John Cow’s million-euro gamble
I wasn’t enthralled to read about the millioneurowiki today. I was actually a bit stunned by the whole thing. I was even more stunned to find a glowing review of the product on Cash Quests, and I assume there will be a review to follow on John Chow.
My thoughts on this product are based purely on my initial reactions when I first came across all of this today. I’ve been a fan of the Cow since his conception, and I’ve read Cash Quests since long before they turned comments off for the first time, so this isn’t a personal dig, but I just have to ask, “Why go down this avenue?”
The milliondollarwiki has sold about 1,000 pages so far. That’s a cool $100,000 for the creator of the site. Everything about that site is hype though, and a lot of that hype comes from John Chow. As you scroll down the list of the most popular pages you see that most of them lie dormant with few page views.
Part of the problem is that people register similar pages, such as “make money online” and “making money online”. A look at the top-viewed sites reveals very few with useful content. It’s all blatant affiliate links, banners and useless stuff. It’s essentially worthless garbage.
After seeing how boring the milliondollarwiki turned out to be, I felt a sudden pang of dread when I started reading about the millioneurowiki on John Cow. I was about ready to post something along the lines of “boring” when somebody mentioned the Cash Quests review. At this point I wasn’t even sure who was behind the millioneurowiki.
I went over to Cash Quests and saw the guys over there hyping up the millioneurowiki pretty good, basing most of their evidence on how viral the milliondollarwiki went. On Cash Quests it states that Cow is behind the millioneurowiki.
I was confused as to why John Cow wrote a review of his own product as if it were somebody else behind it. It just didn’t make sense. But what really got to me was that Cash Quests was in on the game. Cash Quests is a trustworthy source of facts and knowledge, but this was almost leading the readership somewhere else. The way the review was written was so different to the attitude that they have been trying to create on Cash Quests.
Looking at the first few pages purchased on the millioneurowiki, most of them are only being used to promote Text Link Ads affiliate links. I hope that trend doesn’t continue and that Cow can correct the mistakes made by the milliondollarwiki.
When the John Chow review of this product goes live, I think it’ll be a shame because I’ve been getting sick of all these hype products and hype deals and hype websites that have inspired post after post from bloggers. It’s just not fun to read, which must reflect my vocation as a journalist rather than an entrepreneur.
People will be skeptical of the millioneurowiki because it is carbon copied from the milliondollarwiki. The Internet doesn’t need either service, but then there’s a lot the Internet doesn’t need that makes money. The millioneurowiki is relying exclusively on recreating everything the milliondollarwiki did. For the Cow, for Cash Quests, for John Chow and a select few others, this will not doubt prove lucrative, but for most people, we’ll have to wait and see.
I wish Cow all the best with this venture because he’s one of those bloggers who has always come across as a people’s blogger. Furthermore, the only reason the milliondollareuro will succeed is because of John Cow. If it were me behind this project, it would never get off the ground.
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20 Responses to “John Cow’s million-euro gamble”
In all honesty, didn’t the cow launch his blog entirely off of JohnChow’s hype? I think he is planning to do the same. It would have been nice to see some usefulness to the site, rather than a 100% carbon copy like you said. I run a similar site, but it is not based on hype, but rather slow exponential growth, and I am taking it down the more professional road, but more sites coming out just like these are hurting the overall value. Only time shall tell. Thanks for the blog post though.
So I guess this means I shouldn’t hope for a good review from you when I launch my Trillion Peso Wiki nex week?
Well written post, well done, i agree with every word.
Think i’ll subscribe to your rss and see what else you have to say…
I share a lot of your ennui here. These schemes only tend to help the one who comes up with them. If the founders had actually figured a way to make it a good resource for people, then it’d be worth having a link there.
But I have surfed through that site, and most of the pages don’t have anything there to actually help people (surprise, surprise since people are just looking for backlinks or trying to cash in on affiliate models), so after the hype wears off, it’s not going to be the kind of site anybody links to naturally.
Will the site be around in a few years? Probably not. But the odds are that neither will this blog.
The real money is always made by those who get in quick *before* the real buzz hits and enjoy the full benefits of the hype. By the time that you’ve “waited and see”, all the great pages will be gone and you would’ve missed out.
There’s nothing wrong with making a fast buck!
If someone makes a Trillion Peso Wiki I will laugh my head off.
Well, I am going to bite my tongue and buy a page. I will let everyone know how it turns out after 7 days, 1 month, and 3 months.
PS:
I own http://millioneurowiki.com/micro_investment
[…] I think thats a real shame, and I am not the only person to feel like this as can be seen from this genuine review of million euro wiki. […]
[…] of the million euro wiki scam and Angel also becoming sick of all the hype lately, with the million euro wiki being the tip of the […]
What do you think will be the long term repercussions of all this?
I mean, these guys keep joining forces to promote the same old rubbish at the same time - will it cost them readers or will the sheep keep following them?
I don’t know. But it does feel like everybody is forming some sort of clique doesn’t it. This is the perfect time for smaller bloggers like us to step up and offer something different.
You do know that John Chow mentioned it already in his newsletter, do you?
Makes me think there’s a deep-rooted conspiracy out there…
Yes I read about that. It must be useful having a guy like him behind you.
Hi Angel,
You said
“I don’t know. But it does feel like everybody is forming some sort of clique doesn’t it. This is the perfect time for smaller bloggers like us to step up and offer something different.”
Well I have put up another clone wiki, unlike the paid ones its… well… completely free, and it has do-follow links.
You have to know how to use a wiki which may be a stumbling block for some, but it will give newbies a chance to get listed for free….
Would appreciate it if you could give it a mention in one of your posts
http://www.spamipedia.org
Jez
Oh yeah Ill add you to the thanks page if you do
Now that’s funny. Hopping on a free wiki but claiming the Make Money Blogging pages plastered with affiliate links. Nice work.
http://www.spamipedia.org/index.php?title=Make_money_blogging
[…] off, here’s a quote we took from one of many MEW bashing posts: Looking at the first few pages purchased on the millioneurowiki, most of them are only being used […]
But this one is free Cow. It’s a different kettle altogether.
[…] If you wish to read on the topic, I suggest taking a look at Million Euro Update by the Cow and Million Euro Gamble by Angel to read about contrasting viewpoints on the topic. My opinion on the whole mess? I […]
Hey guys,
This is shameless promotion:
We just launched http://FiveDollarWiki.com where you can buy links for 5 bucks!
The only difference is money here, the content would be about the same.
This is top secret:
On the sidenote, we are working on our Top Secret, http://OneBuckWiki.com which we will launch in few days but don’t tell anyone yet. Shhhh….
We are also looking for couple people to build content. Basically we will hook you up with free pages and you have to put some good content right away.
You can email me at max [at] fivedollarwiki.com