That may be an exaggeration, but there certainly is less going on on the blogosphere. A result in the proceedings will probably get some people talking for awhile, maybe even the media. Personally, I think the media is done with this human drama.

I am not in a reading mood today. My most insightful observation is related to the clerical quality standards. One page was copied on an pretty extreme diagonal. I wish people took more pride in their work.

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.

Many people who looked at the success stories last year on Kimkins.com had doubts. Some people who were in contact with Heidi were treated to the kind of back stories that um, are generally considered unmakeuppable. When I look at all those Russian Bride pictures now, I find it hard to believe that anyone could have swallowed the whole farce. The majority of them are wearing clothing and makeup that, while not bizarre by any means, are not typical of Americans in the 21st century. I guess the craftiness of the fraud involved placement and cropping. This reminds me of the Jessica Seinfeld book about getting your kids to eat their vegetable through clandestine methods.

The lady in the red dress that was supposed to be Kimmer would be comparible to Jessica Seinfeld putting a cherry TOMATO on top of a sundae and serving it to her kid.

All Kimkins diet related articles have been removed from Awesome-Articles.com in response to the following news story:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4162053&page=1

Kimkins.com is still up and running, but it is reassuring to see how responsive the article posting sites have been.

The focus of Slamboard has shifted away from the Kimkins Controversy lately, but the older posts are a great resource for everyone with an interest in the story. There are now lots of vocal detractors with inside information because most of the former insiders fled when they realized or suspected the truth… or they got kicked out for asking questions. Slamboard posts all comments that are not spam. There are several comments from Kimmer’s defenders and they make for an interesting read.

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.

Actually, I am curious as to how many people would have seen this item on Good Morning America. I was surprised to learn that the TV show is aired in Europe, the Middle East, the Philippines and Australia. The show spent a lot of years as the #1 morning show in America. In November 2006, GMA averaged 5.1 million viewers. It has been a close second to The Today Show for many years.

So it’s quite likely that millions of people saw this news item. The only website that was mentioned and shown on television was Heidi’s site. It may be a bit early to look for the effect of the television exposure on her traffic, but so far it seems to have been minimal.