The Blog For Entrepreneurs

Yep – in the stone age the ‘Information Superhighway’, as they called it on the news, didn’t have much information on it, was not super and the only highway it resembled was a motorway gridlocked with traffic. Nevertheless.. we thought it was sooooo cool.

Although having pounced on the Internet with the grace of a Bengal Tiger, in a monumental moment of stupidity, I came to the conclusion, very quickly, that it was ‘rubbish’. Sadly, although I had several web ventures throughout the years, I never took it serious enough even though it made me a few shekels along the way.

Internet Enlightenment

A few years ago I began working on a project that required Internet knowledge so I started extending my eduction about how things worked on the web, specifically in marketing. I started a blog on finance in 2006 (it is still there) to learn some technical stuff, and what was possible for marketing. One of the things that I did was install Kontera the in-text ads. Usually Kontera needed a lot of visitors per month but I came across a generous blogger whose site said ‘If you use my link, you will get in’. I used the link and I did indeed get accepted.

What I didn’t know was I had just earned John Chow some money. Affiliate commissions were a mystery to me and I had no desire to learn about them. Over the years I made my money working in my field but I became more and more interested in blogging and Internet market in general, and those making money from it, until I finally took the plunge. The first ebook I read? John Chow’s eBook..

John Chow’s eBook

He talked about ‘link baiting’…I thought that would be fun… I wrote an article called ‘John Chow’s Free eBook – Worth The Price Tag?” He was not baited. I commented on his blog, got some traffic, installed all the plugins he suggested and did pretty much everything in the book. I began getting 300 – 400 per day in traffic…. that was two months ago. So his strategies, which I blindly accepted, up to now have worked.

He also talked about speaking with the top bloggers. I had, by this time, figured out how to do podcasts and put them on iTunes, so I thought I would chance my arm a few days ago and go for one of the most famous of bloggers. I sent John an email (using his tips on how to email top bloggers), fully expecting him to send a polite ‘Bit busy, but thanks ever so much’. Nope, I got a ‘Sure – I can do that’.

The resulting interview is below.

I will say that John seems to polarise opinions. When I asked on some forums for questions I could ask John, some were enthusiastic, others …. errrr… no so much. The criticism of John is that there is no value on his blog compared to others, there are too many ads…blah..blah.. When I ask John about this he said “My blog has a title of ‘the ramblings of a dot com mogul’ and I clearly say I blog about how I make money, not about how you make money” – Fair point , wouldn’t you say?

Personally I enjoy the upfront nature of John’s blog, I enjoy the human side to his posts and, being a Yorkshireman, I love the fact that he is unapologetic about it. Whatever you think of John Chow, you cannot deny his success.

Here is the interview, everything from rock throwing kids, potential Panda injury, the future of blogging and good advice. The sound may not be so good, I think Skype was having an off day but I cleaned it up the best I could, so I’m sure it will not affect your listening pleasure too much. Thanks once again to John, who had far better things to do than speak with me, but who took the time anyway.

Regards
David
@OneLifeNoFear