What is the most useful frequent flyer blog?
Aug 17, 2012, 11:08 am
#901
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,034
BigWillyStyles -
You have clearly been doing a lot of reading. This is an excellent post. You've only got 25, so it seems, so you are clearly a proponent of quality over quantity.
And I agree with you on most, if not all, of these points.
And as to the 'slippers' comment, I think the mention of the 'wife' in the same sentence is a pretty good clue. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the two second-tier bloggers you mention both quit their jobs in the last few years to focus on their blogs.
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading the post. Insightful and accurate.
You have clearly been doing a lot of reading. This is an excellent post. You've only got 25, so it seems, so you are clearly a proponent of quality over quantity.
And I agree with you on most, if not all, of these points.
And as to the 'slippers' comment, I think the mention of the 'wife' in the same sentence is a pretty good clue. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the two second-tier bloggers you mention both quit their jobs in the last few years to focus on their blogs.
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading the post. Insightful and accurate.
Aug 17, 2012, 11:34 am
#902
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Long Beach
Programs: HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 1,171
One point I think we are missing is the credit card issuers need these blogger to reach profitable customers, they don’t want to advertise their best deals on a board like flyertalk where there is a savvy audience who will maximize the benefit out of a given offer and then move on. They want to find a place that will come up with a google search of “best reward credit card”. Someone is looking finds a blog and then applies through it after reading how “great” it is, this same person does not bother to read the fine print or learn the ins and outs and gets average benefits from the card and possible makes the credit card company some money, especially sine they will keep the card for many years since the credit card companies have people scared that if they close their account they will hurt their credit score.
That said I am very thankful to blogs like FTG. I found FTG through a google search about 2.5 years ago and started reading daily for about 3 months before jumping in, then through FTG I found FT. I understand that new content is hard, and many complain that they just promote credit cards, well I want to know about new credit cards.
That said I am very thankful to blogs like FTG. I found FTG through a google search about 2.5 years ago and started reading daily for about 3 months before jumping in, then through FTG I found FT. I understand that new content is hard, and many complain that they just promote credit cards, well I want to know about new credit cards.
Aug 17, 2012, 2:20 pm
#904
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 451
the true 5 star players are the ones who you either dont know about, or are known about only here. You can take one thread of a mileage run topic and 90% of the posters on it are probably light years better than everyone on any field of points, miles, and status accumulation than the ones who are posting about it, so thank god for the Flyer Talk forums.
Last edited by mia; Aug 17, 2012 at 2:26 pm Reason: Formatting
Aug 17, 2012, 4:22 pm
#905
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NY, United States
Programs: AA, BA, UA, Spirit, Delta, PC Plat, SPG Gold, HHonors Diamond, Club Carlson Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,735
Just for comparison sake, Im on the opposite end of the spectrum than you are. I have disastrous credit, and I have to nickel and dime with a Netflix membership here, and an FTD Floral order there. It sucks to grind out miles like that but it does at least teach you how to learn the system from the bottom up. With that being said, Id much rather be in the position that you are in.
I think the biggest problem that I currently see, and one that will only get worse, are the tons of copycat blogs that are starting to pop up. You can go back over time of any industry that goes from an underground niche to all of the sudden going mainstream, and watch as more people start jumping in because they see their chance for stardom, even though in this industry stardom may mean blog hits and referral links. People start seeing fame and fortune and they lose their minds. Like for example, look at sports journalism today. It used to be about covering games and players, now the reporters are trying to become bigger than the story and have their own shows, their own endorsement deals, etc...Its completely jumped the tracks and practically ruined the QUALITY of that industry.
Within this industry I feel like there are (3) tiers of bloggers right now. The first tier are the true, great bloggers who have been around for a while. I think we know who most of them are. I wont name the bad ones out of respect to the moderator(s) here, cause god forbid I say someone's name controversially, but I think its ok to praise some of the good ones by name. Frugal Travel Guy, his insight just on credit card handling alone is awesome. Lucky I feel does the best when it comes to the air, and painting such a great picture of showing everyone what he's actually preaching. They are informative and educational, without sounding the alarms everywhere and rehashing all of the same info. Gary from VFTW also is awesome.
Then you have that next tier of the newer generation of bloggers who have gotten bigger recently, but completely lack all sense of decorum and would sell out an entire group of travelers if it meant that, oh lets say he and his wife for example, could finagle an extra pair of slippers from the Hyatt or an extra Won Ton out of the BA Airport Lounge. Or a guy who subliminally, or not so subliminally, pimps out his flight booking services for clients with practically every example of points usage he cites. Those are the guys who would step on the throat of everyone they lifted and learned things from if it means they can get on TV, and parlay themselves as the foremost authoritative voices in travel. Pfffttttt....
Then the third tier of bloggers are the copycat blogs of people who envy the 2nd tier bloggers, and want to be famous like them (with the definition of fame being that they have 1,000 followers on Twitter now!) and this is where it becomes information overload. They see a deal from one of the bigger bloggers, then they each broadcast it out, (often not giving credit and making it look like it came from them), and we end up with 500 blogs repeating that you can get 20 Jet Blue miles at Wendy's if you go get a chicken sandwich at lunch that day. You can often set your watch that if a bigger blogger does an entry on how best to use SPG points, it is only a matter of weeks before one of these thieves copies the entire theme of the post and passes it off as one of their own creations.
And with that all being said, the true 5 star players are the ones who you either dont know about, or are known about only here. You can take one thread of a mileage run topic and 90% of the posters on it are probably light years better than everyone on any field of points, miles, and status accumulation than the ones who are posting about it, so thank god for the Flyer Talk forums.
I personally think the great ones are great to follow and read and always will be, and will always lead the way, but the ones underneath them are going to be the ones who destroy the game we all know and love in one way or another. Good lord, if the US Mint thing was happening today, there'd be 50 knockoff blogs filming themselves walking into the banks with the boxes of their coins and bragging about how they just got enough free miles to fly their family to the Equator in lie-flat business cabin on Oceanic Airlines. And to be fair, its never gonna be destroyed, IM probably overreacting. There is too much competition out there and there are too many idiots running companies and marketing departments who are bad at their job. They will continue to make mistakes, and we will continue to gain from them and they really wont care, because for the 10,000 tuned in Flyers who have gotten 75,000 Chase Points and maxed out the best value off their cards, there are 50 million others who are clueless what a signup bonus is and are excited to cash in their 40,000 points for a pair of matinee movie tickets! You cant make comedy like this up. Welcome to the circus, be sure to stop and get some more popcorn at intermission.
I think the biggest problem that I currently see, and one that will only get worse, are the tons of copycat blogs that are starting to pop up. You can go back over time of any industry that goes from an underground niche to all of the sudden going mainstream, and watch as more people start jumping in because they see their chance for stardom, even though in this industry stardom may mean blog hits and referral links. People start seeing fame and fortune and they lose their minds. Like for example, look at sports journalism today. It used to be about covering games and players, now the reporters are trying to become bigger than the story and have their own shows, their own endorsement deals, etc...Its completely jumped the tracks and practically ruined the QUALITY of that industry.
Within this industry I feel like there are (3) tiers of bloggers right now. The first tier are the true, great bloggers who have been around for a while. I think we know who most of them are. I wont name the bad ones out of respect to the moderator(s) here, cause god forbid I say someone's name controversially, but I think its ok to praise some of the good ones by name. Frugal Travel Guy, his insight just on credit card handling alone is awesome. Lucky I feel does the best when it comes to the air, and painting such a great picture of showing everyone what he's actually preaching. They are informative and educational, without sounding the alarms everywhere and rehashing all of the same info. Gary from VFTW also is awesome.
Then you have that next tier of the newer generation of bloggers who have gotten bigger recently, but completely lack all sense of decorum and would sell out an entire group of travelers if it meant that, oh lets say he and his wife for example, could finagle an extra pair of slippers from the Hyatt or an extra Won Ton out of the BA Airport Lounge. Or a guy who subliminally, or not so subliminally, pimps out his flight booking services for clients with practically every example of points usage he cites. Those are the guys who would step on the throat of everyone they lifted and learned things from if it means they can get on TV, and parlay themselves as the foremost authoritative voices in travel. Pfffttttt....
Then the third tier of bloggers are the copycat blogs of people who envy the 2nd tier bloggers, and want to be famous like them (with the definition of fame being that they have 1,000 followers on Twitter now!) and this is where it becomes information overload. They see a deal from one of the bigger bloggers, then they each broadcast it out, (often not giving credit and making it look like it came from them), and we end up with 500 blogs repeating that you can get 20 Jet Blue miles at Wendy's if you go get a chicken sandwich at lunch that day. You can often set your watch that if a bigger blogger does an entry on how best to use SPG points, it is only a matter of weeks before one of these thieves copies the entire theme of the post and passes it off as one of their own creations.
And with that all being said, the true 5 star players are the ones who you either dont know about, or are known about only here. You can take one thread of a mileage run topic and 90% of the posters on it are probably light years better than everyone on any field of points, miles, and status accumulation than the ones who are posting about it, so thank god for the Flyer Talk forums.
I personally think the great ones are great to follow and read and always will be, and will always lead the way, but the ones underneath them are going to be the ones who destroy the game we all know and love in one way or another. Good lord, if the US Mint thing was happening today, there'd be 50 knockoff blogs filming themselves walking into the banks with the boxes of their coins and bragging about how they just got enough free miles to fly their family to the Equator in lie-flat business cabin on Oceanic Airlines. And to be fair, its never gonna be destroyed, IM probably overreacting. There is too much competition out there and there are too many idiots running companies and marketing departments who are bad at their job. They will continue to make mistakes, and we will continue to gain from them and they really wont care, because for the 10,000 tuned in Flyers who have gotten 75,000 Chase Points and maxed out the best value off their cards, there are 50 million others who are clueless what a signup bonus is and are excited to cash in their 40,000 points for a pair of matinee movie tickets! You cant make comedy like this up. Welcome to the circus, be sure to stop and get some more popcorn at intermission.
Aug 17, 2012, 4:35 pm
#907
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,184
I think that's a reasonable assumption without any hard data. I'm quite sure that FTers are more credit-savvy than your average consumer, and hence have a higher average credit score. Are there exceptions? Sure, but on average, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a statistical difference.
Aug 17, 2012, 8:57 pm
#908
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Times Square
Programs: SPG Gold, AAdvantage
Posts: 1,397
Then you have that next tier of the newer generation of bloggers who have gotten bigger recently, but completely lack all sense of decorum and would sell out an entire group of travelers if it meant that, oh lets say he and his wife for example, could finagle an extra pair of slippers from the Hyatt or an extra Won Ton out of the BA Airport Lounge. Or a guy who subliminally, or not so subliminally, pimps out his flight booking services for clients with practically every example of points usage he cites. Those are the guys who would step on the throat of everyone they lifted and learned things from if it means they can get on TV, and parlay themselves as the foremost authoritative voices in travel. Pfffttttt....
Aug 17, 2012, 9:00 pm
#909
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: AA MM PP, MR LT Plat, Globalist
Posts: 1,000
First off, I think our bloggers deserve credit for their time spent analyzing and writing about offers.
How much do you think the popular bloggers make in commissions for credit card signup offers and other links posted on their sites?
How much do you think the popular bloggers make in commissions for credit card signup offers and other links posted on their sites?
Aug 18, 2012, 5:07 am
#910
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Anecdotal, based on years of reading nearly every thread in the Flyertalk credit card forums. A high propotion of posters self report FICO scores in the high 700's and nearly everyone understands that carrying a balance is out of the question when using cards to generate miles and points. This is different from the typical USA household credit profile.
Aug 18, 2012, 6:45 am
#911
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,758
I only read this forum (MB) so you got me there. The questions and comments I have seen about inquires and open/closed accounts made me believe most don’t understand how credit scores work. One of the biggest misconceptions is that carrying a balance is a bad thing or that it will kill your score. If you are not carrying a balance on some cards (0%) you really are throwing money away.
I didn’t mean to interrupt the discussion on how great bloggers are.
Sorry for the OT.
I didn’t mean to interrupt the discussion on how great bloggers are.
Sorry for the OT.
Aug 18, 2012, 6:46 am
#912
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,184
Anecdotal, based on years of reading nearly every thread in the Flyertalk credit card forums. A high propotion of posters self report FICO scores in the high 700's and nearly everyone understands that carrying a balance is out of the question when using cards to generate miles and points. This is different from the typical USA household credit profile.
Aug 18, 2012, 9:26 am
#913
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Chicago
Posts: 24
They make MUCH more than you realize, given how much credit you think they deserve. Bloggers spend time analyzing and writing about offers because it is their job and it puts food on the table. Its a business.
Aug 19, 2012, 11:00 am
#914
formerly known as felinaar
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SEA
Programs: UA Plat, AA Gold, AS MVPG, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 612
Another way to think about the revenue generated is that a certain amount of sales volume is required to stay in the banks' good graces. They don't want a guy who's only making one or two sales a month. So the successful affiliates are making a minimum of four figures each month.