Could Shawn Collins Be Any More Jealous Of The Top Affiliate Challenge

by Jeremy Schoemaker on July 15, 2008 · 108 comments

I just saw Shawn “The Hustler” Collins video talking about the Top Affiliate Challenge. I am not even going to link to the video because it has like 90 views and I am not going to give the attention starved whore any more.

Its sad he thinks he is “The Judge” of the affiliate industry.

He runs a conference and he is good at that because he is a “hustler”. Pretty much all the top Affiliates have the same question when it comes to Shawn Collins? What the hell have you ever done in Affiliate Marketing (besides work for companies)? And I know this because the question comes up all the fricking time.

Before the show started on my blog and on my radio show I said that I said the show would be probably be entertaining and have some drama and maybe… just maybe someone might be able to learn something. I even railed a bit on the first 2 episodes when I was frustrated they did not show my whiteboard sessions when I went step by step on how to build a successful affiliate website.

So why is “The Hustler” acting like this?

A very quick search of the blogosphere for the LAST YEAR shows that the Top Affiliate Challenge has more then 5x the amount of mentions as the Affiliate Summit (the conference Shawn Collins hosts).

Affilaite Summit

VS

Top Affiliate Challenge

Note: click on the images for the exact searches. The searches are done in quotes for accuracy.

So here is another thing. Shawn was asked if he wanted to participate as a Guru but he passed… And that is fine… The show had no expectations of being a huge hit at that time… but now that it has all this attention (bad or good) he wants to play Monday morning quarterback and criticize it.

He has in his blog and in his video made fun of the fact that in the video they say that the gurus will , “teach you more in 15 minutes then you can learn in years”. I agree that is a far fetch.

But this is a fact – While Shawn Collins might have many, many more years experience talking and writing about Affiliate Marketing I personally have already forgotten more about MAKING MONEY in the affiliate marketing industry then he will ever know.

About the author...

– who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 107 comments… read them below or add one }

1 NBJames July 15, 2008 at 6:47 pm

Shoe – I think its weak for Shawn to attack the show. It was obviously done on a extremely limited budget and especially being you had to pull out with what you were going through with your new baby I think they did pretty good.

I do not know why he is acting so weird lately

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2 dan July 15, 2008 at 6:51 pm

Screw ‘em man. Maybe you could recreate that whiteboard scene for your blog and throw up video.

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3 eastbaynic July 15, 2008 at 6:55 pm

uh ohh now his wickedfire crew is going to come after you!

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4 ShoeMoney July 15, 2008 at 6:56 pm

right because the wf guys have been holding back on me… lols

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5 Margie July 15, 2008 at 7:02 pm

Jeremy do not forget Shawn’s Gurus that keynote Affiliate Summit. Like Jason Calacanis and this year the Mayor of Newark. HAH

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6 Kyle July 15, 2008 at 7:05 pm

I got 21,335 or “affiliate summit”…..using your link too.

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7 NBJames July 15, 2008 at 7:06 pm

hmm looking at one of his pages he likes to throw out some crazy quotes too….

“Shawn Collins, called “one of the Net’s most astute affiliate program managers” ”

UMM OK!

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8 Rich Hill July 15, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Shoe.
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

LOL

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9 louis July 15, 2008 at 7:07 pm

shows 400 for me here

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10 Dorm Room Biz July 15, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Get ‘em Shoe! I wouldn’t mind seeing that whiteboard session recreated and posted on here either!

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11 EntreBlast July 15, 2008 at 7:08 pm

No one knew what to expect from TAC- but everyone was watching it to see what WOULD happen = big exposure.

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12 Dorm Room Biz July 15, 2008 at 7:10 pm

I just tried the link too for “affiliate summit” and came up with 21,324 results.

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13 Lyndon July 15, 2008 at 7:21 pm

Prior to you mentioning him, I’d never heard of Shawn before. Don’t know why he’s bitter, he had an opportunity to participate and he passed. The only one he has to blame is himself.

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14 Movies July 15, 2008 at 7:24 pm

i got 21,381 and 2,444 for TAC…big discrepancy between my search results and Shoemoney’s, at least for the first one

Anyway, I enjoyed watching Top Affiliate Challenge. Learned some new things also.

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15 therealdeal July 15, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Shawn is an a$$hole!

He tried outing some RINGTONE people a year or so back for the use of the word “free”. When I posted some shit about his “good friend” on his blog and how he was violating the same shit he was blogging about, he deleted my comment.

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16 zack July 15, 2008 at 7:27 pm

I think a lot of people are ripping on the show because we’d like to see more of the meat of the actual process.

Makes me think I should create a race to the top show. Two teams. No reality crap. Only one team will win. And the whole process will be shown. More education, less reality.

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17 ShoeMoney July 15, 2008 at 7:31 pm

the screenshots were from my computer… I guess people are seeing different results. I linked to the queries for a reason =(

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18 Bryn Youngblut July 15, 2008 at 7:32 pm

No offense but your still helping him out even with this post, link or no link. Just mentioning his name is publicity, good or bad it still works. But hey I ramble on all the time about stuff that annoys me.

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19 ajaz July 15, 2008 at 7:42 pm

I bet he comes out with a similar challenge in the near future.

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20 Craig July 15, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Do you think you could get your hands on that video of the whiteboard sessions and post on here for everyone to learn from?

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21 mcQ July 15, 2008 at 7:55 pm

Totally… Shoe u owe it to your devot blog readers … I think it would be awesome to learn from u.

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22 big jason July 15, 2008 at 7:55 pm

i think he can get more jealous. just give him time shoe

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23 mcQ July 15, 2008 at 7:58 pm

BTW… just like any other blogger… he needs to creat a buzz…a controversy…something so people could comment on and then return to see a response from the admin blogger or other ‘commenters’ … hook or crook…he is just working on his site traffic…

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24 mcQ July 15, 2008 at 8:03 pm

comment #3 : Freaking Chetan is set to win the notebook … he is already getting three shirts…ahah… J. r u gonna send him the shirts in 3 sizes? He must be one lucky guy with 3 wins under his belt in just a few days.

I encourage him to buy a lotto ticket in my city (through me)..lol

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25 Bryn Youngblut July 15, 2008 at 8:08 pm

Yeah I know I’m just saying, theres two sides to every story.

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26 Bryn Youngblut July 15, 2008 at 8:08 pm

That would be awesome, I saw him drawing the whiteboard in the first episode then they cut it off I was like WTF?

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27 DotDriven July 15, 2008 at 8:15 pm

Shoe, don’t fall for the linkbait!!!

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28 Rekzai July 15, 2008 at 8:32 pm

shawn vs jeremy steel cage match

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29 Dave July 15, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Shoe, forget the links whats the affiliate funded bank statement look like?

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30 Sohan July 15, 2008 at 8:37 pm

Yep, mine showed the same.

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31 Mike1115 July 15, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Anyone here actually see the video? It was posted a week ago after the second show and the worst thing he said was he was underwhelmed by it and he’d give it another chance. Thor made a comment on the post, thanked Shawn, and said he plans to get a booth for TOC at Affiliate Summit. So?

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32 top affiliate July 15, 2008 at 8:52 pm

You must spend a lot of $ on therapy, Jeremy.

Looks like you are the one with some weird jealousy issues.

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33 Greenovni July 15, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Hey Shoe, Is it me or are these people who consider themselves “Gurus” start acting like little bitches (Could not find another word to describe them) when they get a little famous?

I make a little bit of $ online and hopefully when everything “clicks” I’ll be able to be like you and the rest of the “gurus” (in $) but to me it’s all about the $$ . . . Screw the fame.

By the way, Congrats on your new baby . . . all the best to your wife :)

Greenovni

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34 amer1can paratrooper July 15, 2008 at 9:24 pm

In this case, I like to use one of my favorite addages: jealousy will get you no where.

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35 Mike July 15, 2008 at 9:36 pm

LOL @ 445 hits my cat could make a website and get more search engine hits than that!

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36 joe July 15, 2008 at 9:39 pm

I don’t really care about this argument or whatever is going on but I do care about winning a macbook air WOO

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37 browie July 15, 2008 at 9:46 pm

Thanks for the rant. I needed that, I was getting tired of making comments in other people’s blog where they complained about the show. Like you mentioned on your video, “what were you expecting? a production done just like The Real World” pffft.

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38 sean July 15, 2008 at 9:47 pm

nothing like a little controversy to continue to push the rope. you have to admit the TAC was long bouts of lameness peppered with tidbits of interesting. It would have been nice to get a little more insight into what they were actually doing with some examples…maybe that is what comes when the content is repurposed.

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39 sean July 15, 2008 at 9:48 pm

interesting. thanks

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40 al July 15, 2008 at 9:50 pm

does this meet we won’t see u at ASE this year? :)

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41 ShoeMoney July 15, 2008 at 9:55 pm

I might be at some events…. never know

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42 sean July 15, 2008 at 9:59 pm

just watched his video and I don’t get why you are so emotional over it.

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43 Zak Show July 15, 2008 at 9:59 pm

I sew a lot of people complaigning and criticizing the show, WTF is that! I was too excited to see the show starting and I was looking for all the show updates. I was a little bit desperated when I sew you leaving the show but I understand that because of your new born child.
last week I was surprised when i checked that post in the Zac Johnson blog ” TAC going wrong! ” and even Ian Fernando blog that he’s one from the contestant.
I hope that things come back to normal soon.

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44 Zak Show July 15, 2008 at 10:02 pm

I got 21.385 here for affiliate summit and 2.444 for TAC, Weird!

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45 Zak Show July 15, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Jeremy for the WIN ;)

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46 Zak Show July 15, 2008 at 10:05 pm

Yes, that what I wanna say, just give him more time!

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47 Zak Show July 15, 2008 at 10:08 pm

I hope but what I notice that the challenge is going down especially when a big contestant like Jeremy leave and even John Chow don’t blog much about it these last days. But I really hope that things come back to normal for the max exposure of the show and the challenge.

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48 jim July 15, 2008 at 10:20 pm

It does seem a bit out of character for him, then again I only know what I see online.

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49 jim July 15, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Yeah I think that would be valuable, could be a good second video post.

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50 james July 15, 2008 at 10:32 pm

What do you think about the affiliate summit selling all the attendee addresses?

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=8523752

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51 Chetan July 15, 2008 at 10:48 pm

They always are ready to come and bash up, you should check the forums.. there are some interesting stories always and they are harsh to the outer world people!

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52 Mike1115 July 15, 2008 at 11:02 pm

I’d say it looks fishy since that post was just created and it’s the guy’s first post.It’s also odd that AS has been going on for years and no one has ever brought that up.You’d think that would have gotten out by now if it was being sold. But, we’ll find out soon enough.

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53 meethere July 15, 2008 at 11:53 pm

whatever, the show is going is popular.. :D

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54 Eva White July 15, 2008 at 11:53 pm

I guess this is the only way for him to make up on all the publicity he lost by not being on the show.

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55 meethere July 15, 2008 at 11:55 pm

what’s this wickedfire all about ?

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56 DealDasher July 16, 2008 at 12:06 am

sweet, “Affiliate Cage Fighting”. Love the rant.

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57 Bryn Youngblut July 16, 2008 at 12:50 am

Seems a little odd and far fetched.

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58 Goran Website July 16, 2008 at 1:33 am

Seems like he is riding the coat tails of this to garner personal exposure. Good on you for not posting a link to his clip, Shoe.

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59 Goran Website July 16, 2008 at 1:35 am

That would amount to some quality content I think all of us will appreciate. That is the reason for frequenting this blog. To learn.

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60 Goran Website July 16, 2008 at 1:36 am

Did you do your search in quotes?

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61 Amirulcyber July 16, 2008 at 2:00 am

nice and sweet article.thanks..

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62 Ricky July 16, 2008 at 2:04 am

I love rants.

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63 Movies July 16, 2008 at 2:23 am

I’ll be the first one to say thanks if Shoemoney decide to do it.

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64 fred July 16, 2008 at 2:31 am

shoe – don’t confuse quantity and quality. Anyone who says TAF is worth anything is a fool. I know many people who have watched it for the same reason they look at a car crash, cause you just can’t help it. That does not mean the people watching have any respect for the show or anyone on it.
But nice link bait, you are good at that, and you have enough idiots to make it work, good job tools, drink the shoewater

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65 Mike Huang July 16, 2008 at 2:39 am

Hmmm…the TAC isn’t all that great so I wonder why he would be jealous :P

-Mike

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66 Wesley July 16, 2008 at 2:42 am

And, fight!

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67 Asmaa July 16, 2008 at 2:56 am

As much as i would like to watch these episodes my server bans the videos!! ughhh

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68 Peter July 16, 2008 at 3:41 am

Why does Top Affiliate Challenge not even offer an RSS feed? How about a video podcast for iTunes too?

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69 Harry July 16, 2008 at 5:25 am

I see lot of people bad mouthing this show. I guess people are making it more popular by bad mouthing.

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70 Make Money Talks July 16, 2008 at 5:53 am

I love morning popcorn, especially if it’s drama on forum, but still blog drama looks good :)

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71 Dick July 16, 2008 at 6:43 am

Show created for the people. People need fun. This means that the show should be cheerful. -)))))

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72 big jason July 16, 2008 at 7:01 am

so why pay it any attention. best to ignore it

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73 Kevin L July 16, 2008 at 7:22 am

I guess you guys aren’t close.

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74 Jagdeep July 16, 2008 at 7:53 am

quit comment spamming ffs

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75 Eric Martindale July 16, 2008 at 8:01 am

To be honest, that’s not that much of a difference. D:

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76 Eric Nagel July 16, 2008 at 8:20 am

about 2,450 for “top affiliate challenge”
about 219 for “affiliate summit”
(refresh)
about 21,398 for “affiliate summit”

Can’t really rely on these figures, then, as the “proof” of your argument, if Google changes their mind on nearly every refresh.

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77 Mubin July 16, 2008 at 8:34 am

Controversy is good for links.

Whats with the new gravatar icon?

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78 olimpic July 16, 2008 at 8:34 am

Very interesting discussion. continue please

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79 Barman July 16, 2008 at 8:59 am

You are away that Top Affiliate Challenge sucks and provides no value to anybody, whereas AS provides a lot of value to many people, experienced and new.

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80 webprofessor July 16, 2008 at 9:01 am

Weak?

Give me a break the show sucked its as simple as that. How great Shoe is at affiliate marketing or the limits of the budget are irrelevant to the issue.

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81 Brian July 16, 2008 at 9:12 am

There’s those that do and those that talk about doing. Collins and the uber nothing Sam Harrelson are two that just regurgitate techcrunch and other news blogs.

No original views, news, or tips between the two of them.

Honestly that’s why I took my own blog down. I found myself just posting the same posts as everyone else and contributing very little new stuff.

Instead, I have shifted all my time from working on a fruitless effort to affiliate sites that make me money. Since the refocus, I have seen a 25+% increase in affiliate revenue. A much better ROI.

Anyway, the Internet would be better off if they followed suit and stopped the mundane repetitive posts that are already out there.

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82 JJDW July 16, 2008 at 9:31 am

Most people gave up by the 2nd or 3rd episode. I know I did!

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83 Autox July 16, 2008 at 9:49 am

It’s so easy for Shawn to snip at someone else’s work, rather than produce his own.

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84 Geiger July 16, 2008 at 10:12 am

Oooooh… somebody just get served?

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85 Bubba July 16, 2008 at 10:34 am

Top Affiliate Challenge sucks ballz!!! If you hire a professional camera man, a professional editor, q few good writers and a REAL host that can speak proper English than maybe, maybe you’ll make it interesting. So far in my opinion a total disaster of a show. But hey time will tell.

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86 Marco July 16, 2008 at 11:38 am

Shawn Collins wasn’t nasty & spoke nothing but the truth in his video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-aRy51wQGwM.

I watched all the TAC shows, & I enjoyed it. But I have to agree with his opinion of the show.

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87 Paul July 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm

At least they gave it a shot. It is not always perfect the first time around. If they made enough money and got enough attention., they can do the show again with more capitol and adjust the mistakes they made the first time.

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88 DAK July 16, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Dude, now that was funny!

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89 Gordon July 16, 2008 at 4:11 pm

I don’t get why you are so mad. Pretty much everything he said was dead on true.

The script is hokey
the commercials are lame and poorly targeted.
The ring is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen
I didn’t learn a single thing in the first 2 episodes either

I don’t think he is jealous in the slightest. I think he is thanking his lucky stars he didn’t show up for this.

Now, you can argue it is in poor form for him to trash the show given his position in the industry / that he was invited to be on the show etc but I don’t think he is jealous.

I hope they do the show again, learn from their mistakes and make it a show everyone can actually learn from…..

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90 zing July 17, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Finally someone called this stuttering dumbass out. Amazing post!

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91 Web Hosting Rebates July 17, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Because TAC was almost exclusively hype machine. Thor spent too much time promoting the show and not enough time planning its execution. If he produced quality content, it would have gone viral naturally. Prior planning prevents poor performance – in this case, the lack of planning ensured poor performance.

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92 Godaddy Coupons and Promo Codes July 17, 2008 at 7:33 pm

90 views? is that supposed to be a lot?

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93 Josh July 17, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Negro please. This has Shoe-style linkbait all over it. And, its working! :-)

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94 Web Marketeer July 18, 2008 at 8:01 am

That’s one of the things I like about Jeremy, he doesn’t pull punches!

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95 Web Marketeer July 18, 2008 at 8:03 am

I would like to see that too! Let’s all clamour for this to happen! Who knows, maybe our wishes will be realized!

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96 Web Marketeer July 18, 2008 at 8:06 am

LOL! People sure can be petty and spiteful, especially if they weren’t part of a process!

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97 Web Marketeer July 18, 2008 at 8:08 am

By KO, not submission…..LOL

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98 Web Hosting Rebates July 18, 2008 at 8:11 am

Yeah, his comments were spot on. The show was a major disappointment and overall very ill-conceived.

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99 Web Hosting Rebates July 18, 2008 at 8:13 am

I disagree – they won’t be able to do it again with more capital, because they have proven that they produce a lousy product. Who would want to sponsor that, knowing what the production quality and viewership numbers will be. This was a colossal fail on nearly every front.

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100 Web Marketeer July 18, 2008 at 8:13 am

Brian, you raise a very pertinent point. Fresh content is king, and rehashing other people’s work ad nauseum sure as hell don’t qualify one as an expert!

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101 Web Hosting Rebates July 18, 2008 at 8:18 am

Seriously, what does this SQL query look like? Choose a random number with php then “SELECT username FROM comments WHERE (commentID={randomNumber} AND date={today}) OR username=’Chetan’ AND date={today} LIMIT 1,0″?

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102 ShoeMoney July 18, 2008 at 8:22 am

lol… If I was going to rig this for someone don’t you would think it would be someone in the US where it does not cost me 4x as much in shipping to send shirts =P

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103 Godaddy Coupons and Promo Codes July 18, 2008 at 11:53 am

Let him be jealous

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104 Web Hosting Rebates July 18, 2008 at 10:03 pm

I still haven’t seen any data on number of views for the show, but it couldn’t have come close the 1 million Thor was pitching to advertisers, could it?

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105 Web Hosting Rebates July 18, 2008 at 10:04 pm

Yeah, the show was a disaster. I felt bad for the contestants and gurus, who I’m sure thought they were involved with a legit production (level of Next Internet Millionaire or better)

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106 Godaddy Coupons July 19, 2008 at 9:54 am

I don’t think he can get more jealous

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107 Feed My Wii July 19, 2008 at 4:36 pm

this was my absolute favorite part of the post. shawn you just got served sucka

“But this is a fact – While Shawn Collins might have many, many more years experience talking and writing about Affiliate Marketing I personally have already forgotten more about MAKING MONEY in the affiliate marketing industry then he will ever know”

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