This just has to be the sleeziest and most low method to make money off of a blog, you have to be really really really low to do this, do keep that in mind.
So heres what happens, the owner of John Cow removed the original homepage and puts up a redirect to another sub-page on the site where he puts up a big image saying “This Blog is Hacked! If We Do Not Receive $100 in 24 hours The Cow Gets Well Done!!!”
And now any regular visitor is free to donate or pay the ransom in this case for the blog to be back up, its like saying “give me your money or i won’t blog anymore!”. As far as i can predict this matter, this will totally ruin John Cow’s credibility.
This is marked as a trend as well, this can be the new wave of marketing where bloggers act like low down crooks to earn that extra buck, webmasters come up with new techniques to make money (no duh) but they also tend to copy what others are doing to earn money at the same time, thats why the ebook niche is so huge, people want to copy others!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
[...] across about how important it is to get your blog backed up. Seems we’re now once again the scum of the earth etc. Bad cows! So anyway, we hope we didn’t cause any permanent trauma to any of our [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
It was obviously a joke by John Cow, seriously did you really think he did it for the $100 ?
November 8th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I think you are wrong about that. Those who have paid the $1 have got a free back link from the blog, which is worth much more that $1. And I am sure that all those who have made the payment considered knew very well that the blog wasn’t hacked.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Dude what planet are you from? It was obviously a joke, and any one with a double-digit IQ would have checked out the site a few hours later to see if it was real or not (assuming the Cow removes the redirect, WHICH HE DID!).
Whats with the hate man? This entire post leaves me feeling like I need a bath. Way too many bad vibes.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:29 am
its not some dastardly deed to screw $1 off each reader, just an easy way to attract links, and you were happy to oblige.
Like this theme BTW what is it?
November 8th, 2007 at 4:07 am
[...] across about how important it is to get your blog backed up. Seems we’re now once again the scum of the earth etc. Bad cows! So anyway, we hope we didn’t cause any permanent trauma to any of our sensitive [...]
November 8th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Do you think i blogged this because i think he did it for the money? No!
This was hardly for the money if it WAS hacked they would ask for something in the 4 figure range for the blog, this was obviously link bait and he did not want any money from this (obviously).Like SiteLogic said, it was linkbait and a bad one at that. (more links = better rankings = stronger pr = more link sales)
Theres a reason why this blogpost was named “Sleeziest MARKETING Method”, I call em like i see em.
November 8th, 2007 at 10:39 am
[...] the last 24 hours there were more emails to me about the post about John Cow’s Marketing Method then there were comments, so i think this is a valid enough reason to explain just why i do-not [...]
November 9th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I can’t believe people actually paid a dollar for that. Wonder what they were thinking.
Anyways, but you’re obviously missing the point. It’s not about “give me your money or i won’t blog anymore!”. It’s just simple fun, clever marketing and a whole lot of publicity. I came to know of John Cow because of this as well.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
You are probably getting a spike in your analytics because of this post eh
November 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Haha, i know what he was doing and in the second post i mentioned that it was a bad marketing move.
And the traffic spike was because my themes got featured on weblogtoolscollection.com hehe
http://www.blueverse.com/resources/wordpress-themes/
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/11/06/wordpress-theme-releases-for-116-2/
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/11/02/wordpress-theme-releases-for-112/
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/10/29/wordpress-theme-releases-for-1029/
haha and another ad campaign on the way as well, the john cow post generated way less traffic then i had hoped
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Love him or hate him he’s pretty clever at making money. Although his methods are questionable, you can’t argue with results.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Either a great publicity stunt for his blog or as you stated, a low-level marketing effort to pull a few bucks for loyal readers. Either way, he’s getting some traffic!