How John Chow made money from Blogs

It's been a little over a year since John Chow decided to make money by blogging about making money blogging. Since then, the 42-year-old Richmond, British Columbia, entrepreneur has watched his income from John Chow dot Com increase more than 50 fold--from $353 a month to an annual run rate of $300,000. That's $25,000 a month for sitting at home doing what Chow describes as "rambling."

He's not alone. Something has changed in the blogosphere over the past year--something really significant. It starts with the already-huge community doubling to more than 114 million blogs worldwide and spinning off 175,000 new sites daily, according to Technorati, the unofficial chronicler of the blogosphere.

The Blog Bang set off an explosion in new moneymaking services just as Chow was exploring the territory beyond Google AdSense. He now uses more than 100 ad networks, like AuctionAds and Kontera ContentLink.

"When I started, the options for monetizing a blog were pretty limited," Chow recalls. "But people keep coming up with new services that can help you make money."

Chow is far from being the blogosphere's biggest lottery winner. David Sifry, who founded Technorati as a family blog in 2002, can probably claim a share of that jackpot. So can gadflies like Perez Hilton, politicos like Arianna Huffington and all those businesses for which blogging has become the marketing innovation du jour.

Citizen journalism is turning semipro, explains Derek Gordon, vice president of marketing at Technorati, who feels high-gloss sites like The Huffington Post compare favorably to traditional media. A study by the Society for New Communications Research suggests that in five years, conversational marketing will attract as many ad bucks as traditional channels.

Chow deserves special recognition for demonstrating the pure, unadulterated earning power of the medium. His traffic-generating achievement isn't clouded by product sales, avant-garde content or attractive page design. Until recently, Chow wasn't even selling "himself"--that is, the personal expertise found on financial and analyst blogs.

His blog remains a somewhat banal combination of his money count and what he had for lunch--the blogging equivalent of Seinfeld, the show "about nothing." With the free blogenator WordPress and a degree in accounting, Chow monetized nothing into a No. 39 ranking on Technorati's Top 100 List of most-linked blogs. His overhead is about $550 a month; the rest of that monthly 25 grand goes to the bottom line.

Chow wasn't a web novice: He'd had limited success with his reviews-oriented site, The TechZone. But what Chow has learned running John Chow dot Com has helped him monetize The TechZone and his new TZZ Media advertising network. Taken together, Chow's revenue streams are closing in on $1 million annually, making him a web marketing expert by any measure.

Chow has also assembled his income-earning techniques into a 59-page web book downloadable at johnchow.com. Make Money Online is free, but it still makes money for Chow, thanks to its active web links that drive traffic to his site. It's not a bad read, either; even if you don't make blogging your career, there's plenty there to help monetize your business blog.

"There are no rules or limits in blogging," explains Chow. "Your earning power is only limited by the traffic you can attract."

Blogging isn't just a pastime or marketing gambit anymore; it's a living.

Mike Hogan is Entrepreneur's technology editor.

European Finance

European Union in a soup!

EU cuts its growth forecast for the the Eurocurrency zone to 1,8%.Global economy looks uncertain this year.Finacial turmoil, sharp slowdown in the United States and very high prices for energy and food will hit growth,but the deacceleration can be shortlived if US picks up its economy this year.In inflation will likely stay well above the European central bank;s guidelines of just under 2 percent with more expensive prices in the supermarkets and gas pumps pushing it up by 2,6 percent. In Euro areas.However the EU prection is based only on its seven biggest members namely Germany,France,Italy,Austria,Spain,UK and Sweden etc.They have somehow not given much weightage to other EU member countries like the Baltic States who are registering growth rates of up tp6 percent-the highest in Europe so far!Poland is forming the major chunk of manufacturing pie in Europe.
Is European Union with its nerve center in Brussels,too dependent on United States for its economical and financial growth?The answer is a firm confirmation from Liga Mathur a resident consultant in a major company.We are putting all our eggs in one basket which can be a really dangerous tradition.Half of European currencies which are still not in eurozone are pegged to US$ directly or indirectly.Europeans tow the political lines dictated by Washington.However there are some historic reasons behind all this!
After the world war-2 their was a major influx of Europeans manly the wealthy and business like jewish community into US from Europe.It was but natural to have a umblicord between America and Europe.When US economy grew the major contributors were from Jewish communities who went on to form major banks,publishing houses and companies in America with lot of outsourcing to Europe.As a result Europe prospered too!After that any policies which were formed in Europe-NATO aligned were “America centric”.Europe also prospered from the anti Soviet bloc policies of united states.
However come 2008 this view has to change!There is no Soviet empire,no communism!Europe which never had an independent army after the world war-2 was hardly in any position to view the world differently from that of spectacles given to them by America!In this era of globalization however this policies don’t make any sense..

Make thousands of money working from your computer.
As is very clear from the above image how much Google and others are raking in advertising revenues.this industry is in Billions of US Dollars.Do you want to be a part of all this?Well I am already a part of all this.
Today is the world where if you know something about forec trading or stock trading you can earn millions of $$$$.If you are a doctor and know about medical situations use your knowledge to write an article about that and people will read your materials and some of them might click ads from google or other organisation.Its the same as in television or print media!!However instead of you yourself looking for adverts from the companies,Google does the work for you.All you have to do is provide quality content or something that people will like to read.
Google adsense is a wonderful programme for this.in the begining its quite confusing but later when you proceed it becomes easy.No wonder microsoft want a pie of all this!My suggestions to you are go for the topic that you are familiar with.Remember content is king.i will post more in my next blog.

Earn US$25K using your skills

It was in 2005 that i lost my job as a commercial manager in an MNC after 23 of us were layed off in a cost cutting drive.The other428 people kept their jobs.I asked the question why me?It was hard and humilating too!I lost my confidance until one wise soul helped e to start on my own from home.My wife went out for a job and I looked after my 3 tera old kid.
Thats when I started searching for opportunities.Registered myself with the employment exchange and with numerous agencies.
One fine morning I was sitting with my kid in the park just looking gloomily in the horizon when  a young person in his late 40's came and sat near me.He was tired after a jog.We started chatting.I was ashamed to admit that I lost my job.He never mentioned but i could see in his eyes that he somehow knew it.He asked me to call him up which I did after 2 weeks.He was very polite and invited me for a drink in a nearby pub.After meeting and confiding in him,I came to see him in a diffrent light.He had lost his well payed job some yrs ago too.When I asked him if he is looking for a job,he said "never gain will I work for any one".I was surprised at his confidant statement and a bit confused.He laughed and explained me all.He wa working from home and making over $200K/year.
The facts he gave me:

• 2 billion people online all over the world.
  
• No boundaries except maybe language!
• 56% people use credit card or paypal.

We must use our imagination to make new business models.The busines models made by Ford,schwab are not working anymore.This is a new world order where VOIP(voice over internet) is almost free.We can send files,multimedia etc.companies like yahoo,Google,youtube and skype have redifined business.One dosnt need to sit in a office thus saving companies any investments on ral estate.You can work from home which saves travel expenses and time.Have more time for yourself and your family.look after your health.Now thats important.Work from home,this is a new revolution.Work at your convinience!There are many enterpreuners who are coming up with new ideas.They are the new Bill gates or sabeer bhatia(hotmail inventer).
After the advise given by that angel,I am alredy making 62K/year net after paying some commisions to big companies.Join this revolution and research,you will find many ways of making or supplimenting your income.Just be careful and dont fall for conman!
i wish you all the best.Keep me informed.