ON MY MIND
Please be kind as I am getting used to this WordPress new way of blogging. I like it so far but I have so much to learn. This will be a perpetual work in progress. As long as I have my eyebrow hair anyway!
I am getting to replying to the comments too. Things will be moving slower until I get the hang of it!
When you click on the pics it will take you to the website they were found. A small sign of progress…To infinity and beyond!
TRAVEL
Point Me To The Plane wrote “United Airlines Accused of Exposing Girl to Masturbating Passenger“. Some of the funniest comments I have read in a long time!
12 Crazy Expensive Hotel Suites Around The World. Just in case when you have too much money to blow:-)
Portraits in Solitude. AWESOME Photographs at Twisted Sifter. Woooooooooow!
23 of coolest and most unusual taxis around the world. At Francesco Mugnai. Some fascinating pics!
How to use a toilet. By Travel Tart. He is a tart all right!
8 Quirky Houses around the World. From Wild Junket. We like quirky around here. These are different from the ones posted several months ago…I think.
MILES/POINTS
The Miles Professor finds another attractive offer inside a Chase Bank branch! The United Club with no annual fee for the first year. But no signing bonus. Still full lounge access, 1.5 miles earn per dollar, two bags free, no foreign transactions fees. I should stop by my local Chase branch to scout the territory myself. Hmmm, is this a new business practice by Chase I wonder.
The Deal Mommy has an “Open Letter to the Points Community” I have made my positions very clear. And I reiterate them again in the comments. TBB does not censor, PERIOD! I should have a comment at the bottom too…awaiting moderation.
The Big Eight US hotel chain summer promos in one page by Mommy Points.ย So you don’t have to look elsewhere. An example of a helpful blog post.
“What Everyone Missed About the Air France KLM Flying Blue devaluation“. By Food, Wine and Miles. Deltaism spreading, booooo!
Frequent Miler expands on the recent negative developments of Citibank closing accounts and confiscating Thank You Points. Use them points and lay low. I am not too upset now for getting denied on getting this 5x promo card (still shocked about the denial!).
Canadian Kilometers ponders “Should I be posting about mistake fares?“. This debate has been around for ever. With the explosive blog growth, if you do not post it…some other blogger certainly will. There is a correlation between mentions about the deal online AND the speed with getting them killed. It’s a tough bind. TBB will not post mistake fares, this is not what we do around here. We try to add value to our readers by promoting helpful posts to educate, inspire and of course entertain. If that means pissing off some bloggers, so be it. We try to be an equal opportunity pisser lol. Oh, TBB loves to give praise where we think it is deserved too, in case you have not noticed you angry blogger:-)ย Look at the ratio (hint).
One Mile at a Time held a contest to win a game to Helsinksi with him. The top 10 entries are here. Some are sooooo hilarious! This confirms that TBB is just not that creative:-)
BLOG BUZZ
This section will NOT provide links to whatever we buzz about. It is supposed to be a quick review of what TBB sees around the blogoshpere and what comes to my head. TBB will not provide direct “quotes” because some bloggers are very protective of their “copyrighted” (!!!!) work. So expect to read heavy summaries:-) The blog will be in bold font. If you want to read it please use google. You don’t need pics and arrows to find these posts, I am certain of it lol.
Very Good Points had a deal about some steakhouse in Chicago. I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong, that getting this deal through giltcity.com provides some financial benefit to the author? Nothing wrong with the fact of course, especially if it is a great deal! But shouldn’t readers be at least aware of such a fact? Readers will not read the disclosure at the bottom of the page! Oh yeah, capitalism and personal responsibility and all that jazz.
Sometimes I wonder how much they are compensated? I am talking about guest bloggers, known or not;-) By the way, I am very open to having guest bloggers post stuff at TBB BUT I am VERY mindful of what appears here. It must be relevant and add value to my readers. And yes I will allow a back link. And no I won’t compensate you…I just paid the web designer, I am in the hoooooole! Can’t afford to go deeper:-)
ODDZ & ENDZ
30 bits of commencement wisdom for the class of 2013. At Mental Floss. If you have a graduating child, give them this!
AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS I FIND
“Buzz Lightyear should sue you for using the phrase ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ without linking to him”
– DeltaPoints, on why he censors comments
That made me laugh, thanks:-)
WordPress looks good on you, but I can’t hear your accent here!
Don’t worry, TBB is working on some audio visual enhancements to the site. If only I can figure out how to find that vine app in Android damnit!
I welcome everyone to give me so feedback on my post!
What, mine was not enough? You want more! You so greeedy:-)
Looking good and comments working fine. Any chance the developer can put a link to comments at the bottom of the post too?
I tried to look for that option but to no avail….Added it to the list, some day…Thanks!
George,
Your comments are down because people can scroll through the entire article without ‘entering’ it. Therefore it will appear that your bounce rate has increased. The comments are only accessed by people who click the hyperlink to the blog post, but people won’t do that for the most part because as they scroll down they get to read everything…. easiest fix for this is a ‘read more’ button which you can find in your wordpress visual console.
Also, I would recommend not hyperlinking out of your site with the photos, people might want to zoom in but currently you are bouncing them out mid read and they might not return…. not good for building the blog. Better would be to just hyperlink the text underneath the picture to the source if you want them to go to that site, and use the ‘open link in new tab’ option so they don’t bounce off your page.
Thanks for the comments, they are very helpful! I think I am following…Well, not really!
>>>>>but people wonโt do that for the most part because as they scroll down they get to read everything
You mean the whole post, but NOT the comments. Those can be entered only if the reader clicks on the hyperlink on the top right. Right?
I need to look for that “read more” button but I am not sure I want my readers to click on a button to force them to read all of it. Hmmm…
I think I understand what you are saying about hyperlinking out of my site with the photos…I was doing that in the captioned text with Blogger but did not see how I can do this in WP. Need to play with it more.
Sooo much to learn, so little time. Have not visited FT all day!!!
Yep I think you got it.
Look at it this way, at the moment you are forcing the reader to ‘read more’ button the post AFTER reasons it all if you want a comment to be left.
If comments aren’t important then no worries…
You might be able to get the comments without the read more with a little code, but it’s not best practice.
Agree with Matt. Put the comments automatically below the post.
If you ever get ads, what you want to do is just run the first paragraph on the home page and then make people click through to read todays post. Doubles your ad revenue!
I looked to do that but did not see how. I do not want to bother the designer with more questions becaue it is…costing me more dinero!
I want it to look like the BA blogger sites look. The whole post and a little link to go to the comments instead of readers having to find the link on the awkward top right corner. Is this what you guys are tallking about?
I have so much to learn and I feel like I am about to start losing my eyebrow hair again!
*reasons is a typo meant reading…
Ill help you with it- no need for more money… But I’m racing around the right now- if we can sit down on Skype we can share my screen and ill show you how to do this and other wp stuff
Aren’t you leaving tomorrow for your trip? Enjoy it, don’t worry about me. Thanks for the offer…I do have a skype account, haven’t used it in a very long time:-)
WHO LOVES YOU BABY!!! I do. Not much controversy out there right now in the blogesphere thanks to you. You even rid the intranet of toilet pictures. It’s so much more fun when there is a bogus interview to tear apart……It is amazing to me that Pickles and Dariaus are laying so low for this long, even at the cost of hurting their own business………….The UA crew did a bad job with the masturbator, I would of moved him to f/c. Just kidding. I had a male pax on a LAS-JFK flight who walked down the aisle to the Lav. and would grab a boob or two of some of the woman on the aisle. I didn’t tell him to stop, I cuffed him with the plastic cuffs and sat with him till landing/arrest. I miss getting pax arrested (usually happened on flts. to Alaska).
Telly Savales..or was it Savalas? Can’t believe you remembered him! Yeah, not sure what is going with both Pickles and Dariaus…so quiet lately. Must be traveling. I am waiting to be WOW’ed:-)
U serious about arresting a male passenger doing that, wow!
First2Board has a credit card post up
http://first2board.com/deals/the-us-airways-premier-world-mastercard/
No reference at all to there potentially being better offers out there for the card.
And so it begins. For the site that was founded a mere 3 months ago on the claim that THEIR WHOLE REASON FOR EXISTENCE — how they would be different, their unique selling proposition — was that they WOULDN’T DO THIS.
Looks, credit card affilaite links are what they are. But the problem here is in pushing an inferior offer, and in the hypocrisy.
SAD!
Like you said, would not have a problem if it was not an inferior offer…but, wait, the non inferior offer does not pay!!!
Provider pays. Reader loses. Hey, it is all disclosed in that ridiculous disclosure. And then you wonder why people get angry (not me…I just go grrrr) and keep on with the TBB mission!
First2Board has a subsite (First2Board Deals) which offers travel deals – including credit cards. We don’t include cc affiliate links in our blog posts. As F2B Deals is not a blog site, this is not in violation of any stated policy. We don’t interfere with your reading of any F2B stories. Thus, not sure your ‘anonymous’ claims of hypocrisy are valid.
I’m sorry you feel that the 40,000 Bonus Mile US Airways offer is inferior – we happen to think its a great offer. If anyone feels it is inferior, there is certainly no need to apply.
We fully disclose in multiple locations our financial arrangement.
Not sure how the reader loses here.
Honestly appreciate everyone’s feedback – positive or constructively critical.
Casey:
First, we are not angry. We are trying to provide some constructive criticism. Don’t brush up with the “angry” and neglect our valid (I think) arguments.
When I visit First2Board.com I see these deals offered in the HOME page! Subsite/not an actual blog appear, to me at least, as technicalities? “We do not offer affiliate links” we were told. And now they appear in the HOME page! And this is not hypocrisy??
“We fully disclose in multiple locations our financial arrangement” – The present disclosures language and location are some of the weakest I have seen. I am sorry, TBB follows lots of blogs.
Having credit cards offered in the home page when we were sold that the F2B will not offer affiliate links AND when a better non affiliate US Air offer (for 35k…the affiiate offer is 30k really, not 40k) is available (check Post #1 on FT thread—yeah, no detailed landing link but it still works)…If not comfortable with this link, at least point the reader to it and let the READER decide what is best for him/her).
Or, come out and be honest and explain to your audience and say “Due to business concerns we are changing the policy” instead of doing it this way…
And now the accusations of being angry and personal responsibility and it is capitalism and the censoring and all that jazz will start flying again….we have seen the movie before.
You want more advice? Get better writers and make us go there! Get Ariana, should be easy to write for you too.
I love you guys but…TBB must always stick to its mission and call it the way he sees it.
I want to make it through the year with my eyebrow hair still standing…
And thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. Hope you listen and consider what me and readers say.
Readers, please keep it civil always, thank you.
The credit card ads on F2B’s home page are not affiliate links. Those are ads that are not associated with an affiliate link, simply just ad space from something like ad sense or similar. We do not receive affiliate income from the credit card issuer if someone clicks that link. Please understand there is a difference between affiliate link and a basic ad.
I understand about the ads. I am specifically referring to this “blog” entry (well it does look like a blog entry as it appear with the other blog entries in the front page and leads to this:
http://first2board.com/deals/the-us-airways-premier-world-mastercard/
I am not talking about the ads (United, hotels combined) on the right hand side, I know these are different.
Am I wrong here? Are you not seeing it?
“Not sure how the reader loses here.”
The reader is paying an extra $89, getting 5,000 pts less, and not eligible for the 10,000 point annual bonus. The reader is losing out on cash and 15k points.
“As F2B Deals is not a blog site”
It’s a blog post. How is it not? Hosted with a blogging platform, “Posted By”, tags, a commenting system. Saying its not a blog is ridiculous.
How on earth the principled no-affiliate link site chooses to run a known inferior link as its first foray into referrals boggles my mind. I’m with TBB that affiliate links are fine when done right with adequate disclosure and analysis. Not happening here IMO.
Oops, I probably shouldn’t speak for TBB. Just trying to say that good disclosure is not just fulfilling legal requirements, but fully informing readers about their options.
Tim, you are good. If you speak like this, you can speak for me!
And… seriously… VGP is pitching a referral link for a paid $1700 ticket from PHX to Hawaii??
http://first2board.com/verygoodpoints/1700-first-class-round-trip-to-hawaii/
Check who left the comment.
OMG. So FTG commented. They have a feature on the site that shows recent posts by a blogger who made the comments.
For FTG that meant the most recent post at FrugalTravelGuy.com, a post by Ariana about Rocketmiles and including Rick’s referral link, inviting readers to leave their own links.
Earlier in the day Gary had commented that if you used his link your first booking would generate 2000 miles and nothing to him instead of the standard 1000 miles to referrer and referred. That comment has been deleted.
Pathetic.
I think you may be getting angry? Capitalism at its finest!
I’m not sure that was a referral link, just a whopping good deal at only 17 cents per mile!
I’m not sure that it was a referral link because downforeveryoneorjustme.com told me “It’s not just you! http://first2board.com looks down from here.” That tends to happen a lot.
On a serious note, I’m not going to get all het up over their first credit card link. Yes, it’s non-transparent and out of place. To me, however, their bigger problem is brand identity; I haven’t seen too many blog posts there that I want to read, and I’m really unsure of why I should go there in addition to my usual RSS feed figures. (I also don’t visit BoardingArea’s front page.)
When I’m exploring a place I might want to visit, I use the Google and sometimes happen upon a blog and a trip report. When I need a deal, I rely on FT, the heavy hitters and some minor tricksters. (By the way, shout out to The Miles Prof for her sleuthing. Good content.) I’m not exactly sure why I should start reading a panoply of bloggers I don’t know or care about.
Their mission statement/description/pitch seems to be “come see a variety of blogs!” but that doesn’t sell me. Then again, maybe I’m not the target readership/demographic.
However, if Pickles were to start spilling the insider material….. (wink) [half-joking]
Also, George, I’m pretty sure that one of the crossed-out pictures of toilet use is actually a proper use. I once drank too much at a wedding and got sick in the sink instead of the toilet and… my girlfriend was none too pleased. (Note: do not use the sink.)
The business side of things pressure must be very intense…
Something we don’t understand as we are clearly not in it. As I am starting to learn more…I am afraid thinking “Will TBB pull off something like this?”. I hope not…If I do harvson3 I want you to be the one who crucifies me:-)
Anyway, TBB has enough material I am thinking of hiring a ghost writer. Drew anyone? lol
Entertainment at its finest I guess…
So Delta had a major devaluation announcement that has been thoroughly covered throughout the blogosphere
Surely, the blogger who has the name “Delta” in his title will have covered this, right?
Of course not. The top post right now is a post about the Arrival MasterCard.
Which of course, has nothing to do at all with Delta.
So just out of curiosity, if one wanted an expert on Delta, why would they go to DeltaPoints over say….. Gary or Lucky?
Great question? I guess only Tabloid blogs attract great questions.
Grrrr….
Funny I was thinking the same exact thing today. After seeing the news about further Delta devaluation I was curious to see if deltapoints aka delta cheerleader would comment on it. When I went to the blog it was like hearing crickets…chirp chirp chrip. Seriously? This is the reason you exist and you aren’t commenting??? Come on. Then I decided the silence actually was a comment, which is no one, not even the cheerleader in chief, can defend that airline anymore. The worst part is that some day the rest of the airlines will follow suit and hello Priceline Credit Card for the rest of us.
What, you angry too?
I am expecting to read a thorough analysis tomorrow and an interview with Delta’s CEO about the changes…
The interview will start “Dear beloved reader of our beloved airline”. To be totally fair, he does take some shots at Delta. But reading “beloved”, I must admit, it does make me a little angry.
I used to be a Delta Defender. Just got too many knives in my back, these guys are out of control. At least for our community, they are like a mad serial killer on a giant killing spree…
Just saw some scenes of the new zombie coming out…it reminds me Delta may lead them all airlines to the new promised land: First class awards being based on revenue…F to HKG for just 1,500,000 miles (low level).
Not pretty…
Hey George, the new site looks great, nice choice of theme! Welcome to WordPress, it’s an awesome platform and I will always be grateful to you for recommending I use it way back on THAT FT thread! You need to let people know that you have a new rss feed, the old Blogger one doesn’t show up anymore. I figured it out when I didn’t see you in my feed for a couple days, others may think you are on vacation and not look further. Since one good turn deserves another: To make your posts appear as a summary with “read more” in the Dashboard go Settings – Reading – “For each article in a feed show” tick Summary. Also get Spam-free WordPress and Simple Trackback Validation with Topsy Blocker which will sequester your trackback spam so you can delete it. There’s lots more but you will get used to it as you get familiar with the software.
Missed this before because I hadn’t yet updated my RSS feed – thanks for the link, George!
You are very welcome. I try to be fair you know!
Thanks for the mention! ๐ It was actually a reader of mine who found the United Club card… nice to have many ground troops ๐
I wouldn’t assign such grandiose value or reasoning to finding some better offers at the bank branches; you’re giving them too much credit. That’s like speculating for patterns in randomness, (i.e., if someone enters 1000 drawings and wins 3 times, people start to say he “always wins”). There are 4 offer entities: affiliate links, public links, non-public/semi targeted links, bank branches. It’s very hard for all four to align exactly all the time so the offers end up being different (and sometimes outdated offers take a long time to update). The bank branch offers are simply sometimes different from the online and mailed offers and, with different offers, some are better and some are worse; I got the feeling the bank ones hadn’t been updated for at least a few quarters. I just don’t report on the worse ones because, well, no one wants to hear about those.
Good job on new site ๐
I also love it when readers alert me to…news worthy items!
Are you saying that there is no pattern I am seeing? Like the markets always go up on Tuesdays (oops, scratch that) ๐ Yeah, I hear you.
Yeah, report on the best ones please all the time:-)
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