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DansDeals - Time for a Master Thread?

DansDeals - Time for a Master Thread?

Old May 25, 2016, 11:05 am
  #1  
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DansDeals - Time for a Master Thread?

I couldn't find a master thread for DansDeals (http://www.dansdeals.com) and I'm aware that Dan doesn't exclusively cover the travel/miles/manufactured spending space that most other bloggers we cover do, but he does spend enough time on travel/miles/MS that I figured a thread is in order.

Let me state that I'm a huge fan of Dan from the business perspective. I'm pretty sure he's making money in the Ben and Gary range but he goes about it from a relatively different angle. Sure, he mines the credit card space aplenty, but he also really works the affiliate angle - so much that, I believe, he prohibits talk of cashback and miles affiliate sites on his forums. He also has some regular sponsors like Plaza Auto Leasing and he has banner ads.

Part of my admiration of Dan is from years ago when he demonstrated extreme patience and willingness to help. He'd post about, say, a T-Fal deal at Amazon, and someone would ask in the comments about help with a rental car rate in Brazil. And Dan would answer these not-even-tangentially-related questions. Patiently. He really went the extra mile for his readers, and he built a really solid fan base.

Because he never allowed affiliate talk, things like the Amex GC deals never made it to his readers. That was a shame for them, but maybe a good thing for everyone else. Of course, his readers may have read multiple blogs like we all do, so maybe they learned from other sources.

Anyway, as an admirer but also critic of Dan, I wanted to open up the discussion.

I was especially annoyed with Dan this morning and he made me think of Gary's clickbait titles when I saw "Today Only: Save Up To 91% On Luggage And Travel Accessories From Amazon." Naturally, as a long-time reader of Dan, I was suspicious, but he does unveil great Amazon deals at times, so I took the bait. One such "91% off" deal is Amazon item number B0183QG0G0. That's a "Columbia Chill Out Three Piece Rolling Luggage Set" regular price $920.60, now $87.39. I don't know what a reasonable 'original' price for this item is, but there's no way it's north of $250 (it doesn't appear on Columbia's site - maybe it's even counterfeit?). The fact that he not only doesn't call out Amazon for this BS on the pricing, but attempts to use it to his advantage is both misleading to his readers and it furthers the deceit on Amazon.

I know bloggers aren't the Fourth Estate, but I expect better, at least, a little better, from Dan.
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Old May 25, 2016, 11:54 am
  #2  
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Originally Posted by josephstern
I couldn't find a master thread for DansDeals (http://www.dansdeals.com) and I'm aware that Dan doesn't exclusively cover the travel/miles/manufactured spending space that most other bloggers we cover do, but he does spend enough time on travel/miles/MS that I figured a thread is in order.

[...]

I know bloggers aren't the Fourth Estate, but I expect better, at least, a little better, from Dan.
Isn't he one of those who will do just about anything to get his Amazon affiliate cookie into your browser?

Last edited by oliver2002; May 29, 2016 at 11:31 am Reason: truncated long quote
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Old May 25, 2016, 11:58 am
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Originally Posted by josephstern
Let me state that I'm a huge fan of Dan from the business perspective. I'm pretty sure he's making money in the Ben and Gary range but he goes about it from a relatively different angle.
I don't know income levels, but Gary has direct links to AMEX, Barclays, Chase, Citi, etc.

I only have direct AMEX links and we'll see how long that lasts.

I probably should have made top 10 card roundups every month like those guys do, but for better or worse I went with a strategy of only making credit card posts that are new and add value, something that even TBB has acknowledged over the years.


Originally Posted by josephstern
Sure, he mines the credit card space aplenty, but he also really works the affiliate angle - so much that, I believe, he prohibits talk of cashback and miles affiliate sites on his forums.
I started blogging in 2004 while volunteering for a year in Brazil as a 19-20 year old.

I started monetizing via affiliate marketing in 2006, long before most other blogs were around and had relationships with AMEX and Chase 5 years before TPG and the BA blogs came onboard.
It was very different back then, much less commercial. No quotas or compliance departments.

I got married and then came the great recession and the bank programs all closed. But I stuck with it and run DD today together with my brother JJ.

Those forum rules are the same as on the far larger and older SD forums. The forums are ad-free, but they still cost money to maintain.

Originally Posted by josephstern
Part of my admiration of Dan is from years ago when he demonstrated extreme patience and willingness to help. He'd post about, say, a T-Fal deal at Amazon, and someone would ask in the comments about help with a rental car rate in Brazil. And Dan would answer these not-even-tangentially-related questions. Patiently. He really went the extra mile for his readers, and he built a really solid fan base.
It goes hand in hand, but thanks. The DD forums and FB groups are really extensions of the forums and I spend most of time time tackling questions there. Things like that and the 15 seminars I did for charity are of course intended to generate loyalty, but it still takes effort.

Originally Posted by josephstern
Because he never allowed affiliate talk, things like the Amex GC deals never made it to his readers. That was a shame for them, but maybe a good thing for everyone else. Of course, his readers may have read multiple blogs like we all do, so maybe they learned from other sources.
You can say the same for the SD crowd. But plenty of the DD forum members participate in FT, etc. I don't think the daily users have a problem with the forum rules, in fact they go out of their way to help me continue to make a living and do this full time, despite not having the kind of relationships that TPG/MMS/VFTW/FTG have. And I'm very appreciative of that.

Originally Posted by josephstern
Anyway, as an admirer but also critic of Dan, I wanted to open up the discussion.

I was especially annoyed with Dan this morning and he made me think of Gary's clickbait titles when I saw "Today Only: Save Up To 91% On Luggage And Travel Accessories From Amazon." Naturally, as a long-time reader of Dan, I was suspicious, but he does unveil great Amazon deals at times, so I took the bait. One such "91% off" deal is Amazon item number B0183QG0G0. That's a "Columbia Chill Out Three Piece Rolling Luggage Set" regular price $920.60, now $87.39. I don't know what a reasonable 'original' price for this item is, but there's no way it's north of $250 (it doesn't appear on Columbia's site - maybe it's even counterfeit?). The fact that he not only doesn't call out Amazon for this BS on the pricing, but attempts to use it to his advantage is both misleading to his readers and it furthers the deceit on Amazon.
.
I despise clickbait titles and always try to be as descriptive as possible. I never believe that a click is worthwhile when it makes the person kick himself for opening it.

Most of the Amazon/eBay deals are actually authored by JJ (every post has the author listed)

He seems to have taken the largest discount listed on Amazon's site. It seems that he took the listed percentage discount from an item on sale. Perhaps he should have used the up to 60% language that Amazon uses rather then the biggest discount on the page, though there's no real way of verifying that either, besides for taking Amazon's word on it.

Originally Posted by josephstern
I know bloggers aren't the Fourth Estate, but I expect better, at least, a little better, from Dan.
I'm always open to change, what would you propose is a better title?

ETA: I've edited the post to show 60% now.
levilevi likes this.

Last edited by ctownflyer; May 25, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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Old May 25, 2016, 12:00 pm
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Isn't he one of those who will do just about anything to get his Amazon affiliate cookie into your browser?
Anything?
JJ posts good deals that he finds that he thinks readers will like. We track visitor levels and referrals to know if something is popular or not.
Besides, an Amazon cookie only lasts for 24 hours, so if the item isn't interesting it won't create much of any financial benefit.
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Old May 25, 2016, 12:26 pm
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
Anything?
JJ posts good deals that he finds that he thinks readers will like. We track visitor levels and referrals to know if something is popular or not.
Besides, an Amazon cookie only lasts for 24 hours, so if the item isn't interesting it won't create much of any financial benefit.
"...just about anything..." ^
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Old May 25, 2016, 12:29 pm
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
"...just about anything..." ^
Would a thought leader like you click on half priced diapers just because you see a link for them?
Now if we labeled the diapers as 1K free United miles to get you to click on them, that would be doing anything
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Old May 25, 2016, 1:14 pm
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
Would a thought leader like you click on half priced diapers just because you see a link for them?
Now if we labeled the diapers as 1K free United miles to get you to click on them, that would be doing anything
Meh, my wife does all the Amazon shopping. And she hates kids.

Now if you could get me $1500-$1800 business class tickets to London in September, I'd click the HELL out of that! ^
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Old May 25, 2016, 1:24 pm
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Meh, my wife does all the Amazon shopping. And she hates kids.

Now if you could get me $1500-$1800 business class tickets to London in September, I'd click the HELL out of that! ^
Took my 4 year old son last month to SFO to experience 747 J class upstairs before UA retires it. Got to sit in the cockpit and had the time of his life. But some thought leaders here just want to ban kids, despite the adults on the flight that acted worse than he did

There's $1,400 to TLV via LHR in J on my site. See a new city and take a 23 hour connection each way. Go by July and earn 42K miles with the TATL bonus
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:14 pm
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
Took my 4 year old son last month to SFO to experience 747 J class upstairs before UA retires it. Got to sit in the cockpit and had the time of his life. But some thought leaders here just want to ban kids, despite the adults on the flight that acted worse than he did

There's $1,400 to TLV via LHR in J on my site. See a new city and take a 23 hour connection each way. Go by July and earn 42K miles with the TATL bonus
I flew to Hawaii MSP-HNL on the upper deck of a NW 744 when I was 4.

I'm going DTW-ICN upper deck in July so that I can experience the upper deck before they are retired.

Those statements are not mutually exclusive.
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:17 pm
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If you want to see in-action the kind of crowd that assists in ruining deals (or tightening of program rules, lesser benefits, etc.), then just head on over to DansDeals "Goods For Sale/Trade" forum.
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:29 pm
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Originally Posted by CodeAdam10
If you want to see in-action the kind of crowd that assists in ruining deals (or tightening of program rules, lesser benefits, etc.), then just head on over to DansDeals "Goods For Sale/Trade" forum.
How is it different than coupon connection?
Is there something specific that changed because of that board?
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:42 pm
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
How is it different than coupon connection?
Is there something specific that changed because of that board?
Really? It's an all-you-can-eat-free-for-all buffet special. Please tell me you're not serious with your question.

I will not explain the differences to you because the Dan I know is clearly smart enough to understand the difference himself. However, as a small example, you allow trades of award night certificates (Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, etc) for cash ... something not allowed on Coupon Connection because of the terms of the program and/or those certificates.
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:52 pm
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1. Miles aren't allowed for sale on that forum as airlines enforce that the sale of miles strongly and members wound up losing miles. That hasn't happened with nights over the past 8 years of DDF, so I ask, what exactly has been devalued or changed due to their sale there?

2. Programs disallow bartering exactly as they disallow sale, so again, I ask what's the difference and why don't you complain about what goes on in CC or blame that for alleged lesser benefits that you haven't yet specified?
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Old May 25, 2016, 3:04 pm
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
1. Miles aren't allowed for sale on that forum as airlines enforce that the sale of miles strongly and members wound up losing miles. That hasn't happened with nights over the past 8 years of DDF, so I ask, what exactly has been devalued or changed due to their sale there?

2. Programs disallow bartering exactly as they disallow sale, so again, I ask what's the difference and why don't you complain about what goes on in CC or blame that for alleged lesser benefits that you haven't yet specified?
You are being defensive without being objective.

You critique bloggers here at times and I had always wondered if you would be able to handle some criticism yourself.

Out of respect for you I had worded my original post very carefully "...the kind of crowd that assists"

Now you are just behaving like any other BA blogger who feel they can do no wrong.

"Goods For Sale/Trade" is what some would refer to as the "black market" - whether you see it that way or not.

And why the constant comparison with CC? Are you saying it is justified if someone else has a similar platform?

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Old May 25, 2016, 3:14 pm
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My take is that you're slandering a group of 20K forum members (assisting in alleged tighter program rules) without basis and I was just wondering whether you have done the same to the forum that you're on?

Call it defensive if you want, but I can see why more bloggers don't participate in this board.
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