Start of PointsTutor.com
 

Hello Everyone,

I'm a fellow points lover and have started my blog PointsTutor.com. While I did start this blog a year ago, I unfortunately lost quite a bit of my blog when I migrated it to a new host and thus I am relaunching my site.

My aim of the blog is to teach others about the points game and how to achieve travel for free or pennies on the dollar and also learn more about the subject myself. I'll focus on what credit cards and tactics I think are best for earning the most amount of points for the average joe. I'll also write about my own success and travels using points. While I will recommend credit cards, I promise I will not pimp them out like other bloggers do (I don't have any affiliate links for that matter either).

So please check out my site PointsTutor.com and let me know what you think! Any suggestions or comments are warmly welcomed. If anyone has a request for a certain post by all means please ask.

(If self promotion is not allowed in this section, by all means please delete this post and I apologize in advance.)

Hey, Pimpy McPimperson - I read your blog for all of 30 seconds before you suggested I support you by applying for an SPG and Sapphire cards. Scarlet Pimpernel....

I'm sorry you were put off by my request to use my personal referrals for these credit cards. I merely have a hope that everyone in the points community refers each other as much as possible to earn everyone the most amount of points. I'll gladly update my post to reflect that. You are more than welcome post your own referrals in the comments section if you'd like for the SPG Amex and CSP cards.

what?
 

Do you realize you are the 1,345,576th (or fairly close) doing this?

You should read the "new blogger checklist" a blog reader left as a comment some time ago.

http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/two-mus...ger-checklist/

I applaud your effort but, respectfully, I think your efforts can be most effectively used elsewhere.

Good luck!

Making a new points website in 2016 is rough; I'd recommend submitting your stuff to established folks to see if they'll take you on as a contributor - if your heart is set on writing.

For your site - if the photos aren't yours, you need to credit it after getting permission to use it. You can also pay for a subscription to sites like Shutterstock to use stock photos.

How to do you plan to drive traffic to the site?

Need to have a real strategy to overcome the established players.

Good luck!

Some good advice here.

Good luck!!! ^

This. Reverse image searching showed me you used images from W Hotels, Alaska Airlines, and Jumeirah Hotels without attribution and (I imagine) without permission. This is a quick way to end up on the wrong side of some nasty emails from legal departments. Some skip the emails entirely and just send you an invoice. (I may or may not be part of the second camp...)

Best of luck with the venture. It's a crowded space, so find your voice, write well, and put your readers first. It's a crazy segment of the internet but I've had a lot of fun over the past 3.5 years writing my blog.

Thank you for everyones advice thus far! I understand there are many other blogs out there and that's completely fine with me. No matter what you do in life, there will always be competition. If people like my writing and the topics I cover, I believe they'll start following me along with the other "big" guys. If I don't get a solid following, that's fine with me as well and all I hope is that I at least converted a few people to start collecting points.

As for the images, I will certainly start naming the owners of them. I was under the assumption if I name the hotel in the same post that that should be fine.

In terms of creating traffic, I plan to utilize social media, comment on fellow bloggers blogs, become more active and not be such a lurker on FT, and hopefully guest write on others blogs. If anyone has any other suggestions, by all means please do share.

+1

Images are intellectual property. Iff you used my photos without permission (I sell photos on Getty), I would send you a letter and a invoice.

Just naming the original source is not always sufficient to meet the requirements of copyright. If you posted photos I took - even with a link to my site - and I discovered it you'd find yourself on the receiving end of an invoice and legal take-down notice.

Realistically, if you're writing about Emirates and you use an official Emirates picture then you're fine. This has never caused me any major concern. It is 90% certain these pictures are available for download from their media sites anyway.

The only issue I had ever had was where I accidentally used a plane photo which was from Wikipedia and I was asked to add a credit, which I did.

Although the worst that can happen is that you will be refused or given the opportunity to purchase, you might be surprised just how easy it is to get official permission to use photographs in your articles.

All it takes is a simple e-mail message which includes the link to your weblog and a request for permission — as well as the topic of the article in which you intend to use it.

I speak from experience: I have never yet had a request for permission to use a photograph denied; and in fact I have been thanked for asking.

More about HT and fair use of images is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/exter...-you-copy.html

Not off to a great start...

Can't imagine how much copywrite infringement you have engaged in if this is your first time getting scolded and you've had the blog for a year.

Might be wise to hire an attorney ��

IMHO, this is a huge (personal) issue. You have 14 posts (as I write this reply) on FlyerTalk. Why have you NOT been engaged with the FlyerTalk community?

Why even start a site before becoming engaged and "giving back?"

Hey, I am far from perfect (actually, pretty flawed); but I very highly value the many questions (and private messages) I have answered on FlyerTalk for quite a few years. I have always felt, it's the least I can do; since I have received so much "free" knowledge.

It's much more than just "saying" you will be involved! Do it!! :D:D:D

It looks like on of your first series is on traveling to the Maldives using miles/points. So many of the bigger name points & miles bloggers have already worn out that destination with repeated posts, trip reports, and advice on the Maldives. No one will come to an upstart blog to figure out how to afford travel to the Maldives when there is more than enough info out there already from established sites. I'd suggest looking for some "fresher" destinations or topics...which won't be easy in the P&M blog realm.

Also the headline for the first part of your Maldives series is "How to travel to the Maldives for free". It isn't actually all free, so stick to a headline that is attractive but still honest.

Good luck!

This.

Years ago I launched a small blogging venture (nothing remotely miles and points related, and maybe calling it a "venture" is generous), so I sympathize - but for Pete's sake, don't give the blogosphere another "Maldives on points" post.

Your niche is not specific enough. Aim for a demographic or community of travelers, or focus on a type of travel, but it's got to be broader than just "helping the average joe", etc. - TPG, OMAAT, and all the rest have been doing that for years.

Hope it works out for you! Best of luck.

How about you tell us: Why are you different?

Cause the Maldives screams of worn out cliché

The Maldives? Ok, waiting for the Vendome post next:D

I would say EK F would round out the trifecta, but after the AS deval...

I'll skip the copyright talk as others have already but a few things I noticed......

1. Your twitter should be ONLY about your blog, don't post about the masters, people follow you for travel/points talk not golf. And learn to shorten your urls it will save you space and make your tweets look better.

2. About Me page is not really about you..well it is...vaguely. None of the pics work (at least for me, could very well be my picky comcrap connection) but your about me page needs to be more engaging. I'll give you an example if I was in your shoes......

Course its a lot easier to write when it isn't nearly 1am and exhausted but you get the idea here.

URLs are auto-shortened and are a common length, regardless of what you paste in the compose box; that's not an issue at all.

As for the personality of the twitter account, a very subjective decision. And I disagree with your assertion that it should be one-dimensional rather than having personality/character to it as crafted by the author.

In my experience, not automatically in some "dashboard" systems like Hootsuite. Though, there is a very easy link shortening interface in the composition box.

I've been using Hootsuite for more than a year now. Regardless of the URL I paste in the composition box it is shortened on the server-side and consumes ~25 characters of the tweet. See attached showing 117 characters remaining with the URL for this thread pasted in.

AFAIK Twitter now manages link shortening, regardless of the client/API interface, using t.co links. What is displayed in the UI is not necessarily what the underlying URL in the tweet is.

This is true. But I guess I always considered ~25 characters to be too long; when you can have the same URL around ~16 characters. Perhaps, I am hashtag obsessed or always want the fewest characters for a link (in a tweet). (i.e. I want more characters for things other than links...)

Even if you self-shorten to 16 characters it'll be the 23-25 in Twitter because of the t.co system.

ah good to know! thanks for the info, guess I just showed how much I post on twitter :P lol

I can agree with it not being one dimensional, I guess I'd just one of those keep business with business and personal with personal.

Came back expecting a response from the OP, got a long discussion on link shortening.

Seems like it belongs on BA

:D