TBB Mission: To Entertain, Educate and Inspire. Aim to at least do one well!
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For loyal reader Ramsey, per your request, here it is again:
TRAVEL
Totally awesome video of Swiss “Jetman” flying around Mount Fuji. Mama mia! Hope he does not get United miles for this!
The Bohemian Blog does Kosovo elections. Very educational post!
Awesome shot of a plane in Greenland. By Vagabondish
Sam Gellman’s Amazingly Normal Photos of North Korea
MILES/POINTS
Frequent Miler had a very useful guide on how to maintain mid-tier elite status. While almost every other blogger spent his/her time trying to come up with excuses on how to push aff links, adding/deleting aff links, reading how to increase aff link income, and so forth. I swear some full timers in this space must be all they do because if you looked at the actual content they produce you wonder what they do all day long…now you know 🙂
The Gate wrote “United Airlines Shuts Down Accounts of FlyerTalk Members Who Manipulated Internet Web Site“. I can’t say I am too sorry about this. This is something TBB will never do, waaaaaaaaaaaay past my tolerance threshold! I bet these are the same people who were going to send a message to United by moving to…American. United CEO Smisek smirks and says “bye bye”.
Do It For The Points shows you in a detailed way how to sign up for Free ShopRunner for American Express Cardholders for Life.
One Mile at a Time finally had a good post: “Best First And Business Cabin Mileage Award Tickets” Must have been so busy with all the other posts lately 😉
Best analysis so far on Delta’s move on Seattle and Alaska Airlines. By The Wandering Aramean. This move shows DL=Bullies. Love to see them bitching about the Middle East carriers expanding in the US, what an irony!
DansDeals had some additional information on the Barlays FICO score news we posted yesterday. Her it is from this post:
Note that this is TU-08 which is the score that Barclays uses but not many other banks do. Still it’s useful to know and it is a legit FICO score. The ’98 and ’04 FICO models are still more commonly used that ’08.
The ’08 model FICO:
-Penalizes you even more for a high utilization ratio both individually and collectively for your cards.
-Lessens the effects of a single late payment but increases the effect of multiple late payments.
-Debts that were originally under $100 will no longer have a negative effect on score.
-Gives more weight to the variety of credit accounts that you have.
-Takes away the benefit of being an authorized user on a non-family account.
-Gives more points for having more accounts in good standing and takes away points for having only a few total accounts.
-Accounts that have ended the month with a 0 balance for a long time will factor less into your score.
If you only have the US Air card you can use the link provided on November 4 in the “Barclayscard US” Facebook page and this should give you your score.
ON MY MIND
I love my W bed!
I always forget my gym card. Until a few days ago a staff person there let me know of this app “KeyRing“. I added my gym card to it and they scanned it and it worked! I will scan my Panera card too next. I have a feeling my wallet will get much lighter, yes! Can someone please let me know if they have an affiliate program? 🙂 Hope this helps someone, first experience with it was great!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Good advice given to Twitter engineers about personal finance that will likely go out the window with most of them.
BLOG BUZZ
Note: This section is intended for long time readers and miles/points addicts who follow the blogs in this space. TBB reviews blogs and tries to entertain above all. Don’t take this section too seriously or personally, it’s mostly entertainment!
Million Mile Secrets had a post. About the Southwest Card not being expired. Companion Pass rocks and now is the time to get it. Emily holding it. Zzzzz. Hire someone please!
Milevalue had a very long winded post about IHG Pointbreaks. Some attempt to point to some of the better hotels in the latest list. But, for crying out loud, why wouldn’t you offer your readers a way to get up to 16 nights in these hotels for FREE? Are you waiting for an IHG affiliate link? When you get it we expect to see it pronto! At bottom of the post there was this: ““Let me have it in the comments”. Now it is gone. Just 9 comments, 4 are by blog owner. I am sure some met the fate of the comment I left here the other day pointing out the superior US Air credit card offer available. I am starting to get angry and then I realize being angry is just not very healthy at all 🙂
Delta Points posted about a targeted 2,000 Flexpoints offer after spending $1,250, what??? I will let you figure out why. And at the end threw in a Bluebird aff link (I heard it pays $5). Anything to keep the lights on!
As always, thank you all for reading TBB!
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No Facebook page or email list yet. We don’t like doing things for the commercial appeal here! Plus this blog is enough of a time suck as is lol.
First. Yay
Sekunde!
3rd, Personal Best!
CardStar is another app that holds all those barcodes. If its not listed you can even make your own up just by putting in your #’s. No need for those loyalty or gym cards again.
“For loyal reader Ramsey, per your request”
Weird, I had it on good authority that you don’t listen to your readers
THANK YOU Buzz…….. I just watched over and over and over, everytime he falls, I crackup. I have to make this my screensaver. Buzz, I love you man!
@ Jeff, MA, Big Habitat: You are all number One!
@Mileage Update: Thanks for the feedback. So far so good with KeyRing app!
@Steve: If I won’t listen to my readers who should I listen to, Industry insiders? 😉
@ramsey: You are very welcome. There has not been a gif out there that makes me laugh every time I watch this…every single time.
IS THE SOUTHWEST CREDIT CARD OFFER STILL AVAILABLE? I NEED ANSWERS!!!!
lolz
Just be careful not to transfer in points from UR earning cards such as the CSP [insert link], CIB [insert link] or CIP [insert link] as they don’t count towards the southwest companion pass [insert picture of spouse holding up card for no apparent reason]
Who’s your biggest inspiration?
Hurry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice blog ! I got a good laugh today from this.
Getting good laughs out of this blog is a primary goal around here, thank you!
Current deal: 9% cash back at TCB for hotels.com bookings + the usual 10% hotels.com rewards. Only good through Saturday or Sunday. Higher than normal 5-7% back.
Wider range of properties than Rocketmiles, and you’re not paying extra to buy points. You don’t get your elite points, but for infrequent leisure travelers, hotel points are not worth much at all.
Booked for a conference in DC. I looked at the Rocketmiles site and knew it wasn’t for us. (Fewer hotels, higher prices.)
Blogs where I saw this mentioned are as follows:
And yes, George, you and I differ on TCB and Schwab. I’ve had only positive experiences.
I am swimming in hotel points these days 🙂
Agree on Rocketmiles!
Yeah, TCB and Schwab we definitely disagree. And that’s cool.
Wow, MMS post on the CSP today was all kinds of terrible. Let’s count the ways
1) Topic is old news that has been covered ad-nauseum last week. I didn’t even realize there was a blogger who didn’t cover this year
2) It’s really not that newsworthy and wouldn’t see the light of day if not for the affiliate links
3) “Previously, you had to do the calculations yourself to see how many Ultimate Rewards points you earned” – Yeah, because people wasted their time seeing if the 12 bonus point from lunch yesterday were added
4) “Emily: I can’t imagine checking each transaction every month to see if I earned double points. Good thing that Daraius likes doing these things!” – seriously, what the hell was the point of this paragraph? Has there ever been 2 less relevant sentences posted in the history of the internet?
5) Darius response to a commenter who opined that the post treats readers like their idiots (it was a superb comment by her. Possibly featur-worthy when you surely highlight the post tomorrow): “Some folks are visual learners and some aren’t” – so someone who can’t figure out how to log into their chase account without seeing a screenshot of the Chase homepage with a giant red arrow pointing to the button that says “Log into account” ISN’T an idiot?
It’s in the queue. MMS definitely feels totally burned out…but, then again, maybe I was way too biased to see it…
Are you seriously freaking kidding George? And what is MMS burned out from? Drawing 65 arrrows and circles?
Quality was weak before for advanced hobbyists but probably good enough for newbies.
The past two months I wonder if the newbies even have started abandoning the site…
I don’t even know how to do a freaking arrow!!
“F–king magnets, how do they work?”
On a serious note, this relationship is exactly why I think (potentially) monetizing TBB isn’t going to work. Many, if not most of us reading this blog have the cards, know the tricks, and already blog. As such, there’s not much to advertise to us, and not much more that we need.
By contrast, the big affiliate blogs really are teaching the “simple farmers … people of the land … the common clay of the new West, you know…..” I came to this appreciate this when I happened to read a comment on a half-assed TPG post (from LJA here; problem is most likely the xlsx file extension, but reader isn’t savvy enough to know that the brand of his/her computer is irrelevant). These readers love being spoon-fed, because they haven’t understood otherwise, and they will reward the authors richly.
The rest of us? Well, we’ve read and thought and already taken 90% of the necessary steps. We would potentially only click on an affiliate link here if it was already part of a scheduled AOR. We don’t really need to be advertisements to make decisions and act. So to the banks clicks from here would only look like an infrequent trickle, and George would be reluctant to assault our senses to push for more (which will just baffle the banks).
Now, I haven’t talked to affiliate marketers like Ingy has, but I think he’s wrong that perceived negativity is the problem. The problem is that there aren’t enough tyros reading this blog to make pushing links profitable.
“but I think he’s wrong that perceived negativity is the problem”
He thinks perceived negativity is a problem, but only because he personally can’t take criticism
It’s impossible for him to be right on this issue, because he can’t grasp the fact that TBB’s goals aren’t necessarily the same as his and the rest of the mainstream bloggers. To FTG, you need to have lots of affiliate clicks and high scores on Alexa to be successful.
He can’t fathom that maybe, just maybe, TBB’s main goal is to just to have a blog that he can share his opinions, engage in entertaining dialogue and joke around with us dedicated commenters…. and if he can monetize this site somehow, great….. but that it’s not Buzz’s defining criteria for whether this blog is successful
…you only have 800 readers and flex offers doesn’t want to give you links. You’re blog isn’t successful. by the way, did I mention I’m rich?
harvson3 & Steve:
Liked that Insane Clown Posse video!
I have always said that the big $$$$ is in welcoming/manipulating/sellingthemthemoon to the newbies. This is what the big blogs in the space have done and are doing. FM will remain an outlier and he has greatly benefited from the BA umbrella. These newbies likely may have had just one Chase card or none…so the potential for app click $$$s are infinite when veterans like us are constrained (we are not all like Dan of DD to get 47 cards from Chase in the last 9 months lol). So you are very likely right…I intend to test that just because I have come pretty far and to walk away not testing it will not sit well with me. I have been saying it for months, I always get too busy. I am in no rush.
At the same time, like it has been for the past year, I am pretty content in what I do at TBB, I like having a voice & speaking my mind, I try to add value & influence some practices, love the connection with readers and let’s face it, interacting here has been highly entertaining. In addition, I have learned and am learning so much every day about how this online blogging world works. Yes, sometimes I get flustered when real work gets to be too much but then I just put my head down and work through it. Definitely not normal behavior but I have always been a little “out there”.
If I was after the money I would have done exactly what FTG has told me to do in private emails! But that would definitely not be me and how could I face myself in the mirror every morning? This is just a learning laboratory for me and is giving me some ideas on how to perhaps one day take blogging in another level combining or featuring only my personal finance side as all practice gurus keep telling us that our industry is increasingly going high tech. I was blown away how some finance bloggers are making a killing with huge followings (and staff) dishing out advice that I find not to be top notch.
Readership is increasing so as long as that is happening I feel my blog is successful TO ME. And I certainly feel I am doing it the right way and maybe influence others to chose the same path. Monetization may happen one day or maybe not. I certainly do not lose sleep over it and obviously have not spent much time on it, it takes time away from reviewing blogs and bringing to TBB readers “…the eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere”. You look at the crap all over the blogs and I swear most of these business men spent 99% of their time in NOT improving the content, just marketing related activities only! It is a very sad state of affairs…
I am not hurting for money. Obviously, money does not buy happiness 😉 Would I love to add some funds to kids’ college fund accounts and stop driving my 12 year old Camry and pay off the mortgage? (it will hurt my credit score & cc churning lol). Sure. Do I need to act like a clown to “be successful” the FTG way? Hell NO!
As a kid I wanted to be a drummer. And hated it that I just did not have any musical talent at all. But I always wanted to CREATE something. I feel I am doing this with blogging. Every time I press “Publish” very late at night a certain feeling (hard to describe it) fills my soul and I say to myself: “This is my work, this is my baby”. I do a self High Five and then go and sleep like a baby on my new fantastic W bed.
Living the dream…
Thanks for all the feedback and support throughout this journey. Hope I can keep it going!
My problem is not criticism when warranted. I’ve heard it all. My criticism is of readers that do nothing but criticize others, and this is the home of that behavior. George occasionally says something nice about others and seems like a square shooter on most issues (although his rants are out of line and he has changed that behavior to his credit)
Harvson as well calls it straight.
You on the other hand, live to criticize and I have some to accept, that is all you know.
Nuff said.
As far as I know Steve has not criticized me 🙂
I would be honored if he did,I can sure learn from it. I actually think he is right on with his comments here. Just straight shooting…again.
I have criticized you TBB – I criticized you at your start when you were relentlessly posting irrelevant comments on everybodys blog just to have your blog link out there. And I’ve criticized you many times for your irrational defense of MMS. You obviously greatly improved on the former, and have made some strides on the latter
I regularly praise the bloggers who deserve praise – Frequent Miler, Dan, LoyaltyLobby, TBB, WanderingAramean and many others on TBB’s “blogs I like” list – notice the trend? Almost all of them provide a ton of ORIGINAL comment as opposed to a ton of CSP links (well, Dan does both :))
I regularly criticize the bloggers for whom the credit cards drive the content (and not vice versa) and provide 0 original content – TPGMMS (they’re pretty much the same blogger now), MV, FTG (pre-selling the blog, but after affiliate links became big), DeltaPoints, DealsWeLike etc.
And then there are the blogs where I praise when they deserve it and criticize when they deserve it -I regularly praise Gary’s blog, but the past few days I’ve been criticizing him for his Chase orgy
Ingy’s problem isn’t that I’m always critical. His problem is that I’m always critical of HIM
Guilty as charged on the first one! This is what they say in blogging conferences to the newbie bloggers 😉 Actually, some guru said (not kidding) stop writing so much, reduce the size of your posts and spend your time promoting! I was floored. I confess. I did it. I hardy do it anymore, only when I really have something to say 🙂
Yes I am making strides on the latter for sure. The latest content sure makes it so much easier.
Shocking that the blogs you mentioned are in my other list, just shocking 🙂
What should I call it? Blogs I Avoid? Or Blogs I Ignore? Or both? I really want to keep the Avoid for blogs that consistently promote inferior offers to their readers, which is the lowest of the low imho. I am always open for feedback on candidates for that list!
I need to work on client meeting now…one day it will appear here…before I fold I hope lol.
@TBB,
Love your “lately” plugs on monsieur bow-tie’s behalf(going on for a few months) i.e when you are not mentioning “he is busy traveling” and all sorts of childish statements you have kept on making. I do get that it is your blog 😉 You have been a wonderful friend to him honestly. Some marketers spend enormous amounts of money, some expensive ads, social networking online and what not. Then there are some who spend 10 mins face to face and get er done.
Let’s bring something positive into the conversation. What was the last article that you liked in MMS blog. Notice I am not saying what he wrote, since you can’t prove who wrote the article. But go ahead. What did you like?
Thumbs up for Steve. If he had a blog, he would rock the boat. I am, like many other TBB readers, here for TBB’s posts and equally interested in the comments and Steve’s especially. 100% agree with his good guy’s list too.
Dan might be the only one who somehow gets away with a lot of cc links, because he is likeable guy and you can see that from his blog posts and general demeanor everywhere.
I’ve always wondered how my online persona comes off.
#Blushing
Actually, MMS did move to Texas from KC 🙂
I think he worked at Procter & Gamble before? They sure know how to teach marketing over there!
I can’t think of a post I liked in his blog in a very long time. But that is not the point. I am definitely not the target audience! I do try to take the intended readers’ point of view of the blog I am reviewing and I think his readers adore him.
I would not be shocked if MMS or TPG sell out and they go on with their lives…Definitely been a good run for them.Will they be making my next list? Hell yes.
Regardless, it has been very entertaining watching what happens in this space!
I always appreciate the feedback. Never hold back!
Yah he also went to a few other places too 😉 All bloggers are good marketers. I do not see any difference. FTG(the person) is an awesome marketer too, in fact much better than MMS. He laid the foundation on which others have been exploiting for last 2 years. Even he knows some of them are just a bunch of worthless hacks who have just decided to bury any self-respect in the closet while the going is good but to his credit he never throws anyone in his brotherhood under the bus.
FTG as a marketer is leaps and bounds above MMS. But I don’t expect to see pom poms for him.
You should disclose your close affiliation with certain bloggers and prejudice against a couple of them in your disclosure page. It will really show a lot of character and is the right thing to do. In part you have been responsible for carpet bombing but will be tough to make you admit that.
“Dan might be the only one who somehow gets away with a lot of cc links, because he is likeable guy and you can see that from his blog posts and general demeanor everywhere”
And because he seems to be the one blogger for whom pushing credit cards and providing quality, original content in the very same post is not mutually exclusive
Gary provides a ton of really good content. He is just completely incapable of doing it in those CC filler posts (as soon as I see the “key links” at the top of the post, I know what’s coming…)
@AgendaGuy: Let’s continue that in the current blog post 😉
No doubt FTG is a hell of a marketer, no doubt. He showed the way to a bunch of “experts” that came to life after he sold out, no doubt!
As a human I am probably biased based on personal experiences. I see no need to disclose that, it comes with the territory of being human 🙂
The only close affiliation with certain bloggers I have is I sometimes have lunch with Frequent Miler. I may exchange emails with a few other bloggers once in a while. I am very wary of getting too friendly with any of them that it may interfere with my Siskel duties for TBB.
Question: Can you elaborate on my own “carpet bombing” part? Did I miss something? Am I doing something that I am not aware of? Please let me know but do it in a new comment in the new blog post…Running out of room here!
OMG, can’t watch that rocket guy, that’s just f-ed up!!
Definitely is. Reminded me of the Iron Man movie
Matthew (Upgrd) has some really cool pics of the Baku Metro. Time to Buzz it up!
I came across that post, took a glance at it, the pics just did not do it for me, expected more. I had other items already in the draft so I passed on it. This is definitely NOT a science.
Thanks.
Man, it didn’t take very long for Gary and Lucky to get their daily filler Chase posts up today
Something is up with Chase, there is no explanation.
If other bloggers read this and would like to give me some feedback/commentary please email me!
If you tell me it is off the record, it is, you have my word on it!
I’ll tell you what’s up with Chase – $20bn and counting in legal settlements. The last couple of years profits gone up in smoke. There is no doubt whatsoever they are under pressure to crank the numbers up, which means the marketing guys at JPM are turning the screws on the affiliate networks to produce more and more.
Makes perfect sense
Oddz & Ends
This from the NYTimes, 1998 on Doonesbury and his Internet startup. Wish I could find the actual strip series..
———————————–
The most recent story line, which began on Aug. 24, features Mike Doonesbury and his fledgling Internet company, Mikim Inc. Like most of its peers, it is losing money — lots of it. But, as Mike explains to his daughter, Internet companies are supposed to lose money. That’s why they go public.
Yeah, definitely is starting to feel like deja vu again…
It’s crazy right? I think you know that beneath the surface I agree with your general concept of indexing, and yet right now it’s just so hard to justify to anyone investing in such an overheated market. I’m reading the Bezo autobiography now and it’s amazing how everything we saw in the late 90s is just being repeated. At least my one short position on Tesla is pretty close to being in the money now.
I think this time is different 🙂
Yes it is – this bubble is bigger 🙂
Tonight I will say a little prayer, even though I’m not that religious… but a prayer none the less… that we won’t have to suffer too many Lufthansa F trip reports. If there is a God, please spare us….
I have it from good sources that this deal will die in a few hours. Hurry!
I see a lot more rubber duckies in my computer screen while reviewing blogs #shootmenow
Readers come to TBB because they can learn the latest news without having to read a gazillion blogs. That is a unique niche and serves a useful purpose. Should be a viable business model.
That was the initial idea! To scour the blogs and FT/MP/Twitter and just feature here what everyone should know. Well, it quickly got out of hand due to the sheer volume. It then morphed into an “eclectic journey” picking the really important stuff pertaining to the hobby, some educational and inspirational stuff about travel and whatever with the ever present entertaining spicy commentary. Oh, Blog Buzz too which provides endless exciting moments in my life.
Viable business model? I am looking very very slowly for any business model that allows me to look at myself in the mirror and continue to high five myself every morning 🙂
No rush. The point is to continue to add value and all of us are entertained. Definitely no angries home here.
Ok, I need to finish another Buzzing work of art lol.
And thank you.
@TBB, CC.com has the BB and serve card. No sign ups yet. I’m looking forward to my first $5 commission so I can buy a footlong 🙂
Footlongs are under rated LOL
I usually get a 6 inch with double meat and avocado so it ends up more than $5 🙂
That hurts…