Huge thanks to Eworldwire for putting together some great press releases for us.  There are a few more in the pipeline already, but I thought I would let you know to take a look over at the Top Affiliate Challenge Media Page if you have the time.

The three releases that are out are some catchup work to get us current on their wire service.  Eworldwire is more than a press release circulation system.  They are actually a wire service, much like the AP and Reuters.

Their experienced copywriters are a joy to work with and crank out some high-quality stuff FAST!  In fact, we are busting our rumps trying to keep up with the things they need from us to get is the coverage the show deserves!

The next time you are thinking about firing off a release, check out Eworldwire.  We are all impressed and we think you will be too.

Ok folks, this is the moment a lot of you have been waiting for!  The Season 1 Top Affiliate Challenge Strategy Guide will be available for purchase Monday!

During the design of our voting systems, the establishment of the audition and contestant rules, and the integration of our sponsors, our team identified several ways a contestant could gain a leg up by using the rules to their advantage.

We assembled much of that experience together into the Season 1 top Affiliate Challenge Strategy Guide.  The $49.99 strategy guide is nearly 50 pages long and contains suggestions for video content, video promotion, voting strategies and more!

In fact, if you have wondered EXACLTY how votes are scored in the system, the EXACT formula used in calculating scores, and EXACTLY what we want to see when we assign high base scores on videos.

One example of a simple tip included in the strategy guide is a Super Vote strategy.  If you buy a Super Votefor yourself, you must also apply it to two other contestants.  But if you had the strategy guide, you might realize that if three contestants team up, each contestant can buy a Super Vote for themselves and then apply it toward the other two partners.  This way, each participant gets three Super-Votes for one $5.00 investment.

Did you think of that one?  There are tons of great tips on all sorts of subjects, including a heads up on what to expect if you make it on the show in July.

All of the revenue collected for the strategy guides will be invested in the show itself - this is not a profit center for us. 

Our goal was to create a strategy guide that will give those who buy it a huge advantage over those who do not, so give it some thought over the weekend and be one of the first to lay hands on this masterpiece on Monday!

On a more positive note, the much discussed Super Voting system is now live on the bottom of all Top Affiliate Challenge Auditions!

For a super-detailed description of the super voting system, see this thread in the forum.  In a nutshell, a Super Vote can be purchased for $5.00 and is worth 25 perfect ‘10′ votes that are added to your score’s average.

The catch is that you must also apply the same value to the scores of two other auditions.  This is done to help prevent one person from buying their way on to the show entirely.

You can buy a Super Vote on your audition, or ask your fans to by one on your behalf.  Just go to the URL for your audition and look to the right of the scoring scale.  Right after the ‘10′ button is the super vote link.

Click the Super Vote link to select the audition as the Super Vote’s primary recipient.  Next you will be asked to select two other auditions to benefit from the super vote you are purchasing.

After you have selected the two secondary recipients for the Super Vote, you will be taken to a confirmation page to make certain you have selected the auditions you intended.

After you have reviewed the Super Vote details, click on the Make Payment button.  This will take you to a PayPal page where you can use your PayPal account or any major credit card to pay the $5 for the Super Vote.  After your payment is complete you will be taken to a confirmation page confirming your purchase.

There are no limits to how many super votes you can buy, or how many others can buy for you.  The Super Vote an be used to almost instantly propel an audition into the Top 10 widget in the site’s sidebar.  This dramatically increases your exposure on the website and helps you get additional votes.

Since one person can only vote on each audition once per day the Super Vote is the only way to get a massive number of perfect ‘10′ votes into your average fast.  What kind of strategies can you use to get the best value out of Super Votes?

We are proud to announce that one of the largest affiliate networks in the world has signed on to sponsor Top Affiliate Challenge!

AzoogleAds purchased the show’s $15,000 primary sponsorship and will be prominently featured throughout all aspects of auditions and promotion.

In addition, Azoogle will be helping Top Affiliate Challenge reach out to affiliate marketers by contacting their massive network of publishers on our behalf.

This is a HUGE development for the show as well as everyone involved.  If you have not signed on to be an Azoogle Ads publisher, take a moment to do so now.  There is no charge to sign up, and you definately want to get familiar with the companies they represent and the offers you will be promoting on the show!

This isn’t a fun post to have to write, but we knew things like this would happen eventually.  We have our first confirmed case of robo-voting by a contestant.

Robo-voting is using a piece of software to cast large volumes of votes through our website on behalf of an audition video.

I am not going to disclose the name of the contestant involved - we are not even informing that contestant directly.  They know what they have done.  Over 649 perfect ‘10′ votes - by far exceeding the audition’s Revver views - were cast for their audition video within a 10 minute period.

We have purposefully been vague about the countermeasures we have in place on the website to detect vote fraud because the less we divulge about our detection methods, the more difficult it is to defeat them.

This contestant has LOST all 649 votes that were cast on their audition video during that period.  We have chosen not to disqualify this contestant at this point, even though the show’s terms clearly allow us to do so.

We want this to stand as an example to those who feel they need to cheat to get on the show.  Our system logs all activity, compiles that data and analyzes it for trends.  Don’t even try to game the system.  You will be caught.

Situations like this complicate our job because we understand that if the integrity of our voting system is compromised, the entire show is compromised.  Fraudulent actions force our coders to do work that closes loopholes rather than adding new functionality to our website.  It’s not fun for anyone involved to put it bluntly.

In the coming week we will be installing new anti-flood countermeasures as well.  These new anti-flood measures will prevent mass voting by any single person.  That means that even if you decide to robo-vote, you won’t receive the benefit of those votes at all - not even for an afternoon.

To reiterate, you are allowed to vote for your own audition video once every 24 hours.  People who vote on your audition video can vote for you once every 24 hours.

For those of you who are honest and playing by the rules, I’m sorry you had to read this.  Thank you for your integrity.

What in the world are you waiting for?  We have more than 100 people who have established audition accounts on the Top Affiliate Challenge website but have yet to upload an audition video.

This afternoon the producers batted around ideas as to why people are taking their sweet time.

One of the biggest reasons was that people might want to have a look at the competition for inspiration.  We thought we would point out again that you can submit multiple audition videos.  If the first one you submit doesn’t cut the mustard, you can send up another, and a third, and a fourth, until you are happy with the result.  You can even switch between them at will.

Ian Fernando was the first contestant to use the multiple auditions rule to better his base score.  Ian was slipping fast out of the top 10, so he threw together a second audition video that played to the egos of two of our gurus, John Chow and Shoemoney.

The video was given a higher base score because of its creativity and that was enough to instantly put him back into the top 10.

Are you having trouble getting inspiration for your video?  The best thing we can suggest  is submit whatever you can now - even if it is just a here’s my name and what I do video.  You can always improve it later.

If you are one of the many who have already submitted a video, remember that a second video can boost your base score dramatically if it is better than the first.  Since the base score is a multiplier of all of your other efforts, improving your base score is key to getting into and staying in the top 10!

With all of the egos flying around between ShoeMoney and John Chow, we thought we should make sure there was one guru who would keep everything grounded but have an equal desire to compete and win.

The only man on the internet to fit that bill was the man who has been dubbed “The nicest guy on the internet,” Ken McArthur. 

Ken McArthur, best-selling author of “Impact: How to Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, and Make a Difference in a Noisy World,” has enabled thousands of people to achieve amazing impact by championing the philosophy that partnerships and collaboration build value for everyone.

The popular host of jvAlert Live — a series of live events that bring top-level marketers together to create multi-million dollar joint venture relationships — he creates incredible, intense impact for product launches and multi-million dollar profits in surprisingly short time frames.

Regularly asked to speak at leading marketing events, he has managed product launches ranked in the top 400 sites on the Internet. Ken McArthur is also the creator of AffiliateShowcase.com, a pioneering affiliate program search engine and directory system and the founder of the MBS Internet Research Center, which conducted the world’s largest survey ever attempted on the subject of creating and launching successful information products.

Ken was the official mentor for Sterling Valentine as he took his launch from ZERO to over $100,000 in less than 8 days. Ken and Sterling documented the process as a “proof of concept” for Info Product Blueprint a massive home study course that is the “bible” of info product creation.

Ken offers top-level coaching and mentoring programs designed to help individuals, corporations and non-profit organizations reach masses of people using the techniques, tactics strategies and systems that he has developed specifically to help people spread their ideas, products and services around the globe.

If anyone can hang with John and Shoe, Ken is the man for the job.  Here is what Ken has to say to the people who make the mistake of underestimating him:

I’m absolutely thrilled to be asked to participate in Top Affiliate Challenge, the web’s first real-time reality program. I’ve been involved in affiliate marketing and joint ventures since the “dark ages” of the Internet and I’ve been championing the philosophy that partnerships and collaboration build value for everyone for years, so this show is a perfect chance to prove that when great people get together they can do some amazing things. Jeremy Schoemaker and John Chow are great competitors, but this old guy still has a few tricks up his sleeve, so hang onto your seats!

Anyone who can make $100,000 in eight days is a man who shouldn’t be underestimated.

The producers of Top Affiliate Challenge set out to find an internet marketer who could keep pace with Shoemoney and have a shot at beating him.  We found that guru in one of the top bloggers on the internet - John Chow.

Some people have criticized out choice of Chow as an affiliate marketing guru because he generates so much revenue from his popular blog.  Those who criticise Chow as an also-ran obviously don’t know the same John we do.

John Chow is the founder and CEO of TTZ Media Inc., an advertising network that provides shopping comparison banners to its affiliate sites.

John is best known for showing the power of blogging when he used his blog as an income case study. He started his blog from scratch and in just one year took it from generating $350 per month in revenue to over $27,000 per month.

John has been around the proverbial block and has a bit of history with Shoemoney that should make for an interesting back-story on Top Affiliate Challenge.  Here is what John had to say about being a guru on the show:

The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is kicking Shoemoney’s butt! He beat me in our last competition by cheating and I’m looking for revenge!

The truth of teh matter is that John makes thousands a month in affiliate income from his blog alone, not to mention the affiliate network his company has assembled.

We think it is pretty clear that the gloves are going to come off between these two, so who could possibly manage to get a word in edgewise as guru #3?

Check back tomorrow to find out who our third and final guru is.  Trust me, its not what you expect

We have been pretty up front about ShoeMoney’s involvement with the show from the beginning.  But for the first time we are going to give you a little look at who Jeremy is and where he has been.

Jeremy’s Bio:

Moving from unemployment to 8 figures in only a few years, Jeremy Schoemaker – AKA ShoeMoney – is one of the most successful internet marketers of our time.

He has proven his skills both online and in the brick and mortar mainstream.

In 2007 he launched the AuctionAds advertising network which attracted more than 25,000 users and generated millions in revenue each month after only 4 months of operation.

Whether it’s his blog or any of his companies, ShoeMoney has proven himself time and time again as one of the best internet marketers on the web.

Jeremy achieved legendary status when he flashed a $133,000 single-month Google AdSense check on his blog.

Those who know Jeremy know that he is a very competitive person and does not accept anything less than first place in anything he does.  We asked Jeremy to sum up how he feels about being a guru on Top Affiliate Challenge and here is what he said:

“I am very excited to be a part of this competition. Whoever is going to be on my team better be ready to do  that it takes to win because that is all I know how to do. Good luck other coaches….”

While the producers will decide which contestants end up on which team, those of you requesting ShoeMoney’s team specifically better know what you are getting into.  If you like food, sleep, or recreation, you might want to look somewhere else.

So who else thinks they can step up to the plate and take on the legendary Shoemoney?  Check back tomorrow afternoon when we reveal who the second guru will be and what he has to say back at Shoemoney.

One of the best marks of a leader is the ability to find and hire talent that can do a job better than you could.  While anyone can blast a press release on the web, the producers of Top Affiliate Challenge know we need professionals to get the kind of media coverage this show deserves.

That is why we contacted and hired Eworldwire to handle every aspect of the show’s promotion in the media.  Eworldwire is also signing on as a ponsor of Top Affiliate Challenge, so if you get a chance, let them know how much you appreciate their support.

Unlike many of the press release websites on the internet, Eworldwire is actually a news wire service much like the AP or Reuters is.  That means that editors across the country - and in fact around the word - subscribe to their wire service to get the latest happenings in the world of news.

In addition, Eworldwire doesn’t ignore the multimedia aspects of a release.  In fact, some of your auditions will be made up into a montage video that is released to the media in our press releases!  If you have been holding your videos back waiting for something, get them in now so you don’t miss this opportunity!

I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have Melanie, a press veteran with more than 15 years of experience in the industry, managing our efforts.   As good as we are, she is most definately better and we are a stronger team for having her!