Loyalty Traveler changes
May 17, 2015, 5:46 pm
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: United 1K, Hyatt Diamond, Starwood Platinum
Posts: 119
I am not enjoying the changes to your blog, Ric. I have been a regular reader for about 4 years, and have referred many, many people to it as you are the best source of info about hotel programs. I really hope you find other ways to increase your revenue, as having to sift thru the flight deals is a pain for me; and has made me read your blog less often.
I do appreciate all of your great work over the years. And have a great trip thru Georgia and the Carolinas this Spring.
I do appreciate all of your great work over the years. And have a great trip thru Georgia and the Carolinas this Spring.
What about posting excellent one night hotel deals? Or maybe highlight destinations that routinely have the best hotel deals for the global traveler on a budget.
Maybe partner up with some students or younger travelers who stay in hotels or hostels full time for guest reviews. This forum is constantly ripping on bloggers who focus on Maldives or Vendome reviews, why not be the go-to blog for the midmarket or budget hotels?
What about the traveler with limited points who just want to stay at a Category 1 or 2 room? He tends to be ignored, if not mocked, on the big credit card blogs.
I suspect your audience would go out of their way to click your affiliate links just based on the goodwill Loyalty Traveler has built over many years.
Last edited by stackm; May 17, 2015 at 5:51 pm
May 17, 2015, 8:48 pm
#17
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 970
This is one I have always struggled with. However, since I let Mailchimp start handling my daily emails instead of the free WordPress service, I have been able to slot in a 300x250 ad. I can sell this space fairly easily as I lumped it in with my mobile site and everyone feels they need to buy mobile exposure these days.
What is never discussed is how the switch to mobile hits affiliate revenues. We all have a hugh proportion of mobile readers these days. However, few people apply for a credit card via a smartphone. If you read an article about Chase Bold on your phone, that is where the cookie is (assuming you clicked through) but if you then go to your office and google the official Chase Bold site to apply, the blogger is not paid.
Same applies to flights and hotels, the other two categories of popular affiliate links but both items where you are more likely to buy via a desktop / laptop.
What is never discussed is how the switch to mobile hits affiliate revenues. We all have a hugh proportion of mobile readers these days. However, few people apply for a credit card via a smartphone. If you read an article about Chase Bold on your phone, that is where the cookie is (assuming you clicked through) but if you then go to your office and google the official Chase Bold site to apply, the blogger is not paid.
Same applies to flights and hotels, the other two categories of popular affiliate links but both items where you are more likely to buy via a desktop / laptop.
Reality is few bloggers provide any value added. And I resent that they are getting paid hundreds/thousands off the creditworthiness (and naivete) of their readers. I make it a point to NEVER click thru a link provided by a blogger. And I sure wish nobody else did either.
May 18, 2015, 6:18 am
#18
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Fairmont Lifetime Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,041
May 18, 2015, 7:43 am
#19
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,155
Just because one website is getting less ad revenue for 000 page views doesn't mean that BArea of the Huff post also get less. The inflation of filler posts and restrictions on RSS feed content by the BArea headliners is a an indication though. Whether its indicative of the urge to get pageviews up or make more money of existing readers... you be the judge of that.
May 18, 2015, 9:31 am
#21
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Fairmont Lifetime Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,041
We are talking about RPM here, not gross revenue.
Making less money for the same number of page views than it was in the past. In general!
From what I know, BA can't get as much as it used to. It is an industry trend. Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about and just want to rant...rolleyes
I am against gambling in general. I will bet only when I know I am 100% right. And this is a bet I will take
Making less money for the same number of page views than it was in the past. In general!
From what I know, BA can't get as much as it used to. It is an industry trend. Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about and just want to rant...rolleyes
I am against gambling in general. I will bet only when I know I am 100% right. And this is a bet I will take
May 19, 2015, 10:40 am
#25
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 57
A whole thread on Flyertalk about my blog. I guess I have made the big time.
The addition of airfare deals was motivated by a need for more page views for Loyalty Traveler blog. Ad revenue has dropped by more than 50% in the past two years, meaning 100,000 page views pays me less than half what I used to get. I can't publish two blog posts per day anymore and make enough ad revenue to stay afloat.
I'll probably start affiliate links this year too for hotel bookings.
The addition of airfare deals was motivated by a need for more page views for Loyalty Traveler blog. Ad revenue has dropped by more than 50% in the past two years, meaning 100,000 page views pays me less than half what I used to get. I can't publish two blog posts per day anymore and make enough ad revenue to stay afloat.
I'll probably start affiliate links this year too for hotel bookings.
I love your site, and am sorry to hear that it is struggling a bit financially. It's more like a good book to me, vs most other blogs that are more like magazines. i.e. I really hunker down and read your posts when I have some quiet time. there is really quality writing and info there.
The other blogs I read, I tend to dip in and out whenever I have a spare moment.
You can count me as another person who isn't really benefitting from the flight deal posts, but then I am not on the west coast, so there you go. Now that I know more of the story, I'll just skip past them knowing that the usual content is still there as well.
I'm sure one more sporadic reader going back to being a regular reader isn't going to make or break things, but I will do my best to add you to my morning tea and travel reading routine.
All the best to you.
May 19, 2015, 12:09 pm
#26
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Programs: Marriott Silver
Posts: 133
Late to this party, but let me add an alternative perspective. I'm based in San Francisco and have read Ric for years because I loved that he covered hotel programs that no one else touched (Marriott happens to be my chain of choice due to my travel patterns, but I know that makes me weird).
As a Bay Area flyer, I've happened to love the addition of the flight deals to the mix of posts I've already read religiously. I can't keep up with all the flight deals independently, but having the best ones for my geographical region curated on a regular basis provides me with a lot of value. I'd image there are plenty of other Bay Area flyers in the same boat.
So, if we are (1) keeping the old stuff that everyone knew and loved (thoughtful hotel analysis), (2) adding in helpful information for a subset of readers related to flights, and (3) also allowing Ric to keep making a living at this to give all of us (1), I'm all for it.
As a Bay Area flyer, I've happened to love the addition of the flight deals to the mix of posts I've already read religiously. I can't keep up with all the flight deals independently, but having the best ones for my geographical region curated on a regular basis provides me with a lot of value. I'd image there are plenty of other Bay Area flyers in the same boat.
So, if we are (1) keeping the old stuff that everyone knew and loved (thoughtful hotel analysis), (2) adding in helpful information for a subset of readers related to flights, and (3) also allowing Ric to keep making a living at this to give all of us (1), I'm all for it.
May 23, 2015, 12:56 pm
#27
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Monterey, California
Programs: Affiliated with all, participate in some
Posts: 2,188
Two things I should correct in my earlier post.
Firstly, the decline in my ad revenue looks to me like it declined more like 40% RPM revenue per 1,000 impressions, which is the industry metric I guess when I compare the numbers from 2014. Saying ad revenue is 'less than half' is incorrect.
Secondly, I made a poor choice in words trying to use an idiom.
"Too many bloggers are writing in the hotel space these days to allow me to post content in the hotel space that is uniquely different enough from stuff readers see on other blogs. BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out. "
1. There are not too many bloggers in the hotel space. There are just many more writing about hotel promotions compared to a couple years ago. There are plenty of other hotel topics like new openings, policy changes, reward category highlights in different programs that I could write more about on Loyalty Traveler. Basic truth though is far more readers have far more interest in airline news compared to hotels. That is something I have known for years.
2. "BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out."
This is insulting to other Boarding Area bloggers and I apologize. What I meant in more detail is there is a fundamental difference between a miles & points travel blog news source compared to a forum board like FlyerTalk. In FlyerTalk there is consolidation of threads so people can share ideas together on a topic. Blogs work similarly for readers of the blog.
The hard part for me is really the interface of a site like BoardingArea to the public. I often start my day checking out the latest articles on BoardingArea. If there is news developing, then we want to cover it as bloggers. For the reader looking at the homepage of Boarding Area with six articles on the same topic, then readers likely select one or two blogs to read.
Getting news and stories out is better with more sources putting out the news. Some blogs will cover it in depth and some will simply include a reference. When I see six stories on a topic, often I will be the seventh to add my take. Other times I see six stories on a topic and think that I will wait a day or two before writing it up. Some readers will think that is old news since they already saw six stories the day before on the topic. Other readers will catch it the first time since they were not on Boarding Area the day before. I often delay a story to post it when it is not the 7th story in a couple hours telling the same story.
So it is not really true to say "BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out." More precisely, it is sometimes hard for me to be motivated to write an article sharing a promotion or news when it is 6 of 30 headline stories on the BoardingArea homepage.
Firstly, the decline in my ad revenue looks to me like it declined more like 40% RPM revenue per 1,000 impressions, which is the industry metric I guess when I compare the numbers from 2014. Saying ad revenue is 'less than half' is incorrect.
Secondly, I made a poor choice in words trying to use an idiom.
"Too many bloggers are writing in the hotel space these days to allow me to post content in the hotel space that is uniquely different enough from stuff readers see on other blogs. BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out. "
1. There are not too many bloggers in the hotel space. There are just many more writing about hotel promotions compared to a couple years ago. There are plenty of other hotel topics like new openings, policy changes, reward category highlights in different programs that I could write more about on Loyalty Traveler. Basic truth though is far more readers have far more interest in airline news compared to hotels. That is something I have known for years.
2. "BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out."
This is insulting to other Boarding Area bloggers and I apologize. What I meant in more detail is there is a fundamental difference between a miles & points travel blog news source compared to a forum board like FlyerTalk. In FlyerTalk there is consolidation of threads so people can share ideas together on a topic. Blogs work similarly for readers of the blog.
The hard part for me is really the interface of a site like BoardingArea to the public. I often start my day checking out the latest articles on BoardingArea. If there is news developing, then we want to cover it as bloggers. For the reader looking at the homepage of Boarding Area with six articles on the same topic, then readers likely select one or two blogs to read.
Getting news and stories out is better with more sources putting out the news. Some blogs will cover it in depth and some will simply include a reference. When I see six stories on a topic, often I will be the seventh to add my take. Other times I see six stories on a topic and think that I will wait a day or two before writing it up. Some readers will think that is old news since they already saw six stories the day before on the topic. Other readers will catch it the first time since they were not on Boarding Area the day before. I often delay a story to post it when it is not the 7th story in a couple hours telling the same story.
So it is not really true to say "BoardingArea has become the 800-blog gorilla crowding me out." More precisely, it is sometimes hard for me to be motivated to write an article sharing a promotion or news when it is 6 of 30 headline stories on the BoardingArea homepage.
May 24, 2015, 9:36 am
#28
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,031
I'll second the "I like these changes" undercurrent here.
As a Los Angeles resident, it's nice that a blog focuses on traveling from the West Coast. In fact, I think travel blogs with a niche that caters to residents of a specific (but populous) area makes sense. I've always like the reviews of hotels and sights within driving distance of my home, and adding in good flight deals from LAX adds value to me.
I can't really think of any other good travel blog that focuses on residents of a specific area. Maybe Dan focuses on the Cleveland set a bit, but he, like most bloggers mentioned in these pages, tries to appeal to US residents overall.
There is definitely room for bloggers to target smaller groups of travelers, by geographical area.
Satori - I've been reading your blog for years, and you have gained more of my attention in the past few months. Thanks!
As a Los Angeles resident, it's nice that a blog focuses on traveling from the West Coast. In fact, I think travel blogs with a niche that caters to residents of a specific (but populous) area makes sense. I've always like the reviews of hotels and sights within driving distance of my home, and adding in good flight deals from LAX adds value to me.
I can't really think of any other good travel blog that focuses on residents of a specific area. Maybe Dan focuses on the Cleveland set a bit, but he, like most bloggers mentioned in these pages, tries to appeal to US residents overall.
There is definitely room for bloggers to target smaller groups of travelers, by geographical area.
Satori - I've been reading your blog for years, and you have gained more of my attention in the past few months. Thanks!