How many blog [CC] affiliate links have you used?
 

So..I've been doing this MS/points/miles thing for a few years now. Got in on
some easy MS, and missed out on others.

I've read my fair share of blogs -

doc, frequentmiler, travelisfree, travelcodex, milevalue, onemileatatime mostly.. sometimes - travelwithgrant, upgradedpoints, milecards, tpg, welltraveledmile, milestomemories, mms, and a smattering of other random ones. There's another one that I don't remember the name of...some Asian woman does that. Her picture is in the corner anyway. [Edit: travelsort!]

So..I've realized I have only signed up for 1 card on an affiliate link - travelisfree a couple years ago. I have also clicked on Amazon/ebay from DOC and Travelwithgrant.

I need to do better.

The issue I've realized lately is certain cards aren't being offered on affiliate links. Nor are things like links with no 24-month language or incognito ones. Some cards might of been affiliate at one point, but it doesn't appear to be the case now. Or the personal is affiliate but the business is not (Marriott Business for example which I recently got). My recent B of A Asiana appears to have once been affiliate but not recently.

Also part of me earlier has avoided affiliate links because "they didn't offer the best deal" (Looking at TPG here) or it s shameless shilling, so to speak - "so I just avoid all of them." Or worries that if I go through an affiliate link my odds of getting approved might go down.

I have on my list to support frequentmiler (Barclay Arrival) and milevalue (Alaska Air? SPG Business?) if possible with my next CC applications.
Onemileatatime is also deserving. Going forward, I think I am willing to sacrifice a little to not get the best offer, if that is the case, if I can help a blogger I read.

I read a travelbloggerbuzz article about the life and death of many miles and points blogs.

http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/a-deep-...ts-blog-space/


What is your experience with this?

I think another thing is when you get information from so many different sources you don't link it to any one individual or blogger. When I used the affiliate with travelisfree the specific info was so valuable and relatively unique.

but as I've settled on few blogs to regularly reference, I know I should go out of my way to support them - especially when they've helped me make or save $$.

I usually use Award Wallet's affiliate links. It's a service that I use almost daily so I want support them.

As this topic is more about blogs and their affiliate links than actual Manufactured Spending the thread has been relocated to the External Miles and Points Resources forum for further discussion.

tcook052
on behalf of MS forum moderators

God, I hope zero.

I made and have a standing offer to use any blogger's affiliate link...so long as they split the payment with me. None have taken me up on the offer. And I'm in the clear on time and app limits currently!

As you've discovered OP, you definitely need to shop around and make sure you're applying for the best available offer, no matter what. The CC forums on FT are a good place to spot check what's current.

Very few of the points & miles bloggers will even mention if a better, non-affiliate offer is available. Or warn you about other ramifications. Those folks don't have your best interests at heart any more than Target or Honda or United Airlines does - it's a business.

I have occasionally used affiliate links of sites that are trustworthy and that I appreciate reading (and where the offer was just as good). I haven't kept track though to tell you how many.

Used to apply through FrequentMiler, however his posts over the last couple years were so far from where he started out - so i stopped and apply directly through the banks

Most of the entries I am seeing are from his hired help. Though, sometimes their daily deals and what not are pretty good.

I usually check to see if any friends or FT'ers have referral links before going straight to the bank. I've used FrequentMiler's from time to time.

It's too bad there isn't a blog that is non-profit or charity who donated the commissions to charity.

The cookies probably have a 14-28 day life. People don't understand this. Click a link, apply direct 3 weeks later, blogger is still paid.

didn't think about that.... when I buy through Topcashback, etc...I usually delete my browser history and cookies, so I know I have periodically cleaned house so to speak.

despite that...I wonder how many bloggers / which ones I may have inadvertently supported in this way? I can eliminate the no 24 month language ones and incognito ones. Certain bloggers I am careful to generally not click any of the actual app links, just sticking with the content.

And some bloggers don't hawk CCs aggressively at all. like travelisfree and doc - no affiliate links.

Seems to be some hate for bloggers on FT. I can understand why for some of them. Killed some gooses. But I've gotten valuable info from various ones. And I know they mention the best offers available - except for a few, which I typically don't care for their writing style anyway...so I don't bother. I often have compared to what is on FT to make sure I get the latest.

Zero. I also don't do blogs.

Many of them simply lift information that's been posted on FT. I agree they have killed the miles/points game.

Well that's just it. Boardingarea does nothing to clamp down on clickbait. There are specific bloggers who make a living by posting targeted deals that 99% of their readers do not have access to, knowing if they click that link to see if they are targeted, that the blogger will get a pay out if the reader purchases something within the next 24 hours. As long as the top three BA bloggers stay loyal I guess there will always be a place for that site. Too bad they don't use the Uber model where you can rate each article and enough bad reviews leads to the blogger being removed from the site. Would push the bloggers to be more honest and also stop making their blogs like their personal diaries so they can push out 3-4 posts a day.

How have they killed it? Maybe they've killed MS, but nowadays the airlines have killed the USE of miles. Even without bloggers the airlines would have caught on how profitable it was to tell miles to credit card companies and allow them to give away 100k sign up bonuses. Now you can have 100k AA miles and barely be able to use them. Without bloggers it would have just been a 4-5 year wait till social media influencers came along to take their place.

They killed it by constantly publicizing the sign up bonuses, back doors, MS, and hotel points bonuses.

The inability to use them started with the glut of points/miles being out there and people trying to use them, not the other way around.

The game had lessened, but I believe it's current state is directly due to all the people jumping on the free vacation bandwagon.

These blogs started a long time ago as a labor of love and turned into a labor of profit.

Careful, if you point out how hard it is to use aa miles some smart Alec will suggest you PM him to give you all your miles. :rolleyes:

zero. never have, never will. I don't see the need to indirectly fund bloggers lavish lifestyles when all they do is copy and paste info they get from forums and post trip reports of their first class flights.

I'm all for supporting the bloggers I read. Is every post a gold mine of useful information? No. But, I figure if they save me a little money or add a little value to my travels they deserve a kick-back.

At the same time, a majority of blogs that push referral links to inferior offers so they can get a commission. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but Doctor of Credit does not even provide links and yet seems to survive.

This model was very successful for affiliates back in the days of online poker and sportsbooks.

A friend of mine rebated a significant % of his affiliate commissions back to the person signing up. He was the first to offer a program like this and became one of the biggest affiliate sites on the Net. He banked a $$$ fortune because of the generous split he offered. Customers earned "points" for signing up to various sites and these points could then be redeemed for various gift cards for major retailers.

I'm not sure if it's greed, ignorance or some sort of regulatory requirement but if a blogger could use this model with CC signups he/she would almost immediately corner the market.

No, you're definitely right. If bloggers aren't pushing the best offers then they don't deserves a dime.

Contractual (not regulatory, but still...) compliance sucks, doesn't it?? :p

Interesting thread, some facts I would like to throw in here:

Regarding splitting commissions, it is explicitly forbidden. The risk is too great to be found out as the punishment is having your links taken away.

Most bloggers started this as a hobby. Some have managed to make it a huge business.

It is the responsibility of each blog reader to reward good blogging practices and blogs that ADD value to them.

Most blogs quit due to life changes and/or not getting enough support from readers.

When you post on the internet you will attract trolls/haters. If you do not have a thick head you should not become a blogger.

In my blog I review miles and points blogs. I keep a list of blogs I love, like and ignore. Many of the blogs the OP mentioned are in the Ignore list. ...! But hey, if they add value to you please support them.

This is not a hobby anymore. This hobby thrives in being under the radar. And the airline/hotel industry is incredibly different from many years ago. Commercial blogs are a HUGE reason for the hobby slowly disappearing...This will reverse when most blogs quit when the banks stop paying fat commissions to keep selling credit cards to newbies----->people who never had a travel rewards credit card before and are probably not suited to managing credit responsibly...

I could go on...

You're specifically talking about the application page link or their blog link in general?

The general rule is any click which takes you to the website of the company concerned.

So, for example, if a blogger mentions a competition that Chase is running on its website and you click though to it, that will set a cookie which will pay if you take out any card from Chase via their site over the coming weeks.

Zero. I'd rather give the credit to a friend or family member or frankly to no one rather than to a shill.

So using Award Wallet as an example, there is a banner on the left side of the page advertising current offers from Amex, Barclay, Chase, etc., If I'm only reading the blog on this site, maybe commenting to earn 5 AA miles, and or checking my miles and points totals.

Am I cookied to the point if I apply for any of the same cards they're promoting on another site or Incognito with a better offer than they are showing they still get paid? Or do I have to click on one of their card links to keep the cookie clock running?

Reading a site with an ad on it doesn't set the affiliate referral cookie. Clicking on it does.

Note that Award Wallet sets affiliate cookies when you auto log-in, unless you turn off the option in settings.

Didn't know that did you?

Whenever you ask it to, for example, auto log-in to Hilton you are handing AW a chunk of your Hilton bookings for the next 14 days.

What setting? I don't see anywhere for those type of settings on the website nor on my phone.

I don't use AW, but I'm not at all surprised. If you click through from my site to Hilton I take a cut, too. Don't you??

I went and search the web site and found it under my profile. BUT, you have to be an AW Plus member, of which I no longer am, to stop them from putting cookies on your computer during auto login.

The miles/points game has been more seriously compromised/injured/killed off by government allowances for customer-unfriendly mergers/acquisitions/acts by the companies owning/operating loyalty program than by the bloggers playing the miles/points game.

I do. I was just making the point that claiming you never fund a blogger is a trickier claim to make than you might think!

(By the way, my original comment was not aimed at you even though it was under yours. It was aimed at the person above who mentioned AW.)

Good thing I don't use AW. I tried it once. I don't trust a single source to have all my account info, just like I never use those cloud password or browser schemes. Keepass is good for me.

Will be more diligent about cleaning the browser cookies before applying for anything. Though I have used social media cookie blocker...not sure if that has helped block certain cookies. Probably not.

Late to the party here, but the reason this isn't done is that if a blogger was caught doing this they would be immediately and unceremoniously kicked out of any credit card affiliate programs. It's very much against the terms.

And I know this well because I pioneered exactly the program you describe around 2010 with my previous website, Hotel Magician. I built a system to track and it worked well for a short time. Then the rules changed because issuers didn't want churners or others who were doing it just for the signup bonus (/ commission). And then it because outright against the terms.

So, that's why :)