John Chow – The Dark Side of Making Money Online
March 19, 2008 at 8:08 am | In #1 on google, Free e book, John Chow, black hat, communication, content for blogs, controversial figure, google penalty, make money online, making money online, white hat | 27 CommentsThe Marketer Review has moved to
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John Chow is a very controversial figure in the blogging-for-money landscape. This is probably the reason why he makes so much money.
Living proof you don’t need to rank #1 on Google
John Chow has been famously penalized by Google and he simply doesn’t exist, as far as Google is concerned. But you couldn’t not find him, even if you tried. The Site ranking #1 is John Cow- the John Chow parody. And the sites ranking #2 and below all link to Chow’s site, while discussing his Google demise. John Chow won the Google battle, wether you admit it or not, or wether you like it or not, because he’s a #1 interest for humans.
I won’t deny that not being first on google for the words “Make Money Online”, anymore, will probably have a disabling effect on his traffic. But it seems to me Chow is bigger than his Page Rank. I have this theory because I heard of John Chow in an offline conversation. A friend recommended him excitedly. He didn’t even mention the URL. On a whim, I went to check it out, because my friend was really exited. Now that’s viral.
Making Money Online with John Chow
The first thing of Chow’s that I read was his ebook, Make Money online with John Chow dot Com. I wasn’t expecting to much in value, but that just goes to show how wrong I can be. 
It seems Chow has tried every monetizing system in existence and is happy to share the how to’s with anyone willing to sign in the opt-in box. (I have yet to get an email from him and it’s been a week since I subscribed.) He explains the free ebook on the first couple of pages, saying the idea is for you to come to the blog and not buy an ebook. The blog, of course, is his money making site.
The White Hat and the Black Hat of John Chow
Chow doesn’t guard his secrets and doesn’t hide his opinions. The use of the term Google whore is my favorite part, personally 
In many ways he is a “pretty decent guy”. From reading the book, though, it’s easy to understand how Chow became such a controversial figure in his field.
On the one hand, Chow is a huge advocate of content. So much that he spends the first 24 pages of the ebook talking about posting: The quality posting, quantity of posting, how to create content for posts and all that jazz. He’s also a huge advocate of communicating with your readers and replying to comments. Reading all this makes me think the man knows he’s stuff and moreover, cares about his stuff. And if you brows the John Chow blog, you can tell it’s not a spam-blog. (On a personal side note, I really respect Google’s “Do No Evil” and happen to believe in their intentions, but this blog is full of great value, so a penalty for text link buying seems a little harsh, on the other hand, you would think Chow wouldn’t allow unrelated links.)
On the other hand, Chow knows how to make money and tells you all about his methods- some more savory and others much less:
- Swapping Review Me reviews.
- Reposting old posts for new ones.
- Trading old posts with other sites.
- Putting someone else’s Feed Burner chicklet on your site, because they have more subscribers.
- Setting up multiple PPC accounts.
John Chow may not be your cup of tea, but he knows his shit and makes it all easy and accessible. He even struck deals with some of the advertising companies, and you can get special discounts with his coupons.
Chow knows perfectly well what hat he’s got on and when, but you might not. I advise to use cautiously, especially if you’re a beginner.
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Loved the article. Very easy to read. Now I am off to look up John.
Comment by Mike — March 19, 2008 #
Thanks Mike
And you should!
Chow’s got a lot of useful tips, if you employ good judgment
Comment by talishapiro — March 19, 2008 #
Great read… I had heard of him but after this review, I will probably subscribe to his blog. Thanks for sharing
Comment by Francisco (Wedding DJ in Houston) Perez — March 20, 2008 #
My Pleasure Francisco
Comment by talishapiro — March 20, 2008 #
Nice post. John has had some awesome success online with his blog.
Comment by Zac Johnson — March 20, 2008 #
excellent article. john chow is one of the top earners when it comes to blogging. one thing i noticed about him is that he will jump at any chance to try a new affiliate program, and see if it works or not. this gives him the upper hand because he is one of the first to try out the new service and get into the gritty details of it before nayone lower on the chain
Comment by doug m — March 20, 2008 #
[...] presents John Chow – The Dark Side of Making Money Online posted at The Marketer Review, saying, “John Chow is a very controversial figure in the [...]
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a make money blogging carnival – March 21, 2008
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hmmm…he’s not the only one that went down this path, and I must admit that i’m not one of his fans.
His blog is not something i’ll be getting back to (hmm.. recycling content .. is .. hmm. boring after awhile). So from the business point of view – even if i’ll take his word for doing “a lot” of money online, I think that it’ll only last for a very short time.
And.. well.. think about it – would you want to go to the 3rd and 4th pages of google (or any other search engine) because the first pages will be cluttered with no value “link whores”? ..
Comment by Naor — March 22, 2008 #
Great article Tali. I have been a reader of John Chow for a while. I like the fact that he is pretty open about his methods for generating money online.
Comment by KeyJ63 — March 23, 2008 #
Naor, I don’t think it’s about fandom. This is where this business is all fucked up, because as a business strategy, we keep it personal and create a personality cult around us.
Most of the time we don’t pay/come back to read because the content is remarkable, we come back because the personalty resonates with us.
Doug, I love how the internet has become an open source for everything- people try out stuff then broadcast their testimonials- it makes choosing much easier. For everything iffy about Chow, he’s doing the reader a great service.
Comment by talishapiro — March 23, 2008 #
Oh.. I didn’t mean to accuse you with fandom
. But I agree, if when i’m building an online presence to a customer, and instead of writing the “human readable” marketing messages, the writer starts with “keywords study” etc. and I need to struggle to have the site not only “search engine readable” – then something is very fucked up here (pardon my french 
. I think we’re missing the point here of who are the “Real” customers along the way.
Comment by Naor — March 23, 2008 #
Excellent Review Tali!
What I found refreshing about John Chow was the Humour he puts in his Posts + the fact he tells it like it is! The Dude is Real – not like a lot of these other A List Bloggers that waddle around with a Pickle Stuck up their Ass!!
)
Sheeesh I can’t believe the Language on this Blog*
Awesomee!! I Love It!!
Cheers + Peace!! ;PPP
Comment by BillyWarhol — March 23, 2008 #
Naor, i didn’t either
I think Chow writes for people, just not for sensitive people. In that he brings up an excellent point- you gotta be strong to servive. You can always choose where your limits are. I’m sure there are much blacker hats, out there, than John Chows
Billy, I see Chow’s personality resonated with you
Comment by talishapiro — March 23, 2008 #
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You definetly want to get into some John Chow, For the free book alone, because that’s the most information that I’ve found in one spot-and of course the price is right.
And you can’t beat his story; Chinese immigrant moved to the West (Canada) makes a ton of money. In he mid 80’s there was a similar guy, only he did it with real estate (and we know what happened to THAT market). So strike while the iron’s hot; get in, save your $, and be prepared for the inevitable declining ability to monetize blogging in the next 5 years or so.
Comment by Dave from WelcomeBackRosenthal — March 26, 2008 #
Nice review! John Chow’s articles helped me a lot, and I think I’m not the only one.
Keep it up.
Comment by Shane — March 26, 2008 #
Hey I fired this on post on fire having written a little bit about John Chow on one of my blogs ceomum when I just started blogging. No Chow didn’t reply to me either.
Comment by Dee — March 26, 2008 #
That’s a grim prediction, Dave, but I believe you’re right, it will get harder and harder to monetize, as people are wising up to what is spam blogging. However, if you keep your ads relevant, I don’t see any reason why people wouldn’t want to click on them.
Tali
By the way, love your new look
Comment by talishapiro — March 27, 2008 #
Dee,
Writing about marketers is great comment bait, because all of us have our names in Google Alert
I really don’t expect anyone I write about to come in and say a few words, but when they do it’s a thrill.
Comment by talishapiro — March 27, 2008 #
Hi Tali
Oh yeah, it’s gonna get harder, especially if bloggers don’t get on board with Long Tail thinking.
And relevant ads would be nice, but Google and I have been having this back and forth for weeks now about the absolute lack of content matching. Even followed all their specific instructions.
So I’m going to go out on a limb and blog that topic this week with about 20 screen shots to show people how off those ads can be. So even now I’m investigated the alternatives in case Google doesn’t like the piece…
Kontera
Text link Ads
Amazon
TZZ
Adbrite
Bidvertisting
Clicksor
LinkXL
Azoogle Ads
PepperJam Network
NeverblueAds
BidVertiser
*Clickbank
P.S. Thanks for the nice comment
Comment by Dave from WelcomeBackRosenthal — March 27, 2008 #
Dave, we all should be making an effort to get our own advertisers, instead of counting on Google. I’ve started working with Adsense on my other blogand the results are pretty decent. I’m asking myself about the tagging habits of some bloggers, too. It’s not only about long or short tail- it’s about relevancy, too. The basics seem to be forgotten.
Let me know when you post that article, I’d love to see it
Comment by talishapiro — March 27, 2008 #
Good article…I did a writeup on it as well.This ebook along with AuthorityBlack book is what gave me the extra push to switch to WordPress.
Comment by infopage — March 31, 2008 #
Thanks Infopage
I’ve used both Blogger and WordPress, and for me it’s WordPress hands down. More professional looking and much friendlier user interface. Not to mention the plugins…
Comment by talishapiro — March 31, 2008 #
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