Why do bloggers continually review the same product?
#46
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 1,782
Seth,
Can you elaborate on why/how people found your blog? Did they come to it via a google search on something like "value of SPG points"? Are you able to track how they get to you? i'm fairly certain you can do that...
Perhaps people find the bloggers because they're searching for a particular flight...or want a review of the Park Hyatt blah blah blah?
I just googled "first class new york to dubai". The first result was a TPG review from Jan 2014 and the fifth and sixth ones were from OMAAT.
Can you elaborate on why/how people found your blog? Did they come to it via a google search on something like "value of SPG points"? Are you able to track how they get to you? i'm fairly certain you can do that...
Perhaps people find the bloggers because they're searching for a particular flight...or want a review of the Park Hyatt blah blah blah?
I just googled "first class new york to dubai". The first result was a TPG review from Jan 2014 and the fifth and sixth ones were from OMAAT.
#47
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
On that particular day about 20% of the traffic is classified as "organic search" which means people typing a term into a search engine. More than 90% of the search traffic was delivered with no keyword data to correlate against.
So, yes, I can track how people show up to some extent, but not to the specific level of detail of knowing exactly what most search engine visitors typed to get to me. But I see things like 2 page views on my site generated from this thread today, which means someone clicked the link in my sig since I don't have any other links here.
I should also point out that, according to Wordpress Stats, the post on my site which got the most page views last year is one I wrote in 2013. It has good SEO and inbound links and gets a lot of traffic. But never a ton on any one day. Just slow and steady over time.
#48
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,736
Correct me if I'm wrong here, we've currently seen Emirates first class A380 reviews on OMAAT from:
- Ben at least 4+ times
- Ben's dad
- Ben's mom
- Tiffany
and now
- Ben's "close friend" (I think we all know what friend really means now)
Afternoon tea has now been covered for a 4th time! What's next? A review from a Nightline reporter Ben takes along with him on his next Emirates journey? Nothing like being able to buy your friend the miles necessary for a first class flight, hotel, and $200 lunch and put it down as a business expense.
Here's a real "travel hack":
1) Find a travel blogger
2) Makes friends with them
3) Ask them to purchase miles for you and give you a discount on what they paid as they can claim it as a business expense
4) If you are lazy ask them to book the trip with said miles
4) Take photos during your trip
5) Sit down and write for an hour and send blogger a trip report
- Ben at least 4+ times
- Ben's dad
- Ben's mom
- Tiffany
and now
- Ben's "close friend" (I think we all know what friend really means now)
Afternoon tea has now been covered for a 4th time! What's next? A review from a Nightline reporter Ben takes along with him on his next Emirates journey? Nothing like being able to buy your friend the miles necessary for a first class flight, hotel, and $200 lunch and put it down as a business expense.
Here's a real "travel hack":
1) Find a travel blogger
2) Makes friends with them
3) Ask them to purchase miles for you and give you a discount on what they paid as they can claim it as a business expense
4) If you are lazy ask them to book the trip with said miles
4) Take photos during your trip
5) Sit down and write for an hour and send blogger a trip report
#49
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in PALMYRA, PA, USA
Posts: 58,512
here's a real "travel hack":
1) find a travel blogger
2) makes friends with them
3) ask them to purchase miles for you and give you a discount on what they paid as they can claim it as a business expense
4) if you are lazy ask them to book the trip with said miles
4) take photos during your trip
5) sit down and write for an hour and send blogger a trip report
#50
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: UA-1K, MM, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Titanium
Posts: 4,419
Its called reader churn
They need to churn their readers as they need the $$$ from the cc apps from the newbies who think that flying in F is really free.
Many of us don't bother going to these blogs as they became boring and repetitive a long time ago. They lost the old readers, who don't use their CC links anyway, and need to replace them with fresh meat.
Many of those on this forum have flown in F on all the birds that are reviewed and we can form our own opinions.
Many of us don't bother going to these blogs as they became boring and repetitive a long time ago. They lost the old readers, who don't use their CC links anyway, and need to replace them with fresh meat.
Many of those on this forum have flown in F on all the birds that are reviewed and we can form our own opinions.
#51
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,736
They need to churn their readers as they need the $$$ from the cc apps from the newbies who think that flying in F is really free.
Many of us don't bother going to these blogs as they became boring and repetitive a long time ago. They lost the old readers, who don't use their CC links anyway, and need to replace them with fresh meat.
Many of those on this forum have flown in F on all the birds that are reviewed and we can form our own opinions.
Many of us don't bother going to these blogs as they became boring and repetitive a long time ago. They lost the old readers, who don't use their CC links anyway, and need to replace them with fresh meat.
Many of those on this forum have flown in F on all the birds that are reviewed and we can form our own opinions.
When you do a Google search for a particular product typically a popular blogger is on the top of the list which I could see as a justification for possibly doing this?
#52
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in PALMYRA, PA, USA
Posts: 58,512
Try opening an incognito window and google a first class product. Results WILL vary from your experience. @:-)
#53
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
Correct me if I'm wrong here, we've currently seen Emirates first class A380 reviews on OMAAT from:
- Ben at least 4+ times
- Ben's dad
- Ben's mom
- Tiffany
and now
- Ben's "close friend" (I think we all know what friend really means now)
Afternoon tea has now been covered for a 4th time! What's next? A review from a Nightline reporter Ben takes along with him on his next Emirates journey? Nothing like being able to buy your friend the miles necessary for a first class flight, hotel, and $200 lunch and put it down as a business expense.
Here's a real "travel hack":
1) Find a travel blogger
2) Makes friends with them
3) Ask them to purchase miles for you and give you a discount on what they paid as they can claim it as a business expense
4) If you are lazy ask them to book the trip with said miles
4) Take photos during your trip
5) Sit down and write for an hour and send blogger a trip report
- Ben at least 4+ times
- Ben's dad
- Ben's mom
- Tiffany
and now
- Ben's "close friend" (I think we all know what friend really means now)
Afternoon tea has now been covered for a 4th time! What's next? A review from a Nightline reporter Ben takes along with him on his next Emirates journey? Nothing like being able to buy your friend the miles necessary for a first class flight, hotel, and $200 lunch and put it down as a business expense.
Here's a real "travel hack":
1) Find a travel blogger
2) Makes friends with them
3) Ask them to purchase miles for you and give you a discount on what they paid as they can claim it as a business expense
4) If you are lazy ask them to book the trip with said miles
4) Take photos during your trip
5) Sit down and write for an hour and send blogger a trip report
"This Passenger Asked for Krug and Then..."
#54
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
I'm sure the airlines update their products frequently to stay on top of the latest developments with the competition. EK and QR must be sleeping badly at night because EY stole all their F bling... hence the bloggers need to check out every product periodically? Just like the fruit in your pocket that has iOS 8.4 behaves differently from say iOS 8.1? Also, would you rather rad a review from 2013 or one from February 2015?
#55
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Much more about getting the content in front of a new set of eyes than anything else. Remember when we would regularly see a flurry of posts about bonus dining points on the CSP card for the first Friday of the month? That wasn't because the program was new or because anything had changed. It was because there was an opportunity to sell more. This is the same way.
#56
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 812
As a newbie to the art of getting 'extras' while traveling I have been reading a number of the bloggers. Yes, many of them are getting very repetitive and I will probably delete a few from my list very soon
However, I have benefited from their information in several ways.
1. I learned to politely seek out upgrades and other benefits rather than just accept what is 'normal'. Sometimes it works as when I got a 1st class upgrade on a recent cross country trip for very few miles and dollars.
2. I learned that I was not using my credit cards to get their maximum benefit. I have stopped using two that have high foreign fees and few point benefits. I have applied for one, just one, new card which will work much better for me - no foreign fees, and I can move the points easily to my preferred airlines as needed.
3. I found a great deal on some good kitchen gear and got 20x points at the same time just by snooping through the CC deal pages. OK, that's not travel, but one must eat and scrapping one's knuckles on a 20 year old cheese grater gets old fast.
OTOH......
1. I find the idea of credit card churning to be just to much work for me. And I wonder about its long term effect on my credit scores and the things that my credit score influences.
2. Manufactured spending is just to complicated. Maybe I don't live close to the right WallMart, or I just don't understand it, but it seems that the best I can do is gain a tenth of a percent or so, at the risk of losing it all and more if the system doesn't work right.
3. All those great deals like $337 to Dublin round trip?? Or, $647 round trip to Hong Kong? None of them seem to apply to me. I'm to far from the cheap airport, or I can't fly the day it is offered, or the offer is gone by the time I get onto my computer.
4. Overall, it's still very difficult for me, a consistent traveler, but not a high mileage business traveler to earn the upper levels that make awards easier (not easy) to get.
This is what I learned from the bloggers as it applies to this newbie. They've served their purpose and now it is time to get on living life.
However, I have benefited from their information in several ways.
1. I learned to politely seek out upgrades and other benefits rather than just accept what is 'normal'. Sometimes it works as when I got a 1st class upgrade on a recent cross country trip for very few miles and dollars.
2. I learned that I was not using my credit cards to get their maximum benefit. I have stopped using two that have high foreign fees and few point benefits. I have applied for one, just one, new card which will work much better for me - no foreign fees, and I can move the points easily to my preferred airlines as needed.
3. I found a great deal on some good kitchen gear and got 20x points at the same time just by snooping through the CC deal pages. OK, that's not travel, but one must eat and scrapping one's knuckles on a 20 year old cheese grater gets old fast.
OTOH......
1. I find the idea of credit card churning to be just to much work for me. And I wonder about its long term effect on my credit scores and the things that my credit score influences.
2. Manufactured spending is just to complicated. Maybe I don't live close to the right WallMart, or I just don't understand it, but it seems that the best I can do is gain a tenth of a percent or so, at the risk of losing it all and more if the system doesn't work right.
3. All those great deals like $337 to Dublin round trip?? Or, $647 round trip to Hong Kong? None of them seem to apply to me. I'm to far from the cheap airport, or I can't fly the day it is offered, or the offer is gone by the time I get onto my computer.
4. Overall, it's still very difficult for me, a consistent traveler, but not a high mileage business traveler to earn the upper levels that make awards easier (not easy) to get.
This is what I learned from the bloggers as it applies to this newbie. They've served their purpose and now it is time to get on living life.
#57
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
#58
Moderator: Southwest Airlines, Capital One
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: California
Programs: WN Companion Pass, A-list preferred, Hyatt Globalist; United Club Lietime (sic) Member
Posts: 21,585
Well, they have certainly churned me. The more they dilute the value per post, the less I read.
The early travel/FF blogs were motivated by passion. They were a win-win for bloggers and readers. Now that they are motivated by money, they have become win-lose. (The loss comes in when you count the value of the readers' time.)
The early travel/FF blogs were motivated by passion. They were a win-win for bloggers and readers. Now that they are motivated by money, they have become win-lose. (The loss comes in when you count the value of the readers' time.)
#59
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,736
Well, they have certainly churned me. The more they dilute the value per post, the less I read.
The early travel/FF blogs were motivated by passion. They were a win-win for bloggers and readers. Now that they are motivated by money, they have become win-lose. (The loss comes in when you count the value of the readers' time.)
The early travel/FF blogs were motivated by passion. They were a win-win for bloggers and readers. Now that they are motivated by money, they have become win-lose. (The loss comes in when you count the value of the readers' time.)
#60
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Sacramento
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinum, Amtrak Select
Posts: 1,337
Maybe I'm too nave.... when you put "free" in quotations in regards to "free" first class travel, what expenses are you considering that make it not free? Booking fees, Credit Card Fees, time consumption? Anything else? Just booked a Business Class trip UA/TK SFO-IAD, IAD-DXB with a return MLE-SFO using Miles accrued mostly through CC signup's. Ultimately my flight is far from free, as we purchased $800 worth of miles (40K) to supplement balance and make it happen, but it's cheaper than any of it would have been for paying even an economy fare, and I had the option of transferring UR points instead, just decided not to.
I know TPG gets a lot of flak for his over-promoting of the CSP, but that card and a combination of others have made this upcoming trip possible for me (at least the comfort of business class portion of the trip)
...of course it did take a lot of CC spend to get there, and I wonder if that's part of where the skepticism about anybody being able to fly first class comes in. and the trip is going to be significantly expensive factoring in food/seaplane transfers and activities, so it's not for everyone.
I know TPG gets a lot of flak for his over-promoting of the CSP, but that card and a combination of others have made this upcoming trip possible for me (at least the comfort of business class portion of the trip)
...of course it did take a lot of CC spend to get there, and I wonder if that's part of where the skepticism about anybody being able to fly first class comes in. and the trip is going to be significantly expensive factoring in food/seaplane transfers and activities, so it's not for everyone.