While back on twitter, podcaster Ellie Schnitt declared with the passion of a 1000 pronouns: “my favorite right wing thing is when they say nyc is sooooo scawwwyy like not to be that girl but I am the approximate size and strength of a ladybug and I don’t feel unsafe here so it’s objectively funny to be a Big Tough Country Boy and shit your diaper over the subway” To which my reply was: “My favorite NYC story is when @stefaniasettle saw a bum across the street of her mom’s Manhattan resell store jerking off in public, and the cops formed a protective ring around him while he did it. I like ..read more

Recently I got the email below from a customer I assume does not want me naming him. (Unless given permission I just default to keeping people anon) The context: He read an email from some goo-roo virtue signaling to his list about how he’s different (the goo-roo version of a pick-me) from me, because he doesn’t use shaming and threats to keep people subscribed to his product the way I supposedly do, etc. But the part that stood out most was when the goo-roo quoted a rhetorical device I’ve used for my “No Coming Back” policy for Email Players. The offending line: “Plus, practically speaking, i ..read more

“I don’t argue with doctors. You know what I’d say to them? ‘Take your clothes off and let me see what you look like.’” So said the legendary body builder Vince Gironda. Reminds me of what fitness bros onTwitter dismissively tell skinny reply guys: “Post fizeek” i.e., let’s see what you look like. The reply guys never do, of course. Got a lot of this in the online marketing world, too – reply guys yapping out unsolicited advice, opinions, conjecture. And I think it would be amusing to dismiss them in a similar manner: “You send too many emails” Post bizeek. “You sell too much in your emails ..read more

In which the question of the hour is asked: “In your experience, what are the best ways to weed out non-buyers? I sometimes delete readers who haven’t bought anything for over five years and only ask questions by email. One of the most important things I learned from you was the quality of the list, not its size. That’s why I only focus on growing the buyer list, not the reader list. I would be interested in your best practices on how to weed out non-buyers via the daily email, so to speak.” Here are my thoughts on it: * Do not whole cloth delete the non-buyers * After all, you never know wh ..read more

Behold a tale from the free BerserkerMail Mead Hall Facebook group: I was asked about why I only do double opt in email lists. But before I list my reasons, a caveat: Just because I say I do something or don’t do something does not necessarily mean everyone should or should not do whatever it is. Nor does it mean it’s necessarily the best course of action for every business in every circumstance. Unfortunately, a lot of peoples’ TikTok brains have been addled by social media grifters and now see everything someone says as an absolute — and get defensive if someone says anything contrary to wha ..read more

A question about my email sequence-less ways: “Hey Ben, quick question (not relevant to the current offer as I’m not qualified right now). Why do you not have a welcome sequence that would provide a more seamless introduction to your world? I feel that when there isn’t such a sequence in place, it takes longer to build the relationship. I’m not asking if you’ve thought of it, because I’m sure you have and decided against it. But I wonder why. Cheers!” Answer: Same reason Rush Limbaugh never had a “welcome sequence” of shows to listen to: I sell the relationship in every email. Frankly, it’s ..read more

One of my Email Players subscribers — who does not wish to be named for obvious reasons — told me about a new client doing a lot of dumb things, with lots of ways he wants to help them and get paid more by them… but is not sure how to go about approaching them and offering to help. My advice: “it’s temping to meddle but in my experience let them hang themselves with their own rope on mistakes, when things are dire then, and only then, offer to fix” I say this as someone who wants nothing to do with client work. So I bring a blatantly biased contempt to the table with these things. i.e., take ..read more

I am now officially part of the vile media class I hate so much. i.e., as of last week I own 10% of a paper n’ ink “dinosaur media” newspaper. Why would I become a part of that which I so despise (the mass media)? Well, because of this: Many years ago — way back in 2007 — I got hired by a guy who was doing business with Dan Kennedy’s printer friend (Pete the Printer) to go through a whole bunch of Dan’s old ‘NO BS Marketing Letters’ and write ezine articles out of them. It was one helluva edu-ma-cation, too. And while the gig didn’t pay all that much, the knowledge I learned, started using, an ..read more

A while back on Twitter reader asked: “Ben, how much time do you spend writing fiction? Or is it quite sporadic? When did you start? Seems like challenging work on top of everything else you do” Fiction is like eating dessert for me. i.e., can’t have my pudding unless I eat my meat first. So I schedule time for it usually months in advance. Example: When I wrote my last novel (Enoch Wars: Serpent Seed) I spent about 5 months getting ahead on emails, offers, sales pages, and other projects to carve out 6 weeks or so to write the first draft. Then I did other work for the next 4 or 5 months to ..read more

Came a question: “Ben, What’s been your general experience with female customers/leads? Are they annoying/different to deal with in any particularly noteworthy way? I don’t mean customers annoy me or I find women annoying. I guess what I mean is if they’re more likely to be (unreasonably) demanding, or (overly) fussy, or likely to be a pain/cause drama, just due to their more emotional nature/communication style. Or maybe you’ve found the opposite and they actually tend to be more pleasant to deal with. Just curious because I’ve only ever sold to men, which was fun” In this guy’s case I gave ..read more