Fresh off the presses, we just received a signed contract from Pepperjam Network.  They are sponsoring one of the Top Affiliate Challenge Teams which leaves one team sponsorship left.  (The second one will be announced as soon as we have the signed contract in hand).

That means that four lucky contestants will be branded in Pepperjam Top affiliate Challenge shirts on arrival and will carry the banner of one of the fastest up-and-coming affiliate networks in the world.

If you have not already done so, you really need to establish a Pepperjam account so you can get a feel for the offers they have in their network.  You don’t want to be the only one on your team who unprepared, do you

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!

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!

Last week when we finalized the Ring Sponsorship with Wright’s Jewelers in Lincoln, NE we took the opportunity to shoot some stock video for promotional purposes.

Wright’s is one of Lincoln’s finest jewelers in town, and we are VERY thankful they will be crafting the 2008 Top Affiliate Challenge Championship Rings.

Each ring will be hand crafted, made of solid gold, with a dazzling Ruby set in the center.  The winner of the show will take one of these rings home as a champion, and the other will go to the guru who leads that winner to victory.

We were curious about what goes into making a custom ring, so while we had teh cameras there we asked if we could take a behind the scenes peek at the process.  For the first time ever, Wright’s allowed our cameras to enter their workshop and watch their master jeweler create an original ring by hand, from scratch.

Watch the video to see how a ring goes from concept, to design, to mold, to the finger of the Top Affiliate!

We are very pleased and proud to announce that Wright’s Jewelers, one of Lincoln, Nebraska’s finest jewelers, has signed with the show to produce the two championship rings that will be a staple of the Top Affiliate Challenge brand.

Each show contestants will be battling for immunity from elimination.  That immunity will be represented by this $5,000 ring.  The bearer of this ring will be immune from elimination from the show that day.  In addition the winning contestant as well as the guru who leads that contestant will each take one of these rings home with them.

There are only two of these rings in existance and their design has been copyrighted so no one else can ever reproduce them.  The ring is made of solid gold, with a ruby set in the center.  The rings are slightly larger than a college class ring.

Wright’s Jewelers will be hand-crafting these rings in their workshop in Lincoln Nebraska exclusively for Top Affiliate Challenge. 

We shot some video while we were signing the paperwork on the sponsorship to give you an idea of what goes into producing a one-of-a-kind original piece of jewelry.  Check back tomorrow for the video!

It has been a while since we have posted here and a lot has happened with the show over the past week or so.  I thought I would take a moment to bring everyone up to speed.

Auditions and Voting System

As you may have noticed, the beta version of the Top Affiliate Challenge voting system is online and is being tweaked on a minute by minute basis.  It’s sad to say at we have already thwarted one attempt to infiltrate and compromise the voting system.  We expected things like this, but we were surprised by how quickly it has happened.

We continue to post the auditions we filmed at our live audition events on a daily basis.  In addition, we are also posting your audition videos as they are submitted.  At this time we have more than 80 auditions in the system at one stage of production or another.  Watch for the remaining videos to be released in the coming days.

At the present time, all voting is being accurately recorded in our databases.  With that said, the output you see AFTER you vote may or may not be accurate in some cases.  This is why we are not presently displaying the overall vote averages.  This should be corrected by early next week and then we will be able to tell everyone where they rank among the other auditions.

Sponsorship System

Yesterday we got the final version of the sponsorship system up and running on the main website.  This will rotate advertisements from sponsors in the 4 sponsorship ad boxes on every page of the website.  We have plans to expand the number of visible ad slots to 8 next week.

We have had multiple requests for a sponsorship plan to purchase ONLY the 125×125 ad spots.  We have created a new sponsorship option that places your 125×125 ad in the rotation, hyperlinked to your website, with Alt text of your choice for $100/calendar month.  We are getting about 100 unique visitors an hour at this point, so we feel that is a very reasonable price.

In fact, the first of such ads was just sold today to http://www.jonathanvolk.com and should be online later tonight. 

This week we also sold the Championship Ring Sponsorship from the rate card to Wright’s Jewelers.  Tomorrow we will post computer rendered models of the Top Affiliate Challenge Championship Rings as well as some footage from the Wright’s Jewelers workshop where the two rings will be produced by hand.  There are the only two rings of their kind in existence, and the design of the ring has been copyrighted.

We have a VERY SOLID lead on the Banner Sponsorship as well (that’s the $15,000 sponsorship).  We have a newer affiliate network that is very interested so we should have more to come on this early next week.

Additionally, we have been contacted by a hotel in Lincoln that is willing to give us anything we need as far as rooms and facilities to tape the show.  In essence they are interested in our Hotel Sponsorship package from the rate card.

Show Gurus

We have two of our three gurus locked in.  Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker and John  Chow have both committed to the show.  We have some pretty interesting recommendations for the third position, but nothing we can announce yet.

LISTEN UP!  We are going to incentivize you to get your auditions in as quickly as possible with some prizes that will be awarded randomly to those who have submitted auditions before March 15th.

Web-based auditions open up on March 1st.  We currently have our people contacting others about donating prizes for the “Early-Bird Audition Giveaway” as we are calling it here in the office.

The first person to step forward was none other than the Host of the Next Internet Millionaire, Joel Comm.  He is donating a copy of the Secret Classroom - a $500 value - for us to give away to one lucky person.

I have personally seen every scrap of information in this DVD set, and let me tell you - if you employ the tactics from this course in your audition promotion strategy you will be unstoppable.

Thanks for the support Joel - It means a lot to all of us working on TAC here in Nebraska.

Do you have a product or service you would like to donate for our “Early-Bird Audition Giveaway”?  Email me at thor@topaffiliatechallenge.com and let me know.

Every day we are approached by a business or online service that wants to be part of Top Affiliate Challenge.  As the buzz around the show grows, interest in sponsorships will probably grow with it.

To help potential sponsors see how they could fit into the Top Affiliate Challenge program, we developed a rate card that lists all currently available sponsorships, their benefits, and the investment cost for each.

This does not mean we are closed to any future creative offers, but we will be focusing our efforts on selling our available inventory based on the rate card.

If you have a product, service, or brand you would like to expose to more than 1 million viewers between now and July 21st, contact thor@topaffiliatechallenge.com today.

At this point we have ONE sponsor who has submitted video that we will be including at the end of the live auditions we have already taped.  That means this ONE sponsor will get them ALL.  This is a huge opportunity to sign up now and get more benefit than you are paying for!

Nebraska Bookstore in downtown Lincoln, NE has just signed on as a show sponsor and has agreed to host a live audition event on February 14th from 12-4 and February 15th from 4-8.

If you want to audition for JVAlert and have your audition uploaded first thing to the Top Affiliate Challenge website on March 1st, then you need to be at this live event!

Do you want to host a live audition event in your city or state?  Contact service@topaffiliatechallenge.com for details!

This just in!  The Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau has signed on as a sponsor of Top Affiliate Challenge!  The city’s Visitor and Convention Bureau is providing invaluable help to the show by helping us establish the local relationships we need.

Their efforts will make the show MUCH more entertaining, informative and successful.  Special thanks to the bureau’s executive director, Jeff Maul.