5 simple steps to set up a John Chow Blog
John Chow is one of the most popular bloggers in the blogging world. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny the man’s ability to generate buzz and make money from his blog.
One aspect of the ‘John Chow’ phenomenon which has confused scientists for the last year is the high percentage of new bloggers copying everything to do with his blog. Instead of just listening to John’s advice about blogging, many new bloggers are simply copying every aspect of his blog. A case of monkey see monkey do. Perhaps if the Pro Blogger theme was released we would see something similar happen with Darren Rowse.
I don’t believe this bothers Mr Chow in any shape or form, afterall, imitation is the best form of flattery! The irony is if more of these copycats listened to the advice he has given in his posts instead of just mimicking him they would be able to stand out from the crowd a bit better.
So to help out those who want to be a ‘John Chow’, I’ve prepared the ‘John Chow DIY Kit’ - everything you need to be a John Chow!!!!
Everything you need to be a ‘John Chow’
By following the steps below, you too can have a John Chow blog in under 20 minutes!
- Wordpress - First thing you need to do is download an up to date version of wordpress. This will allow you to not only use the same theme as John, but also apply the same hacks and plugins
- Misty Look Theme - All self respected John Chow blogger’s use the Misty Look theme. You can download it from this page.
- Sports Car in the theme header - If you can’t afford to buy a sports car or even hire one, why not just search for a top of the range ferrari or porsche on Google Images.
- Change the title of your page to ‘Make Money Online’ - It doesn’t matter if you blog about your local basketball team or your favourite brand of chicken soup, if you want to have a ‘John Chow’ blog you need to try and target the search term ‘Make Money Online’. Don’t concern yourself with the fact that there are thousands of other targeting this term as well.
- Install the same plugins
- The next step is to install the same plugins that John has on his blog. The comment plugins are certainly important but the ‘Buy me a beer‘ plugin is essential. Most blog readers are tripping over each over to give money away to bloggers with 30 posts, you need to make sure reader’s have the opportunity to thank you for all your hard work!
That’s it folks. You should now have a ‘John Chow‘ lookalike site.
If you want to have a super duper ‘John Chow’ blog you may also want to consider :
- Posting pictures of your dinner on your blog.
- Linking to John Chow using the term ‘Make Money Online’ so that you are included in batch 315.
- Repeating what John has already said in your posts a day or so after John has posted about it.
If you are looking for some examples for inspiration check out Net Business Blog’s John Chow lookalike winners JakelDaily, BobBusKirk and ShaunCarter. You should also check out John Cow, the biggest making mooooney expert of them all!!
Overview
I’m sure everybody realises that this light hearted post was just a bit of fun. However I hope I have convinced a few people that they should not be simply be duplicating what their favourite bloggers are doing. There is only one Darren Rowse, there is only one Jeremy Schoemaker and there is only one John Chow. These guys are the authorities in their field for a reason, not only because of hard work but because they have went out of their ways to solve problems and help readers in ways that other people had not. This applies to blogs from all genres, not just blogging related blogs ie. don’t just mimic the top guys in your field. Something to bear in mind for the future. Good Luck 
Sly from Slyvisions.com | August 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 am #
Too bad I don’t use WordPress. Maybe I’ll make another John Chow blog when I start a new blog.
Nah. My next blog will be better. 
Matt Jones | August 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 am #
Don’t forget theres JohnCOW.com - which is going pretty well judging from their latest post which reveales some impressive stats….
Kevin | August 2nd, 2007 at 9:51 am #
Matt - John Cow was mentioned near the end of the post (making moooney reference!)
Erik Karey | August 2nd, 2007 at 10:17 am #
There are so many themes out there and so many keywords to target it’s a bit ridiculous how many people are just copying John.
BeachBum | August 2nd, 2007 at 10:18 am #
Very funny post. I agree that we should learn without being a copycat.
As for the ProBlogger theme, I think they did release the previous version for public use.
BeachBum
Desty | August 2nd, 2007 at 10:31 am #
I had actually been looking for a new theme. I like John’s and John Cow’s, just need a few tweaks here and there…
Myo Kyaw Htun | August 2nd, 2007 at 10:50 am #
Dude, one thing you forgot is “Google will penalize”
cooliojones | August 2nd, 2007 at 1:52 pm #
LOL I liked reading this one. The biggest thing is that people are afraid to try, and afraid to be different. But they don’t realize that being different is what makes these people (A-List bloggers) successful.
Celebrienne | August 2nd, 2007 at 2:32 pm #
Now this is some shameless John Chow dot Com blog whoring, Kevin!
Just kidding - but you’ve written a lot about JC lately, didn’t you?
Aside from this - I totally agree with you, I’ve seen so many John Chow copycats lately, it’s not even funny anymore.
And is it only my presumption or are a lot of those copycats of Asian/Indian background? (really not trying to discriminate anyone here, I’m a minority myself :cool:)
Have a nice day!
Marc Eilbeck | August 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm #
I got into blogging from john chows ebook. I think I have to thank you for opening my eyes. My blog is very similar to johns in the fact ive targeted ‘make money online’ i’ve got a lambo as my header and ive also got the buy me a beer plugin!
I shall have a think about if I should change a few things round! lol
Kevin | August 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm #
Celebrienne - I have’t conciously linked to him in posts lately (other than this one!). If I found something through JC or anyone else I’ll include a link back to the source
Marc - JC’s ebook is pretty good. Theres a lot of good tips in there, particularly the wordpress sections.
I don’t want anyone to misintepret this post. It was meant as a bit of fun however I am not criticising JC, rather those who simply echo whatever he does. As I’ve said many times before, I haven’t agreed with many of the things JC has said but the guy knows what hes talking about and he’s usually one of the first to break blogging related news.
I’ve used JC in this instance because he is someone who is mimicked a lot and someone who has a sense of humour about it all too (eg. he posted about john cow)
Average Joe Blogger | August 2nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm #
Hilarious Post! You should get some good traffic from this one.
Average Joe Blogger | August 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 pm #
Looks like JC even came to check it out. I see his smiling mug in your MyBlogLog Readers. Maybe he’ll give you a shout out.
pablopabla | August 2nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm #
Can I copy your blog instead?
TechZilo | August 3rd, 2007 at 12:59 am #
I am disappointed at your removing the top commentators list.
Should you really punish us, regular commentors, just for the sake of keeping those spammers away?
Too much, I’d say. You could install SpamKarma2 and setup so that it would hold any new commentator, while allowing regulars with several previous comments pass through.
Coming back to this post, I really do find JC’s humour hillarious. he even allowed john cow to post on his blog!
B. Durant | August 3rd, 2007 at 2:52 am #
I sometimes wonder if imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, or does it do damage to the one being “flattered”?
Not that I have anything to worry about. I don’t see anyone flattering me anytime soon, lol
Nirmal | August 3rd, 2007 at 4:36 am #
That was a cool guide to become John Chow.
And what about his evil ways? 
Kevin | August 3rd, 2007 at 7:25 am #
TechZilo - I am not trying to punish regular commentators. Regular readers know how much I help out readers. Infact, I’m currently hosting 3 blogs for commentators and I have registered domains for those who cannot afford it either so to imply I am not helping readers is a bit much
I explained my reasons in this post.
More Merchant | August 3rd, 2007 at 11:03 am #
I think this is a pretty funny post. There must be a hundred copy cats of John Chow which to me actually discredits the sites.
When I see another copy cat I don’t spend much time on the site.
Rich Minx | August 8th, 2007 at 1:21 am #
Funny and true
I think one of the key parts of having a John Chow blog is having the Fan Club to go with it, so you have 100+ comments on each post.
Austin | August 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm #
What a creative post you’ve put together.
He should buy you a beer.
Here’s what I’ve created about John Chow’s blog over at the ACD site blog.