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John Cow dot Com’s Lifelong Dream of Scamming The Blogosphere
May 10th, 2008 by
Garry Conn | 66 Comments
So I bet you have been wondering who is the new owner of John Cow dot Com? You may have noticed that things have started to go back in the right direction for the cow site. Quality seems to be much better with the site sporting the new Keyword Research Mini Series [Read: Part One | Part Two | Part Three]
After the release of these three posts, I discovered that the word on the street, or at least in my Google Alerts and around the blogosphere, is that people think I am the new owner of John Cow dot Com. People who don’t believe that I am the new owner at a minimum believe that I at least have been hired to write on the site. Strange vibes are in the air as people feel that I have some kind of affiliation with the site. What do you think? Do you think I am the new owner of John Cow dot Com?
If you recall, last month the owner made a press release about the listing John Cow dot com for sale in SitePoint. Naturally, this sent a shock wave through the blogosphere (well, the MMO niche corner at least) because a lot of people have come to like this blog. Back in July of 2007 the site was launched as a parody of the famous John Chow dot Com.
The above screen shot was taken July 7th 2007
Source: BloggingTips.com
It was blatantly obvious that John Cow dot Com was an entertaining copy cat of John Chow. Needless to say, thousands of people clinged on to the site and the John Mad Cow Disease started to spread like wild viral linking fire. The explosive growth of the site has even caused the famous John Chow to interact and milk the madness a few times on his own blog.
Last month John Cow dot Com inadvertently got caught in the cross fire that was initially aimed at others. As with most controversial blog posts, the article I wrote a post titled, Flipping Blog Scams and The MMO Niche is Full of Jerks, had a huge reaction among shared readers between my blog and John Cow’s. In that post I said this to the owner of John Cow dot Com,
“I have been very disappointed with you and your blog for awhile. Your blog is no different that the rest of the bullshit MMO sites that do nothing but spin off the same stupid information found on the other 100 or so other MMO blogs. Your blog doesn’t help anyone learn how to make money online, yet your blog heavily advertises the fact that it does.”
It was predictable that I would get a direct response published on John Cow dot Com. Here is what the owner had to say,
“Garry accuses us for example that we heavily advertise ourselves as a blog that teaches others how to make money online, while we don’t. Have a look at our header Garry, we’ve been “Milking the Internet since 2007“. We’re making money online with our blog, and we make no secret of it. We do sponsored reviews, like you. We sell private advertising, like you. We endorse affiliate products, like you. We’re open and honest about what we do and why we do it, unlike you.”
So there you have it in a nutshell. The owner of John Cow openly admits that he is not in the business of teaching people how to make money online. Secondly, he admits that the site is used to trick people into buying bullshit products and that their chief level of concern is for what is in your wallet and not for what is in your heart. Lastly, he attempts to throw some flame back on GCDC by stating that I published sponsored posts, promote bogus products and rob people from their money just as he does.
To top this all off, the ultimate scam is that John Cow dot Com was being offered for sale to any ignorant individual who had $50,000 USD to shell out on their next biggest error in judgment. It’s one thing to trick people into buying a bullshit eBook for $19.95, but I tend to get pissed off when I witness higher grade behaviors that involve serious money that could seriously impact the financial well being of an individual who could potentially be tricked into buying a web site at such a high expense.
But what does the owner of John Cow dot Com care? He doesn’t. We have already witnessed his true colors and character in the above statement directed to me. With having the owner of John Cow dot Com openly admit that he is honest about screwing people over leads me to believe that he too would be honest (after the fact) about screwing over the person who made the idiotic decision to invest $50,000 USD into the site.
John Cow dot Com listed for sale in SitePoint on April 14th, 2008
In my 31 years of living I have learned a quite a few things in life. One of which is the fact that history tends to repeat itself and if you cast a line into a pond, eventually a fish will bite… the more lines you cast into the pond, the more chance you have at scoring a catch. John Cow dot Com does not have a new owner because I believe that the site was never truly up for sale. Yes, the site was listed in SitePoint. Yes, there were actual bids on the domain. But, the site was never sold and eventually the listing on SitePoint was cancelled.
John Cow dot Com listed for sale in Sitepoint on August 9th, 2007
Instead, I believe that listing John Cow dot Com was purely a marketing strategy to flood traffic and gain more readers to the site. As I had said, history has a tendency to repeat itself and casting more lines in the pond will increase the odds of catching a fish. This isn’t the first time the owner of John Cow dot Com has listed his site for sale in SitePoint. It seems that back in August of 2007, just a few months after launching the site, it was listed for sale in SitePoint for $20,000 USD. The pitch to the listing was, “Own a piece of blogging history, we’ve outdone the original.”
So you see, the owner of John Cow dot Com had nothing to lose. Back in August of 2007, if some idiot had ended up buying his site for $20,000 USD, the owner of John Cow would have pulled off the ultimate dot Com blog scam of 2007. Obviously, no one took the bait and the owner was not successful in selling John Cow dot Com for the asking $20k. However, he still won as he was successful in his marketing strategy and scored tons of readers and interest in the site.
John Cow dot Com listed for sale in Sitepoint on December 20th, 2007
Amazingly enough, the owner of John Cow dot Com decided to repeat the whole process once again in Dec. of 2007 immediately after Google had updated PageRank, granted the site with a PR5.
In April of 2008, after reflecting on how successful the August 2007 and December 2007 marketing strategy was, the owner of John Cow dot Com decided to repeat the same strategy and once again, offered John Cow dot Com up for sale in SitePoint. Why not? What’s there to lose? Either some idiot will take the bait and purchase the site, this time around for $50,000 USD or the owner of John Cow dot Com walks away after having hundreds of bloggers write posts and give him free publicity.
You see, listing your blog in SitePoint is becoming a trend. It’s a win/win marketing strategy. You list your blog for sale for some ridicules amount of money, if someone is stupid enough to buy it, you win. If no one ends up buying it, you leave after having everyone and their grandmother blogging about it.
That is my thoughts on this situation. I don’t believe that John Cow dot Com was ever truly up for sale. I believe that if some idiot happened to have purchased the site for $50,000, the site would have been sold. But I don’t believe that the owner had any expectation of someone actually considering making the purchase. In my opinion, the owner of John Cow dot Com was in it for the hype and the free publicity, which as mentioned above, will continue to be used to exploit the ignorance of people who want so badly to learn how to make money online, they’ll believe in the promotion of the products and services being listed and advertised on the site, which as we all know will make the owner money and cause the readers to continue to lose money.
The part that I personally enjoy the most from this situation is the fact that when the owner of John Cow dot Com decided to make an attempt to beef up his quality in his content, people started to suspect that I either purchased the site myself or was hired to write on it. 
The sad part to this story is that eventually the owner of John Cow dot Com will be successful in pulling off his lifelong dream of scamming and tricking some poor sap out of a lot of money for a blog that doesn’t make even close the the amount of money or traffic being inaccurately reported.
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Related Keyword Tags: Affiliate Marketing Scams, Blogs For Sale, Bob Meets World, dot Com Failures, Internet Marketing Scams, Internet Scams, John Cow, John Cow dot Com, John Cow For Sale, John Cow Scam Artist, Johncow.com, Make Money Online, Make Money Scams, Online Business Scams, Online Scams, SitePoint
Mr Garry Conn,
I can see where you are coming from, people who patronize and fool public into buying phony crap such as e-books and what not, are crooks and should be exposed. On the other hand, what line of business are you so called pro bloggers into? end of the day you are marketers, you promote your own or other products to make money, there’s no shame in this, you work hard and expect to recieve cash.
You surely didn’t sacrifice all lot of your time on this blog (which btw looks like great content) with no long-term or short-term financial gain strategy, did you? Ofcourse not, your not an idiot. IMO as far as john cows are concerned, I can’t really see the whole fuss, like you, the mans a businessman. Perhaps jealousy plays a part in this?
Mohammed
Jealousy?
Oh man… I only wish it was that simple. No, see I have a big problem with folks that make money online through channels of taking advantage of others, especially people who are trying to learn a business.
While I too am a businessman and a successful Internet marketer and serial entrepreneur, my foundation evolves around helping people. Totally 125% of my energy, motivation and drive is geared towards helping others.
Let’s see how you feel next time you purchase a used car off the car lot after thinking you got a great deal. Being tricked in any situation in life sucks. Whether that may happen if you purchase someone else’s problem in an automobile or someone else’s web site that has been masked from its true internals.
Thanks for the compliment on my content.
Hey Gary, thanks for the great read and laugh, but do us (well not really us but your readers) a favour and keep the prophesies to the prophets. Was the “up for sale” a scam… nope but did the blog sell for $50000… bwa hahahah.. come on now, not sure why that rumour started. You see, we are what you call a “multiple personality” and all we can say is the personality that you are accusing is no longer but thanks for stirring the controversy though.
Will everyone eventually learn who we are… sure but right now we are having too much fun seeing what people are guessing at. One thing to note though is the info, strategies and tips you are now witnessing and are about to witness more of is what we are making a crap load of money online with and if you to want to make money… then maybe one day you can be like us hehe.. so read our posts (just joking of course, keep doing what you are doing, I love your blog)
You mean to say multiple IP addresses from various areas around Canada, New Zealand, and Bulgaria? Seems to me that John Cow dot Com is a multi-user writing project. In reference to the personality being accused is no longer, that implies Bob from Bob Meets World… the things that make you say, Hmmm…. Needless to say, one little slip on your marketing tactic and I’ll be on it like flies on shit.
“Needless to say, one little slip on your marketing tactic and I’ll be on it like flies on shit.”
Cool… I look forward to you pointing out issues, it helps make things better
Have a great weekend!
So, the comment by JohnCow is interesting. At this point it is anyone’s guess to what happened.
We will have to wait and see, but one thing is for sure, that comment doesn’t sound like the owner of JohnCow I know ….
I think nothing has changed. John Cow dot Com has had multiple people working together in a private writing team. Anyone with a fifth grade level of education can change up their writing styles.
Nothing has changed… it’s a marketing scheme. The above comment from Cow comes from Canada. Other comments in the past from Cow on my blog have come from Ireland, New Zealand and Bulgaria.
Hi Gary,
I think things come in threes. I bought thee ebooks from john cow and none of them worked. The Ty Crogwell ebook is a total joke. I do remember each time john cow was offered for sale in sitepoint so you bring up a great point. JOhn cow had never helped me the only thing is that I helped them by spending my money on things that dont work.
Hi April,
I am sorry to hear that you report a loss in money while actually trying to learn more about the business of making money online. Just a little tip, which I am sure by now you have learned, research research research. See what other people are saying about the products that you are considering to purchase. Heck, sometimes that can be difficult too as many of the marketers flood the blogosphere and SERPs with BS info as well.
All in all, you kinda have to cling to a trusted alley, find people to align with and allow these people to establish a good track record with you.
I would recommend you read the following blogs:
- http://www.masonworld.com
- http://www.meandmydrum.com
- of course my blog… http://www.garryconn.com
- http://www.christinesenter.com
- http://www.ez-onlinemoney.com
- http://www.therandomforest.com
While some of these blogs may not be directly about making money online, they are blogs by people who are very in tune with the MMO niche and can guide you in the right direction if you need help making decisions on what products/services to buy versus NOT.
Troll around my blog for awhile too and check out the sites of the people that comment here. Most all people in my community are genuine people. I closely control people who interact on my blog and closely control the types of products and services being offered.
You should also subscribe to my free mailing list so that you can have an open channel of communication with me. Scroll up to the top of this page and you’ll see the form. If you’d like to learn more about me you can visit THIS PAGE.
Good luck with your blogging ventures.
I was kinda hoping that someone would come and say exactly what April said. Ha ha ha. “prophesies”, “Gary”… I was hoping for a good controversy here, but clearly these guys/this guy are below the average level of capacity….;)
–Ted
Hey Ted,
Thanks for dropping me a line here. Nice chatting with you in instant message.
I think that (They/He) know I am right and have nothing to say. Either that or (they/he) are playing it smart and attempting to diffuse the situation by downplaying it.
Needless to say, last month, practically an entire post on John Cow dot Com was used on a feeble attempt to call me out. LOL!!!
…… And so the Bloggers Soap Opera rolls on….
In this weeks episode Garry doubts that John ever wanted to sell his business and accuses him of trying to find cheap publicity. John reactes by hinting that he is longer the John we once knew…. Next episode: Will we find out who the real John Cow is? Keep watching……
Ok that’s a crappy synopsis as I am in a rush but have to comment….
This is very interesting. I skipped over to Cows place and was surprised to see a definite jump in quality. Initial reaction was that after the bashing and that Bob had decided to start writing decent quality again to win back audiences after the bashing and aid the sale.
He has admitted that his heart wasn’t in the site so now the notion that this is still him writing leaves me confused. I honestly don’t know what to think. Garry’s theory is great and just as possible as Bob selling the site, although I honestly doubt anyone would pay 50,000 for it. But then I am not in the business of buying this kind of thing.
I have my own possible theory….. Garry, if you are actually writing for John Cow then it would be one of the greatest marketing strategy the MMO niche had ever seen. Sure many would hate you for it but the benefits would outweigh the cons.
If Cow is a new man then, I hope he didn’t pay 50,000 but I will be rejoining the RSS and becoming a new reader again.
If Bob has just upped his content quality then I hope he is out of the “I don’t give a f**k about blogging” phase and actually intends to keep running a quality site. If so then I will try and make a big deal out of every scam. He very nearly scammed me with a crappy product sale and that was when I stopped reading and where my initial anger over this whole thing came from.
If Garry is the new owner…. well, I commend the marketing strategy and I am sure a few companies will be knocking on his door to hire him.
I am following all of this closely and will be writing my very own post on the matter soon.
Thanks for carrying on the entertainment.
Maybe we should slam all you MMO guys in a house and put web cams on you. Obviously it would be called Big Blogger… tonight Cow accuses Conn of leaving the washing up in the sink, it would be magical!!!
… that show is already broadcasting live. In this case, the Big Brother House is simply called the Blogosphere. It’s funny that you said this, because Big Brother happens to be one of my favorite shows.
Look forward to following your take on the matter when you publish your post. Drop me a line and give me a heads up and I’ll provide a direct link to it in my post.
I don’t read MMO blogs for this reason
I read marketing and business blogs, but no MMO blogs. They all suck (from what I’ve seen. if there’s good ones, point them out).
There are quite a few good MMO blogs, but even still you’d have to invest time into filtering out things that aren’t on topic.
Here is a wager Gary, I will place a bet with you. We put a poll up for a market niche on a neutral place and we both build a blog focused on that niche and see who makes more money in 30 days.
We both show exactly the steps we use and the tools we use and expose everything… we have nothing to hide.
This could be a lot of fun. It could be a nice little competition and at the same time both of our readers will see what we teach but to practice.
The wager… Lets say $500
What you say?
Crap, we just caught that there are 2 r’s in your name.. sorry Garry lol
Mr Cow, you are missing the point…… It’s how you make the money not how much. Selling bullshit to readers who trust you is Bad!!!! But could make one person MORE money.
Forest, your missing the point… look at the last 2 weeks of posts… that is true, solid and reliable content. The person who is talking to you right now has never sold any of the readers bullshit but hey we could still be missing the point, it would not be the first time.
Anyway, we are not wanting to turn this into anything nasty, personally we like Garry’s blog and what he does (notice we remembered the two r’s) and one thing we know for certain is there is nothing to say that will convince anyone of anything… it comes down to time will tell.
Anyway, Garry if you are interested, drop me an email and we can even get on the phone and work out the details.. it could be fund and educational.
Actually we meant “It could be fun and educational”
Damn… we need to hit spell check :/
I am entertained by this proposal. I’ll make a decision on this very soon. How would you propose that the contest be authenticated?
Not sure of all the details but maybe on Monday we can hook up on the phone and talk… throw some ideas around. Maybe the winnings could go to the winners favorite charity or something like that.
Anyway, we really got to go, lots to do, so i will not see any responses here in the blog until tomorrow so email me if possible, at the included email from the form box, and we can arrange a time to talk.
We probably both need to step away from the computer for the day today and enjoy the weekend.
May I have your attention please?
May I have your attention please?
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
I repeat, will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
We’re gonna have a problem here..
I’m the slim shady
will the real slim shady please stand up,
please stand up.
What a bunch of moronic Garbage. Makes you wonder how idiots like that sleep at night.
The oh so sad thing is and this really bites.
It’s like pt barnum once said…. well you know how that goes.
Garry…. man I gotta hand it to you, I have no idea where you get the patience from.
Seriously it’s always been my experience that you can show someone the wet paint sign on the wall and they’ll still touch it to see if its wet and then complain that they got paint on themselves.
Hopefully some of your readers got the point that they’re running an udderly sour piece of garbage site. I donno maybe when I have the time and inclination to do so I’ll have my hacker geek friend pay them a visit.
Hey know what I am gonna do? start a GCDC cover band and put it on myspace, then try to sell it to the cow crew
Wow, that was a mature response… guess thats my calling to bow out.
Don’t worry Cow man… people are just protective… I dropped a comment below this. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemies (if I had any).
Thanks… wont say it never scares the crap out of you hearing that.
Me too… don’t worry about it. I don’t contribute or support things like that. It’s one thing to use a blog to communicate a message or opinion and engage into civil debates about things… and it’s another thing to harbor or host a site that enables or encourages people to do damage to rival competitors in the niche. I don’t think anything will come of that.
As always as I would recommend for anyone who uses WordPress, keep your install up to date, limit the # of third party plugins that you use and run daily backups. Run WordPress / MySQL back ups as well as server wide back ups in cPanel/WHM/Plesk (if you’re on a linux box).
Hi Shane,
I appreciate your support; however, lets keep things on an even and level playing field and not resort to hacking, cracking of blogs or sites. I wouldn’t want that done to me, and in the end what I speak on my blog is only my opinion. My goal is to stimulate minds and allow people to step out of the box a little bit and muse over their reactions based off the things I say.
I want to help people and sometimes in order to do that, I have to have a target example. John Cow fits the bill perfectly. His track record is very shady, he clearly doesn’t help people learn how to make money online even though the site has been molded as a place that does. And now it seems he wants to engage into a civil “friends style” battle with me, which I’ll admit that I am entertained in the offer.
So, again… no hacking sites and doing things silly. We’re all adults here and we’re all entitled to publish content freely without having to worry about people destroying our sites… the question is whether or not people dig what you say and not have to be concerned with getting hacked.