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In the Kimkins controversy storm that has swirled these past few weeks around the net’s most popular low carb blogger, Jimmy Moore, I had started to wonder whether my admiration of the man had been misplaced. Turns out, absolutely not!

Many people have called Jimmy stubborn, misguided, a hothead, and much worse — but it takes a real man of integrity to shoulder the responsibility that Jimmy did on Friday with his no-holds-barred apology to the low carb community and renunciation of his affiliation with Kimmer/Heidi Diaz of Kimkins.com. My respect for Jimmy Moore has deepened profoundly.

Jimmy appears to be in the process of removing every last Kimkins affiliate link and positive blog post he has made about Kimkins. This represents a big financial hit for him. However, the low carb community is rallying around him and I can only hope that this lost income will be cushioned by the increased support.

Heidi Diaz is publicly “supporting” Jimmy’s decision right now; reading between the lines, though, she implies that he made the decision for business reasons, and I really don’t think that’s the story. I would advise Jimmy to prepare for the possibility that Heidi will turn on him now, but I’m sure he’s seen and read enough at this point to know that already.

Bravo, Jimmy Moore!

UPDATE: Looks like at least one other former Kimkins affiliate has decided to sever ties.

This blog is not a “do follow” blog. I had actually intended to install a plugin that removes the “no follow” tags when the trend was very popular. I had some technical difficulty and, being the lazy person that I am, I decided not to bother. It wasn’t just laziness though. I was a bit apprehensive about the idea.

I went ahead and installed the plugin on my personal blog. I even activated a spam filter and turned of comment moderation.

The idea behind the “do follow” movement, which is called “I follow” by some, is that providing bloggers who comment on your blog with an incoming link that has real SEO benefits will encourage traffic and also discussion. Most people, no doubt were most interested in the traffic, while saying that it was the discussion that made them happy. There is also a quid pro quo element. Bloggers who remove the “no follow” tags from their comments join a blogroll and make a point of commenting with some regularity on those blogs.

Here is the snag. People seeking to improve page rank for websites, whether they are a blog or just an affiliate portal or online store, would leave volumes of comments on these Do Follow blogs. These comments would invariably be painfully transparent in their lack of insight into the blog post subject. I left the majority of these irritating comments on my other blog. Sometimes I would remove extra links. Obviously, blogs with higher PR would be targeted more intensely by these comments that have been dubbed “human created comment spam”.

I think the line between bloggers who are being overzealous in taking advantage of the movement and bloggers or SEO types who are subverting it entirely is a bit blurry. I also think it is interesting that bloggers are getting disenchanted with the altruistic aspect of the movement just as a Google Pr update is inevitable.

If country club members wore leather jackets, my post title would be a good motto to embroider onto them. I have had more than one conversation with men who made the decision to move into a home that looks out on a golf course. If you golf, this is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t golf, you should consider some of the advantages. Golf courses are generally very quiet neighbors, especially at night. I once lived next door to one of least prestigious golf courses on the planet I still loved it.

The Charlotte Luxury Homes at Longview are like another world. the best home construction you can get on beautiful lots adjacent to a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course.

This is part six of a series of posts about successful fad diet site Kimkins.com and its mysterious and controversial creator, “Kimmer,” or Heidi Kimberly Diaz. My wife Catherine was Heidi’s business partner in the founding of the Kimkins.com site. You can find the first post and table of contents here.

Heidi spent July and August of 2006 alternating between manic promotion of the Kimkins.com site and periodic frustration over the demands of her members on her time and attention. By mid-August, Catherine had seen enough that her initial respect for Heidi was a distant memory and she was increasingly unhappy in the partnership. She was walking on eggshells to avoid unnecessarily triggering Heidi’s irritable moods.

This unhappiness accompanied a worry that had been forming in Catherine’s mind. In negotiating the partnership agreement, Catherine and Heidi had agreed in their contract that Heidi could buy out Catherine’s interest in the partnership at any point in the first 12 months of the Kimkins.com business for a certain lump sum. After 12 months had elapsed, the contractual buyout price would change to an amount equal to Catherine’s share of the profits for the trailing 12-month period immediately preceding the buyout.

Kimkins.com had exceeded expectations in two ways: it was both more profitable, and far more work, than either Heidi or Catherine had anticipated. Kimkins.com was more than a full-time job for both of them. The bottom line was this: because of profits that exceeded far exceeded expectations, if Heidi bought Catherine out in month 12, she would pay just a small fraction of what the buyout would cost in month 13.

By late August, Catherine had become thoroughly sick of Heidi, her moods, and the way she did business. There was no love lost; it was obvious that Heidi was only tolerating Catherine’s presence and influence in business decisions because of the work and technical expertise Catherine was contributing. A suspicion was becoming a certainty: Heidi would avail herself of Catherine’s presence as a business partner until nearly the end of the 12-month period and then buy her out.

Catherine decided to be proactive and demand a renegotiation of the buyout clause. Catherine told Heidi that she could not continue to devote all her time in return for such an undervalued interest in the business, and she requested a more equitable buyout. She felt that there was a good chance that Heidi would opt to buy her out right away, and she looked forward to getting out of the partnership. As she anticipated, and to her relief, Heidi soon announced that she was exercising her option to buy Catherine out.

The details of the transaction were set out and all the business assets were conveyed at the end of September 2006. Between her share of the site profits during her tenure and the buyout lump sum, and based on a 50-hour average workweek during the time she was involved with Kimkins.com, Catherine made just over $10 an hour for her time launching and developing the business. However, the education and life lessons she acquired were tremendously valuable.

Catherine was happy to be out of the partnership on what seemed at least to be civil terms. Heidi had made a show of being polite and gracious toward Catherine. It’s amazing how women who dislike one another can go through the motions of being nice, but Catherine had no illusions about Heidi’s real feelings. She was, however, somewhat taken aback when she realized that her Kimkins.com membership had been cut off a few days after the buyout was final. Shrugging it off as Heidi’s prerogative, Catherine moved on with other projects.

Then Heidi did something so inexplicably vindictive and downright wrong that Catherine has not forgiven her: she attempted to smear Catherine’s honesty and integrity to Kimkins.com’s most successful affiliate, Jimmy Moore.

To provide a little background, when Jimmy joined Kimkins.com as an affiliate he requested payment by check instead of PayPal. Since she knew Jimmy would be a valuable affiliate, Catherine made an exception to the PayPal-only rule and agreed to cut a check for him every month and mail it from our home in Europe. The final affiliate payments from Catherine’s last month with Kimkins went out on October 5, 2006, and Catherine mailed Jimmy’s check as usual.

On October 7, 2006 Jimmy wrote to Heidi to inquire about his affiliate payment arrangements now that Catherine was gone.

Heidi replied, with a copy to Catherine, on October 8 [emphasis added]:

She [Catherine] assured me that all affiliates were paid at the end of September. She sent me an Excel spreadsheet which I have been unable to open so I don’t have an accounting of September expenses, including affiliates. I hope everyone was paid!

Catherine responded to both Heidi and Jimmy, again October 8:

The check went out as it usually does last week to Jimmy. All the other affiliates who were owed money by the Kimkins affiliate program were paid via PayPal, even the affiliates who had not yet reached their minimum, as per our agreement Heidi. I will forward the PayPal receipts to you if you’d like since you seem to be uncertain about whether the payout took place.

Heidi, this is the first time you have followed up with me about your access issue with Google spreadsheets since you mentioned the day of the Kimkins handover transaction that you had a one-time problem logging in. I had assumed that it was resolved since I had not heard from you! Please let me know what email address you are using to access Google spreadsheets and I’ll make sure you can get in or send you a file copy instead.

I am frankly surprised, Heidi, that you would use such a tone about the issue when you have not informed me that you were still unable to get into Google spreadsheets. My receipts and books regarding Kimkins are open and if you need further documentation about ANYTHING let me know.

Jimmy, it was a total pleasure working with you! As in the past, if you do not receive your check by the third week in October let me know and I’ll get it reissued to you. The amount for September was $287.52. Heidi has possession of the affiliate program and database if you need details. If she is still using the same software, affiliates have a log in and are able to go in and see their reports at any time. I’m sure Heidi would be happy to help you out with that if you need your log in reissued.

To which Heidi replied on the same date [emphasis added]:

Jimmy, I apologize for you being in the middle. I received the password for the affiliate program and no training or guidelines. From what I see you earned $655 last month, but Catherine has a different figure. I’ll research it and make up and difference owing.

Catherine was shocked. We wondered, why would Heidi lie about such a thing? There was nothing to be gained by attempting to damage Catherine’s reputation in this way and, with Catherine in the know about many of Heidi’s lies and manipulations, it would seem that there was much to lose. My opinion is that some people are just wired that way — to react first by lying instead of telling the truth, and by being mean rather than being kind.

Catherine had had it, and after defending herself and offering full disclosure of all financial records to Jimmy (an offer that stands to this day) she wrote to Heidi on October 8:

I am really aghast at how you are behaving with Jimmy and I simply do not understand it. I have always been 100% honest and forthright in my business dealings with you and the Kimkins affiliates and I have the records to prove it, so in the end you are going to make yourself look bad to try to imply otherwise.

If this slanderous behavior continues on your part I will have no choice but to defend myself with the truth. If necessary, I will publish a full accounting of our business dealings and records (minus the members’ identifying details of course) and forward it to our affiliates, the IRS, and Social Security Disability Insurance authorities.

To the best of Catherine’s knowledge Heidi backed away from her smear campaign with Jimmy once Catherine stood up for herself in this way.

The check, of course, arrived in the mail late and was cashed by Jimmy without incident.

NEXT: Kimkins.com Part VII - Business Lessons Learned

The charter service that operates www.FlyPrudent.com has a very interesting plan for up front payment. Basically, you choose to place any amount in a third party escrow account. Unused funds have a guaranteed return, it’s not huge, but it’s probably better than you bank account. When you decide to book a flight, the charter service immediately takes action with regard to finding the best value. Some charter services pocket empty leg discounts for themselves, but Prudential Aviation passes the savings on to you.

They have access to a wide range of aircraft from 5 passenger jets right up to full size jet airliners. Gordon Gerstein at Prudential Aviation (Gordon(at)flyprudent.com) can get you hooked up for on demand flight charters that are safe, dependable and affordable.

I was curious as to what type of website would exist at the URL blackhat.com. I don’t recommend typing in urls just to see what is there. One of my young children once typed in rabbit.com and up came the pornography.

Anyway, Black Hat Training Sessions are held n various parts of the World and they bring together experts from government, business and even hackers. People in the hacking community are willing to help test the vulnerabilities of systems. They get the prospect of an ego boost, and the security companies get to see whether cutting edge safeguards actually work. The website has a calendar of events and some video from past events.

The founder and director of Black Hat is Jeff Moss. He is also the founder of the World’s biggest hacker group DEFCON. I have nothing negative to say about this man. I have nothing negative to say about any of his friends or enemies.

VAT19.com is one of my favorite online stores. The site seems to have a two pronged approach to marketing. They select quirky and entertaining products and they make entertaining demonstration videos about those products. It’s not surprising that video production is one of their strengths, because some of their best products are instructional videos like this waitstaff training DVD. I was just watching the trailer for the video, and I have actually gotten a little tense watching the bad server.

My impression is that the video would be a very useful compliment to on the job training for waiters and waitresses. I would add that the expectations of dinner guest varies by region, culture, and even type of restaurant. Giving the customers what they want really trumps every standard of practice. I am a cheapskate, so I winced a bit when I watched the good server perform a flawless upsell. If I owned the restaurant, I guess it would have given me joy. As a restaurant patron, I enjoy good service and I reward it.

A product that may be of interest to restaurants and cooking enthusiasts is the Kapoosh Knife Block. This is a UNIVERSAL knife block. There is an entertaining video to show you how this smart and elegant idea works. I like the idea that knives stay sharp longer when you use this storage method.

I would like to express my gratitude for all the comments made on my blog in relation to the series on Kimkins. I am happy to say that I have been able to approve every relevant comment regardless of the opinion of the commentor. I just approved a very adamant defense of Kimmer that anyone following the story will want to check out. The new comment is on Part III.

I would also like to apologize if anyone did not have their comment approved. I am getting a deluge of spam and any comment that had several links may have been caught in the filter. The filter consists of my brain, eyes and right index finger.

I think I am thinking about freedom of speech this morning because I watched a clip on YouTube that feature Bill O’reilly reading profanity filled, negative comments from KOS to a guest from the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was a weird moment. I think a lot of people don’t understand that taking a stand against censorship means sucking it up when there is something in print that you don’t like. I don’t like any of the above mentioned people enough to link to them.

The company that operates FinancialConsultantRecuiters.com has their phone number placed very strategically in several places, so I think it’s safe to assume that they would appreciate having it posted here as well.

(310) 373-7400

Willis Consulting, Inc. works with brokerage firms, wire houses and other financial institutions to help them find the best people for prestigious financial jobs.

The information in their website is well refined. You can tell that they have taken great care to write for both job hunting financial professional and employers in the financial sector. Even when a topic is clearly of more interest to one group, the language is still accessible and instructive to both groups. When you think about it, recruiting is basically helping people see each other clearly. I like how they start the section on resumes by letting their clients know that they know that they know how to write a resume. After they get that out of the way they explain how their process of interviewing and resume refinement can create a more accurate picture of your professional attributes.

Mark Zuckerberg is facing a court battle related to Facebook, the social site that he created. Three men who attended Harvard with Mark contend that he stole the idea from them. They originally filed a suit in 2004. That was dismissed and they immediately refiled. They have just had one of life’s little victories as a judge has granted them some more time to make their case.

The plaintiffs want, well, they want Facebook.

They have a similar site that has 70,000 users. Facebook has 31 million users and counting.

I have a very unbalanced group of friends on Facebook. It’s not that they are unbalanced as individuals, it’s just that they are a random sampling of old acquaintances that I found at random. They are all great people. I am an introverted person that is not well suited to social sites.

Source: BBC