WickedFire Loves Super Affiliate Bloggers
- 35 Comments
- By Zac Johnson on February 6th, 2008
I’ve mentioned and recommended WickedFire a few times on this blog before. I’ve also met up with Jon (the founder & owner) a couple times in the past at events like Affiliate Summit and AdTech. Jon’s a funny guy, quite controversial at times, but like many of us, he has done well for himself online. Jon’s personal also has a blog at AOJon.com, one of his most recent blogs was on his disgust of blogs in the “make money” space. If you read his blog, you know he likes to tell it how it is, or how he really feels… his forum, WickedFire is pretty much the same. Along with being an amazing resource for information, it can also be a stomping ground at times…
Jon & I met up at Affiliate Summit East in Florida Last Year
Yesterday, one of the latest threads on WickedFire came to my attention. The thread is called “John Chow, ShoeMoney, Super Affiliate Mindest Camels“, which I assume comes from his frustration with “make money” blogger sites. In short, the thread was started by Jon and focused on his disapproval of three of the larger “make money” type blogger sites, specifically John Chow, ShoeMoney and Amit Mehta. Jon later on says the real reason for the post was because of some issues he had with Shoemoney, and decided to just bring everything out in a public post on his forum instead. Personally, I know all three of the guys mentioned above and outside of any business relations (because there are none), they are all good guys. Despite what may be written on their blogs, their content or what type of reviews they write, I don’t think such attacks are necessary, though I can understand and relate to frustrations with “in your face success” that some of the “make money” blogs out there write. However, now that these blogs now having a “branding power” along with their names… success can also be measured by how you are copied, your rss count, people that listen to every word you say… or even how you are attacked by others.
The thread goes on for a while bashing on the three above (whether it be their blog writings, or pictures they post), then a few posters mention other “make money” type bloggers and my name eventually comes up. The first few comments were all pretty much positive, stating that I actually provide some decent content. It wasn’t til posting #31 that someone decided to make a personal attack against myself… or at least the jacket I was wearing! You can see his full posting below:
While I’m honored to see that I’m his “favorite“… he likes to point out that I try to take advantage of the 2% residual offered from NeverBlueAds as much as I can… even though he also boasts his affiliate program referral url for NeverblueAds at the bottom of each of his posts on WickedFire. In addition, the only reason why I can and do promote affiliate networks that I use, is because I said I wouldn’t be one of those affiliate masterminds that would make some crappy ebook and sell it for $97 in an oversaturated market as it is. This is something that I would expect Jon to respect and applaud, as he personally makes it a mission to get seek out ebooks and provide them for free through his WickedFire forums. Both Jon and I know the repetitive garbage that usually fill up on ebooks. So instead of flushing you with garbage that is already offered in every ebook, or providing you with recycled stories of success, I try and do my part to make you money with real life situations and what’s working in the market… anything that should roll over from referrals is just gravy.
I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now, and I’ve seen it all and this is no surprise to me. I’ve been through the highs and I’ve been through the lows. It wasn’t til almost a year ago that I said I would go forward with the idea of making my own blog and seeing what happens. It’s come to the point now that almost every day I’m getting an email from someone telling me how the blog has helped them and given them the first step to start making money online. That’s all I’m really looking for… I was blessed with the opportunity to start making money online when I was only 15, and would love to see others be able to change their lives and do the same. As for the WickedFire forums, I still have nothing against them… people will say what they will, and I’m sure I will run into Jon again soon enough… after all, he didn’t drag my name into this, someone else on the forum did. I’m all about YOU making more money, go join the WickedFire forums and see if you can learn something new… I just did last night!
- Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Make Money
"With great power comes great responsibility".... my Uncle Ben told me that. Haha, just kidding! I'm Zac Johnson and I've been making money online for over 10 years now. In short, I started making money online while I was in high school... but my passion for marketing and making money goes back way earlier than that. I created ZacJohnson.com to help motivate you to start making money online, and live the life the you always dreamed of.
It’s funny how easy it is for people to trash talk via a forum. And the best that guy could do is make fun of your jacket, how sad. I can see how some of the top three “make money online” blogs can be an easy target, I think the majority of posts from Amit’s blog are a bit in your face but you can’t hate them for being successful.
Of any of the blogs, you offer a lot of useful information without trying to sell anyone anything which is rare these days. Keep up the good work and thanks for all your help.
Hi Cody,
I agree on that part that he shouldnt get personal (on that jacket specifically). But he is true that since those PPC How-To’’s, Zac’s blog has only being about presenting some offers on Neverblue that dont have any informational content.
I think specifically John Chows blog lately, is going downhill. I already quit his rss feed.
Too much drama these days, can’t everyone just get along?
Hi Zac,
I couldn’t agree more! What’s worst a guy from WickedFire who calls himself “Maverick” has been posting repeatingly on my blog asking me to go onto WickedFire and defend all the attacks against me.
Honestly, I neither have the time or mental energy to deal with such BS, let people say what they want about our blogs, our RSS count speaks for itself.
Sincerely,
Amit
Hi post is kinda funny though..regardless of who it is about…it’s also funny that he obviously keeps up on your blog…and like you mentioned..the Never Blue Ads referral link…I like your attitude towards it
Jon’s about as straight as a 3 dollar bill. He makes a good point thought … too many people suck up the useless info (if you want to call it that) from the “gurus” Why not read a real blog like http://www.destonesucks.com!
I’m a big fan of Wickedfire because once you get past the personal attacks (that seem to happen to 99% of anyone there) there is some really funny stuff. I’ve also picked up some down and dirty affiliate marketing tips there in its earlier years.
The funniest part is how anytime Jon writes something controversial it is great linkbait.
Just don’t take it to heart. At some forums you will find trolls that have nothing better to do than just trash, and others you will find some criticism of how you run your blog. I recommend, just read it and get a good laugh out of it.
Funny how the guy is so good at the math on your Neverblue referral earnings that he doesn’t seem to think that you don’t have another 20 or 30 (or more) streams of income going at the same time.
Good marketers sometimes only make small gains, and just duplicate it multiple times to add up to a tall monthly or yearly figure… plus, there are new marketers out there that would love to pull $181 a month in anything, maybe this guy is one of them!
Personally, if someone bashed me for something, I don’t suppose I’d mind all that much. If they made less money than I do, then they wouldn’t really be qualified to speak negatively about what offers or systems I promote… in fact, I might recommend that they START doing what I do until they reach my level! And if they were clearly more qualified than I was and still wanted to bash, well, A-listers in our industry have an image to maintain and if you started flaming on someone you run the risk of getting bloodied up by your regular readers.
Let me just say that I agree with one of the post above regarding John Chow. I can honestly say that I’m reading it less these days. It almost seems to be just spam content. There is no meat on that bone, eh. That’s not intended to be a personal attack on Chow…. On the other hand I think ShoeMoney offers many more quality posts than Chow.
Zac, keep up the great posts. You are one of three blogs I read everyday. I believe you actually care about your readers and attempt to be as forthcoming as possible.
Any publicity is still publicity. Good or bad how many WF hits you get from the post Zac? On top of all that tough talk from someone you have 1000 people sitting behind them that know damn well they are not making shit. It almost seems that bad publicity is icing these days. Anyway, how much for the jacket bro?
Zac - jon does this every few months - but take anything he says with a grain of salt. Jon once said in writing that he was going to get $150,000 a year in advertising for his blog. I also love the time he says he was offered $16,000,000 for the “parent company” that owns wickedfire. Somehow cj.com “stole” $30,000, then it was $70,000 and the last time I heard it was $130,000 and jon just shrugged it off. I don’t know anyone who makes that kind of money honestly and then lets someone just have it.
Jon wants to be the moral compass for the industry so he can be a jackass to the people he does not like. The problem is his moral compass is about 3 levels below the devil.
I find this blog, shoe’s and chow’s all interesting and diverse despite being in a similar if not the same niche. Everyone has an opinion, thats why most are worthless.
Jon is a hypocrite, and is just as big of a fake as everyone else. His personal branding is that he’s some sort of behind-the-scenes, major money-making badass, but i’m pretty sure that’s just a bunch of B.S.
He raves on and on about how terrible money-making gurus are with their ebooks, and then he sells his TrustRank “report” using the exact strategies he condemns. He wouldn’t want to sell that report in standard form through Paypal cause he’s probably scared sh*t that someone would do the same thing to his report that his forum does to other people’s products.
Not only that, he occasionally tries to write a money-making post, but falls flat every single time. His making-money in 24 hours post was complete crap. Something not even an ebook author would be proud of. His closest minions are a bunch of dumbass wannabes, that sit around spending more time insulting people, than actually making any money. Every now and again someone on his forum will make a post that is rather informative, but it’s usually someone that’s new to the forum and has a low post count.
RANT OVER
I’m very enjoy to read this content.
Thank you for good information
I ‘m coming back to read more content.
There are always trolls and whilst its worth a read and taking their opinion on board, we don’t blog for them, we blog for the people that are wanting to read what we have to say.
Wooo. I got mentioned in that thread as “the new breed…” Sweet hahahaha.
Lol Yeah, which is a good thing.
Yea, your not bad! I like the mesh of affiliate bloggers and every now and then there is a gem.
I got a mention too, thanks barman! I personally look forward to flipping every single one of you guys off personally and photographing it at ASW!
@Jonathan
Keep it in your panties guy! Still got to prove it!
That’s quite a rant from Jon at Wickedfire. I think it’s kind of funny about ShoeMoney though. He kind of does complain about the same things he does.
gosh this Jon guy really ain’t popular!
Dude wickedfire fucking sucks, bunch of newbes and homos on there.
The truth is most blogs are ego boosters. The best you can do is extract most valuable info from them and disregard churn. After all it’s your bank account that counts and not “X is better than Y but ZX is better than both X and Y and entire alphabet”.. ;D
My experience on WickedFire.com was nothing but ridiculous.
Instead of wanting to educate, the readers and members want nothing more than to make fun of typos, foreigners, newbie questions, and to spout their testosterone levels. I felt like I was surrounded by a pack of greasy bohunks spouting their so-called expertise and endless forms of the “F-word”. Terribly sad.
If you want an education, it is blogs like yours Zac and Shawn Collins, and forums like ABW that any level of affiliate marketer should use.
This gives me a push to join WickedFire forum. I’ve heard some good things about the forum and I’ve been meaning to join this online community.
Hey Zac,
I first wanted to say great blog, I’ve learned a lot. As for the wicked fire post, who really cares? People love to sit behind a computer and talk garbage (which most of WF is anyways). You’re doing a great thing for the community and you actually take time out of your day to show us how you make money. The internet is filled with people who can’t make it in the field. Why? They have no dedication or motives.
I just started an campaign by NeverBlueAds.com and still getting leads over and over. I got a good website and niche. Thanks for your PPC guide which helps me fine.
Hey Zac!
Is that Screech from “Saved by the Bell” fame posing next to you?
(Sorry,couldn’t resist)
Congrats on the John Chow win!
Wickedfire is a good forum as long as the affiliate marketing stuff is considered. But a large percentage of its members are immatures. And Jon tops the list of those immatures followed by Seo_Mike. A waste of time discussing their bashing and rants over others. Just get as much knowledge as you can help by reading the stuff there. And forgive their immaturity.
Starting your own affiliate program may be the way to go, yes, there are ebooks that reapeat the same thing over and over, but as new technologies come out good ebooks come out. Though far and few. Like they say, making your own product is the way to financial independance.
Sorry man but wickedfire straight up sucks. Their members are not only childish but immature, arrogant, and big giant a** holes.
I can’t find a single thread where they don’t bash a person. They love hating.