JohnChow effect works really!
When it comes to influential bloggers, JohnChow tops the list and I experienced his power of influence today! Well, nothing personal and nor I’m involved in the whole scene. Its just that I saw that how influential power of person wins over the ethics and that made me make this post.
So here’s the plot :
The Thinking blog hosted a contest where it was decided that a person has to write a review of Ruff PC and the person who’s review gets the maximum votes will the Ruff PC as prize. The contest got popular and got 80 entries and it was decided that there will be two more rounds and then the winner will be decided. Our Mr. Root of all Evil got into the round 2 and decided that he’ll give away the laptop to one of the reader if they vote for him.
Now, lets look at the post of the contest holder :
We received quite a few comments and emails like how people are supposed to read all the 80 reviews, and concerns about “bribing” for votes among other things led us to take this measure to allow the best reviewer win – not the one with most loyal friends. This is not a popularity contest and we hope the giveaway goes for the one who deserve it most.
Now, you decide (well, I hope few people read this post…I know its my personal space and no one else reads it…at least that’s what Sagaro says…tera blog padhta kaun hai) that, isn’t it called bribing ?
Now, when I objected that this is called bribing, the contest holder suggested that by bribing he means giving money! Well, I believe Ruff PC comes at a price and naturally people will vote for John because they want to win the Ruff PC.
Then, Shaun suggested that because John is not making anything in between as he’ll give away the prize..so its not bribing. Well, Shaun as I suggested in the reply of the comment (which was eventually deleted by The thinking blog) that then the statement “This is not a popularity contest” is not valid as clearly John has more number of readers than the other contestants and so he will eventually win.
Now, isn’t that the perfect example of John power ? Well, I clearly think that the person who writes a better review should win the contest. It may be the case that John’s review is the best but still this isn’t a fair contest. I hope that other participants can say something about it and can share their thoughts.
Anyway here are the rest of the entries, I’ll take time and read them for sure and I still wish them good luck although, they won’t win :
01. John Chow Dot Com
02. Homespun Honolulu
03. Zero Hour Sleep
04. Everything and Anything
05. Jim’s Rants
06. Great Giveaways
07. Samuel Nova
08. Nakichiam
09. Tim Christie
10. Evangelical’s Anonymous
11. In The Brink of the Mental Warzone
12. Kissowa Insider
13. Drops of Blood
14. Bloggrrl
15. Must Read Files
16. Love and Horny
17. Widget’s Lab
18. Search for Blogging
19. TechTreak – Review 1 and Review 2
20. Wordout – Review 1, Review 2 and Review 3
Just to tell you that look at the guys who are doing hard work and are posting two and three posts…don’t you think they don’t deserve this partiality ?
Update : My comment was deleted over the thinking blog but it seems that the Intense Debate comment service captured it and that comment is in my profile.
interesting.. but am also in the contest i.e, as #14 in the round II
Well, it is a typical case of might is right, and also ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.
I despise Chow’s techniques completely, having referred to his (un)ethics several times on my blog.
But he’s a good guy in person, so I don’t mind. After all, we’re all trying to make money
Hallo! Agree with u totally! Small ‘fry’ like me no chance at all! Tq for bring out & highlight the issue!
Have a nice day & marry x-mas!
Hi
Nice post. Who is John Chow, anyway? Mine is 18. Search For Blogging, i am not going to give up easily,believe me,enjoy the contest 
Cheers,
Mert Erkal
@ Narendra :I voted for you.
@ Sumesh : I don’t hate John myself. He’s a super marketer but I’m talking about what The Thinking blog did! If he saw a mistake, he should fix that as he’s the contest holder.
@ Horny Ang Moh : Well, what’s the point if one is ready to listen and no one is ready to fight ?
@ Mert : You don’t know John Chow ???? Are you kidding or are you just try to show that he’s nothing and that he can’t win.
I’m getting nothing out of this contest. Because, I’ve not taken part in this contest at all….it’s just that it didn’t sound fair to me.
I am trying to show that your perception of him makes him big in your eyes. We all have equal chance to win
Winning is a broad term; get your blog’s name beside John Chow.com and compete with him on a blog with close to 2000 RSS subscribers. I already won this contest. A laptop is a laptop. I already have one at home
You got my attention Mayank with this contest, you will see the benefits soon
Cheers,
Mert
It is a hard competition to win when you are up against one of the biggest names in making money online.
The thinking blog is in a hard place to try and make it a fair competition and someone like JC is always going to get the most votes regardless of how good his review is because of his massive reach of readers.
My review is nothing special but you can always live in hope that somehow one of us smaller guys might actually win up against the big guys.
thanks a lot mayank for your voting! but i have lost the hope of winning!
Mayank, Your comments are not deleted on my blog. They probably took a while to show up.
I’m always open for criticism (and rightfully – because this is my first giveaway with a big prize) but I think you are benefiting yourself by starting a controversy on your blog.
Sure, you didn’t participate and you might not like John’s methods of online marketing but there is also a third party involved in this giveaway and that is Ruff PC. They’ve been very nice to sponsor this stellar prize and would like to get the most bang for their buck. Do you think 60 decent reviews and 20 good ones for a rugged notebook worth $1,800 is a break even point? Did the most voted person in the first round worked hard enough to win it already?
This could be my first giveaway but I’ve seen how it is done on other professional blogs and websites. When they run a contest, participants work hard to create excellent quality work. See for example Gizmodo:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptop-confidential-ii/
I hope this could put things into perspectives a little.
Well, I can’t really say anything because I am crying too hard…
Well, Ruff PC must have thought of it and believe me for 1800 dollars they’ve got their worth because a review from John’s blog itself is 400 dollars now rest 79 must be somewhere close to 1400 dollar for sure.
On top of it, all the link backs, valuable comments and good marketing from blogs got them enough exposure.
So they’ve got their worth of prize. Now, other thing is that you can see the comments of the participants and then you’ll realize what they are feeling.
@ Mert : Well, I’m glad that being a participant you took this thing in a positive way. I’m sure I can learn from you. Normally I don’t rant but still there is a scope of improvement in everyone.
Unfortunately John’s review is paid for seperately via ReviewMe. However, since Michael Kwan included the links needed to enter the contest – his review was included as well.
very informative ….keep up the gud wrk mate !
An important part of all this is that Ilker and Ruff PC changed the rules of the contest AFTER it was over. This is unethical and, as we will soon see, illegal.