A MIXED MESSAGE FROM SOMEONE “IN THE KNOW”

(Frem ISMIntraining.com dated July 8, 2008 Links are broken but will be updated)

Almost daily I receive UCE (unsolicited commercial email) and I am sure most that read this blog do as well. I have even done some post in the past about how the vendors in the industry do not follow the CAN SPAM Act. But what is amazing is when I receive UCE from someone who proclaims to be

Masters of eMarketing

Yep that bold, in a message that reeks spam from the top to the bottom. It was an alleged personal email from someone who works for Jim Zeigler based my membership at Ralph Paglia’s social network, Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community.

Please keep in mind I had no idea who Jim Ziegler was prior to receiving this spam email promoting “The Masters of Internet Sales and eMarketing Seminar” in Atlanta, GA. Mixed message indeed. Apparently he is someone who makes his living from publishing content as a dealer advocate, training seminars and paid speaking engagements. Some of the things he publishes make me really wonder what his true motivations are. I can tell by his pen demeanor he will not be real happy with this post reviewing his product.

FYI, Bully Marketing is dead, unless you are in the make money online niche. Well I guess he is in that sub niche of the automobile industry, he just calls it training and motivation.

The SPAM was based on a an abuse of a social networking platform wanting to sell a training package on how to market online. I just need to ask….

What is he training here?

• How to abuse social networks to harvest email addresses?
• How to send mass spam using yahoo email accounts?
• How to alienate a prospect before they even desire what you are selling?

Believe me I know how to do these things already and have in the past made a lot of money doing it via affiliate marketing. Those days are long gone they died out with the CAN SPAM Act and affiliate networks setting guidelines as it became evident this type of marketing did not bring prospects in, but only infuriated people and opened up legal problems.

Let me make a recommendation to you Mr Ziegler before you attempt to sell a training program that allegedly teaches people:

• Social eNetworking
• Building your on-line brand with effective marketing strategies
• Strategic eMarketing and SEO techniques

You need to learn the ropes yourself.

Social networking sites have built in measures to prevent overt spam such as this but it does happen. The email address that was harvested and spammed was set up exclusively to open an account at Squidoo.com and posted in my profile at Ralph’s site. I do not use that email for any other purpose. Ralph has confirmed with me that he DID NOT provide Mr Ziegler with any email addresses from his site and even pointed out what I already knew. My email address was mined from there, either using software or by his employees going through the profiles and scraping the email addresses. Nothing new or novel about that.

Terms of Service at ning make this a violation of the communal standards in place to safeguard member from receiving spam based on their participation.

This type of behavior is illegal. The letter did not have any of the components in it for it comply with 15 § U.S.C. 7704 (a)(5). (i) It did not contain the verbiage that the message was an advertisement. (ii) It did not contain an opt out method. (iii) It did not contain the physical address of the sender. The Ziegler corporation sells law book on their website and they cannot even abide the Can Spam Act. The fact that the employees that sent the emails in their names with a deceptive subject title does not give them a pass on having to comply with the Can SPAM Act as they were not members of the networking site. How can you trust anything coming from them? If you can more power to you. This is the type of behavior that can cause you problems in your email marketing efforts. Legal Disclaimer : I am not an attorney, do not construe my opinion as legal advice!

It does appear that they are going to also be pushing video blogging and “effective” blogging techniques. After reviewing The Ziegler Corporation’s blog and online properties I do not see what is very effective about them.
Remember you lead by example and if this is the example you wish to follow you are very gullible. Remember the saying “A fool and his money are soon parted”. Don’t be a fool!!

You can learn to do these things on your own all of that is available for you now. Just use Google to learn how to set up a wordpress blog or you can wait I will set up a tutorial to show you how to set up and effective lead generating blog at a price that everyone can afford. FREE

Stay tuned at Internet Sales Manager in Training

UPDATE 7/18/08

I had given my dealer notice to pursue other opportunities on 7/15/2008. We reached an agreement for me to train someone to take my place. Daily I received communication from someone inside my store that I need to be careful with “blog postings” that I have made and was asked to leave yesterday in an amicable fashion. This was immediately after an online chat with someone inside the “Ziegler Corporations”.

Apparently there have been multiple emails and conversations with my former employer. What is amusing is the grief I received from people inside of the company and they have not even read the whole post here. All referral traffic from the corporate mail server only went to the home page of http://ismintraining.com.

I have received tremendous support from people in the industry as well as some not so supportive interactions. I have heard innuendo, suppositions and have some of my own, which was shared with the contact inside of the Ziegler camp.

Even some of the interactions I have had with people that do not have a clue about online networking have made some comical statements about this blog post and the organizations mentioned here.

No contact from JZ directly. I welcome it in an amicable setting. The original intent of the post was to show the etiquette needed when involved in social networking and to give an example of how not to leverage those mediums. Apparently Mr Ziegler has construed this as a personal attack and that was not the intent.

It is not him that was attacked. His product was scrutinized based on the way his company chose to advertise it. Maybe he and I can take this as a learning experience and move on and do what we do best.

Deliver our message in the best way we see fit.

Update 7/23/2008 :

Received a phone call from “Da Man”. Once the call was answered and he confirmed he was speaking with we me were disconnected. I promptly returned his call thinking that maybe it was a bad connection on my end. He stated “Nope it was not on your end, this is Jim Ziegler and just wanted to confirm that you would answer the phone. Click….” He would not answer again. I have confirmed that the number the call was placed from is one that he advertises on several of his online listings.

Not long ago I had to take my 10 yo sons cell phone away from him for making crank calls. I think I need to get my child to explain to him how rude it is to call people and hang up. He, the 10 yo, remembers his lesson well. Maybe next week if when I take the kids to 6 Flags we can stop in and let him give “The Master of eMarketing” a lesson on phone etiquette.

I misconstrued the reason for the calls per Jim Ziegler:

JAMES A. ZIEGLER, CSP, HSG “Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 5:37 PM”>5:37 PM (25 minutes ago) My apology for accidentally calling you. I was actually trying to reach Carl Gregory Hyundai, your former employer doing research concerning my case. (against who for what?) I used the phone number on their Hyundai web site and, unfortunately, it was still your phone number. It was not intentional. Sorry to bother you. J.C. Hurst and I and my employees have been instructed by attorney NOT to communicate you while we have an ongoing legal case happening. I am sure you understand…JIM James A. Ziegler, CSP, HSG This Man Means Business (R)

Update July 26, 2008

Received a letter from Myers & Fuller P.A. Demanding that this blog post be taken down. You can see the letter at scribd.com the live link is Letter from Jim Ziegler’s Attorney to Paul Rushing

This was attached to that letter : Draft complaint James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing

My reply to this letter can be viewed at My Response to James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing

My Second Letter removing my retraction: My Second Response to James Ziegler vs Paul Rushing