Originally Posted by
mnscout
The interests of newbies and seasoned frequent flyers are extremely different. Catering to everyone never works. Even though I've been here for a very long time and certainly not a newbie, my interests differ greatly from most of the flyertalkers since I'm not a business traveler and not interested in earning status as much as miles and points. So can you imagine trying to target everyone out there who loves to travel including the veterans and the folks who know nothing about FF programs to begin with and then somehow churning out the content that would be beneficial to everyone?
It simply cannot be done. At least, I don't know one blogger who's able to do this successfully. Do you?
About your statement that "most FTers think bloggers deserve to be compensated for their time and effort", well, it all sounds fine--in theory, but the ways for a blogger to get compensated are extremely limited. Since people in this day and age refuse to pay for content, it's either ads, affiliate links, or selling merchandise or services, and all the methods above are annoying to the reader. What else is there, really?
There's nothing wrong with blog specialization - clearly it can't serve everyone. I never read the blogs prior, so I don't know the "good old days" but I am reading the feedback trend as content being driven by financial interests, and drivel to fill in the blanks. Sure there's some chafe that should be ignored, just like any market research. Take what is helpful and ignore the rest.
And, I think most folks are okay with ads, affiliate links, and services if reasonable. It's only the above (where it drives the content) that it becomes an issue.