John Chow - Smoke and Mirrors?

[JPX]

I had lunch with some local bloggers today (we did not take pictures of the food) and was amazed at how much people mention John Chow, some of them with what seemed like glitter in their eyes. But when I asked what they had learned from Chow, not one of them could actually put a sentense together.

I asked the question because I have been reading John Chow's blog for a long time, but I'm starting to wonder about the true value of it. Many bloggers see Chow as a god -- but do they admire him because he reports making millions off his blog, or because he has actually helped anybody make money?

I know he's good at what he does, and we know he likes to eat and take pictures, but I just don't see his blog as providing any real value that you can't find somewhere else, including even by asking a question on this forum.

A lot of the posts on his blog are just reviews for other blogs or products, so in my view that is merely paid advertisement, which takes away a lot of credibility, at least in my eyes.

John Chow's blog is what it is, and I know he's making no apologies for it, but I think the bloggers who idolize him should also see it for what it is -- another eclectic blog from a rich guy who gets richer with every click.

Is John Chow one of those people that is just famous for being famous?

[John Wesley]

To some degree you are correct. His blog is pretty lame and he has flocks of sycophant minibloggers who suck up to him.

But, he does occasionally provide value. I've used some of his tips about adding a favicon, changing .htaccess, wordpress plugins, etc. The valuable posts are pretty rare but they do come from time to time. I think his best value is the example he provides for self promotion.

[Mayo]

He gives now and then some cool ideas and btw most of internet is just flick.

[Scorpio]

I second what the other posters have said. Only about 1/10 of his posts have useful content. For days it can be:

-A review for a product (affiliate link)
-Some pictures of food from a restaurant
-A bunch of links from people who reviewed him
-A report on how much money he made this month
-A ReviewMe review of some site I don't care about
-Plugging AGLOCO
-A discussion of some car
-Pointless updates about where he's traveling

Of the 'useful' posts he writes, I found them to generally contain generic information that I'd heard a million times before.

I guess people look up to him because he's unabashedly trying to make money and is doing okay at it. But it's more 'watch John make money on the blog you're reading' than 'learn how to make money on the blog you're reading'. If he wasn't famous already his blog would be the equivalent to a newspaper with 9/10s of the page filled with ads, and one little stock article at the bottom.

He is an interesting character though, for better or worse. Also a good lesson in how constant marketing can give someone undeserved authority in a niche (He likes bragging about how he's the #1 search result 'for make money online').

Problogger is much better.

[Jenny]

I think he is funny. I'm not always looking for deep or thoughtful commentary. Sometimes I just want to be amused. Yeah, there's a million other places I could do that but even with all the ads and reviews I get a sense of authenticity, what you see is what you get. That is what appeals to me about John Chow.

[Bruce Achterberg]

I've read John's blog before and I never found it terribly interesting. I kind of found myself thinking "so what's the point of all this again?". Like most bloggers, he seems to write observational, journal like blog articles (not as bad as some people who literally treat their blog as their journal, but yeah, it’s the same sort of thing). There's nothing wrong with doing that, but in terms of offering something of value, you'd be hard pressed to go past what Steve does (which is why I like his blog so much). Steve has learnt how to write about personal experiences in such a way that they are of value to him as well as others.

That said, you only learn as much as you want to learn. Life's lessons are usually hidden, and if you look hard for the lessons, you’ll find them. So yeah, I think we’re all better off having JohnChow.com (as opposed to not having it). Could John make better use of his time doing something that would have a bigger more impact? Maybe. But for now, I’m ok to leaving the big impact blogging stuff to Steve, since he’s so good at it (other people have an impact, but I'd say "how" Steve makes an impact and the size of his impact makes him pretty unique).

Other people don’t seem to have such an easy time with making a big impact in the blogosphere (mostly because they’re not playing to their strengths). Hopefully one day I’ll have enough knowledge about my strengths to make a similar sort of impact doing whatever I end up doing (my interests are far too spread out right now to answer the big “what should I do with my life?” question... I’m mostly in the process of learning and exploring what was previously unconscious to me).

[Scorpio]

You know what, in my earlier post I was a bit down on John Chow's site. I still think it's lame and not-so-useful in many ways, but honestly sometimes I just read blogs for the mindless entertainment factor and because I have some time to kill.

If I have nothing else to look at I'll visit his blog and it'll amuse me for a few minutes. Same with other sites like Problogger. If it posts good info, then great, but if not it's still light reading, like flipping through an issue of Time

Yeah, some smaller blogs would fall into the 'diversion' category just as well, but I'm not a huge blog reader and won't check anything out unless the one or two big blogs I read mentions it. I guess he's done his job in that regard.

Also, the whole 'make money blogging' field is one where many readers are looking for that one new trick that may take them over the edge. So there's this built-in (variable interval reinforcement) motivation to keep checking blogs like his every now and then, because it takes 3 seconds to check, and you never know, you may hit the Magic $$$ Making Trick Jackpot this time.

[AndrewJ]

I don't have a problem with his style. Every blog should be a bit different don't you think?

Andrew

[NathanSII]

He does seem like smoke and mirrors - kind of like a snake oil salesman if you ask me.