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Deal Killing Blogs: List deals which were pulled, and the blogs which published them.

Deal Killing Blogs: List deals which were pulled, and the blogs which published them.

Old Nov 18, 2012, 9:02 am
  #46  
 
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Just following the theme of the thread. I think MMS beat the BB thing to death with step by step instructions to get clicks on his ink links. I think he also added to the demise of VR at OD.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 9:40 am
  #47  
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I think Gary should be happy at being listed as No 1 by the OP.

Anyway I enjoy the info where ever it comes from and I feel that these are not meant to be known only to a slect few. Let us all use them fast and be ready to move to the next one if interested.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 9:45 am
  #48  
 
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Meanwhile, the points guy has wonderful post explaining why buying vanilla reloads with chase ink earns you 507 points, and unite club card 506. All nicely presented with his Chase referal links. Well, at least he's not killing any deals.

http://thepointsguy.com/2012/11/sund...eens-worth-it/

Seriously, really... Is this what this blogging sh.... is about?
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 9:47 am
  #49  
 
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I think some are missing the OP point. IMO this isn't so much about the bloggers, and their existence, and CC referrals, or even the fact that they post deals. This is more of an issue of how it is done. Bloggers are here to stay with the good and bad. As I see this it is a matter of presentation/frequency/credit

A Lot of people are lazy. When a lucrative deal is found, not everyone will jump on it if they have to go figure out the steps and read the T&C's etc.

BUT....

If they are given the information like this:

You can get a free first class ticket to Thailand, just do this:
click this link
put your name here
hit next
check this box
and on and on

A lot more people WILL do it. There is nothing wrong with sharing, but it is how you share. Share the deal in general. Let people research the deal, and make a decision, then go figure out how to participate. It seems to me if bloggers did just this basic level of sharing instead of showing lazy people exactly how to do things then a large segment would NOT play the deal and they would last longer. The blogs would still get their readers; maybe just not as many people end up doing it though.

The other piece is the fact that bloggers post about things found on FT. Some give credit, but others do not, posting as original content. I can't control that but it bothers me when I see it being done.

The last thing is the shear frequency when a deal is found. Bloggers know this is happening, and it is competition to get people to the page, but when a deal is posted in one blog, if it is a good deal you can expect everyone out there to post, and multiple posts per blogger. Add it all up and that amounts to a lot of publicity, and top rankings in Google searches. All that is bad news for non-sustainable deals. If bloggers, boarding area comes to mind as they are a group that collaborates, could agree on some ground rules on this saturating, and cannibalization of messages to reduce that frequency, maybe some of this angst level would fade.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 9:49 am
  #50  
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Originally Posted by fishdance

Seriously, really... Is this what this blogging sh.... is about?
I thought blogging was about 'borrowing' stuff from other sources, and presenting it in an easy way that attracts traffic that in turn uses the bloggers credit card links?
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 10:25 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by aviator8
There is nothing wrong with sharing, but it is how you share. Share the deal in general. Let people research the deal, and make a decision, then go figure out how to participate. It seems to me if bloggers did just this basic level of sharing instead of showing lazy people exactly how to do things then a large segment would NOT play the deal and they would last longer.
This seems to me to be the key point. Sharing is not the problem, it's the image heavy, step-by-step spoon-feeding that leads to people pursuing things to an unsustainable point and this is what kills deals.

It's one thing if readers can be trusted to pursue a trick or deal for long run usage and quite another if they cannot.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 10:28 am
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by aviator8
I think some are missing the OP point. IMO this isn't so much about the bloggers, and their existence, and CC referrals, or even the fact that they post deals. This is more of an issue of how it is done. Bloggers are here to stay with the good and bad. As I see this it is a matter of presentation/frequency/credit

A Lot of people are lazy. When a lucrative deal is found, not everyone will jump on it if they have to go figure out the steps and read the T&C's etc.

BUT....

If they are given the information like this:

You can get a free first class ticket to Thailand, just do this:
click this link
put your name here
hit next
check this box
and on and on

A lot more people WILL do it. There is nothing wrong with sharing, but it is how you share. Share the deal in general. Let people research the deal, and make a decision, then go figure out how to participate. It seems to me if bloggers did just this basic level of sharing instead of showing lazy people exactly how to do things then a large segment would NOT play the deal and they would last longer. The blogs would still get their readers; maybe just not as many people end up doing it though.

The other piece is the fact that bloggers post about things found on FT. Some give credit, but others do not, posting as original content. I can't control that but it bothers me when I see it being done.

The last thing is the shear frequency when a deal is found. Bloggers know this is happening, and it is competition to get people to the page, but when a deal is posted in one blog, if it is a good deal you can expect everyone out there to post, and multiple posts per blogger. Add it all up and that amounts to a lot of publicity, and top rankings in Google searches. All that is bad news for non-sustainable deals. If bloggers, boarding area comes to mind as they are a group that collaborates, could agree on some ground rules on this saturating, and cannibalization of messages to reduce that frequency, maybe some of this angst level would fade.
+1

And there is no way around it... and you bloggers KNOW this is true. Overexposure kills deals. We've seen it happen over and over again.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 10:41 am
  #53  
 
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Great thread. It comforting to know there are other souls here who pursue miles and points only to make the world a better place and to give something back. Unlike those greedy bloggers who just want to get something for nothing.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:02 am
  #54  
 
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Originally Posted by aviator8
I think some are missing the OP point. IMO this isn't so much about the bloggers, and their existence, and CC referrals, or even the fact that they post deals. This is more of an issue of how it is done. Bloggers are here to stay with the good and bad. As I see this it is a matter of presentation/frequency/credit

A Lot of people are lazy. When a lucrative deal is found, not everyone will jump on it if they have to go figure out the steps and read the T&C's etc.

BUT....

If they are given the information like this:

You can get a free first class ticket to Thailand, just do this:
click this link
put your name here
hit next
check this box
and on and on

A lot more people WILL do it. There is nothing wrong with sharing, but it is how you share. Share the deal in general. Let people research the deal, and make a decision, then go figure out how to participate. It seems to me if bloggers did just this basic level of sharing instead of showing lazy people exactly how to do things then a large segment would NOT play the deal and they would last longer. The blogs would still get their readers; maybe just not as many people end up doing it though.

The other piece is the fact that bloggers post about things found on FT. Some give credit, but others do not, posting as original content. I can't control that but it bothers me when I see it being done.

The last thing is the shear frequency when a deal is found. Bloggers know this is happening, and it is competition to get people to the page, but when a deal is posted in one blog, if it is a good deal you can expect everyone out there to post, and multiple posts per blogger. Add it all up and that amounts to a lot of publicity, and top rankings in Google searches. All that is bad news for non-sustainable deals. If bloggers, boarding area comes to mind as they are a group that collaborates, could agree on some ground rules on this saturating, and cannibalization of messages to reduce that frequency, maybe some of this angst level would fade.
Well said. I agree with that. As an aside, Darius' "tone" on MMS is just really grating. He acts like he came up with all that stuff himself. The pretense of it being his original content part bothers me.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:18 am
  #55  
 
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I guess I have two views about this whole debate

1) Some of the bloggers put in a lot of work and do individual thinking,making things easier and discoverable. Quite honestly, despite reading FT for years, and having flown millions of actual miles and building my own knowledge, I have benefited from some of the info on the blogs. Also, these guys put in a lot of work and time so they should get paid. It is free enterprise. Anyone who has an objection to them getting paid should start his own blog and then they can figure out "how much work is worth what"

2) On the other hand I have seen stuff on the blogs which is just clearly lifted from FT and the bloggers take credit for this and have a "holier than thou" attitude about it. This is wrong. Bottom line is that some of the bloggers add value and do individual thinking and research and they should get paid. But a lot of the bloggers are just monkeys (too many me too's popping up)who copy and paste stuff, do no original work and quite honestly just don't have the knowledge or experience to be writing about the stuff they do. I have an objection to this kind of behavior but not really sure what we can do.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:26 am
  #56  
 
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Originally Posted by Mountain Trader
Great thread. It comforting to know there are other souls here who pursue miles and points only to make the world a better place and to give something back. Unlike those greedy bloggers who just want to get something for nothing.

+1. Plus it's a great honor to see exquisite "post hoc ergo propter hoc" thinking.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:30 am
  #57  
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Originally Posted by gregorygrady
Recently, I like many of you, have become more and more disgusted as many of the travel bloggers think only about their wallets and their own personal gain. They come and swipe info off FT, package it up so even a monkey can understand it, and proceed to spoonfeed it to everybody and anybody that will listen. And it seems they mainly do it just to get more CC affiliate referral links (ie, money in their pocket). And even, then the hat tipping copycat bloggers come in and give the deal 5x more exposure. So basically they are using the collective knowledge and postings of FT to make money for themselves, and are quickly killing deals in the process by overexposing deals that simply are NOT sustainable for the tens of thousands of readers that they spoonfeed this info to.

The obvious example is the Chase INK Bold/Plus Vanilla Reload 5x deal that bloggers just ruined for everybody this past week at Office Depot. I read on one thread that Chase was offering roughly $200 for affiliate referral applications for the Ink CCs. So bloggers pushed all these readers to apply for the INK Bold CCs, like lambs to a slaughter. And then when the deal died the bloggers laughed all the way to the bank at us peons, not much caring that it died because they had already pocketed all their hundreds of thousands of dollars from referring us suckers to apply for their CCs. BTW, this fantastic YouTube video by FTer "amolkold" about sums up my feelings perfectly about this whole Office Depot Vanilla Reload fiasco (I cry from laughter everytime I rewatch the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=r6R5cEEqXpk

Anyways, my main purpose of this thread is not to rant about bloggers, there is a fantastic new blog (ironic, huh) by FTer "gpapadop" that does just that, feel free to go there and rant about bloggers in the comments (the link for that brand new blog is at the bottom of the following post):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19662237-post4172.html

The main reason I am starting this thread is to identify bloggers as well as the specific deals they have posted & killed over the years on their blogs. I know it is somewhat arbitrary, but I'd say if a blogger has posted about a deal and then that deal died within the next month (give your input, this could be as little as even a week or two), then they are partially to blame for the death of the deal. I plan to update the first post in this thread often, so please post examples of deals that bloggers have killed. If there is strong evidence that certain bloggers kill deals more than others, it would be my hope that this thread will make it known and will help steer you AWAY from these bloggers links if/when you decide to apply for your next credit card.

Although he is not the only one (or perhaps not even the worst offender), I will use Gary from View From the Wing as an example of how I'd like to list this (only cuz I have already been giving him a hard time recently in his blog comments for ruining lots of deals over the past month). Please use my example and give your own examples for any other bloggers you read that kill deals, and I will update this post and add those examples to this list:

Gary (View From the Wing):
- Alitalia Free $320 Off Flights
- Wyndham 16k promo (FF miles for 0.8cpm)
- Fairmont Lifetime Plat for $2k
- Virgin Atlantic Instant Gold Status
- Travelocity $200 deal
- 4 mile HKG F award tix
- FTD (30 miles/$ + 1500 bonus per purchase)
- AviancaTaca 0.3cpm (250 miles per purchase)
- Netflix churns
- Office Depot Vanilla Reloads 5x
- etc
- etc
- etc (I can probably list another 25+ deals this blogger has prematurely killed over the years if I think a little harder)


Darius (Million Mile Secrets):


Lucky (One Mile At a Time):


Rick (Frugal Travel Guy):


Brian (The Points Guy):


? (MileValue):


(MommyPoints):


BTW, I also wouldn't be against keeping a list of those bloggers who DON'T kill deals. Examples of those (I think) would include Seth (Wandering Aramean), Ric (Loyalty Traveler), etc.

FTers: Please keep it civil in this thread as I don't want it shut down cuz I truly do want a thorough list of bloggers who kill deals.

Bloggers: Please don't come on this thread picking fights to try to get this thread shut down.
Love the bottom feeding internet coupon clipper who has never shared anything complaining that other bottom feeding internet coupon clippers share deals! Priceless.
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:46 am
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by PresskittJon
Just shut down the interwebs. Problem solved.

I don't see any Iranian bloggers killing deals so maybe we could learn something from Mahmoud.
Oh, or shut down FT! *Ding*

Originally Posted by gregorygrady
There is also a small fraction of FTers who profit hundreds of thousands of dollars from the rest of the FTers by swiping info posted on FT and then pushing CC affiliate referral links and obvious. I don't know, such as going so far as to suggest people apply for 4 Ink CCs via his link ($800 into said bloggers pocket) and then launder $190k via those 4 new CCs to get 960k Chase UR pts per year (on the VERY page pumping those Ink Bold referral link):

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2012/...lus-cards.html

Recognize that guy? You obviously don't expect deals to stay active with advice like that for all the noobies that read your blog. No, you seem to just want the quick referral money from all the Ink CC applications, not caring if the deal lasts for FTers to enjoy. I am embarrassed by this small group of FT bloggers. That you give some of your proceeds to Wounded Warriers or whatever makes difference to me. So you are justifying killing deals to make money to give to charity? How about you don't push your newbie readers to apply for 4 CCs and aim for 960k UR pts per year, thus let the deal remain longer, and then we can decide if we want to give money to charity?



I'm mad at the bloggers BECAUSE they don't have the discretion to keep some things for themselves that obviously are unsustainable if they blog about them.

I am mad that they are ruining good deals prematurely simply to line their pockets even more via their CC affiliate links.
Then don't post on FT! See what deals the bloggers can come up with!
And to be honest, there's freedom of information here. So that's why a lot of the stuff is going via PM *hem LM Routes*

Originally Posted by nature1370
There are some points that I would like to address:
1) Most bloggers put their random offers (some low, some high offers) on their sites without stating whether or not the offer is good to apply. It seems they only care about their referral bonus. Most new readers got confused and felt bad about the offer they applied. So, readers should be aware of this kind of situation. Strongly suggest to do research on CC offers first before applying. Highly recommend to apply for available CC offers directly with banks and lenders. From web programming stand point, referral CC offers displayed from bloggers' sites have more complexity than the direct ones. Things can go wrong. So, I try to stay away their referral offers as most as possible.
2) Some bloggers did not even state where they got the deals, without creditting the original posters. I sometimes feel disgusted with this kind of behavior.
3) Bloggers are learning from community, they often write tips and tutorials on their blogs. I really appreciate this; however, they should try to give back what they learn to the community here instead of focusing posts on their blogs to attract readers and earn referral bonuses. Sometimes some others and I have stupid questions here, Mia and Flytalkers here are so useful in helping each other. From my so far experience, I have not seen this giving-back attitude from most bloggers.

This post is based from my point of view so far. I might be wrong. If I do, please correct me. My intention is not to create any fights here and thanks for reading my post.
Yes, I really hate 1 and 2. Especially 1. AAARGH!
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Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:49 am
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by Mountain Trader
Great thread. It comforting to know there are other souls here who pursue miles and points only to make the world a better place and to give something back. Unlike those greedy bloggers who just want to get something for nothing.
lulz.

Originally Posted by TroyMcClure
Love the bottom feeding internet coupon clipper who has never shared anything complaining that other bottom feeding internet coupon clippers share deals! Priceless.
Best FT handle ever.
sk8uno is offline  
Old Nov 18, 2012, 11:50 am
  #60  
 
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Also, I don't like the fact that this thread is entitled "deal-killing." That's debatable and way too biased against the bloggers. Something like deal-revealing blogs would be better. Something like "deal-revealing" would be more neutral. And IMHO, some bloggers (I'm thinking FTG and MMS of the top of my head) cater towards beginners, who wouldn't have read FT in the first place. Are you saying that people who don't try hard enough shouldn't reap the rewards?
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