Why do bloggers continually review the same product?
 

After reading over trip reports over the past few years I've seen a few trends:

1) The most popular bloggers review the same product multiple times.

2) Bloggers who aren't as popular go on an aspirational trip, will sometimes even reference a popular blogger's review, and then provide almost the exact same review and photos with their report.


How many times has Gary reviewed Cathay Pacific first? How many times has Ben reviewed each flagship lounge? I'm not seeing too many variables being changed. Although, with Ben's recent trip with his dad he has seemed to change his tune about Emirates. I just find it a little strange that with these trip reports of similar or the exact same product they do not come up with a new original idea on how to cover it. I think most of us could really care less about a menu change.

Examples:
Ben reviews Singapore's Private Room for a 4th time

Gary's 13+ review of Cathay Pacific First

They don't seem to be running out of content. Are they posting this stuff so they can write off the entire trip as a biz expense? If you are traveling for a vacation do you get credit for the flights and first night's stay as long as you are publishing a review to your blog? I think Brain at TPG may be guilty of this with his lackluster reviews with dimly lit iPhone photos.

They do it so they can add credit card links and get lots and lots of people who want to travel in First Class for "Free", to click on those links. When those people get the credit card the bloggers get their money and the cycle starts all over again.

This.

And also, as Astrophsx guesses, there may also be tax reasons for bloggers to review the same product over and over. Writing the same information about the fifth or sixth time doing the same thing it still still makes it a business expense. @:-)

Interestingly there doesn't seem to be much of a backlash. You'll see comments asking how many glasses of Krug were consumed. I guess these folks like to live vicariously?

I think that's sort of sad. Especially since the bloggers like to make it seem that anybody can travel for free and drink Dom and Krug. I guess they just don't care and are fans no matter what. As an aside there does seem to be a very strong fan base at OMAAT and they seem as if they don't think that Lucky can do anything wrong. So I guess that's why there isn't a backlash. I do go over every so often to read the comments. If anyone says anything negative the fans come out in force. Its funny to read. And I guess that's why they keep posting the same trip reports over and over and over again with the same credit card links. New readers, new links, new dollars. Rinse, repeat.

You are right though.. there are a plethora of One Direction and Taylor swift references that no one blinks an eye at. If you think his fans are dedicated check out the comments on Mommy Links. I can't imagine if someone were critical of her of appearances on Nightline.

Exactly, although regarding the "writing trips off" they better be bringing in some serious revenue on those adds to support those sort of expenses because when the IRS auditor shows up they are not going to show a lot of compassion for losses because not only did you want to fly First Class but you wanted to take the most expensive international FC flights that are equal to a very significant chunk of that IRS Agent's salary

I think VFTW deserves an award in this category. 3 extensive reviews of Park Hyatt Maldives in 3 consecutive years.

Correct me if I am wrong here.. is it not more complicated than this?

I believe Ben gave a break down of how he paid for his travel for 2013. If I remember only ~25% of his travel is paid for directly. The rest he states that he gets through a combination of mileage runs, purchasing miles/points directly, and through his (and his family's) credit card sign ups. I'm assuming that these paid flight are also partly mistake fares. In 2014 I believe he probably has obtained points through living at a hotel.

That may be true, but my comments still stands in terms of deducting travel expenses on a tax return, at the very least you need to have revenue to offset those funds or hobby loss comes into play, whatever that expense actually ends up being paid out of pocket and attempting to be deducted.

No need to fret: they make PLENTY of revenue pump, pump, pumping credit cards and manufactured drama to offset those expenses. ^

Even I make enough money to cover my travel costs and show a profit. Plus the IRS allows losses some times; I think the rule is every 2 or 3 years out of 5 should show profit to not be considered a hobby but I'm not really useful for tax advice.

As for why they review the same thing over and over again, most likely because they like actually consuming the product so they keep doing so. And if those are the flights you're on and you feel compelled to write a trip report for every trip then those are the flights you'll review.

I find it skews the quality of the report when there is less evidence of comparative consumption by the reviewer; how does someone know product A is better than B, C, D & E if they've never tried the others?? Some are better about that than others. But that's part of why I go out of my way to fly different carriers whenever possible.

Mostly in uninteresting economy ;)

That said, the airlines are constantly fine tuning and updating their products so things do change every other year...@:-) Even Taylor Swift has changed...

If I have to stumble upon one more Park Hyatt Vendome review, I think I'm going to freak out. :D

I can see periodically revisiting a product, to review and see if they stay consistent, improve or worsen. But as noted above, without some level of comparison to competing products, such reviews lose a lot of their meaning or helpfulness, IMHO.

However I imagine one reason we see such repeats in certain blogs is to try and capture new eyeballs that hadn't seen the 1,000 prior reviews of Cathay first or what have you and will think it's something new and interesting (oh by the way apply for this CC so you can experience this too!!!).

I see what you did there.

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....hyatt-vendome/

Yeeeeah. That's a yet-again-review twofer! Including a review of a product that will be going away soon.

Sounds legit to me.

So, I guess the complaint being made here is "Why do these awful credit card pushing bloggers still write trip reports even when it's recycling material extensively? Why can't they just go away, because they're so awful? Incidentally, I hate bloggers who push credit cards, have I mentioned that recently?"

Well, if they did we wouldn't have this lovely forum, wouldn't we? Can't have metacommentary without the commentary to be meta about.

FWIW, I've seen prolific trip report writers report on the same product multiple times in the TR forum. But they're not pushing CC's so it's all good. They should totally be allowed to write whatever they want to on whatever subject amuses them. But once you're a blogger... well... ;)

To be fair, doesn't OMAAT try out lots of different A380's?

The problem is that it seems that most bloggers travel alone, so grabbing 1 seat is hard, but 2 or even 4 is impossible. Then you factor in kids, work, etc and travel time gets reduced...It will be interesting to see if Mommypoints cuts her travel back some. Kids can only miss so much school...Or will she travel solo so she can push the credit cards...Time will tell :)

They don't talk about it much, but I think both OMAAT and VFTW travel with others. VFTW typically his wife. Most of the pronouns used on their trip reports are 'we's rather than 'I's.

But they both run award booking companies, so are constantly tracking award availability and are therefore able to snag multiple seats.

But even amateurs like me can find 2 award seats with some patience, tenacity and flexibility.

I write about the trips because I enjoy them and people read the crap out of the reports. I can only speak for me, but they're my most read posts.

I know Ben has often traveled with others. Something about using pillows to divide up a king size bed. I'm assuming when he is traveling with a friend or his dad he takes the king bed due to wanting to review a suite.

Well that's because you aren't writing about juicy topics like how to join the mile high club! :rolleyes:

This is obvious to me
 

Why does Gary have 800 reviews of CX F? Because that's what he wants to fly.

Why does Ben fly A380s over and over when most of his readers don't? Because he wants to fly them.

Neither of them care about the readers actually using their advice, they just want to enjoy their holidays. It doesn't seem to matter at all level of content as they control the market which is filled with newbies.

I just clicked on Gary's click-bait UK tax waiver headline and want to call him up and ask for my .02 in ad revenue back. That was cruel.

I have been reading both VFTW and OMAAT from day one. I no longer read their trip reports, I find them so repetitive I would rather cut myself mercilessly. They keep doing them because it fits well into their branding "Look at me, I am an expert, you can do it too!, click my credit cards).

I even did this a few times because someone challenged my expert title :D

A review of Cathay First Class will get many more clicks than a review of American Eagle regional jets. None of us like spending our time writing something that no one reads.

I've continued to write reviews of the second city domestic properties I stay in but my most-read review is of the Grand Hyatt Singapore, a hotel that many other bloggers have already written about. (And I think I got some of the clicks because I dared to say that I didn't think the Grand Club lounge was "all that", a contrarian view to many of the other reviews.)

On my TripAdvisor reviews I get the most 'reads' and 'helpful votes' on non-chain luxury hotel reviews.

Not sure why.

But of course there is no way to moentize those reviews with chain-affiliated credit card pumps, so probably not a market bloggers want to touch.

It's a different target audience though. People go to tripadvisor to specifically get advice about (usually) hotels in a certain area. I can only speak for myself, but people don't come to my blog for advice about hotels in a specific area, they come for the conversational writing style and the photography (based on feedback I've received).

I think reporting on a "typical" hotel in a certain area is only beneficial if you've stayed at similar hotels in that same area (Gary's reviews of the LAX hotels, for example). I haven't, so I don't typically write about the non-aspirational ones.

I have a bunch of pictures sitting around from the Hyatt Place Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, I'll put together a review and see how the traffic does.

It seems like there are acceptable and unacceptable products in this industry, and FT is definitely guilty of it too.

Acceptable: AA, Hyatt, Starwood, Star's non-US partners (LH only in F, SQ, TG), CX

Gray Area: Hilton, BA, Marriott

Unacceptable: DL, IHG

Not only do you have to only review the good ones, you have to continuously insult the bad ones. If you aren't making fun of Delta, you aren't blogging right.

Some of this like asking why TV networks broadcast reruns. Everyone hates it but it happens anyway. For the true hobbyist, though, nuances are key and what seems like repetitiveness to me may actually be key to helping someone spend their hard-earned miles/points in the best way (for them) possible. One guy out there, and we all know who, has even reviewed every single A380 first-class product out there! Ugh.

My favorite trip report blog posts tend to be those with new spin or new information. Recently, I liked Ben's very funny "La Compagnie" saga and Mommy Points' equally amusing mileage run report last October where she said, "I’ve never been a fan of the mileage run for many reasons, and I much prefer a ‘vacation run’ where you hang around in a city at least for a night or two to actually enjoy the travel rather than do the completely asinine thing of never leaving the airport." I'm not a Mommy Points fan at all but, really, I laugh every time I read that. Pure greatness.

If you make me laugh, I'm going to keep reading.

Edit: Oh, and CMK10, I confess to liking Spirit . . . .

Domestic US airlines are "scary" doncha know!?

If it's not LH or CX F then it's CRAP! @:-)

Something I haven't seen mentioned is that the "clicks" may be coming from Google searches. Try typing in a search with "XXX airline first class" or " xxx hotel suite". You will find that typically the top 5-10 websites listed have at least one blogger. So it may be a way to drive traffic to their page. I don't think many people are looking up information on coach seats (other than seatguru). I think more people research seats when they are premium.

Also... a majority of bloggers are not going to detail a majority of products they will have to pay full price for out of pocket. You won't see boutique hotels very often and you aren't going to see bloggers paying for a ticket with cash unless it is something that is going to have a good ROI.

In order to get the most amount of credit card sign ups it is important for a blogger to show readers obtainable travel that can be obtained with miles/points. They have to sell you on the dream before they can sell you on the cards.

That's okay, my primary carrier is Delta so I can't talk.

I'm going to review The Wing early next week. You all just wait, you'll never believe these cabana things they have.

Unless, of course, you are Denied a Cabana at Cathay Pacific’s “The Wing” First Class Lounge :eek:

This is especially funny to me because I see much of FT (and much of the various bloggers audience) as those in the corporate and/or finance world. From what I understand DL is about the only airline that is standing on solid ground in regards to those worlds, yet they receive nothing but scorn.

BTW, that is just my very layman's opinion of the matter.

One thing I think a lot of clued in people - in this case, FT readers - miss, is that normal people don't often notice stuff the first time around. And normal people are the ones that make content producers the big bucks, mainly because there are so many of them. To compensate for this, they have to write the same thing again, and again, and again. It helps that Google tries to find new stuff to promote, and the google juice from multiple articles helps the bloggers get to the top of results.

As an example, someone I know recently ran a kickstarter for some books he's written. He constantly tweets about it (at least 200+), sends kickstarter progress emails, the first book's been on Amazon for a month, and today someone tweets to him today: "Noticed the new book is out - have I been living under a rock?" Well, yup. Most people, for the purposes of this discussion, are living under a rock, and the repetition is necessary to have any chance of reaching them at all.

It feels spammy to the people paying attention, but is a part of the dance that content producers must take part in to get to the regular folk.

Why you see the same reviews over and over again
 

I'm not sure which (probably several) of the threads here has concerns about how all you read is the same trip report over and over again and why isn't there more diversity of content. I generally happen to agree and don't often write about my flights, but maybe I should.

My traffic volume yesterday was pretty solid. Definitely consistent with what I've seen for the first 6 weeks of this year if I publish a couple stories. So in that sense I'd argue is it a reasonably "average" day to evaluate from. I posted three stories. One about a UA BF flight, one about DL's idiotic seat assignments and one about SPG point values. I happen to think that only the SPG post is really valuable but the others were quick to write and somewhat entertaining so I pushed them. Those three posts represented ~58% of the traffic on my blog for the day. And the "stupid" trip report got the most page views, about 10% more than the DL seat assignment story.

http://gallery.millerworks.net/photo.../i-Rzvxrz6.jpg

Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that's where the money was. Seems like that might be the same thing for bloggers and trip reports.

Just some food for thought.

And, no, I'm not going to write more of the same trip reports. Mostly because I don't fly the same trips nearly as much and I still mostly think writing them is boring.

A corollary here that bears emphasis is that all trip reports aren't created equal. Techgirl (Jetsetter's Homestead) has said that her mainstream -- read "repetitive" -- hotel reviews garner way more eyeballs than do reports about more out-of-the-way places that haven't been reviewed before.

Maybe I'm confusing entertainment value with actual utility. For entertainment, I'm not going to read the same stuff twice. For deciding whether to spend my hard-earned points at the Paris XXX or the Paris YYY, maybe I'd try to read all the reviews I could possibly find.

Since I generally don't stay in chain hotels myself, I'm kind of guessing here.

Seth,

Your blog is interesting and enjoyable because it's not a me too blog. ^

Concur. ^

Let others be the USA Today of blogs. I, for one, appreciate your The Economist approach. ^