The Monetizer is a Fan of John Chow

You may have come here from the blog of the make money online legend himself, "John Chow". Or perhaps you've never heard of this guy until now. In fact, The Monetizer just learned about Mr. Chow this past year, most likely by a random web search that landed on his page. If you asked most random people in the street, who is John Chow, they probably would have no clue. But in terms of the internet and blogosphere he's been highly successful with this make money blogging thing for a while.

So who exactly is this John Chow guy?

John Chow is a self-proclaimed "dot com mogul" and a legend in the make money blogging world. He is the editor in chief of techzone.com, a company which reviews and sells hardware technology. In addition to that, John also blogs about making money online using various advertising techniques on JohnChow.com. He has a large fan base of readers/subscribers as well as a large income generated by his site. He regularly publishes his blog income reports, and in August 07' he had made over $17,000. That's right, let that number sink in, $17,000 from a blog. His blog's current title tag is "I Make Money Online by telling people how Much Money I Make Online". This guy knows what he's doing. He's been featured on the techie TV show "The Lab with Leo Laporte", where he discussed how to monetize your blog. He's been on the radio, mentioned on countlesss websites, blogs and featured in various media stories, such as one by Newsweek. And just recently, he has been featured on the cover of a very popular magazine in China, called Ming Pao. Basically, when Chow blogs, people listen, and usually follow in his ways, or rush out to try the latest concept he has spoke of.

Now this is not all about "ass kissing" by the Monetizer, but more of an acknowledgment towards what this guy has achieved. It's always interesting to read different insights on blogging and monetizing. One thing that is always interesting is that John Chow makes a good share of grammatical mistakes and has posts which deviate from his blog topic of making money online (what he eats, stuff about his new baby, selling bed matresses). However, nobody is perfect and you have to admire what this guy has been able to accomplish. It also speaks large volumes about the concepts of optimization, monetization, and building a brand and audience from your blog. Chow has a large following (about 8,000 or so readers at least) and a large bank account, all thanks to the internet and blogging. It really proves that when you are already getting the traffic and the income, you can pretty much do what you want with your blog or site. Taking it in new directions just might help it achieve greater returns. In fact, Chow is always finding ways to increase the income of his blog, making him a great example to follow.

The Monetizer may mention John Chow or his writings here from time to time. If you aren't familiar with his site already, it's JohnChow.com and it provides a wealth of great info to learn from. It recently was redesigned by a pro blog company (Unique Blog Designs) and has a very stylish and clean look to it. The best thing to do when viewing his site is to not be jealous, not to copycat, but simply learn from the things that he is doing. Take notes of his design, the advertising methods that work for him, the new blog tools he says work well, and even what he eats. Monetizer is not saying to follow everything he does or copy him (even though a Cow has). Try things out for yourself and experiment with ideas that you may come up with based upon his teachings. And maybe just one day, The Monetizer and you will also be "dot com moguls" mentioned in the same breath as John Chow.

New BlogRush Features Unveiled!

The Monetizer is not here to pitch BlogRush as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but so far it seems the widget and the features are expanding. Here's some of the nice recent changes they made at BlogRush:

- Widget flavors - BlogRush used to only let you choose a black widget on your blog. Not too useful or stylish if your blog employed a certain color scheme. Now they give you "flavors" to choose from. Monetizer chose Watermelon, you can see it in the lower left column..Yummy!

- Post filter - This is a very powerful tool to prevent BlogRush from displaying specific posts you make as headlines on other people's BlogRush widget. For example, maybe you just did a blog post to claim your blog on Technorati (it's rather basic and simple). Or you added a post to say you'll be on vacation for a few days. You probably don't want readers landing on your blog to see those sorts of things because they might not stick around for more (or even click them on another widget). BlogRush allows you to enter a word or phrase to filter. Maybe the word "Technorati" or "Vacation", keeping with the above examples. Or you could enter the entire Post title itself. BlogRush then makes sure those posts don't show up on the Widget elsewhere.

(Note: BlogRush encourages users to not have it so only 1 good post you did is constantly showing up on the Widget. They don't want people abusing the system!)

- Widget Filters - Another powerful feature allowing you to control what's showing on your blog's widget. With this one you can enter a keyword or phrase which you want blocked from displaying on your blog's BlogRush widget. Additionally, you can enter a specific Blog's URL to block its blog titles from showing up ever. Kind of evil, but maybe you are seeing headlines from a spam or adult theme blog and its showing on your widget. Or something shown is totally off from your topic. Might be helpful to block that from being on your blog's widget.

These features are some great positive additions. Right now, the dashboard and stats reporting are down for BlogRush, so Monetizer can't really report on how it's doing. Hopefully soon we will see it back up with good numbers to report. If you'd like to employ this helpful widget on your blog, get the BlogRush Widget here.

Feel free to leave comments/feedback regarding BlogRush. There are many supporters and critics and it's good to see what others think about this.