Sample of a helpful blog post
 

This blog post is not an amazing deal by any means, but it is an example of a helpful blog. Why?

1. It told me something I did not know before.
2. It was short and sweet, with a working link to a deal that was exactly what the blog promised it would be.
3. While many CCs were mentioned, no CC links embedded in the text!
4. I spotted it on Boarding Area, which has, to my mind, a much more user-friendly layout than First2Board. Much easier to scan for something new on BA than on F2B, which has too much going on on the Home page, is very repetitive (links to the same blog appear in numerous places on the page), and seems to have less new material on a daily basis. Also, as someone pointed out on another thread, you have to scroll down quite a bit to see what's new on F2B, whereas BA shows you the newest stuff right on top.

Wish the link was to something more rewarding than 2 for the price of 1 movie tickets, but, hey, it still is an example of one way to do it right.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/pointm...t-bogo-friday/

Not sure if the links the blog has (on a tab) to CCs are the best links out there, but the cards listed do seem to be cards I think are good to have, and are appropriate to consider for an AOR. I typically check FT to make sure I use a link to the best offer anyway, but it is not like the links are to cards that are simply not good deals for points and miles folks.

I'm still pretty new at this. Is this post typical of posts by Point Me to the Plane? Is this generally a blog I can trust?

Can't comment on whether you can trust this blog, but just want to second the point about boardingarea's layout vs first2board. F2B currently looks very messy to me and I have hardly seen any good content recently.

Appreciate your perspectives on F2B's homepage. A few reactions:

• We're trying to surface content in several different ways, which I think is what is leading to a "busy" and sometimes repetitive home page (newest posts overall, while also showing the latest post from each blogger, and the latest in certain categories). This is a work in progress.
• Certainly less new material on a daily basis than you'll see at BoardingArea. We have less than 1/3 the number of bloggers! :) We are planning to bring more bloggers into the mix in the future, which will mean more content and a wider array of perspectives / voices.
• I don't really following your point about the scrolling piece though. If I look at the homepages, I only see a small number of posts "above the fold" in both cases - you need to scroll the full length of the homepage to see all the new stuff. Am I missing something here?

Thanks for the feedback - take a look at my comments above.

I see nil on any personal F2B page (not the main homepage) above the fold. That's not a good UI decision.

That's fair, but I think the OP was referring to the master homepages (could be wrong, but that's how I read it). I don't disagree with you, but they also doesn't seem to be THAT different from the personal BA homepages, most of them anyway. Not trying to get into a "mine vs. yours", just calling it like I see it.

You are right, Milesmuncher, I was referring to the Home pages. I just took another look and you are right again - both sites do show some info above the fold.

However, my understanding and experience using BA is that the newest blogs appear at the top, so I really don't need to scroll very far before I know I've seen the new stuff, especially if I pop by once or twice a day. I like the paragraphs that appear after the blog titles - helps me know without necessarily clicking if I want to read the full piece. BA is more linear and seems more organized. Very easy on my aging eyes - and indeed, age may be an issue here.

The F2B site is less easy on my eyes - 3 unequal columns such that items do not line up across the 3 columns, so my eye has to jump around to see what is there. Different fonts, different font sizes - it just seems, as someone said, much too busy. Halfway down the column sizes change again; ads pop up in the middle. It just seems disorganized and hard to negotiate. Having looked more carefully at the site, I think I get the organization you are going for, but it just doesn't work for me. It may very well work fine for others.

------------------

Here's another example of a helpful blog. Again, it gave me info I did not know before and did so in an engaging style:

http://www.doitforthepoints.com/2013...The+Points!%29

Thanks!

Given the reference to the "post in the other thread" which I'm pretty sure was talking about something I posted in another thread I figured I'd chime in to clarify what I was talking about. ;)

Personally I think that both front pages leave quite a bit to be desired.

You know, sbm12, I did try to find the comment to properly quote it. But it seemed hopeless to me. Now I readily admit that I am new and may not be great at searching, but even once you took credit, I tried a quick scan of your posts and soon gave up, not sure which thread it was on (the big one on blogs or the one on the vote about this forum) or the date you wrote it. Maybe the soon-to-be implemented wikis will help....

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On another topic, I signed up to get emails from Hack.Travel, which I have been happy to receive, with one small quibble. Here is a cut/paste of the email I received about one post; the italics are mine to show I am quoting and I added the colored font used here:

Flying SWISS Intra Europe Business Class
by Food, Wine & Miles

First 2 Board | First2Board FWM

After flying SWISS for the very first time, I had a short layover in Zurich before my intra Europe business class flight to Manchester. As many have noted before, intra Europe business class isn’t all that special: The seat is the same as you’d get in economy (just with the middle seat blocked out), the [...]

The post Flying SWISS Intra Europe Business Class appeared first on First2Board.
Read more of this post

Food, Wine & Miles | April 19, 2013 at 11:36 am

There are 8 links in the email, but only one - which is in red above - takes me directly to the original article. Even the one in purple which the reader might think would go to the original post goes to your site. Of the other links, not all of them take me to a version on your site that include your red "Read Original Post" link. Now that I know what link to click to go directly to the full post, it is a small problem, but it was very aggravating at first. Perhaps this could be made more clear in the email alerts?

That said, thanks for a nice addition to the points and miles blogging world.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9930; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.755 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

I have no idea where the original post was; I just remember making it. And my post volume here is such thta tracking things down after a day or two is generally a losing battle.

As for the emails from hack.travel, I can look in to the content there to see if it can be adjusted but I'm mostly using the stock wordpress functionality and I'm not sure how customizable that is.

You comments were discussed at length at last Friday's F2B meeting in McLean, VA. We are in agreement with you and have made changes already. Hope you like the new format.

We are open to listening to readers constructive criticism and willing to act accordingly. Please come back and tell us if you approve of the changes.

Much improved.

But still room to improve.

The pictures are too big ... Its not as if they are original masterpieces. Shrink them.

Then increase the font of the headline.

Then increase the number of posts beyond 8. 10 or 12 is better. 8 is also a bit unfair given there are more than 8 F2B bloggers.

However, you have done enough for me to add f2B to my favourites list next to Boarding Area :)

I already had a fun twitter exchange with you about the improvements to F2B but will chime in here too.

I agree with Raffles that the photos could shrink, but today's Rocketmiles post on the home page takes it too far ;) ! Hopefully it is just a mistake or the photo is en route.... It matters because I do suggest that you keep the headlines in line across the columns. I think doing otherwise is a step backward. I'd like to see the "Read More" line lining up too.

I do not agree with Raffles on the size of the font in the headlines for each blog. What you have today is fine. I'd rather see smaller photos and longer paragraphs below the photos - more text to tell me whether to click through. I realize that less text may get readers to click through which obviously the individual bloggers would like, but the friendlier the Home Page is to me, the more often I'll look at it. And the more often I stop by, the more chance I'll click through!

A question: How much editorial is done by F2B? In other words, does F2B provide any editorial control before a blogger posts something? Are bloggers ever told that a topic is weak or a photo poor or unnecessary? Or does F2B just post whatever a blogger submits?

Thanks for your efforts to date and I look forward to how F2B continues to evolve.

I can comment on that.

As long as we're within the boundaries that everyone agreed to when we decided to join (e.g. no CC links, no talking about "schemes", etc.), then we basically have free range over our content. Everything posts automatically to the home page, so it's not like it goes into a "pending approval" status or anything like that first.

In theory, that could allow a "rogue blogger" to post something to the F2B page that isn't in the spirit of F2B - but I can't really envision that happening with the group we've got together right now :)

We'd like to thank you all for your feedback on the First2Board redesign. We've been listening attentively here on FlyerTalk, through email, Twitter, Facebook and in person at FTU. We understand that the previous design was too busy, cluttered and difficult to navigate. We're in the process of launching a redesign, and some additional tweaks may be made over the coming days and weeks. Regardless, we think it will now be much easier to find the new content, since it will always be at the top of the page. You can easily get directly to your favorite blogger page or search by topic on the homepage. Hope you all like, and has been said before, feel free to provide us with your feedback. After all, First2Board is here for you - our readers!

Also, for the record - Food, Wine, and Miles is exactly right. We do not editorialize our posts (unless it is something we are completely disagreeable to). We have not yet had to limit anything from our team, and don't plan to in the future!

Hi
As one of the founders of First2Board I can give you some more detail. F2B does not control any of the content of our bloggers, but does reserve the right, per the terms and conditions signed by all bloggers, to remove content that either breaks the law in some way, contains forbidden content per the T&Cs or is plagiarized.

We have a sub-site called The Taxiway on First2Board that allows guest bloggers to upload posts and requires a F2B HQ team member to approve and publish them.

We provide help to any blogger who requests it with images or photography. We will provide feedback to bloggers if we feel a specific post is weak, but that is always done in confidence.

As we continue to grow and add bloggers we'll be evaluating the homepage and bloggers sites and look forward to continued feedback.

Stacey
Founder | First2Board.com
Blogger in Chief - VeryGoodPoints

And, as long as we're talking about editorial control, who is responsible for approving the affiliate-link riddled deals which are anything but? I don't believe those have a specific author name associated with them.

First2Board deals is not a blog, it's a deal site. It does contain affiliate links and whether or not you consider the deals to be good or not is an individual opinion of each person. The intention is not to publish mistake fares, etc.. but to offer discounted travel or vacations, or deals to those who may be interested in that.

Thanks for not answering the question posed. :eek:

I wasn't expecting mistake fares, but suggesting that the regularly published LH fares are a special deal is a bit off IMO, especially knowing that you're earning revenue for those bookings. It goes back to the idea of providing the best information or not and the image that presents to readers.

Obviously the home page and individual blogs use a template and we do have some control over sizes and fonts we try to still fit within the template.

To answer your question, which others have already confirmed, F2B has a written agreement with each of the bloggers that outlines terms and conditions of the website. Each blogger has ownership of their own blog and is responsible for the content independent of F2B. I have never been told to write about any particular subject, but have been given a small list of what is not allowed; e.g. discussing Vanilla reloads etc (I got special permission to discuss them for the April Fools Day post).

I agree with you that some of the posts by some bloggers in particular have been a little weak and we are making an effort to point that out internally. Baby steps. I think things have improved especially in the last two weeks.

In addition, my site has its own terms and conditions for readers and its own privacy policy. I do collect email addresses if you submit them and the reason is for a future newsletter, to inform you of new posts and to email "secret deals" before they get published on the site. I may also email you directly regarding a comment on the site. I may email you about a TMP or F2B do, or event that may be held regionally.

I will not sell the list or rent the list. The only way I get your email address is if you voluntarily submit it to me.

F2B's Taxiway is the site of F2B guest bloggers and TheMrPickles is the only other F2B blog site authorized to have guest bloggers. I have an outline of requirements for guest bloggers on my site, which I asked for input from F2B management, but I set the terms for all guest bloggers on my site.

I and my TheMrPickles editor do all edits of content on TMP, and I edit/censor all guest blog posts so they have correct content flow, correct referral links and correct web links to other sites; e.g. airline, hotel, or train information. I also size photos and import photos from various corporate media approved images and wiki-commons.

Sometimes guest bloggers may not be the best at describing a situation or city and I need to give them a push or rewrite the content.

I have sole decision on when the publish button on TMP gets pressed.

In regards to the comments, each individual blogger sets their own approval policy. I have mine set where the first comment posted by an individual is emailed to me and then awaits approval; then all comments that follow from the same person, ip address & email are automatically approved by the software. I will edit out typos or incorrect misinformation. If the post is obnoxious, or harassing in my sole opinion, it will be deleted. If the comment voices an objection or other opinion then the comment will stand as is.

I try to respond to comments that require a response but I reserve the right to ignore them also.

I have some control over which ads are on my pages, but I do not have any control over the F2B negotiated advert terms.

Regarding embedded affiliate links, which I see as different than referral links (but that is another argument) I may post it within the article if there is one and it is integral to the content of the article, but I am not required to write an article solely around an affiliate web link. I will disclose if I am being paid for the link. From today on there will only be one affiliate link in an article if there is one at all. Most certainly every article will not be by, about, and solely inclusive of affiliate links. In other words, NO HAWKING of affiliate links.

There may be a page at the top added with a drop down to get to affiliate links.

But don't hold your breath, it won't be today, or tomorrow.

All F2B bloggers have sole control over their individual twitter accounts and Facebook pages. These social media sites are not part of F2B and you may see content that we are specifically prohibited from publishing on F2B and should have no reflection on F2B or its management.

Likewise all comments on forums like FlyerTalk and MilePoint and the sole comments of the individual blogger hosted by F2B.

I pay no hosting fee to F2B. Hopefully this is a good explanation, sorry it is so long but I ran into MarathonMan on the weekend and I guess he rubbed off on me. ;)

The editor of F2B Deals is responsible for all of the content on that blog. That person is not a blogger but rather someone who has been appointed to maintain that site. We will review content, but it is not our intention to post published fares - everyone's human and I'm sure once in a while a mistake will be made. But the intent is to post discounts, special offers, etc...

So the deals are wholly chosen by a 3rd party who is not one of the bloggers on the site, but then they are approved or declined by people who are bloggers on the site? Did I get that right?

Thanks, MrPickles! Very good of you to spell it all out. Cheers!

Nope, our bloggers can submit deals to f2b deals for review and positioning on the f2b deals page but the f2b deals 'moderator' has final say as to what deals are posted to the site. F2B deals casts a wide net trying to capture as many relevant deals as possible. As far as some of the fare sales that you mentioned they are kept out there for the duration of the sale if they are compelling.

Is every fare sale a barn burner? no, but the objective here is to try and bring the best deals to our readers as is available currently without them having to go out and scour for all of them.

So the moderator is not one of the bloggers? Or is it someone who wears both hats?


Until such time as some of the deals are not driven by affiliate link revenue hopes I'm going to have a hard time believing that the goal is really to offer the best deals to readers.

Two more examples of useful posts
 

Here are two more posts I thought were extremely helpful, at least to a newbie:

http://thepointstraveler.com/masteri...tention-bonus/

http://first2board.com/pointssummary...nnect/#respond

Again, they were clear, offered info I found useful and new, and were not cluttered with affiliate links. I think that The Points Summary could be even better if one did not need to scroll down so far to actually see some text - right now we get a lot of white space around the blog's title, and an awfully large font for the post's title, which combine to mean that the reader scrolls a lot to get to the post itself. But perhaps the re-design Very Good Points mentioned will soon be in play here.

Here's one more I found helpful:

http://saverocity.com/blog/the-ulitm...nd-hotels-com/

Thanks for the inclusion. I was worried that the post was too detailed and glad that someone found it useful! If nothing else it shares how I think about complex bookings like this, perhaps with a few take-aways too.

Hey Mr Pickles - why did you chose to work with F2B as opposed to having your blog standalone? I had thought to join one of these amalgamation sites in the past, but now don't see where the value is?

The f2b deals mod is NOT a blogger.....and no Blogger is a Mod for f2b deals.

That is a good question. I did have my site as a stand alone for a few years and have have very few hits. There were many comments every time I posted and almost everyone were spam. i could have hired a consultant and spent a lot of money to set it up. But i have a real job too.

Occasionally there were real comments but it just was too much trouble to screen through all of the (5900) viagra ads, mortgage ads ad other garbage posted. I was forced to lock down the comments and screen all of them. This became too time consuming so I tended to not post as often.

My social media talents were then redirected to my Facebook and twitter account. Quite often I would receive communication from people asking me to blog more often and when the opportunity came up to work with First2Board I immediately saw the benefits of working as a team.

1) F2B provided the hosting, which on the surface is not that hard since I was self hosting already but now when there is a problem I have someone who is responsive that I can contact immediately to fix things for me on the site.

2) F2b coordinates advertising agreements.

3) Working as a team with the other F2B bloggers drives page views by cross linking posts.

4) I am now able to concentrate on content instead of format and design.

5) Better recognition of my site as a part of a larger organization.

6) F2B has an internal forum website for F2B bloggers which will act a database for files, photos, charts and other reference materials for the bloggers.

7) F2B provides artwork support and has designed the logos for most of the sites.

8) F2B provide all of the technical support to transition my website from Network Solutions platform to their platform.

9) F2B coordinates all of the contests and giveaway promotions, including the acquisition of prizes, distribution of prizes and contracting with third party contest promotion websites.

10) I am able to work with like minded people that I trust and who do not have a hidden agenda.

11) I have had very few spam comments since the go-live date, the spam filters are working great.

12) I have complete editorial control over the content, there only requirement is to have fun.

13) I own all of my own content, if I ever choose to leave they will cooperate with exporting the content back.

14) My ideas, recommendations and concepts for F2B have been accepted warmly and have driven several aspects of the site; it is refreshing to be part of something new.

The best part of all of this, is that it all happened in a 72 hour period from the time of first contact to going live. They were responsive and welcoming.

I acknowledge that the timing was essential as my site went live on the same day as the go-live day of First2Board's own website (although it was in beta for 4 weeks prior).

I have looked at your website and I think that it is excellent blog and it is exactly the the type of talent that would be a good fit with F2B. You should consider talking to them about joining the team. i would be happy to recommend you.

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. I might be open to a conversation. I guess I would have to learn what the downsides are too. I moved away from the idea as my site grew more popular as the exposure value isn't there now, my site is already more popular in the US than First2Board, and by the end of the month probably will be the same in Worldwide ranking.

The community aspect you talk of is very positive though, and I am glad that people who aren't so technically incline/too busy to focus on that side are able to continue to generate good content with their help.

Cheers,

Matt

The same Akismet anti-spam filter is available without the network, too.
And to comply with certain conditions of what content is acceptable, like no CC links. ;)

The aggregation networks can be great for building up views and having a group of people to work with. That doesn't mean they are for everyone, but there can be value in them.

Nice little local blog - do you know about Guestmob?

http://www.portlandtraveltips.com/20...e-and-hotwire/

Update, in a tweet from Scott @PDXtraveltips:
@ElainePDX @Guestmob My guess is Guestmob good for advance bookings, Priceline still king for last minute.

Still, I was happy to learn about Guestmob since it does have some advantages over Hotwire and Priceline.

http://www.headforpoints.com/2013/05...itish-airways/

Super post about one's rights if offloaded in the EU, including a link to a great FT thread. I think this will be of interest to both newbies and oldtimers who read travel/miles/points blogs.

http://www.mightytravels.com/1323275...plus_miles.php

Much of this I knew but recently I was trying to book a ticket that allowed either an open jaw or a stopover, but not both, so I was looking at a paid ticket add-on to make it exactly what I wanted. I am not at this long enough to have everything automatic, and never considered using a small amount of miles for a little one way. Indeed, some FTers were making suggestions and I do not believe anyone else suggested it either!

So I found this list great and the logic can apply to other airline miles too, depending on your situation and point balances.

http://saverocity.com/travel/how-to-...rbon-emissions

This might not be news that mileage runners and mega DO attenders want to hear, but I think that the above blog post is not just helpful - it is important.

I learned recently that it takes 400 gallons of water to produce ONE tee-shirt. If we want a bright future for this planet, we need to start paying attention, and Matt's post at Saverocity shines a light on carbon emissions and the issue of carbon offsets.

http://www.portlandtraveltips.com/20...s/#comment-155

With the changes at Autoslash, this post suggests another good way to book a rental car. I saw the link in a comment on MMS. Daraius points out in his answer to the comment that "Costco Travel and the UR portal give me the best rate for the least work, but Priceline often has good rates as well!" But for the person who wants the best rate and is willing to follow Scott's strategy as explained above, or the newbie trying to learn the tricks of the trade, Scott's post is right on point.

Is it just me, or is View From the Wing spending a lot more time discussing his compensation from banks since this forum started? Most of his readers don't give a darn about who gets paid what as long as the deal is good.

http://travel-summary.com/introducin...d-cost-charts/

Great post, with lots of info for those into/considering manufactured spend. Has an affiliate link but it is most appropriately done.

Here's a credit card post without ANY affiliate links and actually talks about the better offers out there at the Bank Branches.

http://themilesprofessor.com/2013/05...er-bank-branc/