Study these two models:

1. CPM which pays a fixed amount per thousand pageviews (the exising model) or

2. Look up the term "slotting fees" as in relation to grocery stores. It happens with blogs as well

Sorry, I am restricted contractually from answering your question with regards to numbers or percentages.

The model is being undermined rapidly. It's not only the now-asymptotical uniformity of BA and general points-n-miles blog content, it's because of the rapid change in the nature of the game that in part is being driven by the blogs themselves. A tragedy of the commons indeed.

For instance, Chase and AmEx declaring war (or stepping up their guerrilla campaigns) vs churners will certainly damage the consumer market for the low-end blog materials and forest of affiliate links (lookee here, my offer is 55.2k for card X vs 54.6k over there (oh and btw, recent approval rates for applicants for this card who follow my redirect link have crashed to <10%...). Inevitable.

Wouldn't it be interesting to discover that the large CC issuers flag all applicants who follow those links with "potential churner", requiring in-depth review and resulting in disproportionate rejection rates compared with non-blog-link applications?? @:-)

You, the readers, really think it can't happen, or isn't possible? Well, it already is. What about the :-: best in class :-: airline that segments what customers are willing to pay - or what it thinks they will - based on immediate and longer-term logged-in browsing history etc. I bet the CC issuers have better IT than the :-: best in class :-: airline....

huh. so it would be a violation to say something along the lines of "BA bloggers could double their revenue by going independent" ?

I can only speculate on the size of their income based on my own situation which is now almost three years old and as such can't suggest "double, triple, 50% more" etc.

All I can tell you is I am amazed they stay based on my own personal "past experience"

The upside far outweighs the cost of adding a staff member to do the extra work required.

But everybody fears the gravy train is about to end, so why bother taking the risk. I feared the same thing-----3 years ago

I think you would change it to make it broader. The independent sites, including mine, have a broader repository (in general) of background articles, reference stuff etc. because they want to be a 'one stop shop' for the visitor.

With BA there is no need to be a one stop shop. You can have a niche inside a niche. Lots of people prefer that.

But that's a choice the author makes, right?? And based on the number of people posting the same things as each other it doesn't seem to me that any of the Boarding Area bloggers feel compelled to not write something just because someone else has.

Anyone on Boarding Area can write whatever they want whenever they want. I see no evidence that anyone is bound by some rule - written or otherwise - that they should only write about some specific topics because their content is aggregated on the Boarding Area site.

Trying to be everything to everyone - whether inside an aggregator or not - is a lot more work than being a focused repository of information on a specific topic. But that has nothing to do with where the content is hosted.

The Points Guy had an interesting post on embassy visas and at-the-border visas a couple of days ago, courtesy of what amounted to an infomercial from Allied Passport & Visa. I have nothing whatever against a little self-promotion if there's value added involved, which there was here. What seems more than a little bizarre to me, however, is today's Extra Pack of Peanuts post on the same topic by the same people two days later. Maybe the logic of what some of the Boarding Area bloggers do escapes me. Or maybe it doesn't.

Maybe they just stepped up their marketing to bloggers? VFTW had at least two posts recently (17 August and 5 September) featuring an offer of free China visa processing for US passport holders.

Guess CIBT needs to step up their blogger game!

Yup...they sent me an inquiry as well asking if I wanted to write something about them. It included details on the commission they pay for referrals.
But don't worry...those stories were definitely just to keep you informed of the best option based on the extensive research done comparing the various services, their fees, reliability and customer service levels.

Ah, then that's why I was completely unimpressed with at least one element of the core advice given, namely that's is almost always a good idea to have a service obtain an advance visa even if they're automatically given upon entry. That kind of transparent mendacity always gives me a bit of a chuckle. Maybe I'm just easily amused.

How much do they pay?

I'm not asking because I want to do a write up on them, I'm asking because I'm new to the blogging arena and am genuinely curious what they'd pay for that.

I use CIBT for all my passport/visa needs, and actually have had a few bad experiences with Allied. Wouldn't use them, let alone write about them.

I'm also curious to see what they pay for writing about them verses what they pay a travel agent for commission.

Feel free to reach out to them for details if you want to partner with them.

The only way to find out what they might pay you is to open negotiations -- if that's really the way you want to grow your business, that is. You wouldn't start negotiating by saying "I'll take whatever you offered sbm12 last week", would you?

I don't want to partner with them. I already work with another company (CIBT), and feel zero need to rep a visa & passport service. I recommend CIBT to my clients and that's that.

As I said earlier, I was just curious as to what they paid because, well, I'm curious.

I'd be interested to see what that amount is verses that they pay a TA in commission. That's all.

Again, see what I said above. Not interested in writing an iota of a sentence on them, I was just curious.

Was my initial post that unclear??