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Are travel blogs losing their creativity and going downhill?

Are travel blogs losing their creativity and going downhill?

Old Jan 29, 2012, 8:45 am
  #76  
 
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I do read a number of blogs, and I have to agree that's there's a lot of redundancy. But I stick with it for a number of reasons:

1. Although there is often more information on FT, I simply don't have to time to read it all. FT is full of gold, but you have to go panning for it. For the return on time invested, the blogs hand me the info on a platter.
2. FT threads can sometimes get very difficult to follow. Even though I've been participating here for a number of years, I still don't know all the lingo. It sometimes seems as if FT posters are talking in some secret code. Information on the blogs is already digested.
3. Using a reader (I use Google Reader) allows me to go through all of the blogs that I follow pretty quickly. When I spot a redundant post, it only takes me a second to mark it as read. Without a reader, visiting the separate websites for all the points/miles blogs that I follow would be way too time consuming.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 10:21 am
  #77  
 
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Originally Posted by jaguar
I've gotten over 500K FF miles because of the travel bloggers and have no problem with their sometimes similar info and ads for credit cards.
hey jaguar, how did you manage to get the 500K miles?
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 10:54 am
  #78  
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Originally Posted by 84fiero
I don't know how much a site makes from a successful application click-through
It can range from $100-$250 from the ones I'm familiar with. There are likely others out there but not as common.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 11:10 am
  #79  
 
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There's no doubt the proliferation of credit card referrals has affected the content, but they still provide valuable information, albeit with a lot more "noise" now.
I just suggested a (non-referral) addendum to a recent post from TPG, and he updated it very quickly. But I follow him and Mommy Points, and they alerted me to the Citi Premier card. That card's thread on FT gets buried pretty quick. So when I apply, I might as well use one of their links.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 11:24 am
  #80  
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Originally Posted by Astrophsx
From "noobtraveler.com":

I cant turn on the TV, open up my laptop, or listen to the radio without hearing about TIM TEBOW. He is everywhere. This is exactly how I feel about affiliate links. Theyre all up in my face. And now that I have some of my own, I have been working on my disclaimer and this is what I came up with:

I receive a commission for some of the credit card deals on this site. I do my best to stay up to date on ALL the best offers. Let me know if there is one that I have missed. Also, 10% of all revenue I receive goes to charities, 5% to local and 5% to global charities. Its my desire to give back so I thank you for making that possible.

I have decided to place this disclaimer as its own page next to my reward credit cards pages at the top of the website. Personally, I dont want to overload my posts with the disclaimer EVERY time I write something. I also like to use a javascript affiliate link when possible so it is obvious that its an ad and I will receive a commission on the card.


My favorite line... "and now that I have some of my own"

Blogger is a fellow member on FT with 6 months and under 200 posts.

Thoughts?
No problem with people using affiliate links, but I do think that someone should tell you if they are getting cash for a referral.

Mike
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 12:39 pm
  #81  
 
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Originally Posted by sbm12
It can range from $100-$250 from the ones I'm familiar with. There are likely others out there but not as common.
$100-$250 for a CC referral? Wow, that's a lot more lucrative than I thought it would be. I thought it'd be like 10-20 bucks. Now I know how lucky pays for all those trips.

Maybe I should start a blog.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 1:09 pm
  #82  
 
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The Frugal Travel Guy blog was acquired by Internet Brands on January 23. It will be interesting to see how this affects the blog's content.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 1:52 pm
  #83  
 
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Originally Posted by csib
The Frugal Travel Guy blog was acquired by Internet Brands on January 23. It will be interesting to see how this affects the blog's content.
That content has been going downhill for a while... i mean some posts from the past few days:

Sunday - a story on using 40k (!) Delta Miles for domestic reward tickets
Saturday - Ad for the Brooklyn Reality Tour, lifted word for word from the FT post
Friday - list of 10 destinations his daughter wants to go to
Thrusday - boasting that he's a Credit Sesame "Guru" ... oh btw, he gets referrals if you sign up for their monthly service

back in the day, his site was literally the first thing i checked online in the morning. i guess it just doesn't speak to me much anymore
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 2:20 pm
  #84  
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Originally Posted by freeloader
That content has been going downhill for a while... i mean some posts from the past few days:

Sunday - a story on using 40k (!) Delta Miles for domestic reward tickets
Saturday - Ad for the Brooklyn Reality Tour, lifted word for word from the FT post
Friday - list of 10 destinations his daughter wants to go to
Thrusday - boasting that he's a Credit Sesame "Guru" ... oh btw, he gets referrals if you sign up for their monthly service

back in the day, his site was literally the first thing i checked online in the morning. i guess it just doesn't speak to me much anymore
I think it is really hard to post content daily. Either there is a lot of material or barely any. This is why you are seeing trip reports that are split up to cover 6-7 days. In Ben's case (one mile at a time) it seems that he purposely takes trips in order to blog about them. So he pays either in cash or points/miles so that he will have content for his page.

Being able to post interesting things daily takes talent and creativity. That's why I think most bloggers should not post daily. If they posted when they had good material I could just check my twitter feed to see when they've posted.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 4:41 pm
  #85  
 
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I think it is really hard to post content daily.
Then don't. Quality > quantity.

40K for DL domestic award? Sorry, that falls squarely under the category of bad advice.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 4:59 pm
  #86  
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You missed the point

Originally Posted by belfordrocks
Then don't. Quality > quantity.

40K for DL domestic award? Sorry, that falls squarely under the category of bad advice.
The story came from a reader that was thrilled to move 8 members of his family at 40k each. It was never suggested as advice. It seems to me, if the miles were in the writers account, he can do whatever he wants with them???

My advice would be to read the content accurately before criticizing.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 5:33 pm
  #87  
 
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Apologies, I had not read the blog post and was just replying to the above summary.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 6:25 pm
  #88  
 
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Well if bloggers really get about $200 per CC sign up I mean wow that is very good money there. Go them, now I am jealous

But seriously it really does not change anything, be it "a few bucks" or a "few hundred bucks" or if the bloggers got nothing, I feel the CC info deserves to be there cause its far and away the best deal in travel.

If there was an alternative way to get so many miles so easily I am sure they would hype it as well be it they got paid or not. Its just such a good and easy deal its hard to not hype it through the roof. I mean you get excited about it and you wanna share it with people, I know I got crazy excited about it myself and have been hyping the CCs up to my family and I get nothing for it.
I guess I need to start something and then I can get $200 every time my family signs up, LOL. But seriously people its exciting. I helped my wifes parents travel the world. They had never been out of the country, did not even have passports. Thanks to CCs they have been to europe a couple times and all the way to Japan ! They would have never imagined going to such places before. I think maybe some people here who either 1. are fairly well to do money wise and travel all the time anyways without cc's or 2. have jobs where they rack up tons of miles to travel on for no cost and so they people in these groups are kinda spoiled and do not see how valuable CC's are for the more common/normal person who could not travel internationally or stay in 5 star hotels under normal circumstances. I mean I hate to sound cheesy but FTG's often used quote of "traveling at prices we can all afford" really is true. CCs help normal people's dreams come true. I think there's just a lot of people here that again because they either have money or have tons of miles already, don't get how valuable an extra 50K here and there for free is. I mean take this example, I'm sure people saw the post about the guy who is going to make like 5 million in business purchases or something crazy like that and wanted to know the best credit card to use.
I mean come on that's not normal. Now many people out there do you really think are in a position to do that. Obviously there's a very lucky few out there who have alternative ways to rack up a ton of miles so a small freebie from a CC signup is probably nothing to them. But lets be realistic people that's not normal.

As far as things like more disclaimers and stuff I just don't feel that's all necessary either. I feel like if someone does not know that debt is bad for example they probably have a lot bigger problems going on. I don't want every single post to have to say here's this amazing credit card but warning credit cards are bad and you should never get in debt, etc. That's just common sense stuff to me. I mean maybe we need to hang big sign's up at every single street crossing reminding people to look both ways first... I mean you just gotta draw the line somewhere. I mean do you all wanna see huge disclaimers here on FT on every post warning you that you should not post or be reading all this because sitting all day at a PC is bad for you and you should be standing up and walking and exercising ...
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 8:44 pm
  #89  
 
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Darkhunter, I completely agree with you, and now that I've got limited work travel (a blessing) I'm more in your boat. I feel that all of these blogs should be based around that same concept - essentially how to fly first class for free. When the blogs start using large sums of cash for their trips I lose interest. I'm way better than them at being a frugal traveller, and most of them suck at it. There's the problem for me - I like their credit card advice, but the deals arent so hot right now. We could use some deals so that we don't have to get all mad about people writing about the AA Megado.
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Old Jan 29, 2012, 8:51 pm
  #90  
 
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The honest truth is, none of the currently "hyped up" credit cards offer such a good sign up bonus. For example, the Hawaiian Airlines cards that have most bloggers up in arms only offer 35K miles on signup (? not sure- plz clarify)- which is not enough for a first class or premium cabin award of any kind (except of intra-Korean awards flying KE- but who's interested in those for 30K miles?). So while say the 100K British Airways Visa, the two AAdvantage 75K Citi cards and the Chase 50K cards are good offer, things like Citi Thankyou points (oh god how I hate those), Hawaiian cards to even Southwest Rapid Rewards cards aren't worth pimping to nearly the extent that bloggers are currently doing.
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