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Episode 9 Part 1 

2 Day Individual Challenge Results  1:07-6:44 (5m37s)

Jonathan van Clute immune from elimination

1st Place Collin Lahay $1,697.25
Prize: Slingbox

2nd Place Carl Zetterlund  $123.50
3rd Place Jani Ghaffor $103.25
4th Place Jonathan van Clute $90.00
5th Place Big Jason Henderson $137.55 (after 50% penalty) $68.78
6th Place Devin Hunter $67.35

Jonathan van Clute had the option of giving his ring to someone not in the top 6, but would thereby bump Devin Hunter out of his 6th place slot.  He chose to keep the ring and keep the top 6 places as they were earned.

WebjamAds Leaderboard Report  6:45-10:55 (4m10s)

The winner of Top Affiliate Challenge will take home half of all the money earned on the show.  Current portion for winning contestant stands at: $6,174.73

Also:
Jeep Patriot from Russelwood Chrysler
Wright’s Jewelers ring (valued $5000)

$706.92 Team PepperJam
$ 0.00  Team XY7.com

After the Leaderboard report, Monica Durazo informs John Chow that because his team lost too many times, John Chow has been eliminated from the show as a Guru.

With no other Guru left but Ken McArthur, the teams are dissolved and Ken becomes a roving Guru, helping any of the top 6 affiliate marketers in the remaining challenges ahead.

The top 6 are placed into 2 partner teams, where the lowest performing team will be eliminated.

If a partner from an elminated team is immune, he will have the option of chosing a partner to work with from the 2nd place team.  The person he does not pick from the 2nd place team would then be eliminated.

Teams announced:

Team XY7.com
Collin Lahay
Devin Hunter

Team ToolBarn
Carl Zetterlund
Big Jason Henderson

Team PepperJam Network
Jani Ghaffor
Jonathan van Clute

ProFlower Confessions 10:55-13:26 (2m31s)

John Chow talks about the producers voting him off the show because his team underperformed consistently.

He answered the question some may have asked as to whether Team XY7.com had been sandbagging the competition since Collin Lahay had been able to pull in over $1600 by himself in the 2 day individual challenge.

If he could do this alone, why had the team he had been on, Team XY7.com, been unable to make any money together?

John Chow verifies that they had sandbagged the competition.  The master plan had been to get Collin Lahay into the finals and then win the competition that day.

The rules of Top Affiliate Challenge was not that the winner was an individual person or team who makes the most money for the whole 2 weeks, but the winner was the one who would make the most money on the last day.

The plan was to cruise until the final day, letting contestants get eliminated except Collin.  Once he had survived to the last day, they would pull out all stops, call in favors and use all the money that was raised, and totally anhilate the 2nd place guy.

But John, not aware the producers were keeping a tally of wins and losses for the Gurus, would have restructured his strategy to win just enough to be in 2nd place.

Using “Jedi Mind Tricks”, human psychology, John Chow admits he convinced some of the contestants to willingly eliminated themselves and leave.  He thanked those contestants for cooperating and reassured them it was for a “higher purpose.”

TAC Participant’s thoughts on John Chow’s Elimination 13:26-18:08 (4m42s)

Jeremy Schoemaker talks about negativity breeding very fast. But he feels John Chow will be fine even after his performance on the show.  He explains that John Chow has a following and many would not be surprised at his attempted “gaming the system” or his methods.  He was surprised tthough that John seemed to just give up.

Ken McArthur says John Chow looked like he was having fun during the competition plotting and carrying through his “master plan.”  It would be in John Chow’s nature to “throw a monkey wrench” into a situation but also be a good sport about things and make everyone laugh.

Ronda Del Boccio is not disappointed at the turn of events as a result of John Chow’s mind games.

Jonathan van Clute is disappointed at John Chow’s attitude and his willingness to throw team members “under the bus” for one pecific contestant.

Devin Hunter thinks Top Affiliate Challenge producers made a good decision, planned or not, to eliminate John Chow as a Guru.  He had felt sorry for each and every contestant who got eliminated under John Chow’s leadership.

Carl Zetterlund observed that John Chow took the elimination rather well and with no fuss.  He had expected more of an uproar from John.

He could see though, that John did seem disappointed and a bit angry.

Collin LaHay was surprised and could see John Chow was too.

Jason Henderson said it was to be expected.  But it had been pretty obvious that John Chow had been “tanking” the show and eventually it came back to bite him.

Jani Ghaffor was not expecting John Chow to be eliminated.

Jonathan van Clute did not see it coming at all, he thought Gurus were immune.  But seeing as John Chow did little on the show, it made sense.

The only tips John could give his contestants was how to game the internet.

One on One with Wes Wyatt 18:09-27:19 (9m10s)

Wes Wyatt asks Ronda about her 3rd place dart performance.

Ronda Del Boccio says, “Sink or swim, I just throw myself into the game no matter what…No one can say I don’t bring game.”

Ronda answers Wes Wyatt’s question on whether John Chow can still “game” the show without being on it.  She says he could in a way because of the nature of the show.

Any contestant can call in favors and have financial help at a phone call, ask a guru to back them up, take winning campaigns from friends and redirect them to their TAC challenge.  Any contestant can bring any resources to the show.

Wes Wyatt talks about Ronda being in 6th place right up until the shows 9:30am performance results refresh where she lost by a one conversion difference to Devin Hunter.

Ronda says it’s a game, and when they give a cutoff, sometimes games will go where they will.  She is happy with her performance on the show.  She played the game with integrity, was upfront as much as she could, and tried to make the experience as good as she could for those around her.

“You don’t have to be the winner to be the winner.” Ronda says.  She would have loved to get to the top, but she still did get alot out of the show through networking and experiencing what she did throughout the show.

Chad Van Norman was happy that the results and elimination ended the way that it did.  It would have been a stress if his team had been forced to vote one of themselves off.

But with the teams dissolved and reorganized and only one Guru remaining, the decision had been taken out of their hands.

Chad was surprised that his individual performance was not enough to get to the top 6.  He had felt his conversions had been okay.

Chad feels Collin LaHay would be difficult to beat going forward when he has access to friends with successful campaigns that are being directed to his campaigns on the show.

Chad learned alot about cpa advertising before the show.  He learned about “Porcupines in Heat” and “Catching Big Rocks” from Ken McArthur.

He expains about buying frenzies from lists that were not performing or converting which would be “Porcupines in Heat.”  He finishes with “Catching Big Rocks”, you let the little rocks go by and worry about the big opportunities.