Miles for Family says goodbye…
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The Opportunity Cost of Being a Miles & Points Blogger – Miles For Family
Even though I was not a reader after one of the legendary TBB Feedly blog purges, I really appreciated the effort she put into this and into finding her own voice. Frankly, I was very surprised this blog had not folded earlier! She makes many great points about the costs of being a blogger in this space. Really, you have no idea the time that goes into this. You only get it when you start your own blog! I think many of us will be better off quitting and focusing on things that matter more. You do this only if you are into it to make money or are absolutely passionate about it and/or contain a certain level of insanity DNA in you.Well, I think I belong in the second category, the one with the passion and insanity I mean lol.
I will make some comments on selected parts of the post:
“I’m so busy documenting my life, sometimes I forget to actually live it.“ – I think that was the best line of the post. I know so many bloggers so into the “work” of blogging that get so consumed by it. Hey you, take a break, nobody is going to miss you that much. Really!
“Hostile atmosphere of miles and points blogging industry makes it a very unpleasant place to work.“ – You can not please everyone. You develop haters and trolls. If not, nobody really knows your blog…so I see it as a sign of recognition I guess. Do NOT get into blogging if you do NOT have a thick skin and can brush off the sometimes awful remarks, even directed at you personally (which is always douche baggy). Then again if you put out a piece of work and readers comment on it LEARN from what they are saying! They take their time to give you feedback, they care! Of course it is easy to single out the haters and trolls…so laugh at them, ignore them and feel sorry about them having nothing else to do than posting their crap!
“It’s a lot of work.” – It sure is. But then again how do you define “work”? I spend lots of time in my business but I just do not see it as actual work. Work is something you have to do for the money (you know, like placing 55 credit card affiliate links in one *&%$ing post!). I have a different life philosophy. Do something you truly enjoy and are passionate about and the money will take care of itself. Same with blogging. This is not work for me, I enjoy it. Heck, I enjoy most the interaction with the readers and just having an avenue to direct some of my insanity I guess. Has blogging here kept me from redirecting this time towards other business opportunities that would provide more financial success? Absolutely! So I lose some money, big effing deal! I am about to become 48 years old and I never did things purely for the money up to this date, why start now huh? Ok, I am not sure what is the point I was trying to make. Oh yeah, for young bloggers who are now starting their careers they will be better off learning actual marketable skills instead of messing with this blogging thing because it can be so consuming indeed!
“I feel like I’ve mostly said what I was going to say. If I continue, I’ll have to stick to covering news items. Does this industry need another blog doing it? I don’t think so.” – Oh Dear God, yes yes yes, sooooo many other blogs I can think of that fall in this slot 🙂
“Support bloggers who benefit you: Use their affiliate links, comment and email them. Do ALL of the above” – Well, I have been saying that for a long long time.
And then it goes on to thank primarily Million Mile Secrets and then I got really angry lol. MMS “helped” Miles for Family because it is, well, great business! I am starting to shake my head violently so I will move on, thank you for understanding.
Don’t let this hobby take over your life. Enough said. – Yeah, really. Good advice. It is time for me to go to once a week Buzz post, say every Monday or so. The rest of the days I may put some thoughts down like I did here whenever my time allows. I recently started helping two clients who are business owners with large 401k Plans. It’s exciting and challenging! I have said this so many times you probably do not believe me by now…but it is time to start toning it down here at TBB. I think it may have to do that with the fact that the whole space is just not as exciting as it was in the earlier years with so much consolidation, revenue basing, devaluations and deal killing galore…Please ignore the pumping like I do!
So, to the Miles For Family blogger, thank you for your contributions, good job on sticking it out and finding your quirky voice and all the best in your future endeavors.
And it is now time for me to stop Feedlying and writing so much here and get back into my former writing groove for that other blog before they kick me out!
Rock on, TBB on, whichever you prefer!
TBB
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turd
It is hard work. I was doing 2-3 hours a night on holiday over Easter and that was with quite a bit of stuff pre-written. Part of that, of course, is that I always reply to reader emails so that is 20 emails daily before I even start on stuff the general readers will see.
Other people also don’t see the PR stuff, affiliate stuff etc that flies back and forth. Readers want to meet for lunch – happy to do so, but each one is 3 hours out of my day. I spent 1.5 days with SPG last week. Etihad want me to spend a day with them the week after next. It adds up.
There is other stuff as well. I recently spent 80 hours (spread over a number of weeks) changing posts written on wordpress.org into the format I use now on wordpress.com. It all adds up …
Why did you switch from WordPress.org to WordPress.com? Thought the natural progression was from .com to .org.
Yes, native advertising takes time and effort.
The devaluation of miles/points means that advising people to chase miles/points for free trips for entire families becomes somewhat dishonest. I’m uncomfortable with almost everyone still blogging in the “family” niche because they kinda, sorta gloss over the fact that their readers are NOT going to be able to book trips for entire families complete with lap child and 80-something great-granddad…
This person obviously values honesty and so she’s acknowledging there’s really not anything original to publish right now about genuine opportunities for free family travel. It just ain’t gonna happen right now and maybe not ever again. The opportunity was there for years and now it’s gone. If you didn’t travel with your family for free in the 2000s, hey, you blew it. So it seems reasonable to shut down if you value honesty…Time to look for the next opportunity. It may not be in travel. Opportunities have a funny way of moving around.
Fantastic feedback Peachfront! Thank you. I agree with you!
“Oh yeah, for young bloggers who are now starting their careers they will be better off learning actual marketable skills instead of messing with this blogging thing…”
That presumes that these bloggers have marketable skills. Many, if not most, seem to be n’eer-do-wells and setting up the blog seems to be the easiest money they can think of. Eventually they find out it needs to be treated like a job to be successful.
Miles for Family seems a perfect example – a person who had little (no?) expertise, yet who hung her shingle out as if she was an expert. Finally cold reality sunk in – took too much effort to become an actual expert (not willing to put that 10,000 hours in), so nobody read her, nobody clicked links, no money came in the door, and so she was forced to stop. Now she’ll need a real job – or go back to being a Mom full time.
Agree. Seems like a nice person but just one of hundreds of blogs I don’t read.
I disagree that readers of family blogs are not going to be able to book trips for entire families. I think it really all depends on the size of your family, where you want to go, and what class of service. A stereotypical American vacation – a trip for a family of 4 to Disney World, flying domestic economy and staying at an off-site hotel (or even on-property if you accumulate a lot of SPG points) – is easily achievable with miles/points and good planning. Those of us who have been playing the miles/points game for a while may poo-poo the redemption value of that trip, but we have to remember that many Americans are not that adventurous in their choice of destination. I know many friends and neighbors who spend their summer vacation at the same place (or a limited group of destinations) year after year. It’s not really for me, but there is nothing wrong with that. Some families dream of going to Disney but avoid it because of the high cost, so if they can learn how to reduce expenses on the air/hotel side, then that dream can become more achievable. I did read the MfF blog. What I liked is that she was very honest and transparent in discussing deals and what was realistically achievable for the average family – like a trip to Disney (and she was not a fan of WDW…but gave good advice). Unfortunately, that style probably does not mesh well with the cc conversion business model (as TBB knows). I guess my point is that we shouldn’t be too judgmental – the days when people could fly their family of 4 to the Maldives for a week in first class then staying in a luxury over-the-water bungalow hotel for free are mostly gone for all but the hardcore MS experts. I’d venture that most Americans don’t have that as a realistic dream…but they might enjoy learning how to go to Disney or even NYC for free.
You make many really good points.
Recently a friend of a friend was all excited how they got to Orlando using Skymiles. When I asked how many she answered “50k” and I rolled my eyes 🙂
+1. And aspirational travel is still possible as well without manufactured spend. Flying 4 to Asia 1st class this summer and spending a month in mostly Hyatt Suites. Total cash? About 3k including Japan Rail passes and theme park tickets. Not free, but I’ll take it.