Even though I sometimes talk smack about John Chow, I want everyone to know that I am a big fan of his.  John Chow is probably the first blogger that I ever read who really seems to have a good frame of mind when it comes to blogging and he is willing to share his time and knowledge with anyone who is willing to listen.  His e-book really encouraged me to start this website and in the long run, my philosophy towards blogging and towards monetizing this blog will most likely turn out to be somewhat “Chow-esque”.  This is why I want to dedicate my next few posts to John Chow and the things that I like most about his blog/blogging.

What I Like About John Chow Part 1: Sharing is Caring

On more than one occasion, I have been impressed by John’s amazing willingness to share what some bloggers would consider classified, a trade secret or  something mysterious that only experienced bloggers should know and never share.  I read many blogs before finally finding John’s and ultimately ended up being frustrated about the “big picture” talk that always went on with these blogs and communities.  Everyone always talked about driving traffic and doing better SEO and secrets for monetizing a blog and so on, but it was at John’s blog that I first heard some “big picture” talk mixed with actionable information.  For example, instead of talking about doing better SEO and moving on to another topic, John said to do better SEO by, for example, fixing your permalink structure in Wordpress.

These actionable items that John Chow dishes out on occasion have meant a lot to me.  With those tiny nuggets of knowledge, I’ve not only become a better blog manager but I have also been able to learn, share, and increase my domain knowledge and ability to talk shop with other bloggers.  Not only that, but I feel that I can now start a blog on any platform and know what to look for or improve in order to make the site just that much better.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a big fan of John Chow and his blog.  I’ve been a regular visitor to his site and an RSS reader for quite some time and like his reviews, his attitude, and his outlook on the Internet.  Life is pretty good for John these days…he rakes in a lot of money from his blog in addition to what he makes with his other projects (TTZ Media and who knows what else).  One of the things that I like most about John Chow’s blog are his commentaries on his daily life and his restaurant reviews.  Aside from lifestyle opinions and his sense of humor, I’m not entirely sure why his website is so popular though.

While John offers the newbie blogger a few helpful tips once in a while, it seems that a lot of posts are paid review ads, general off-topic commentary (like what he had to eat or what you’re not allowed to do on new airplanes),  or some kind of self promotion.  I don’t think any of those things are bad, really, but I do have to question the quality of the blog when it relates to his mantra, which is “I make money online by telling people how I make money online”.

Once a month he tells everyone about how much money he made with his blog, and how much money came from what strategy.  I think that this once a month post is the most worthwhile thing he writes, and now for some reason I, like thousands of others, can’t seem to tear myself away from his blog even though there’s only one loaded blog post every 30 days.

As a new blogger, I’ve realized that it’s really quite difficult to write content that all of your readers will find useful on a daily basis and I do give John a lot of credit for that.  Additionally, I know that there’s only so much one person can say on a certain topic without sounding like a broken record. His posts, although fluffy, are well written and I enjoy them to some extent but if his blog were a stock, I would sell while it’s hot.