Astrophsx

Yes, I think it is safe to assume a majority of people cannot meet $10,000-20,000 minimum spends without manufactured spending. There is no widespread method of MS'ing that will allow one to reach $10k-20k in a three month method period. So to list a few things that aren't free:

1) Cost to MS to meet minimum spend
2) Time/Gas lost to MS
3) Taxes
4) Annual fees (some cards do not have the first year waived)

TPG is a credit card sales man. He no longer owns his website (owned by Bankrate). He is more than happy to sell his services [taking free handouts and appearing in ads] to the same hotels, airlines, etc... that he "reviews". One thing you will notice is that you won't likely find a blogger say "I personally wouldn't sign up for this card, and I wouldn't recommend you sign up for it either".

I'm not sure about the flak he gets. He just doesn't add any value to The Hobby.

Canarsie

I know of one who has always refused to sign up for any of those credit cards and has publicly acknowledged that.

joecool1885

I know I've spent more on travel and other things than I would of had I not had a CC over the last few years, but I've still never paid a dime of interest on any charges and my annual fees are still significantly lower than even the cash portion I could redeem from the rewards I've earned (even with no MS), and my Credit is the same as ever (760-780 range). So outside of spending a bit more on luxurious vacations, what else am I missing for the downside?

It is pretty lame TPG has CC recommendations on EVERY SINGLE post on his page.

PDILLM

I never really paid attention to all the credit card offers that most of the bloggers recommended. I usually just skim the blogs to look for something new that one of the other bloggers hasn't already posted.

I ran across a new blogger a few months back and ran across one of his old post ( http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/travel-...zation-scheme/ ) and realized he was right. I went back and saw the same hype about certain credit cards over and over again. If true, the amount of money they make from referring us to credit cards is truly amazing.I used to think it was around $50, but was amazed to find out it was hundreds. Amazing...

If I do happen to get a credit card, I ALWAYS go directly to the card provider and refuse to go through their affiliate links.

Kagehitokiri

depends..

no fee store gift cards (depends on how one shops..)
low fee debit gift cards (which you may have been referring to)

Baldpacker

I've never pushed credit cards or travel insurance on my blog and do not expect I ever will unless it's truly something I would recommend to people (same goes for any gear or hotels if I start accepting freebies).

My biggest frustration with other travel blogs is that people write about and review things they haven't even experienced. I can't count the number of blog posts about "Top XX Best Trips" or "Top XX Hotels in the World" when the writer is just basing their opinion and providing statements they've found from other online sources.

Big_Foot

You seem to be a legit travel blogger, those other guys mentioned here are not.
I checked out your site and stayed there for a while which is a compliment.
I wished you found a better balance between your personal thoughts
and real travel info. Not sure, just my first impression.
For example I'm planning a Sri Lanka trip and wished you gave more specific
info/thoughts about what you liked there, what is worth seeing, rather than
loose talk about a friend who joined you from Nepal, and her bag being big,
so you didn't take a train, etc, etc, kind of boring and not meaningful.

But overall I found it more interesting than all of the Boarding Area cr@p for sure.

sbm12

Believing that Boadring Area is a collection of "travel blogs" is the first mistake. :-:

Baldpacker

Thanks for the constructive feedback and I do intend to remedy what you're talking about. When I started travel blogging it was simply my own personal travel journal - I only expected friends and family to read.

Previously, I was consulting in Yemen for an oil company (now a war zone), so I'm using my free time to try and make my blog a proper travel blog which definitely means changing my writing style and doing all of the social media promotion.

I plan to go back and edit old posts to hopefully reduce the story telling and add to the useful travel tips

Unfortunately, a lot of 'professional' travel bloggers earn a living by pushing travel insurance and credit cards too. As I learn more about social media I'm also discovering how much paid product placement there is happening for people with large audiences as well. Advertising is no longer being carried out as much in traditional in-your-face TV, magazine, newspapers etc. and they're tapping social media champions instead!

Raffles

iOS ad blocking will only make this worse.

The only upside I can envisage is that, since I usually host paid ads on my server and so they do not get blocked, it may eventually lead to more direct buying of space.

oliver2002

If you have a visitor profile that attracts advertisers The nice part of all of this is that advertisers are getting smarter and analytics are getting better too. The analytics of these 'travel' sites doesn't seem to reflect a useful visitor demographic...

Raffles

.... which you will see in 2 weeks that Randy has already realised.

If you are trying to make money selling things to a small group that is dedicated to getting the best deal possible in every possible scenario then you will be on to a loser, definitely!

My readership is fundamentally the London professional services community (consultants, bankers etc) who just happen to have earned a lot of miles and want to know more about them. That is a community you can do something with. It helps that I was part of that community for 16 years and still live in it.

isle-hawg

It is has gotten really old with the steady push of CSP cards. One of the sites seems to make it almost their top "new story" every day - which is quite the turn off for me. I get the card has benefits - have had 3 of them so far and plan to get another in a 2 or 3 years as I do not qualify now due to 14 new cc accounts in the last couple of years.

It is a good card, but not great IMO. Many bloggers are obviously making good money on those who use their links. In addition to all of us who click on their site or receive their e-mails.

I am thinking most of these folks started this out as a hobby like us with nothing but good intentions - and enjoyed sharing the knowledge but unfortunately got corrupted with the referral links - turning them more into salesman because the can see how lucrative that is for them. Much like many politicians running for office on principal but later becoming company people...

isle-hawg

Oh and to state the obvious and address the title of this thread - which is why I clicked on this thread - because some are now mostly salesman pushing the same products over and over again it makes them money.

valuetactics

I couldn't agree more. If I remember correctly Travel-Summary wrote a tell-all post a while back about how much the direct links to that card earn the host website. I think it was something like $150 per approved application. The link on my site to the card app is only there because it's the single means I have to cover my hosting costs. (And it just links to the regular 5k UR referral promo most card holders get - no quick $150 for me)

Now to be fair it's still a good card (although quickly losing it's position on the totem pole) and in light of the May 2015 tightening of UR earning card approvals, it's probably wise to put the CSP near the front of your overall card strategy. Because if it isn't, you probably won't get it (Chase's 5/24 rule). I'm currently working on a post about that aspect of an overall card strategy.

About your overall assessment: again, I agree. I have often mentally compared this to the phenomenon I read about where medieval monks whose prayers were valued because of the monk's austerity and humble living would earn big bucks for their prayer time. Eventually they would become famous and semi-wealthy and suddenly their prayers weren't seen as very valuable anymore because they had lost their humbleness.

It's a vicious cycle and I'm glad I'm not a real blogger and will probably never have to worry about that trap