In a world where many are trying to make money online, one man is taking it to a new level and leading the way for others to follow. One man has gained a position of such power and influence that he can spark an online phenomenon through a single article. One man has created a site that will make you radically question not only your own nature and values but the nature and values of those around you.

This man is a dot com mogul who made over twelve thousand dollars from his blog last month by blogging for just two hours per day.

How does he do it? What secrets lie in the evil heart of his site?

Fire up the helicopters and cue the inspirational Wagner music, because it’s time to deconstruct, rip apart and conduct a thorough analysis of the inner workings of….

John Chow dot Com

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Becomes Big

Despite John Chow dot Com being a highly profitable blog, the main source of online income for John Chow has always been made with the hardware site The Tech Zone. John Chow’s blog in its current form was started in December 2005 with a relaunch that changed it from “The Wired World of John Chow” into “The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a dot Com Mogul”. The site was upgraded to Web2.0 and it was definitely a change for the better:

Contrary to popular belief, the site was not an instant success and sat in the Z-list of normality for close to a year until something happened that many website owners have compared to a sugar rush of orgasmic proportions – he got on the front page of Digg. Normally that alone isn’t enough to send a site into the stratosphere, but it didn’t happen just once, it happened multiple times in a very short period - multiple Diggasms!

Research has found that the magnetic posts that caused the initial Digg rush were:

• The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores: The definitive post on who is making money with Adsense and the post that first introduced me to his site. If you do any research into making money online, you’re definitely going to come across this post about the millions of dollars being made through Adsense. It will inspire you to quit your day job and sell your soul to Google!

• Great Parking Job! Did You Do It Yourself?: A look at the Lexus LS460’s automatic parking technology. Digg loves these gadget posts.

• Trading Hours For Dollars: An “arrogant and proud” post where the evil mogul argues against having a 9 to 5 job and calls it the worst possible way to make a living. A signature article.

• Using Life Insurance To Shelter Income: A finance post that explains how to reduce your tax bill through life insurance.

Based on the popularity generated by these posts, more posts were submitted to Digg and they also received a large amount of publicity.

The observant will notice that most of the John Chow dot Com listings in Digg have all been submitted by the same user (I wonder who?). Naturally, dot com moguls know how to build and promote their sites effectively, but it also all eventually resulted in JohnChow.com being banned from Digg….and then unbanned…and then put on auto-bury….

However, the troubles with Digg have recently become irrelevant as while Digg springboarded the site to success, it is John Chow’s content that has kept the site strong.

Since the initial Diggs, the site has gained an unstoppable momentum that has continued until the present day and has made the site a marketing machine that has since been featured on TV and in newspapers and magazines.

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Stays Ahead Of The Pack

The continued marketing and promoting of John Chow dot Com is a work of art. For a start, the site has built a reputation for finding innovative new ways to promote and make money from a blog. John Chow is always providing information and profitable techniques that you’ll find on his site before they explode across the blogosphere in a frenzy. Consider:

• Why do bloggers ask you to link to them with a specific anchor text? Because John Chow rose to number one on Google by doing it.

• Why do so many bloggers want you to buy them a beer? Because John Chow promoted the plug-in and made over $200 last month with it.

• Why do AdWords publishers sitematch their ads with “I Love You” messages? Because John Chow did it big time on Problogger.net and got a lot of traffic from it.

• Why are there so many “review me for a backlink” promotions? Because John Chow does it and is close to receiving his 1000th review from it.

• Why are there so many bloggers who put sports cars in their header? Because John Chow does it – and often that’s a good enough reason.

What is brilliant about the content of John Chow dot Com is that it keeps rolling in and there are often 3-4 posts per day. I don’t believe that there has ever been a day without a post in recent times which means that there is a lot of repeat traffic for the site. It also means that the site is ranked under a lot of keywords in search engines (perhaps not Google) purely due to the high number of posts.

The more brilliant posts that you have, the more loyal traffic that you get.

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Breeds Success

To really appreciate John Chow dot Com, you have to read between the lines and look at what is done with the site away from the posts. The site follows a “success breeds success” philosophy in that those looking for success will be attracted to others who have found success. Hence, the more John Chow shows his success, the more loyal followers he gathers.

So what does John Chow give prominence to on his site to show his success? Surprisingly, it’s not his $200 per month text link ads but his large ReviewMe button:

Now you may be thinking, “Of course he puts it in a prime position! He makes hundreds of dollars for every review ordered!” but I believe that it goes much deeper than that.

Looking through his recent reviews, I’d say that only half of the reviews were ordered by his readers and the other half were ordered by online businesses who found his site through the ReviewMe marketplace where he has a front page listing.

Since regular readers of his site wouldn’t require a large button to know that he charges $400 per review (even a button half the size would more than enough for readers), I believe the button serves as a promotional tool for new visitors to the site.

As soon as you hit the site for the first time, there is the large “$400 per review” notice telling you that you’re on a site that has made it big-time and is making a lot of money. People are attracted to success and I have no doubt that the ReviewMe button has enticed a lot of new visitors to delve deeper into his site and become faithful readers. Many explorations of his site have probably stemmed from an initial “What is this guy doing to charge $400?” curiosity.

Combine the ReviewMe button with the large RSS subscriber figures and the notice that he has a free e-book and you have a great advertisement showing how big John Chow dot Com is. This is the part of the site that would be magnetic to new visitors.

That’s smart promotional advertising and worth a lot more than what any advertiser can pay for the spot.

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Makes Money

The monetization of John Chow dot Com is a lesson in blogging that is taught in hidden corners of his posts. It is not simply a case of displaying advertisements, but having an overall monetization strategy that derives income from a variety of sources. Often hidden and admittedly evil, the monetization and traffic generating techniques could easily constitute a business course in pre-selling your product:

• Look past the banner advertisements and see the posts where he thanks those who bought him a beer. Is it a “thank you” post, or is it an advertisement for the sites linked to in the post? Is it an encouragement for others to “buy him a beer” in the hope that may too receive a link from his site at cheaper prices than his regular advertising options?

• Look past the AGLOCO posts and see the traffic that they generate. Does he care about making money from AGLOCO or will he make more money through the publicity generated simply by having such a large network? Does your answer change when I tell you that just one of my comments on one his AGLOCO posts has already sent me over 2000 visitors?

• Look past his free e-book as a learning tool and see the affiliate links in the book. Does it surprise you that affiliate sales are the blog’s second-biggest earner?

• Look past his review me for a link back promotion and see that the “batch” posts only stay on the front page for around 4 hours. Is his plan to receive more traffic than he is giving out?

While most webmasters are following a “stick up Adsense and wait for the money” philosophy, John Chow is proactive about his blog income and takes steps to increase it rather than simply waiting for someone else to click an ad.

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Can Push The Limits

While John Chow has been all about pushing the limits with blog monetization, due to the fast-paced nature of the internet what he is currently doing is essentially nothing more than “standard practice” for those who are professionally making money online. Paid reviews, selling links, Adsense and affiliate programs are the standard tools of money bloggers and are well within “the limits” these days.

If John Chow truly wants to keep pushing the limits and take blogging to the next level, he needs to extend and push his blog into other areas in both the online and offline worlds. Twelve thousand dollars per month creates a lot of opportunities to take the site to the next level and to truly leave a mark on the world. My suggestions include:

• Sponsorship of a Mini-Moguls baseball team from blog income. Not only would this generate newspaper coverage, following the team would create great content for the site.

• The Moguls Blog Network. One blog makes a nice side income – a whole network of blogs can make the type of money that dynasties are created upon.

• The Moguls Mentoring Program. Similar to Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind program, this would eventually create a large passive income that also has the potential to help others. Follow the trend and outsource it’s maintenance to India for $4 per hour.

Making $12,000 per month is fantastic, but rapidly expanding that income is even better!

Dissecting How A Dot Com Mogul Rambles

John Chow has received a lot of criticism for his posts about food, cars and the number of paid reviews but that is the formula that has made his site successful and when your site is called “The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul”, that’s the type of content that fits perfectly.

If the site was called “How To Make Money with a Dot Com Mogul”, the criticisms would be justified but as a “ramblings” site he can post whatever he wants – even if that includes evil videos of eating live lobster.

There is a lesson there in choosing the topic of your site. If you don’t want to write specifically about one topic, create a broad topic so that anything is appropriate and you won’t disappoint readers who don’t like eclectic posts.

In contrast, John Chow dot Com has also been criticized for being too much “about the money” and lacking credibility. However, I’m yet to hear of any of those critics who are willing to reduce their own online income for a little more “credibility”.

The blog has received more than it’s fair share of negative criticism, yet John Chow’s post on How To Handle Negative Comments remains a post that should be required reading in professionalism for any blogger who finds themselves generating controversy. When you receive comments like this, you need to approach it with professionalism:

John Chow argues that negative criticism is a sign of a successful blog and should never be frowned upon - comments like that just show how successful his formula is.

Dissecting How To Love A Dot Com Mogul

Love him or hate him (although he may pay you to say that you love him!), the John Chow dot Com machine will roll on and is here to stay. My advice to Cash Quests readers is to join the ride because by not reading John Chow dot Com, you are not only missing an amazing blog that many other bloggers will be writing about, but you’re missing out on some of the best advice on how to make money online. How can I be sure of this? Because he helped me make money and continues to do so with every post that he writes.

Ramble on Mr. Chow!

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