BobBuskirk.com

The Real John Chow

May 3rd, 2007 by Bob Buskirk

I’m sure a lot of you know John Chow by now. Maybe from his four front page Digg’s in 2 days, or from his many ways to make money online, or even more recently for his 13,000 AGLOCO signups, but do you know the real John Chow? I met John Chow around 2 years ago. After attending Million Man Lan and meeting John “Gruntman” Krump, the owner of Gruntville.com he told me about a tech site owner’s forum. On this forum users talked about advertising, products they were getting to review, and just shared their stories about running a tech site. After using the forum for a few month one user really stood out “Moto”, which was of course John. He was always answering questions and helping people out. He also made very funny posts and often showed off the new things he bought.

There was a thread on the forums to post your screen name so I got John’s screen name and decided to message him. Sometimes when you talk to people who are accomplished (which he was at the time running TheTechZone) they really don’t feel like helping you and see you as a “peon” so I really was not expecting much. After messaging him and telling him who I was he was very easy to talk to and answered all of my questions and even gave me some tips. What I was asking him about was Google Adsense. Back in 2005 I really did not know anything about online advertising. Up until that point ThinkComputers was just a hobby to me, after talking with John I realized it could make me some money. I was in college at the time so any extra money was good.

After helping me signup for Adsense and helping me place ads I realized what ThinkComputers could become. With the help of John I really went full steam with ThinkComputers and ended up going to the 2006 CES in Las Vegas. I had never been to a trade show before let alone met any of my sponsors. I met John at the first press event. You can pick him out of the crowd anywhere, a 6 foot tall Asian guy! John invited me to his party at the MGM skylofts. This was a lot of fun being able to kick back with other tech site owners like Stephen Fung, Sal Cangeloso, and of course John. The party was great and John made sure he said hi to everyone and made sure you were having a good time. The entire time at CES all John was doing was having a good time, enjoying the free food and drinks of all of the parties he crashed!

After CES 2006 John further helped me by introducing me to other ad networks. The one in particular was Shopping.com. John runs his own Shopping.com network, TTZ media. These are the ads that you see in every review on ThinkComputers. TTZ Media ended up becoming my biggest money maker.

Over 2006 John helped me out with various things like advertising, sponsors, and even legal problems! He always seemed to want to help no matter what. Now he has become one of the most popular bloggers out there. Has it changed him? NOT AT ALL! I still talk to him on a daily basis and anytime I need help with something or advice he is the first person I turn to and he is always there to help. That’s what I always liked about John his willingness to help. He is not a person to hide his secrets he openly talks about how he makes money online and tells you how to do it! I am really glad I met John and who knows I might not be where I am without his advice.

In January at the 2007 CES John, Stephen, and I held a “Night before CES Party”. It was a lot of fun and just like the year before John made sure everyone was having a good time. It would be nice if so many other accomplished people would be like John and be willing to help out. That is very hard to find these days.

If you enjoyed this post, buy me a beer

May’s Blogging Thoughts

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My First Interview

John Chow’s Market Leverage Affiliate Challenge

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25 Comments »

Comment by Nomar

2007-05-04 11:58:34

Impressive Story Bob, He is a generous man I agree

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Comment by Jacob

2007-05-04 14:25:51

Man likes his alcohol. In all three of his pictures, he either has a cocktail or a bottle of those smirnoff ices. :-p

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Comment by Ryan

2007-05-04 15:00:42

He needs to drink some REAL beer ;). Nice story Bob.

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Comment by Bob Buskirk

2007-05-04 21:30:40

hey smirnoff ice is good!!

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Comment by ThomasDM Subscribed to comments via email

2007-05-04 15:30:38

Is that tech site owner’s forum still online? Or is it a board that died years ago?

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Comment by Bob Buskirk

2007-05-04 21:31:00

It’s still there

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Comment by ThomasDM Subscribed to comments via email

2007-05-05 07:05:21

May I know the URL of this forum? I’m interested in joining it.

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Comment by John Chow

2007-05-06 12:11:03

It’s strict invite only. You need to be sponsored and members vote on your acceptance.

(Comments wont nest below this level)

Comment by Bob Buskirk

2007-05-06 20:23:14

yeah what John said

Reply here

Comment by Justin

2007-05-04 18:03:57

John is always making fun of Stephen with his girly drinks, but like what Ryan said, where is the real beer?!

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Comment by Collect Airmiles Faster

2007-05-04 20:43:27

John does really seem like a down to earth sort of guy. It’s great to see that. Nice post Bob.

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Comment by John

2007-05-05 16:31:50

Do you know how old he is? I always assumed he was in his twenties or maybe early thirties like most bloggers but he seems to be graying a little.

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Comment by swollenpickles

2007-05-07 03:08:34

That question has plagued my dreams!

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Comment by Ryan

2007-05-05 17:04:57

If I remember correctly, he’s in his early 40’s.

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Comment by Josh Buckley

2007-05-06 14:26:56

Great story! John does seem like a great guy

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Comment by The Thinking Blog

2007-05-06 16:42:19

HAHAHA!!! Nice pictures.. thanks!

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Comment by Timen Swijtink

2007-05-06 18:52:49

In Europe we even make fun of girls who drink that crap .

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Comment by Jason Landals

2007-05-07 05:12:17

Yeah John’s a cool guy to know and hang around. Back in the early days of The Tech Zone, he was quite a riot. Marriage and father-hood hasn’t slowed him down one bit!

Was a pleasure meeting everyone at The Night Before CES party, and I’m looking forward to seeing you guys next year.

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Comment by Juan Francisco Diezz

2007-05-07 20:09:27

Will the real John Chow please stand up?

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Comment by internet marketing blog

2007-05-08 19:28:14

Ha, I love it! Nice post and nice pictures. At least we all know that John likes to have fun… now we need him to start drinking manly drinks.

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Comment by Shawn Knight

2007-05-08 23:23:58

Ya know, when I met Stephen at John’s party, I thought he was just a hired photographer cause he was constantly snapping pics lol.

Yeah I can vouch for John as well, I talk to him a good bit on AIM. He also helped me get set up with TTZ Media and it instantly became my biggest money maker. Really nice guy; just like Bob said, he talks to ‘little ole me’ like I am sure he would any other person. Top notch guy!

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Comment by Desi Baba

2007-05-09 09:05:13

Hi, I see that you wrote a review for JohnChow.com in exchange for a link back. I’m offering the same thing for a review of my blog, http://www.DesiNotes.com.

About DesiNotes.com:

- PageRank4
- ~1100 unique hits per day
- Blog talks about Work at Home, Bloggin for Money, AdSense, Entertainment, Celebrities, News, Technology

One of the ways Google increases a site’s rank is when the site gets more and more good PR sites linking back to it. And this is an easy way to get a link back to your site from a PR4 site.

If you are interested please write a review of DesiNotes.com with 200 words or more, with the anchor text “desi baba” which is the main title of the blog or “work at home” and I will link back to your site with the anchor text of your choice. Your review could be positive or negative or neutral. Someone already submitted one great review of my blog and I’m waiting on more so I can post a batch. Also, if you are interested then please read this http://desinotes.com/2007/05/04/its-link-baiting-time/ before writing a review.

Thank You

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Comment by Agbeleye Samuel Subscribed to comments via email

2007-05-09 09:40:05

Good day,
I read your comment about John. It was pretty nice.
I am just like what you were some years back. I also need your help now. Please, can you just help me out about Google Adsence.

Thanks for your help.

Sam.

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Comment by Justin

2007-05-09 10:22:04

Indeed it’s true, Moto is a great guy. I hope to attend 2008 CES, so maybe I will get to meet him in person.

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Comment by Jason Neuman

2007-05-09 15:39:13

I saw your review on John Chow’s site today and wanted to know if you would be interested in a review exchange. Please visit my site for for review exchange rules, let me know if you are interested in a review exchange. http://jakeldaily.com

Reply to this comment

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