Raffles

Dariaus is blogger most happy to repost stuff from FT that really should stay under the radar, and thus is partially responsible for the fact that a lot of good stuff now does not appear on FT. No need to encourage him further!

User Name

Agreed - his approach ultimately leads to fewer opportunities, not more. Also guilty to distorting facts to make sensationalist headlines. I guess it's a writing style, but gives the impression that he's in it for himself rather than for the greater good, which leaves a sour taste with me.

belfordrocks

Sadly, the same can be said for many.

Mountain Trader

Another "Knock the Blogs" thread, with mostly the same folks repeating their same complaints, over and over.

josephstern

I didn't realize the BoardingArea had previously prohibited credit card affiliate links. Very interesting. Thanks for the post on the - original content by the way!

Glad to hear you enjoy Frequent Miler as I do also, tremendously. By the way, he doesn't seem to feel the need to post everyday, just to post. He posts when he has relevant content.

sbm12

Really? You know this how?

I am one of the folks aggregated on the Boarding Area site and not one who flogs CCs. I also happen to know nearly all the others in the group and the number doing only the blogging as a job is roughly zero. I might be closest to having it as a "job" given that my other work is only part time. Most of the others have full time jobs and add the blog content in their spare time.

I don't think that the CC flogging is particularly subtle and I think that it has changed the tone of the content for a few folks I used to read more than I do today, but I don't believe it is anywhere close to a primary income stream for anyone in the Boarding Area group.

Are you asserting that this growth is based only on the "sudden" wide-spread access to CC referral links? Or possibly that the number of folks writing about loyalty programs and travel in general has also exploded?

belfordrocks

Doesn't make the issues raised any less valid...

And again, re-iterating for what seems like the thousandth time, not all blogs are bad, only some are questionable... and (IMO of course) it's these questionable blogs that aren't deserving of financial encouragement in the form of credit card links (which was the OP's initial question).

Mountain Trader

More like ten thousandth.

Got anything else to offer or is that about it?

belfordrocks

Yes, all blogs are fabulous, regardless of their content. At least they continue to bless us with new "content" day after day, and the credit card links are the least we can do to help out- the more links they try to cram onto their page, the more we should be using them!

I'm done here on this thread, because clearly a lot of people don't mind the quality of blogs suffering as a result of close-minded commercialism on the part of a select few bloggers, who also happen to try to promote themselves as the "no.1 authority on everything to do with FFPs, ever". Ultimately, as the more knowledgable folks are able to weed through the nonsense more easily, it's the newbies who end up being roped in by these "bloggers" and are suffering as a result.

travelisfree

I started reading this and I thought, "man, a lot of people don't like the bloggers." And then I realized it was one person who post a lot.
And I agree on some points. Some of content doesn't help me at all but ... I just don't read it.

Jake Gittes

I'm not really sure what all the guff is about. I subscribe to all the blogs on my RSS reader, and while sure there are tons of repeat posts and what seems like thousands of CC referrals; I know that I'll never miss a deal that pops up in some FT or MP post that I missed.

Just scroll past the ones you don't like and move on.

ingy

Great advice Jake

artemis021

I disagree. He's one reason I'm so sick of bloggers pushing Chase SP. It might not be all over his blog page, but he pushes that card in the posts alot. Before CSP, Amex SPG was widely considered the "best." You never saw so many posts on his blog promoting Amex SPG, even taking into consideration SPG has never had that great of a signup bonus.

I like his writing, but I notice he hardly ever has giveaways like other bloggers. (Granted, he just had one this week, but I think that's the first I've seen from him). A lot of bloggers, for example, recently gave away 66K Hyatt points to readers. He didn't. I don't know if that meant he was never approached by Hyatt to do so, but a lot of his peers did.

8mpg

to have money to give stuff away, you have to be making some decent coin. Lots of these guys are part timers, doing it for fun and the income is a side bit. Someone gave away a Nook recently but that was based out of an error. I dont know about the other guys but a decent VPS hosting runs $50-100/month. Add in their time and effort (some more than others) and it isnt always profitable give stuff away. Not many people out there to lose money for the sake of others.

sun_aa

^

I use thunderbird and ....... plus. It takes only a minute to add the RSS link to thunderbird. Reading blog posts becomes exactly like reading emails. Just looking at the subject is usually enough to decide whether its worth reading or not. You can even setup filters so that posts get trashed automatically. I subscribe to multiple blogs and forums on FT. This way I don't lose out on hot deals and get to read interesting content occasionally.

Cribbing about bloggers is pointless. No one is forcing you to read their posts. Most of the new content is lifted from FT without attribution anyway. Just use technology to leech off of them and if you feel like they deserve it you can use their affiliate link.