A few weeks ago I wrote a post describing how John Chow was able to go from virtually invisible to being on every bloggers watch-list in a matter of months. Not only did the article describe how easily it could have happened to anyone, but also how it can still happen to anyone.
Your main focus should be doing what he does and not what he says. Every week or so he blogs about some newest product or widget that will earn you hundreds of dollars quickly, don’t fall for that. Instead, learn from what he is doing. Is he getting paid to review the product? Is he getting paid from affiliates for signing up to his program? In most cases the answer is yes to both, but that is just the beginning. There is much more to do to be like John Chow.
Steps to take to be like John Chow
- Get on Digg’s frontpage, twice. This will give you a HUGE initial push. If you can’t get on Digg get on Reddit, Slashdot, Fark, or even StumbleUpon’s Buzz page. John Chow claims to have been on Digg’s frontpage seven times in ten days. Is it true? Well, it might not be. But his presence on Digg is well documented. Get there once, then shoot for a second time. If everything works out you will be on again and again.
- Hold an enormous contest. Give away an iPod, a PS3, or everyones favorite, cash. To enter have your visitors subscribe through email or give a link to your blog.
- Attend conventions. Go to web development conventions whenever possible. Be sure to bring a stack of business cards and introduce yourself to as many people possible. Once you are friends with the big guys, you are “in.”
- Write great content about your subject. Now that you have a nice following, try building it up through search engines and keeping your visitors happy. Although John Chow claims to only receive a small portion of his visitors from search engines, he’s lying. He ranks second for “Make Money Online” in Yahoo and constantly asks visitors to link back to him using the phrase.
- Build a social group. The biggest social networks right now are Twitter and Facebook. Get accounts with both and ask your visitors to add you. Be sure to communicate and give updates on contests and content.
- Write fake reviews of products and give an affiliate link to it. This is the most important step to take once you have a large following. This is where a majority of your money will come from, especially if the referral gives you 5% lifetime.
- Write reviews of other websites. If you don’t mind getting banned by Google, you can start writing reviews for cash. John Chow started out charging around $250 and moved his way up. Heck, he doesn’t even write them, he has Michael do it.
Remember
It took John Chow a year to get on Digg. He built up a small community first, then used it to his advantage. If you can get an initial push and you have a great article it will get there. The most important thing to remember is be patient and continue to work hard.
Written: Aug 21, 2008
Tags: digg, john chow, make money online
LiNTEK
August 22, 2008 @ 2:18 am
I love #6
yanjiaren
August 22, 2008 @ 7:52 am
I want to make money online. I may try to do a John Chow one day..why not?
Turning cats in to Lions
August 22, 2008 @ 9:31 am
Wish it is easy as said and done to get in to the front page of Digg
SocialMind
August 22, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Frontpage Diggs can be attained easily with the right thinking. That’s really what it comes down to. Sometimes simply the wording of the title is enough to spike a flurry of clicks. There’s lots of great literature on the digg thing out there in the blogosphere…
Great post, I like your blog.
Turnip
August 23, 2008 @ 12:50 am
Hmm, I wish I had found this post 10 months ago when I started, instead of discovering it all myself by trial and error. I’ve done all except #’s 1,2,3, which I plan on doing come September/October.
Hoto
August 23, 2008 @ 5:53 am
don´t forget to talk about some hard work to make some cash online. it´s not just putting a site online and than wait. you got to work on it every day.
Gary R. Hess
August 23, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
The article is “How to Make Money Like John Chow”, not how to make a quality blog. There is a huge difference.
Steven Wilson
August 24, 2008 @ 5:50 am
Some very good tips on being successful on the web like John Chow.As you mention getting on the front page of digg is a great step in the right direction.
Renee
August 24, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
The one thing that seems clear to me is that all of these how to blogs are really dedicated to making technology blogs successful. What does someone do who writes a political blog the way that I do? I have been searching for even one post on how to be successful with this kind of blog. The only advice I get is to comment on other blogs which I do continually. I have even gotten some great links from other bloggers in my niche but getting to a thousand uniques a day can be like pulling teeth some days. I could really use some niche specific advice and I am sure that I am not the only one.
Gary R. Hess
August 24, 2008 @ 9:46 pm
Yeah, I know what you mean. Generally most blogs only talk about becoming successful in ‘how to blog’, technology, or ‘make money online’. Thus, their only examples are for those blogs. This post is not an exception.
Generally though, the same advice remains. Obviously reviews (of other websites anyway) and contests are out of the question, but most is still the same: commenting, forums, directories, linking out, and social media.
Commenting and social media are probably your biggest bet to becoming big with a political blog.
For political blogs, controversy is where the attention comes. Know something about a politician that hardly anyone else does? Blog about it. Have an unpopular position? Blog about it.
Do you like to read books? Read some political books and then review them on your blog. If you feel up to it and enjoyed the read, write a good review and use an affiliate link so your readers can buy it. Hated the book? Even better. Write a horrible review about it. Even better, read a popular political book and write a review about why it sucked or how it could be better.
An example: “My Life” or “Dream from My Father”
You could blast other political blogs. Write why ’so-and-so’ blog is a horrible liberal blog or conservative blog.
You could also go the comedic route. Create political comics and post them every one in a while.
Trying to rank for anything important in search engines will be difficult though. Barack Obama currently has 57,000,000 pages with his name on it. Getting anything on the first 3 pages would take forever.
So as far as search engines go, you will have to find long-tail keywords or local politicians. Who is running for office in your state that you absolutely loathe? Write about them and say why you loathe them.
Anyway, as always ranking in social media is difficult. Don’t submit your own pages to Digg, as that is usually frowned upon. You can try to get listed on Reddit, then let someone else submit to Digg (IMO, Reddit is much higher quality anyway).
Renee
August 24, 2008 @ 10:14 pm
I have had some good hits with Reddit but I have learned that self-submitting is also frowned upon. I like the idea of doing a book review. That is certainly a good option to pursue. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions directly. You are the first how to blogger that has bothered. I will be back for sure:)
Gary R. Hess
August 25, 2008 @ 1:52 am
It is frowned upon to an extent. They actually allow it per their TOS unlike Digg who outright says it against it.
Susan
August 25, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
I think he does a pretty good job of hooking his readers with some unique ways of making money…or at least he used to.
Gary R. Hess
August 25, 2008 @ 5:31 pm
Whenever he tells someone about a new product, it is because he is getting paid to write about it and for each person who signs up through him. Even when he tells people he will pay them $10 to signup, he is still making an additional $10 off each person.
It is extremely smart on his part. He is making as much as he can before he falls flat on his face. His tech sites are complete trash, so he has to make money somehow.
This is why I am telling you guys to do what he does, not what he says. He enjoys telling his visitors about pyramid schemes. He benefits the most while everyone else gets crumbs. He doesn’t talk about real ways to get more traffic or more money. He simply says, “Hey! Sign up to this and you’ll get money!” But fails to say how to do it.
If he really cared about the little people, he would set out a plan on how to do it. Instead, like many bloggers (besides from ProBlogger and some others) he fails to give real-life examples. So you must look at his entire site as an example. His site is a gold mine for learning how to make money, you just have to read between the lines.
I have failed to learn anything other than that from his website besides what restaurants serve expensive food.
turnip
August 25, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
Funny, when I write an article explaining exactly how to make money, nobody comments and page views are down. Then over the next few months I get a few “wow, I’ve been looking all over for a tutorial on how to do this” from the search engines. Mt average reader is looking for get rich quick systems, not knowledge.
fragileheart
August 28, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
So if I don’t want to be popular like John Chow… should I do the opposite of everything you said? hehehe
Gary R. Hess
August 28, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
Yep. But you can still be popular by doing the opposite, just not in the same way as him. Which could be better and more long-term.
As soon as some other things which I have heard about are exposed, several ‘big bloggers’ will be taken down… If what I have heard is true.
Grizzly
August 31, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
John Chow gamed digg to get on the front page and eventually got himself banned. The tricks he used no longer work so you will have a hard time duplicating it.
The real issue is why chase social traffic like digg in the first place. You won’t make money from it - it’s just bloggers who use social sites and they don’t buy. Yes if you get 10,000 RSS subscribers you will be able to sell advertising but you will starve long before you hit those numbers. The people who make money online use the search engines - rank on top for your keywords and the traffic will flow - traffic that does buy and clicks on ads. Social traffic will not do either.
(In case it matters I rank #4 on Yahoo for “Make Money Online” and kick Chow’s ass for every other make money keyword on both Google and Yahoo so I do know what I’m talking about.)
Take some free advice - forget about social marketing and learn SEO. You won’t listen though but come look me up in six months when you haven’t made a dime digging, tweeting and stumbling. Don’t worry I don’t sell anything - just giving out some unsolicited advice and my apologies for that - just trying to help.
Cheers
Griz
Gary R. Hess
August 31, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Grizzly, you are acting like social media and SEO are completely different beasts, they aren’t. If you get to the frontpage of any social media website that is links. You said yourself that webmasters are the ones who use social media, which is right. They use it and if they find something interesting they link.
Everyone knows you don’t get paid from visitors who use social media, that isn’t the point. It is even recommended by many to create a static page and take off all advertising when getting heavy traffic. It is 100% about the links and future visitors.
Take a look around impNERD and you will see that I preach SEO more than anything else and social media is just a part of it. Social media is all about link baiting and that is the #1 way to rank for keywords.
Grizzly
August 31, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
Gary,
I don’t disagree with your logic and agree that link building is about the only useful thing gained from social media. Btw - I have now checked out the site and see that you are familiar with SEO - my apologies for jumping the gun.
My concern with digg et al is that most people don’t use it for links - they have dreams of becoming “famous” like Chow and company and waste months trying to gain recognition while they could have spent the time doing something useful like building links.
I should point out that there are better ways to build links than using social media and more productive. Let’s face it the bulk of links gained from social sites are not optimized for your keywords. You will get a lot of links for your name or URL and few with your keyword in the anchor. In the end most of the links are useless. 1000 backlinks using the term “Gary Hess” will not get you ranked for anything in the serp’s other than your name.
I outrank all the A - List (in the make money online niche) who have tens of thousands of links stemming from their social traffic. I have very few social links as I don’t use social media at all. My point is how am I able to outrank Problogger, Chow, Shoemoney and the rest? All they have is social traffic - I have none.
I do understand your reasoning and don’t disagree if you have the knowledge that you obviously have. It’s the noobs that don’t understand the game that concerns me.
I have built a blog (a free blogger blog yet) that dominates the search engines without using social media just to prove that there is a better and faster way to make money online. Why waste hours a day socializing when you don’t have too?
Anyhow - just a different point of view that I thought might be useful.
Btw - I like your blog and wish I had known about it sooner - the downside of not being a social blogger. lol.
Great discussion and all the best Gary.
Griz
Gary R. Hess
August 31, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
The point is to not waste your time socializing. Digging your own articles won’t get you anywhere. Instead, you use linkbait tactics to influence your visitors to submit your work. That way, you do nothing but write the article and optimize your headlines (when it comes to socializing, I mean).
I agree that it is a waste of time to spend hours upon hours trying to build up friends on social media sites. You can get much more out of submiting articles to directories, writing guest posts, commenting on others sites, and quite frankly just writing better articles on your own website.