John Chow’s rise to fame - A case study
Little about the blogging scene is quite as intriguing as John Chow. This guy writes about restaurants he dine at and yet he manages to make over $20,000 per month from his blog. Of course, he also writes a lot about ways to make money online, but it’s certainly safe to say that he doesn’t follow the traditional “how to write about making money online” formula that we’ve gotten used to over the years.
One of the reasons John Chow is interesting is because he has managed to build himself an extremely loyal base of followers. And when I say loyal, I don’t mean loyal in the sense that they tend to frequently comment on his blog posts. Oh no, John has been one of the first bloggers to become a cult-symbol with a status comparable to what paparazzi-hunted celebrities experience. Just like Cult of Mac members don’t really care about what Apple does as long as it’s Apple doing it, many of those who read John Chow’s blog doesn’t seem to care about what John Chow writes as long as it is written by John Chow.
Just to illustrate, a quick Technorati search reveals no less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (I think I’ll just stop there) within the past 24 hours. I’m willing to bet that’s more than what most restaurant bloggers out there are hoping for in the span of an entire month!
Obviously this is a very desirable position to be in, but is it possible to identify what has enabled John Chow to attain the status he currently enjoys? A number of factors obviously comes into play here, but we can simplify it and narrow it down to six important points:
- Timing - Whether it was by chance or skill, only John knows, but he was just on the spot with his timing. He started blogging back in 2005 when blogs weren’t much more than public diaries, and it started as one for him as well. But eventually the blogging scene grew out of these constraints, and John seized the opportunities that arose.
- Surprising - Most of those who try to educate you on how to make money online will tell you how important the rules are. John Chow on the other hand, presents himself in a way that makes the readers believe that if he finds a way to make money, he’ll share it with you, even thought it might not be morally defendable.
- Success - Even before he started his blog, John Chow had been making good money online for years. This contributed to his success as a blogger because it gave his visitors social proof that he knows how to make money online, and such he is in a position where he can teach you. This point is also probably the most important when it comes to all the free, viral marketing John has managed to create for his blog, because it acts as Social Proof as well, which makes it easy for other people to reference to him.
- Transparency - John Chow recognizes just how important these forms of social proof are, and that is the reason why he shares his earnings with the public. Combined with the other forms of proof he boasts (high RSS readership for one), it gives him an advantage over other, similar bloggers.
- Controversy - Whether he is Banned by Google, or denied his rightful (at least in his own opinion) place in the Technorati Top 100 Blogs List or something else, John Chow never fails to make a fuzz about the controversy he is involved in. And whether people agree or disagree with your opinion, they are likely to voice their own opinions and give you great publicity.
- Arrogance - John Chow is a self-proclaimed dot com mogul, and he rarely forgets to mention it. And while arrogance in many cases can turn people off, John has managed to make it a part of his public personality in such a way that it seems only natural to those who hear him say it. This also results in that he can get away with much more radical and controversial behaviour than other bloggers who haven’t branded themselves in a way that allows for it.
While these six points have helped John Chow’s blog become a success, it isn’t necessarily recommendable that you try and replicate them. More than anything it has to do with the prerequisites you have to work out from. If you haven’t made a lot of money online to the degree that it can be accepted that you try to present yourself as better and more successful than your readers (ie. arrogant), you will never get away with it.
Even though the points mentioned above have helped propell John Chow into a blogging superstar, they merely helped him expand an already strong foundation (in terms of traffic). I also want to point out the two factors that got him into that position where that brought him that luxury, or pushed him over the tipping point if you will.
If we start by looking at his traffic details as reported by Alexa (yes, I know they are inaccurate John, but for trends they aren’t completely worthless), we’ll immediately spot when his blog took off in terms of popularity:
It was in the fall of 2006, only after John had been blogging for about a year, that his traffic spiked to the leve where it has hovered around since then. If we backtrack his blog posts to that period, we can even find that John himself wrote about this spike. The secret? Social Media Marketing, or in particular Digg.
Now, it didn’t take long before JohnChow.com was banned from Digg, but by that time, the “damage” was already done. He had gotten the initial surge of traffic he needed, and he wasn’t about to let a mere ban from a social bookmarking site stop him.
Of course, once you have all these visitors in place, you need to find a way to capitalize on the traffic in the best way possible in order to ensure that the traffic doesn’t just plummet and return to its normal level again. And John Chow came up with possibly the most ingenious scheme the blogging scene has seen to date of doing just that: Review his blog on your own blog, and get a link back from him.
Sure it seems simple, but the amount of publicity he got from that setup has undeniably been invaluable in sustaining his traffic levels. His latest batch of reviews was number 87, meaning that at least 870 blogs has reviewed his blog. Add in some very specific anchor text, and that’s a whole lot of valuable inbound links. As soon as John had the traffic, he came up with a brilliant way to capitalize on it.
What can we learn from this little case study, and the success John Chow has experienced with his blog? Well, I’ve obviously pointed out some of the things that has, according to my own humble observations, been crucial in John’s success. If I am to summarize it with a single sentence however, I would say that John Chow is a textbook example of how you don’t have to follow the textbook examples in order to be successful. Persistance and a bit of creativity goes a long way, just ask John Chow.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Interesting article. I initially found John’s site because of Darren Rowse’s Pro Blogger site. Back then I was doing research on Google’s Adsense program and finding examples of successful bloggers who had implemented adsense on their blogs. Though I haven’t been blogging as long as these guys, I have been building websites since 1991…long before most people even knew what the web was.
After being successful with web development I created The Proficient Investor which is where I write about stocks and investing ideas. Then this year I created Million Dollar Portfolio as an experiment in blogging which is so far proving quite successful.
John Chow, and is copy cat doppleganger John Cow are the most successful blogs I still read along with Problogger, though a lot of times I find Pro Blogger to be too preachy and not really the style of writing I like to read but you have to admit he knows what he’s talking about.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
[...] Lars-Christian wrote a case study on John Chow - love him or hate him, John Chow has forged his own path through the Internet and Lars-Christian’s case study does an amazing job of illustrating the techniques and reasons behind John’s success. [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 1:28 am
great case study. I wonder if I can make as much money as him and I have set up this new wedding blog to be the first fully Sponsored wedding in Asia
October 29th, 2007 at 10:26 am
James: I have to admit I’m not a big reader of either of them (ProBlogger DR or John Chow), but I certainly tip my hat to what both of them have achieved with their blogs! John Cow I stop by from time to time though, mostly because I like entertainment
Colbert: Good luck with the marriage, hope all goes well.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
[...] you ever wonder how John Chow dot Com got so big? Lars-Christian has done a very detailed case study on the subject. Little about the blogging scene is quite as intriguing as John Chow. This guy [...]
October 30th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
John Chow? Arrogant? Come on now…
October 30th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I guess he’s trying to give us some disproof of that by linking to this post, but we know better, right?
October 31st, 2007 at 1:46 am
HI Lars
The arrogance factor is a great way to lock in a fanatical core audience, as John has done.
He’ll never reach the humble-Rowse ProBlogger heights but he was never going to reach ANY heights by channeling Rowse’s persona.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:26 am
Great case study! In particular, thanks for the Alexa chart. I agree with you totally, especially John Chow’s transparency and unique brand, but arrogant moguls don’t give out “lots of link love” quote and unquote
October 31st, 2007 at 4:35 am
John Chow is the first page I visit every morning. I don’t always agree with what he has to say, or use his recommendations, but I always find them interesting and entertaining.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:22 am
Jonk: That is right, it’s hard to get anywhere by trying to “be” someone else. As John proves, the best is to forge your own path.
Ivy: I suppose so, but as I said, John plays a lot on himself as arrogant, and that’s why it is an obvious part of his image.
Ibrutus: I think it would be boring to visit blogs that only write things you agree with!
October 31st, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I’ve been directed to this post by John Chow Himself. So you know of some pretty good tactics also: put some grease on a famous blogger. I think John recommend this in his manual to make money online.
Nice case study btw. It is good to study those who made it. We can all learn from them.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Olivier: You see right through me?
And yes, we can certainly learn a lot from analyzing those that have been successful in our own quest for success.
November 10th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Lars ~ found your site from your comment on my article over on ProBlogger.
I have just started reading John Chow’s blog and this is a great review of how he rose to the top.
November 10th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Mark: Glad to hear that you liked the article, and that you noticed my comment as well
Loved your article over at PB!