Money Makes Life Easier Says Copywriter Ben Settle

How To Make Money With a Printed Newsletter

Author

Wes Schaeffer
April 30, 2024

Professional Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast ...

  • He has been publishing the Email Players since 2011

  • Got into direct marketing/copywriting in 2002

  • He stumbled into it when the world was quite different

  • He found a Yahoo Group with a bunch of old-school marketers

  • It was run by Perry Marshall, and it was about Dan Kennedy

  • John Carlton was in there

  • Paul Hartunian was in there and he had a detailed debate with an internet marketing guy

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  • Paul argued that mail would never go away

  • Ben wanted to have a physical newsletter, and now he does

  • Send Free was a free autoresponder back in the day

  • They put you on a list called the “Send Free Roundtable.”

  • It was great for newbies

  • Ben dabbled in MLM

  • Gary Halbert wrote a letter called “Why network marketing sucks”

  • Ben sent a cold offer to the roundtable list to write for free but get 5% of their sales…he didn’t get paid, but he learned and had work product to show to land new customers

  • Now you have access to traffic and leads via social media and you can drive traffic

  • Be your own customer first

  • Find a market and find an offer to sell yourself first, then you won’t be needy so you’ll land bigger deals, easier

  • To get started, start asking for referrals

  • Dan Kennedy calls them “upstream leads” when word-of-mouth finds you

  • “I’m reassuringly expensive.”

  • “Close first, then present.”

  • Money makes life easier

  • He started with a cheaper, more generic newsletter at first

  • He launched with three issues and people bought

  • In 2011, $97/mo was “expensive” for a newsletter

  • Each issue is 15-20 pages at least or more

  • Once he has enough issues on a similar topic, he’ll compile them into a book

  • Writes three months in advance…all evergreen

  • As you look at the same content when you’re older, you see it in a new light

  • He has no real competition…no nemesis…he’s solid

  • He says now is the worst time to sell anything in print due to inflation

  • He won’t mail to some countries due to fees

  • FedEx is a pain

  • It’s a crapshoot to mail internationally with the USPS

  • Berserker Mail

  • Social Lair

  • Backstory (on screenwriters)

  • Reads a lot of biographies

  • Likes Arnold’s new book

  • Not a big self-help guy

  • Stallone’s book was good, too

  • “Conquistador” about Cortez on how he bluffed

  • The FDR biography was good…saw how he dealt with trolls

  • It’s good to have competitors

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