Thursday, September 27, 2007

Hey copycats, copy this...

Here's an interesting thought that never occurred to the Magnetic, Hypnotic, Renegade Marketers...

"I'd rather be an original than a facsimile. Wouldn't you? I also think it's easier to have a hit then to try to ride someone else's coattails. I'd place my attention on creating a hit... it's more fun anyway. " - Michael Port

Why is it that the so many so called leaders are one hit wonders?

Think about it!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

More stupid crap... only this time it's free

I still find it funny to see all the hype and competition is the "ebook" market. Everyone has a secret to sell but no one really has a secret. It's like there are no secrets.

Here's another stupid affiliate site I came across that openly shares much of what people pay for with Ann Sieg's Renegade Network Marketer. (To be fair, Ann does not teach you how to make porno ads like these scamsters do...)

http://getgoogleadsfree.com/affiliates.html

The premise of this particular $67 course is to show you how to get free Google AdWords ads.

It's a complete pile of crap - as you probably already figured! In fact the folks at Google said that there is no way to get AdWords for free. What is free is the natural listing and ranking. But that's not the way they sell it.

Check out this wonderful line from the webpage "And BEST of all, I’m NOT lying (I really do get literally $millions$ in FREE advertising each & every year at ALL the TOP Search Engines!)" --> There you have it! If they say they are not laying, well... There may be a technical difference between lying and telling the truth - and no-one is getting millions in free AdWords ads! (...read the disclaimer on the site - that should settle it!)

Here's a good thing to remember in your search for the perfect marketing program...

A bowl of steaming crap
is still a bowl of crap
no matter how much it costs
or how they dress it up

Saturday, July 7, 2007

My experience in Leaders Club...

I joined under Christian Marquez in April and want to share my experience with Leaders Club.

First, I can say that I was happy with my membership. I appreciate Christian turning me on to Leaders Club. So I don't have any personal hard feelings toward him. What is an issue is that Leaders Club allowed others to contact me from the Leaders Club group. This has turned me off to Leaders Club being a safe place for my downline.

Here's the time line:

On May 21 I started getting e-mail messages from Ann Sieg and her new system. It was a long message but here's a little bit of it:
The reason I'm emailing you about it [name], is because I decided to show
other people how to do this themselves.

Not only that, but I decided that the best thing to dowas to also give
people the ability to use my ownsystem if they wanted to.

This program isn't ready yet and I'll have more details for you later but I
just wanted to give you a little heads up on it because I'd like to give you
theoption of previewing it before anyone else does.

Aside from a select group of people on my own team, you will be the first
this breakthrough material will ever be made available to.

I wanted to do this as a way of saying thanks forhaving invested your time
with me.

That's about all I can tell you for now, except this:

This is something that has never been done beforein the history of network
marketing, affiliatemarketing or internet marketing.

I'll keep you posted...

To Your Success,

Ann Sieg

On June 1st I get an e-mail from Curt Johnson including his website and an opportunity to join him in his various businesses. I can assume that my downline would get this too if they were in Leaders Club:

The WorksTeam is taking things to the nextlevel - and hope you are looking
forward tothe next part of the journey as much as weare. To come along
though, you need a "ticket!"(The call and training is FREE, and you don'thave to
belong to ANY particular company, BUTyou must have a personal connection to
theWorksTeam to participate.)

Don't be left out! There is no reason not to comealong with us, but
you do have to ask.

On Behalf of "The Works Team,"

Blessings,

Curt Johnson
1-815-918-4305
http://www.trainingandleads.com


Curts e-mails were a weekly occurrence. I complained to Leaders Club about this. I've never talked to this guy, I assume from what I was told that he's in my upline. Why is an upline allowed to promote to their downline like this - that's not endearing. Do they do this to everyone?

On June 11th I got the following e-mail from Ann Sieg:
Today is your chance to get my new system"The Renegade Network Marketer"
for half of whatanyone else will have to pay for it. This is the blueprint I
wish I had had when I was first getting started.

It would have saved me a lot of time and money and an even greater
amount of headaches. But then again, sometimes I'm glad I went through my
struggling years of mlm, harassing and begging people to join my
opportunity...

Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have truly appreciated good marketing
when I saw it.

If you'd like to gain access to everything I've learnedabout attracting
people to me and getting them to sellthemselves on my opportunity, you'll want
to go to:

http://www.therenegadenetworkmarketer.com/4promo.html

This invitation-only site goes "live" at 9am CST today!

At 8:59am CST on Tuesday morning, the 50% off discount will no longer be
available.

In order to receive this discount, here's what you need to do:

If you ARE in Leaders Club, you MUST enter your 5 digit Leaders Club id# as
your promo code. This is very important.

Here's the short story behind that:

When John found my website in October of lastyear, he had only been in
mlm for 3 months and had already spent roughly $6,000 on leads...with
almostnothing to show for his efforts.

Since landing on my site, it's been quite the turnaround.

When our paths first crossed he had less than a 2% conversion rate with his
prospects (which is what I like about John - he tracks EVERYTHING. Anyone
who knows me knows I'm real big on tracking.)

Literally, within 24 hours of ditching the "sell and tell" methods, he
began sponsoring people into his business and his conversion rates shot to
18%.

He ended up sponsoring 28 people that month and he also managed to decrease
his expenses by 80%.

Not only that, but after teaching his downline what he had learned, they
began duplicating him and started bringing in 5-10 people a month themselves.

He also started making money - $50,000 in 5 months.

In December of '06 myself and my team did an interview with John to talk
about his complete

180degree change and what he was doing to get those results.

It was such a successful call and so popular with people that I decided I
really needed to get on the phone with John again and conduct "Part2" of
theinterview.

We ended up going over the exact process he takesa prospect through on the
phone and actually did quite a bit of role playing between him and
myself.

We also talked about what he does to get duplicationand big numbers from
his downline.

This audio is free for anyone who orders TheRenegade Network Marketer.

Here's the url again:

http://www.therenegadenetworkmarketer.com/4promo.html

To Your Success,

Ann Sieg

Now I was getting upset. I PAID to join this company, Ann Sieg makes money on me and now she is selling me something else - I never spoken to her, she didn't sponsor me.

On June 25 I get an e-mail from Christian Marquez:

This past week has been a sad week and financial
setback for myself and many of my colleagues (about 20 of us) within Ann Sieg
Consulting & Associates. As of Friday, June 15th, we were blocked from
gaining access to our Leaders Club accounts. Later, it was found out that
they too had withheld our commissions checks for May. All of this without
advance warning.


Leaders Club's Founder and President, Andre Vatke's, states in a letter, that was emailed to me after the fact "based on information obtained by this office, it appears that you are involved in the promotion of "the renegadenetworkmarketer.com" as created by Ann Sieg. This program has been found to be competitive with Leaders Club and your involvement in it is a violation of the CMC (Certified Markeing Consultant) program.
"


Well, let me give you a little background about
what this system was originally developed for. It was to build our Leaders
Club businesses and to help you build your primary businesses as well. The
techniques and strategies taught within the system were all learned and applied
by Ann Sieg outside of Leaders Club. Don't get me wrong, Leaders Club's audio
training are excellent in developing the sales skills (conceptual selling)
needed to be a professional network marketer.


Yet, Ann Sieg was developing an awesome marketing system that she herself researched on her own for the past 2 years and then applied as she was promoting Leaders Club's "How To Turn Cold Leads Into Hot Prospects" CD and workbook package. However, around late last year 2006, there were some disturbing reports about the quality of service and lead packages our subscribers were receiving at Leaders Club. Eventually, management within Leaders Club couldn't handle the business we were giving them. Ann
Sieg's team of leaders was bringing in over 80% of Leaders Club new business each and every month. In fact, Ann and many of her TOP Producers were EACH bringing in anywhere from 5 - 50+ subscribers each and every month. And from Sept/Oct 2006 at least 70% of the names listed on Leaders Club TOP Sponsor list were from Ann Sieg's team.

But there were problems due to this growth. They didn't have enough staff to service the huge amount of businesss we were bringing in. There were also reports of a crossline Leaders Club member and moderator of Leaders Club's forum stealing leads and sponsoring them as his own which our team members had already approached and marketed to.

If you wish to continue working with me, you can ....by joining me through my link within the Renegade System. Just click on the following:

http://christian.therenegadenetworkmarketer.com/

There is a one time charge of $67.00

When you join the Renegade System, you'll be able to access the Works Team training calls which we will continue to have. Plus, we are ramping up to offer training for The Renegade as well.

Take care and be well,

-Christian


Christian Marquez
Ann Sieg Consulting Associate
415-793-7152


Convenient that after blasting me for all these weeks you find that all of the sudden is was Leaders Club's fault. I never noticed any issues with Leaders Club - other than they let their top guys e-mail everybody in the downline. Leaders Club is great, Christian, I know you mean well, but I don't feel safe with either of you.

I know that Christan was paid his commision, I called Leaders Club and they confirmed it. So take this all, and make what you want out of it. I'm out. Thanks gals for letting me post this.

Monday, July 2, 2007

What you see and what you get from the Renegade

Take a look for yourself to see the Promised Information that is not available, and supposedly came with the RenegadeSystem.com Package. Over Promise and Under Deliver.


Is that why it was 1/2 price initially? Maybe 1/3 of the price is more appropriate.

The first 2 listed out of the 6 features promised and advertised are actually available in the Support Center SupportSuite (#'s 3, 4, 5, & 6 are not!):

1 - Register - Register a new account to submit new Tickets or manage subscriptions.
2 - Submit a Ticket – Select a Department
* 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing Support
* The Renegade Network Marketer Support
3 - Knowledgebase - View categorized listing of all common frequently asked questions.
4 - Troubleshooter - Take a step-by-step tour to find the solution to all your issues.
5 - News - View latest company news and announcements.
6 - Downloads - View our categorized library of downloads for all necessary manuals, software, etc.

Here are some things that are not quite what subscribers had bargained or paid for…

** What is the average order size and conversion rate?
-- "Solution"
** No "Solution" Available

** What if I forget or lose my login name and/or password?
-- "Solution"
** No "Solution" Available

Back office: "Troubleshooter Categories"

Troubleshooters allow you to follow a series of questions to find a specific answer. Please choose the category that is related to your area of interest in order to learn how to fix specific problems, perform important procedures, and read useful overviews.
** No "Troubleshooter Categories" available or offered at this time

Back office: "News"

Listed below are the latest News Items and Announcements from our Company. You can filter
the News Items according to a certain Dateline by selecting the Filter option from the
Navigation Bar.
** No "News" available or published at this time

Back office: "Download Categories"

The "Downloads Library" is organized into different categories. Please select a category that you are interested in. Additionally, you can also search the entire Downloads Library by entering keywords in the navigation bar beside this text.
** No "Download Categories" available or offered at this time

Back office: "Quick Start" Guide

Step 1 -- What you "see"

First things first, if you haven't already done so, you can create your free affiliate account by clicking on the My Account button.
This will generate your individual affiliate urls that you can direct your prospects to.
This also allows you to participate in the unique back end commission structure of The
Renegade System where you can earn money anytime one of your prospects purchase one of the recommended resources.
Once you've created your account, you can go back and edit your info anytime you like.

Step 1 -- What you "get" (Step 1 Works like a charm [for the Renegade AKA Ann Sieg] - You "get charged")

$$ Renegade Affiliate Signup Form $$ Ching Ching!

Just fill out the form below and your account will instantly be setup with your customized urls, emails and ebooks!
Make sure everything is correct because this is how you'll receive notification about prospects and sales, and it's also the information that will appear on your commission checks.
Once your account is created, you will also be able to upload your affiliate urls for all
back end resources. Note: Failure to fill in any of the data properly may result in the non replaceable loss of affiliate payments.

Step 2 -- What you "see"

After you've done that, you'll want to visit the "Marketing Tools pages." There is a separate page for both The 7 Great Lies Of Network Marketing ebook and The Renegade Network Marketer ebook.
In these pages you'll find a whole collection of professionally written pre-made ads that are all ready for you to use. After you create your account, your affiliate urls will automatically be embedded in them. You'll also find out how to use these ads with both free and paid traffic generation techniques.
Remember, all you have to do to make a sale or generate a lead is get someone to your landing pages. The system does the rest. Once they visit your website they're "tagged" to you so that even if they come back a year later and purchase, you get the commission.

Step 2 -- What you "get"

Marketing ToolsUnder Construction
Actually, this is a 404 not found error, which means something is missing from the site, but
because this site is so new, it's most likely that you tried to access something that doesn't exist yet. It's coming though, so don't worry!

Step 3 -- What you "see"

Head over to the "Training & Resources section." This area of The Renegade System is absolutely jam-packed with tips, techniques and little-known tricks of the trade that will be of enormous value to you as you go about building your business. Make sure to take advantage of everything back there because many people will charge you for this type of information.
Let me just give you a couple quick pointers right now to help you get the most of your efforts:
Before you begin to seriously ramp up your traffic generation, I strongly recommend becoming grounded in copywriting first. You don't have to master it, just get a basic understanding of how to use words that sell. Every method of advertising hinges on this ability. If you're out there snatching up every traffic generation product in sight but you haven't yet learned how to persuade people to take action, you're missing the foundational cornerstone that makes it all work.
Do not even think about doing ANY traffic generation until you've learned how to track the performance of all your individual ads. Please, I'm begging you. Save your money if you're not going to do this (the vast majority of affiliates don't). Click on the Tracking section to learn more.

Step 3
-- What you "get"

Training and Resources Under Construction
Actually, this is a 404 not found error, which means something is missing from the site, but
because this site is so new, it's most likely that you tried to access something that
doesn't exist yet. It's coming though, so don't worry!

Under Step 3 -- What you "get" (That you hadn’t planned on!)

You get at least 7 more affiliate links including at least 3 of them that cost you money. And of course a couple of Ann’s http://www.amazon.com/ suggested books that pay her an affiliate commission too if you buy from her store.

Step 4 -- What you "see"

Begin uploading your affiliate urls for the different resources that are in The Renegade System. Take care of any two tiered programs first as they are the most important.
You won't be able to access this feature until you've created your account. (That means
PAID!)

Step 4 -- What you "get"

You’re looking at it. Nothing not even a link!

Step 5 -- What you "see"

Check out the "Reports section."
This is where you can view all your prospect's contact info, how many sales you've earned, what commissions are pending, how many sub-affiliates you have, etc.
This section also isn't available unless you've created an account. (That means PAID!)

Step 5 -- What you "get"

Reports Section Under Construction
Actually, this is a 404 not found error, which means something is missing from the site, but because this site is so new, it's most likely that you tried to access something that doesn't exist yet. It's coming though, so don't worry!


Step 6 -- What you "see"

If you ever need to re-download your ebooks or your free bonuses, just visit the bonuses/Ebooks page.

Step 6 -- What you "get"

Ebooks And Free Bonuses You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these ebooks. If you don't have Adobe Reader, click the link below to get it free:Get Adobe Acrobat Reader FREE
To save any of these files to your computer just right-click and click "save target as..."
The Renegade Network MarketerClick here to download the ebook
The 7 Great Lies of Network MarketingClick here to download the ebook
Free Bonus #1 - The Renegade Network Marketer AudiosClick here to listen to part 1 (Intro)
Click here to listen to part 2 (Chapter 1)
Click here to listen to part 3 (Chapter 2)
Click here to listen to part 4 (Chapter 3)
Click here to listen to part 5 (Chapter 4)
Click here to listen to part 6 (Chapter 5)
Click here to listen to part 7 (Chapter 6)
Click here to listen to part 8 (Chapter 7)
Click here to listen to part 9 (Chapter 8)
Click here to listen to part 10 (Chapter 9)
Having Trouble hearing the audios? Get Itunes here then download a 'podcast' here
Free Bonus #2 - "Selling Without Being A Salesperson - The Surprising Keys To Fearless
Comfort On The Phone"Click to Listen Online Using Adobe Flash Click to Download The Mp3 Using Your Preferred Method
Free Bonus #3 - The Virology ReportClick here to download the report
Free Bonus #4 - The Renegade System
You're in it!

Step 7 -- What you "see"

If you have any questions or need assistance, just click on the Help button above. This will
take you to The Renegade support suite. Please check the FAQs (frequently asked questions)
and knowledgebase before submitting a request for support as 99% of the answers have already been posted and can be found in there.
Doing this just helps our team provide you with a higher level of service as well as a system that is continually improving!
Speaking of, if you have any suggestions or thoughts about anything please let us know by using the form at the bottom of this page. We would love to hear your ideas. It's very important to us that we're constantly receiving feedback from people so that we're able to address their concerns and help them where they need it most.
Do you have any burning questions about how to build your business that need answering? Any
topics that you would specifically like to see addressed in The Renegade Newsletter or added
to the back end? Just use the form below to submit them.

Step 7 -- What you "get"

A “Help” Page that takes you to the Support Center SupportSuite (RED points below - not available - But Don't Worry!):
1. Register - Register a new account to submit new Tickets or manage subscriptions.
2. Submit a Ticket – Select a Department• 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing Support• The Renegade Network Marketer Support
3. Knowledgebase - View categorized listing of all common frequently asked questions.
4. Troubleshooter - Take a step-by-step tour to find the solution to all your issues.
5. News - View latest company news and announcements.
6. Downloads - View our categorized library of downloads for all necessary manuals,
software, etc.

Step 8 -- What you "see"

Last but certainly not least, I do need to mention our spam policy.
You can only use email marketing if it is to an opt in list or customer list that you yourself have built from scratch and already have an existing relationship with.
You cannot email your Renegade urls to genealogy lists, opportunity leads, co-registration leads, safe lists or any other type of purchased email lead.
If you violate these rules, we won't have any choice but to immediately terminate your account and forfeit any pending commissions you may have.
It's unfortunate that things have to be this way and we don't like having to come across
this harsh, but just one or two people practicing illegitimate email marketing methods can
jeopardize the entire system for everyone. So we're forced to have a strict zero tolerance
policy.

Suggestion Box

Once again, I'm glad to have you here and am looking forward to helping you build your business beyond what you ever thought possible.

To Your Success,

Ann Sieg

Additional Food for thought on a couple of questions found in the knowledge base:

How will I get paid?
Solution
There are two options for receiving payment.
You can choose to have your commission checks mailed to you, or you can choose ach payments - which is basically direct deposit.
If you choose to receive physical checks, there will be a $2.00 service fee per check.

Renegade Calculator Says:
If checks are issued at $20 and up and if you had a $20 commission check mailed, the $2 Service Fee is 10% of your $20 commission. Schweet - for the Renegade!

Another one to mull over:
How long does your referral period last?
Solution
Our referral period lasts for two years. This means that if you refer someone to our website
and if they make a purchase up to two years later, you will be credited for the sale.

Begs the Question...
Is there a 2 year renewal necessary for web site visitors? Better find out and mark you calendar.

Last but not least:
I’m sending traffic, but there aren’t any reported sales?
Solution
Make sure the traffic that you are sending to our website is qualified traffic from reputable sources. Unfortunately just generating traffic doesn’t necessarily guarantee that people are going to purchase.

Hmmm (one of Ann's favorite words, if you can call it a word) …
What happened to the Ann the Renegade's Promise of, "they come to you" concept?"

Friday, June 22, 2007

How to spot a SCAM...

I've been asked if there are any hard rules on spotting a scam. I think I would cite these:

1) Beware of paying for the pleasure. - There are a lot of so called opportunities that require you to purchase their product before they allow you to
become an affiliate. The only thing an affiliate should care about is your potential for selling thier product. In fact top affiliate programs review their member sites and marketing footprint prior to allowing them to become an affiliate.

2) Beware of the competition - Since everyone and anyone can sell stuff online competition can quickly get stiff with affiliate offers. The bottom line is that affiliates want access to markets and traffic they can't get on their own. When you open a People Magazine you don't see 15 ads for Bausch & Loum contacts. That would be a stupid waste of money. Yet, on the Internet, affiliate marketers are often running in the same places. If you pick an affiliate program to market - find one that will limit the number of participants.

3) Be prepared to lose it all - Business is a risk no matter how you dice it up. Don't let yourself fall victim for a scam out of desperation. Always keep in mind that you could lose it all.

A search on Google for Affiliate Listings will pull over 5 million pages!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Who Taught Ann Sieg?

Hey! There's more to this blog! Click here to see more lies and scams exposed.

They say that "no man is an island" and it's obvious that no successful person has become successful on their own. Yet when you see the hype machines in full production, it seems as if the guru's did it all on their own - the immaculate conception of their own success.

Can I say how much I love the Internet and the ability to research this stuff right here from my own apartment? Here's what I dug up...

Ann Sieg has copied much of what she is doing from other people. She did not come up with this on her own! In fact according to one marketer claiming to be from her "mastermind group" she took what she could get from Leaders Club (Andre Vatke & Jeff Zalewski), Mike Dillard and few other minor sources and simply repackaged it as her own.

Looking back a few months (May 2007) at her website (annsieg.com - now changed) it used to say the following...
"I have a couple of extremely-successful network marketing friends, Andre Vatke and Jeff Zalewski, who've made their fortunes in this business and now spend their time coaching and training others how to do the same. These are the guys that taught me the exact techniques I use."

"Problem is - normally this hard-hitting course is only available to members of a special training group that Andre and Jeff lead. But I wanted to give you access to this priceless information... so... I talked to Andre and worked out a deal to offer it to you for a very short period of time without having to become a member."
I could not get through to Andre Vatke but the staff at his company Leaders Club indicated that the relationship with Ann Sieg had gone sour and that they would not comment because it was an ongoing legal case. So it looks like Ann's story is much deeper then she lets on. Like I said before, these people will never tell you the truth - that would interfere with what they have to sell you.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Undeniable, Indisputable Proof and Oh my gosh, did you get Photoshop?

Turn up the heat on scammers and they wilt like weeds in the noon-day sun without water.

In an effort to deliver proof of earnings Ann Sieg has posted doctored screenshots of her credit union statements. These are supposed to be irrefutable proof that she did consistently earn $90,000 or more per month for some substantial period of time.

Just take a look at what is supposedly January's statement...

And here is the one from February...


Notice anything interesting?

  1. If even true, this is only a balance statement. It does not show anything of importance.

  2. All actual numbers are blurred and the final number is emphasised using an image program like photoshop.

  3. If true this statement either indicated that Ann had $96,000 of expenses between January and February or only made around $700. It also does not indicate that the final balance was actually collected during that month.

  4. No matter what, this sort of posturing is deceptive and illegal. According to the FTC: If respondents lack evidence that the high reported earnings of a few distributors are in fact representative of the earnings of large numbers of other distributors, then it is clearly deceptive.

What are the real numbers? Who knows? Who cares really? And why stop at $90K?

In 2 minutes I gave Ann a 1000% raise!


See how easy that was?

Don't allow anyone's earning claims to cloud your judgement. The more far fetched the less likely that you will see anything at all.

Do you really want to help Ann maintain her income?

According to Ann: "My MLM company commission checks are just one part of this income." This means that at best this income comes from something other than she is asking you to do - join over 30 affiliate programs! In other words "Do as I say, not as I do!"