Top Affiliate Challenge Review

July 8th, 2008 · Comments

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The Top Affiliate Challenge, billed as “the web’s first real-time affiliate marketing reality program” started up last week.

Over a three week period 12 internet marketers will be divided into three teams. Each team will be led by an established and successful affiliate marketing guru. Individuals will compete personally as well as part of their team to maintain their place on the show.

The “gurus” leading each team are John Chow, Ken McArthur, and Shoemoney.

I’ve watched the first two episodes, and I was underwhelmed by them. According to co-host Monica Durazo, the gurus can teach you more in 15 minutes than you can learn in 15 years online.

Please.

I expected the shows to be somewhat informative, but the only thing I picked up in the first two episodes was that the key to succeeding in affiliate marketing is to complain and call in favors.

Contrived drama, and little else. Not so helpful.

Also, it seemed a little odd to me that there were commercial breaks for a local jeweler and car dealership. Being that it’s an online show, I figured the target audience was minimally affiliates across the U.S., if not internationally.

How many will possibly venture to Lincoln, Nebraska for their auto and gem needs?

I’ll try one more episode to see if it gets better and some actual tactics and strategies are shared.

Watch the episodes at http://www.topaffiliatechallenge.com.

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Tags: Affiliate Managers · Affiliate Opinions

Viewing 16 Comments

John 3 months ago 1 point
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Hey Shawn. Episode 4-6 are not as bad. I think 5 being the best so far. Ok.. the quality is still "wedding video" but the content is better... sorta. I think it is still a work in progress and has nowhere to go but up ;)

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http://www.johnhasson.com

Vince 3 months ago 1 point
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Shawn,

WOW - this was so uninformative that I don't understand why they would waste there time doing this. Being in Affiliate Marketing for eight years I thought they would apply allot more tactics. I would like to see the format more of a teaching session for the first couple of episodes and then let those contestants apply the principles to see how they could drive traffic. It would have been better to have more contestants with less experience and see how these gurus can really transfer their talent to others to help them succeed to find the best affiliate marketer. If it was not for this blog I would not have known about this, which leads me to believe that this was not promoted well buy these gurus.

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Shawn Collins 3 months ago 1 point
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I just watched episode 3 - a little better with some tips.

The ending was priceless as contestant Jonathan Van Clute gloats that he is "net profitable."

I should hope so.

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Lammo 3 months ago 1 point
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I'm sure it's one of those ideas that sounded brilliant when first brainstormed - Affiliate Marketing meets The Apprentice, but in reality it's just cringeworthy and really does nothing to showcase our Industry in a great light.

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http://www.lammo.net

Zac Johnson 3 months ago 1 point
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The show is very funny, and I blogged on everything I thought they needed to improve today as well. Whether everyone hates it or enjoys it, it's getting a nice amount of blog exposure... for whatever that is worth.

PS: I like how John Chow called it "Top Affiliate Summit" in episode 5 when he emailed Kris Jones of PepperJam!

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http://www.zacjohnson.com

Mark A 3 months ago 1 point
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It's like a car accident, I can't resist but to take a peek at it everyday hoping it will get better.

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info_set 3 months ago 1 point
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There is a Shoemoney Challenge launching on July 14th. It has cash prizes and bragging rights with results posted on shoemoney.com Check it out

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Alan 3 months ago 1 point
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You gotta admit though that the hostess of the show is pretty hot.

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Simple Internet Marketing 3 months ago 1 point
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LOL, well I guess everything has its benefits, and I guess the creators have figured out that the majority of AM'ers are MEN!

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tony 3 months ago 1 point
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Host is very hot. Van Clute's response was within the context of having an artificially brief time to get results - basically force feeding the campaign to generate revenue, the name of the game here...and he just happens to be profitable, too.

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Thor Schrock 3 months ago 1 point
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Hey Shawn, thanks for posting about the show. we offered all of the affiliate networks the opportunity to submit commercials, and some did. You know better than anyone that sponsorships are required to make an event like this happen. Some of our KEY sponsors were local sponsors.

I appreciate the fact that you took the time to watch some of the show, and I would love to hear your thoughts on some of the more recent episodes.

We had some really tough things happen that we had to work around. Everything from last minute contestant changes to Shoe's wife having their baby two weeks early.

Despite all of the negativity floating around the web, I am in a really good place with the show right now. Our episodes are consistently improving and we are planning to purchase a booth at an upcoming Affiliate Summit conference ;-)

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http://thorschrock.com

Shawn Collins 3 months ago 1 point
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Hi Thor -

I've watched the first three so far, and I'll watch #4 on Thursday. I've seen that people are saying the episodes are improving.

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Thor Schrock 3 months ago 1 point
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We had a huge cancer in the show, and in tomorrow's episode we eliminate it. Then things really start to get interesting.

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http://thorschrock.com

Simple Internet Marketing 3 months ago 1 point
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Well, all I can say that this is another disapointment from the so called "gurus" Just like many of the crap filled blog posts from several gurus, that I see of late, this program really offers little to the information hungry affiliate marketing beginners.

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Product Launch 3 months ago 1 point
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Not too shabby... could be some better video quality, but none the less the content is pretty good.

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http://www.chrisbrisson.com

Amin 2 months ago 1 point
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I couldn't agree more. If anything, you were soft on the TAC. In regards to Shoemoney's post, I've just completely lost respect for that guy, and especially the sheep that mimick and applaud his every move.

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http://www.aminology.com