A few days ago, I sent out an email with the subject line:
“Ben Settle emergency emails in support of Copy Riddles?”
That email officially had the highest open rate of all my emails over the past 10 days. I don’t know if that was because of the subject line. But for my own reasons, I will run with it and pander to your apparent tastes, by telling you a three-act Ben Settle story:
Back in 2016, Ben released a tiny Kindle book titled, Persuasion Secrets of the World’s Most Charismatic & Influential Villains.
The villains book turned into a sleeper hit.
As I write this, the book has 286 Amazon reviews and an Amazon ranking of 42,849. From what I know of Amazon publishing, that means the book continues to sell 4-5 copies every day, six years after its publication.
I reckon the villains book didn’t make Ben a tremendous pile of cash, not directly, not compared to other parts of his business.
But it almost certainly got him a large and constant new source of highly qualified leads. And it certainly gave him positioning and exposure in the direct response industry.
For a while, everyone associated Ben with the villains concept. It truly made him unique. And this probably led many more highly qualified leads trudging towards his hut, banging on his door, and demanding to be sold something.
So what did Ben do next? Perhaps you know act two. In 2018, he released Persuasion Villains, volume II.
Act three came in 2019. That’s when Ben released Persuasion Villains, volume III.
Which brings us to the present day and a tweet I came across a few days ago.
The tweet was written by one Matt Koval, who was apparently a big face at YouTube for over 10 years. Koval was the one whipping those early and confused YouTubers into the all-consuming media machine that YouTube has become.
Anways, Koval was tweeting in response to some YouTube influencer’s new video, and he wrote:
“One of the earliest pieces of content strategy advice we used to give at @YouTube was to try and turn your viral hit into a whole series – and it’s great to see @RyanTrahan do just that. It’s a TON of work, but no doubt a huge boost to his channel.”
But really, what is Koval’s “series” idea more than the standard DR practice of testing out different sales appeals in your ads? And then doubling down on the winners, for as long as they continue to pay for themselves?
As far as I know, Ben isn’t releasing any more villains books. This probably means he has milked this franchise to the point where putting out a new villains book isn’t worth the opportunity cost.
But maybe you’ve had a hit idea that you haven’t milked dry yet. Whether in your YouTube videos, Kindle books, or email subject lines. So rather than trying to be creative and have an all-new hit, turn your proven hit into a series.
In other news:
As I write this, I only have one Kindle book out there, my 10 Commandments book.
The 10 Commandments book hasn’t been as much of a success as Ben’s original villains book. But it has sold a lot of copies, and it continues to make sales. More importantly, it continues to drive highly qualified prospects to my email list.
And who knows? Maybe I will take my own advice.
Maybe I will lumber up the mountain, get a few more stone tablets of copywriting commandments, and write a second installment in this series.
Meanwhile, if you still haven’t read volume I, here’s where you can get your very own copy: