particlemn

If I worked at the irs and was conducting an audit, I would ask that the G-strings be removed.

josephstern

I'm waiting for meta-time when one of these bloggers starts seminars:

Travel for free by inducing others to sign up for credit cards via your blog!

josephstern

And don't forget - Ben doesn't even want your business that involves the "how do I redeem these miles" question. He isn't taking new clients.

rankourabu

You don't think he's ever taken cash payments from clients that went unreported, or has paid "contributors" off the books?

They've fried bigger fish. There is no way he is doing everything legit.

kokonutz

I'm sure he's doing the best he can.

Problem is that this is pretty murky water, tax-wise. How about the 'hundred dollar designer chocolates' that RS reported he was handling out to 'giggling flight attendants?' Business expense? Yes. But a business expense for tax purposes? Errrrr....????

Hopefully he's erring on the side of caution. ^

Kagehitokiri

yet again, ben is not FTG, TPG, MMS

its surprising residence is bookable online

of course the residence is a smart concept
TG lounge does not generate any revenue

oliver2002

A fellow FTers says the RS article is BS, but not so much for the misleading readers to sign up for CCs, but for not buying his book: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nichol...b_7882288.html

oliver2002

And now the German press has picked him up... no mention of hobby or FT though this time: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/reise/bon...eger-1.2587967

FallenPlat

That's not quite right since the article refers to "the hobby" several times, e.g.: "'Das Hobby' ist keine Freizeitbeschäftigung, sondern ein Vollzeitjob." I'd translate this as "The Hobby is not a free-time occupation, but rather a full-time job."

Also, this time the interviewee seems to have controlled the message pretty well. For example, there's this: "Gratis, das betont Schlappig, ist das Reisen auch für ihn nicht. Umso mehr ärgert es ihn, dass das im Rolling Stone behauptet wird." In English: "Free, emphasizes Schlappig, is not what travel is even for him. Thus it especially annoys him that RS claimed that it was."

This article is significantly more balanced than what Le Figaro ran a few days ago for a French readership. That was a real slash-and-burn job all the way around.

Tracer_SEA

Well, if that's true then I can see how it would be a much more lucrative blog than I realized.

(Most people think blogs make lots of money off of "ads", and that's not true at all of plain old banners and other display or text/search ads)

I'm still highly skeptical of the claim that the blog made him a millionaire -- but I could see it driving a solid six figure income that would nicely complement the substantial family wealth that funded his earlier travels and may well still supplement his lifestyle today.

oliver2002

That is because its custom in Germany to send a copy of the interview to the interviewed for review. @:-)

notsosmart

It's economics of scale when it comes to impressions.

Adsense (for example) pays a nominal fee on a CPM basis along with their CPC program.

If my blog gets 10K visits a month, I won't eat off it, but I'll make a few bucks.

OTOH, if I get 1 million+ visits, and can keep people clicking through pages (generating page views and more opportunities for clicks) I might never work again (I don't work anyway, but you know what I mean )

But the real money, which Ben barely touched upon because, well, it *is* a touchy subject, is in affiliate marketing.

That's how The Points Guy built his little empire, even though his site doesn't provide much useful info beyond what a rookie CC or miles user might need. That and pretty trip reports.

Banks pay A LOT for credit card accounts, even through general ad networks. And if you have a topical site with 1 million+ page views per month you negotiate your own rates anyway. Wouldn't surprise me if TPG and Ben get $200+ per signup on some credit cards (you will notice that they usually push the premium Sapphire/Platinum etc. cards; there is a reason for that).

FallenPlat

Ahum, Tracer, you know his mother's a hairdresser, right?

I have no more idea about his family's wealth than you really do. But based on the foregoing, my unsubstantiated surmise is that his family has no real wealth, "substantial" or otherwise. Or maybe it just depends on how you define "wealth" and "substantial."

As for how he paid for his youthful travels, that's actually in many of the early blog entries. Which I've actually read. It's not some weird, hard-to-penetrate secret. None of that stuff would've ever been for me, but it still astonishes me how close you could come in those now bygone days to creating the air-travel equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.

Added thought: As for affiliate marketing, and someone with more knowledge than mine can chime in, but I think bloggers are contractually prohibited from commenting on the subject.

notsosmart

Yup, I have many separate private label agreements with companies, that I actually have to physically "sign" and overnight back whenever there are contract changes etc.

But affiliate programs are the online equivalent of "at will" employment. You basically have no rights, and either party can do whatever, whenever. It all depends on how profitable you are to the bank/whatever.

Though I'm sure this is part of the reason why he didn't want to talk about it in the interview.

(BTW, did the writer fly CX to HKG with him? And elsewhere? If so, did he sit in Y? Or C? )

josephstern

Part of the reason, sure. The other part is, he didn't want the interviewer to go that deep and figure out where the profit was.

Frankly, the idea of traveling elite for free is great. But if that's all there is to it, why blog about it? Amazing that the interview didn't even try to go there.