Hi - I write Online Travel Review (I VERY much appreciate the couple of mentions I've gotten in this thread - thanks to all...) and I just thought I'd weigh in a bit on the comments about affiliate links.
Those of us who have been writing blogs for a while (OTR has been around for 8+ years, View from the Wing has been around a similar amount, One Mile at a Time for a bunch, etc) know how much work it is to write 4-5 times a week (or more). We do it because we love the topic, and because the feedback we get from readers (both positive and negative - I post all non-spam comments on my site) is fantastic. But let's be honest -- there are lots of mornings where I get up at 615 to do some writing where I wish I could crawl back into bed (well, I certainly could crawl back into bed, I just choose not to) -- but I feel like I've developed a relationship with my readers, and I try to offer something on the site just about every day.
It takes a while to find your voice when you write every day. I used to write a lot more about arcane airline stuff, and goofy airline stories. I think there used to be more goofy airline stories (my all-time favorite:
Farts Lead to Flight Diversion), and Brett at Crankyflier has done an amazing job writing about airline operations so I've ceded some of that stuff to him.
I've written more about credit cards in the past year because it's a major change in how people earn frequent flyer miles (at least outside of the hardcore churn community, who was getting 300,000 bonus miles each year from cards?). With all the credit card bonuses out there, you can essentially print frequent flyer miles for yourself. It's really insane. You need 50,000 miles for a trip to Europe? No sweat - 1 card, 1 month of spend. Boom. That's nuts when you think about it. And if you write about airlines (as I do), it's hard to ignore that piece of it.
Yes, I earn affiliate bounties on some signups. But I've spent 8 years building readership and I would be insane to jeopardize that for a credit card bounty (it shouldn't be a secret -- card bounties range from $30 or so on the low end to upwards of $300 on the high end. I don't see any reason for people not to know that). I've tried to write every time about what cards I get paid for and which I don't, but to be honest, it feels clunky and weird to write it every single time. In short: I get paid for some Chase and Amex cards, I don't get paid for anything else.
But I know I have focused on writing about cards I don't get paid for -- I've written a ton about the Hawaiian Airlines cards recently; I wrote this week about the Ritz Carlton credit card; I've written about the AA cards a bunch and about the 70k mile Marriott card, as well as the 50k Southwest card, all in the past couple of weeks. I don't get paid for any of that, but they're all great deals. Why wouldn't I mention them?
I've alluded on OTR to other bloggers writing incessantly about the Sapphire card. We're well-compensated for that card, but about 4 months ago I decided I'd written all I could write about it, and I've since stopped (well, I'll mention it in posts where it makes sense, but I'm not doing any of the "hey, look at how great the Sapphire card" is stuff.)
I've spoken with a few fellow bloggers, and I know they're thinking about the balance between credit card posts and non-credit card posts. Money aside, I think the reason we're seeing more credit card writing is because people want to know about it. We see very, very little about frequent flyer tricks anymore, likely because people have learned so much about it. The credit card world is still new to many, many people. I think (legit) bloggers are writing about it because their readers want it. Trust me, all of us check out visitors stats (yes, I'm vain), and I think most of us have seen an increase in visitation since we've written more about credit cards.
That said, I hear what several of you are saying, and I'm not going to disagree that for some, the allure of the cards is strong (ie, if blogging is your full-time job you may have some incentive to try to get paid). But I also know that the readers will come if you write good advice with an interesting voice. It's up to the readers to decide if a blogger has that.
I also understand the frustration with some bloggers who post lesser deals (or at least ads pushing lesser deals) even though there are better offers out there. My response: stop reading them. If you can't trust their judgment on pushing ads for cards that do not include the best offers, then don't read them - that's what I've done.
But those of us who have read the good blogs for a while know that we've learned a ton from them, and have certainly benefited from the offers they've posted. If you feel that any of us have written something that feels compromised because of an affiliate payout, let us know (or certainly let me know - PM me here or email me at jared (at) onlinetravelreview.com.)
If you guys have questions about how the affiliate thing works, I'm happy to answer (again, email, PM or just respond to this thread) -- this shouldn't be a mystery.
Thanks for reading
