GUWonder

Which major blogs are collecting the money that's raining down that way? I'm more used to seeing fixed cuts for tickets than % on C/F bookings.

Are there personal cashback portals that give back fixed % on C/F bookings?

oliver2002

One or two blogs have it for sure on BArea.

Personal cashback portals: haven't seen any on the one(s) I use regularly.

GUWonder

Let me guess, that includes at least one of the non-English-language ones?

oliver2002

Nope, I don't even read those.

sbm12

Minor correction here: Only a subset of the click-through bookings earn commission. Not all hotel chains participate in a program and not all booking rates are eligible. But, yes, that's the main revenue stream for the site.
This is for hotel OTA bookings, but not direct bookings nor airline bookings. A hotels OTA can pay an affiliate 6-10% easily, keeping another 20%+ for itself. But for chain loyalty brands that creates earning/status issues. Direct links pay lower rates but the guest earns full credits. That's why HotelHustle goes for direct links. I know the target audience and what the desires are.

No such problems for airlines in most cases.

Raffles

BA is particularly stingy. Actually, that's not fair - they pay a flat fee for long-haul bookings which is generous if you are generating Economy bookings. Apparently I generate more C/F bookings, as a % of total bookings, than anyone else they work with which means I get a worse overall deal than anyone else. The problem with running a BA-focussed site is that you don't have any leverage with BA because I write about them regardless.

Some niche portals pay well but you're pushing water up a hill trying to get readers to book at places they wouldn't normally book.

Raffles

You need to separate travel blogs from M&P blogs. There is indeed a huge number of people starting general travel blogs with the hope of being inundated with freebies.

We accept a lot of free flights. My colleague is off to NY in Norwegian Premium tomorrow. However, why wouldn't we slate it if it's bad? It isn't as if they are going to give us another one either way.

The biggest conflict of interest is with advertisers, not firms who give you one off freebies. If Norwegian was spending five figures a year advertising with me (it isn't, they have never spent a penny with me) then I would obviously be nervous about slating them even if I paid cash from my own pocket for a Norwegian flight. Review flights, no bother.

The bottom line is that Ben has already flown everything anyway! And if Qatar offered him a trip on the first QSuite flight this weekend I'm sure he would take it - not because it is free, but because it is a story.

Alpha Golf

Because others will see that you bite the hands that feed you and then won't offer you the freebies.

GUWonder

The blogger business' most valuable product and asset is the blog audience. If your audience is valuable enough, biting a corporate hand that feeds is not the end of the business; it may not even necessarily be the end of being fed by that bitten hand.

Raffles

You know those sites where everything gets a glowing review? Do you actually believe a word of it? No.

That's our pitch. If we don't like it, we'll say so. But because we do this, our readers will actually buy your product if we say we do like it.

In reality, we insulate ourselves from bad reviews by refusing stuff that has a bad rap. Why should I want to give up a night of my life to stay in a bad hotel, or fly a bad product, anyway?

RTW1

Dream on... you are reliant on freebies for parts of your content. Nothing you will say about it can be trusted (but that applies to large parts of all blogs reviewing products).

Raffles

We're not reliant on it, but we'll take it if it is interesting.

There is no money in running reviews, remember. 75% of the Head for Points ones are actually done by my paid employee, so it isn't as if I'm even accepting them so I can have a jolly.

I also need to pay for her flights (if it's a hotel) or her hotel (if it's a flight). I end up out of pocket. I also have no help in the office for 2-3 days! It is genuinely only done because it is interesting for the readers and, luckily, the site generates enough money that we can actually invest in editorial.

(We actually treat the site as a magazine and prioritise content above everything else. Good, original, interesting content = more readers = (somehow) more revenue in the long run. I always thought this was fairly obvious although very few others have worked it out.)

I'm at Kimpton Amsterdam next week, for eg, on a trip which including flights and the hotel (not comped) will cost about Ł400. That is a pure investment in creating some interesting content about a hotel brand which is new to Europe and unknown to most of our readers. It's not a massive jolly for me given that I have two little kids at home and my wife has to rearrange her own business travel every time I go away.

Given that most FT'ers would agree that business travel (ie travel for work) is not exactly glamorous I'm not sure why people think it should be any different when a blogger does it for work.

GUWonder

A rather astute political figure once told me that the art of political fundraising is in getting the right money without feeling obliged to do anything because of it; and also to feel good about marching ahead with the public in mind even when it runs against the wishes of well-heeled donors. Why? For a politician would be out of influence and have a career disruption if not able to get and keep enough motivated voters in the fold. The ultimate asset and product in the public sphere is the audience, be that audience blog readers or motivated voters.

In the travel blogosphere, if a blogger's credibility goes down the toilet big time, then the blogger will have a career disruption soon enough. That means those bloggers who want a sustainable and financially thriving business model have to pick and choose what they review and maintain enough public credibility to keep an audience and grow it -- even if/when reviewing "freebies".

Kagehitokiri

if you trust mainstream reviews/journalism... (also see: "paid media")

oliver2002

The CC shilling bonus disrupted the classic blogging concept. Thanks to the sign up bonus, miles and points bloggers nowadays don't need to keep an audience, but only make sure fresh blood comes in that is willing to use their 5/24 to sign up for cards using their links.