JohnCHOW.com vs JohnCOW.com Which Design Is Better?
On August 22nd, the famous evil John Chow re-designed his blog and placed trust into Nate Whitehill’s ability to produce a professional and compelling design. On Sept. 10th, John Chow released an article stating that the new design has helped increase his traffic. Updating his design created a huge blog buzz in the blogosphere which made his traffic skyrocket. John Chow is definitely a very skilled marketer and does a great job promoting his site with creativity.
Your Thoughts On JohnCHOW.com?
Aside from the hype about John Chow, what are your thoughts and opinions on his new design. Assume that you found the same design on a different blog other than John Chow’s. If you saw that site design for the first time, what would your reaction have been? Here is a screen shot…
Oops… sorry about that John, I wasn’t able to capture your most recent post in the screen shot. Unfortunately, that falls bellow the top fold. In fact, the current design has everything except for the kitchen sink above the top fold… except for his important juice, the content.
My opinion is this… it is a bold move to maintain a site that has 100% ad saturation above the top fold. There are only a few people I know that can successfully pull it off with out suffering consequence. One person is John Chow.
Your Thoughts On JohnCOW.com
First off, what is JohnCOW.com? Have you heard of he site before? The story all began just few short months ago, on July 1st, where it was announced that the site was intended to be a bold face parody move on the famous John Chow dot Com blog. In my opinion, this move was pretty damn funny and very entertaining. The blog quickly rolled out and gained the interest of hundreds of bloggers, sporting a very comical design that copied the famous John Chow design:
In less than 90 days, JohnCOW has thrust forward with heavy marketing and promoting and has gained a huge reader interest from purely riding on the coat tail of John Chow. I am not one to judge, nor am I one to criticize… the marketing tactics of JohnCOW works and the blog has become a huge success.
Just four days ago, Sept. 21st, JohnCOW published an article announcing their their new design. In the article, the author shares some personal thoughts about the redesign. They were more than away of the fact that just a few weeks prior, the famous John Chow had redesigned his blog. The personal debate was simple: Should JohnCOW continue with the previously successful parody marketing strategy? Or, has the blog grown enough to break free from the parody scheme and the utter/tit of John Chow who has been providing milk to the blog for almost three months? John Cow says, “you’ve probably noticed that we don’t really look like some other guy’s blog like we used to. He changed his theme a few weeks ago and we we’re left with a choice. Stick to the old theme, get something like him again, or stand on our own four feet”.
Breaking free from the coat tail of John Chow was a great decision. Their new design is very creative, unique and brilliant.
With their new design, the beautiful header graphic created by SOS Factory takes up most of the told fold. As you can see by the screen shot above, a portion of the most recent post is visible on the top fold. Regardless of how nice the header graphic looks, it is still a bold move to broadcast your content below the top fold. However, with the amazing header graphic from SOS Factory, I think JohnCow can pull things off.
In a comparison, you have to recognize the difference in JohnCOW’s new marketing strategy compared to JohnCHOW’s. JohnChow is more established and can afford to take a risk of heavily promoting his money making programs above the top fold. Where as JohnCOW is placing all his eggs in the basket with heavily promoting for branding and name recognition.
Which Site Design Is Better?
When you place forward your opinions on these two blogs, you should strongly consider each individual blog author’s marketing strategy. Also, the cartoon graphic on JohnCOW stands out and makes people say wow! However, before you place emphasis on JohnCOW you should ask yourself what his blog would look like without the graphic included.
In the background of things… there is another story going on. And that story is about the two individual web designers. Hyder, from Weborithm dot Com who designed JohnCOW vs Nate Whitehill of Unique Blog Design.
Both designers have thrust forward in the web design business and are riding the coat tails of these two popular bloggers. And further investigation of these two designers show me that there is a little white vs black chess game going on between them. Both designers provide identical services with very similar skills, similar presentations of their professional design services and similar price ranges.
Unique Blog Designs vs Weborithm
Who is the better web designer? Which blog looks better? Which blog design will hold true to the test of time? Which blog author was smart and invested the money into using the right designer? What is your take on the two blogs? What is your opinion about how JohnCOW reached such a high level of popularity in less than three months by being a copy cat? If you never heard of either blog, which blog would you favor more?
I would love to receive and read your feedback. Comments are very welcome, please share your thoughts, opinions and views.
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I hate to swoon, but I am a massive fan of both designs. While Johncow is a parody, it was always less serious and so the designs suit both sites very well. Personally I love the Johncow header so much it has to win, but I think the JohnChow design is very attractive too.
Johncow has the uncanny ability to make me very angry with myself, because all of their ideas are things that make me wish I had done it myself!
Matt Jones
25 Sep 07 at 1:52 pm
Yes, we have to say that the cow blog looks Moochos cooler!
John Cow
25 Sep 07 at 2:07 pm
oops, that was supposed to be written under a pseudonym!
John Cow
25 Sep 07 at 2:07 pm
@ Matt,
Hey, don’t kick yourself too hard. People have to raise the bar high so that others can take portions of the strengths of many to develop your own sound strength in a whole.
JohnCow is doing great with branding and name recognition and used classic parody marketing to push his blog into soon to be fame.
I am the type of person who feeds off from ONLY the strengths of other people. It’s a filtration process… I put JohnChow, JohnCOW, Darren and the many others through a filter and collect only on the things that they do well and harness that and shape it onto my own 110% pure strategy.
For me also, sitting back and watching the successes of others is a total blast. I love success stories. Personally, I have nothing in common with John Chow… I don’t really even like him. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t support and commend his successes in business. Same goes with JohnCOW. The Internet has become a Blogger’s world and I love every minute of it. Without breakthroughs like JohnCOW the blogosphere wouldn’t be the same.
@ JohnCOW,
LOL… sorry about that… would you like me to change your name now after the fact?
Garry Conn
25 Sep 07 at 2:15 pm
I’d have to say I love the John Cow redesign. It’s so creative, especially the RSS button!
Sucker
25 Sep 07 at 2:53 pm
Thank you for your comparison notes, very constructive.
I would like to point out that it’s not about who’s the better designer, or who has the most clients. It’s about the need for bloggers to realize that in order for them to stand out from the thousands of blogs being created everyday they have no choice but to go for a professionally designed unique theme.
That’s what sets you apart from any other blogger. Strictly speaking in design terms.
Blogging today can make you some serious money, as both the John’s have demonstrated, and it will only continue to make you more as your brand grows. Getting a unique theme is the first step in branding.
That being said, just look around the blogosphere and you will see there’s enough work for me and Nate to go around.
Hyder
25 Sep 07 at 3:56 pm
Well being new to the blog industry and learning as I go are you guys sure that these are two different guys at all. Like John Chow seems and clearly is a very smart guy. Whats to stop him from copying himself to corner the market. Just a thouht
Collin
25 Sep 07 at 5:21 pm
Collin,
Man… I knew I was leaving something out in the article! Yes! Indeed… we can not neglect to mention that there is actually quite a bit of rumor that JohnCHOW and JohnCOW are indeed the same person. That would be as John Chow calls, Evil….
Garry Conn
25 Sep 07 at 5:48 pm
First of all…awesome, awesome post Garry!
And second of all…
After all is said and done, I have to say that I much prefer the moo (I mean…new) JohnCOW design. In all honesty, I was not all that impressed with John Chow’s redesign. In fact, I felt somewhat let down over it. But that’s probably due to my expecting so much/too much from the big blogs. I’m sure it serves its intended purpose/purposes quite well. But I’m also willing to bet that he redesigns again in the not too far off future.
Which one is better? Which one is worse? There’s really no saying, I suppose. All I can say is that John Chow has more vitamin E (E for evil) and JohnCOW has more vitamin D (like all good milk should). And cudos to JohnCOW for making such a brilliant entrance into the blogosphere. Few bloggers have “herd” of it. Talk about an “udder” success! JohnCOW is definitely an FDA-approved cut above the rest.
Shine on,
Aaron
Aaron Cook
25 Sep 07 at 8:18 pm
D’oh! Correction! I meant to type, “Few bloggers have NOT “herd” of it.”
Aaron Cook
25 Sep 07 at 8:21 pm
I have to go with JohnCOW because it’s fresh and not stuffy. I grew tired very quickly of the two-car banner on JohnChow’s blog and how it cropped up here and there in the blogosphere. I’m not against copying trends (not copyright infringement, of course), but cars?
Mark
25 Sep 07 at 11:00 pm
Personally I see both blogs as being “gimmick” blogs that need all the bells and whistles they can get to keep their cash hungry followers appeased. I read both and now I’ve been there and done that. No need to ever go back! I find the information redundant and has no true value other than to themselves.
I will say that John Cow did, from a money making perspective only, make an ingenious decision in creating his blog. I give the edge to John Cow for having some personality and making it happen. I think they can now create whatever image they want, they are a success!
If they want to really be impressive, they should use 50% of every penny they make to feed and clothe hungry children. I’m sure there are starving kids everywhere who REALLY NEED A GLASS OF MILK!
Bobby Revell
26 Sep 07 at 3:35 am
Perhaps I was a little harsh on these two guys. I really don’t mean anything negative by it. I do read John Cow’s blog some and you can’t dispute the blog’s explosive success. Blogs in positions of power could do more for the betterment of humanity and I doubt any of them would argue with that. If either of these guys took offense to my previous comment, I apologize. I just want them to think about what I mean by helping and befriending smaller bloggers. You never know which one will be big!
Bobby Revell
27 Sep 07 at 11:46 am
JohnCow.com looks so much better then JohnChow.com. The design is so much more memorable then John Chow.
Michael
27 Sep 07 at 10:09 pm
Personally I feel John Cow’s design seems like some pop teenage blogs [cartoon illustrations and drinking MILK!],while John Chow’s header is too cluttered and TACKY [dollar notes & flashy sporty car like those ads by online marketing scams].
kher Cheng Guan
28 Sep 07 at 1:41 pm
Both designs are good, but I love the Johncow header
Sosnewbie
29 Sep 07 at 6:06 pm
By the way, thanks for the promo
SOSFactory
29 Sep 07 at 6:07 pm
I think JohnCow design is much better plus the way he does his blog. Mr Cow seems like a real person where as Mr Chow is always bragging. Mr Chow will tell you how to make money but yet there is almost always a link back to him so he can make money off of people that visits his site. Then he sugar things up by giving things away to get more people to hit his site – then again more money for him. Mr Chow is a lazy ass person that wants the people of the web to support him. Mr Cow seems to be doing his for fun and if he makes a dollar – fine and if not thats ok too.
People like Mr Chow will come fast and slowly but surely slide away where as Mr Cow will be around for many years for us to enjoy.
I use to visit Mr Chow’s site but all the bragging and telling his high income is just too much for me. I’m sure the IRS would really like to know what he makes.
You really don’t think he tells everything now do you? Wonder when he will start incorporating his daughters site so he can make money off of her?
Sad isn’t it…………..
Jenny
6 Oct 07 at 1:24 pm