Kimkins.com Part V - Celebrities on Kimkins?
I had intended that Part V of this series would deal with an issue that arose during July and August of 2006. The issue, and the doubts it engendered, impacted the contractual relationship between my wife, Catherine, and her business partner Heidi Kimberly Diaz (”Kimmer” of Kimkins.com). It does not, however, have much direct bearing on the current controversies and questions surrounding Kimmer and Kimkins.com. Upon review and careful consideration, I have decided that I do not have enough documentation and source material to discuss that particular issue publicly at this time. Instead, Part V will shed light on the guerilla marketing tactics that resulted in the “celebrities on Kimkins” rumors.
Looking back through the email record, it’s remarkable how much progress was made in the development and marketing of Kimkins.com in the two months post-launch. Between the June 2006 launch and mid-August, Catherine implemented Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing pay-per-click campaigns, an opt-in follow email list for newsletters written by Heidi and member contributors, a Flash-based member chat program, and an affiliate program.
While Catherine was developing these new features, she was also handling technical and payment customer service for members and dealing with ongoing script bugs and technical issues arising from the inadequacy of the webhosting server and its subsequent upgrade. Heidi/Kimmer was spending a great deal of time posting actively on the Kimkins.com forums every day. Also, Heidi was continuing to do substantial guerilla marketing on Craigslist, Freecycle, and similar sites. Kimkins.com had become more than a full-time job for both women.
Heidi’s marketing activities were beyond the scope of her role per the partnership agreement, and the extent of Heidi’s actions were at times unclear to Catherine. Catherine continued to be puzzled and somewhat troubled by how driven Heidi seemed to market the site — particularly given the fact that the organic search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, and affiliate program were getting good results. The site was profitable and growing. It seemed odd that Heidi was so extremely motivated in her marketing efforts if she was using her share of the profits for charitable purposes. At times, Heidi would complain about the burdens of advising Kimkins.com members while continuing the marketing activities seemingly without pause. The ebook remained unwritten.
In August, while evaluating search engine rankings and inbound links for the Kimkins.com site, Catherine ran across a rumor on a message board that Jessica Alba was doing the Kimkins diet. She suspected that it was a rumor planted by Heidi, but she was not sure. Catherine suggested that I write a quick piece on the rumor on a celebrity blog I ran. I did a post, “Is Jessica Alba Doing the Kimkins Diet?” or something to that effect, and that was the end of it for a few weeks.
Then, on August 13, 2006, Heidi excitedly pointed Catherine to my blog item, apparently unaware that it was I who had written it. Catherine told Heidi point blank that the blog was mine and asked Heidi if the original rumor had, in fact, been planted by her. The following are direct quotes from Heidi drawn from emails dated August 13/2006:
Yes! I’ve planted “seeds”, 1 post here and there, on teen sites. I went to one celebrity site where you an “ask a question” and mine was “I heard Jessica Alba lost weight for her tour by doing a new diet called Kimkins. Is that true?”
I don’t care if it’s one of Martin’s sites, LOL. We have “almost credible” information that Jessica Alba did Kimkins. We can certainly exploit, I mean, post on the blog, website, newsletter, Jimmy?
I knew it wasn’t Jessica Alba. She doesn’t know Kimkins from a bag of beans.
In a subsequent email:
One of the foster boys has a huge crush on her [Alba] and she’s “young” — figured she’d be the perfect name to drop at various teen and celebrity sites. I do one post only, nothing obvious. I’ve done a couple other celebrities also.
Heidi justified the fake rumors thusly (again from an email on August 13, 2006):
Everyone size 2 girl on the Red Carpet does Kimkins or KE a week before. Whether they stick a Kimkins tag on it I can’t say, but they “do” Kimkins.
An Internet search reveals that Kimmer or someone on her behalf (as NikkiLuvsFun) appeared to still be pushing the fake rumor late last autumn:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061014161537AAs4n7p
Next: Kimkins.com Part VI - The Partnership Buyout and the Post-Buyout Backstabbing
July 18th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
[…] Kimkins.com Part V - Celebrities on Kimkins? […]
July 18th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Uhm, Jessica Alba is an actress and not a singer so why in the heck would she be doing a concert tour? Another blatant lie. If you are going to lie do your research!
July 18th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Internet headers should be posted if you make “email excerpts” of this kind of damning correspondence.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
To the reader above: A tour does not represent only albums. Actors do worldwide tours for publicity of major motion pictures.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
“Between the June 2006 launch and mid-August, Catherine implemented Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing pay-per-click campaigns, an opt-in follow email list for newsletters written by Heidi and member contributors, a Flash-based member chat program, and an affiliate program. ”
Jimmy Moore said in his podcast earlier this week that he was contacted by Catherine about joining the affiliate program, “Let me share a brief background about how I was introduced to Kimkins. In April 2006, I was approached by a representative of Kimkins named Catherine to start blogging about this exciting new low-carb diet that was helping lots of people lose weight quickly and I was told about the founder of the diet Kimmer and her amazing 198-pound weight loss success.”
WHEN did Catherine begin the process of contacting potential affiliates?
WHEN did Jimmy Moore agree to be an affiliate?
WHEN did the affiliate program lauch officially?
HOW MUCH was Jimmy Moore contracted to receive as commission through pay-per-performance clicks? 40%, 30% or 25%
WHEN did he receive his first click-to-buy?
July 18th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
PJ
“Internet headers should be posted if you make “email excerpts” of this kind of damning correspondence.”
EXACTLY!
July 18th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
To PJ:
if you are at all interested in the whole story you would have gone to the Yahoo link provided that is posted under the story and that is where Kimmer talks about a “concert” tour. A concert from my understand is musical in nature. If it was for a film and the promotion of the film it would be considered a promotion junket.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
So, is it fraud to claim celebrities are following a plan they may have never heard of?
Is it against California State law to practice nutrition without a license?
I’m wondering if any of this is going to matter in the end if nothing can come from it.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:03 am
It is fraud to gain paid members by false advertising that certain named celebs are on the diet plan. I think that people should start contacting the bbb, and anyone else that can verify that kimmer has lied to people to get their money by joining her site through false information and false promises. I am going to be looking into this myself and hope that others do as well. How many people has she hurt so far? How many have posted about her advice to use laxitives, epsom salts and eating so little that they cannot even begin to get the nutrition their body needs to stay healthy. She doesn’t even have a license to do this does she? You have to get a permit to be able to have a business like this. Does she even claim it on taxes? Someone on the IRS should check. Heidi, I know you are reading and I suggest you start refunding money and shutting your site down before you are brought down and are led away in handcuffs as we see so many others that have commited fraud to get peoples money.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:08 am
PJ,
I appreciate your point about the headers. I have stated the sender, recipient, and date of these emails. Therefore, the headers show nothing further that is substantive. In this series I have withheld much that is speculation to ensure that I am providing nothing that cannot be backed up with proof in the event of a libel claim.
Regards,
Martin
July 20th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
again, jealousy
July 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
“again, jealousy”
Of what, exactly? Being a guerilla (literally and figuratively)?
July 25th, 2007 at 11:29 am
When are we getting another update? I’m losing interest here and would really like to see the next installment!
January 7th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
hello, i’m lizzy!
January 20th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
WcGoS9 hi great site thx http://peace.com
August 9th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
So, is it fraud to claim celebrities are following a plan they may have never heard of?
Is it against California State law to practice nutrition without a license?
I’m wondering if any of this is going to matter in the end if nothing can come from it.