Weekends are always so so slow in the blogosphere! I finally moved to Feedly from Google Reader so update your RSS feeds. I have no idea how you do that in your RSS reader; I just copied what other bloggers say!
TRAVEL
Noctilucent clouds over Moscow. It’s okay, I had no idea what noctilucent meant either!
America’s tastiest ribs. By USA Today. For reader Charles;-)
MILES/POINTS
You can get the AMEX Hilton card for 50,000 Hilton Honor points for just $750 minimum spend. (non affiliate link, relax!) If it was an affiliate link you would know it as it would say “Affiliate link” next to it! No annual fee, ever. This is the card that has helped me maintain Gold status with Hilton hotels for years after hitting $20k in spend each year. I am almost there (yes with Vanilla Reload cards mostly for Bluebird) again and then I will retire this card most likely. Not cancel it, just put it away. After the recent devaluation using this card for every day spend is likely not worth it. Go for it if you are still looking for a card from AMEX on your latest round of applications.
BLOG BUZZ
“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.” Aristotle
Delta Points reached out to a former comical pilot MJ on Travel. Is MJ really that funny? Don’t we even do any proofreading at all? It took a reader comment the next day to get it fixed. I proofread my blog several times. If something comical like this goes through please let me know asap…I wouldn’t be able to live with myself with such an error:-)
Is it just me or are the red arrows Million Mile Secrets is using are even bigger than they used to be?
Milevalue has taken blogging down another notch imho. After posting “24 Hours Only: How One Person Can Get Four Roundtrip Tickets to Europe from Opening Credit Cards” it was followed up by “Hurry, The Lufthansa Card 50,000 Mile Sign Up Bonus Ends Today“. Maybe I should post my Hall of Blog Shame or my Bottom 10 Blogs and then move them up or down based on what they post? Yeah, one more thing I can not get to:-)
Question The Points Guy gets to pick to answer: “What is the best current credit card for home improvement and moving expenses?”. Answer: Here are all twenty one of my affiliate links just in case you can not just pick one and some reader decides to apply for one, ya just never know!
A bit disappointed on two levels by Very Good Points. One because we get to read again about…Vanilla Reload cards after so much ink has been written about these! Especially after stating at startup that F2B will not be about points schemes! In addition, I could not believe she would confuse the Vanilla Reload cards with the my Vanilla cards! Nice backlink to the Frugal Travel Guy (FTG the blog) too! Am I the only one who thinks that the First2Board relationship with FTG is getting cozier? My own opinion only. Heck, everything is my own opinion here!
Looks like the command from above has come down to the bloggers to remove all bank reconsideration numbers? Hmm….Are we about to see less ebay businesses? 🙂
MILES/POINTS
I have applied for this diamond-embedded credit card from Qatar National Bank. I have a feeling I will be turned down:-) Bling bling! And will I be able to find the reconsideration phone number now?
I am excited as it is the beginning of the month and here we go again with the frequent visits to CVS stores to buy Vanilla Reload cards to load to Bluebird to pay the credit card bills used to buy them! I am amazed that this is still allowed! I wish Bluebird doubled the $5k limit:-)
ON MY MIND
Brazil’s domination of Spain in the Confederation Cup soccer final was devastating!
By the time I get to this session my brain is…fried, no mas!
ODDZ & ENDZ
The Intelligent Investor: Saving Investors From Themselves. This is one of the most powerful articles about investing I have read in recent years! Drop everything and read it NOW. The story about his dad and his reader who sent him the note had me lose it a little bit. Wow! I can proudly say I have offered the same boring advice for years and never held back calling the charlatans ready to sell you the next big thing what they really are: wolves in sheep’s clothing who would not know what a fiduciary even is! Ok, that was a little rant a bit off topic:-) Well, I feel like I want to keep going because, well, it is my blog and I can do whatever I want:-) We are not all motivated by pure greed, number of clicks and affiliate partners and whatever metric crap you focus on daily. Some folks focus on doing no harm and enriching other people’s lives by offering something useful and not shoving crap down people’s throats non stop! There, I feel better. Read the comments too. Great work is eventually recognized. And one of my favorite quotes about investing is “Don’t just do something. Stand there!’ Reading this article will make you a better investor and a better human being. The end:-)
The 10 most mysterious events in the world. By Seriously For Real? Well these sure are creepy, how come I never heard of them? Hope they are not urban myths or something!
Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi. By GQ. An absolutely fascinating and sick story about a Japanese guy who was the Sushi chef for the Kim sickphucks in North Korea. If a quarter of these things were true…I feel sorry for this Japanese guy too, obviously he also has issues! HT to Rapid Travel Chai.
great pic of Moscow!
Snowden agrees!
Yeah, NSA is probably bugging you too, watch out;-)
And I’m back after preparing my mom’s churn. 🙂
Dang it, my mother called and got distracted!
Well being dyslectic it is not always easy (do you make fun of those with other disabilities too?)! At the same time, for tbb, when there is no original content it must be very simple thing to proof read ; -)
I did not know you were dyslexic. I apologize if you were offended. And no I do not make fun of people with disabilities!
This explains a lot about your writing. Please get an editor or have someone proofread your posts before posting. There is no excuse for such a blatant error to stay on your site for more than a day!
If you did not censor you would probably have been informed about it much sooner;-)
TBB reviews blogs and provides original commentary. As far as original original content please do a search on my site for “eyebrows” 🙂
I do use an editor for my other site. He is excellent and fast turnaround. Yes I pay him, you certainly can afford him. Let me know if you want his contact info…no referral links or commissions;-)
Well, in defense of Rene, I have been told that I’m very entertaining at parties. 🙂
Lol, good one, nice comeback for your friend
I thought it was all the Absolut Vodka. Or a bad episode of surstromning.
Did not think much of the WSJ investor rant. Just write the article dangit. Why do they have to keep reminding their readers how good they are in their hearts (they are not). Just get over the melodrama ….reminded me of the MMS post where after coming back from the credit card whore party he reminded his readers how the credit card companies said the “bloggers are doing a good job”. D’oh, of course they are …. people are unfortunately so easily brain washed by reading articles, watching news etc. We are meant to be taken advantage of by the select few.
Well, I know the writer and he is the most down to earh person I have ever met. The message of the article was fantastic and can not be under emphasized: People hurt themselves, good advice never changes, the advice that sounds so good is often the most dangerous, doing the right thing eventually gets rewarded in the long term (keep saying that to myself about TBB lol).
I am doing my best to help others to NOT “be taken advantage of by the select few”;-)
Its a great article by Zweig. Anyone dismissing him is unaware of the quality of his writings. Great link TBB.
Yes, one of the very best and very few!
It’s 8:30 A.M. here in Portland and I just looked at MMS and find that he already has 90+ comments from people trying to win a $100 Best Western gift card……………….You couldn’t pay me $100 to stay at a Best Western……………….Buzz, imagine how many comments you would get if you gave away something. Whatever happened to that soap on a rope giveaway you and C.R. were going to do?
When I get affiliate links I pledge to give back to my readers as giveways half of the revenue…the more you guys click the more you can win…sounds like a brilliant strategy to me:-)
This thread absolutely had me in raptures, especially because of the comments that followed the OP
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1480287-opening-credit-card-blog.html
Sounds like Buzz has some competition …..
I’d wish the guy luck but he has no shot opening up a CC sign up blog. Too hard to get approved for CC links w/o lots of original content and “alexa” rating
Yeah…I think the original post may have been as a joke…or maybe not.
In another thread we have a back and forth between saverocity and Hiker T. discussing Alexa ratings! Quite confusing if you ask me. Then Raffles came in and shared his Alexa ratings after just one week (trial period) of participating in the Alexa toolbar. His numbers dropped 200k, wow!!! I had a hard time adding the code for the free Alexa service so…I just gave up:-)
One month, not one week! But that simply shows how useless the Alexa tracking methodology is unless you embed their code.
And if my draft 4,980 UK rating does stick when the number goes live, does that make me the highest Alexa ranked blogger in his/her home country?!
Wasn’t meant to be anonymous!
Yeah, sorry, one month I meant. When numbers can be manipulated so substantially it sure can not speak highly of the service. Congrats on being the highest ranked blogger in the UK:-)
So once the LH card goes away, what CC will MileValue discover?
Frontier? Motel 6?
Does RyanAir have a credit card?
Spirit?
Royal Carribean?
Discover?
Yes, Ryanair has a credit card. 5 free flights for getting it. Honest.
That’s a good deal. I expect it to hit the blogs when…the affiliate link is out. Like the Club Carlson cards some recently became a “big fan of”:-)
Fears confirmed. MommyPoints now has twice the “Here are the results of my churn” posts
Churn every 90 days x 2 people = 1 churn every 45 days –> 8 “here are the results of my churn” posts per year
And that’s not even including all the potential posts leading up to it like “here is what I’m planning to apply for in my upcoming churn”
If she truly maximizes her blogs CC pimping (you can do it!), she can get a filler post just related to her families churning (to make no mention of all the other filler post “subjects”) every 23 days or so
What’s interesting about those posts is that they are always some of the most read posts, so readers seem to like them on the whole…or at the very least find them worth reading. Also, I have to admit that I am behind on my own next round of apps as my last one was in February with no immediate plans to apply again, so I may fall to every 4-5 months with us both doing it.
http://boardingarea.com/mommypoints/2013/02/23/un-planned-credit-card-churn-day-results/
Don’t think I can hit the every 23 day mark. 😉
I find it incredible that these cc churn posts are so well read! Because of that, when my affiliate links are approved, I will be doing a churn for each family member! I warn you, I have so many relatives that people stop me in the street to tell me I am your so and so second cousin! (in Greece, not in Ann Arbor, hehe). Heck, I am taking the game internationally and will teach everyone how to churn Greek credit cards too. They don’t even do a credit check there any more. Aegean all the way baby!
On a more serious note, this space is starting to resemble a giant credit card link fest…and it is not so subtle anymore…
No denying they are a big part of this space for (most) bloggers, (most) points collectors, and even from the stand point of (most) airlines, hotels, etc. I’m not sure being subtle would be very beneficial or truthful. You can play the game without them, but unless you are a true road warrior or mileage runner, you can’t play very well without them.
I too get tired of the churn, churn, churn posts but as someone who was a newbie recently and still is in some areas, it is better to read a relatively recent post than one on a churn done six months or a year ago. And in MP’s defense, I think her discussion of her husband’s bankruptcy was very brave and most certainly helpful to people who want to play this game despite a credit history that may make it harder. Those of us who read the blogs daily need to remember that not everyone does, and those folks may have missed the first post of the post-bankruptcy churn.
That said, the thing I wish I knew earlier was that there are so many different offers for the same card. The person who introduced me to this hobby encouraged me to get started with a US Airways card, but either didn’t know or didn’t say that FT would have info on the best offer. (I later learned he doesn’t read FT and just gets his info from blogs and the Chicago seminars; I am pretty confident I now know more than he does.) So that first card did not have the best bennies out there. So for me, a blogger always gets points from me – pun intended – when he or she mentions FT links to cc offers and/or writes out the variety of offers for the same card that are out in the blogosphere.
No, you can’t play very well without CC’s
You can certainly “play well” without 6 posts on the “OMG CHASE INK BOLD 60K OFFER!!!!! ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!!!!! HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU CAN DO WITH CHASE INK BOLD!!!!!! ONLY 1 DAY LEFT!!!!! LAST DAY TO GET THE 60K CIB!!!!!! BREAKING NEWS – OFFER EXTENDED 1 MORE DAY!!!!!!
faux-alarmist posts meant to push credit cards
The circus surrounding the CIB, where posters had between 3-6 manufactured posts on the card should remove any doubt about whether the goal was to “help people play the game” or “make every last $$$$”
Did you know that you can transfer UR points to Hyatt instantaneously? Hurry, offer ends soon!
Great points made here.
We must not lose track of how many people find these posts important.
And the way and frequency these are “sold” can still be quite nauseating!
So…what is the quota bloggers you need to hit to keep them aff links? Come on, spill the beans…then we can excuse and lay off the teasing…a bit:-)
Don’t be misled TBB – these posts are only the most important because the bloggers make sure they’re the most important
Capitalized letters, dozens of exclamation points, alarmist tone…..
Of course a headline like “HURRY!!! ACT QUICK!!! CHASE INK BOLD INCREASES OFFER TO 60K!!! ONE WEEK ONLY!!!” will get more read than a headline along the lines of “Daily Getaways Day 8 – but Hertz points”
If the roles were switched – CIB 60k offer had one generic post about the increase while the Pointsbreaks list would’ve gotten 6 alarmist posts worth of coverage in one week (if the best offer for the PC Visa was affiliate, it probably would’ve…), then there would be a lot less interest in the CIB and a lot more in Pointsbreaks
Yeah, I hear you…I have so many ideas of things I can do here but I just don’t have the time. I am trying to get my son to help me out and get him away from the stupid computer games he plays so much but it is…difficult!
I can do things like:
-Most hideously alarming post of the week
-Most desperate post of the week
-Most useless post of the week
-Most “What was the Point” post of the week;-)
I could have polls
I could add affiliate links myself…for charity of course lol, they sure will appreciate it!
ok, i had more, I need to get going on the new blog post and then get back to real work that brings food to the table! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hope you still love me when I join the circus. Not that I have done any real progress on that front! So many trip reports I want to put up so you guys have something to read while on long flights to help you sleep hehe.
Good investing article. I spent some time this weekend learning craps before I realized that, wait a minute, I hate negative returns! I don’t believe in luck, but the variance on the negative mean is such that I should finish ahead a few times, right? It’s very hard to separate and keep human biases and pattern-guessing under control; those casino-hotels in Las Vegas are big for a reason.
The VeryGoodPoints post was a forehead-smacker. C’mon, these are not new! Daraius had a post on these that I thought was for absolute knuckle-draggers, and yet people make mistakes. I guess not everyone was paying attention. To the OP’s credit, she did at least admit to the mistake.
On the subject, perhaps the problems people have with Vanilla are just further reinforcement that individual investment-picking won’t beat the mean return.
The Confed Cup final was basically an intra-squad scrimmage for Barca. La Liga needs competitive balance. Both squads played lousy defense. Neymar will be better next year, unless he’s injured; the guy’s still just a twig. The dark horse that we didn’t get to see in this tournament is Germany. I think the Germans go far next year, which is bad for fans of interesting football.
It was a bit charming to see you pop-up in the FT thread on Alexa with multiple “I am so confused!” Maybe make that the subtitle of your blog. Just make sure you don’t go to cocktail parties in AA and pop into math professors’ conversations with “I am so confused!” It might not win you future invitations.
Craps, come on man, Vegas big shots should not be opening even more casinos there;-)
I agree on both points about VGP.
Nice joke about the German soccer team:-) I have watched every WC game since 1978, huge fan! Brazil looked…scary last night! This Neimar kid looks like the real deal. If him and Messi get used to each other it will be even more amazing to watch. Did you see Shakira’s expression when her man got the red card? Ahhhh, poor baby.
All this online stuff and especially the marketing aspect of it all is so new to me and it’s…overwhelming! I have enough trouble keeping it together in my real life and keeping up with the blog content to produce a quality blog read here at TBB that I always run out of time to learn about it. Baby steps. I must admit I have learned so much about this since Novermber!
Look, I’m smart enough to decide the credit cards I want and when I want them. And, I don’t have quite as many credit cards to pimp, so maybe I’m biased. But, if those posts pay for bloggers to do this full time and they produce other meaningful info, then I can read past those CC posts and on to the useful stuff. And, if those posts are paying the bills, that means there’s a heck of a lot of interest from those less informed about CCs then the smaller group of us mileage geeks. I can filter for the info that’s important to me and ignore the rest.
Did you add this at the wrong spot? I know, easy to do! The formatting here is confusing!
I am very glad you are smart enough to decide the credit cards you want and when you want them:-)
I got no problem with what you are saying as long as they are providing meaningful info, do not push inferior offers (do no harm you know) and provide full disclosure. Oh, and they are not hammering to sell/pump/pimp so OFTEN!
TBB’s mission is to educate, inspire and entertain. Educating includes calling out all the BS and the pretender “experts” who just discovered this hobby and got into it to help “friends and family” fly for free:-)
Hey, good post today. Welcome:-)
I used to claim I had nothing personal against any of these bloggers. With one exception I still don’t but I also have little respect for most of these people as professionals. When caught in lies (i.e. Very Good Points and the F2B schemes reverse course you just pointed out) they’ll often do little justification dances to defend it. It’s splitting hairs, we often have to simply agree to disagree. I realize the lack of my page view or affiliate click on any blog doesn’t hurt the bottom line but I have my principles in tact.
I do have a personal issue with a particularly rude jackass blogger. A pompous ass who was inconsiderate to me, twice, at two events specifically for networking and information sharing, and this person travels with an entourage at these things. Elitist ass is all I can say. I no longer care about keeping my tongue on this one.
Eric, you are not on Twitter much lately, what’s up?
As with everything…it evolves.
I need to travel with an entourage too, sounds like so much fun:-)
Dude, you gots to spill the beans. and the ribs. Whatever.
If I would have to guess, I can only think of one blogger with an entourage. Did he recently get a dog too as a PR move?
Lucky has an entourage of people actually interested in hearing his stories. But only one blogger pays people to follow him around. The dog, I’d guess, does not actually take a salary.
Was it Noob Traveler and his Boyzzz?
I added a new item to my bucket list:
Travel with an entourage!
Can I carry your loose eyebrow hair?
Lol, good one! Sure, why not, I ‘ll save a spot for you and give you the title “Loose eyebrow hair administrator” 🙂