Why John Chow is Bad for Blogging44 lbs LOSTso farSeptember 15, 2007 by Israel Lagares | 136 comments
I like to keep things related to health and weight loss, but there are times when I just need to vent. So this post is one of those times.
I have been intrigued with blogging since it started becoming popular a few years ago. That’s why I started this blog. I figured I would be able to document my weight loss journey as a way to make myself accountable for my actions. It has been working great. I love blogging, everything about it. Well, except for John Chow and wanna-be bloggers like him.
Being that I am a newbie blogger (this blog is only about 3 months old or so), I scour the internet for information that will help me better my blogging. Whether it is joining MyBlogLog (See my Community to the right), Technorati, or reading up on how to incorporate things into my blogging, I research everything there is to do with blogging.
One of the many sites I have come across during my blog researching is JohnChow.com. At first I figured it would be a useful resource, since he has been blogging for a few years, but then I realized that John Chow is bad for blogging. I am not the only one to realize this: Google, Digg, and a slew of others have criticized and/or penalized his blog.
So why do I think John Chow is bad for blogging? To start off he has taken the blogging out of blogging. What do I mean by that? I mean that he doesn’t just blog to blog about stuff. He now only blogs in order to make money online. His posts aren’t genuine. He gets paid for posting certain things. These certain “things” can make or break other sites. He is extremely biased with his posts. He tends to promote the heck out of things and it’s rather annoying. If there is nothing in it for him he doesn’t blog about it. At any given moment you can check his site at any time and see that he is peddling something.
Another reason why I feel that he is bad for blogging is because he has started this “make money with blogging” craze. Tons upon tons of wanna-be John Chow’s are now making dumb ass blogs about making money online. Don’t they realize that they will not make anywhere near what John Chow makes, if anything at all? They are just trying to be like him and spam the heck out of every single make money blog that there is. A perfect example is JohnCow.com. Yep, that’s right. JohnCow, with a COW. This guy, or as I suspect, couple of guys, are a bunch of young copy cats. Kids actually, that decided to mimic John Chow’s blog. While their posts are more entertaining and “light,” they are just like John Chow’s in that they are all about making money online. There are a slew of other copy cats, but you can find them yourself by just looking at the commentators on their respective blogs.
**EDIT** John Cow just recently had a redesign done. I think it actually looks amazing. It sets the site apart from the rest and I think it will give the site it’s own identity now.
Yet another reason why I can’t stand John Chow is that he is a “make money” whore. He is all about the all mighty dollar. That’s it. All he wants to do is make as much money as he can from his blog. I can’t stand it. Not because I am envious (as you can see my blog is about my weight loss journey), but because all you see on his blog are ads. Tons of them. The first thing you see is ads. It’s like one big advertisement that happens by chance to have some posts on it. He should call his blog “The Ad Blog.” Some ads are okay, but damn bro, cut back on those ads.
I won’t lie, I have the damned blog RSSed, but only to see if he will ever start bettering his blogging. I have hopes that he will return to his original ways of posting genuine posts.
One blog I do like is ShoeMoney.com. The guy is an uber blogger. His blogs are genuine, personal, and entertaining. I don’t have to worry about him trying to sell me on the next big thing. Check his blog out, it’s worth it. Plus the guy was a fat bastard, not unlike myself, and lost weight. Although he did do it with gastric bypass surgery, but nonetheless he lost weight and is in good shape. He has some cool pics too. Well, now that I think of it, I am not as fat as he was. But whatever, check it out anyway.
Shouldn’t blogging be genuine? Blogs came about a few years ago because people wanted their voices heard. They wanted to have a place to say what they felt. If they happened to make a little money then cool. But blogging wasn’t about making money. Blogs weren’t started to get rich off of. I guess John Chow doesn’t care and neither do his readers. They hope he will be their savior and teach them how to make money. Haven’t they realized that if he teaches them all of his tricks that he jeopardizes his own income? Ugh.
John Chow…You are bad for blogging. Period.
Related Posts
I never said I was good for blogging.
But it’s cool. Like my blog title says, “I make money online by telling people how much I make online.”
Thats the best title ever because it is so true,
Do you think so? Why do you agree?
Because its the classic truth behind get rich quick schemes, the way to get rich off of a get rich scheme is not to follow your five fold plan but to sell your five fold plan to others.
Im not saying this is exactly what John did to get where he is now but that is whats happening in a way.
cool point. I agree.
When you say where he is now, do you mean the sandbox?
Not trying to be cheeky but you do sometimes change that title
Not really sure what you mean. I dont change the titles to my posts after I publish them if thats what you mean.
My comment was to reply John Chow’s comment. He said that ‘I make money online by telling people how much I make online’ but he sometimes changes that.
Oh, ok. My bad. I have notice that too.
I’m happy there is a John Chow, cause without I would still have been in the dark
To each his own.
Haha, then you are still in the dark, all you have is a little moonlight
Sadly. It is very dark here.
I found the link to this website on the cow’s web site, he gets a lot of hits, a lot from chow’s site… so basically it has gone full circle. without Chow, there would be no Cow, without Cow, I would not have found your site. So, I don’t think Chow is bad for blogging, I think those who try to copy him and then trash him are bad for blogging…
Hi Serge, you make a valid point. So you think I copied Chow?
Hi John, thanks for being a good sport about it and stopping by. Seems like you are realistic.
I un-subscribed from the John Chow blog late last month. Much for the same reason you mentioned above. There are other blogs that I can read instead of wasting my time from someone who just wantd to focus on making money.
Michael
thanks for stopping by, you are welcomed anytime.
sooo ummm you want me to kick him in the shins for you or what?
BAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
JUST KIDDING JOHN!!!!!!!
…….or am I?
/shifty
go for it. LOL. i bet that guy cant last a round in the ring with ya.
It all comes down to personal taste. What if everyone would start blogging about losing weight? Would that make everyone sucks because that’s all they are blogging about?
Well actually that could make some good money too. Lots of people have problem with weight, a true story of losing weight some ads here and there, some affiliates and the game is done.
Nice assessment. Any more ideas for me?
I dont think you understood, its not just about the topic thats damaged, its the reason for blogging. If everyone started blogging about weight loss that would be fine, but if every started blogging about weight loss just to make money then thats another story. Or better yet, if people started blogging about weight loss and had no real knowledge about it or experiences.
If you think blogging for money is the reason for all blogs, you’re wrong. It is however a very popular topic. I really don’t see the harm in it.
thanks for the link back i hope you guys visit us again! the monkeys are alive with joy! subscribe we did!
i totally digg the idea of this blog! i stumbled and dugg!
no problem, thanks goes right back to ya for stopping by.
I don’t see anything wrong in blogging for money. Almost everyone will be happy to do it if they can make $17K per month
That is the beauty of this world. We are all entitled to our unique opinions.
I don’t think the reason for all blogs is to makemoney. lol. I said that john chow has spurred a new race of make money bloggers.
FatMan,
if you haven’t already, give HIIT a whirl. Check with your doctor first! It is very very intense. But it burns fat like nothing else.
HIIT=high intensity interval training
enjoyed your blog!
you CAN do it
I have been doing HIIT for two days now and its amazing. simply amazing. thx.
oh and I almost forgot!
re John Chow, the guy has no integrity
when he started his blog he pledged to donate any and all monies to charity.
he showed checks that he had drawn to local charities but when he started to make REAL money… that talk soon was forgotten.
check into his archives, the posts should be there
I make my charity post at Xmas time. How much will you be giving?
John, you give away all your money? Or does it go to the trust for Sally? Thats what I found in the archives.
John, have you considered becoming a politician? Your ability to spew BS, raise money by prostituting yourself and skirt questions without answering them is top notch! I dare say you could become an MP someday.
To be fair to the bad for bloggin evil one he does do that, for once without any kickback… unless he has a contract to supply soup to the homeless shelters!!
wow, i did not know that. i will go check the archives, that is very interesting.
I think its funny when people post about how John isnt genuine or has no integrity cause he is making money. The guy has written some really good, useful posts over the past year and all paid reviews by him I believe are pretty honest.
It’s not the fact that he makes money, it’s that the posts are swayed and not genuine because he needs to “push” some things.
I agree with that.. but sometimes he do post some good article.
Yeh? Such as?
His last one about blogrush was pretty good, he has an alternative motivation but that doesnt make it less of a good tip, also his ebook and the articles on taxes were good.
I will have to check his archives for those other ones you mentioned. Thx.
I actually like JC’s blog BECAUSE he is so obviously making money with every post. You are right to say that he probably doesn’t share his best tricks with his readers but then who would?
He is quite open about his motivations for running that blog so I say good luck to him.
As for copycat’s I quite agree - there are a few good quality ones around like Dosh Dosh or Cashquests but absolutely hundreds of sub-standard ones who naively believe that doing whatever John Chow says will make them rich.
John Cow, as blatant a rip-off as it is, does work for me because they have a new angle on the make money online theme, unlike the other several hundred others who are still using the Mistylook theme and rewriting JC’s posts to look like their own.
Hi thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion.
I have to agree with you johnchows blog is big mess of ads and I dn’t visit his site very anymore becuase the frikin ads make my comptuer come to a crawl and he has referral links everywhere Im afriad if I click on something it might a clickbank or some other thing as you said,, peddling stuff to make more $$
pathetic.
what I mean to say about the computer coming to a crawl.
Is that his pages are too heavy (bandwidth wise) and its a bastard to load sometime.
But john chow is the guy who inspired me to make sites… So I give him credit for that.
yeh, sometimes i need to refresh.
I tried to be a copycat but I’ve realized that I can’t make money like him from blogging about making money and in my opinion his blog is all marketing because In one day you will see him sell a book or something to make some good cash. Copycats around the world change your niche =)
by the way good luck with your weightloss program and bookmarked you
Thanks so much, it is much appreciated. I agree that people need to find their niche and stick with it. Copycatting won’t always work.
you know the people who get famous and all of a sudden they think they’re way above the rest of the sheep.
They start to think they are way better, can do things however they want etc etc.
Yeah well I feel something similar has happened to chow, but it’s about money.
On later posts, it’s all about the profit, profit and again profit he earned.
Almost as he wants the the sheep to envy and praise him, he loves the ass kissing
But seriously it’s less of the how you too can make money, and here’s how it’s done, and more of hey I earned $X by using Y.
I’m so rich yada yada, and not as much how he did it.
Well of course he doesn’t want to share that, as that would spawn x amount of people doing the same and resulting in him getting less $.
But the bottom line is, it’s after all the readers that result in chows progress, not him.
So who to blame, the ass kissing sheep.
thats a great way to put it.
Funny because I just ranted about the exact same thing on someone’s blog last night. I ended up unsubscribing from John Chow because I got tired of him constantly trying to sell me something or jam yet more ads up my butt - i also don’t care about where he ate for dinner last night, or what he did on his trip to china. In his defense, he does claim to donate all the money he earns.
Recently I’ve dedicated my blog to explaining “how i did it”, with regards to the success of my website. My blog has NO advertising, no “personal rants” and no other BS.. Just “how i did it” .. sadly, i’m not as good of a writer as John Chow..
… but i’m working on it..
Yeah? It gets kinda annoying after a while. I like your site and RSSed to it. Hopefully I can learn something from ya.
I blog on money making but i do come from an honest point of view for the program that i reviewed, i am not like john being paid for the reviews. Sometimes if you are pretty much earning like john, you will put money in your head first and blogging about others that have no monetizing effect comes second.
good point. also, some say he gives it to charity but i find that hard to believe. he also has a post saying that he is putting it into a trust. i suspect thats for his baby. that doesnt sound like charity to me.
“He now only blogs in order to make money online. His posts aren’t genuine”
He’s not the only one.
Thing is, it works. So why would he stop? You’re still reading his blog even though you think this, so there’s no reason for him to stop - it makes him money!
Good point, I only read it briefly via RSS to see if there is anything good.
Heck, JC has a captured audience and he’s making the best out of it. Can’t blame him for that. Blame the majority who are his sheep and sucking up to him. There are make money blogs and there are make money blogs. So we perceive that they dominate the blogosphere because we all seem to be moving the same circle. And that’s what make us sick of it. Move out of this circle and explore other circles and you’ll find many other blogs with great stuff to read. These blogs don’t get caught in the money race, although they may have adsense, affiliate programs, etc, on site. Take Steve Pavlina’s blog - that’s a good one.
I will check Pavlinas blog out. Thx.
Hey Israel…if you dont like JC’s ads how come you have ads all on your website as well??? Oh yeah John Chow rules…keep getting that muga aka money mr. evil one
i dont have ads being shoved down peoples throats. I dont have post after post after post of crap affiliate stuff being shoved down readers throats.
My site is quite sparce on ads - there are 4 buttons in the top-right corner and some text links in the sidebar halfway down, but that’s about it. I don’t want to scare away the visitors before I even have them! =D
Haha, good point.
Personally i don’t think we should try to define blogging and what it is all about . There are over 50 million blogs out thereand anyone has its own story. I know what it means to write and yet be unnoticed, so every one of us has to pull-out his magic stick, and we al do it in different ways. John does it in unique way, he also writes about himself with nonchalance. it is not his fault if others imitate without knowing their left or their right.
Anyway before I forget. This is a very good link bait. You know very well that John Chow is controversial and you came out with this rather controversial review, let me put it this way. I’m I right?
Well, I was just being honest about how I felt. I dont think this post was picked up anywhere. SO the linkbait issue is mute. I just was tired of the redundancy.
Kanute, you are very much right. This post now counts for 20% of Israel’s incoming links.
20%? Where’d you get that number? Please show me. Thx.
Hi Israel. I got it from SEO Book’s excellent SEO for Firefox extension.
You have about 2,500 incoming links and 500 to this page - 20%.
However this isn’t the exact number of links. If you go here:
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fatmanunleashed.com&bwm=i&bwmf=s&bwmo=&fr=&fr2=seo-rd-se
that will tell you how many incoming links you have that Yahoo knows about.
Cool, thanks.
Hi there. Great post. I’ve seen your comments on John Chow’s blog before, so I kind of already knew that you didn’t like it much.
I like some of John’s posts but I do agree that he doesn’t teach people how to make money. He shows them whatever is going to make the most money for him. But, if they are too silly to realise that, then it is their own problem.
I do like some of his posts, but not all of them. l think he posts too much though. Does he write them all himself, or does someone do it for him? I just don’t understand how he has time to write all that, run his other business and eat all that food too.
HAHA. Funny. I think he has some help with the writing. I also think he writes alot on one day and schedules it ahead of time, keeping it easy to manage for when breaking news happens.
John Chow teaches how to make money more than any other I’ve come across, I bet I’ve been around for while and doing a lot of research. But you’ve got to interpret, analyse and reinterpret to be able to apply it. I write exclusively on Linux and Open Source, I don’t expect John to know that, so I’ve got to keenly pick-out what can go for me. There are so many secrets and I don’t expect anyone to just throw them out like that. This very post is a winner, that’s what John Chow is about. creating popular winning posts.
Thanks for stopping by, interesting site ya got there.
amazing post…which I agree with and interesting comments, I can’t believe I read them all!
Just came back to give this post a second read, I think having it linked back from the top commentors list on JC was both smart and funny.
One thing you are wrong about though is Shoemoney… he will take you to the cleaners just as fast as John Chow.
Jez
How so?
When he’s ready he’ll push a scheme or two, some of the info he posted on BlogRush was bogus… but your right, his site is a lot better than chow, almost all posts are genuine and not stuffed with aff links….
Oh ok. Thanks.
I’ve been reading John’s site for a while now and have seen it change over time…
…but not into the horrible abomination you perceive it to be.
I think John’s initial concept (if he even had one) of his blog was more or less about how he has made money from his other work/sites.
He shared his information on how to be a webmaster and how to make some money.
He’s written many great posts and has helped a lot of people that have, in turn, helped a lot of people.
What I see of JohnChow.com today is him maximizing on everything he has built.
You say you don’t want to read affiliate crap or be killed with ads (not directly quoting you, just in general), and I say I am fascinated with the methods he uses to put it all together.
I think the thing about John Chow is that you learn by stepping back from the page.
As he says, he’s making money by making money and telling you about it.
You might not ‘learn’ from reading a post that’s basically selling a blog widget, but you should be able to pull some value in seeing how and why he promotes certain things or exploits certain ideas.
I can sum up what my drawn out post is saying like this:
Just like guns don’t kill people, people kill people…
John Chow isn’t bad for blogging, but some people he’s inspired to start blogging are bad for blogging.
Thanks for the detailed comment.
JC used to write great posts, but not any longer… IMO.
“I think the thing about John Chow is that you learn by stepping back from the page.”
Absolutely, if you want to learn about reader manipulation then it is really worth studying that site and reading between the lines.
I think JC has been bad for blogging in that his earnings have attracted the attention of IM’s and resulted in a lot of scammy blogs being created.
Also, some people have lost out by following his lead, for example I saw one reader spend $1000 on adwords for Agloco, presumably as a result of JC hyping it up. Ok that person is likely to be over 18 and has to make his own decisions, but JC has to shoulder some responsibility if people take his advice and are subsequently screwed.
JC will plug pretty well anything if there is something in it for him, if thats what you want from a blog then JC is the site for you, personally I’m with Israel on this one.
woohoo. Thats two of us.