I just got back from a live training in Las Vegas with Mark Hoverson, Ann Sieg, Mike Klingler and other successful internet marketers. During the event, Hoverson interviewed Ann Sieg. In the interview, Ann shared who some of her trainers were, and who she follows. The list is below. Notice that the same names keep coming up when you ask successful marketers who they learned from. The top trainers in this business are not hard to find. All the top marketers studied with them. And it’s not that big a group. Isn’t it a good idea to know who they are?

What’s The Big Deal About Ann Sieg’s Trainers?

Plenty. Ann Sieg is one of the most successful internet marketers today. Do you also want to be successful on the web? Do you want your business to pull in tens, hundreds or even thousands of leads daily? Do you want sales coming in automatically, flowing like water? Well, the secret to accomplishing all these things is this. Learn what she learned. Master what she mastered. Take the same or similar trainings.

Read The Good Stuff

Some of you may say, “Read? Oh no not that!” But Ann Sieg and Mark Hoverson both LOVE TO READ. No accident here. Read what they read and you’ll crack the code to internet wealth. And reading is cheap. Paperbacks are way less expensive than spending thousands of dollars on trainings. Trainings work, but reading does too. It’s a matter of preference.

Fun Is Fundamental

But don’t force yourself. Read what you enjoy. If the book in your hands is putting you to sleep, put it down. Find another book that excites you. You’ll make much better progress if you’re having fun.

The Important Point

Where am I going with this? Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in my first year as a marketer. Keep absorbing whatever you can. Whether it’s through webinars, live trainings, reading, video or audio trainings. Whatever you like. But keep at it. At some point you’ll say, “Oh my god! I get it! I see how it’s done! It’s really simple! I can do this!” The point is, YOU WILL GET THERE. When you’ve absorbed enough stuff, the whole thing will suddenly make sense to you. You’ll crack the code.

Equally important is to keep a balance between training and taking action. While you’re training, start a blog, get a twitter account, write some articles, do some pay-per-click, try selling something on clickbank. But remember this. And it’s a little paradoxical. Taking action is important because it gives you experience. But your actions will be most effective when they follow good training.

As Mike Klingler says, “Too much action without enough training leads to frustration. Too much training without action gives no results.”

Recommended Trainers and Authors

Here’s Ann’s trainers and coaches.

• Dan S. Kennedy

  Right off the bat, Ann mentioned Dan Kennedy. Kennedy also has a subscription site at www.dankennedy.com. Here are some of his best known books.

  • “The Ultimate Sales Letter. Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales.”
  • “No B.S. Business Success.”
  • “No B.S. Sales Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Business Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt,
    Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich”
  • “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs”
  • “No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs”
• Frank Kern
  Ann and some of the other Renegade trainers were themselves trained by Frank Kern. Kern has retired from teaching and now only accepts private clients and platinum members ($300/month). Fortunately, there’s a lot of good, free information on his blog at www.masscontrolsite.com/blog/. I highly recommend spending some time on Kern’s site. He is an incredible teacher. He simplifies everything. He takes all the magic out of the internet. Best of all, you’ll laugh while you read. Mark and Ann are both platinum members, of course.

  Incidently, Frank Kern praises several other internet marketing gurus in one of his videos: Eben Pagan, Jeff Walker, and John Reese. Always good to know who the real gurus are…

• Brendon Burchard
  Both Ann Sieg and Mark Hoverson said they follow Brendon Burchard. His website is www.BrendonBurchard.com. He is author of “Life’s Golden Ticket” and “The Student Leadership Guide.” On his site he offers a free coaching course and newsletter. Like Tony Robbins, his stories are deeply moving, inspiring and important for all of us to hear. He shares several amazing stories in videos on his site.
• Eben Pagan
  Eben Pagan is the trainers’ trainer. When I ask top marketers who their trainers are, his name comes up more than any other. Mark Hoverson mentioned that he and Ann Sieg attended the same Eben Pagan seminar. One of his sites, www.GuruMasterMindVideoBlog.com, contains a ton of valuable information in the free videos. Well worth watching. Also check out www.AltitudeBlog.com, which is the info page for his $10,000 altitude training.
• Rich Schefren
  Rich’s focus is on showing you how to build businesses that grow with or without you. He means it. In the following video, he talks about the things that most of us do wrong that result in little or no growth. Rich Schefren’s Internet Building Process. Then he shows you (and me) how to set up the business so that it gives long term growth and significant profits. As he puts it, “it’s about getting the maximum amount of pleasure and profits in your online business.”

  Here’s another video you may find interesting. Rich Schefren: What Do You Really Know About Business?

  There’s lots more to explore on Schefren’s blog, at www.strategicprofits.com If you are having problems with being overwhelmed with too much to do, watch the first video. It will save your life and your business.

• Andy Jenkins
  Andy Jenkins teaches online business. He is a master at simplifying complex topics. He happens to have gone to NYU’s film school. Needless to say, he also teaches a lot about producing high quality videos cheaply and easily. His two blogs are www.AndyJenkinsBlog.com and www.VideoMarketingBoss.com. There are more of his videos on youtube than you can shake a stick at. Just do a search on the keywords ‘andy jenkins video boss’ and you’ll find a bunch of them.
• John Engle
  John Engle is a coach who specializes in helping organizations not only function better but thrive. John facilitates group processes using something called Open Space Technology. You can learn more about this on either of his sites, www.JohnEngle.net and www.BeyondBorders.net.
• Perry Marshall
  Perry Marshall is THE pay-per-click guru. His latest book is entitled, “Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords: How to Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes.” He is not only a Google Adwords expert, but he is also an excellent teacher. His book does an exceptional job of simplifying and clarifying what it takes to master internet marketing and do it quickly with Adwords. Here’s a link to his blog, which is consistently informative and in a timely way. www.PerryMarshall.com.
• David Garfinkel
  If you doubt that developing your copywriting skills is the single most important thing you can do for your business (and maybe your life), please listen to this interview of David Garfinkel by Ann Sieg. David Garfinkel is perhaps the leading copywriting coach and teacher. In 2008 Ann hired David to train herself and several members of her team. In 2009 the launch of the Renegade Professional trainings generated over $1.1 million in sales in 72 hours. Ann attributes this success to Garfinkel’s coaching.
  Ann Sieg interviews David Garfinkel
• Michel and Sylvie Fortin
  Expert copywriters Michel and Sylvie Fortin, www.michelfortin.com, offer an extraordinary wealth of material on their blog. They are also trainers focused on internet businesses. Their blog contains, “Hundreds of step-by-step video tutorials and tools show you how to find profitable markets, get product ideas, source the best products to sell, build profitable websites easily, and drive qualified traffic. Plus, discover how to outsource it all.”

  Most exciting is that Michel and Sylvie Fortin have a new training site at www.SuccessChef.com. This new site addresses many of the problems with existing trainings that ultimately result in most students failing to create a profitable business. If you’ve had trainings that didn’t get you to the level you expected, give SuccessChef a look. There’s a lot of wisdom in their approach. I love their attitude toward teaching: “When our students fail, we, as teachers, have failed.”

• Clayton Makepeace
  Clayton Makepeace is another top copywriter. His site is www.MakepeaceTotalPackage.com. What makes the Makepeace Total Package amazing is the incredible number of quality articles that are offered at no cost. It is free to join, giving you immediate access to hundreds of articles, mostly written by Clayton Makepeace. His wisdom and wit make each article a treasure. I have not once been able to put an article down without finishing it. I’m usually compelled to read several at a time, because he makes learning so much fun. Plus, you benefit from his years of experience as a copywriter. He also promotes his books and trainings on the site.
• John Carlton
  
  John Carlton is another top copywriter and teacher. His blog can be found at www.John-Carlton.com. As with Makepeace, there’s a wealth of first rate copywriting tips on Carlton’s blog. Free. Carlton also offers several products for mastering copywriting. One is a self-study course based on 20 years of teaching. Another more drastic approach involves direct tutoring from Carlton (at a 5 figure price). Incidently, Perry Marshall trained with John Carlton as well as Eben Pagan, Rich Schefren and Frank Kern. Quite an impressive list!
• Gary Halbert
  A billion dollar copywriter and direct response giant. His copywriting course is still available. GaryHalbertCopywriting.com.
• Claude Hopkins
  Claude Hopkins is known for his book “Scientific Advertising,” which was written in the early 1900’s. He was the earliest advocate of split testing and other scientific methods in advertising. His book should be part of everyone’s marketing library.

Left Brain Approach

Appealing to the left brain means appealing to reason. In other words, you are providing the rational reasons, or benefits, for buying a product. An appeal to the left brain would involve the following steps when writing the ad copy.

• List the benefits of having the product.
• Use the most powerful of these benefits to craft a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
• Establish the USP right up front and repeat throughout your copy.
• Fully develop every “Reason Why” your prospects should buy.

Right Brain Approach

Appealing to the right brain means appealing to the prospect’s emotions. These are the emotions in areas that the product addresses. For example, if your product is health related, the emotions you might address could be the fear of being sick if you don’t use the product, or the positive feeling of well being if you do use the product. To elicit these emotions you paint the appropriate picture for you target market (best done by telling a story).

Mix Right Brain with Left

In the article, Clayton presents us with the question, “What could possibly be better than leading with a tangible benefit?” His answer is to mix the left brain with the right, leading with the right.  In other words, sell with emotion (and relevant imagery) and justify with reason (benefits).   This involves the following steps, as presented by Clayton.

• Figure out what the prospect’s resident emotions are regarding areas the product addresses.
• Figure out which of those resident emotions are the strongest, most compelling, most “dominant” in his or her life.
• Identify the benefits the product offers that will most effectively enhance his strongest positive emotions and/or resolve his negative ones.
• Address those benefits in ways that keep the prospect’s dominant emotions working with you, and never against you.
• As you review and edit your sales copy, keep making this kind of emotional connection at every opportunity.

Conclusion

While these notes are here to summarize the key points of the article, you really should read it. Education should always be this much fun!

Click here to read Clayton’s article.

Generally, blog designers don’t pay enough attention to what’s in the sidebars. And guess what? It matters. Well chosen sidebar content can increase readership, increase stickiness and increase responses to promotionals.

These points are addressed in depth in a recent article by Clayton Makepeace. The article discusses the do’s and don’t’s of sidebars. Though the context of the discussion is the magalog, the points apply equally well to blogs and websites.   Incidently, according to Wikipedia, ‘A magalog is a promotional copy of a magazine, usually in a 12-page catalog format.’ Magalog = magazine + catalog.

To summarize briefly, there are two kinds of readers: casual scanners, and straight-through readers. The readers will read through most of the article from beginning to end. However, the casual scanners will flip through the article, sometimes in no particular order, looking for something that catches their attention. The scanners are more likely to find something that interests them if the sidebar guides them to it.  In other words, “great sidebars turn scanners into readers.”

For 21 smart kinds of sidebar content, you’ll have to read the article, which is here. You’ll be amazed at the number of good ideas you’ll get for your sidebars.

By the way, you can see a beautiful example of a well designed sidebar on Clayton’s website, www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

Click here for Clayton’s article, “How to Create a Killer Ad”.

My favorite site for learning how to write compelling copy is Clayton Makepeace’s site. This site contains hundreds of free articles, mostly written by Clayton Makepeace, one of the foremost copywriters in the US.

Today’s gem from Clayton’s archive is an article written by Daniel Levis, entitled Copywriting Witchcraft And The Black Arts Of Persuasion Part – 1. In the article Levis discusses some subtle and dangerously persuasive techniques, that I first encountered during a study of NLP (NeuroLiguistic Programming) and hypnosis many years ago. I shouldn’t be surprised that Madison avenue has also discovered these techniques. To level the playing field, have a look by clicking the title above or going to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com and clicking ‘Archives’ just above the menu bar at the top.

Update: 7-22-09
The second part of Daniel Levis’ article came out today: Copywriting Witchcraft And The Black Arts Of Persuasion Part – 2.