So I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to publicize this, but… What the hell? This needs to be said…

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a gentleman named “Bernie the Lawyer”, claiming to be the legal representative for Ann Sieg and 80/20 Marketing, Inc.  It was a “cease and desist” letter.  Here it is in its full glory:

===================================

Dear Mr. Ceballos,

Please be advised that I represent Ann Sieg and her company, 80/20 Marketing, Inc.  As you know, my client operates a well known marketing company, in part under the brand “Renegade Network Marketer,” that operates several different web sites and publishes materials for sale in the online marketing field.  Ann Sieg has built a well-deserved positive and valuable reputation around the world as the result of her considerable time, expense and effort.  My client is committed to defending her intellectual property and publicity rights to protect the goodwill that she has rightfully earned in the marketplace.

It has recently come to our attention that you are and have placed keyword advertisements on Google that trigger off of “Ann Sieg,” that you use the name “Ann Sieg” in the text of those advertisements, and that you feature the name “Ann Sieg” on your web site page located at

http://mlm.attractionmarketingformula.com/index2.php?gur=Ann%20Sieg&prod=Renegade%20Network%20Marketer&google=ann%20sieg.  Your use of the name “Ann Sieg” is unauthorized and impermissibly suggests you have an affiliation with her.  It is clear that your underlying purpose is to trade and profit off of the value that my client has created in her name.

Your actions constitute, without limitation, trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, unfair competition, and potentially false advertising, which can subject you to treble damages in the event that my client files a lawsuit against you.  In addition, your use of my client’s name for commercial purposes constitutes a misappropriation of her name under California Civil Code §3344(a) which prohibits the use of someone’s name in advertising or for any commercial purpose without the prior permission of the person whose name is so used.  An action against you under this provision may result in punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and the disgorgement of any profits you have made from the use of the name.   

On behalf of my client, I hereby demand that you cease and desist from any use of the name “Ann Sieg,” whether as a Google keyword, in your advertisements, or on your web site.  Please provide written assurance that you have removed all references to Ann Sieg from your web site(s) and advertisement campaigns no later than ten (10) days from the date of this letter.  In the event that you choose not to comply, your actions will be deemed willful and I will be forced to advise me client to take appropriate legal action against you and to seek all available remedies, including punitive damages, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs.

The foregoing is without prejudice to any additional claims that my client may have or which may hereafter arise against you in the future.  Nothing contained in this letter constitutes an express or implied waiver of any right or remedy, all of which are expressly reserved.  I look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,

Bernard C. Dietz

Now there’s some pretty strong language here, including the threat of lawsuits, damages and the use of a rusty jagged Rambo knife up my **you know what** if I don’t comply. (Ok, I made up that last part).

I really was stunned and my initial gut reaction was to tell her and her “legal team” to take a flying leap off the top of the tallest MLM pyramid!

Especially considering that it’s not the first time she’s done this to someone on my team.

My buddy Joe got a similar letter last year, for doing an honest video review of her system, speaking on the good points and drawbacks.  At the end of the video, he ends up recommending Magnetic Sponsoring over her system and she unleashed her “legal team”.

It was BS then and it’s BS now.

But before I did anything rash, I needed to think a little bit, so I had a refreshing glass of my best tequila as I played Gears of War 2 on my Xbox 360 to clear my mind… (So addicting!)

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black…

The first time I heard of Ann, I was new to the MLM world, had just been introduced to Magnetic Sponsoring, I was looking up some of the stuff people had written about the MLM company I was involved with at the time and saw a Google Ad that said:

[Company] Warning
Secrets About [Company]
Your Upline Won’t Tell You!
AnnSieg.com

I clicked on her link and landed on a long sales letter, telling me to ditch my hotel meetings and pitching me a CD for $20 or whatever the price was.

I didn’t buy the CD, but I remembered thinking to myself, “Who the hell is this lady?”  Suddenly, I had my first major breakthrough as an internet marketer.

You see at the time I had struggled trying to get Adwords to work and had thrown away over $900 advertising on Google with no results.  I was about ready to quit, but then I asked myself that magic question…

::Insert Hallelujah Music Here::

I immediately logged into Adwords and started a PPC campaign using her name as a keyword, (sound familiar?).

Her ads were plastered all over the place, basically telling people that their uplines were liars, which I knew would generate buzz and controversy.

You typed in any MLM company into Google and her PPC ad showed up saying:

[Company Name] Warning
Secrets About [Company Name]
Your Upline Won’t Tell You!
AnnSieg.com

(Yep, she was using the company name in her ads. Where’s “Bernie the lawyer” when you need him?)

Now if I was asking myself, “Who the hell is this lady?” then certainly many other people would also be asking this same question, considering the amount of PPC advertising she was doing.

People were searching the term “Ann Sieg” like mad, wondering who the hell she was.

This keyword shortcut of advertising on PPC, by having company names and gurus trigger the ad, was probably the single most effective thing I did my first few months marketing online.

Who could be more targeted than people who had already invested in a business and probably not having much luck with their current leadership? People who like me, agreed that MLM was a good thing.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do… or Else I’ll SUE!

Now 3 years later, I’m receiving a cease and desist letter from her attorney, which is ridiculous, considering that she used the exact same strategy when I first ran into her.

In fact, she’s been using this strategy for the past 3 years and even teaches it to her students.

So before taking any action, I wanted to see how deep the “poop” actually went, so I took out my handy-dandy PPC spy tools and what I found would make the folks at CSI proud…

I found archived data (Exhibit A) showing that AnnSieg.com had advertised on over 2,000 MLM related and TRADEMARKED company terms with the exact same ad copy she used 3 years ago when I first saw her ad:

Real Life Example on a Trademarked Term (according to SpyFu):

Secrets about Pre-Paid Legal
Your Upline Won’t Tell You
AnnSieg.com

Triggered by the keyword “pre paid legal”, according to SpyFu. This exact ad having last been archived as recently as 01/01/2009 and as of 2/26/09 looks like this on a recent search I did:

Pre-Paid Legal Warning
Secrets about Pre-Paid Legal
your upline won’t tell you!
RenegadeMLM.com/Pre-Paid_Legal.html

(BTW, if you are a Pre-Paid Legal executive, I hear “Bernie the lawyer” has lots of experience sending out cease and desist letters. I have his contact info, if you need it.)

And the Poop Gets Even Deeper…

My good bud and PPC Master, (let’s call him Mr. Y), showed me something interesting he ran across during his PPC market research months ago…

If you visit, http://www.annsieg.com/company_1.html (Exhibit B)

… you’ll notice the use of the TRADEMARKED term, Arbonne, on the very sales letter she uses to sell Renegade Network Marketer.  If you’d like to see other letters, feel free and replace the number “1″ in the link with any number going all the way up to 217 (GlobalWon Reps).

Recently, she seems to have switched her domain and is now directing traffic to: http://www.renegademlm.com/us_d/Pre-Paid_Legal.html

[If you'd like to see if your network marketing company made the cut of "important enough to advertise on", see below for the complete company list (Exhibit C) and all other exhibits]

My Response to “Bernie the Lawyer”…

So after consulting with some leaders in the industry and legal counsel, I decided to respond to the attorney, about 10 days after I got the email (per their request) and share a few details to Bernie about his famous client…

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Mr Dietz,

The ad has been paused, for now pending legal counsel.

This is by no way an admission that we’ve done anything wrong or illegal.

On another note, Ann Sieg, has profited and used registered trademarks owned by individuals, and of large network marketing corporations over the past 3 years and as late as Dec. 2008.

Attached is a data dump from a 3rd party service who monitors pay-per-click advertising and logs a history of PPC advertising done on Google.

I would think you might be able to acquire more clients if you send the same cease and desist letter to your own client on behalf of the 1000′s of MLM company names she’s profited from who actually have their names trademarked.

Regards,
Fernando

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Damn! That Felt Good, But I Think I Was Too Nice…

At this point, I’m thinking of all the cool people who’s names I’ve used as a Google Keyword when I was a newbie doing PPC advertising, rarely would anyone complain.  Most were flattered. Many are friends and mentors.

If you do a search right now for Magnetic Sponsoring or Mike Dillard, (the #1 guy in this industry), you’ll notice that everyone in the MLM industry uses “Mike Dillard” or “Magnetic Sponsoring” as a keyword trigger, in their ads and on their landing pages.

I’ve never once heard him bitch about it, much less send a threat of suit for using his freakin’ name as a keyword or ad.  Mike is the most secure guy I know. He’s comfortable in his own skin and it would be silly for him to feel threatened by a Google ad generating a few clicks a day for a networker with a dream.

This technique is probably the quickest and simplest way for any newbie to gain some traction.

That’s how we started, and we’ve since produced awesome results via other mediums such as SEO, Social Media among other traffic sources.

Want Some Targeted Traffic?

It’s funny, now that Ray and I have made a little bit of a name for ourselves, I’ve noticed a few folks advertising under our names on Google…

And you know what? I want to see more ads!

Actually, if you are reading this and have not done a single thing with Adwords, feel free to use my name “Ferny Ceballos” or “Fernando Ceballos” for your first PPC ad.  I promise there will be some good targeted traffic.

Just don’t say anything negative.  And even if you do, I’ll probably just email you personally and kindly ask you change the ad, which is what Ann Sieg should have done to begin with.

This is how the conversation would have gone:

Ann: Hey Ferny, nice to talk to you.

Ferny: Same here. How can I help you, Ann?

Ann: Hey umm… do you mind taking down or changing that Google ad using my name. I don’t want to confuse my customers.  I’d really appreciate it.

Ferny: Sure, Ann. No problem.

… then continue talking about normal “guru” stuff.

Instead, she sends Bernie to come bark at us on her behalf and makes threats, which is a bit crass for a first introduction.  I mean you might as well light a bag of dog poop on fire on my front porch and issued a declaration of war.

Personal Invitation to Ann Sieg…

So for as long as Ann’s legal team harasses networkers for a few Google ads, I’m going to demand a response from Ann herself regarding this.

Personally, I have an affinity for the days when dueling was legal and disputes were settled honorably… or you at least contacted the person directly to settle it.

But then again, it’s not too late…

I’m inviting Ann Sieg to use the medium of social media to state her case as to why it is ok for her to use trademarked terms on her webpages and ads, (and teach her affiliates to do this) yet threaten suit against networkers using her name, which is NOT trademarked.

I see no better place to do this than on BetterNetworker… right here on this page.

-Ferny Ceballos
SEONetworker.com (Oh, you can also use “SEO Networker” as a keyword too!)

Exhibit A – SpyFu Data Dump
Exhibit B – Link to Company Specific Landing Pages on AnnSieg.com
Exhibit C – List of Companies used in Landing Pages on AnnSieg.com

Disclaimer: Use the above mentioned PPC strategies at your own discretion. I am not responsible if “Bernie the lawyer” comes after you for taking Ann’s advice.

Original Post on BetterNetworker.com