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| I do not care about your political leanings…this is a very cool picture!I do not remember where I saw it |
I need to get some sleep. Wife had the brilliant idea to burn miles just as I was about to sit down and work on this blog post! She is happy, she is going to see her mommy with our daughter to Singapore and Malaysia. Flying United and Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa next month over school winter break. You noticed I did not bother with my Skypesos as I would probably not finish this post until the morning!
MVP POST OF THE DAY
If you wanted to learn more about how this murky affiliate marketing world works here is your chance with this amazing post “The Affiliate Game Can Be a Dirty Proposition” by Travel Summary. GREAT research and thanks for laying it all out for us. I would rather have NRA gun nuts shoot at my head as target practice than ever be associated with a company like Flex Offers! Such practices and attitude totally disgust me! To have the audacity to tell a blogger to push the Discover cards, WTF!! But hey, the guy has to eat and he eats by pushing/forcing/shoving down more credit card links to everyone! This stuff makes me throw up in my mouth. I have been doing a lot of that lately it appears and it revolves around such outstanding corporate citizens as Bent Offers. Wow, maybe this is the post of the month!
Very interesting that Flex Offers sold the credit card division ONLY to Bankrate. Did they sell at a high price? Why would Bankrate buy this company? I bet FO has been very profitable indeed and some FO execs made out big time. (HT to Kathy)
BEST OF MILES/POINTS
Million Mile Secrets has a post listing the Award Booking services. This is something I really need to do because with everything going on and my stubborness of NOT starting to do filler posts in my blog leaves me with…well, no time at all! At the same time I feel like I SHOULD be able to figure this out myself! Wouldn’t it be nice if I could review all these award booking services too? But who would want to be reviewed by me with my reputation, they are probably all scared!
Hmm, it’s a dilemma indeed! I think I just got an idea for my giveaway that should happen this weekend! If an award booker who is not afraid of me is so confident they can help me in exchange of my honest review here it would be great! Ok, I will throw in a one week pass from my “Not So Best Of” category, lol. Note: we are a family of four, it’s a warning actually!
Frequent Miler on “Pay federal taxes by credit card, almost for free“. Ok, a bit too time consuming for me! I just loaded a bunch of Vanilla Reload cards on my permanent myvanilladebit card & paid a chunk of it online at OfficialPayments for $3.49. Wow, how long will this last? Pay mortgage, pay income taxes. Can we contribute to 401ks and IRAs too soon? Yeah, dream on!
Loyalty Lobby wrote about the “United Airlines Status Match Campaign“. Interesting. I am losing my Delta Platinum status and could match to United Platinum but need to fly 18k miles in 3 months. Hmmm. Maybe a mistake fare happens to Asia? Or forget about it and burn miles & fly up front…I am thinking the latter. Yes, I am going to get rid of my elite slut disease in 2013!
Points guy on Caribbean hotels where you can use points this winter. Ok, nothing earth shattering here. It just happened that I was wondering about this very recently! The Radisson Blu Resort in St. Martin looks nice to blow some Club Carlson points.
Frequently Flying reports that we already have the first domestic airline to go revenue based accrual mode. And it is, drum roll please. Sun Country Ufly. Sun what??? Anyway, the point is another one has joined the movement. And United really values FF’s travel spending, hmm…
It is very late at night, I just saw this. Is AMEX really gutting the Hilton cards? Only 6x at Hiltons? No gas, drugstores and groceries? Please say it isn’t so, can anyone confirm?
BEST OF TRAVEL
tnooz reports that KLM is at it again – combines the social graph, things-to-do and maps. KLM is very active with Facebook but I must admit some of their “initiatives” creep me out! This Must See Map may be kind of cool. If anyone plays with it please let me know what you think about it, thanks!
tnooz reports on the new Wikivoyage site as Wikipedia promotes the free travel guide. Lots of juicy stuff here. Court has dismissed the second Internet Brands lawsuit too against both volunteer contributors. Ad free, YES!
InACents wrote about the “2013 Bank of America Museum on US Program Updates” First weekend of each month, flash your Bank of America credit or debit card and get in to many museums for free. It’s great!
Mountain Biking Greenland. For you Bikeguy;-)
Vietnam Traveling Love ordinary life scenes!
NOT SO BEST OF
Gary Leff says Chase Ink cards are great and you should get both. Just had to, my reputation was at stake;-) Nothing to add here, by now I can recite the benefits of these cards in my sleep!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Why is Walgreens Selling Sushi? The Changing Business of Drugstores Lately we have all become a lot more interested on what happens with these drug stores;-) Hmm, maybe vanilla sushi time?
I always love to hear from you with any comments/feedback/insult/tips on what to cover, etc. Ways to contact me:
email: travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/FlyerTalkerinA2
Find me at FlyerTalk and Milepoint as: gpapadop
Thanks to nobody who clicked on my ebates affiliate link yesterday, I sure appreciated it!
Two things: 1) Thank you for the mention and the MVP post award. 2) In my opinion, you have too many “Best of” posts. You even noted the TPG one on the Caribbean wasn’t that impressive in itself. I feel like the Best of section has been watered down in recent posts. I, personally, am more interested in your “Not So Best Of” list, because the commentary on those is what I really appreciate!
Agreed. TPG’s top 10 list didn’t provide anything a newbie couldn’t look up in 5 minutes, but it was “best of” solely because TBB was planning a trip to the Carribean.
Is the purpose of that section to look for the “best” posts, or the ones that save a fraction of people 5 minutes (if that)?
You are very welcome and I really appreciate the feedback and your opinion!
I want to get away from the ranting “not so best of” mode…not sure if it is the “branding” I want to develop. I would rather be the inspiring, experienced veteran voice out there adding my commentary on developments. I will take some shots of course, it is fun, you all want it:-)
Actually, I have no idea what I am doing. I have no time left anymore and I sure have not made a dime of off this crazy venture I started yet (not even one $5 ebates referral, lol).
In the process, I have managed to piss off every blogger and have been threatened with lawsuits and warned a “crazie” may come find me and shoot me…People do the craziest things when their pocketbook is at stake. Funniest thing is I am this new blogger with a tiny following…makes no sense. Way too many egos in this space.
If Bent Offers comes to me one day I will say “Bite me” 🙂
Points well taken on that Top 10 TPG post. I still liked that Radisson Blu property at St. Martin! What I do is definitely an art, not a science! And like all art it is very subjective!
Love today’s MVP post. An eye-opener! In a way, it makes me respect MMS more, because, although he does push links, he manages to throw in other useful content (usually) and (almost) always mentions better offers if his aff links are not the best. (I vote for his post from today for your next MVP post… 🙂 )
I miss the edgy rants, though. Don’t go soft on us! (I will pledge $5 for your flak jacket.)
1) You can fund your IRA with Vanilla, through a check from the blue bird. That is how I will be funding my wife and my accounts this year.
2) Don’t look for gift packages, look for gift bags. They were right in front of you the last time you were there. Got some last night. Plenty left.
@bluecat: Thanks for the kind words and for reading/commenting. Maybe I should make up a page accepting donations for my flak jacket,the more I get, the more edgy I go with my rants…Hmmm, could work:-)
@Bikeguy: We ‘ll talk about this!
Any possibility of increasing the font size a bit? Some of us would appreciate it (because we actually read TBB).
hammer53
I have the font size set in Blogger as “Normal”.
Can you do a Ctrl and + together to see if it helps?
I am afraid if I move to “Large” font size it may be way too big?
1) thanks for the mention! 2) yes, it is so with hilton 6x points 3) if you ever need actual legal decisions, as opposed to articles discussing them, I can usually get hold of them for you (since, in my non-blog “real” life, I’m an attorney) 4) I’ve never done ebates – maybe its time for me to learn? 5) do you know the program that all the bloggers use to draw red arrows and boxes on their screenshots? It looks like fun.
Kathy (www.willrunformiles.com)
1) you are very welcome 2) no more Vanilla runs for HH points:-( 3)Ok, thanks 4)maybe I can earn my first money off my blog for referring you to ebates, wooohoo! Works good for making Radisson paid stays. Or others, never had problem with them 5) I do not and would love to know the software program name.
I need to prep for a prospective client meeting today. This one I may not steer away so I can blog more:-)
One of the useful things I learned yesterday was the importance of Alexa rankings to getting these affiliate offers. None of us small bloggers are ever going to get them and that just leads to rich bloggers getting richer and the newer ones (who may actually have original content) get nowhere. I think this is why any Boarding Area blogger who applies for links usually gets approved, the Boarding Area url was at 17,000 something in Alexa. Surely there must be SOME affilate who isn’t so tyrannical about the T&C’s and will allow simple sidebar advertising without having to push. And I am still curious if Google tracks applications via Adsense. I do get less than a dollar for a click.
It does make me wonder about the integrity of the bloggers who do sign on with Flex Offers knowing what the T&Cs are, it seems like selling your soul to the devil.
1. Push our links, if you don’t make your quota, you get booted out.
2. You’re not allowed to reference better offers than those we give you, so market our offers, even if it means you lose credibility with your readers.
A reader sends me once in a while stuff from Flex Offers that goes to affiliates. You know what is the tagline?: “Flexoffers.com – Where flexibility is key to affiliate success”. Apparently, that does NOT include offering better no affiliate credit card offers!
I think we just need to get on Boarding Area then;-)
I just thought I would throw a few things out there as someone who is with FlexOffers. I am sure there is a negative with them, but so far my experience has been pleasant – except for the fact that only American Express and Discover have approved me so far (Chase likes to keep shooting me down and I have been pending with Citi now for 4 months!). My affiliate manager has been great – he has helped with suggestions as to what the banks look for and how to work some things to make yourself more appealing. Believe it or not, he has never had me push a certain card – with the exception of a Chase card that he told me to start pushing before it became an affiliate link (remember, I don’t have Chase) so Chase would see that I was ahead of the other bloggers with it. I actually push more Chase links out than Amex because I find a lot better value with most of them. One thing I do with Chase is to send my readers to one of my favorite bloggers to apply through there (when I can remember!) sometimes so I can help them. As far as disclosure, I disclose after each link as to whether or not I get anything from it. FO doesn’t care about that. They don’t care when I push public offers of Amex cards either. The one thing I am not supposed to do is to write about how to take advantage of Amex offers by changing links, names, etc (like the Delta card last year that had to have the URL changed). Anyway, love your blog! Just wanted to through a little bit of a different perspective out there.
So, to sum up, to answer Miles to the Wild, I actually don’t have a quota and have never been warned about not doing well enough (and I don’t make a living at this!) and I have been able to push other offers without a problem. On occasion, I will receive a notice from their compliance department if I have left some wording up that is no longer accurate but that is it.
Thanks again!
Thank YOU for taking the time to contribute here, it is greatly appreciated! Good to hear a positive comment about Flex Offers as all comments about the company I have seen and heard were entirely negative. Perhaps it is based on the rep involved (you know, like hang up and call again with the airlines!).
It would appear to me, from the outside looking in, that your volume is at a high enough level to keep you in? Or maybe there are absolutely no quotas for Discover (confirmed already) and Amex too? I had no idea Citibank can take so long to approve, you may want to follow up, 4 months appears awfully slow!
Or maybe the Chase cards are the ones that require the quotas and appear to pay the highest commissions!
I wonder if you are with BA? I think (readers can confirm or not) BA bloggers get a pass for all the quotas due to the traffic BA generates in general?
A reader sends me some of the emails FO sends to affiliates…Some of them are really funny!
I know you can not divulge any compensation information. But I really would like other FO bloggers to at least address some of the issues that have been raised. The silence is stunnighly deafening!
Again, thanks for contributing!
I am not with BA so I can’t confirm that. I do know that my alexa ranking is pretty close to yours so I don’ have huge volume. I was actually approved for Amex quite early in my blog (which wasn’t years ago). I think one of the reasons that I have not been approved by Chase is because of the amount of posts I have that endorse Chase cards. They are already making money from me without have to pay me so why pay? 🙂 In fact, it was recommended that I back off Chase a bit so they would have more reason to approve but I really can’t do that when they have so many great offers and I really want to help readers.
As to some of the other points, Amex is the one that is really tightening down on some things bloggers do and that is because of their lawsuit for false advertising practices. Imagine what they deal with – they have thousands of affiliates and many of them are trying to get people to sign up so they (the writer) gets the commission. The problem with that is some bloggers/writers had been leaving off some of the things that may help people in decision making because it may have steered them away from applying through their link. That created a huge problem for Amex. So, they had to tighten down and make things clearer for the end-consumer. This is probably why Travel Summary had problems with them. Amex (and FO) could take serious heat if the end-customer (those of us who applied) made a stink if the bonus didn’t come through (especially if it was something that was not to have been marketed a certain way). Not blaming TS at all – that was a great post. It might just be why they had an issue. I know I had blogged about the offer and did not receive any warning from the compliance department.
This is great info & very educational, thank you very much for sharing.
Excuse my satire and the BentOffers moniker I invented after downing a few glasses of wine the other night!.
I just never see myself associated with a company that tells me what to do. I do have a problem with authority, lol. I have my own firm and no employees…because I do not work well with others! Seriously…I like full transparency in all my dealings. This is a journey I have undertaken because…again, I like to say what’s on my mind! Incredibly, some people like what I write and I had a lot more supportive comments than negative! So I keep this baby going and focusing on content, content, content and keeping it enjoyable. Sometimes I may b*tch about this blogging thing but…deep down, I really like it! When I stop liking it, I would stop and just start doing filler posts!
Again, thanks a lot for your contributions here. I have learned and so have other readers!
Good news for your blog and for your Hilton account:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2013/01/16/no-changes-to-bonus-points-earning-for-hilton-hhonors-american-express/
A) Gary reads your blog
B) Looks like no changes to the Hilton cards, but not 100% confirmed yet
Thanks. I just posted a comment on that blog. I have followed along this today. My gut feeling is that changes are coming…
Many BA bloggers read me, they do provide me lots of material. I wish they could comment more about…Flexoffers…but they can’t. I think most wish I go away:-)
If you haven’t seen it yet, stop what you’re doing and go take a look at The Wandering Aramean’s comment on TPG’s RyanAir whiny post
You need to make a temporary 1 day “MVP comment of the day”
Copying and pasting it here wouldn’t do it justice
fyi, I DID see it & enjoyed it. Not much goes by me, I buzz all around the blogoshpere for my readers:-)
I am adding that post to the “Not so Best of”…Flying Ryan Air was bad enough, flying it when you book it and complaining about how you got screwed (what did you expect?) is one thing. Not being able to withhold, just one freaking day, the urge to serve a cc link is..another!
Thanks reading and commenting!
OMG TPG actually has a Chase Sapphire referral link in his rant about Ryanair.
Lol. See above reply. I was on it when I read it & already in my “Not so Best of” category. If I miss other things please let me know! Together we can buzz them to get better and protect our eye sockets:-)
DeltaPoints claims the recent changes are GOOD for HIS readers (CAPS intentional). I am looking fwd to your analysis 🙂
I am waiting for his CORP contact to enlighten, err, spin it for his readers…HE is totally loving it for sure, so many more credit card push opportunities it appears;-)