Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul Book Review
Make Money Online is the title of a brand new physical book by John Chow who to me is the embodiment of The e-Marketer.
The “e” can stand both for internet or e-commerce and also for evil, the word included in his nickname by which he is known in the online marketing circles.
John Chow accepts being called and even calls himself “the root of all evil” which is part of his branding strategy.
Do not be alarmed though. John is actually as far away from being evil as you can imagine.
When I first met him in person I was really surprised at how helpful and down to earth he really is. Not stuffy at all but on the contrary. He treats you like a long time friend right off the bat.
Don’t believe the rumors about how stuck up and unapproachable all the A bloggers are. Some may be that way but certainly not John Chow.
I was very fortunate to get his Make Money Online brand new book as one of the first people because I pre-ordered it right after he wrote a post about this book to be published shortly saying it could be pre-ordered from Amazon.
He published the announcement post on his blog on April 01, 2010 and many of his readers thought that it was an April Fool’s Day joke. They were incredulous and admired his elaborate “joke”.
It always pays to examine things for yourself and it paid off for me yet again.
Having read the book I feel an overwhelming desire to share my impressions of it with you.
Whether you are making oodles of money online or not this book is for you
Even if you don’t have a blog I think that you will want one after reading Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul by John Chow.
Failing that you’ll still enjoy finding out about how John is making over $40,000 per month from a blog that was originally meant only for close friends and family.
You will read about how the Dot Com Bubble came and went and what it looked like from the inside. When the burst of the Dot Com Bubble took place it was quite a mystery to me. Reading about it from John’s perspective is very revealing.
You will learn to appreciate the role Google has played and still plays in enabling ordinary people to have the opportunity to make money online.
You can read about making your first dollar online in the post that appeared on this blog before under the heading Make Money Online Now, Your First Online Dollar.
I have also reviewed an ebook on related subject by Daniel Scocco in my post titled Make Money Blogging.
For some reason people like to bash Google and I think that it is more out of envy and ignorance than anything else.
You will learn a lot about blogging and most importantly you will learn what made John so successful and what you can do to become a blogger of John’s caliber.
Nothing is held back. John tells it like it is. He shares many details of what he does.
The book has a smart full color front cover and a full color head shot of John Chow on the back cover where John introduces himself and his $40 K plus blog income saying he can show you how he does it inside the book.
Don’t tell me you wouldn’t want to know how he started this money stream from zero and how he continues to rake the money in.
The foreword is written by Joel Comm who is a well known social media expert.
In the preface John introduces you to Michael Kwan who helped put John’s ideas, strategies, techniques and advice together into the book package and is thus listed in the book as the second author. Michael also writes guest posts on John Chow Dot Com occasionally.
The book is written in a friendly style that I think most people will like. It relates things with authority without talking down to you. It is as if a friend was relating to you his or her experiences and the lessons learned.
It is amazing how much John covers in the 149 page book. And that number includes the Appendix and the Free Bonus Page.
The Free Bonus is a video tutorial of a special presentation John gave at the Vancouver Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur meet up and it describes the specifics of his blog model.
This bonus alone could well be worth the price of the book.
The Best of What’s Inside Make Money Online
There are 13 chapters of which I’ll mention only some that each on their own would make me buy the book.
When I read Chapter Two “My Story“ I was real happy I made the purchase. John’s story is fascinating and he covers a lot more in it than just himself.
Chapter Ten “Optimizing Google Adsense” has great information and tips that I haven’t seen in one place anywhere else.
Chapter Eleven “My Top Moneymakers” talks about what makes John the most money. Did you know that he has his own ad network? You’ll find out which one in this chapter.
Chapter Twelve “Private Ad Sales” shows you how you can start monetizing your blog when it becomes bigger and well-known. In this chapter you will learn that direct ad sales is the single largest source of income on John Chow Dot Com.
Only a few wouldn’t want to read Chapter Thirteen “The Formula for Success”.
All the chapters in Make Money Online fit together well and are full of
great value. You may like all of them like I do and probably will like some better than others. I like the above mentioned ones the most and for you that list may be different.
Is the book all it could be? No, but it is a mighty good one.
Some shortcomings and suggestions
I think the book can be improved upon in future editions by including some illustrations. There is not one inside the whole book. And please have the illustrations in full color.
It shouldn’t be like the book by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett who in their good book on professional blogging called (who would have ever guessed it?) ProBlogger have plenty of illustrations but they are all in black and white.
It might be worthwhile to consider adding an additional 50 to 75 pages to expand on things already there and to include a few more from the vast reservoir of John’s knowledge and experiences.
Since this a review I believe I should rate the book and below I do just that.
The Make Money Online Book Rated 8/10
(Note: I don’t believe that anything can get a true 10/10 mark and realistically the best mark I can ever give is 9/10 if I at least partially close one eye. This is because there always is and has to be some room for improvement).
Without taking into consideration the Free Bonus I’d say 8/10 – eight out of ten.
That is a very high mark considering that nothing in this world is perfect. Mind you this is the score I give and you may have a different view.
Unless you totally don’t care about blogging, don’t want to know anything about it and aren’t interested in knowing how to make $40,000 per month nor how John Chow manages to make that much from his blog, I recommend that you get the book and read it.
If you don’t like to read get it anyway and watch the free bonus video and give the book to your friend who likes to read and ask her or him to read it to you.
Note: some of the links above may make me less than one dollar if you buy the Make Money Online book through them.
If you wish you can go directly to Amazon or go to John’s Make Money Online blog and buy the book through his links. Either way I hope that you’ll get to read the book and benefit from it.
Now it’s time for you to give me and the other readers here your comment. What do you think about this review? Have you read John’s book already? What part of it did you like the most, what didn’t you like? Are you planning to get Make Money Online right now?
Tweet the post and bookmark it to alert your friends and followers.
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Authored by Vance Sova
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Filed under: Make Money Online
Hi Vance,
Thanks for sharing this. I really find John a very nice person even though I haven’t met him in person yet. Every time I visit his blog, his posts are very valuable, natural and easy to read, it’s like he’s really saying or expressing his thoughts.
regards,
Gary
Vance Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:37 am
Hi Gary,
Welcome to my blog. John is a nice guy and he doesn’t mind if you don’t always agree with him.
And he definitely doesn’t think twice before speking his mind.
Vance
Hey
Great post love the layout of your blog ive only set my blog up now a couple of weeks keep up the good work i enjoyed reading this post
thanks
Davy
Vance Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:35 am
Hey Davy,
I’ll keep up the good work, thanks.
I’d appreciate a comment that adds more to the discussion though. Perhaps you can tell me what you enjoyed when you read this post, if you are going to read the book by John etc.
Vance
Hi Vance,
Thanks so much for such an honest and in depth review.
You have actually convinced me to buy the book, even though I am ashamed to say I have never heard of “Evil” John Chow, as soon as I have a bit of money to spare I shall buy the book through your link.
The book sounds like it can really help me right now and getting an insight into a business that is making $40k a month is always worth taking a look at.
Speak soon, Sally 🙂
.-= Sally@Internet Marketing Tips´s last blog ..Five Commandments Of Blog Hopping =-.
Vance Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:19 am
Hi Sally,
Thanks for your kind comment. John’s book is really what I think any aspiring blogger should own. The last time I looked on Amazon it costs less than $12 which is a bargain compared to any regular physical bookstore.
Make sure you check out the free bonus video which is worth way more than $12 plus shipping.
I appreciate your support and your visits and comments.
Talk soon,
Vance
Sally@Internet Marketing Tips Reply:
June 4th, 2010 at 5:12 am
Hi Vance, I just ordered the 4 hour work week audio, I like audio so I can listen to it in my car. Love video too so John’s book & the bonus will be my next purchase, Sally 🙂
.-= Sally@Internet Marketing Tips´s last blog ..Sally Neill 2010 =-.
Vance Reply:
June 16th, 2010 at 1:26 am
Hi Sally,
I like audio too and video is even better but not when you have to drive.
The free bonus video, once you get the Make Money Online physical book, will be very interesting and enjoyable for you to watch.
I’m going to read the book again and watch the video the second time. After that I may read the book and watch the video many more times and make notes. It’s that good.
Sometimes internalizing things requires a good amount of repetition. And doing that is increasingly hard with all the information overload. But this stuff is gold.
I look forward to your comment after you read the book and watch the video.
Vance
Hi Vance,
At 149 pages, John Chow’s new book is within my readability range.
I share your opinion about 10/10 not being attainable. What would there be left after that if it were?
Jose
.-= Jose@Notes on Blogging´s last blog ..Time for ebook cover design =-.
Vance Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:31 am
Hi Jose,
The amount of pages is definitely not overwhelming and some chapters are so good that you may wish they were longer.
I’m sure that you know the feeling when you read a good book and you get to the last page and feel sorry that it’s ending already.
10/10 to me is perfection and indeed it would be hard to improve on that. Being generous is great but when it comes to perfection us, mere humans can only keep on getting closer to it at best without attaining it.
Some people are way above others in a particular skill or knowledge but if you talk to them they will not claim to be perfect even in that narrow field or specialty.
It’s the press and media that tends to want to create idols and perfect beings because those things sell, I guess.
Thanks for your comment.
Vance
Hi Vance,
I like your review becuase it is not some rehashed summary that anyone could take off the back of the book or from other peoples online reviews like you see on Amazon-yours is the real thing and that makes it something credible. To take the time to give such a detailed review of the book shows the impact it had on you. Thanks for taking the time to share it with me. I have just subscribed to your site and will be back. kind regards Orla
.-= Orla Kelly´s last blog ..Internet Business Start Up When You Have Neither Time Nor Money! =-.
Vance Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Hi Orla,
Welcome to my blog. I’m pleased to have you visit and thank you for commenting and subscribing to my blog.
The book did have a profound impact and will continue to do so for a considerable time. It pleases me enormously that you liked my review. I do take pride in doing a real review or no review at all.
I look forward to your future comments.
Best Regards,
Vance
I’m a retired publicist with 14 years under my belt in the online world, and John is the real deal. Unlike other gurus that tend to brand themselves as unapproachable in order to seem important, John has done the opposite and it inspires people. Very few have handled their public personna so well. A few smart cookies have like Michel Fortin, Jack Humphrey, and Mark Joyner. They make themselves the people’s…people. Approachable,friendly, and it works so much better. And your right, John makes people love blogging. I know I do.
.-= Anne Marie´s last blog ..Online Marketing Course: How To Find Adsense Alternatives =-.
Vance Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 4:00 am
Hi Anne Marie,
I’m not sure if John considers himself a guru although he may do so and perhaps should as his approach is really refreshing. I’d say that his public personna is no different than his private one and it is crystal clear.
Thanks for commenting and do visit my blog again soon.
Vance
I heard about John Chow released a new book but haven’t had a chance to find the review that sums up everything like yours. I’m very happy for John he’s a great guy!
Vance Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 4:12 am
Hi Jamian,
I’m glad you liked the review. John is a good guy and his book is worth reading.
Thanks for commenting.
Vance
Hi Vance,
Thanks again for bringing me the book when visiting, I have read it now two times 😉 BTW, did you notice that John Chow has brought out a new version of his new, free ebook? I wonder if that will not cost him sales on this one? Oscar says hello to you both and is waiting to see his video online 😉 SY
.-= hospitalera´s last blog ..Make Money with the Market Samurai Affiliate Program =-.
Vance Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 4:29 am
Hi SY,
It was a pleasure meeting you and the members of your family who are all bloggers. Say hello to Ricky and Oscar. I can understand why Oscar would want to see the video where he is starring so brightly. Tell him it will take a while before the world can enjoy his performace but it shouldn’t take too long.
I haven’t noticed that John has a new version of his free ebook. I think that he’s not concerned about it hurting sales of his physical book though. I wouldn’t be concerned either. Those who download his free ebook and like it will want to read the other one as they aren’t the same. Many people who will buy the physical book may not have known about John before and may visit his blog for the first time after reading the book. When they download his free ebook they’ll be on his list.
What did you think of the bonus video? Nobody has commented about it so far. Have you watched it?
Vance
Hi Vance,
Absolutely awesome review! You have convinced me to buy the book!
It sounds really fascinating and inspiring as well as educational at the same time. They are the types of books I like. I am currently reading “The One Minute Millionaire” for the 4th time. I love the book and have been reading it every year since I was pregnant with my bubba whom is now 3. It motivates me to stay focused and believe in what I am doing. Every time I read it I learn something new.
Keep up the reviews, excellent idea!
Hope all is going well. See you back here soon! 😎
Cheers
Jacinta 😀
.-= Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..“The Law Of Attraction” – By Karl Moore =-.
Vance Reply:
June 15th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Hi Jacinta,
Thanks for your great comment, as always. I hope that you will enjoy reading the book for many years to come. Be sure to watch the bonus video. I will read the book again soon and then again and again.
I don’t really want to focus on reviews but when there is a good book or a good product I do enjoy sharing my impressions of them with my readers.
I’m doing well and I hope that things are going well for you too.
It’ll be great to hear from you again soon.
Vance
Reading the article left me with the impression that John Chow knows a thing or two on internet marketing. The idea behind the book seems interesting and in the next few days I’m going to check it out. All of the positive comments go to show that Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul Book is a book worth reading. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Daniel Sharkov@Marketing product reviews´s last blog ..4-Day Money Making Blueprint – Bum marketing in 25 comprehensive videos =-.
Vance Reply:
June 18th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for commenting. The book is worth reading for sure and more than that it is worth reading more than once. The only way to know that for sure is to read it for yourself. I hope that you’ll indeed get the book and come back to comment here to share your impressions of it.
Vance
I’ve been just looking for John Chow review of this book. After your review I will buy this book.
Thanks Vance.
Vance Reply:
June 18th, 2010 at 5:55 am
Hi frog,
Welcome to my blog.
I’m glad that my review helped you decide to buy Make Money Online book by John Chow. You will most definitely benefit by reading it and putting what you learn from it into practice. Please make sure to take advantage of the free bonus video which is listed inside the pages.
I appreciate your comment and will welcome your further comments about the book and on any other topic on my blog.
Vance
The book seems interesting and I think it worth to be read. I am going to check it out, also.
Vance Reply:
June 21st, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Hi Julian,
I’m glad you are going to read the book. Don’t forget to come back and leave a comment about it after you read it.
Vance
Hi, thanks for the review! This book seems to be really hepfull. Do you know if it is possible to find it in an other language than English? Congratulation for your job.
Vance Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:32 am
Hi Benjy,
I’m glad you liked the review. The book is a gem and in my opinion everyone should read it. I’m quite sure that it’s not available in any other language but English as it has been published just recently. What language did you have in mind?
Thanks for commenting and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Vance
Even though this is a great review Vance, I won’t be purchasing the book, and it’s not because I no longer read his blog, it’s just because it doesn’t interest me.
What does interest me though is why you’ve decided to only show one post per page? Personally I find it limiting in that if that particular post doesn’t strike a chord with the reader they will simply move on. If you were to follow the normal procedure where several posts are displayed they may find one that interests them thereby staying that little bit longer.
.-= Sire@Blogging the Right Way´s last blog ..Blog Save The Akismet, Long Live The Akismet =-.
Vance Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Hi Sire,
Thanks for saying what you do about my review of the book. At least you have an idea what it’s about and you know what you’ll be missing (or not).
As for choosing one post per page I’ve decided to do that because I prefer the current post to be displayed in full when I visit other peoples blogs. I have not noticed that people are leaving in a hurry because of that. I think that if they want to find other posts when the current one doesn’t appeal to them they can and will do so quite easily.
Having said that, I may change things in the future to see if it makes any difference.
I appreciate your comment about this as I do all of your comments which are always helpful.
Talk soon,
Vance
Sire@Blogging To The Bank Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:37 pm
I also prefer to display posts in full but I like to do five posts per page. That way if they don’t like the first post they can skim to the next and so on.
I don’t like those blogs that only display a small portion as that portion is rarely enough to catch my interest.
.-= Sire@Blogging To The Bank´s last blog ..Tuesday OZ Lottery Jackpots To $50 Million =-.
Vance Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 12:40 am
Your view is remarkable similar to mine then. The display of small portion of posts is what I don’t like at all as it is scattering the attention from any particular point and no matter what I have to click on something even before I can properly decide what I want to read.
From what you’re saying it should then be possible to display the full post and an additional four posts per page. I didn’t realize that and I don’t think I know how to set it up. Perhaps you can let me know how to do that.
Vance
Sire@Blogging To The Bank Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 2:15 am
It’s really quite simple Vance. Go to your Dashboard, Settings, Reading and change the value to ‘Blog pages show at most’ and you’re set to go. You can also select summary or full text, naturally you want full text.
.-= Sire@Blogging To The Bank´s last blog ..Taking Off Your Clothes For The Greater Good =-.
Vance Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:36 am
Thanks Sire, I’ll give it a try to see how it goes. As long as the current post shows in full which is main thing having more posts show will be good.
Vance
Sire@Blogging To The Bank Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
You got it Vance. You can actually make the post break anywhere you want so that you can show as much as you like without showing the whole lot, if the post is extra long, by using the more tag.
Sire@Blogging To The Bank´s last blog post ..Why Does Sex In Advertising Sell?
Vance Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:17 pm
That sounds good Sire. If you don’t mind, please tell me how to use that tag and where to find it.
This is new to me.
Thanks,
Vance
Sire@Blogging To The Bank Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I just emailed you the answer to your question Vance. I didn’t include it in this comment because it would have stripped the html. Hope it helps you out some.
Sire@Blogging To The Bank´s last blog post ..In Life And In Blogging Observation Is Important
Vance Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Hi Sire,
Thank you very much. I’m going to check it out and will email you back in case I need more help with it.
I really appreciate all the help you are so generously giving.
Vance
Hi Vance ,
Great report,giving us a good insight into John chow.
He sounds like a very approachable guy, which I am sure a lot of the people making money from blogging are, because they are passionate about what they do.
I must say Vance your blog is getting loads of comments
due to your hard work. your always supplying good content, It just keeps getting better and better.
Cheers Mick
Vance Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Hi Mick,
Nice to see you visit my blog again after a while. I’m glad you find my post about John’s book and about him valuable. It’s always good to meet with other bloggers and I’m fortunate to be able to see John quite regularly. He is very approachable as soon as you meet him and doesn’t put himself up at all. I haven’t met that many bloggers of his caliber but I imagine that most of them are approachable although perhaps to varying degree.
Thank you for the kind evaluation of my work. I’ll work diligently to keep it up. I hope you’ll be visiting more regularly again.
Vance
Great review Vance. I’ve actually been down the list of reviews and yours is one of the most in depth. I just received the book yesterday so I’ll put up my review as well. While I thought it was very similar to the ebook, there’s more up to date information here which any aspiring online money making enthusiast can learn from beginners to advance. The way the book is laid out is also so simple you get the impression, it’s doable.
Thanks for the great post.
Thu Nguyen´s last blog post ..Get Up- Stand Up- I’m Blogging This – Blog Unite- Empowering People with Disabilities
Vance Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Hi Thu,
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for your comment and let me know when your review is up so I can read it. I always find it interesting what different people get out of the same book. Sometimes they may catch something that I may have missed.
You’ll be glad you ordered the book after you read it I’m sure. I’m glad you liked my review of it.
Vance
hi Vance. Your review is very deep and made me curious. about the author of the book (John Chow), I often heard of him from friends and bloggers in Indonesia. they call John Chow a GURU in the field of internet marketing. Success always for you.
cumpryt@Home based business´s last blog post ..Never annoy anyone with any kind of e-mail
Vance Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:46 am
Hi Cumpryt,
Thanks for commenting and welcome to my blog. I’m glad you enjoyed the review. Everything I relate about John is true. If you can, get the book. It is very interesting and it will reveal more to you about John and will definitely be helpful to you if you are a blogger already or want to become one and want to make money online. If you can’t buy the book at least download his free ebooks.
They are however different from the physical book.
All the best to you and visit and comment again soon.
Vance
I’ve always wanted to try and make money online because it seems like a great place to do it. How can this book help though? Has the author made a lot of money online? Or is this just his way of making money…
Vance Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Hi James,
The author of the book does make money online and plenty of it. Around $40,000 per month. But he doesn’t make his money from publishing books. This book is in fact his first physical book he ever published. He makes his money mostly from his blog with advertisers and with promotions to his subscribers.
The book is an interesting read and will definitely give you some ideas on how to make money online.
Vance
I read the book at the beginning of the year. The advice isn’t earth shattering, but it is solid. I suppose I wanted some sort of a ‘magic bullet’, but what I got was a tested roadmap for online success.
Lewis
Lewis Saka´s last blog post ..3 Quick And Easy Ways To Build Your Email List
Vance Reply:
November 23rd, 2012 at 9:01 pm
H Lewis,
Everybody, including myself would like to get a magic button or whatever but unfortunately it doesn’t exist. It’s wise to stay away fro anything and anybody that promises it.
Vance.