The time has come for THE MOVE plus Paris burning & Flyer Talk gems with MVP Post of the Day

The time has come…

No, not to get affiliate links. Hold your horses you angry haters out there ready to pounce on this eyebrow hair loss suffering blogger! What I meant was that the time has come to say goodbye to the Blogger blogging platform hosted at Google. This blog is moving to WordPress sometime on Monday June 3. Actually, I am scared about it. It does appear the move went fine and it does look better. But I need to learn how to do what I have been doing here in a whole new platform. And, with all tech things, something will go wrong and will spend countless hours trying to figure it out. So, give me some slack all of next week to get up to speed so updates may get affected.

WARNING: Many comments posted in the last 24 hours will likely NOT be moved to the new site! Have no fear that TBB started censoring! So do not bother commenting in the old site!!! Wait to comment on this in the new site. Thanks!

PARIS BURNING

On a more happy note, TBB finally went on “Operation Burn” and got all hotels booked in Paris for Mrs. TBB and daughter in late August. They have been asking for a girl trip so I made a deal with them. I take care of it and I am off laundry duties for 6 months. Ok, negotiations ensued and we settled on three months. #winning

Burned 240k pts as follows:

Radisson Blu Metropolitan 3 nights (50k Club Carlson points per night) for a total of 100k points (3rd night free due to CC Visa)

Intercontinental Le Grand 2 nights (50k Priority Club points per night) for another 100k points

Hilton Charles de Gaulle Airport 1 night before early am flight at 40k Hilton Honors points

And this is why this hobby is as addictive as crack (not like I have ever tried crack…but u get my point!)

Thank you to all readers who helped me out with hotels and other trip matters, I greatly appreciate it!

I could have gone on here about which credit cards helped me to get all these points and slipped in some affiliate links for you all but…I won’t go there:-) Well, here is one that is not being pushed as hard (surprise…it is NOT an affiliate link!). Priority Club Visa for 80k PC points by Chase Bank.
Click on the link in post #1. You are welcome.

FLYER TALK GEMS

A few fascination discussions over the weekend at FlyerTalk:

Which Miles and Points Blogs Censor Comments

and

The points and miles blog business model

My FT handle is: gpapadop


MVP POST OF THE DAY

By FlyFasterFlyFarther, post # 85 (in response to a question by another FTer how to disclose a post on a mistake fare containing an affiliate link):

No, you should tell your readers the most lucrative way for them to make a booking.

If your referral link isn’t it, that’s fine, use it but say so.

“Here’s a place you can book this mistake fare. If you use this link, I get a modest payment (which is crazy with a mistake fare). You could also make this booking by _____ ad earn cash back/points/miles instead if you prefer.”

If you’re going to ask your readers to pay you, and you’re worth your salt as a blogger, then you should know what is the best strategy to make a booking. If you don’t know, or don’t honestly offer the information, then you aren’t worth reading.

It is fine to have an affiliate link that isn’t the best offer, but you should say it isn’t the best offer.

And it’s possible that on occasion you could get the best offer wrong, that’s ok if you acknowledge it and correct your mistakes. Your readers will judge if that happens too often (so they don’t find you reliable).

Pretty simple stuff, really. If you put yourself out there as an expert, then be an expert, and give your readers the absolute best advice you possibly can — regardless of whether or not it pays you in a given instance.

That is how you will grow your audience. It is also how you will make more money. Your credibility will make you money over time. Sacrificing that credibility may make money this week but isn’t your best strategy over time.

For our Canadian friend: he is young and should take the long view. Give the best advice you possibly can, don’t hide your financial relationships that could be perceived to affect your advice in fine print, and then it’s totally ok to make money from your advice and none of us should fault you for it.

We might wish that a blogger offered fewer credit card links, or fewer repetitive posts, but that’s an aesthetic issue. If they give the best information and do so honestly then we can’t really fault them, even if they aren’t to a given individual’s taste — which is to say we can both not like them and still respect them!  


TBB is in complete agreement with FFFF. My father used to say: “Have a passion, do the right thing, have fun and don’t worry about the money, it will find you.”  RIP!

Don’t forget to check your Daily Getaway Deals:-)

And this is my version of a filler post.

Wish me luck.

If my site goes down, the updates will appear on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2

And thank you all for reading my blog. We should very shortly get back to the Buzz post. Very little action over the weekend!

Have an awesome week!

Browstrong (eyebrow hair is coming back, yeeeees!)

The end of the road for Blogger platform!

WARNING: Many comments posted in the last 24 hours will likely NOT be moved to the new site! Have no fear that TBB started censoring! So do not bother commenting in the old site!!! Wait to comment on this in the new site. Thanks!