TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
The ridiculous race is on to get readers to click on the SPG Amex 30k affiliate links! Make fun of them and enter to win two AA Admirals Club passes! GREAT odds, only 27 valid entries! Update: Say anything you want now to enter, the Milepoint people do!
If you like what you see here, please let others know by passing them a link to my blog, thank you!
TRAVEL
Lightning Crashes. Picture of the Day at Twisted Sifter.
Rapid Travel Chai has me transfixed with his pics & videos from North Korea! Here is a trip report, for the first time, I do not want it to end:-)
More Rooms With a View series. By Landlopers. Incredible photos!
Landscapes – Himalayan Monasteries. Drop Everything. Watch. This.Now
Landscapes – Himalayan Monasteries from pani on Vimeo.
Two charts (domestic & international) of Airport Wifi Access. Very useful. By Airfarewatchdog.
3 Idle thoughts for Friday again by Airline Biz Blog. Love No 1: I believe the Crusades took less time than the American Airlines bankruptcy case
MILES/POINTS
New iPrefer Preferred Hotel Group Loyalty Program Launched. By Loyalty Lobby. “This is about the least rewarding hotel loyalty program that I have seen.” And that’s all you need to know!
Saverocity has constructed a detailed table list of AAdvantage North American Gateway Cities (including partners). May be useful to some trying to add a free one way option to their award!
So, apparently it is true that American Airlines will honor the very generous status challenge promo they pulled “early”. First, I am not buying it it was a mistake! Second, they get you all flying around like crazies to qualify. Then they can “enhance” it and take your precious eight international thingies away from you Executive Platinums. Possible because AA CAN do it! Boy would I be pissed if my upgrades were taken away by some bozo who just flew 30k:-)
ON MY MIND
As the time goes by and this blog site has pretty much no income whatsoever, I have been thinking and suddenly had the brilliant idea to devote some time to add Adsense. I know it pays almost nothing but a little bit can help to mostly offset some tax deductions and convince the IRS examiner “Hey listen I do have profit intentions for this business, it ain’t my hobby, here is proof for my $5.52 in adsense income, come on!” or something like that. I even got my son to help me track down some info and felt confident I can do the adsense thing as it is known as the easiest ad platform to work with. So I started. Everything was going well but then all hell broke loose how the crap appears on my site. Endless playing with it. Got son to get into the techie stuff and he tried too. We can not get the freaking thing to work. And then son asked for his PC computer cord so he can play games again. I even offered him 50% of the revenue if he can make this baby work. He just wanted the computer cord, slacker! Ungrateful spoiled kids these days. I realized something. I am clearly no techie. I think I can be smart sometimes (especially when I am dealing something I know and definitely not when it comes to making blogs a viable commercial venture haha) but when it comes to have to deal with actual computer code….I start sweating. By the time I looked up the Feedly unread blog list number had crossed 1,000. Obviously I just don’t know this crap and I sure don’t have the time for it. This blogging thing takes work. Most bloggers devote time on working on their site and their monetization options or hire someone to help them. But how am I going to sink in more money into this when I am already out a chunk? Hate going into the hole further! It’s a catch 22! I am barely able to keep track of the blogs to produce something of some level of quality here and with my other life there is simply no much time left to do anything (no time to burn either which I really do not like!!!!). Yes…sometimes I wonder if I am a complete idiot for doing it this way…If I could spark an entrepreneurial brain cell and/or make my son learn a valuable skill instead of playing the stupid computer games for hours it would have been all worth it. I am not giving up. The computer cord is mine (evil laugh).
The other thing is…if I can’t even deal with adsense properly…how am I going to be dealing with all the cc affiliate codes if I jump into the circus? I will certainly need time for dat…something which I ain’t got time for. I am trapped:-) I need to go climb some rocks, obviously Lake Louise didn’t do it for me as God did not give me a sign lol.
Sorry for rambling…It is therapy for me letting all out:-)
ODDZ & ENDZ
Jobs movie sure looks like a flop, reviews are awful. But nowhere nearly as awful as Paranoia!
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. Readers not familiar with this crazy hobby could skip this section!
When I saw the post on The Points Guy about maximizing miles and points on pet food I immediately, as I usually do, came up with a number. It is a game I play these days. The number represents how many cc affiliate links will appear in a post. I am getting so much better at this! My number was: 12. The actual number was: 14. I am consistently…lower:-)
Every day I write the blog I star praying that the Delta Points will write something that I will let go. But just can’t let this one go…again. So, we have a 500 mile email sign up bonus (thanks for wasting my time to sign up all four accounts), we are told that Pointbreaks is coming (wow, really?), a crappy GoGo sale valid for a very limited time in early September (the other was sold out already and the real reason that this post was even attempted…the SPG card (what else?). And here I am busting my butt to offer you my dear readers something useful or, hopefully entertaining, and even…inspiring once in a while. Thank you for understanding my feelings:-)
Lenticular Travel was the Friday interview at Million Mile Secrets. Good to see the focus on photography. About miles & points…allow me to roll my eyes and scream within (oh no, not another expert!). Another new website that makes mine look like one done by a a 6 year old boy. All them credit card affiliate links so neatly displayed too with the cool photos. I wonder if we will see a post how to buy a camera with the SPG Amex card tomorrow or the day after lol. Ok, hooray for this amazing photo and welcome!
Mommy Points decided suddenly to tell us about ten perks of the Starwood Preferred AMEX and SPG Program. How conveeeeeenient!
You know it is nuts when mainstream blogs get into the SPG act! My Dollar Plan is on it. Don’t worry about it, nothing there to see.
The need to keep the links flowing leads to stuff like this. Points, Miles and Martinis wrote “3x Chase Points per $ And 50% Sale at Gap For Off End Of Summer”. First, please do not make mistakes on the Title of all places! Makes me think you just put this baby together in two minutes and one minute was to just put up FIVE Chase cc links!
Running With Miles wrote about the crappy “Flying Blue Promo Awards” that pretty much nobody cares about. But the real reason of the post was to slip in SEVEN Amex cc links. Drivel posts like this drives me insane!
TBB COMMENT OF THE DAY
Reader TJ had the following mega hilarious comment yesterday:
Even better case: the Chase Fairmont card. Just wait for when that gets on the affiliate network. A great card that gets no coverage because it pays nothing to bloggers.
My predictions for when it goes affiliate?
One Mile at a Time will ignore all the actual Fairmonts and focus solely on finding availability at the Plaza/Savoy, DansDeals will somehow get around blackout days (YMMV/HUCA), View From the Wing will tell you how to get the most food out of the free breakfast coupons, MommyPoints will tell you how the all-suite Fairmont Kea Lani is for perfect for families but not bring her whole family, MMS will show you how to not spend any money while on property, DeltaPoints will tell you all about earning a lucrative 250 SkyMiles per stay (or 10 mattress runs for 500 SkyMiles, every stay!), TPG will get his dog “VID” status at the DC Fairmont, MileValue will show you how the Barclays US Airways 30K card will get you to various Fairmonts around the lower 48, Deals We Like will do a 16 part series without stepping foot into a Fairmont, and poor Canadian KMs will have a breakdown that the Canadian hotel chain card is not available to Canadians and FTG will restart the Top 531 card countdown to place the Fairmont at #1.
Love that Patagonia photo!
Yes me too. That is probably a once in a lifetime shot!
I hope that I am number two.
Yes you are!
I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been more mention of the 50K AA offer. Most are too high on SPG and Ink affiliate crack to give it more more than a passing mention in their top 10 lists.
I do see mentions of it, but it’s not new, it’s been around for years in one form or another. We give them a hard time over recycled content, and also when they don’t recycle? I am angry but I am also consistent.
If bloggers were truly out to help readers they would post about the AA cards at least at the same rate as they post about the card du jour (now SPG amex)…
So it is ok to give them some grief…imho, they do deserve it!
Thought the TBB comment of the day was hilarious… however I don’t have links for Citi or Chase or AMEX… so even if I “push” I’m not getting anything. I just mention things I think are blogworthy.
Maybe add this to the top of your cc posts to avoid…confusion? 🙂
That comment of the day was both hilarious and right on the mark
And yes HikerT I’ve no idea why nobody is mentioning the 50k link. I will say the wiki on the FT thread is excellent on that one. Very rare for FT to actually have all the info collated nicely like that, bravo. But with it back to being churnable, that is for sure a top three card right now. But I guess it will never beat Chase Ink Bold 🙂
The wiki on that FT thread is indeed the MOST excellent wiki that exists. What wikis should be all about. Kudos to the ones who have worked on it!
Like I said a little further up, if bloggers were truly out to help readers “travel for free” it should be considered a crime that this card is NOT mentioned. At least in my book:-)
SHHHHH!
AdSense should be easy. You have a widget bar in your border. You drag a ‘Text’ widget box into the sidebar, copy to AdSense code and paste it into the text box. Voila.
You will probably get a blank box for a while, whilst Google has a read at the site and decides what to run.
You need a 300×250 ad box. Don’t go for 250×250, there are few ads in that size and so little competition – they pay about 65% less. This assumes, of course, your margin is 300 wide. If not, you’ll need to tweak the page layout to widen the sidebar and narrow the main text area.
Nothing is as easy as it should be:-) Yes yes I learned all about the widgets and drop it in the text and voila…There appears to be major issues with the sizing of the darn ads. So major tweaking is needed for the page layouts/sidebar and stuff like that. Way beyond my threshold of tolerance lol. I tinkered with it for hours, never got it to look/work properly. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!
Here it comes. are you ready? George is about to start assaulting you with Adsense. It had to happen. George is human after all. He wants to be compensated for his time and efforts.
I give George a lot of credit. Instead of just being angry, he actually did something about his anger. He started a blog. Way to go George. cuts down on the therapy bills.
But now George, you have become just like every other blogger you whine about. Some pimp for Chase, Citi and Amex. You are about to start pimping for Google and will have absolutely no say over the ads that run on your blog.
I saw the attempt a couple of days ago. the ad will fit and you will be molding you site to pimp for the man. shame, Insulting, Disgusting. How could you be so human when over the last 10 months you’ve pretended to be above the fray?
Lol, just imagine what Rick will flame TBB with when affiliate cards show up here, oh my! 🙂
You bet the blog cuts down on the therapy bills lol.
I am human of course, just way less greedy & one who still thinks that credibility is the most important asset a human can have;-)
There is a huge difference between pimping for the banks than “pimping” by placing an adsense ad. Come on, don’t be so ridiculous man!
Besides, save your feelings when you do actually see an ad here! This whole thing has been a diversion to get my son away from playing “League of Legends” and get him interested in learning a valuable software skill!
So, puuulease, save the pimping references for sites that truly deserve it.
TBB: 10 months pimp free and damn proud of it!
Have a nice weekend! Thank you for being one my most loyal readers!
George
Credibility is my most important asset!
Ok, since credibility is your biggest asset and because you love disclosure, tell us the details of your WSJ deal. Do you get paid? If so, what? How about with your consulting? What do you charge for that? Just asking the same things you do. Thank God you make enough that you do not need to ave advertisers. Just imagine if your consulting/advice was free – imagine the financial pushing that would occur then!
I do NOT get paid! Update: Let me make myself clear: I do not get paid by anyone, any company, any non profit institution, any foreign entity, etc…on this planet…come to think of it, on this Galaxy!
My fees are displayed in a tab titled “Fees”. Update: No third party non transparent payments either by anyone other than the client directly.
I make enough but not as much as I could if I would pimp stuff. I was offered to go work for several companies for mucho dinero but I do love my independence and time flexibility to blog too much:-)
Hope this is clear? Update: I am certain my credibility was an important factor in getting invited for this, what an honor!
Love challenging questions, hear that MMS;-)
Update: Ribs are postponed, just got a bunch of more questions for this honorable gig. Adsense and affiliate links get pushed back…AGAIN lol.
If one sells them self for money, it doesn’t matter the price. You still called bloggers pimps and your readers called them whores. All you are doing is arguing about price George. Don’t be ridiculous man.
If someone is critical of others actions and then commits the same action, they are called hypocrites. If you go down the path George, we can all call you “hypopimp”
You have zero credibility George, the minute you go down the Adsense or any other marketing path and you know it. Oh and BTW, if you want credibility, answer George too’s questions;)
Dont be a jackass. What TBB makes on his other non-miles-and-points related blog has absolutely nothing to do with being credible on this site. If he were to go down the path of Adsense or affiliate links, by all means, go after him all you want.
I guess we will have to disagree yet again what constitutes ridiculousness, credibility, pimping and such.
You are the last blogger on this earth to be railing about credibility imho.
My son is working hard all day long to figure out Adsense to get his computer cord back—->#winning
For the record, I do NOT consider pimping the way Frequent Miler/Rapid Travel Chai/Hack My Trip/Saverocity/TravelSummary are monetizing their site.
I will find a way and you will be here to go off on me, I expect it and I want to thank you for contributing to my blog’s mission to entertain my readers!
All this for an unsuccessful attempt on my part to add Adsense…ROFL…how ridiculous is THAT?
Do I grill some ribs today or do it tomorrow: My dilemma today
Rick sounds very angry. I heard farting is good for health.
Wow, you really love trolling. Adsense != having the credit card companies influence what you write and pretending you have the readers best interest at heart.
This is blatantly obvious to anyone with an ounce of reasoning.
Stop being an asshole.
Just realize Rick might not be able to figure out “!=” means “not equal”.
Don’t you mean stop standing up to angries who don’t like being challenged. Nameless faceless angries.
Just wait til Adsense puts up cc ads on his site, they are the lousiest offers out there and George has absolutely no control of those ads. He can’t delete them fast enough. So lets see who’s pimping the worst offers soon 🙂 and how you angries respond then
Blah blah blah…
Yawn
Rick – good for you. George is a frustrated pimper at heart – just can’t bring himself to admit it.
Well, thank you Paul. If what I have done qualifies me to be a frustrated pimper I rest my case. What will this make…never mind!
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, I do appreciate it!
Read this, http://john.do/adsense/, it might belp you navigate the waters.
Thanks a lot. I bookmarked it but I have no idea when or if I will ever get to it. I have things to do with higher priority (need to burn some miles/points, start on my Canada report, etc etc). Playing with adsense did make me realize I just don’t have the patience dealing with codes and stuff, very valuable lesson. I now have son trying to figure out—->less time playing games——>Winning:-)
I’ve concluded TBB is just messing with us (well mostly Rick I). The possibility of adding affiliate links, etc. seems more of a tongue in cheek troll.
It will happen…one day. And it will be done in a way that would be, well, as credible as it can be. Doing it like the others mentioned above is quite…tolerable imho.
But by the speed I move maybe the whole bubble is up? Who knows, this has been quite a journey and, I know I bitch, I am having a splendid time!
Check out the Lenticular Travel dude, great piece on Angkor and smoothly inserting of three (not just one) affiliate links at the end. I almost got no problem with it…I am a sucker for photography lately;-)
And on it goes…on!
George, like others have said, you will never get the big credit card affiliate links. Your site has zero content that would make them want to partner with you – not to mention how you scoff at all the other blogs that do target mainstream travel with points and miles. Believe me, they will go through your content before approving you. If they didn’t like Scotttrick’s blog title, they are really not going to like you. It’s ok – gives you one more way you can sing that the whole blog world is against you yet you will stand strong and alone. 🙂 🙂
Andy:
Thanks for the comment. Maybe you are right. Who told you I am out to get the BIG ones? If there is one thing that should be clear since I started blogging is that I am not greedy like others! I could have joined the circus many months ago.
Lots of what I write is for entertainment (you know, the mission). Many forget that & take things way too seriously!
Yeah, Scottrick should change that Hack thing, I told him that before.
And thanks for challenging me, provides extra motivation!
Gracias
just so you know, I’m going to click bomb the *uck out of your site once your Google ads go public and get you permanently banned from Google.
Best of luck traitor/sell out/scumbag
Rick, if this is you what else can I say? But I think someone is phucking with…both of us:-)
Thank you for your contribution in taking the time to speak your mind, this is what democracy is all about:-)
I am hungry. Greek salad or ribs?
Not me buddy. Others are starting to see through your charade.
You want full disclosure but won’t publish your full name.
You want ad revenue and it looks like you’ll be starting with the worst offers going with little to no editorial control
You’ll discreetly post your ads, but on a blog, know the homepage is where you get the most traffic
And the biggest kicker of all is: other bloggers with way less experience and knowledge than you are knocking down the big bucks and sleeping like a baby while you ponder and sweat out your next move.
I’m so glad I get to watch this upcoming circus 😉
I should start making book on the outcome 🙂
Re: Name
Just to show you how ridiculous is this statement, I surfed over to your buddy Delta Points blog who never ever reveals his last name!
You can go around the web to find numerous such examples. You insisting upon this makes you look really, well, I will let others draw their own conclusions.
Besides, my readers are smart enough to figure it out, they do not want things spelled out like in the FTG (the blog) challenges (this is my humor, get it?…Never mind)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>And the biggest kicker of all is: other bloggers with way less experience and knowledge than you are knocking down the big bucks and sleeping like a baby while you ponder and sweat out your next move.
I sleep like a baby too, thank you for your concern. “Big bucks” ——>We are not all judged the same, some value credibility more. But I sense you have a hard time grasping that. It may have to do with the sales vs fiduciary cultures:-)
Besides, comments like this from my reader below do make my day:-)
“I actually LOOK FORWARD to reading TBB each day.”
I want to state that I LOOK FORWARD to see the final (top) #10 of the FTG (the blog) credit card countdown:-)
I was going to grill the ribs but…took a nap instead!
I’m not talking about Rene. He is not taking personal shots at others and hiding behind anonymity. You are.
It is understandable though. If you ever did develop the stones to “come out” with your full name and a Google crawl listed your name associated with tabloid blogger buzz, the other blog owners you work for, may not like the association with an “angries blog” owner. I knew you’d placed yourself in a horrible box the day you asked me to remove your last name almost eleven months ago. I still can’t figure out why you went negative and anonymous, when you have such a knack for finding great photos and such a quirky sense of humor.
And now back to making book: Does George :
1. Reveal his full name and stand behind his criticism of others in the full light of day?
2. Add advertising and become the “hypopimp”
3. Continue “as is” forever and ever amen.
4. Fold like a cheap suit around anniversary time insisting he just can’t keep up when really he is just bailing because he ain’t getting paid.
the soap opera continues 🙂
And “fiduciary” requires full disclosure.
Rick,
Seriously, are you okay health wise? You are the only one who sounds angry around here dude!
And you are the ONLY one fixated about my real name, do you even have a clue how this makes you look?
You have never learned what constructive criticism is all about and you really never learned how to take it. Trolling and bullying when anyone dares to criticize a blog you are not even associated with (but your picture and name are plastered all over it)!
TBB reviews blogs. I have repeatedly said not to take ANYTHING personal and yet…here you go off in my blog again and again looking like a total jackass! You are destroying any credibility you had left. The sad thing is you do NOT even realize it.
Hypopimp? Me????? Lololololololololololololol.
Whatever you say I still forgive you. But please spare us all the lessons on full disclosure too!
I suggest you keep checking my site daily (hourly even) to see when I turn into “hypopimp” (thanks for the laughs man, love it!) or “fold like a cheap suit” (says the blogger selling soul to the suits!).
Still…I love you and Rene.
I suggest go eat some ribs!
I just had pulled pork here in grr. It was fair only.
“Selling soul to suits?” I sold a blog George. My soul is still intact. You crack me up with your attempted diversions and misdirects.
It appears that the trolling and bullying are your forte George. You troll 500 plus blogs per day looking for a chance to take bullying shots from behind your own anonymity.
Simple fact George. others photos, others content, your comments and criticism on others work.
Time for a nap. Lets play again tomorrow? Wanna?
>>>>>>>>You crack me up with your attempted diversions and misdirects.
>>>>>>>>It appears that the trolling and bullying are your forte George
Shaking my head…
Are you on drugs? I am not joking this time!
I took a nap today too and it was awesome!
I review 584 blogs at the moment. There is a lot of drivel out there;-)
Thank you for trolling my tiny blog and supporting its mission to Entertain readers!
How about the gift cards you promised each time you came back huh? You did not disclose it was a one-time deal? Not surprised at all:-)
Rick I, King of the Straw Man.
Funny thing is, I actually LOOK FORWARD to reading TBB each day. He actually provides original content, and value, for me, the reader!
Pretty much every other travel blog in my Feedly, I click next, next, next… I guess I want to make sure I’m not missing anything, but they are all boring now. The only other blog off the top of my head I make a point to read is Cranky Flier — another blog that provides original content and insight.
Thank you very much for reading and taking the time to comment.
I really like Cranky Flier too! Very high on the credibility scale:-)
Speaking of Cranky Flier, even with his huge readership he couldn’t even keep the CC affiliate machine rolling since he didn’t pimp the hell out of them. The banks will drop those affiliates who they don’t see growth or results from in a real hurry. I’m honestly surprised FM is succeeding with his affiliate model, but that must be since so many go out of their way to use his links since they appreciate how he does business.
I think FM is benefiting from the BA umbrella.
And you are darn right FM is succeeding doing it the right way, err, the credible way!
You are also right my blog could never pimp the hell out of them, just not in my DNA.
So, the point is, to continue focusing on producing a valuable product and monetization aspects will take care of themselves eventually. What is the rush anyway to make “big bucks”?
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment! I am slowly learning more on this affiliate stuff. There is quite a bit of variation out there. Non transparency rules of course. Maybe I can do my part to change that…
One thing for certain is the entertainment value my blog provides to you and me:-)
Just put the adsense on. Everybody ignores the ads anyways. Who cares 🙂
It is amazing what teenage boys will do to get their computer cord back;-)
There’s actually a ”thing” (a concept) in web design called ‘banner blindness’ — which has expanded to include ad sense blindness… You may even have it yourself: does your eye automatically skips over the ‘banner’ — the top of the page that can look like an ad? And nowadays, the stack of text along the border looks like ads… Lots of people don’t even SEE banners (or ad sense ads) anymore. (There are all these web conventions — like a search box in the top right, and the ‘home’ link being the logo in the top left.)
Yeah I skip over them too. I think most people do these days. The whole thing has been a diversion to get my son away from his computer games and learn something. It has been working, he even may figure it out soon…We shall see. It is great to watch him apply himself as much as he did in his computer games —–>#winning:-)
Is this Rick I really the guy who created Frugal Travel Guy, George? Seriously, is this him or someone posting as him. What a f…ing a..hole! I am so pissed at myself for ever using his links in the past, what a dick!…………………………..sorry for the rant, I’m very protective of (TBB) my friends.
I was going to grill me some ribs but got really lazy, please forgive me. I am catching up on lots of little things, son is trying to figure out adsense so he can get his computer cord back, wife is out shopping and, most importantly, I just managed to finally burn 100k United miles for a round trip o Business class to Greece (flying Lufthansa and Aegean) to see mother TBB. Life is good.
I still love Rick, he is a unique individual. If only he had kept his word to send out $50 Marriott gift cards for every time he came back online to set us all straight:-)
TBB Mission: Entertainment
You are getting it, enjoy:-)
Ribs tomorrow for sure, could be the last work of art of the summer on my grill!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Don’t get angry, not worth it!
Hypocrite!
Plastics!
Pfffft.
Fairmont blackout dates and room category controls are just for rookies.
But wow, someone’s got me down pat.
That being said the card is fine for the signup bonus but spending on it royally stinks. WTH were they thinking with that award chart?
Yeah, the spending on the Fairmont sucks so royally…hate putting $12k on it…it hurts!
Also agree. And that’s what bloggers will say to justify not mentioning it. They’ll put a positive spin on things once their bosses tell them its great.
TBB,
I think the problem you are going to see with adsense is that your click through rate is going to be extremely low (or too high thanks to your generous fan base which will get you shut down). My guess is that since it is the same people posting on here over and over again that most of your traffic is direct traffic (check your google analytics). Direct traffic means they are coming to the blog to see the blog and not searching for something (its the searchers that adsense is targeting). Your best bet may be selling banner ad space. You can sell that for a flat rate and not have to worry about people clicking on the ads to earn revenue.
Yeah, my son is on it and he managed to do it today and called me up while I was at Panera enjoying my 5th cup of coffee (free refills!). I am really proud of him, he is a good kid, 4.0 GPA..just plays computer games a little too much for my tolerance. He even told me he can help me out more by adding things on the left hand side of the homepage, hooray! He is looking into how to mess with the themes and possibly alter the left hand side…In other words, my grand scheme was to get him interested and away from his computer and make him learn something new and valuable. I call this #winning
God knows I did not add sense to be rich. If I was out looking for that I would have gone you know what route….months ago.
It’s a journey and I am thrilled I got my son involved!
Rick, you have fallen so much in these past few months. Seems like ever since you sold (sold out), you think you are the freakin king of the hill and have gone absolutely off the deep end. No one but you cares if you made money on selling your blog. There are idiot buyers out there everywhere buying all kinds of stuff. (like bad CC info)
You were never such a jerk in the past so I hope all that money you got from selling out has got you some happiness of some sort. From what you post here, you seem like an unhappy man.
(TBB, I have one of the few—maybe the only–$50 Marriott gift card he sent to me. I’m thinking of sending it to you for a contest about FTG (the man). Your current SPG contest is getting so lame, btw. End it before it goes all “MMS Tahiti trip report” on you.)
glad you enjoyed the gift card. when I get bored I love to come to tabloid blogger buzz and see if George is still beating up others with his criticism. seems to make him feel better or something. If he got rid of the section on beating up bloggers, he may actually have a chance at get affiliate links, increase his readership and make a positive contribution to the space. and I’ll bet if he quit ranting, so would his readership. Look at tomorrow’s post. George writes a touching tribute and commenter #1 responds by going off on MMS. You guys all need to take a look at yourselves.
As far as changing so much, you are very observant. If you are old enough you’ll remember a band named Cream and their hit lyrics:
“I’m so glad. I’m so glad. I’m glad I’m glad I’m glad”
In regards to TBB for me they are now:
” I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care”
I just love dropping in and phucking with your whining, criticizing ungrateful heads.
bluecat: The first TBB giveaway was courtesy of Rick with a $50 Marriott gift card. The second one is underway now and I agree about your point, I need and will wrap it up very shortly…just went on too long! As always, thank you for the kind words and taking the time to comment!
Ingy: Time stamp says 8.03 am “when I get bored” —–> Must suck getting bored so early on Sunday morning! May I suggest another activity for you instead of trolling my blog? I do care deeply for you and I am very concerned! TBB reviews blogs and its mission is to: Entertain, Educate, Inspire. TBB shares criticism when TBB thinks it is wholly deserved. Even others who TBB criticizes are good sports. Only you and DP get so angry, why? My criticism is constructive. You apparently do not think so and no wonder you censor and troll my blog and FT looking like a cranky old man? Like I said to DP, I would LOVE to share your sites when they have something worthy (imho) to offer!
I think I need a nap, I grilled some mean burgers and had two of them for lunch.
Oh, I remember Cream, they rocked!
>>>>>>>>I just love dropping in and phucking with your whining, criticizing ungrateful heads.
Classy.
Thank you Rick for being such a loyal TBB reader. You contribute to TBB’s mission to entertain my readers and traffic goes WAY up whenever you bless me with your presence. Not that I give a *&(&&$# about it:-)
I do think that Rick 1 is really making such a fool of himself.
How nice that you’ll be visiting your mom back home. Enjoy!
Thanks. I go back at least once a year. Father passed away in 2009 and she is alone but very healthy at her age 73. But in the near future some major decisions are in store for me and my brother (who lives in Brazil).
“Yea Who is that Rick I guy? comes on here home of us bashers and tries to rebash us. George is our hero. we can say anything we want hear and not get censored for inappropriate content or making shit up or nothin’ “
I am no hero!! I feel very strong about censorship. Thanks for taking the time to comment
You are too humble. Your blog IS the most interesting read on most days.
Wow, I am honored, thank you!
Uh oh, TBB will soon have the travel girls dot com ads plastered all over like BA had for a while… :p
Hey we at long last have TBB’s 10 BEST credit cards on his blog! 🙁
That is indeed a classic pic, thank you DP for posting it. What an irony indeed. TBB Hypopimping it LOL.
DP: Imagine all this time you devoted to keep checking my site to find the perfect ad to take a pic of it and then all the time to MMSlike a big arrow and then taking the time to comment in my blog about it…just imagine, you could have added yet another AFFILIATE card in your daily blog post. I hear those pay much more than the nobodycaresabout adsense ads that nobodyintherightmindwillclickon. And thank you for your emails too, they are quite entertaining and ridiculous imho.
For the record, see what I posted earlier about adsense responding to Scott:
Yeah, my son is on it and he managed to do it today and called me up while I was at Panera enjoying my 5th cup of coffee (free refills!). I am really proud of him, he is a good kid, 4.0 GPA..just plays computer games a little too much for my tolerance. He even told me he can help me out more by adding things on the left hand side of the homepage, hooray! He is looking into how to mess with the themes and possibly alter the left hand side…In other words, my grand scheme was to get him interested and away from his computer and make him learn something new and valuable. I call this #winning
God knows I did not add sense to be rich. If I was out looking for that I would have gone you know what route….months ago.
It’s a journey and I am thrilled I got my son involved!
LOL, Delta, dont you have to go and give out some lame sky pesos to lure out newbies? I mean how else can you get more readership anyways? You content sucks and if interesting, its usually the plagiarized info from the delta section on FT.
Oliver: see my responses earlier about my son handling this. Credit cards and travel girls…come on, you know what to do, ignore them like everyone else does (except some who may have developed habits of click bombing and other fine practices [Stat Counter is a great plugin!]).
I will be hanging out in a lounge in MUC on December 30, just in case you are around. Long term planning
He he… I don’t see any ads thanks to ABP+ on my FF. I only see ads when reading blogs on the ipad or my bberry.
Cool, will meet you in MUC to buy you a beverage of your choice! Email me your details please!
Dec 30th Oliver, we have time. I have a 6 hour layover in MUC. On the way to Greece just a short connection in FRA on Dec 15th.
I thought you said your ads were going on a separate distinct page? Just like MV said ” best card only, promise.” Sold out to da Man. I hope those dollars are worth your credibility, cause you got none had none and it is gone forever.
Oh but wait, as the master of misdirection and changing the subject you’ll soon be defending your action as the right way to go, when we all know it is “crack”George. you’ll be checking Adsense everyday to see your haul. Next up, get that approval from credit cards.com
Day One. Hour One
Rene; Did you see TBBs best ten cards he was toutin? . What a hypopimp
>>>>>>I thought you said your ads were going on a separate distinct page?
No, the affiliate credit cards will go on a separate distinct page. Maybe a button in the front page leading to the distinct page. I don’t know man. I am touched by your thorough examination of everything I say. You are my No. 1 reader. Your attachment to my blog touches me so deeply, I am honored (and quite amused!).
>>>>>> I hope those dollars are worth your credibility, cause you got none had none and it is gone forever.
Oh yeah, the dollars from adsense. Mega LOL. It appears we both share the same feelings about our credibility. C’est la vie.
>>>>>>>as the master of misdirection
Mega LOL…again! Tell us please how much a click/approval on a credit card affiliate link vs a click on an adsense ad and then we will let others decide who misdirects readers! SMH
—–from earlier—–
Yeah, my son is on it and he managed to do it today and called me up while I was at Panera enjoying my 5th cup of coffee (free refills!). I am really proud of him, he is a good kid, 4.0 GPA..just plays computer games a little too much for my tolerance. He even told me he can help me out more by adding things on the left hand side of the homepage, hooray! He is looking into how to mess with the themes and possibly alter the left hand side…In other words, my grand scheme was to get him interested and away from his computer and make him learn something new and valuable. I call this #winning
God knows I did not add sense to be rich. If I was out looking for that I would have gone you know what route….months ago.
It’s a journey and I am thrilled I got my son involved!
————-
>>>>>>>>>>>>you’ll be checking Adsense everyday to see your haul
I am sure you do that and the gazillion referral links you have in the blog you no longer own:-)
Come to think of it, I will get my son to add a few of them and keep diverting him from playing League of Legends game. If only this kid had started helping me from day One…
>>>>>>>>>>>Rene; Did you see TBBs best ten cards he was toutin? . What a hypopimp
You of all people should know better not to misdirect people wrongly accusing them of deliberately picking the ads that show up on adsense. And yes that pic was ridiculous. Thank God I have Rene trolling my site too and taking pictures of screens. I will find a way to feature it to a post to, you know, continue to entertain my readers.
FTG calling TBB a hypopimp——->Irony at its finest.
Thank you for my Sunday amusement you my #1 and #2 fans!
I can’t tell if all this trolling is just a joke or if it’s legit. Rick, I would also like you to go re-read this post. http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2012/11/a-life-lesson-learned-mosquitos.html. I liked this passage:
“Because of some long lingering childhood issues, I’ve always felt the need to please people. In clinical circles, it could be called being codependent on others’ pleased reactions. Man oh man, have I got it. I want everybody to get along.”
And for the millionth time no one here is angry. We are just tired of “top 11 ways to use SPG,” “have your parents sign up for SPG,” etc…
I can’t speak for everyone, I would just like to see more of a focus on content rather than advertising. Some blogs do it really well, others seem to only exist to advertise.
Scott, THIS is the sentence you should hone in on:
” And here is a long term request and commitment I’ll make: If you catch me in an “angries” blog or thread from this day forward, send me an email or note ASAP reminding me of my pledge and I’ll send you a $50 Marriott card for getting me out of the mosquito-infested woods.”
He was a man of his word when I called him on this. I know he sent out at least a couple of these. But now what? TBB says he claims that he never meant this to last. We shall see…
That was obviously a good one. I think I liked the other one a little bit more because he is trying to be insightful about “who he is” when in reality he appears to be just a jerk and not really caring about making “everybody get along.”
Scott: Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I am just going to say that I totally agree with this (and not feed the fire more):
And for the millionth time no one here is angry. We are just tired of “top 11 ways to use SPG,” “have your parents sign up for SPG,” etc…
I can’t speak for everyone, I would just like to see more of a focus on content rather than advertising. Some blogs do it really well, others seem to only exist to advertise.
AMEN!
I’ve been reading TBB since the beginning, but after this last post I think that the COMMENTS are actually more entertaining than the blog content. Lol.
Love the blog, George. Hater’s gonna hate, and you shouldn’t let them get to you.
Thank you very much for the kind words. TBB management is devoted to the mission to primarily entertain and the comments section is an essential part to this:-)
I completely agree. The comments section on some days is really entertaining, like watching Anthony Weiner/Lindsey Lohan/Lance Armstrong as they spiral out of control….
Yeah I agree:-) They actually fully comply with not just one (entertain) but another part of the TBB mission…to educate! Maybe one day I can do a message forum like Dan at DansDeals but then I will be on it 24/7 replying to messages, I aint got time for that for sure!
Secretly, they also inspire me. I think I will take the first offer to sell out to Hypopimp Enterprises Inc:-)
Gracias again
In case you were wondering TBB, the guy whose website gets as many comments in a month as you get bloggers in an average thread (I count no fewer than 7 different bloggers commenting in this thread besides TBB) wants you to know that you’re irrelevant and have contributed nothing, as decided by him (and presumably DP)
He also wants you to know that you people are just really angry, and him being above it all will stay away from you mosquitos
Thanks Steve. I must admit real mosquitos go after me with a vengeance. Since I was a kid! My mother kept saying it is due to my sweet blood and I always wondered growing up if she was a vampire. I am serious! Thankfully, she is not:-) But she still scolds me when I take trips that I paid too much…Even after in last vacation I got 4 UA award tickets and did 12/12 free/points nights at hotels. So, as you clearly see, I have had issues ever since I was a child. Therefore the need to see a therapist on a regular basis. When she said that I need to release whatever burdens me inside, I said “How about a blog” and she said yes. And it has been downhill ever since…
Woohoo
Thanks again.
TBB
future division of Hypopimp Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE symbol: PIMP)
Wow. Mr. Ingersoll is quite the bitter individual. I thought he had finally begun to act his age and simply ignored the critics. Instead he trolls here. Perhaps he views the criticisms of opportunistic credit card overload, repetitive information posting and ethical choices of other mile/point bloggers as personal attacks on him or his so-called colleagues. Regardless of why he comments here, Mr. Ingersoll comes across as petulant and curmudgeonly. He also appears far more immature than many of those critics who have mocked him and others.
While I have personal issues with a particular blogger or two, Mr. Ingersoll is not on that list. I simply disagree with his known business and ethical choices based on the facts I have. Vehemently so. I accept that there are facts I do not know but even so, I judge.
Eric, I love learning new things, including words! I googled curmudgeonly and now know what it is, thanks! And thanks for sharing your thoughts here!
Quoting Rick, the senior citizen who forgot to take his xanax this morning
“” ” And here is a long term request and commitment I’ll make: If you catch me in an “angries” blog or thread from this day forward, send me an email or note ASAP reminding me of my pledge and I’ll send you a $50 Marriott card for getting me out of the mosquito-infested woods.”””
Dude is a greedy hypocrite out on a troll. He is the mosquito he refers to above.
If I had a $50 Marriott gc…