I Think I’ve Been Banned!

I’m very excited right now. I have an interview lined up with Willie Crawford on his new Blog Talk Radio Show. It’s about a little pet project called The Rookie’s Report.

Now I know you’re all looking at my title today and saying, “What does that have to to with being banned? And from what are you banned? And why did they ban you?” I promise, I’ll get to that.

My first affiliate marketing nightmare has to do with a site called Kimkins. And my story begins with the simple act of crashing my car into a building and falling in love.

About 5 years ago, I was on my way to a job I had at the time, and upon turning a corner I missed the light and proceeded to smack my car into a building. This was my first accident, and I was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. The officer at the scene was very calming and concerned, and upon his leaving me he said,”Just go out tonight.” His intentions were to get my mind off the whole thing, but anyone who has been in a car accident will probably agree – that doesn’t happen so easily.

So in my attempt to appease the officer, I went home, cleaned myself up, and went to a little local restaurant I had formerly worked at and propped myself up to the bar. I was still in tears. It was more than just losing the car that day and hitting a building. I had a job interview lined up for the following Monday which would definitely require the use of a car.

The usual cronies were at the bar, and they all knew me well as I had served them in the past. They are a riley bunch, and my story of woe amused them to no end.

I needed a car. But who would loan a car to a girl that just smacked one into a building?

A gentleman appeared.

“I have an extra car you could borrow,” he said. The thoughts that went through my mind were all over the place. Was he a car sales man? Is he insane? Do I consider borrowing a car from a stranger I just met in a bar?

The riley bunch was having a field day. I think the thoughts going on in their minds may have been along the same lines. My head was spinning and I still couldn’t think straight.

“Take my card and call me” the gentleman said. Phew. I had some time to think about the whole thing. It was Friday, and I had until Monday to figure it all out.

Sunday rolled around and the magical car fairy was no where to be seen. I pulled the card out of my wallet, and took the stranger up on his offer.

Monday morning rolled in, I went to my interview, and got the job. The car went back to my new found friend, and I thought about the kind gesture. I wanted to get to know this guy. I was going through enough things at the time that love was the furthest thing from my mind. I carried on with the pursuit of the new job, and decided to keep an eye out for an opportunity to repay the favor to the stranger.

Weeks went by, and all of the sudden it seemed like I was running into the gentleman everywhere. We were both single, and liked to eat. Unplanned, we would run into each other just before dinner time and wind up out at a nice restaurant for each others company.

About 5 weeks later it finally happened. My curiosity got the best of me and I jumped forward and kissed him. He didn’t see it coming. Within weeks, we were dating and completely in love.

A funny thing happens when you fall in love. Colors are brighter, the birds sing louder, and food tastes great! Not just any food. Wait, scratch that…yes, any food.

My love grew me a whole 60+ pounds.

And we fast forward to 2007. I was ready to tie the knot and move forward with the love of my life. In February I was working on a little video editing job of my parents 50th wedding anniversary, and upon getting the photo’s of the event from relatives I was struck in a moment of shock and terror. There was a photo with a chunky girl on the end. Oh my. It was me.

I couldn’t bare to look at it, and the real terror hit when I realized that fat girl would be featured in my own up and coming nuptuals.

With only a few months until our planned unplanned day (elopement), I put finding a fast diet at the top of my priority list. I had done Atkins in the past, and wanted to see if there were any new developments on the subject. That’s when I found it. An adorable little site. Claims of how the founder of this Atkins mimicking diet had lost 198 lbs in eleven months. WOW! This is just what I needed! And a lifetime membership to boot!

There was no time to spare. I wanted to know the secrets, and I was determined to be a skinny mini in my wedding dress. I was ready and so was my paypal account. I immediately joined and proceeded to immerse myself in this site.

Twenty-five days went by, and I had dropped 22 pounds. Whoohoo! Oh the euphoria of losing weight and losing it so fast. This was better than food! This was liberating and the best thing I had ever found. This worked, and I believed in it because it worked for me. I could sell this. Yeah, there’s a great idea. I’ll tell everyone of my great success and sell this diet. It’s a sure fire winner.

I joined the affiliate program, got my little site up and running, and within 3 days made my first sale. The joy was overwhelming. I was losing weight, making money, and getting married. 2007 was going to be a great year.

Another big break reared it’s head. My great diet/membership site that I was selling was going to be featured on the cover of Woman’s World Magazine. This was an affiliate marketers wet dream. Massive advertising for all who were in on it. Tons of traffic to my site with the proper ads. I would be prepared for this. It was all I could think about. A great product that worked and I really believed in. I trusted the founder, as she looked so serene sitting in her lawn chair on the main page of the site.

The big magazine was released just weeks after the announcement, and I was ready. My site was informative, yet not overwhelming, my links were in place, and I was ready to receive the fruits of my own labors in the event.

Well, the response was so overwhelming, that my little advertising budget was blown out in just 5 days. Oh no! In addition, my fiance was in the middle of changing careers, and I too had left my paying job in anticipation of my success with a career in affiliate marketing. I would have to skim back on the ad spend, and wait for my monthly pay out to continue on.

Pay day came, and other unforseen expenses and my promotion came to a dead stop.

Other financial crises occurred that I won’t go into here, but my diet promotion would be delayed and I was not happy.

After losing around 60 pounds in 4 months time on my fast diet, it was time to take a rest. I was at a really comfortable weight for the summer. I was also feeling a bit drained and exhaused from all the events surrounding me at the time. I would take a break, regroup, and prepare for the next big promotion.

Finally, on October 8th 2007 I was ready to take action again and start my promotions again. To begin, I did a quick google search to see where all my competition was and what their sites were offering. I wanted to promote the best offer and win over my future customers.

Like the day I saw the fat girl in the picture, my heart dropped when low and behold no one was promoting. Even more concerning were all the anti Kimkins blogs and sites that had appeared on the web. It was then that I remembered a little thread that had been brought to my attention a few months back. It was on the lowcarbfriends forum, and it was called “Why the facination with Kimmer?”

Someone had questioned the before and after pictures of our all mighty diet leader known as Kimmer. When I had initially seen this thread (months earlier) I shrugged it off, as my before and after pictures were very different. I was getting double takes in the street. This had to be some silly disgruntled people who had nothing better to do, and were jealous of the success.

But now there was something going on there. That thread had grown to massive proportions and was many threads long. As I write this today it has just reached into #11.

I jumped into the thread under and anonymous handle, and tried to defend the diet. It had worked. So what was the problem?

The problem was that this diet is considered vlcd or very low calorie diet. The founder promoted 500 calories a day, or even lower. It was not a diet for just anyone. The possible side effects could be devastating down the road. And here’s the real kicker. That serene lady in the lawn chair I had grown to love, and pictured conversations with in my head, was not Kimmer. Nor were the other pictures that were supposed to be her.

Just before the promotion of the Woman’s World magazine, the Kimkins site got a major overhaul. A new picture of “Kimmer” was added. It was of a beautiful thin woman in a red dress. We would later find out, that woman was a picture borrowed from a Russian Brides Web Site.

That same spinning started again in my head, like the day of the car crash. I was drawn into the Facination thread, and wanted to know more about the members who were uncovering the scandal. Many of them had been banned from the Kimkins site left and right, just for voicing their concerns. Not only was the diet a sham, but so was it’s owner.

A story like this is bad for affiliate marketers all around, and a warning for all. I want to share my story and not only save my fellow dieters, but my fellow aspiring affiliate marketers. A site like Kimkins is just bad business. Products offering quick fixes based on false claims leave a nasty stain on the web, and destroy the trust that other marketers work so hard to achieve.

A couple of days ago I began to spread the word about my upcoming appearance with Willie Crawford. Yesterday I went to log into my still active Kimkins account, but there seems to be a problem. Invalid password or member name. I’m waiting for tech support to get back to me, but it’s not looking good, and honestly, I think I’ve been banned.

        

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