Do you have an album, a composition, or an online lesson that you would like to be able to sell more often?

The other day I introduced a marketing course called The Ten Minute Workday. (It is on sale for $1,000 of the regular price until tomorrow).

This program is created by a writer, and the sales letter is really geared towards writers who want to make six figures without ever having to get clients.

So why am I showing it to you? You're a trumpet player.

I want to give you the opportunity to check it out because I have a hunch that you can use this system to make a lot more money lining up lessons, booking yourself for gigs, selling music you've written, selling tickets, selling albums.

I've seen people apply this system to a lot of different industries, like fitness, diet and nutrition. I even have a friend who sells books about how to be cheap and makes over $100,000 a year doing that.

Ben Settle, the creator of this program, makes half a million dollars a year selling newsletters that he writes and he has a ton of free time to do whatever he wants with his time (as far as I can tell he spends his time golfing with his dad, walking on the beach with his dog, and writing zombie novels).

There is a lot of ways that a musician can apply this to their career. Read the sales page here.

I know, this might not be for everyone.

There's a lot to it, and a lot of it comes down to setting up your business so that you can sell your stuff, growing a list and emailing the people on the list.

Here is a quick interview I did with Ben.

Enjoy!

Mandy
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Q&A with Ben Settle

Mandy: You send out an email every day, and recommend that others do that too. How do you keep your emails interesting?
Ben:  The most popular movies are the ones with the most ominous villains. Nobody remembers the hero, but they remember the villain!
You can do this with your emails. List all the villains in your customers’ lives. List all of the problems they face in life, and then write about those problems one at a time.
That will give you a lot of material for your emails, but also guarantee that they won’t be boring. Because you’ll be speaking their language. You’ll be in their world.
My dad lives in the same town as me, and he has gophers in his yard. They’re always popping up. He could read an email every day about gophers, and never get sick of it. Because it is a problem that he’s trying to solve.
Mandy: What techniques do you use to get people to read your emails?
Ben:  I try to stay away from techniques and gimmicks. Instead, I just focus on the problems that people are dealing with.
Mandy: What would you say to someone who has a company but has yet to send out a single email?
Ben: First of all, you need an opt-in list.
You can’t just export an Outlook contact list and start emailing people. When people opt-in they are giving you permission to email them every day.
There are so many email services out there. There’s Mail Chimp, Infusion Soft, Constant Contact. Most of them have websites and 30-day trials. I recommend going to all of them, trying them out, seeing what the interface is like, and choosing the one that you feel the most comfortable with.
Then when you have your email service, set up a web page (or outsource it . . . it’s easier that way) where you collect names. Drive traffic to that page. When you get some names on your list, start emailing them.
Mandy: How else can you do to keep your readers engaged?

Ben:  It’s what I call “Infotainment”.

Sending emails every day is like having your own talk show. People will listen to talk shows for hours because they get information, but also because they’re entertaining.

You can be like that, too. Think about what you’re like when you’re at a bar, hanging out with a good friend and talking. Be that person in your emails.

It’s all about building the relationship.

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Talk to you tomorrow,

Mandy