Adding to my “successful blogs” section of Andrew Pavelski dot com last week was a great analysis of John Chow dot com. As a follow up to last week’s article, I felt it appropriate to analyze John Cow dot com this week. Take away the “h” in Chow, what are you left with? A John that has been “milking the internet since 2007!” At John Cow’s blog, you will find great ways to “make mooney” online. Cow really seems to be know what he’s doing as a blogger and has really established himself well across the blogosphere. John Cow has quickly become a household name in the blogging industry!

So what exactly has made John Cow dot com successful?

The name similarity: John Cow Vs. John Chow

Type “John Chow” into google search once and see what returns as the number one result. You may have thought that it was “John Chow,” but look a bit closer. Check out what site google takes you to! Whoa, did John Chow get an extreme-makeover? Is this a spam site? What happened? No my friends, you have reached the blogger known as John “Cow.” Not Chow, “Cow” — as in farm animal! John Cow has been able to capitalize off of John Chow’s google search results and steal some great traffic. Though John Cow may in fact have been online for awhile before Chow’s site became successful, I think someone put their intelligence to good use by capitalizing on John Chow’s name. John Cow is only 1 letter short of John Chow…and ranks number 1 in google for John Chow! This was definitely a strategic, well thought out move by Cow! Another place “Cow” has potential to steal visitors is when people misspell “Chow” when intending to type the URL for Chow’s website! Capitalizing off of John Chow’s traffic source is definitely a smart “moo”-ve by Cow (pun intended). John Cow didn’t get the “Best Blog Name Award” for nothin! Cow’s success, however, isn’t only due to his name being so darn close to John Chow’s.

How does John Cow keep ‘the herd’ in his pasture?

• The punchline - If “making MOOney online” doesn’t bring out your inner-child, nothing will! Cow uses a very catchy, clever little punchline that will definitely keep you wanting to come back for more. He has other catchy phrases around the website if you keep looking around. His “comments” are called “moos,” his yahoo MyBlogLog readers are referred to as “the herd,” and links to other websites on his right-sidebar are “pasteurized sites!” The initial punchline and branding that Cow has done with his website is truly phenomenal!

• A super-catchy theme (an expert at personal branding) - Cow’s theme is honestly my personal favorite at the moment! He has cow-spotted Lamborghini’s parked in a farm field with a little John Cow graphic of himself leaning up against one of the cars, holding a healthy glass of milk, smiling with a milk-mustache. To be honest, every time I show someone his site, they break out into laughter at the graphics and think that his blog looks awesome. If you check out his site more in-depth, you’ll notice that he even has a cow-spotted RSS feed button. The best thing you can learn from his blog layout is the fact that it is important to establish a unique brand. I personally think that if John Cow used an average blogging theme and didn’t have any sweet graphics, his blog really wouldn’t be as successful as it is today. Take notes from this, if you’re thinking about upgrading to a custom theme, it is recommended to take the plunge!

• He writes new posts daily - Like I mentioned in the article, “Blogging Post Frequency: How Often Should You Post?,” it is important to give your readers an idea of how often you post, and be consistent with your posting. John Cow does an excellent job at providing his readers with new posts on a daily basis. Though his posts are usually shorter, and provide readers with John’s personal opinion, he seems to be very successful at keeping a satisfying frequency. I have yet to see an extremely long post on John Cow dot com. He usually keeps his posts short, to-the -point, and simple. Keeping posts shorter and to the point, can really be an effective strategy - it definitely seems to be working out great for his blog - Cow’s RSS Subscribers - getting their “daily milk” - are up to almost 1500!

• Great sense of comMOOnity - Another great feature of John Cow’s site is that he has a great community. Most commenters are highly-supportive of Cow’s blog posts and really like the community that he’s built up! He doesn’t really have nearly the amount of comments that John Chow gets, but the comments that he does get are usually very positive, and very supportive of his blogging decisions. It’s always nice to see a blog that not only the webmaster has faith in, but a blog where others have faith in the webmaster. In my opinion, Cow does a great job at keeping his comMOOnity happy!

• Down-to-earth personality - John Cow has a very unique personality compared to most bloggers. He isn’t afraid to make bold decisions and follow through on his personal beliefs. Cow ditched Entrecard because he thought that it wasn’t a good strategy for building up the herd. Now, if you check out his website, you’ll notice what he calls an “Exitcard.” I’ve dropped my Exitcard a few times on his site, and it seems to work out a lot better than hassling with Entrecard… Anyways, John Cow isn’t afraid to ever express his personality or feelings towards other bloggers and his followers. You can really tell that there is a down-to-earth person running his blog. Two great examples of posts that he really got my attention on were: Free PR9 Links, Seriously and Graham Langdon, Have You Been Naughty? If you mess with John Cow, you really mess with his entire herd… He will air you out, other people will link to his post and air you out, and believe that you will get shoved deep beneath the topsoil! Cow’s personality is a key part of what makes me check it out.

• Cow shows you how to start “making mooney” - John Cow made $1,000 dollars the first month that it was launched in July 2007. Pretty impressive amount for the first month and definitely an experience to learn from. The domain John Cow dot com was offered for $800 dollars, and John Cow was able to talk his way down to buy it for $80. The investment was long paid off by the end of month #1. Cow doesn’t claim to be an expert in “SEO, PPC, eCPM, or all those other fancy acronyms,” but he will find and expose ways to make you some extra MOOney online. He also recommends e-books for helping you If a down-to-earth person like John Cow can make some cash online there is definitely something interesting to learn from his experience!

Why I chose John Cow for this week’s successful blog?

To be honest, I think that there is something that everyone can learn from John Cow’s blogging persona and antics. He definitely has a catchy-personality, an awesome unique theme, and really has been milking a lot of MOOney on the net.  If you want your blog to milk the internet, check out his website and let me know what you think…  John Cow is probably making more mooney online and doing a better job milking than most farmers do ;)

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