You make a good point. I didn’t exactly review John’s competitors for the same search term but then, if it’s all those “get rich quick” schemes, I’d say that John’s post is simply “more relevant” than the others. Darren Rowse’s blog at problogger.net really is one of those “make money online” blogs that I would consider even more relevant than John’s, and it shows. His blogs really provide a service to the community over John’s every-other-post-is-a-written-ad blog.

I actually commented on John’s blog today about the relevancy of the results (I’m assuming that’s what sent you here, even though you’ve commented before )

My first comment was:

It’s nice to be transparent, John, but don’t you consider this very suspicious and a way to game the search engines? I actually blogged about it a little while ago.

I’m not sure many people are finding much relevancy in “make money online??? from your blog. You tell others how YOU made money, but unless they had the same link juice as you, it does nothing for new folks and would have them running in circles. If anyone’s making money online, it’s the companies you’re promoting, particularly 1234pens.com with the contest you’re holding. I’m not sure why folks would want you to review their service either; a lot of people are truthfully getting overwhelmed by those paid reviews, myself included.

I could be in the minority here, and it seems that you have a very big community of stauch supporters, but I even question that…

Don’t get me wrong, John. I subscribe to your blog and have been reading for a good amount of time. But even you admit to being “evil??? and I think the money is getting to your head.

Then another Dave said:

While I agree not many of his posts are about making money online. The occasional posts he does have are solid gold. Like his adwords affiliate marketing + getting traffic to your blog post.

And I replied with:

And that’s why I’m here.

I guess it’s just the way I see it. Would you watch a 6 minute TV show in a 30 minute time slot knowing that the other 24 minutes were commercials? Probably not.

John’s got the audience and he’s smart. The problem is leveraging that audience and keeping them interested. Right now, that audience includes individuals like you and me, who find value in those “golden??? posts, and also individuals who are interested in investing in him financially. It is his responsibility to take a vested interest in both sides. I would say, however, that the interest is skewing in the favor of where the money’s at, which for him really is not his readers. That leaves people like me and you questioning whether he should really be ranked for “make money online??? because Google is *very* concerned about relevance and this site begs the question whether the blog really is relevant.

Would a better solution to be creating a site that has only the tips to make money online? Of course not, because all of these advertisers would never get the exposure if he did.

Was I way off?

I think it’s very relevant. Making money online is the only reason I subscribe to and read his blog.

The other results that rank well for the term are selling products & get-rich-quick schemes.

John is teaching general theory and providing real life examples & results. (IMO) John seems to be the most relevant listing on the first page of results.

Can you recommend some other resources for “making money online” that don’t get the attention they deserve?

I am losing respect for John, but he got what he came for.

Best thing right now is for everyone to link to this post instead of johnchow.com Now that would be evil.

You are right about the ReviewMe posts. The quality of his posts have diminished, but he’s doing just fine on the financial front. I wonder if he realizes that he’s not providing quality content to his readers? I don’t read many of his posts anymore, though I found the Technorati response pretty darn ironic.

I miss the old John Chow who used to actually think about benefiting his readers, not himself.

@Johnny_Cash: Thanks!

BlogMark

Moreover, JohnChow.com is getting a bit harder to read because of all the constant $$$ reviewme posts now!

I’m a big John Chow groupie, so I hope he turns things around. His blog may be getting a bit out of hand in the evil department….