t do drama, go away

WANNABE CLIENT: Fuck off wanker!

And so it goes.

It amuses me to no end how non-Americans always try to make themselves sound above us “arrogant” and “rude” Americans, by being arrogant and rude and condescending, then thinking we will want anything to do with them.

Must be a non-American type of thing…

Anyway, two immorals to this story:

1. If you want to hire someone don’t make your proposal hard to read

2. Don’t be a douchecanoe about it — fact is, I would have happily passed him on to my “Email Players” subscribers as a lead, as one of the perks they get is client leads that come my way

That’s it for this time.

Time for me to be a wanker elsewhere…

To check out my wanker-friendly “Email Players” newsletter go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Michael Collins notices something I’ve been highly amused by for several months now too:

Seeing “principals vs tactics” EVERYWHERE now, I think your emails drip feeds the guru scene.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now, to be fair, I didn’t invent these things, either. I simply introduced them to the community via my podcast, newsletter, emails, etc. I take no credit for it other than to expose Mr. Jim Camp’s ideas to world of people who desperately need it.

That said:

I have also noticed “suddenly” people acting as if they did invent these ideas.

“Principles vs tactics, man! It’s so RAD and BAD ASS!”

Yet, they rarely (if ever) give Jim Camp the credit for it.

And, the people I’ve seen talk about it still have no clue what they’re talking about. They simply haven’t thought about it deeply enough — and seem incapable of thinking beyond the shallow.

Thus, instead of going deep, it’s:

1. See new idea that seems popular and trendy

2. Parrot it

3. *Try* (emphasis on try) to teach it to their clueless “tribes” who don’t know better and think that goo-roo invented it, and then they start parroting it to each other… until the next “badass” thing comes along and it ceases being trendy

Think I’m exaggerating?

Go ahead and watch.

Give it a few months.

It’s a phenomenon in the IM world that’s as predictable as a new product launch every few months from the same gaggle of ex-spurts.

I’ve seen it with email for 15 years now.

One month everyone says email doesn’t work, sucks for engagement, nobody is opening emails, Gmail is destroying it, the government is destroying it, Facebook/social media is gonna kill it, whatever.

The next month?

Those same blokes are *teaching* it.

Again, people in this space are simply incapable of thinking deeply about anything.

Thinking is hard work, after all.

And, it’s even harder to stick with something when everyone is bandwagon jumping to something else.

Thus, the few of us who do think and are committed, are always ahead of the curve.

If you want to learn the timeless email copywriting methods I’ve been using since long before email became trendy, then not trendy, then trendy again… and so on… check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

It’s chock-full of powerful principles that always work.

(And not just for email — but video, audio, anything).

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Never let it be said elBenbo doesn’t want to help the yutes of the world:

I’m a young ambitious guy (who isn’t?) who just finished a 2-year stint with Mindvalley as a copywriter / marketer, and I just moved back home to Seattle. I had a question and I’d love a small opinion… Since you have a better view, which niche do you feel is the most saturated with low-quality content and marketing — dating, health, or self-help? (These, fortunately, are my “passions.”) It just seems like there’s an oversaturation of IM’ers / copywrtiers in these niches specifically… and there’s a lot of bullsh!t being sold. I’m going to enter one of these niches, but I just wanted a more experienced perspective.

Personally, I prefer the oversaturated markets.

I like to wrestle aggressive, blood-thirsty monsters and beat them.

That said, here’s something to think about:

While speaking at Greg Gomez III’s “Fast Start Summit” last Labor Day, I got into a discussion with a couple of my droogies Geoff Stephen and “Email Players” subscriber Tyler Zahner about how friggin easy some of these people in the health niches have it.

Take the Fibromyalgia niche.

The lack of even basic direct response going on there is astonishing.

Just having an email list and mailing it can make someone a fortune in that.

Same with a lot of other focused health niches.

Anyway, something to chew on.

If you want the alphas and omegas of how to write emails that can clean up these niches check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

It ain’t cheap.

And, yes, it’s print.

You young’ns like everything digital, but I don’t do digital with it.

But, it works.

And, the info can be adapted to just about any medium.

(Video, blogs, podcasts, whatever).

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Yesterday I prattled on about how one of my influences for how I run and have structured and built my business/lists/audience is my snobbish family who lets nobody “in.” Some others I’ve talked about publicly and privately include blokes like blogger Mike Cernovich, right wing talk radio host Michael Savage, TV producer Aaron Spelling, Gary Gygax (inventor of Dungeons & Dragons), etc etc etc.

These people have (or had when alive) insanely engaged audiences.

Thus, another brimstone-scented brain fart:

None of these people (to my knowledge) talk or teach about how to be “engaging.”

They simply are (or were when alive).

(A couple of them are more like enragers than engagers.)

No idiotic goo-roo inspired checklists need. No dorky social media queen Facebook live videos consulted. No listening to anyone but their instincts about their audience and desire to dedicate themselves to their Mission each day. Earl Nightingale had great advice in the video version of his “Strangest Secret” teaching:

“Look around at how everyone else is doing something, then do the opposite, and you’ll probably never make another mistake for as long as you live.”

Preach it, Brother Earl.

Anyway, Immoral of the story:

If you want to learn how to be “engaging” in your marketing, flakebook groups, emails, whatever… simply do the opposite of anyone who teaches how to be engaging.

Literally.

Do the opposite.

It’s what I do in my daily emails, podcast, flakebook group, etc.

And, I daresay elBenbo has done a pretty good on the “engagement” side of things, considering the small numbers of people I have on my lists and in my audience.

There ain’t no magic to it.

No 81-point ninja checklist, either.

It’s solid principles, personality, and the info I teach in “Email Players” about email.

More info on the newsletter over yonder:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. Yes, I realize I kinda just taught how to be engaging and told you to do the opposite of anyone who teaches how to be engaging — just treat this post like a George Lucas script where you enjoy the show, ignore the plot holes…

One of my influences for how I run my business, deal with my audience, and interact with people that seems mysterious to many — but is just Captain Obvious common sense to me is something I learned from my family.

Specifically, my mom’s side of the family.

It’s a biggish family.

And, they are all huggers (I take after my dad’s side on hugs, nobody hugs on dad’s side… we’re true Midwesterners — we love each other so much we sometimes *almost* tell each other) and Loyal to a ridiculous fault that makes the term “blood is thicker than water” laughable.

Anyway, all my life I noticed something:

It’s very hard for outsiders to get “in” on my mom’s side of the family.

It drove my ex-wife nutzo.

It drives almost everyone who marries into that family nutzo.

And, it even drove one of my ex-girlfriends nutzo (she took it personally even though she’d never met any of them…)

What do I mean by “in”?

Let’s just say when we (my uncles, aunts, etc) are all gathered around, it’s very difficult for anyone else to join the conversation without being ignored, somewhat mocked, or even, in a few extreme cases, outright told to hit the bricks.

Again, I have noticed this my whole life.

But, it wasn’t until my grandma’s funeral a few years ago when I heard a couple of my uncles discuss it that I started realizing I’ve been doing this in bid’niz for years.

I ignore 99% of people who email me.

And, I especially ignore anyone who tries to small talk me or bait me into drama.

The few left over are “in.”

The rest?

It sometimes takes years to get my attention.

Why?

Because that’s just how I am. I have multiple layers of security in my mind — more layers than the circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno, I reckon. The marketing proles and drama queens take it personally, of course. But it’s not personal at all. I simply prefer living by a principle of preferring 4 quarters to 100 pennies.

If someone doesn’t like that?

Tough bewbies.

Anyway, here’s why I am prattling on about this:

I think there is some kind of self projection going on where I assume *everyone* is like this. That everyone makes it hard to get in. That everyone has a very small inner circle of trust and they ignore everyone else. This is, of course, a bad assumption on my part. Except for the fact, it has forced me to learn how to write ads and email and do things in a way where I assume everyone is as guarded as I am.

This makes me write my ads and emails differently than a lot of people.

It’s why I don’t just use the typical shallow tactics most marketers do.

It’s why I work hard to plumb the depths of human psychology (when it comes to persuasion).

And, it’s why, I believe, I have a much tighter bond with my list than practically everyone I know.

(Even if it is rather one-way, but so be it…)

Anyway, do with this info what ye will.

But if you approach all your persuasion activities as if you are trying to get “in” with someone like me or my family, it will force your ads to be more persuasive.

All right.

Enough brimstone for the soul.

If you want to learn how I use email to get “in” even on the hardcore skeptics, check out “Email Players”.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Lately Yours Unruly has been having a bit of fun with the goo-roo fanboys and their masters in goo-roo land.

And, I got an email recently asking why?

Is this some ploy to get sales?

Or for positioning?

Or is elBenbo just a hater?

Well, yes, it does bring me sales. It does help solidify my positioning (I am the one who invented the word goo-roo as a play o the word “guru” — to differentiate the two). And, yes, I do hate on many things.

But, mostly it’s to repel them.

Here’s what I mean:

I am a big fan of using repulsion marketing. (As opposed to attraction marketing). In my case, each “Email Players” issue is essentially taking something basic and fundamental and going deep (lots of rabbit holes) as opposed to most people who just teach tactics on a shallow level.

Goo-roo fanboys love shallow, prole bait tactics.

They sound so new and cool and trendy.

But, the deep fundamentals and principles (to them) are the opposite:

Dull.

Boring.

Dry.

Old hat.

They don’t make the goo-roo fanboy look cool and smart and “badass” to the newbies and other goo-roo fanboys on all the marketing forums or facebook groups. It’s hard to swing his John Thomas around on Flakebook talking about things like the principle of curiosity overriding programming or consistency trumping proficiency or learning how to set an agenda so price (and other objections) isn’t a factor in the first place vs some magic headline formula or clever phrase to close the deal on the spot, yada yada yada.

It’s all about what sounds cool vs what actually works for the goo-roo fanboy.

It’s why they are so easily dazzled by horse shyt.

But when they see something legitimate?

That’s worked for 100+ years?

Yet, isn’t being talked about on stage at a seminar?

They scoff.

“Too basic.”

“Nothing new.”

“Meh.”

Anyway, the point?

Too many of these jackanapes have been slipping in to “Email Players” recently. And, my goal is to turn them off, because they always, Always, ALWAYS end up not using — much less valuing — my information. Thus, when they subscribe, they simply waste time (mine and theirs) and paper. I don’t want anything from them — except for them to buy from someone else.

(Plenty of other email guys to choose from, take your pick…)

Hey, no need to thank me for saving you money and time, goo-roo fanboys.

I got ya…

All right, enough goo-roo fanboy musings.

To see the newsletter they love to buy but never use go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Once upon a time, I wrote about the goo-roo casino.

Specifically, how casinos psychologically manipulate schmucks even when they’re losing into thinking they are winning by the way the machines react with pretty flashing lights and music, and the way the numbers are presented.

It’s quite brilliant in its deviousness.

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

I recently was re-watching “The Wolf Of Wall Street”.

And, the character Mark Hanna talks about this phenomenon, especially when it comes to certain affiliate marketers who go from one launch to the next doing the ol’ “push-send” routine — where they sell anything they can to their list using hype and goo-roo social proof to the hilt, and then rinse and repeat soon after with yet another affiliate offer, and then again soon after, yada yada yada.

He puts it like this:

“We don’t create shit, we don’t build anything. So if you got a client who brought stock at eight, and it now sits at sixteen, and he’s all f___ happy, he wants to cash it and liquidate and take his f___ money and run home. You don’t let him do that. Cause that would make it real. No, what do you do? You get another brilliant idea, a special idea. Another situation, another stock to reinvest his earnings and then some. And he will, every single time. Cause they’re f___ing addicted. And then you just keep doing this, again, and again, and again. Meanwhile, he thinks he’s getting shit rich, which he is, on paper. But you and me, the brokers? We’re taking home cold hard cash via commission, motherfucker.”

Amusing, isn’t it?

It’s a lot like what the push-send affiliates do.

And, it’s exactly what their opportunity-minded, pricing-shopping, scarcity-minded customers fall for.

Every single time.

Because, yes, they’re *addicted* to the dopamine drip they get when buying new products.

Wait…

Hear that?

That’s the sound of a thousand goo-roo fanboys who do push-send furiously typing me a reply.

Gooooood.

Bring it, boys & ghouls.

Or, take that energy and do something productive — you know, like creating your own product. Building a list of people you care about. And getting your products in their hands using daily emails people look forward to reading and buying from.

Enter my “Email Players” newsletter.

It shows you how to write such emails.

If you’re tired of making peanuts off dopamine addicts and want real customers, who aren’t slaves to their brain chemistry go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Today is the deadline to get the March “Email Players” issue.

A few of the ditty’s inside include:

• How to use a theory created by an infamous psychologist to pound out hundreds of emails people can’t resist buying from (even if they don’t want to be sold).

• A sleepy little Bible verse you can use to trick your competition into selling your products for you — without them even knowing it.

• elBenbo’s unfiltered opinion on putting so-called “open loops” in your emails.

• How a self-described ass-hole constant’s brilliant book ad template that is perfect for writing emails with.

• How to beat spam filters by *embracing* them.

• A secret stash of email ideas online inspired by the late, great copywriter Gene Schwartz.

• How to profit from being in gmail’s promotions or junk mail folders.

• And a ho’ bunch mo’…

I’m sending this bad-boy into the printer later today.

Get your lovin’ here while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

The Chairman and CEO of one of the fastest growing publishing companies (Streamline Publishing) on the planet says:

I was with four direct marketing legends…, David Deutsch, Mark Ford, Clayton Makepeace and Brian Kurtz. I asked who could train my editors on subject lines and headlines and simultaneously they said Ben Settle.

Eric Rhoads

Yeesh.

It doesn’t get much better in the props department than that. Well, that does it then. Now my ego is *really* bloated and I’m afraid I’m gonna need a bigger crown – STAT.

Anyway, on to bid’niz:

The March “Email Players” issue goes to the printer tomorrow.

If you want to learn some for-real cool psychological principles that can make you lots more sales (and come up with almost endless email fodder) this issue will turn the trick.

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle