I received a note from Ronda a few days back about an article her local paper printed about her participation in Top Affiliate Challenge.  When I was making a run for Next Internet Millionaire I took every opportunity I could to get in the paper, on the radio, and on every podcast I could find.

If it is any indication, my local media helped me get on NIM, so who knows…  The article about Ronda could have earned her a bunch of votes!

We had a rash of people using copyrighted music in their audition videos over the past couple days.  Revver is very strict about filtering out videos that violate artists’ copyrights.

It also takes our staff a lot of extra time to filter through which videos have been pulled from Revver and ask the contestants to resubmit.

Please do not infringe on the rights of artists in your videos.  If you have a video online right now that does violate a copyright, I would strongly suggest you upload a newly edited version of the video ASAP so your audition stayts in the system’s rotation in case Revver finds and pulls your video.

Over the past three days more than 15 super votes have been purchased by contestants.  From what we hear behind the scenes, contestants are taking the advice in the Top Affiliate Challenge Strategy Guide.  alliances are being forged in the forum already and those who are participating are doing quite well.

Yesterday we received 5 new video submissions that are in process today, and one of them received a base score of 6.  How secure are you with where you are at in the top 10 today?

With only 10 percentage points separating the #1 spot from the #10 spot, the introduction of 5 new videos tomorrow should really shake things up!

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?

It was a very productive day today in the Top Affiliate Challenge Skunk Works.  As promised we have what looks like a few simple additions to the website’s functionality today.  But like a swan on a lake, all of the work is going on behind the scenes.

The biggest improvements are visible on the Audition page of the website.  Now all submitted auditions are ranked according to each submissions overall score.  This should give everyone who auditions the ability to see how they are doing in relation to everyone else who has auditioned.  This is the first time we have shown overall scores publicly due to some pretty creative attempts to robo-vote ALREADY!

In addition to that, you may notice that the name of each contestant is linked to a dedicated audition page.  This allows you to promote a direct link to your audition.  Now you can ask your friends, family, and complete strangers to come to the Top Affiliate Challenge website and vote for you FIRST.

The Super Voting system is not perfected yet, and consequently has not been released.  For more information about what a Super Vote is any why you want them, check out this thread about the topic in the forum.

We are still processing new auditions and should have another batch ready to roll tomorrow.  In addition, we are putting the finishing touches on a strategy guide that is a MUST HAVE if you are serious about getting on the show.  It explains exactly what we are looking for in an audition, tells you the exact scoring formula, and has suggested strategies that will help you get an edge on the competition.

The guide will be offered for $49.99, and is completely optional to purchase.  For those of you who want to earn some money promoting the show, we will be offering a 50% affiliate commission on the Strategy Guides.  So bottom line is that if you sell one, you make $25!

The guide should be available by the end of the week.

Whew!  After nearly 20 hours of straight work by our technical staff, the Top Affiliate Challenge website is taking audition submissions!

To audition for the show, just click the “Sign up” link in the top right corner of the home page, create an account and upload your video.

Voting should be up and running by Monday and we have already received 35 videos today!  It takes  to 48 hours to process submitted videos, so don’t delay with your upload!

Our staff has spent many hours producing the auditions from our live events and the website is ready to go thanks to Adam’s hard work.

As usual, we had some technical glitches that slowed us down a bit but Adam was able to overcome and make sure everything will go online as scheduled tonight at midnight.

If your audition videos are ready, I would suggest you get set to upload!  Remember, depending on volume, it can take up to 48 hours for your audition video to go live on our website.  There is no time to waste!

Jaime Luchuck was the winner of Joel Comm’s online hit reality show, the Next Internet Millionaire.  When Jaime came on the show, she knew little about internet marketing, maintaining a blog, or building a list.

That didn’t slow this Canadian wonder woman down as she climbed her way all the way to the top, winning the $25,000 grand prize, and selling more than $70,000 worth of her New York Times Best-Selling book over the web.

Jaime understands better than anyone else how a web reality show has the potential to change a contestant’s life.  In fact, there have been several moments as our staff has edited our live audition videos where the gravity of this project has hit home.

Watching contestants pour their hearts and lives out on video is hard enough, but then to hear why they want to be on the show and what it would mean to them to have an opportunity to learn from one of our three gurus can be downright inspiring at times.

You need to listen to Jaime talk about how TNIM went from a household joke with her father, to an audition musical, and finally to becoming the Next Internet Millionaire. 

If there was ever a case that should convince you to audition for our show, it is in this video below.

We managed to catch up with Willie Crawford, one of the most famous internet marketing personalities on the planet.

Willie listened intently to our description of Top Affiliate Challenge, but was not available the days the show was being taped in Lincoln, NE.

Willie understood what a unique exposure and marketing opportunity Top Affiliate Challenge is, so he taped a little something for us to air anyway.

Eric Holmlund was the Director of the Next Internet Millionaire.  He was behind the scenes from the show’s inception all the way through to its final episode.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Eric at JV Alert Live and talk with him about some of the challenges he faced in production with TNIM.

Eric had a TON of great suggestions on ways things could we streamlined for our production.  More importantly, he gave us some sage advice to keep in mind while producing the show.

He told me if I wanted TAC to be successful, it needed to be jam-packed full of information, tutorials, and red meat.  He added that it was ok to deliver that in a reality show entertainment wrapper, but that has never bee accomplished by any other reality show format in existence today.

That got us talking about how we could take some of the best reality show concepts and meld them together into a new concept for a reality show.  That concept has become the heart of TAC.  After our discussion, Eric taped this for us: