Some will recall that I previously John Chow Effect: Does it Kill Young Blogs? Today, I will discuss the effect of a John Chow Review on a medium sized blog — Gaman’s Sabahan.com.
My conclusion? Based on data I can access, I believe the John Chow ReviewMe for Sabahan.com had a moderate 2-4 day effect; it brought no long term traffic boost. The John Chow review exerted practically no positive effect when used to promote a time critical event like a contest.
It is, of course, up to each individual blogger to decide whether a 2-4 day long modest boost in traffic is worth transferring lots on money into John Chow’s pocket. As for myself: I will not be ordering a John Chow ReviewMe review!
History of the John Chow Review Me Review
On July 10, 2007, John Chow posted a ReviewMe review of Sabahan.com. On July 23, Gaman posted Is it worth spending $400 …; he told his audience that his main goal in buying the review had been to promote a blog contest with a prize of free lifetime hosting for a blog.
Did the John Chow ReviewMe advance that goal? Evidently not. In Sabahan’s words:
I did get a couple of new entries as a result of the review but I am actually quite disappointed it wasn’t more than a handful!
But never mind. Maybe John Chow sent lots of traffic? It appears not.
This is what Gaman said very soon after the John Chow Review:
While the review did increase my traffic level over the next couple of days while it’s still on JohnChow.com front page, it didn’t bring in as many visitors as I initially anticipated. At some point it made me wonder if the John Chow effect is overrated.
Later in the article, Gaman responds to John Chow’s suggestion that Gaman under-rated “The John Chow Effect”, because John Chow’s readers may have arrived by way of RSS feeds. (And, I must admit, someone who believes Alexa is anything other than trash might have thought John sent lots of traffic since John’s Alexa toolbar wielding audience can increase a blog’s Alexa ranks — but it’s not clear that relates well to real traffic. Graphic well below.)
In an update, Gaman reported he checked his actual stats and concluded:
Over the course of a week, JohnChow.com has sent me 535 visits as shown in the graph below. From this, 422 are new visitors while 113 are returning. At $400 a pop, I’ve paid a pretty expensive $400 / 535 = $0.75 for each visitor!
Ok, so John Chow.com sent roughly 500-600 total visitors in a week to Sabahan.com. Is this excellent? Poor? Mediocre?
I consider it pretty darn mediocre. To explain why, I think it’s worth comparing “The John Chow Effect” to “The Power of WendyKnits.net”
The Power of Wendy Knits.Net
So, what is “The Power of WendyKnits.Net”? On May 2, 2007, WendyKnits.net included one link to my blog; the link was contained inside a long blog post describing her own sock knitting efforts.
During the next two days, I received roughly 500 referrals a day from Wendy Knits. After that, I stopped tracking. After all, I was mostly a knitting blogger. Why would I track? In any case, I didn’t check my stats Friday evening, but rest assured, visitors streamed in for approximately a week. The chart showing the boost in traffic due to Wendy’s link is shown to the right.
How much did I pay for the link? Nothing. Was I grateful for the link? Absolutely. The fuller story describing the traffic driving ability of a knitting blog is here: Behold the Power of WendyKnits.Net!
Long Term Effects?
Did John Chow’s Review me have a long term effect on Sabahan.com? Did WendyKnits.net have a long term effect on my knitting blog, “The Knitting Fiend?”
There is no visible effect in either case.
In the case of Wendy’s link to “The Knitting Fiend”, I expected no long term effect. I used to post knitting tips; I now spend a much smaller amount of time and post photos of patterns I find amusing and comment on them. Wendy’s visitors were interested in tips- which they found. But why would they return repeatedly for haikus?
In the case of Sabahan.com, we can see that John Chow’s Alexa Tool bar wielding fans left almost as quickly as they came. The Alexa graph is show below; data from Desinotes, who ordered a review in June and “Big Bucks Blogger” are shown for reference.
John’s fans may have taken out RSS subscriptions; they may have Technorati faved Gaman. They may have sent him emails and posted comments in the short run. But there appears to be no long term increase in visits.
Why not? I may be wrong, but I suspect John Chow’s fans are simply John Chow fans. They want to read what John says, comment on his blog and ape John at their own blogs. They will click a link in a ReviewMe article; they will leave an email when they visit. Heck, they are thrilled to learn you paid John money!
They aren’t actually interested in finding new blogs: They will forget about your blog within a few days.
Summary: The John Chow Effect is not worth the money!
The John Chow effect is a very short, roller coaster ride up and down a relatively small hill; Wendy Knit’s roller coaster is at least two times as tall! Granted, Wendy can only drive traffic to a knitting blog. But if you are paying $800 for a review to a blogger in your niche, or a consumer product, wouldn’t you prefer The Power of Wendy?
I like roller coasters at the amusement park. I’m sure don’t want to pay $800 to experience the piddly John Chow roller coaster at my blog! I’d rather publish posts that interest me and hope they interest others who may visit. I’m not getting mega traffic, but I’m happy.
The JohnChow effect is a very short, but lot of people revisit the site that reviewed by johnchow.
Very nice and informative review. I agree with you about john chow fans being john chow fans, I think they’re more interested in seeing how much money he’s making with his blog and the reviews are part of that money. Thanks for sharing.
That pretty much sums up what I’ve been thinking for a long while. I get the impression that as soon as most people realise something is a paid review their eyes glaze over and they move onto the next post.
$400 is a lot of money to be throwing at a modest short term boost to traffic. It’s the people that are falling for the hype that are keeping his earnings at the $10K mark.
On another gripe, if I see another blogger trying to link to their blog using the anchor text “make money online” I’m probably going to flip out.
You must be aware that john chow links who write a review on his blog.
I wrote a review and he linked me. I paid him nothing.
i got a good traffic for a couple of days..
then every thing went down..
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