If you have a blog and want to earn money with it or even simply want to explore the possibilities of making money on the Internet then my guess is you have heard of John Chow? Simply do a search on terms like 'blogging for money' and you will see his Google ads or pull up links to his site. He seems to be a demiGod on the Internet almost worshiped by his admirers. He likes to call himself a dotcom mogul and 'all around nice guy' and his website shows pictures of a very expensive car - I guess his. Well, let's explode a few myths about this guy shall we?

Chow loves to tell you how much money he makes from his website. The implication is that you too can make that kind of cash. By telling you how much money he makes ($28k a month by the way), he can then disclose the secrets of his success to you - his devoted audience.

Frankly, I find him rather tiresome and very transparent. There is little of value in his posts which are mainly set up to get you to sign up to various money making schemes and many of them contain grammatical or spelling errors - John - get a spell checker please mate.

He is misleading you and doing a great job of it too.

Money making schemes on the Internet are mostly - but not all - set up as sort of pyramid schemes. If you are at the top of that pyramid you make tons of money, if not, well you make a little. John Chow is squarely on top of those pyramids (along with others). You see John really doesn't make that kind of cash THROUGH his website directly - he makes most of it THROUGH YOURS.

Here is how it works...

John's a big dog on the Internet with lots of visitors. He can most probably negotiate favorable deals with the various schemes he pushes (and has even created his own). Whether he does or doesn't really doesn't matter because all of these money making schemes have referral programs. So, if he pushes a program he 'shares' his secret with you the poor old punter who wants success like his. He does so by providing a link to the program he is pushing but that link contains his affiliate id so when you sign up and start making a few measly dollars using the program, John gets his share of your sweat too.

Because he has the presence that he does, he can sign up hundreds just like you. Each of you make a few bucks and John gets his share of that from your work. You don't pay him. The money making scheme does.

Let's say that 250 people sign up with his affiliate id and each makes $5 a month. Let's say that John gets a 10% fee for getting you in the program. Then John gets 250 times $0.5 or $125 each month off of your sweat and hard work. Let's face it, he gets an amazing amount of traffic and I can believe that he signs up thousands of folks to those programs. Its simple isn't it. He uses you to make money.

So no wonder he is coining in $28k per month 'through' his website - he is using you to do it. His website earnings as a website are probably not that huge - it's all those affiliate programs that are making him the money.

John Chow has built his business making money off of you in my opinion. His website articles are either pushing another scheme for him to make money through you or trying to dazzle you with his life as a dotcom mogul under the false pretense that you can be too. Well you could be, if you were at the top of that pyramid. He is typical of all the get rich quick schemes ever invented - one person gets rich, the creator of the scheme.

So how can you cheat John Chow out of his monthly income.... simple. Read his articles where he pushes a scheme or a program and then go find the website using their url directly. That way his affiliate id isn't passed along and he doesn't make money from your work or website....

And if you want to visit a site where the guy actually tries to deliver some value - visit Steve Pavlina. At least he writes great material.

This article was originally published at Rant Here - another blog of mine focused on comedy and fun. However, I edited it for this site since I truly believe it is of value for bloggers seeking to make money from thier blogs.