Success breeds success.  In the online business world this seems to ring even more true than in other business areas.  The more popular your web site or blog is, the better it is ranked by search engines, which helps you garner more traffic, which makes you even more popular.  The longer you have been around in the internet world, the higher your “authority” measure, the bigger your network of links, and the higher your knowledge, usually obtained through trial and error, of what works and what does not work.  In this article we will do a case study of a veteran online entrepreneur who seems to represent well the idea that success breeds success.  I would like to introduce you to John Chow.

John founded The Tech Zone in 1999 and is currently its Editor in Chief.  From its humble beginnings The Tech Zone has grown to be one of the largest hardware tech sites on the internet, receiving over 200,000 page requests per day.  John also runs TTZ Media Network which offers a comparison shopping search engine for its affiliate sites.  As if that were not enough, John also runs a very popular blog: John Chow Dot Com.  How John finds the time to run two businesses and still post to his blog as often as he does is anyone’s guess.  But it does not seem like he does it at the expense of leisure time.  Reading his blog you get a sense that he has a taste for the finest things in life, and he seems to take the time to enjoy them.

Just recently John posted an article called Making Money From a Blog – January 2007 in which he proudly announces record income from his blog, reaching $3,440.66 for the month.   What is remarkable is not the amount itself, but the fact that only five months ago when he started monetizing the site he only made $352.94.  At the current growth rate, John will soon be breaking the 6 figure annual income level from a blog which he built from scratch.  Even more notable is the fact that he did this with no intention of making money.  As he puts it: “I just wanted a place to post my ramblings”.  John has even stated that he will donate the proceeds from the blog to charity, which is commendable.

According to John, John Chow Dot Com is ranked 604 on Technorati’s list of most popular blogs out of millions of blogs that it tracks.  John’s blog received 255,574 page views and 133,871 unique visitors in January.  What makes this blog so popular?  It is filled with helpful information, especially for bloggers and people involved in the technology industry.  For example, John posted a very good article listing several advertising networks besides Google that bloggers can leverage to increase their blog income.  He also shared with his readers his favorite plugins that he uses in his blog.

The site is well designed and information is easy to find.  For instance, when I was trying to find the post that talked about his favorite plugins, I entered the word “plugins” in the search box on the upper right corner and quickly found the post I was looking for.  The site also has an archive tab that lists the last 50 posts, and groups the archives by category and by month.  Although the site has a heavy amount of advertising, the ads are laid out in such a way that they do not take anything away from the reading experience.

What is John Chow’s secret of blogging success?  I think there are a number of factors that have had a positive impact on the results John has been able to achieve.  First of all, it does not hurt to be tech savvy and to have been in the internet technology world for a while, where he built a good reputation and a network that has helped propel his blog to its current popularity ranking.  Second, John has a positive, self-confident attitude that translates into results.  I have heard some comments that he sometimes comes across as conceited, and that he likes to show off his money and success.  I think part of the reason for this is that John knows that talking about his success makes him even more popular.  After all, who would be interested in getting advice from an underachiever?  What may come across to some as arrogance, can also be construed as self-confidence.

Last but not least, John Chow’s secret to blogging success is that he writes good content that is useful to people.  Without good content no tech knowledge, networks, or self-confidence would keep readers interested in coming back.  Good content is the ultimate secret weapon that every successful blogger must master.