The year was 2006 AD.
I had spent the prior 3 years following all the mainstream email goo-roo advice about giving away all your best information and teachings free in emails, to make people think, “wow! if this is the free stuff, I wonder what’s in the PAID material…” and eagerly awaiting you to sell something to them.
I believed this advice blindly.
And with all the furor of a goo-roo fanboy after an IM seminar.
So that’s what I did:
I sent out infrequent emails (one or two per month) giving away lots of cool information I’d learned and profited from and never, EVER asking anyone to buy something.
That was, after all, the goo-roo way.
Then… I did my first affiliate campaign.
I was writing mainly to copywriters at the time.
And they wanted to know how to get clients.
That was the big hot button.
And (conveniently) my buddy John Anghelache was getting ready to launch a course on the subject and asked if I’d mail for him. He said he was using a proven launch formula that had worked like gangbusters for him (it did) and I was anxious to let the “hounds” out on my list.
After all, I KNEW they’d love the product.
And since I never pitched, I KNEW they’d listen.
So I let the emails fly!
For the first time in 3 years a REAL sales pitch.
But not just one pitch… several pitches.
Some disguised.
Some blatant.
But all of them with a call to action.
The result?
Hate mail GALORE, baby!
We’re talking everything from “take me off your list!” to the old standby “fuck you” used by those Cheeto eating, porno-addicted 20-somethings still living in mommy’s basement.
I must admit, it took me by surprise.
What was the big deal?
It was a solid product.
I hardly EVER pitched my list.
And shouldn’t they be “primed” to be wanting to buy from me like all the goo-roos said they’d be?
I guess my list didn’t get the memo.
They were PO’d.
Yes, some bought.
(More than I’d expected.)
But the hostility was amazing.
And that’s when I learned:
Freebie seekers are amongst the nastiest, most class-less people you’ll ever meet. They have no gratitude. No work ethic. And, if you don’t give them everything they want fast, free and NOW, they turn into little pink whiny hulks screaming profanity and insults at you.
Kind of amusing thinking about it now.
And today I take pleasure in riling them up.
(They don’t last long on my list…)
Anyway, moral of the story?
Being a give-away artist is stoopid.
It’s a GREAT way to attract the worst and dimmest people in your market onto your list.
And a bad way to make sales.
Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
To learn how to sell in email go to www.BenSettle.com.
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