John Chow dot Com and the review-for-a-link proposal

I saw this interesting read, John Chow dot Com, a blog that touts itself as one of the most popular sites on the Web today and offers sound advice on making money online. What is interesting though is the review proposal John is offering to his readers:

"Make Money Online review, all you have to do is Link to this blog’s home page with the anchor text “make money online” and link to this post showing the rules of the review. Here is an example of what I want:

John Chow dot Com is blog that helps you make money online. If you do a review of his blog, he’ll link to you so his readers can check you out.

I will link to anyone who reviews my blog. Just make sure it’s a real review and not tossed in with another post. I no longer link to those. This is a very good way get a free backlink from a PR6 blog and one of the most popular blogs on the Internet."

I said to myself, "Yeah, another scheme to get those love links and Technorati juices flowing." But my skepticism was short-lived as my attention suddenly shifted to what I was reading, i.e., the enormous response to John's review-for-a-link proposal. John is already on Batch 70 of his Make Money Online reviews! Batch numero 70! Let's do the math here: At 10 reviews per batch, that is equal to 700 reviews! Wow! Seven hundred people took time out for John. Seven hundred people can't be all wrong! And John is not done yet! He's already wrapping things up with Batch 74 and he has a backlog of reviews to boot!! Talk about worldwide popularity!

So, the reason for the enormous show of support to John's review proposal? His cool Technorati and PR6 ranks? Maybe. But, I would like to believe that it is more than that. I have to give credit where credit is due - and that, my friends, belongs to John himself. He has spun-off the Link-Exchange scheme into a novel idea that advances each blogger's ability to be creative as well. Remember, one has to do a review before getting the link. Thus, a blogger clearly has no choice but to turn on his creative mojo in search of the ultimate prize, i.e., the backlink.

John, I am impressed! Just like your site, your writing and thinking are crisp and clear. JohnChow.com = Creativity at its finest! And it may not mean much to you, but JohnChow.com is definitely headed into my blogroll! And I kid you not! More power, John! Mabuhay!