Conclusions on the John Chow.com Review
Sorry for the late update, I was helping my dad install Windows Vista there (which I’m quite impressed with actually!).
Anyway let’s get down to business, yesterday John Chow posted a comphrensive review of Take More Risks which raised some key points that I’ll delve further into later. Now, onto the gravy…
Many of you were interested to know what effect the review would have upon traffic and subscribers. Let’s start with the former.
Traffic
Last week my blog received on average 50 visits a day. Yesterday it received a (comparitively) whopping 406 uniques! Today a further 626 visits have been recorded, totalling 1000 direct referrals from John’s blog in a 26 hour period.
Now 1000 visits may not seem overly impressive, but the level of visitor participation has been phenomenonal. You’ve all submitted 50 comments within 26 hours. Wahey!
Subscribers
Before the “John Chow Effect”the blog had 2 subscribers, that figure has since quadrupled to 8. I’m about to hit the big time here folks!
Conclusions
Whilst it was cool to receive the influx of traffic and the additional subscribers, both paled in comparison to the great advice given by John and his visitors.
I’ll share just a few of the wise words posted over on the review page. You should read it if you haven’t already, it’s quite inspiring!
Second, Matt could document how his blog goes from his current state, to a blog that has direction. In fact, that could be the theme of his blog.
Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Throw up a random blog, pay for ads, and have people come back to your site to read on what you did to use the exposure for gaining MORE exposure by Mr Stockshaker
Mr Stockshaker has hit the nail in the head in a big way. Exposing the path of transformation from failure to success is a fantastic idea! It’s an avenue I’m going to explore in the next month or two. It will give the blog some desperately needed coherency. I could even change my blog’s branding to reflect this.
“You say you are going to be a millionaire soon. The “soon” part I don’t like. To me, soon is the same as someday. I recommend you put a date on when you will achieve millionaire status. Saying soon just makes it a dream. Putting a date on it makes it a goal. I challenge you to change your “I’m going to be a millionaire soon” to “I’m going to be a millionaire on [enter date]” and put that on your blog. It will be a daily reminder on how little time you have left and help drive you forward” by John
I knew in the back of my mind that the millionaire comment wasn’t for real. John’s right in that I’ll never make it if I keep envisaging success in the future. I should be focusing on each individual step on the road to success, rather than staring blindly at an illusion. The problem is I don’t have a road at the minute! I’m finding it really difficult creating a coherent plan. Where should it end? How will I know it’s the end?
Here are the steps I have so far.
- I want to move to the mainland by June 2008. I would like to buy a house in the region of $400,000, which would require me to be making at least $80,000 a year for it to be affordable.
- By July 2007 I want to be earning $400 a week, which is my current full-time salary.
Hmm…I’ve just thought of something and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. I should publish part of my plan on a static page on the blog instead of making scattered posts everytime I want to add something to it! It would erradicate the need for at least 2 of the overlapping post categories as well. Bingo!
And finally
The big question! Would I recommend John’s service? Yes definitely. I’ll keep this as short as possible by summarising the key points.
- John offers open constructive criticism on your website. The commentators take it to another level by questioning parts of John’s argument, pitching in their own opinions.
- The review has provided a continuing swarm of targeted traffic.
- Many of the visitors have expressed interest in becoming regular readers over here. Fantastic!
- John kept my review at the top of his blog for over 12 hours – which I thought was really cool.
- I now realise that I need a little more discipline in order to achieve success. Repeat after me! Focus is key. Focus is key.
If you want to kickstart your blog, I honestly can’t see a better way to invest $125. Be quick though, the half price offer ends in March!
February 22nd, 2007 on 11:47 pm
lol
i had no clue that i was one of the only 2 subscribers to your blog
i just assumed your blog was more popular because of the quality (albeit random and strewn about) of your content
February 22nd, 2007 on 11:57 pm
Heh, cool. I wonder if the other person will turn up now!
February 23rd, 2007 on 12:58 am
I was one of the original 2, but I’m one of the 6 who subscribed yesterday.
Thanks for posting this, you don’t see many review purchasers sharing this sort of info. Maybe in a few weeks you can give us an update on the johnchow.com referrals and how the taper off over time.
February 23rd, 2007 on 1:11 am
Oops, that should be “I WASN’T one of the original 2…”
February 23rd, 2007 on 6:09 am
Wow, glad to see I caught your blog, right as you posted on John Chow. I’m finding your content very informative and useful in understanding what I want to do with my own blog. And thanks for the verification on the use of Word Press, I’ll be sure to note that your using it as well. Word Press is helping me out tremendously, and I don’t think I’ll be switching blogs over and over as I have been over the past few weeks trying to get this up. Thanks for the comment Matt, it was really a perk to see someone is actually reading what I write! I’m sure you feel the same way, I especially liked your article about obsessively checking on your Google Adsense, I have a tendency to do that myself and have actually pretty well stopped since reading that post. Keep up the good work!
February 23rd, 2007 on 11:51 am
Great investment. Good to see that some comments are opening your mind and leading you to have better goals. Where do you plan to stay in the midland? Which area?
congratulations again on the great strategy….good move!!!
February 23rd, 2007 on 11:52 am
ops…by the way, I’m happy to be one of your 8 subscriber!!!
February 23rd, 2007 on 11:55 am
I’ve been a subscriber for a while also
February 23rd, 2007 on 11:56 am
What I mean is… I must be the “other” one of the original two
how strange!
February 24th, 2007 on 8:29 am
Hey Matt,
I’m glad your using the suggestions that were mentioned. First, this will do you just fine, becuase you are already building a good comment base, and once you sort of head in a direction towards maturity, the good folks ’round here will feel like they are right there with you for the ride.
Then its no longer YOUR blog, but OUR blog. And that is something I think would be quite beneficial…
Good work, and let the path begin…
Kunal, the guy behind Stockshaker.com – The Super Hot Stock Market: Bull-ying the markets one day at a time!
February 24th, 2007 on 9:19 am
lol while they all discuss the subscriber comments…
i was very interested on how it would impact you traffic wise, I came here and posted right after i read it. I appreciate you sharing this post with us. I dont have 100$ to invest lol, but definitely something id like to do
thanks again
February 24th, 2007 on 10:35 am
Not just focus but also consistency and commitment.Blogging is as simple as life you loose ur commitment for readers you loose your blog.No lectures just things i have experienced in my blogging life
February 24th, 2007 on 1:35 pm
Thats alot of visitors and comments if you ask me !! Great news..
I might consider doing the same
February 24th, 2007 on 4:59 pm
@Nomar: Thats what every blogger should do.Comment on the posts you like and give ur view.Most of the bloggers lag that.Commenting on other blogs has so much of benefit though it takes time.
It took me 2 mnths to create a commenting cultue on my blog.I dont get comments like this but at least 3-4…The bloggers even started linking me back as i am the regular commentator.
It has benifits
February 25th, 2007 on 3:00 am
Congratulations! It looks like the review worked out really well for you. I am planing on becoming a regular visit myself, just keep the posts coming.
February 26th, 2007 on 9:22 pm
How did the traffic go for the next three of days after?
Did it go back down to the 60 mark? Or did it hang around 120? (guess)