We bring you an article about the credit card kingmaker, how to score United Business Class awards, go on some scenic train rides, go visit Burundi, look at some awesome drone photography, another Google cemetery, an amazing article about a techie dude fighting hacker thieves, go through the winners and losers of this year’s tax season and get dirty in the Blog Buzz section and I would like to apologize in advance for trying to kill independent blogs LOL.
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In case you missed my awesome Sunday Best of Web post: Shen Yun World, Rick Steves Unplugged, Theranos Inside Saga, Misconceptions, NASA Rare Photos, Float Documentary.
Well, everyone is talking about this article at the Wall Street Journal about The Points Guy Brian Kelly: The Credit-Card Kingmaker. There are some astonishing $$ numbers revealed and there is also apparent astonishment in the writer’s knowledge about this field. I’ll have some comments in the Blog Buzz section below. This may be behind a paywall, sorry.
If you have United miles. Not going to remind you of all the credit card you can get that can get you more of them like all the other bloggers pushing their affiliate links…4 Reasons to Use United Miles for Business Class Awards to Europe.
These are wonderful: The Most Stunningly Beautiful Train Rides in America.
When there is a Euro 2020 Qualifying soccer game in progress and an EasyJet plane takes off in the background, only in…Gibraltar lol!
Fascinating article about the guy who helps people infected with ransomware viruses: Hated and Hunted.
I may have posted this one before. Or something similar. The Google Cemetery.
Look and listen to this Ferrari, wow. LOL!
For the personal finance fans of the blog, a really good article with excellent graph work on The Surprising Winners and Losers of This Year’s Tax Season.
This may be a repeat as well but it is worth it! The 25 Winners Of The 2018 Drone Photo Contest.
And now we are entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veteran miles and points blog readers.
This will be of interest to you I am sure: Here Are Some Unexpected Unicorns in the New 25% Amex Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue.
Be careful out there with your Hilton Honors accounts, wow! My Hilton account was hacked…twice.
There is a small increase in Business class awards using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. Including flights to Hawaii from North America. And that’s the way this hobby goes…
There was an interesting exchange between me and Gilbert over God Save The Points. It all started when I made a joke how his writer Spencer should get on with it and sell the ChaseSapphirePreferred card harder like everyone else is doing (that short exchange not shown). Well it escalated a little…This is the first time I have bean accused of “trying to kill independent blogs”. WOW!!!! A bit later he said that he would rather sell his house than sell out to TPG….And I am like “oh yeah, so you can buy a much bigger house!”. Woohoo!!! This space is crazy…
Okay, some comments on the WSJ piece on TPG:
That has created a symbiotic relationship between Mr. Kelly and the banks. [Probably the understatement of the year?]
TPG helped spawn a broader ecosystem of customers who swap tips online about how to game the system, wringing rewards out of cards before abandoning them, and some banks are discussing how to cut back on rewards to trim costs. [WTF to infinity!!!!! Goes to show you how not well informed the writer is about this space. As most people reading it are. And these outfits THRIVE on the cluelessness! Don’t be surprised if she ends up getting a job there too lol]
Banks spent an estimated $4.5 million in banner, display and video advertisements on TPG in the fourth quarter of 2018, double from a year prior and more than triple from two years prior. [Let that sink in…the app conversions are on top! Nobody has spent a single dollar here. I had ONE inquiry for a sponsorship and the interested party wanted to link to FTG so i refunded the fee pronto!]
Mr. Kelly sold TPG in 2012 for an undisclosed amount. It is now owned by Red Ventures and has about 60 full-time employees. [Up to 60 now…Just wait when banks stop spending the dinero, it won’t be pretty.]
One of TPG’s biggest bank clients is JPMorgan. [Shocking! #notreally My biggest client is my son actually with his available room for credit card apps lol]
Mr. Kelly’s Instagram account highlights a lifestyle of high-price travel that rewards cards can pay for, boasting photos of him in a hammock in Bora Bora and views of Cape Town from a luxury hotel. [It’s all about SELLING baby, photos of a run down Days Inn with views of the local Jimmy Johns dumpster in Topeka, KS just…won’t sell many credit cards lol!]
The price tag for the black-tie affair was about $1.5 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. TPG paid about $250,000, the person said. [Phuck meeeeee! I don’t think TBB is even a rounding error in that whole empire #sadfacepalm!]
Worst headline this week that other bloggers love to link to send their own readers there:
Teen Removed From Her Seat on Overbooked Flight While Mom Sat in Back of the Plane Unaware – View From The Wing #clickbaitcrap! #noshame #SAAAAAAD
You all have a great week. Start running, 32 miles last week for me and I am up to 19 this week already. And that helps me sleep like a non-crying baby!
6 conversions this month, just 8 last month. Three months in a row under 10 and it is time to move on and go say hi to Mile Nerd, miss that guy! Until then…you enjoy yourselves okay?
And I leave you with this…When you wait to take that shot of junior doing his first dive and…
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Thanks as always for sharing my posts…thanks for checking out Burundi
Good links today.
The tax detail was quite useful I remember after the law was passed the authorities in NY and CA boasted they would do an end run around the non-deductible SALT. Mirth abounding.
Bronze! For the Pacific North West! Great train ride stuff! And this credit card thing? I’ve learned more about how this stuff is marketed from this blog than anywhere! Thanks for the great work, George! Truly appreciated!
@Richard: Thanks for coming over to comment. I enjoyed the Burundi posts. I enjoy travel posts from areas we do not see much from. In this crazy hobby most gravitate towards sanitary experiences where Hyatt hotels are at 🙂
@DML: Yeah, that was good I must agree with you 🙂 I remember how those states telegraphed the run around and it was a matter of time before that was taken care of. SAME situation when blogs blog about how they can get 6 Alaska Airlines credit cards in one day and then BANG…IRS is much faster though hehe.
@Carl: The Detroit Pistons came through Portland the other day and went on a total black out in the last 4 minutes to end the game and lose another one. We are in a super tight race for a playoff spot. Please beat the other teams vying for one in the East conference, Nets/Heat/Magic/Hornets thank you! I would love to see the financial statements of the kingmaker’s company with so much expenses and spending so freely. In the meantime, advice to other bloggers, don’t offer sponsorships LOL.
WSJ should of used the TPG picture of him in his Sleeveless Sailor Suit hawking his credit card signups in the park. Classic.
GREAT DAY FOR AMERICA!
Probably just accidental that we didnt add anything political today. Nothing to see here
Question: does TPG shrink or grow the independent market? Starbucks has arguably grown the coffee market, MaccyD’s has grown the burger market. USA Today gets people into newspapers.
Newspapers are dying. When you lie about the war Iraq and don’t do much fact checking with regards to the Russian collusion you don’t have a winning formula.
https://taibbi.substack.com
How’s Brexit going?
I think you’ve missed the point! TPG is potentiay a big marketing benefit for the whole market.
For a start, realistically, TPG publishes too much stuff to track. People will seek out more niche sites which they can follow more easily. Either that or people want better quality and move on.
You are referring to the blog reader market, I was referring to the cc app conversions market 🙂
Comes down to customer acquisition cost. And are they repeat customers? Does Cherry and Candy come back for more CC applications? Or are they just once and done?
And what’s the total addressable market in the US? Is it growing? For Chase et al what is their ROI from different channels. I always thought blogs targeting “gamers” would be a bad idea, but it seems that banks have a lot of money to burn.
this ^
And what if they keep finding Cherry and Candy types? It’s not like TPG is targeting gamers!
Banks sure have a lot of money to burn, no doubt. We’ll see how long this will last.
And it will be very interesting what happens with the Apple card coming in a few months…
Was expecting more comments on the TPG article.
I think TPG certainly grew the market. But is it growing to keep pace with the growth in staffing/expenses there? I don’t know but my guess is no.
TPG: I am not getting paid for travel…I just throw a party mentally masturbating/celebrating my merchandise and get banks to pay $1.25 million while I put up $250k…smh.
Thanks to the reader who got the Barclay Arrival + card today. 7 conversions. I can not be stopped…killing individual blogs today you guys LOL.
Looks like 2020 election will be about the phucking moron. I am keeping my hopes…lower 🙂
Here’s one. I could barely finish reading that article before projectile vomiting/diarrhea-ing all over the place place, including my stack of non-tpg sourced credit cards.
When I Googled “Douche”, that WSJ article with picture of TPG was the first result.
When I decided to do a DMV lookup for TPG’s Rover, his license plate reads “Bonv0y”.
Loved the “non-tpg sourced credit cards” part 🙂
Congrats on being in the WSJ today!
Gracias…It was way too condensed but I’ll take it 🙂
I’ll be in Topeka on Wednesday.
Really funny.
And this one is not:
Naked Man Tries to Board Flight Because Clothes Affect His ‘Agility’ – View From The Wing
Mind asking him how he feels about posting all this clickbait hideous stuff when you are next to him on some panel coming up? smh