Why nobody trusts fair & balanced content

I’ve mentioned this magnificent Robert Greene book before: “The 33 Strategies of War” Most people I know in business talk up Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. But in my opinion 33 Strategies of War is far more useful. It’s simply chock-full of great business advice. Including advice about copywriting, marketing, selling, influence, persuasion, customer service, negotiation, dealing with (and profiting from) trolls, building out email campaigns, hiring employees or team members, building a company, outselling your competition, seizing market share, list curation, acquiring new clients, making more sales, and the list goes on. None of these lessons are checklist “do this, this, and this…” style. And you have to be looking for the lessons. But they are all throughout the book. Take this part about content creation: (Context: Publisher Samuel Adams’ campaign to turn the colonists against the English) “The colonists had had a high opinion of the English, but not after Adams’s relentless campaign. To succeed, Adams had to resort to exaggeration, picking out and emphasizing the cases in which the English were heavy-handed. His was not a balanced picture; he ignored the ways in which the English had treated the colonies rather well. His goal was not to be fair but to spark a war, and he knew that the colonists would not fight unless they saw the war as just and the British as evil. In working to spoil your enemy’s moral reputation, do not be subtle. Make your language and distinctions of good and evil as strong as possible; speak in terms of black and white. It is hard to get people to fight for a gray area.” There is literally centuries of wisdom in that for the content creator. Literally nobody cares about much less remembers “fair & balanced.” Yes, they may emotionally respond to the term. (i.e., Fox News, which like all news is neither fair or balanced.) But fair & balanced content = boring content. Boring content = little or no engagement with your content. Little or no engagement with your content = little Tommy can’t get that Playstation for Christmas. Something else to think about: There’s no passion in fair & balanced. And, I would argue such content is inherently dishonest anyway. At the very best you’ll be ignored. At the worst your enemies will simply use it against you. Whatever the case: A lot of content creation comes down to something one of my favorite marketing teachers Sean D’Souza has been teaching for years about consumption. Everyone teaches attraction & conversion. Hardly anyone teaches — much less practices — the importance of consumption of content. Without that consumption you get a sale which I suppose is nice. But without consumption — and eager consumption at that — you’re not really building a relationship. You’re not making the next sale in advance. And you’re not really adding anything to anyone’s life, including your own, as that one-time sales will be pissed away before you know it. All of this is especially true when it comes to high ticket content. i.e., the kind of content people pay you hundreds or even thousands for. Enter the December “Email Players” issue. It’s all about some ways I use to create high-ticket content. There’s a reason I “get away” with selling books that range from $188 to $1001.00. Many of them not even that thick in page count. And that reason is understanding how to create content in a way that has impact, that sticks in the mind, that makes people more likely to apply & use (and therefore benefit from) the content… which can potentially lead to great testimonials, great word-of-mouth, and great long term sales & high quality leads that swim “upstream” to find you, buy from you, and become a lifelong customer who spreads the “gospel” of your business to everyone they know in the same market. This isn’t something you can always track with a spreadsheet. But you can track sales trends and feedback. It simply takes time, patience, and a willingness to learn. To subscribe in time for the December issue, go here immediately: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. To celebrate the Email Players Newsletter’s 125th issue next month, I’m also including an extremely valuable bonus: “Email Players Annual #1: Age of Swipeocalypse” Here are just a few of the secrets inside: * Word-for-word examples showing exactly how to swipe without breaking any copyright laws, being an unethical loser, or outright stealing. * A secret technique that can help even slow writers (literally) write high converting emails in as little as 4 minutes. * A cunning way invented 60+ years ago by a brilliant and cranky “Mad Man” era copywriter (not 1 in 1,000 copywriters have probably ever heard of) to sometimes help create near-perfect sales letter headlines. * A one sentence power lesson in how the late, great A-list copywriter Jim Rutz used his swipe file to knock out industry-changing winning controls time and time and time again. * A secret place where all the best email swipe files I've ever seen are contained. * A real-life case study showing why blindly following “what’s working now!” can get you a pittance of the response you could be getting at best… or viciously killing your response at worst. (If I could go back 20 years and learn just ONE tip about copywriting, and nothing else, this would be it. It’s that powerful, that profound, and that profitable.) * Why swiping one of the single greatest copywriters today (ironically a guy all the fanboys love stealing from) could destroy your response in a heartbeat! * What two of the highest paid & most successful A-list copywriters on the planet both admitted to me about swiping that would probably put all the copywriting template sellers out of business overnight. (Hint: one of these great men of copywriting said when he got into the game in the early nineties, and found out who Gary Bencivenga was, he would study Gary’s ads and actually try to copy the exact number of paragraphs between sales arguments and that sort of thing… only to realize that wasn’t the way to do it. There’s a much better way instead, that’s revealed inside.) * 6 attributes of an email subject line people have almost no choice but to notice and open. * How to “coax” your clients into writing the sales copy they are paying you to write… and being perfectly happy doing so. * The big difference between how all the A-list copywriters I’ve known & talked to approach swiping vs how the normie copywriters in all those Facebook groups you haunt all day approach swiping. * An old school “retro” website I go to whenever I am stuck for subject line ideas and phrases. (Just click on this site and you’ll probably have all the email subject line ideas, inspiration, and discoveries you can ask for.) * A swipe file of email subject lines you can plunder from one of the greatest copywriting minds who ever lived. * A quickie "crash course" on how to use a swipe file straight from one of the single best A-list direct mail copywriters in the game. * And so on, and so forth. This bonus makes this 125th issue a good “jumping on” point for those new to my list. But, not if you are a lazy bum copywriter. If that is you, then you are simply too short for this ride and will be grossly disappointed by what is inside. My way of swiping is 100% opposite of all the ways you are hearing it taught, is not at-all “cool”, and requires quite a bit of work to pull off. Neither the December issue about creating high-ticket content or the bonus Swipeocalypse Annual issue will do a single blessed thing to help the carpet drooling newbie who buys everything and does nothing, and has no sense of commitment or long term thinking. All right enough. To subscribe in time to get in on all this, high-tail it over to the URL below: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2021 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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