Part of my focus on this site is to take the trial and error approach to building a successful website based on the advice of others. I figure there’s no better way to accomplish this by “standing on the shoulders of giants” so to say. I’ve become familiar with Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak, ShoeMoney and a handful of others, but to be honest, I was unfamiliar with John Chow until recently. I admit I had heard his name, but I had never visited his site or knew why he was so wildly successful. I’m not sure how I finally happened on to his site, but the first thing I was offered was a download (make-money-online.pdf) of helpful tips for becoming a successful blogger. Jackpot. Up until now I have yet to focus on one particular person because I find it better to concentrate on the one new tip I’ve found. But since there’s so many great tips in this pdf, I’m thinking there will be plenty of time to dig into this document and implement the abundance of ideas he shares.

What I’m more curious about is the man himself and how (as of this writing) he:

  • Reached an Alexa ranking of 7055
  • Built a readership of 73,000 feed subscribers
  • Has over 50,000 Twitter followers
  • Attained a Technorati authority over 130

….and most importantly, how the heck he…

Earns over $40,000 a month from blogging

There are a lot of posts about earning money and the dotcom lifestyle on JohnChow.com, but there’s also plenty of ramblings and other more personal posts too. Is it a combination of all these posts that has contributed to his success, or is it strictly the money making information that made him wildly popular which affords him the ability to write about any thing he pleases? Whatever the reason, he’s created a hefty income stream writing about whatever he wants, and if that’s not a writers/bloggers dream, I don’t know what is.

I’ve skimmed the pdf once and I already can’t wait to dig back in and implement a number of the tips he’s given us. The one thing that stood out to me is John’s approach to monetization. He appears to be a proponent of over-monetizing as long as it appears you are under-monetizing, and he’s clearly succeeded in this area. I see plenty of ads, but nothing too over the top, so it makes me wonder how he’s seeing the numbers he reports. I’m not saying I don’t believe him, but I am in awe of how he earns so much while still managing to maintain such site balance.

I’m going to use John’s ideas (as well as a select few others) to see if I can reach new heights with this open source and commercial script niche. He’s created something incredibly profitable that few others have been able to match, and I find this extraordinarily inspiring. This blog will be just as much a measure of his (and others) advice as it is my ability to implement them. Can anyone be taught to hit John Chow style pay dirt as long as they keep trying? Man, I sure hope so….