CMHFlyerOH

I completely agree with this. I've never understood why so many people get so bent out of shape about bloggers, who are providing free content with having ads on their site or earning referral income. I guess it's a comment on modern society; that we've come to expect that information should be "free."

I don't think it's fare to expect anyone producing content on a daily basis to do so out of pure altruism. I for one an grateful for the value that all of the bloggers mentioned above bring to the table.

HikerT

I don't think anyone is complaining about ads. When a blog post includes x referral links and the post contains no new information you kind of scratch your head though.

thepointsguy

Favicon added! I didn't even know what one was before I read your post. Thanks for the tip ^

Just want to chime in and thank everyone for the support and even criticism. I do read threads like this closely because I want to make sure I'm in touch with what people want and need.

As a now full-time blogger, I often feel the pressure to create content that caters to the more advanced FT crowd, as well as the average Googler who may be trying to learn more about our world.

I'm glad many of you enjoy the site and I urge you all to contact me if you ever have suggestions or criticism. Even though my daily email influx is starting to get out of control, I read every email and try my best to respond within a reasonable amount of time.

Also, I read all of the blogs mentioned here and I thought I'd throw in some other bloggers whose work I appreciate:
Ric at Loyalty Traveler has great hotel coverage http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/
Matthew at UPGRD. Great luxury trip reports and general travel news http://upgrd.com/matthew/
Seth at Wandering Aramean- interesting travels and good Star Alliance coverage specifically (FT handle sbm12- I think he is well over 50k posts!)http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/

ffI

Gary
I really got in to this after reading your site. I was doing it slowly one at a time reading the fine print in the junk mail, but then your site confirmed what I knew and made me go faster. Then came FT and the rest of the miles followed. I refer all newbies to read your site, at times repeated info, but hammers it home. Thanks.

hobo13

And..... Brian gets the award for first of the bloggers to show up in this thread. Even better, he didn't start out by telling us how wrong we are..... (not to imply that I expected that from him -- just the opposite in fact, since I have a lot of respect for him and his work.)

iahphx

The bloggers read Flyertalk? Who knew.

While it's easy to be an armchair critic (and God knows, all of us could benefit from constructive criticism), I think all of "our" bloggers do a terrific job keeping us up-to-date with what's going on in the frequent flyer world, and I thank them for their labors-of-love.

Million Mile Secrets

I was waiting to hear what else y'all would say about us!

I am very humbled that despite blogging publicly for only 45 days, quite a few of you have mentioned Million Mile Secrets in this thread.

More importantly, thank you for your candid feedback. The most satisfying part of blogging for me, is hearing from readers via email, comments, and even in FT threads - so don't hesitate to reach out with your thoughts!

ma91pmh

For me Gary's View From the Wing is #1. I guess his views are most in line with my own. But love all the rest too... Rick's Frugal Travel Guy got me started on this whacky crazy, like Ben's One Mile at a Time, The Points Guy is great, like Darius' new Million Miles Secrets. Thanks to all of them for the contributions made and knowledge shared.

lwildernorva

This struck home with me. I've arrived late at this party (although I started collecting frequent flyer miles shortly after the programs started in the 80s), but from the beginning, I've wondered if the focus of some of the blogs would be my focus. I understand the purpose behind mileage running and the great experiences you may have in higher classes of travel in airplanes and hotels, and I totally get that any extra time you spend on the ground means you'll incur an expense that eats into the miles/cent you're earning.

But, the closest I've come to a real mileage run was a trip over Memorial Day weekend to Denver. I could have structured the trip to arrive by 10 a.m. and leave a couple of hours later and be back in ORF by 10 p.m. I didn't. I'd never been to Denver (other than the airport), never been to the Rockies. I would have felt that I had cheated myself if I didn't take the opportunity to rent a car, take a hotel, and spend 24 hours exploring the area. All that being said, I did take advantage of information gleaned off these blogs and FT to get myself bumped up to first class on my following day's trip home.

I have a fairly practical bent to my travels, which is why FTG still offers a valuable perspective to me. I'll take the occasional higher-class flight, such as Club this summer on BA to Scotland, but that accomplishes a specific purpose for me, a lie-flat bed that I hope will offer enough rest that I'll be able to spend my first day over there being productive rather than attempting to recover from a totally sleepless night in coach. Whether or not the airline offers me warm nuts or a beautifully printed menu or an amenity kit is truly irrelevant to me. And I won't take Club on the daylight flight back to the States; instead, I'm taking WT+ for the extra leg room.

For me, most of the information I learn here or in the blogs helps me either get free or nearly free trips or a few travel experiences that I might not otherwise spend the money to do (the SPG Stay Three promo that for about $750 in hotels--OK, so the hotel in Denver was an Aloft but most of the other stays were legitimate travel--that's buying me three days at Turnberry in Scotland that might have otherwise cost me $1500).

Despite all of that, however, I still find myself reading One Mile at a Time. Ben's a good writer, he's got a good sense of humor, and his enthusiasm for what he does clearly comes through in his posts. I just wouldn't choose to travel the way he does.

But maybe I would if I were 21 again.

ingy

I'm honored in the first three pages of the thread to be considered one of the top blogs and I have big enough shoulders to take the heat when the piling on began later in the thread.

Brian, the pointsguy, who is my #1 pick, hit on a very important facet of blogging that has become difficult for us, keeping up with the email volume as readership increases. somebody posted there seems to be a movement from the forums to the blogs. I agee. By reading four blogs daily I have a good sense of what is going on. My readership has more than doubled in the last six months and Brian's has increased even more since going full time. My info is coming more now from readers and industry sources than FT or MP.

On the forums, we can count on the group as a whole to answer questions of newbies and rookies. As a blogger, I'd estimate I answer between 75 and 100 emails per day. "Crabby?" no I'd say "Overwhelmed" at times. and it may truly reflect in the brevity of my answers sometimes. If so, I apologize. I'm moving on to the next email directing a reader to the 75k AA deal on FT instead of my lousy 30k offer, or referring somebody to Gary or Ben for award booking advice. We all try to send you to the best source for your answers.

I love blogging as we all do. The positive emails that I'm sure we all get far outweigh the negative ones by well over 1000-1. You readers are a very appreciative and supportive group and I know you keep me going. The success stories are incredible and to think I had even a small part makes my day.

BTW my top three are Brian, Gary and Ben. We are all different. We all agree to disagree at times, and we will all be at the Chicago Seminars this fall (without pay Koko trying to spread the word on seeing the world at prices we all can afford.

HoKo

I disagree with this completely. I read FTG daily and I have seen countless posts alerting readers "Use XYZ Link INSTEAD of my referral link to get a better bonus"

freeloader

a better option would be for him to just not to post a referral link if there are much better deals out there

HoKo

I agree but for all we know he is contractually barred from removing the ads. Maybe his status as an affiliate marketer would be at risk if he removed ads that he was supposed to be offering.

ingy

In most cases, you are correct. And sometimes they even "suggest" to us where to put their ad on the page.

Mommy Points

I'm pretty sure all of the "top dog" bloggers had their eye on this thread from the beginning and were just being respectful enough of public discussion to stay on the sidelines for a while and let the conversation run its course. Just a guess......

I agree that all of the blogs mentioned are different. Even when discussing the same topic or deal, the approach to it can be very different from blogger to blogger. Along those lines, all have their strengths. All have posts that are of more personal interest to me than others. What they all have in common is that they really are there to make us all more informed about travel and making our travel dollars (and points!) stretch farther than it otherwise could. Despite any possible compensation, what they do they do to share with others.

When I have time, I read all of them mentioned and then some more that weren't mentioned. It's good to know who to turn to for different needs or different questions. I also have a blog (thanks for the mention pgary!) that is still in its much earlier stages than most of the ones that we all read daily, but the struggles about what to post/not to post/what is most useful/ad usage or non-usage/etc... are probably the same.

I think this whole thread was an awesome and very useful discussion. I for one am extremely grateful to all who take the time to share information with others via a blog, a website, a post on FT, etc.... It is the community of sharing that will continue to take us all forward to our next destination.