First, let me be 100% crystal clear about something…

I’m a huge and extremely loyal Dan Kennedy fan.

He’s easily one of the greatest marketing minds of our time. And his teachings have changed my business in more ways than I can possibly count, and continue to do so probably more than just about anyone else currently. People who possess the September 2019 “Email Players” issue know this better than anyone, as it has an entire insert dedicated just to him.

So yes, I am a Dan Kennedy fan.

But, what I’m not, is a Dan Kennedy “fanboy.”

Dan Kennedy fanboys – like all fanboys – don’t think for themselves.

All they do is quote.

In this case, they can only quote:

“Dan Kennedy says…”

Like Brainy Smurf always saying, “Papa Smurf always says…” these blue light specials just quote, quote, quote, without context.

For example:

A few years back, a Dan Kennedy fanboy tried busting my balls – unsolicited advice, like they all give, and didn’t even cross his mind to ask questions for context and data first – about not offering a guarantee because “Dan Kennedy says…”, even though doing so had exponentially increased my overall profits.

Another example:

One particularly troubled Dan Kennedy fanboy nagged me about not using testimonials because, again, “Dan Kennedy says…” And, also again, it was unsolicited advice. But, if he’d bothered asking, he’d have known the ad he had heartburn about performed way better without testimonials whenever it was tested.

For a more recent and detailed example:

Last year another one went into Dan Kennedy fanboy mode after I switched out the old “Email Players Playbook” I used to give to new “Email Players” subscribers with the new “Email Players Skh?ma Book” — which (admittedly, and deliberately) breaks pretty much every rule I’ve heard Dan Kennedy teach about information marketing, product packaging, titling, and cover design.

In this one’s case, he declared I “devalued” it.

He also incorrectly assumed the new format saves me money and that’s why I changed it.

And then proceeded to complain about the font, the format, and even the title.

Then, still without gathering a single fact first, he started talking about his business and experiences — which was like comparing apples to dandelions — and how he used to talk to Dan Kennedy, and was told to turn his book into a 3-ring binder product, and his sales went up by millions.

All of which I have no doubt happened.

But, what the no doubt good-intentioned Dan Kennedy fanboy missed is this:

While the reasoning behind his product packaging was sound in *his* situation, it doesn’t apply to my business whatsoever.

The short story long of it was:

Many markets have a hard time paying for high ticket “books” that look mass market like you’d find in a bookstore (such as mine), since that makes them look like they’d be $12 books at Barnes And Noble, and people who respond to those kinds of offers tend to refund them in droves when they get them. However, I neither sell those offers, or to those types of markets, or with refund guarantees. Plus, I use email in ways hardly anyone else does (hint: they aren’t buying the “product”, they are buying me, which is a whole other lesson in and of itself) making the comparison to my business completely pointless and, frankly, silly.

To further illustrate why I found this part of his unsolicited critique so amusing:

At the time, my “Affiliate Launch Copynomicon” & “Copy Troll” books – both with slick mass market-like covers that supposedly don’t work (and, again, ironically, were designed by the great Kia Arian, who is the exact same graphic designer who Dan Kennedy hires for his graphic design work…) – are not only both several hundred dollars, but were two of my most successful launches in the history of my business.

Maybe those customers didn’t get the memo they weren’t supposed to value them…?

Afterwards, my Brand Barbarian book kicked both of them out of the top selling slot.

And, I can only imagine the candlelight vigil the little Dan Kennedy fanboy made about that cover — not only perfect bound and slicked up mass market-like cover, but oversized, and awkward to hold while reading probably, to boot.

Point is, he didn’t have an opinion as much as his opinion had him.

All of which was only made worse with his blind appeal to authority (i.e. “Dan Kennedy said…”)

Another amusingly ironic part:

While he was busy chanting “Dan Kennedy says…” while rubbing the belly of his Dan Kennedy bobble-head on his desk… he completely missed the reason why the new version of my book has been so successful, with “Email Players” subscription sales far higher than ever since swapping the books out… and with already more overall positive testimonials and feedback than the old “Playbook” version ever got. And that is because my entire re-design was inspired by, and in strict accordance with, a Dan Kennedy teaching I’d been implementing to have the biggest run of growth in my business’s 18-year history in those past 18-months.

Even more ironic:

One thing Dan Kennedy says (Lordy, now even I’m saying it…) is:

“All marketing dogma is bad”

And never to blindly believe it.

Which, of course, is what these Dan Kennedy fanboys do, even as they dole out their unsolicited advice without context, or bothering to ask a single question, first, in the name of Dan Kennedy.

Now, let me be clear about this again:

This email is NOT an indictment of Dan Kennedy.

I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for him, his teachings, his books, his products, and his impact on the industry, even pioneering many things the rest of us young’uns take for granted today. He’s a for-real “legend” in this industry, and it simply doesn’t get more high level than him. But, the reason I have even been doing all these things over the years that drives these Dan Kennedy fanboys batty with cognitive dissonance and paradoxes they can’t see right in front of them is precisely because I *am* strictly obeying one of Dan Kennedy’s teachings.

Speaking of which:

Not long ago, “Email Players” subscriber Ken McCarthy recommended a book by Dan Kennedy.

And, of all the Dan Kennedy books I’ve read, this is by FAR the best of them all.

It’s called “Almost Alchemy.”

And it’s like a “digest” of all his best info, in one short book.

I highly recommend.

All right, one more Dan Kennedy fanboy spanking before moving on:

When I announced I was no longer offering back issues to paying subscribers to my newsletter a couple years ago, a strung-out Dan Kennedy fanboy went into detail (without gathering a single fact) about what a mistake that was, even though my back end sales went up well over 500%+ when I ceased offering them. And in some months, back end sales are 1000% — not exaggeration — higher than even the best month selling back issues.

The paradox of how wrong these fanboys can be is as amusing as it is astounding.

They are true “secret gurus” (that I talked about in the October 2019 Email Players issue).

But, guess what?

This month I WILL be selling back issues to paying subscribers again, from 3/6-3/9.

And, doing it in such a way where I am literally giving issues away free.

If you are an “Email Players” subscriber, keep your eye on your email inbox (the emails will be coming from 1Shoppingcart, not Aweber, and may be more likely to show up in spam/promotions) next week.

If you are not a subscriber, I have turned it off in the shopping cart.

So if you suddenly try to subscribe, no need tell me there is a glitch or whatever.

The glitch is you not having subscribed when you had the chance, and being a small thinking procrastinator.

I will say this, though:

The April issue next month — already written — is like my 9th symphony issue.

It’s the best one to date out of 100+ issues, with the most valuable & need-to-know info I’ve ever learned, used, and published, with the subject being about building your own media empire.

Small thinkers and new product junkies won’t get excited by that.

Too worried about learning the latest useless email or copywriting “hacks” or whatever.

But there’s a reason why, while I AM an unrepentant email supremacist, I am far beyond just talking about “email” anymore, and have — for the past couple years especially — been focusing way more on mixing, matching, and most recently help building my own media platforms… and using them all in conjunction with each other, all compounding on each other… and, thanks to my business partner and former Navy nuclear engineer-turned-business-software-developer Troy Broussard , about to be positioned high atop my industry with what I believe the “new internet” is going to be.

And, of course, I will be bringing my loyal Horde with me.

That’s the April issue, though, which won’t be hitting mailboxes for another month.

I simply want to tease this now, so not a single procrastinator can say they weren’t told. But procrastination is a curable disease of the mind. And, later this month will be their chance to wise up and change their evil procrastinating ways.

Okay, that’s enough internet for me today.

If you want to get a small taste of what the April issue is about, simply go into the free Ben Settle mobile app and look for the video inside the “elBenbo TV” channel called:

“How to create your own media empire”

If you don’t have my mobile app, simply do this:

1. Opt-in to this website and get on my email list

2. Follow the link to the page in the “welcome email” (in the PS), and follows the simple instructions to get a username and password (if you try to be an overachiever and download the app in the Apple or Google Play store you will not be able to access it without a username and password)

If you have ANY problems with the app, or questions about it, do NOT email me.

Use the support email address on the page.

That’s what it is there for.

Funny story:

When an “Email Players” subscriber last month had some kind of problem accessing the app, and I told him to use the support email, that’s what it is there for, he got butt hurt and canceled his subscription.

And I couldn’t have been happier.

I am growing more and more impatient with dimwits like that.

If someone can’t follow a simple instruction, they have no place amongst the rest of my Email Players of the Horde.

Just like procrastinators don’t.

All right, enough.

That’s all I got for today.

Ben Settle

P.S. Soon I will have another mobile app JUST for “Email Players” subscribers, loaded with a ton of content nobody else will ever see, including content that is now on my free app you can still access for now, but won’t be much longer after I set the Email Players-only app up.

More on that soon…