To email list subscribers: There are TWO blog posts in this email, keep scrolling! We bring you the latest on Chase Sapphire banking, register you for Marriott and United promos, fly more Europe routes, go on airport walking, visit Furong Zhen in China, go on a bloody blog purge, go into Antarctica, talk about the ten years since the financial crisis, about discretionary spending and more freeee. For a little while longer, sad!
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Heads up! Enjoy my blog this month in its current format. It is becoming more evident every day that I need to evolve it in a different format that will have as its main feature the requirement I spend less time on it! Because…the amount of time I spend on it is just ridiculous! Not going to turn into a blogger selling inferior travel rewards credit cards…And yeah I am tired of whining about it. It will be good for my sanity too, this up and down is making me crazy. Oh, wait…
Breaking: I had a Thursday post. Later in the evening. Because I wanted to be first 🙂 Who needs 40 staffers you guys lol.
VIDEO: Navagio Shipwreck Beach in Zakynthos Island in Greece Hit by Shocking Rock Landslides!
Noticed the urgency? The word shocking? The expertly placed exclamation mark in the end, wow!
Support small independent blogs. Without such support, they burn out and die!
So, lets get to what you come here for next!
The bank is making a run for your money as I warned you previously. JP Morgan goes after rich millennials, offering Sapphire users 60,000 points to sign up for checking. I am passing. I am just fine earning 1.85% in my Capital One 360 Money Market account #simplicity.
Register HERE for the next Marriott Reward Megabonus promotion. I almost fell asleep reading about it. I will make sure to avoid lol.
United has a promotion titled Mile Play. It is different for everyone. It requires paid flights and then you get some miles, yawn. If your employer is paying for them, register!
Not sweating the 5% card registrations anymore. I mean, you see them in every blog. You want to see them here too, really? Let me know if you do though…If you promise me you will only read mine and not go to any Titan blogs I may reconsider my position. That was a joke by the way, come on!
Is it just me or is it peak Europe – US airline routes or what? Aer Lingus to Offer New Non-Stop Service Linking Dublin with the Twin Cities. Wait! Not done yet. Air France returning to Dallas/Fort Worth for first time since 2001.
Lets see in how many blogs this link will appear to without an HT back to me. If I had a CSP click for every time that happened, I could be rich. Oh wait…I introduce you to Blueschisting and the great post about Airport Walking. With map routes baby! You are welcome. To the TPG staffers who copy my links I expect you to HT back to me. Okie dokie #sure #lol.
This is cool! 55 years of U.S. discretionary spending in 60 seconds.
Stop buying crap. Online shopping making us accumulate more junk. Oh wait, use my Amazon link to buy more crap lol.
This is an excellent read: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
Wow, Furong Zhen in Hunan province in China has a cascading waterfall through it!
More cool stuff. If I was only faking my excitement selling inferior Amex Hilton Honors credit cards I could blog…never mind. Oh, wait, here is the link: An Ultra-High Resolution Map of Antarctica.
One of my fav songs going way back:
The Stone Roses – I Wanna Be Adored
Another blogger making some dinero “contributing” to TPG Inc. And the blogger, formerly known as Mommy Points, continues to do what she does best, selling inferior Amex Hilton Honors credit cards to the “largest audience possible”. #sameold
You can tell who the ethical bloggers are by seeing how they are pumping the inferior Amex Hilton Honors cards to their readers…keeping them clueless on how they can do better but it will hurt the blog business pocket book if they do the right thing. And yet, so many bloggers keep ass kissing them and staying quiet. That is so WRONG it still makes me angry but it has been going on for so long it has become…normal?
Interesting that Discover bank came out with its own Discover It Business card offering 1.5% cash back and doubling it after the (only) first year. And of course pumping bloggers are all over selling the Alliant card———>Joking, there is no sales commission involved so why inform readers, do you expect to blog for free???
In the meantime, the Chase Double Dip was killed too…Thanks bloggers! I could go on and on lately…Expect many changes in the Blog Review lists when I get around to update them!
I am going to go on a “kill blogs in my Feedly list that have never and will likely never appear here”. Time to start focusing on being more eclectic! No particular order. First victim: The Thrifty Traveler. More are coming in The Purge!
Maybe this gets Ingy and Rene out?
And I leave you with this…
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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My first first?
Welcome!
Good morning!
Hope to see Scott Castle again.
Yeah, where is he?
Greetings from Charlotte! Still waiting for this slow-moving storm. Slightly breezy at the moment, winds and rain are supposed to pick up later. 10-15″ of rain expected. Glad I live on top of a hill.
Can you check on Ingy? You can tell him I can spot him some hotel points if he needs any…
Good luck man!
The Blog Purge continues (this comment to be updated as these blogs get wiped out from my Feedly lists):
SamChui
AirwaysMagazine
AtlasObscura
MightyTravels
More on the way…
Killed another 51 blogs that were either dead or have not updated for at least 8 months…which are pretty much dead anyway! Too many to list here…so many miles and points blogs with enthusiastic bloggers at the start only to…fade…away.
Feedly blog count as of 9/14/18: 270
I need to align returns here to more than…67 cents per day (in September 2018 to date)… #crying
Now down to 260 blogs in Feedly as I wiped out all blogs that have not been updated in at least 5 months.
Bye bye
So the “news” about the Hyatt Place St. Petersburg going up in points showed up in several blogs. But nooooo, Doctor of Credit links to “Deals We Like”, SAD!
Mommy Points is hard at work selling at TPG. Expanding from plastic too lol
“How to Know If the CARES Harness Is Right for Your Kid”
Rene has a typo in the headline trying to clickbait moron readers “…Oprah Never Flys Delta…” Beyond sad!
More changes are coming!
I place blame for the death of the double dip squarely on the shoulders of the reddit churning community, its greatest proponent. They discuss it pretty much every single day. Marathon Man had it right: “Shut Up!!” (paraphrasing), not that anyone listened.
The volume of posts at places like reddit or TPG pretty much guarantees death of any decent loophole or workaround.
Full disclosure: I never used that double dip and had no plans to, being perpetually over 5/24.
The volume of posts at places like reddit or TPG pretty much guarantees death of any decent loophole or workaround.
You add the other big ones to the mix and…we are toast!
Breaking News: FTU sold to a for profit company. You knew it was non profit before…right? #wink My crystal ball says it will cost MORE to learn how to travel for free!
Oh no. Pointchaser is back from her trip to Turkey. It was good not to hear from her while it lasted.
I always wondered if FTU was some kind of tax boondoggle for Randy.
I love your blog, Buzz–you made my cut list of the “five I still read” after all! (an honor!)–but this week has been rough reading for your loyal fans who love you but don’t love it when you go heavy on the complaining. (I say this out of love)
You probably know (or can easily figure out) how many loyal/daily readers you have and then figure out that only a very small percentage of those guys will be churning cards at any given month. You just have to hope to catch them when they churn, and then you will have to have the best link for the particular card they are looking for. Kind of a tough gauntlet but what I’m saying is maybe you are setting your hopes too high. (Anyway, you are a math/finance guy…you should be able to estimate the numbers.)
Thanks. Just curious who are the other four?
I only complain when clicks dry up. Like this month. First 13 days only $8.70. Come on…COME ON!!!
I understand the numbers, believe me. This never intended to be a get rich quick scheme. But making 67 cents per day does not even qualify as slave labor. And then having Mileage Update taunt me with his “I do not click on affiliate links” mantra is beyond demeaning.
Instead of making minimum wage (lol)…making less than $1 per day is ludicrous! Oh, where is Ludicrous by the way, he has not commented for a while!
I totally understand the churning/best offer info you stated. TOTALLY. It is getting rough out there. Remember the apporama days?
I am taking steps to align my efforts here before pulling the plug…Being an independent blog trying to do things the right was is PHUCKING HARD. That…and me being ridiculously stubborn makes a unique combination…
I am laying it all out here…I am blogging my inner conflicts and demons. I could be pretending I am excited about the xx reasons to have a CSP card you know lol.
Aiming to go under 250 in Feedly blogs…next.
Considering killing the Sunday posts, this Sunday may be the last one ever.
I don’t want to kill the comments…where will Mileage Update go to taunt me about gun rights and I dont click on affiliate links hey 🙂
“the right way”
Other 4 are DoC, Loyalty Traveller, Frequent Miler, and Lazy Traveler. Doc and FM overlap a lot in their content, but LT and LT are quirky and have beautiful nuggets of info at times. I also email-subscribe to Mileonomics.
About your 67 cents: I just don’t think that the approach about telling your dear readers that you will shut down the blog if they don’t pay up is that effective. Readers who enjoy your content (like me, and who use your links when it’s time to apply) get turned off, while readers like MileageUpdate will simply poke a stick at you more.
You know you will never make a killing here so IMO, I say do it because you love it and because it’s therapeutic. You have fixated on the money aspect of it but I think you will find it liberating to not think about it. There are a bunch of blogs out there that take this approach (the two LT’s in my top 5) and they seem content. Maybe try that.
First, thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate the feedback. Of all kinds. Even MU’s…even though I hate it 🙂
Second, and I think this is VERY important, we must distinguish between a blog reader and a blog creator/writer/artist. To put this more simply, you HAVE NO IDEA what it takes to produce a blog that is published REGULARLY FOR ALMOST 6 YEARS. Excuse me, I take this a bit personally…can’t help it. This has been a labor of love, my crack fix. Full Disclosure: I have never ever done crack and definitely do not recommend it!
DoC: He would not be doing it for free okay? He took my advice and pounded on the “hey, I got no affiliate links” route and is obviously doing well with the ad model. And can afford to pay Chuck who is great. I absolutely despise his links to the Titan blogs so this blog is toast in the new and improved edition of the Blogs I Like whenever I get around to it…which may be never because, you know, 67 cents/day does not motivate me very much lol.
LoyaltyTraveler: I love Ric. He will be in the next edition of the Blogs I Like as it will focus more on independent blogs and ethics. By the way, he does not do it for free, he is on Boarding Area, they split the ad revenue 50-50.
FrequentMiler: He is obviously not doing it for free either, I hear his writer Nick gets paid very well as he should. Ad revenue plus cc clicks, it must be nice. It is Greg’s JOB and he is doing very well. A lot more leaning towards credit cards lately (hey, they pay well!) and I am sure Amex RAT and all other rat teams are reading (see JetBlue cc deal, etc.) so I am not sure this blog is good for the long term health of the “hobby”. It is about the hobby right? 🙂
LazyTraveler: Andy is great and deserves a place in my Blogs I Like list. But you must understand that his blog acts like a resume for his writing business and he does very well. His books too. And he does not publish regularly which is yuge!
Having said all that, let me repeat, you have no idea how long it takes to produce a blog. Of course there are expenses too but not as much as other “hobbies”. I pay $15 per month to get the emails out to subscribers, domain costs, site hosting costs, WordPress consultants that cleans up site and fixes things, tax filing fee, freaking time to do the bookkeeping/tax return (Ok, I do that…just saying!), and on and on.
I just wiped out a bunch of blogs in my Feedly list. Most of them former miles and points blogs that GAVE UP. Some good ones too. Without any support good bloggers give up———->FACT. You know, happens with journalism and independent coffee shops, retail establishments, blah blah.
>>>>>>>>>>>>I just don’t think that the approach about telling your dear readers that you will shut down the blog if they don’t pay up is that effective.
Maybe you are right. But I feel better letting it all out! #truth. And hopefully other aspiring bloggers read it and I save them the heartach and waste of time they are about to embark on. Hey, I see this as giving back!
>>>>>>>>>>>You know you will never make a killing here so IMO, I say do it because you love it and because it’s therapeutic.
Again, you have no idea how many hours go into posting a quality blog post REGULARLY. Look, if I posted occasionally here like most bloggers do and I whined even once I would shoot myself (not really, just saying to emphasize my point okay?). Even those posting occasionally quit. The ones who try to post more regularly eventually burn out and say…phuck thisshit, I am outtahere! This blog made more than $1k a few months in its existence. Even then it was nowhere near making minimum wage per hour. Some psychic rewards too? CERTAINLY! But when you make 67 cents per day after spending hours upon hours and then have MU taunt me…THIS IS WHAT MAKES BLOGGERS QUIT.
Like Head for Points said earlier, do not make FT crowd your target market. Well, I never made a market study so…but I get his point!
To repeat, I am NOT in Boarding Area and my blog has NO PHUCKINGADS because I hate them. So, you know, it is motivating when I see an occasional cc conversion once in a while (aiming for 10; actually less, as I am about to get our familia some Delta cards!) and maybe I can get a Greek salad per day to maintain my sexy physique would not be TOO much to ask hey?
I am fixating on it for two reasons:
– To pound it on you guys that independent bloggers need support. Without it, they DIE.
– It will MORE liberating if I did not have a blog but I am going to fee I let you guys down and, this is important, Ingy would come here and make fun of me. And I would hate that 🙂
I repeat. all four blogs you indicated are NOT doing it for free/posting regularly.
I hope this makes it more clear where I am coming from.
Has anyone of the 4 wrote such a long comment? Ever? 🙂
TGIF
Thanks for the replay…I read it a couple of times to honor the time you spent on it!
First off, I know a little bit about writing a blog–I did this professionally for a tech company. I definitely know that these things are 100x easier and more fun to *start* than to maintain. With time, it gets very tedious.
Plus, the focus of your particular blog (reviewing other blogs) makes it much more time consuming than if you just wrote about something you did or some trick you discovered on your own. I get that too!
Second, about the blogs that I like: I don’t care if they do it for free or not. I like them because they don’t self-promote in an unavoidable way (ahem).
These blogs that I like have ads? Well, I can ignore them if I want to.
(On a side note: do you think some bloggers use their blogs as a tax write-off to fund their travels? If so, that’s another way to “get revenue”, so to speak. )
As much as I would like to help keep you in your sexy physique (for Mrs. Buzz’s sake, as well as the sake of your soccer team), there is nothing I can do to help you right now.
What I WILL do (and have done) is follow your credit card or amazon links if and when it is time to for me to get a new card AND if you have the best links (I always check) AND if I remember (sometimes I forget about the Amazon link, I admit it) AND I feel I don’t owe another blogger my click (rare, but it happens).
So you see, even your most loyal reader can’t always support you, even if you mention 67 cents a thousand times each post. It just doesn’t help, I believe. Anyway, I know “it” (the whining, although that’s too strong a word) has been discussed before and it’s part of your blog’s DNA at this point, but I like your blog far better when this is not part of it. Peace.
replay–>reply
Thanks for the support.
This blog is not whining when I see a few clicks—->FACT.
In real life, I am not a whiner lol.
I am still not getting ads and I am still not going to Boarding Area. What if they place me in between Rene and PM&M? OMG, just shoot me!
Another fact is support clicks go up when readers are reminded. This is why you see repeated cc posts in other blogs. Because it works. Not sure why this month we hit a major block. I think it is a combination of factors. With the primary one being this blog is for more advanced readers who are downright mauled by all the bank restrictions that came aboard in the last few years.
Good point on the blog review theme here….I am trying to get away from that. I have been purging blogs left and right the past few days and it does feel liberating!
My only point about the political posts was for a blog titled “travelbloggerbuzz” is that they are out of place. Odd that you laugh at my mention of a business model when that is exactly what you are saying (in different words) is not working with the current format (e.g. the even lower new hourly wage that you are making).
Honestly, I would NEVER click on one of your links. Seriously. You do whine all the time. Go back and read your posts….it’s ridiculous. Oh, and you never pump plastic….except you do. Read today’s post from 9/17! Sometimes I just shake my head at your rambling political posts (on a travel blog) and other times I lol at your rage about your below minimum wage. This blog and the time you commit are YOUR choice! Has it occurred to you that your business model might not actually be working?
Own up to what it provides you or actually make a change and stick with it.
Thanks for the support!
I must admit I laughed at your “business model” line, thanks!
Changes are coming and they will be blogged about tomorrow.
You are damn right this is my blog and the time I commit to it is MY choice!
The political posts will continue. If you do not like it, it is YOUR choice NOT to read this blog.
Have a nice day. Try to support other blogs you read regularly before they give up, okay?
Responding to the 2d message by MU2:
>>>>>>>>My only point about the political posts was for a blog titled “travelbloggerbuzz” is that they are out of place.
Dude, the name was picked back in 2012! Things have evolved. This has not been all miles/points/travel since 2013 I believe! With all the constant devaluations and huge industry changes it was smart for me to expand/diversify a bit ever since. I can not change the name now, too late for that. Expect to see more non travel related stuff. As long as they are to educate/entertain/inspire they are game to appear here. On the Best of Web posts I say up on top that they can be ANYTHING. So I am not sure why you pound me on this point. Maybe you are new around here?
>>>>>>>>>>Odd that you laugh at my mention of a business model when that is exactly what you are saying (in different words) is not working with the current format (e.g. the even lower new hourly wage that you are making).
Dude, it is fairly obvious there is really NO business model around here. Like me replying to individual comments one by one…whothephuck does that anymore from the bloggers who do this for a LIVING? Make a few bucks to take my wife out for some nice meals to “justify” to keep this baby going. And it has worked fine up to now. Not sure why this month bombed. I think it has more to do with the bank restrictions than anything else. Actually, that lower per hour number doubled in one day with a large Amazon order lol. There will be less whining going forward. Simply because there will be less time spent on this blog. I explain all that tomorrow.
Support blogs you like. It does not have to be mine. Because if you don’t…there will not be any blogs left that will give a phuck about you other thank your dinero!
TBB is still cheaper than spending 5-6 figure on a shrink over the last decade. Mental sanity isn’t cheap.
Good point 🙂
Is “frugaltravelguy” slowly coming to an end?
Irregular posts and not a single comment from a reader since June 6th.
“not a single comment from a reader since June 6th”
WOW!
I mean, how sucky is that!
If Loyalty Traveler splits ad revenue with BA, then he’s getting 50% of their ad revenue, because he doesn’t have any ads. He does a good job, never complains about lack of money coming in, never has a bad word for other blogs. He just keeps on putting out good info, all for Freeeee. As someone else commented, he probably uses his writing as a tax deduction, thereby getting all his travel at a greatly discounted price. Again, you never see any whining from Ric. As a last word, George, if you can’t beat ’em, think about joining ’em. Don’t be so phreaking stubborn; Change your business model, or you’re soon to be among those soon forgotten.
Thanks for the feedback.
All Boarding Area blogs have ads run by BA. Those annoying banner ads! And BA’s business model is to split the revenue with the bloggers!
Agreed abt the tax deductions, no doubt!
The whining stops here when I get paid for my time a little more than 67 cents per day okay?
If u don’t like it…I suggest you do 2 things:
Click the support links or leave.
Thank you.
BornStubbornGeorge
Updated:
62 cents per day now!
WTF!!!!<—–Hi Mark.
I was going to do a post today but just lost interest.
Best of Web post coming tomorrow. 5 Amazing links. One depressing but 4 very uplifting and will make your day/week/month/year
Evolving continues…news at 11
Killed another 10.
Feedly blog count I am following now: 250
The Purge continues
Need to align to 62 cents per day LOL!
And now I have to call my mother…She still yells at me and I am 51 damnit! 🙂
NOW THIS IS FUNNY!! Watch and enjoy.
https://nypost.com/2018/09/15/weatherman-called-out-for-faking-battle-with-wind-during-florence/
and George the answer to your question to me yesterday is ….. Da!
From the same investigative “newspaper” “Staring at boobs is just one of six ways men can live longer nyp.st/2CPW6GG