John Chow vs Darren Rowse
June 7th, 2007 by Garry Conn | 42 Comments
Here is an interesting article that may capture your attention. I have taken two very popular professional bloggers, who both claim that you can make money online by following their advice and guidance. I want to encourage everyone who reads this article to drop a comment and ultimately tell me who you trust to provide you with the most useful and helpful information that will guide you to your success with making money online. Below I have put together some facts and comparisons to help aid you in your decision. Also, please do comment… if you are worried about going public with our comments, just fill out the comment form using an anonymous name. The important thing here is opinions and perceptions… and not your name. So here goes:
Question #1
Website Design and Aesthetics
Which site has the best overall design. How does the content flow and how predominate are the links to useful resources that actually help you achieve your goal of making money online?
VS 
Question #2
First Time Reader’s Perception
If you have never heard of either site and it was your first time visiting, which site has open arms? Which site explicitly tells you what the site is about and how it can help you? These questions typically are covered in the about me or about this site page.
VS 
Question #3
Pulse Check On The Twenty Most Recent Posts
Both professional bloggers communicate this message:
Make Money Online With…
Based off the twenty most recent posts published, which professional blogger is staying on topic to what is being advertised? Which blogger has more articles that help you make money online?
VS 
Question #4
Who Would You Take Home To Meet Your Mom?
Which pro blogger do you think would relate the best with your friends and family? Who would your family and friends have more fun hanging out with during a typical Sunday afternoon grill out.
VS 
Some Statistics That May Sway Some Votes!
Here are some general statistics that you may be interested in viewing prior to making a decision. Again, I want to know which blogger can help you make more money… who is the stronger leader… who do you trust more?
Google PageRank:
- JohnChow = 6
- ProBlogger = 6
Google SERP Ranking “Make Money Online”
- JohnChow = #1
- Problogger = #8
Number of Feed Subscribers:
- JohnChow = 5,706
- Problogger = 25,469
Technorati Rank:
- JohnChow = 144
- Problogger = 45
MyBlogLog Members:
- JohnChow = 2,431
- Problogger = 4,250
Alexa Ranking:
- JohnChow = 2,560
- Problogger = 2,779
Number of Pages Indexed In Google:
- JohnChow = 2,840
- Problogger = 4,710
Online Since:
*according to Alexa
- JohnChow = 23-Mar-2000
- Problogger = 18-Nov-2004
Additional Questions:
Question #5
Say out load the words, “Make Money Online”. Which name comes to mind first?
A.) John Chow
B.) Darren Rowse
Question #6
Which site do you visit or read more often?
A.) John Chow’s
B.) Darren Rowse’s
Question #7
Which Blogger would be more likely to help you fix a flat tire?
A.) John Chow
B.) Darren Rowse
Question #8
Which Blogger would be more likely to pay someone else to do it for them?
A.) John Chow
B.) Darren Rowse
Question #9
Which Blogger would you trust to tell a secret?
A.) John Chow
B.) Darren Rowse
Question #10
Which Blogger would you rather be business partners with?
A.) John Chow
B.) Darren Rowse
Summary
Thanks for taking the time to read this article and submit your comments. Remember if you don’t want to publish your name, omit your name and replace it with someone else’s! LOL Just kidding… just write “anonymous” as your name and don’t include your URL. I look forward to reading the feedback and results on this one! Could be real juicy! 
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Date/Time: 6-8-2007 02:03:19 Comment #2833
well, for me it’s John Chow. Darren looks like scary! i’m sorry but i am really scared the way he pose. While you’ll be comfortable with John Chow.
And on the way john chow wrote his ramblings, it’s john chow who will most like to help you fix things.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 03:59:46 Comment #2834
But wait a minute here… JC is supposed to be the evil one, right?
Thanks for the comment and the laugh. Darren does look a little mad in his profile picture. Either that, or just EXTREMELY serious. I appreciate your opinion and look forward to hearing some more. 
Date/Time: 6-18-2007 20:37:40 Comment #3166
yes. for me JC is the winner
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 04:20:52 Comment #2835
What I have read around the traps it seem JChow is out to help himself and no-one else. The charging for a no-follow kind of proved it.
There are few web designs saying make money online and featuring sports cars, to me it makes them very shady and like a crooked used car salesman.
My opinion of course.
- GoldCoaster
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 10:33:22 Comment #2856
Your opinion is very valued. Thanks for offering it up. Ultimately, this helps me better myself in the long run by learning more about my readers perceptions and opinions of other sites. I appreciate you taking the time to drop a comment. Secondly, thanks for reminding me to active my “Do Follow” plugin in, I had turned it off when I was doing some work on the site. It is back on now!
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 06:07:51 Comment #2839
Well, I doube many will believe me, but I actually don’t read either of these blogs. I write articles for a personal finance blog, and the blogcentric blogs in my reader are more for their articles on writing technique, not making money…
With that said: I absolutely abhor the design of ProBlogger. Ugh!!! I find it scattered and busy at best. The colors chosen could have worked well together in another layout, but in their current usage they hurt my eyes. The vertical text looks nice and stylized, but I’ve never taken the time to stop and read it, so I don’t intuitively know ohw the navigation is laid out and I won’t take the time to find out.
Long story short: one look at the layout of this site is what kept me from putting Problogger on my feed list. I didn’t even bother to read the articles.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 12:59:35 Comment #2876
This is all good to know. Darren’s site is more customized and doesn’t follow the typical blog format where John’s site uses a typical and everyday open source Wordpress theme. That is real interesting to hear, because I remember reading an article on Darren’s site where he talks about his site design and how highly fond of it he is:
Sounds like a K.I.S.S factor (keeping it simple stupid). And to me it sounds like John Chow might have you won over design.
Great feedback, and thanks again for taking the time to contribute your thoughts.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 06:34:56 Comment #2840
I agree with Goldcoaster,
John Chow seems to make money himself through his evil ways. I’ll go with Darren! Not by his looks, but I’m a fan of his blog.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 10:42:20 Comment #2857
Nirmal,
If you could change one thing about both sites, what would you like to see different?
Date/Time: 6-12-2007 05:11:37 Comment #2994
I would like John chow to change his Evil ways of money making like getting paid to become a commentator or for getting a linkback
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 08:18:17 Comment #2842
Darren it is! John is a good business man and the line between a blogger and a business person gets blurred when you become a A-list blogger I guess. However, his no-follow campaign actually hurt his credibility in the blogger community atleast amongst who understands what it means and why most of us look down on that practice of selling it instead offering it with goodwill to our readers.
And I like the website design better at ProBlogger.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 10:44:53 Comment #2858
Can you tell me more about his No-Follow campaign. I must have missed that controversy. Maybe you can point me to a few articles?
Sounds pretty juicy and look forward to learning more. Thanks for adding feedback to the article.
Date/Time: 6-10-2007 01:03:50 Comment #2926
To answer your question. I read the John Chow was going to charge $10 per month for comments to have No Follow removed (just for your comments for that month).
To be honest I don’t read either but after hearing the No Follow thing I will make sure I never link or visit JC site. I know he can charge what he wants and he probably have fans that think it’s fine but would anyone get $10 of value with this anyway?
- GoldCoaster
Date/Time: 6-10-2007 01:18:42 Comment #2927
I would place more value in his “Top Commentator” list. I am surprised to see that he doesn’t charge people to comment on his site period.
I can tell you this, when my site gets as popular as his, I won’t charge people an arm and a leg for the various things that help others grow.
Advertising on a site is one thing… but keep in mind, these are blogs. And without contributors who take the time to voice their opinions, interact with the author and other readers, etc… the blog is nothing.
My ethics are very simple and publicly known. I encourage people to read my site, I encourage people to contribute on my site, and most importantly I reward people for doing these things, and my hopes are to take things to the next level with the new site design… and let’s not fail to mention that I make full attempt within the best of my ability to help bloggers through my writing.
As my site continues to grow, I will continue to reward even more. Not the other way around… for sure.
Also, this isn’t a bash against John Chow. There is a huge treasure of great information there. There is also nothing wrong with making money from your blog or web site. So, to each is own… however, I do run things a little differently here on my site. Of course, I have many other sites that I make money from… but even still, they make no where near to the amount of money his one site makes… but that too has numbered days. I hate being broke… I hate it for other people who struggle too… and ultimately, that is where this site kicks in. It documents my successes and teaches others how to do the same damn thing… that way, we all can hang out on the beach together and party!
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 08:20:13 Comment #2843
That is a very interesting question. I only found John Chow’s blog in recent months when an online friend (not Garry) told me about John’s plans to rank high in the Search Engines for “make money online” which I was already doing. I must admit I was impressed with his plan to game the Search Engines and it worked pretty well.
On the other hand, I have been a readers of Darren’s for a LONG time! Darren has great information about making money online by blogging! So, it’s hard to say I think of him when I think of making money online. The first person that comes to my mind when I think of make money online, is really not either one of them. When I think of “blogging” Darren does come to mind.
As far as my answer to the questions you posed, I would have to choose Darren for most of them. Darren seems like a really nice guy. On the other hand, my guess is that John is a nice guy too. John is definitely creative with the whole “evil” thing and the way he has such a strong following.
Those are my quick thoughts.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 10:48:20 Comment #2859
In reference to the strong following, would it be a fair to consider that there are many people who follow and comment on his site just because they know that the site (some how) become popular and they know that it benefits them to drop as many comments as possible to gain more traffic to their own site? In other words, if it was publicly known that John Chow dot Com only had 100 visits per day, would people still contribute and participate on his site?
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 12:02:21 Comment #2871
Yes, I know at least one person who admitted to doing just that…
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 12:46:07 Comment #2874
If I had more time, I would do it too!
Fight evil with evil! LOL!!! 
I am trying to dig for this “No Follow” controversy K-Inthehouse mentioned earlier.
However, the digging that I have done, does show me that a wave or ripple has taken place on JC’s site over the last 6 months or so… it has changed, and changed quite a bit.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 08:21:15 Comment #2844
1 & 2 - I must say I love John’s design. Sorry Darren but there is a lot on that top part of your page, when I first visited it scared me away, then one day I read an article and I keep coming back. Oh and I must say I love the job market over there.
3 - Darren definitely does what he says, he is ALWAYS helping his readers. John use to do that but a lot of it is now focused (or seems to be) on HIS advertising and making money.
4 - hmm, who would I take home to meet mom and dad. First if I did that I’d get some really crazy looks and questions (married) but I must say it’d be Darren. Yes, I do think that photo looks scary of John. But Darren has that really down to earth look.
5 - Make money online I actually picture John Chow’s website. Now teaching bloggers to make money online would be Darren.
6 - haha, you’ll laugh…YOURS. But between the two it would have to be Darren’s, I use to frequent John’s every day though.
7 - Darren
8 - John
9 - A secret? Hmmm, gotta know them better, but I guess that’d be Darren.
10 - Both, they both know how to make money.
Now why didn’t you ask, “Which one would be more likely to pay for an overpriced potato?”
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 11:05:54 Comment #2860
First off, thank you so much for your answer on question #6. That put a big smile on my face! From what I draw from your feedback is that John Chow more less has become a site that bloats about his successes with making money online rather than being a site that reaches out and helps bloggers do the same. Correct me if I am wrong on that assessment. Secondly, after getting more comfortable with the overwhelming about of information on Darren’s site… you have found it to be a more useful resource for helping you pursue your ventures?
This is awesome feedback. I totally appreciate it. Discovering your opinions and perceptions about other successful bloggers helps me stay focused on the things that are important to my readers. I feel that by doing a site by site comparison of John Chow and Darren Rowse will give me an excellent assessment on what works and what doesn’t. Both sites (at least at one time) have the same goals in mind… helping bloggers make money online. Whether that is the case today, is in question.
I am not a copy cat, but I am the type of person who takes the strengths of different elements and filters out the weaknesses to develop a new ideas. For example, the television remote control… that is an awesome invention! For instance the pager… another great invention…. what happens when your 3 year old sneaks off with your remote control… it takes a month to find it buried within the deep realms of your sofa among the loose change and other mysterious items…. however, if you put two and two together, you would think by now someone would invest a paging system for your remote control so that you could find it when it became lost.
That is me! I am all about taking successful things and putting them through the sifter to filter out everything minus the little nuggets of gold.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 12:06:19 Comment #2872
Garry,
That is funny! My wife and I thought about the idea a few months ago. We (or our kids) are always losing the remote. Of course, after people put two and two together, someone has to actually do the work to make it happen. If only we could get paid for our great ideas… we could all be millionares without working!
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 12:34:30 Comment #2873
Sounds like a dot Com project in the works.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 16:20:22 Comment #2882
hehe, I knew what you were doing when I read it. Always take the best to see what others like about it and do a bit of your own stuff. Oh and of course this article will definitely help you in page rankings or whatever it is. Having those two names linked to your site in an article like you did will definitely draw in more readers.
To your question, yes I believe both had the same view at one point but as life moves forward sometimes we do as well. Darren seems to still be doing that as with John but both in their own ways, I just happen to like Darren’s a bit more these days. Funny story- I actually began reading John’s after he pointed out my site (not a very good point either) lol, but it caught my attention and I stuck with him, it was in the beginning I think of him tracking his site (johnchow one) and helping others make money. But once Review me came about I think the focused changed. I do visit still just not as often.
Someone else mentioned the two are extremely different as John is more business and Darren is more blogger. I have to agree with this.
Oh and yes I’ve thought about that dang beeping thing for my remote, car keys, cell phone many times. You know it reminds me of “Along Came Polly” where she’s searching for her keys with that beeper. I sooo need one.
Okay wrote a blog entry here.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 08:45:46 Comment #2847
Great article, i read both John Chow blogs and Problogger, they both have good rank, content and community.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 11:06:34 Comment #2861
If you could only have one or the other, which would it be?
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 08:52:13 Comment #2848
I like Problogger more .
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 11:08:10 Comment #2862
Thanks Madhur for your comment.
Why do you like Problogger more? What has Darren done to capture your interest more so than John Chow? What could John Chow do differently to win you over as a regular reader and follower of his site?
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 15:44:33 Comment #2881
I have them both in my feed reeder. John Chow entertains me while teaching me some things. Darren Rowse teaches me a lot of things. The thing I like most about Problogger is it can take you from the first post of your blog right up to the latest.
If I could only read one of them it would be Problogger.
Date/Time: 6-8-2007 22:29:25 Comment #2887
I am a fan of both these money maker online blogger. They have shown that making money online is just steps and rules that you got to follow to succeed!
Date/Time: 6-21-2007 16:19:08 Comment #3288
Very true… good point. I appreciate your comment.
Date/Time: 6-10-2007 02:07:08 Comment #2931
Wow, what an interactive blog. Kudos for commenting back to each poster.
Well I won’t be able to answer question for question, as I am not at all familiar with John Chow and am a fairly new subscriber to Problogger.
1. Design- Darren’s was intimidating and busy for me at first, but I really like it now and I suspect there is a lot of method to the madness. I also really like the colors. As for John Chow’s, at first impression, I agree that the cars look a little “used car salesmany”, but I want good content and don’t really care about design.
5. Who do I think of when I hear “make money online”?
C) Steven Holdaway
But when I hear the word “blogging” I think
B) Darren Rowse
C) Steve Pavlina
10. Who would I rather be in business with? Honestly, either one. They both know more than I do just for the fact that I read posts by them instead of vica versa.
Date/Time: 6-10-2007 11:51:55 Comment #2952
I read both blogs. While John Chow’s blog is more entertaining, he does seem more self-serving, as his asking people to pay to remove the nofollow tag from link comments shows. I also don’t like the fact that his blog now has several guest bloggers. When I go to his blog, I expect to read something by John Chow, not by someone else. So, nowadays I would first look to see who wrote the post before deciding whether to read on.
Problogger is less flamboyant, and gives me more useful information. In addition, the comments section at Problogger is often worth reading as well.
Who do I prefer? This is going to sound strange: If I only have 3 minutes to read a blog, I would read John Chow’s (to get entertained). On the other hand, if I can read only one of these two blogs for the next 5 years, I would definitely go with ProBlogger (to get useful information).
Date/Time: 6-10-2007 20:54:30 Comment #2960
Garry, what a nice breakdown of two blogs! You’ve inspired me!
Date/Time: 6-18-2007 07:31:54 Comment #3126
Wow what an excellent comparison, look how many problogger subscribers have… usually I look more on Darren blog rather than JC… Its just the feeling that his post has more quality and keep on the right track on “helping bloggers”
Date/Time: 6-18-2007 08:24:55 Comment #3133
well,in a way,they are good and they are smart.thats all i can say
Date/Time: 6-18-2007 20:36:13 Comment #3165
woah.. nice article, just knew it.
i’ve posted about John Chow and Darren Rowse too.
i’ve updated it and put your link there.
nice Garry.
Date/Time: 6-21-2007 00:09:31 Comment #3265
Hey!
I’m another Make Money Online blogger usually listed between Darren, John and George. Actually, I think I’m the only female blogger on that Google page!
Anwyay, I read both John’s and Darren’s blogs. I started monetizing my blogs because of Darren. I started reading John’s blog and earned more money through Adsense because of his tips.
1. Darren’s site has a lot of info on his homepage. I’m not crazy about the cars on John’s blog.
2. I find that John is a little down to earth. He’s funny and does some off the wall stuff. Darren is a professional and keeps it that way.
3. Darren
4. Darren would nooet my parents…they’re Christian. Who would my extended family and friends have fun with? John because he’s crazy…and so are they!
5. ME! LOL! Seriously…John.
6. John because I favorited him on Technorati.
7. Darren.
8. John.
9. Darren.
10 Darren.
Date/Time: 6-27-2007 10:14:04 Comment #3546
Its Problogger for me. The site and Darren both look professional. Darren looks honest. There are two ways to sell your product, the first way is your product sells itself, the second way is you sell the product, but if you concentrate more on the second type, people may lose interest in your product and get interested in you. And that is difference between Darren and JC. I like Darren’s way where the product is more important.