Kimkins Controversy - Kimkins Scam

Unbiased, a Definition

Most people with a reasonable amount of education and experienced already know what unbiased means. I am not claiming to be unbiased. If you were to Google the word ‘Kimkins’ you would see the word unbiased, which means free from favoritism or self-interest, describing Kimkins Review, the affiliate that to this date still publishes the fraudulent 198lb weight loss claim made by Heidi Diaz.

I think that affiliates have an undeniable self-interest. I have no problem with the concept of affiliate marketing, but those who do it well don’t lie. The best way to sell something is to actually believe that it is a good product and that your readers will benefit from buying it. I think many of us could name a small handful of people who put their names behind Kimkins when they believed that she was an actual weight loss success and then quickly put Kimkins behind them when they found out (or in some cases strongly suspected) the truth.

Anti-Kimkins Blogs of Note: Jimmy

I’m guessing that about 0.2% of the people that end up reading my title will react by thinking to themselves Jimmy who?

Jimmy is a low carb weight loss success story who went on to become a pro blogger and the host of a vibrant free low carb community. He has a lot of personality.

Jimmy spent months as a Kimkins affiliate and drew harsh criticism for a part of that time. His audio interview with Kimmer (who at that time was not admitting to her identity as Heidi Diaz) was a defining moment of this saga. I think you can pinpoint the moment when he stopped giving Kimmer the benefit of the doubt. He asked her if the picture of the woman in the red dress was, in fact, her. She said it was, in a tone of voice very much like the one that Heidi Diaz would later use to say No Comment to Chip Yost. The popularity of the audio interview with Jimmy Moore meant that thousands of people had absolutely no doubt that Heidi Diaz was Kimmer as soon as she spoke on camera. Surprisingly, Kimmer continued to deny being Heidi Diaz for some time after that.

Anti-Kimkins Blogs of Note: Kimkins Scam

The blogger over at Kimkins Scam is quite a task master. Heidi Diaz and various affiliates have promoted the Kimkins website in a lot of different corners of the internet. Much of this effort can be swept away with a few well written complaints. There are various links and instructions related to this effort on Kimkins Scam. It is part of a broader effort to have the Kimkins site cease to exist.

The blog also has most of the Russian Bride Pics in one convenient location.

Heidi is Blogging up a Storm

The Blogspot blog authored by ‘Kimmer’ is probably the most active and relevant ‘affiliate’ blog left. There is a lot of well constructed new content there. I am not being sarcastic, I really think it is a well designed and well written blog. There is even a comment or two on the blog. They are both from people who mysteriously address their comment to somebody other than Kimmer, as if they mistakenly think it was posted by someone else. Both commentators also created a Blogger account near the time that they made their comment on Heidi’s Blog. Not surprisingly, they are both very positive comments.

There is no way know if Heidi wrote the comments herself, but it seems plausible.

Kimkins Review

This episode of the Dick Van Dyke show is called Never Name a Duck.

Professional affiliate marketer Wouter Van Dyke has done what most pros do with sites that market products that have had the new wear off. He has moved on and ceased working on Kimkins Review but he has left it on autopilot so that it can still potentially generate some revenue. Some Kimkins critics have tried to convince him to remove the fraudulent claims from the site, using the argument that he is at risk of civil or legal action. Wouter is probably correct in his assumptions about the situation. The old TV show has two opening credit scenes, the one shown above and also one in which Van Dyke deftly walks around the ottoman.

Following Kimkins Affiliates to the End of the Internet

I was bored and uninspired this morning. I had already used the first page of a Google search for Kimkins as inspiration for a post or two. Today I decided to look at the last page. There are almost 60 pages of results for ‘kimkins’

I found an undated blog post from a health and fitness blog with the title “Who Is Kimmer - Inventor of the Kimkins Diet?”

The post does not answer the question that comprises its title. No fewer than 8 commenters were happy to add some details. I am wondering if anyone has written up a definitive case study from the point of view of an affiliate marketer with regard to the Kimkins controversy. I am not talking about the type of affiliate who stakes their personal reputation on the things that they promote, I am talking about the anonymous pros. It would be interesting to read what they have say about the whole saga… which details were important to them and which ones weren’t.

Search Engine De-optimization of Kimkins Review

If you were to go to Google and do a web search for Kimkins, the highest ranking affiliate site would be KimkinsReview.com. I do not know if the owner of this website is still getting checks from Heidi, but the site is probably still generating the occasional sale. Most other high ranking affiliates were quick to see the disadvantages inherent in doing business with Heidi Diaz when various facts came to light. Some even left without having to see proof. The author of KimkinsReview.com is anonymous and did not even remove the 198 lb weight loss claim from their site after the pictures came out. I am writing this post to ask other bloggers to remove any outgoing links that they may have leading to KimkinsReview.com. If any readers are curious about the site, please look at it via archive.org.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070410090125/http://www.kimkinsreview.com/

Less Weight Loss to Watch on Kimkins

It turns out that two individuals whose weight loss was being chronicled on the landing page of Kimkins.com had been recruited by Jeannie. Jeannie aka Tippy Toes is no longer on staff at Kimkins and these individuals asked to have their pictures removed from the homepage. I have heard that they were banned shortly after. Their pictures and statistics reflected typical weight loss for a low carb diet. The removal of these pictures leaves only Heidi Diaz and Singing Lass on the watch us lose graphic. This table promises real time weekly updates. These have not been forthcoming from Singing Lass.

For more details, check out mariasol.

Page Not Found

I have a page on this blog that was written many months ago. It has links to several blogs written by people who were at the time actively participating in and blogging about Kimkins. I called it Kimkins Diet Support. I just clicked on a bunch of links on the pages and found many 404 pages and several bloggers who just stopped posting in October. I am going to remove the page tomorrow. It is not good for SEO to have links that go out to Page Not Found. Everyone should keep this in mind for when Kimkins.com goes away.

Affiliate Programs Run on Money

Many of the affiliates that had names and faces have either walked away from Kimkins, or run away as the fraud was being brought to light. Some affiliates are hardcore anything for money types and they will stay until the money runs dry. I think it has run dry.

The pages that these people built to draw people to Kimkins will probably remain on the internet for some time. The people who couldn’t be bothered with ethics aren’t going to bother going to the trouble of pulling up their traps. If the sites have good search engine placement, you might see new ads from other diet sites showing up on these Kimkins affiliate sites.