FlyFasterFlyFarther

Coming to Flyertak for ethical advice ^ ^ ^ ^

ingy

I know you live in Canada but don't believe they are totally socialist. the only ones that will complain are the 1% of the 1% that complain about everything. although very vocal, their numbers are minuscule when compared to the total Travelling public.

you have the topic, and a link, post it

ma91pmh

what do you mean you had a post about a certain mistake fare?

you picked something posted here and broadcast it on ba. so you are coming back to the place you pilfered it from and are asking for advice on how to monetize that? wow, at least you've got a pair, that's about all i can say

ma91pmh

actually Rick I don't think I am the 1% of the 1% and I don't think you think that either, but personally I find it a bit rich when someone blatantly just takes something from here then comes back here right away to ask for advice on how to make money off of it. it tells you ALL you need to know about his intentions in posting it. maybe it was to "help his friends and family" lol

kokonutz

I wonder if your affiliate will appreciate your telling people to take advantage of a mistake fare that they might have to play a part in honoring. Especially if you take affiliate money from them in the process (which it appears you did not do).

ingy

we are gonna need to think about agreeing to disagree. if the deal was indeed on FT, FT is a public forum and stuff gets lifted to blogs all the time. this is still a capitalistic society and people will capitalize on the brokering of information. I'd rather he ask for help making his decision.

we got no beef

gpapadop

Imho, if you disclose in the blog post that it is an affiliate link (and you include a HT to where it was first discovered or heard of it if you did not discover it yourself) everything is kosher. Your readers should always come first. I think they have a right to know if you make some money off of links that appear in your site. Let them make a decision in this capitalist society of ours.

Just don't avoid the disclosure or stick it somewhere most will not read it.

My 2 cents.

You also should probably warn them that it may not be honored and they should not go about suing you if that happens

yerffej201

So do you need that disclaimer in your post too as well as the affiliate disclaimer? That's a lot of fine print :P
That's in my disclosure page. Please check that

brooklynmatt

And should you also tell them to also check evreward for alternatives?

Lots of caveats appearing...

FlyFasterFlyFarther

No, you should tell your readers the most lucrative way for them to make a booking.

If your referral link isn't it, that's fine, use it but say so.

"Here's a place you can book this mistake fare. If you use this link, I get a modest payment (which is crazy with a mistake fare). You could also make this booking by _____ ad earn cash back/points/miles instead if you prefer."

If you're going to ask your readers to pay you, and you're worth your salt as a blogger, then you should know what is the best strategy to make a booking. If you don't know, or don't honestly offer the information, then you aren't worth reading.

It is fine to have an affiliate link that isn't the best offer, but you should say it isn't the best offer.

And it's possible that on occasion you could get the best offer wrong, that's ok if you ackowledge it and correct your mistakes. Your readers will judge if that happens too often (so they don't find you reliable).

Pretty simple stuff, really. If you put yourself out there as an expert, then be an expert, and give your readers the absolute best advice you possibly can -- regardless of whether or not it pays you in a given instance.

That is how you will grow your audience. It is also how you will make more money. Your credibility will make you money over time. Sacrificing that credibility may make money this week but isn't your best strategy over time.

For our Canadian friend: he is young and should take the long view. Give the best advice you possibly can, don't hide your financial relationships that could be perceived to affect your advice in fine print, and then it's totally ok to make money from your advice and none of us should fault you for it.

We might wish that a blogger offered fewer credit card links, or fewer repetitive posts, but that's an aesthetic issue. If they give the best information and do so honestly then we can't really fault them, even if they aren't to a given individual's taste -- which is to say we can both not like them and still respect them!

brooklynmatt

Your rhetoric I cannot disagree with. However, it would be nice to know how you earn money too.

FlyFasterFlyFarther

I don't see what this has to do with it, but I'm a consultant.

gpapadop

One of the best posts I have seen, wow!!!

Maybe we can place it as a wiki!

If this was posted in my blog I would have made it MVP of the day definitely!

Thank you!

brooklynmatt

Are you senior enough to work on bids? If so do you explain all of the options available based upon price and service and recommend competitors when they are better for the prospective customer?

FlyFasterFlyFarther

We always give the best advice possible to our clients. We tell them when we believe that afterwork is going to be helpful to them. We don't take afterwork just for the sake of billable hours.

We don't recommend competitors to do the things we're bidding to do -- because we only do the things we're really good at. And because we're really good, we get plenty of work.

Doing stuff that isn't in our wheel house, or that doesn't add value, is a waste of our time as well as a waste of the client's money. We're going to make more focusing on jobs where we add to their bottom line. And that leads to long-term partnerships rather than short-term engagements where we milk a bit of extra money until the client figures out they can live without paying us. Plus it boosts our reputation -- clients do what we say, and pay us what we say, because they know they can trust us and they know we get results. We don't waste their time (or their money).

So maybe I'm biased by my own experience in business, and maybe I don't know about how this blogging stuff really works. But I believe that if you offer the best advice that's tailored to your client or your reader (note that it must be specific to their needs, so sometimes the best advice for a Flyertalker won't be the best advice for a newbie) they will love you for it and reward you for it.

You don't make money as a travel provider, as a consultant, or as a blogger by treating your customer as the enemy, as someone you hope doesn't figure out the value proposition, as someone to be fleeced. You do the best you can for them with a business model that allows you to reap rewards.

And it isn't just about hard work either. Who cares if a blog post took 80 hours or 30 minutes? Did it help the reader improve their travel life? Then it was worthwhile. Did it help them improve their travel life a lot? Then it might even be "credit card affiliate income worthwhile."

By the by, I think there are a ton of blogs that do this very poorly. A bunch that probably got into this because it looked like other FTers were making money off of it. Some who start off good and then undermine their credibiltiy, give less than the best possible advice, are clearly just out to make a buck. And it's fine to make a buck! But it doesn't work so well if you aren't pairing that with offering the best content you possibly can, day in and day out, and never giving bad advice because it pays better.

I've been watching these threads. I think there are a lot of unfair criticisms, I've even found myself in the odd predicament of defending a lot of the bloggers when the snark has seemed unfair. But I have zero patience at all for someone selling crappy advice -- or advice that isn't as good as what you would do yourself (but for the affiliate commission).

I apologize for going on so long.