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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

For more details, check out mariasol.

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.