Since I pumped my Amazon link so much to the tune of making 88 cents the day before I will take a breather so you guys would not get hit with it one more time. #Respect
Anyways, just a short update. I added View from the Wing and One Mile at a Time on the list. The main reason was the latest Chase Ink barrage of pump posts selling them which was quite offensive to me! I expect that from the others on the list but seeing these two guys fall to this level in 2014 was surprising. Then you add the odd posts about making social commentary on working conditions on UAE and India, taking pictures of feet and others, comparing notes on First Class hamburgers and pajamas. And don’t get me kickstarted! As with the other recent entries, both surpassed my threshold of internal pain and my remarkable commitment to my readers’ well being forced me to act and…finally update my list!
So, what do you think? Fair or unfair and why? Any others to add and why? Any to take off the list and why? I am interested in your thoughts. The bloggers in this list are also permitted to present their case. Please no name calling, keep it respectable.
I did not add my little summary below each blog as I do with the other two lists mainly because I do not want to focus on the negative. It’s like the Amex Affiliate credit card quotas, nobody really knows what they are but they are pretty quite high indeed. So is my threshold of pain: These blogs surpassed it!
Have a great weekend. It is full of graduation parties. Anyone in Ann Arbor? Come down to the Ya’ssoo Greek Festival, good food, drinks and dances. Time to party! I should be there on Saturday 5 pm to whatever!
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
This is my own personal list of several blogs I personally do not care about for several reasons that I will not single out here. The reasons include one and usually more than one of the following:
- content (quality/originality/analysis)
- level of aggressive selling/credit card pushing
- bias in posting
- disclosure policies
- comment moderating/censoring
- level of expertise (knowledge), etc.
Only well known blogs were included. Many smaller blogs could have made the list but I am going to respect your valuable time and not bother you listing them here.
The TBB community highly encourages readers not to get credit cards through the affiliate links of these sites! Improve the community by not rewarding such blogging practices! You are responsible for your own actions! Please consider the two other lists: Blogs I Love and Blogs I Like
Full Disclosure: TBB has a very strong dislike to pump pump pump posts. Please see our infamous rant about this: The “Travel” Miles/Points Blogosphere Has Turned Into a Giant Credit Card Pumpization Scheme!
Last Updated: June 7, 2014:
Milevalue
Delta Points
The Frugal Travel Guy
Million Mile Secrets
The Points Guy
Points, Miles & Martinis
Deals We Like
Noob Traveler
Extra Pack of Peanuts
Wallet Slot
Mommy Points
View from the Wing
One Mile at a Time
Notes:
This page reflects my own opinion ONLY!
This is a permanent page, no comments are allowed.
You can also see the Blogs I Love and Blogs I Like
Chronology of List changes:
December 2013: Published
Added Wallet Slot: March 2014
Added: Mommy Points May 2014
Added: View from the Wing June 2014
Added: One Mile at a Time
First?
Where is everyone? Is TBB on the “Blogs to Ignore List” too?
You are number one.Heck,you are number two too. You could have easily had the trifecta…Friday night 🙂
You are one brave dude, Zorba.
Brave dude or brave idiot. Shooting myself in the foot with every post 🙂
I will try to keep this concise as possible, offer my critique and then offer some suggestions.
In my view TBB is close to becoming a ‘blog I ignore’ – which would be unfortunate because I think the concept is a good one.
Critique:
Let’s use some of the criteria mentioned in this post.
Content quality – Good in places but repetitive ranting about the evils of credit card links makes it difficult to find the quality content in some posts. Also, some posts appear to be very rushed – if you are too busy then perhaps be less ambitious in your scope for each post. Mile Nerd strikes this balance well.
Content originality – Good at times but the repetitive nature of the anti-credit card link rants very much lowers the overall originality score.
Content analysis – There are too few attempts to provide a more nuanced view of the value a blogger provides. Perhaps a cost benefit analysis is warranted where the cost is the shilling of credit card links, and the benefit is the content.
Bias – Extreme bias against credit card links. As above, little attempt to form a balanced view that recognizes that quality original content takes time to produce and that bloggers need to eat and have shelter over their heads like the rest of us.
Suggestions:
1) Make the working assumption that your audience is of at least a moderately sophisticated nature because a) they are in the game of accruing points at low cost which requires a certain level of organization, motivation, credit score and acumen and b) they are bothering to read your blog. Whereas many folks might read Hunger Games, only a select few will read the New York Times review of Hunger Games. Your blog is the New York Times.
2) With the working assumption that your audience is of at least a moderately sophisticated nature, there is the opportunity to undertake a more nuanced analysis
a. Recognition that no one is going to actually unsubscribe to VFTW and other genuine leaders in this space. So make your critique and recommended course of action in a slightly more evolved fashion than ‘ignore’. Your readers will likely reach a more nuanced conclusion anyway and you still have the opportunity to add a valuable perspective.
b. A more nuanced conclusion could include a cost benefit analysis that might lead to some sort of scorecard. Positive points for original content, negatives for you know what, extreme negative points for promoting links that are not the best available offer and missing disclosures and then we all could form a reasonable conclusion.
c. A relaxation of the extreme bias against credit card links for the following four reasons:
i. Take it as given that your readers have applied for many credit cards in the past and will apply for many in the future for the simple fact that they are the most efficient form of point accrual. Start a personal finance blog to warn of the dangers of credit card debt. It is likely that if they weren’t able to manage credit cards responsibility then their credit score would quickly suffer and they probably wouldn’t get approved anyway.
ii. I suspect many readers, as I do, consider clicking on referral links as an acknowledgment of the value they have received from the blog. Kind of like tipping at a restaurant except it doesn’t actually cost us anything (provided that bloggers are promoting the best offers out there).
iii. Referrals fees are not evil. They are just a form of compensation, which is perfectly ok with adequate disclosures and maximum effort to only promote the best offers.
iv. Bloggers need to eat and have shelter just like the rest of us. If they are not compensated in some small way for the time required to create the content then they are likely to have the ability to do so, and then we will all suffer.
Anyway… that’s all I have. Hopefully this is interpreted as constructive. Of course, I am free to ‘ignore’ this blog rather than write a long comment, but I’d rather see this blog improve and fulfill its potential.
What I want to say.
George, your work and TBB are great. However, lately it starts to become a bit too rant-focused.
Anyway, it is your blog and you get to do whatever you want to do. And I will still read it for as long as I can.
I reserve my right to click your Amazon links LOL
Love the rants. Boring when rant-lite
This. +1
I agree with Tim
I dont agree with Tim. -1.
@ Tim: Just posted a long general comment below. Most of it was inspired by your excellent comment here (thank you for taking the time!). I may address specific parts of your comment later on. Thanks again, this was certainly eye opening and I appreciate it.
@ Rayn: Thanks. Got it. The plan was after a year to really ignore the cc stuff but I can’t help it. Read the long comment below,there are some answers in there for my line of thinking. Thanks for using the Amazon link and preventing me from going down the cc whorization path. Making 54 cents all day vs $200 for just one cc approval is noble and…idiotic 🙂
@Cheapblackdad: LOVE your handle,LOL
@dwursten: OK,thanks for letting me know. You are probably a Lucky fan and donated to his Kickstarter 🙂
Unfortunately, human intentions have to be understood as it is an art and not a science where you can dissect them in to pieces and make a thorough analysis and then come up with scorecard. You need to “understand” the motives of these bloggers. All other decisions or interpretations will be an automatic flow from that.
“a. Recognition that no one is going to actually unsubscribe to VFTW and other genuine leaders in this space. ”
Actually, I have unsubscribed to VFTW and OMAT lately. While they used to have interesting information spliced in, lately both of those blogs have struck me as corporate shills who are so far detached from my reality that I can’t read or understand their sense of privilege. I can handle some credit sales pitches, and I tolerated the entitlement posts, but i’ve come to notice they provide very little truly original content and what little they do provide is through a lens I would rather not look through. I would also add that any original information they provide that may be of use to me will surely be covered either on FT, another blog I do enjoy, or one of their fanboy/girl blogs that I can still somehow tolerate.
VFTW lost me last week. OMAAT is hanging on by a thread because he offers means/methods that VFTW doesn’t
@Sequoia: I wish I can unsubscribe too! But my duty to the TBB friends and family does not allow me to do that. I think I need intervention 🙂
-1000 for Tim.
Bloggers need to eat? Yes sure. Do they need to fly first class every week and stay at Park Hyatt hotels? Hell no.
Do you realize how much cash they are bringing in with shilling credit cards? We are no longer talking about “putting food on the table.” People speculate that TPG makes at least half a million if not more. He, for sure, will struggle to feed himself…
Look at OMAAT, TPG, and MMS. These are companies with several staff members. TPG doesn’t come up with original content anymore. He just pushes the CC every day and pays some schmuck to write a half decent post. Where is the “work” and “effort”?
Blogs like TPG and MMS are a cancer to our hobby. There is no sense of community anymore. It’s all about killing deals and bringing as many conversions as possible.
I need to eat too LOL!
I think you are probably WAY off on TPG figures.
You forgot to add FTG to these companies with staff members and editors 🙂
Someone you all know said once: “It’s all about conversions”—–>Never be mistaken that it is not about that!
You’ve made a big mistake adding Lucky to your list I think. He certainly isn’t the credit card pumper that Dans Deals is, even if his credit card posts were more frequent in May. Maybe put him on probation (and add DD to your list). Or just ignore the credit card pushing.
He has the best trip reports. First class may not appeal to you but for the genre he’s tough to beat. He has a lot of knowledge and experience in booking awards, and he frequently is the first to recognize new routes and opportunities for redeeming miles. I got Lufthansa first class Canada to Munich thanks to Lucky, the glitch a couple of years ago where you could book Singapore first class with United miles on almost all Singapore flights because of his blog, and more recently Singapore Suites with Singapore miles because of him too.
There’s a lot of hate about his kickstarter, whatever, it’s done and over with. He’s amusing, funny even, and a little bit crazy which makes his blog entertaining.
This post on the other hand is just phoning it in and pure trolling. “Look at me, I’m taking shots at two of the biggest bloggers, go hate on them. ” You ought to add yourself to the Ignore List after this one.
I have made many mistakes in my life. This will likely continue. It’s part of life and taking risks and all that…
They were on probation.
Notice the order of the Ignore blog list. He is at the bottom. He will get out of it if he gets back to his great content instead of flushing us with all the cc posts lately and jumping on crap like hamburgers, pajamas, taking pics, kickstarters BS.
I never liked his FC trip reports. But I understand people like them. Does that mean I have to like them too?
It was certainly a filler post. I think it has more meat than the majority of the filler posts some of these Ignore blogs do. Heck, there is more meat in the comments here than all the crap these blogs list every day combined!
At the end of the day, this is my own little space to entertain myself primarily. Blog mission is to entertain, educate and inspire. If you are not entertained this blog is not for you. You are free to leave of course. You were certainly not going to use my Amazon link anyways!
I DO appreciate you telling me what’s on your mind and giving me the feedback, thank YOU!
+1
My +1 was to Tim:)
Sad, even the regular readers of TBB dont really understand honest intentions of George. I am with him and will always be with him during good and bad times just like i am with Saverocity, Travelisfree, Freequent Flyer and those type who have added value in my life in some way.
I am with those guys too! 🙂
George, i think it is high time Saverocity and Freequent Flyer move up in your list. The only thing i disagree with you and rather wonder is how come these blogs are not in your Love list.
They need to work harder…it’s about inspiration too remember? 🙂
@ Smittytabb: Thanks for the extra comment 🙂
I agree that VFTW has gone full blown credit card salesman lately and OMAAT has had a good amount of credit cards posts. As one of the commenters mentioned, Lucky still provides non credit card posts that are very useful, especially for award booking.
I’m not sure why you are giving DD a pass then.
I agree.
I have given my reasons for DD many times. Read my rationale in the summary I have below his entry in the Like list. After Amex dropped so many blogs (and kept the mega pumpers) he has certainly taken the pumping to a new level so….yellow card for that.
I am watching and keeping track of my BS meter needle. When it crosses my threshold I act. It does not happen very often and I never hid this is a VERY subjective list full of my own biases.
It has generated discussion on what it takes to be on those lists, didn’t it? 🙂
“Ignore” is the wrong word for these blogs. I recall you once offered “Despise” which is too strong. I think “Dislike” would have symmetry with “Like”. Another option would be to offer levels like Tim suggests, but a point system would be a lot of work. A couple of Sundays ago I got annoyed and tried to figure a system – with credit card posts, counting credit card links, and such. It was overwhelming! No one person could handle it.
Instead, since you play soccer/football, I think someone once suggested a Yellow Card and Red Card system. Having two levels is not too many to think about and would be in flavor for the blog, plus you could add soccer GIFs. Severe offenses would lead to an immediate red card, like Delta Points removing you from the ballot. I would also put promoting an affiliate link that is not the best offer as a Red card offense, but others might call that Yellow. Otherwise, repeated yellow cards make a red – and yellow cards could expire after some time, moving Red to Yellow or Yellow to nothing.
For instance, I would categorize DP, MMS, Wallet Slot, and FTG as Red, while Mommy Points, VFTW, and OMAAT are Yellow.
I elaborated on the naming in my long general comment below.
Steve started the rating system months ago. I think he did a great job. But, as you noted, it got so overwhelming and there is no staff on “payroll” to keep this up!
Some great ideas on handling this, thank you. But, bottom line, I do not have the time to do all that. Instead, I keep a mental note about how I feel about all the blogs in my Feedly list. As I go through them I marvel at some stuff which I share here. I hold my nose on many and click delete. Sometimes the BS is so much I gotta say something here. If we all ignore them who else out there will say that this is WRONG? Who will save the newbies? 🙂
I agree with the way you categorized them! But it starts to get more involved, takes more time, even more subjective and flawed than it already is. Ain’t got time for dat 🙂 I am at my limits here. 19 months later and no email list or Facebook page!
Thank you so much for the feedback. I read and consider each comment!
MommyPimp is lifetime ban for me – pimping out her 4 yr old at every opportunity is despicable.
It’s @P’s comment above that is despicable.
+1 to Curious George!
P: you could have stopped at “…for me”.
“Since I pumped my Amazon link so much to the tune of making 88 cents the day before I will take a breather so you guys would not get hit with it one more time. #Respect”
Yes and please don’t do that again! I’m in a rush to order a chain saw before I got back outside and try to continue my morning’s task with a hatchet. I opened my RSS reader to get to your Amazon link — and it’s NOT THERE!! Now I hafta actually go to your site (which I usually read later in the day), find your archives, and go to some older post, all to click on your Amazon link. (Well, with a brief stop to post an aggrieved whine…)
Doggone it, George! Stop making it DIFFICULT to show our appreciation. That’s not humble, it’s annoying! Please learn to GRACIOUSLY accept kudos from your fans, even if those kudos are merely pennies from Amazon!! Yes?! (grumble grumble)
I keep forgetting some readers read my blog in their RSS readers and do not visit the blog to click on the Amazon banner! Therefore, I will pump my Amazon link at the top of every post then, thanks! 🙂
No reason to look in the Archives, click on the banner in the homepage at the top right corner!
I need to figure out a way to do this $$$ better. I have not yet. 54 cents yesterday. It’s a work in progress…
Thanks for the support!
I actually do always read your entries on your site — but, in this case, I was just grabbing a click-through to your site in my news reader to get the Amazon link and found it missing!
It’s my intern, I will have a meeting with him immediately. Probably cost TBB the mega commission on that mega chain saw you were going to buy 🙂
George, you should know that you can’t just start off any post with an affiliate link. That’s not how it works in the travel blogger world. You need to throw a disclaimer in at the top and the bottom of each post. 😉
Disclosure: TBB gets a tiny commission for the Amazon link on the blog. You don’t have to use my link, but I am very grateful when you do. I don’t like my mother in law and hope my wife does not see this comment!
Wow, LOVE reading the TBB comments. I really appreciate and thank everyone for taking the time to comment. That shows me you care!
I have always felt that I learn more from negative comments, so thank you for them too.
This comment will just be a general reaction to all the comments after I read them once and then will try to respond to each one either above or starting a new comments below.
My blog is about ENTERTAINMENT. Maybe hard to believe but it is primarily for my own entertainment. I am just shocked more than friends and family actually care and read what I have to say!
I never hid the fact that I totally despise pumping credit cards. I see this as the NUMERO UNO CANCER that has totally invaded this space. It’s everywhere!! Everything is so driven FROM it that every day I go through the blogs I am about to gouge my eyes out! I can’t help it, I go through blogs and then I type what’s on my mind. I have a hard time holding back from getting this blog to be a stream of swear words…so I keep it to just a few WTFs 🙂
If you are no longer entertained, perhaps you get a little educated from all the great content I find and highlight here. If the anti cc rants (now placed at the very bottom and substantially reduced from the way it was here in the first year!). bug you you can skip them. If they bother you so much why are you even reading something that is upsetting your inner peace? Makes no sense.
For the record, the long rant on pumpization (is that a real world? like irregardless? lol) was BY FAR the highest traffic post in the history of TBB. Most comments too. Not that I ever gave two flying squirrels about that stuff…but I was shocked about that. It was building up for a while and felt GREAT (therapeutic even) pushing the Publish button. My goal on that post was to get something down so convincing for new people in the hobby to make them understand what it really is about and the charade going on. I will make it a permanent spot on my homepage when I learn how to do it.
I had no doubt I will piss off many Gary and Lucky fans. They crossed MY own threshold (they had yellow cards by the way and so does Dan!). As you may have noticed I deleted the reference “in order of importance” from the Ignore list. And these two are the bottom meaning they likely do have the better content than the rest. Heck, even TPG does have some good content along the way. It is a VERY subjective judgment going on here guys. You include my personal bias (I don’t give a F* about the hamburger in First Class and the texture of a crappy pajama all right!) in all this and you get a list that will have its haters. I get it, it comes with the territory. C’est la vie.
My point on the lists is mainly to show new readers (they come here, it’s not ALL about more advanced hobbyists who read me) that there ARE better blogs out there who blog responsibly and put the reader first at all times. My dear hobby is improved EVERY time someone clicks on the cc links of Travel is Free instead of FTG or MMS! And it has happened several times as I have been informed. And that feels good TO ME and keeps me “working” on my blog for endless hours. I feel like I am contributing to improve humanity when some of these “bloggers” paste crap about the amazing First Friday CSP 3x promotion. This is MY compensation. It is psychic income and it is WHAT keeps TBB going so far.
I always felt you need to do the right thing and things will take care of themselves. This is what I am doing here. I would LOVE to make some money from my blog but so far I have not gone down that murky affiliate path other than a lame attempt to talk with Credit Karma sometime last year at a conference. After my interaction with them and what I know about Bentoffers I do not feel comfortable being associated with these two companies. So…I keep using the Amazon link which is a complete joke in comparison to the credit card links and the ones who mention I pump my Amazon link here are delusional douchebags!
I have been spending way too much time on my blog for almost nothing other than psychic income and it is a problem. I HAVE a problem. This has become very addictive. I have neglected some parts of my life due to it because….”I gotta do the blog post”. I am SHOCKED I am still at this 19 months later, never in my wildest dreams I would imagine I will still be here with so many “fans” (which is kind of weird, never felt comfortable in this role and never will).
FTG gave me great advice months ago. Quit TBB, rebrand to personal finance and expert on miles and credit cards. I agree IF the goal was to rake in a lot of dinero. But it does not feel right. Where is the originality in that, yet another expert pushing product (at least I would be qualified as a true expert LOL). I like to do things and be an original. My little TBB corner is unique and its anti cc bias is part of its DNA. You all get everyone you know to stop from helping the Ignore blogs to get them to change their tunes, help the more responsible bloggers and then I stop bitching about what I see EVERY day in my Feedly feed! If no one draws attention to this stuff WHO WILL? Everyone is too $$$ oriented and does not want to burn any bridges from fellow bloggers while I burn bridges every day (I pretty much shot myself in the foot by including Gary and Lucky in the list). Well, I do what feels right to me. In a way, I want to inspire Gary and Lucky to get back in their blogging ways which were ahead of so many. Their latest turn was extremely disappointing to me.
I have been looking for some type of intervention to get me to take action to act to take my blog to a certain path…since my ponderings in Lake Louise in July of 2013. Instead, I keep going and doing my thing and leaving that moment to hit me at a later date. Tim’s comment certainly hit me as I did not expect it and I certainly appreciate it. Delta Points will certainly ban him lol.
May not get to the rest of the comments and may not do a Gems comment tomorrow.
For the record, I had a hard time picking the proper name on the Blog black list. Despise was too strong. Dislike was too soft and did not have the “stop clicking on their cc ads” bent).
Thanks all again for taking the time to comment and challenging me.
For your entertainment, TBB blog made 54 cents yesterday. To infinity and beyond!
We should get off your back because this blog is ENTERTAINMENT but you give Lucky a hard time over topics like pajamas and first class? #hypocrisy
You don’t want to read about those things and there are 100s of blogs that write about things you aren’t interested in, that’s fine but cut the snark. Lucky’s blog is outstanding.
“If they bother you so much why are you even reading something that is upsetting your inner peace? Makes no sense.”
Just skip the cc posts that don’t interest you, I’ve clicked on some of Lucky’s links and will continue to do so.
I booked first class tickets to Seoul that I would never have known about without Gary’s blog. His post on American award rules was great. His post on reducing fuel surcharges when booking BA flights with American miles (by booking 2 one-ways instead of a roundtrip) was great, and should have been featured here. George, you’re becoming a hater and it’s clouding your judgment.
Definitely going downhill in quality, time to add TBB to the “Blogs I Ignore” list. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop reading, just like TBB keeps reading the blogs on his ignore list!!!
Hehe, i had NO DOUBT I will piss off some VFTW and OMAT fans.
Snark is part of my DNA. These two copying and complementing each other on working conditions in UAE, FC hamburgers and pajamas is just ludicrous if not insulting. I think they have just created their own bubble and been living in it, especially lately. Once they make it to the Ignore list it is much harder to get out of it. But good posts coming certainly will help. Care to guess how long that will be before their cc expertise comes up again?
Good for you to spend all that money to fly first class! I care to spend my miles and not my cash, even for “bargains”.
I follow more than 500 blogs and been reading all these guys for years. Maybe my opinion is informed. Heck, I am not pushing credit cards to cloud my judgment and discover the amazing Hilton card recently only when it paid me and then raved about it.
Thanks for reading. I have no doubt Delta Points will ban your ass for making such negative comments 🙂
Did you hear about the farmer who won an award?
He was outstanding in his field.
(9th grade teacher joke)
Got a link I will share next week with some awesome jokes!
I agree with George. It is not just about credit card pumping which is the worst thing these bloggers do. Come on, you want to get breaking news about pajamas and bare feet with follow up articles? And cleverly articulated posts on economy class flying or Indian poverty, so as to not miss clicks from those readers who like them? This sucks. True, they had some quality stuff earlier but their approach to travel blogging caring the least for the readers and diminishing quality of posts and poor reviews of flights which doesn’t add much value in real life except for those living or preparing for living in a fantasy world and maybe those who are flush with money not knowing what to do with money. Travel blogs have long lost their meaning but some blogs are able to maintain the motive or goal with which they started their blogs. Those are the real travel maniacs who add value to their readers based on their experience and come up with suggestions to improve reader experience and also save them some money. I will happily click their links instead of those posting just to fill pages – pajamas, burgers, ice creams and what not, and get clicks in the process. These are kid stuff to me. I just read them for some alternate entertainment and for nothing more. TBB is always entertaining and carries tons of original sarcastic humour and with right intention to help the travel community. It is so satirically humorous that even those who are being targeted cannot stop smiling at themselves after reading about them. This is the best way to criticise anyone and George is an expert in that with tons of continuous non stop humour. No one comes close to the non stop humour he generates in this blogging world. I do get a feeling that he too is sad for these blogs and is fighting a lonely battle for sanity in this space. I am sure he also wouldn’t like to continuously pinpoint others mistakes but i think he is doing it more for the readers. Not for the clicks.
Thanks Kumar. I agree with your comment. 🙂
Yes, it is a lonely battle for sanity in this space. Yes, I may be going insane in the process lol.
At the end of the day, like I said, TBB blog is about entertainment.
So much being done for clicks in the blogosphere. I find my stance towards those practices amusing and kind of idiotic bordering to insane 🙂
To all: Stop reading blogs, get out there and enjoy this beautiful summer day. I am outtahere.
I agree with TBB downgrading VFTW and OMAAT, but I think Ben is ahead of Gary at the moment in content and unique posts.
Tim’s post was thought provoking, and I agree with him at least a little.
Let’s face it-all of us who read TBB are familiar with the blogs on George’s lists. His ratings make a statement but don’t change what I read. What I’d like to see on TBB is the introduction to other really good blogs-miles and points, yeah, but other travel areas too.
Thanks Sam for taking the time to comment and the support.
The rants on the Buzz posts are meant as entertainment.
The VERY rare mega rant post is meant to be a permanent page to educate the newbies on what is REALLY going on because nobody else will tell them what is really going on.
I am open to new areas too. I know I have barely scratched the surface on the vast Travel blogs area. But with 500 already in Feedly I know I must keep this TBB part of my life manageable. It is not like I am making any dinero at this!
If you or anyone finds something uniquely remarkable please pass it on to me. There is A LOT OF JUNK/CRAP out there in da Internet!
Buzz, you know I always got your back. Thank You for educating us that these blogs are here for one purpose only, to sell credit cards. You can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig. Please keep ranting and exposing the greed, hypocrisy and pretentiousness. Also, we’re having fun here at TBB!!!!! …………………. Tim -3, as Sergeant Hulka (from the movie Stripes) said to Psycho, “lighten up Francis” .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B65mtE2TN1w
+1 Ramsey, I could not of said it better myself!!!
Thanks Ramsey, I will have a gyro for you tonight. Maybe add another one or add a greek salad.
I really appreciated Tim’s comment, sure made me think a lot.
I think we can all lighten up a little 🙂
I need to leave now, Mrs. TBB is not amused!
Reading these comments honestly it’s just impressive that TBB has created a micro-community. People feel very invested in the opinions that get posted here in a different way than you’d see with a standard miles & points blog and I think it’s neat. Bloggers strive to create communities and TBB has done so very well, as demonstrated by the fact that people are articulately giving feedback as though this is something they have part ownership in and in some way, they are part of it and have “ownership”.
#runonsentence
#Ramseyisonmyblogsilove
#ihatehashtagsandnowihatemyself
Kudos everyone.
Micro is the first step to medium that comes before large and finally mega 🙂
I think my blog is neat too!
Seriously, I am the most surprised of all!
Thank you to all who have contributed and continue to honor me with your presence and your time to contribute. When KKR buys TBB, I will have a mega bash and will invite you all in my private jet. I guarantee it!
#Romewasnotbuiltinoneday
+1 to Carrie. The community element is so true. Thanks TBB!
It’s pathetic the way so many otherwise good blogs (though not all on your ‘Blogs I Ignore’ list qualify as “otherwise good blogs”) are whores for the banking industry. I appreciate that you have not failed to expose this.
Send my mega rant link to people you know so they can send it to their family and friends too!
TBB
the Frontline of miles/points LOL
#exposingcharadesneverdeals
I totally agree with Carrie. Even if George repeats himself a bit too much or includes something that doesn’t catch my fancy, there is always something that is entertaining or educational, and I know that the comments will be worth reading. That is because of the community that has developed around TBB (the blog) and because commenters do not necessarily confine their comments to the info in the post. So if you like coming here, and feel it is worth your time, but see something not to your liking, either gloss over it or comment away.
Happy weekend!
+1
This is probably the only blog where I regularly read the comments on each post.
Who’s Carrie?
Thank you so much TWA44 and Sequoia! Like I said, one of my favorite things about my blog (probably my most favorite one) is the interactions I have with in the comments and the incredibly educational and entertaining discussions we have had here. I feel like I know you guys and you have become a part of my extended family. I wish I could give you all a virtual hug. And will save a real hug to the ones I will see again next month!
Carrie is Drew’s wife….Yep, know what’s next? Please don’t dare say it 🙂
My browser just got roomier. One less tab to manage. I am sick and tired of the rants. I want to learn something valuable from these blogs, not read rants that aren’t relevant to my travel goals. Perhaps you should blog for Fox News or Huffington Post.
Please can you be my agent and see how much these two companies will offer me? I ‘ll give you a cut! You are hired!
Enjoy the room in your browser. You were never going to use my Amazon link so I could care less 🙂
But if you ever want to laugh a little, learn something valuable that you may have missed or perhaps get inspired for whatever reason, I have no doubt this will be you:
http://media3.giphy.com/media/1SYQv4pVFlkaY/200_s.gif
P.S. I am slow, too much food and drinks intake at the Greek Festival today…I think you may be messing with me? 😉
Tbb becomes the Perez Hilton/tmz of travel blog industry?
As much as I agree with your reasoning, I really don’t like seeing Gary and Ben in the same group as Daraius or Scott. They aren’t THAT bad! Perhaps you could have two categories for the bad blogs just like you have two categories for the good blogs…
I agree with the first part completely.
Thought of doing that…but naming them appropriately was such a bitch.
Three is manageable. Looking for ideas…this is why I threw this post out there…for feedback!
I can fit 3 links in a tweet, a major reason I decided to stick with three and not four.
Thanks.
You’re welcome!
In the thirteen years I’ve been playing this game it has evolved into a credit card centric market. Long gone are the days of decent promos and mistake fares are becoming a thing of the past. In reality all we have left of significant money saving value are credit card sign up bonuses.
Add that fact to referral commissions and the state of the game is pretty clearly defined. People will make money where they can. Look at the explosion of ms in the hobby for further evidence of the human nature of non bloggers.
You can rant all you want, but you will not change human nature. I’d reread and reread again Tim’s comments if you want to serve the audience. Without his suggested changes, what you see is what you will continue to get. Reader rants and haters gonna hate.
You can do much better George.
I have no illusions to TBB’s impact.
But it helps me look at myself in the morning and feel good I am doing something constructive. Blasting “expert” marketing machines and praising responsible true expert bloggers assists in the improvement of mankind and no doubt will lead to world peace.
The mega rant helped correct my chemical imbalances. It’s a long process lol. Letting go is therapeutic indeed!
Of course I can do much better than 88 cents and 54 cents revenue the past two days LOL 😉
I agree with TWA44 most out of all the previous comments. I understand George’s frustration with the credit card pumping and I just scroll past those posts in my Feedly. After over a year of ranting though, nothing really has changed. The pumpers are well-placed in Google search to attract newbies and more experienced travelers like most of us are not their target audience and the pumpers don’t really care what we think. I don’t think Lucky is as bad as the others and he does have more original content.
If we are to change anything with the banks, we can use positive reinforcement to reward the banks when they do something good. Right now, Chase and Amex are giving card holders the opportunity to earn points when we refer someone to their card. This promo runs until the end of June and each person can refer each card a maximum of 10 times. The offers are the best currently available for each card. So if we smaller bloggers work together and help each other get our 10 referrals per card, those are 10 less clicks going to the pumpers. Once you reach your maximum, then ask your readers to use someone else’s referral to share the reward around. The banks will get a message that this is the way to move forward, use the referral method and not the link-pumping Bent Offers method to get new customers. I was hesitating to blog about this as I do have all the cards in question but now I think I am going to give it a try, I could use the extra points and it’s better than letting the pumpers get richer and richer.
OK so I am a lousy pumper! I found the Amex refer a friend link in my account but does anyone know where the one for Chase is? I can’t find it anywhere! I have CSP, Freedom and IP.
https://www.chasereferafriend.com/
You need to log in yourself to see what offer you get…Works considerably slower than Amex.
I agree of course with everything you said.
I pumped this offer for me. I had two the day before I pumped it to the body of my post. Nada since then. Obviously I am the worst pumper on this planet.
I will gladly refer you after 8 more sign up from my referral LOL #hint
Thanks for the link, George. I can’t get it to come up, don’t know if it’s because I am in Australia or the site is down. Getting this message:
The connection has timed out
The server at http://www.chasereferafriend.com is taking too long to respond.
The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
OK so we just need 18 more people for SPG? 😉 Fingers crossed! I pumped it on my personal Facebook but just got a couple “likes” and no emails. My FB list is pretty international though, not just Americans. I did finally sell a couple Sottevests, woohoo!
Site loads fine for me. I think it’s your internet connection?
My internet is working fine, I’ve been on it all day. I tried Firefox, Chrome, IE on my Surface tablet and my iPhone. I even booted up Hotspot shield. Nothing works. I think it doesn’t like something about my Australian connection even when I try to conceal it.
Is anyone else here outside the USA right now? Can you click on that link and see if it loads?
Don’t change. Keep fighting the system.
I have no other ideas to add. Like I tell my wife, ‘If you want me to change, I probably wasn’t right to begin with.’
Thank you! That is a great quote actually!
What Sequoia, TWA44, and Tara said.
I personally stopped caring about the pumping as long as it’s in accordance with the MIL rule, because it’s just noise, and I no longer read the pumping blogs. In fact, I don’t read many blogs; mainly just this one and the Saverocity crew / MttW in my RSS feed, then FT’s MS section. I stopped reading some blogs mentioned in comments above because the writers struck me as lousy people.
A friend to whom I gifted a free flight is interested in getting into the hobby; s/he signed up for the Chicago Seminars and only then asked me if I was interested. It’s a non-refundable ticket. Sent him/her an email explaining that s/he should treat the presenters like timeshare sellers and not come away thinking s/he owes them any gratitude, clicks, or business. Might share the email.
Send your friend a link to my mega rant for a prerequisite class to the Chicago Seminars 😉
Buzz-
There you go again: What basis do you have for saying FTG has an editor? Did the editor take you out to lunch last Friday to get triple UR miles? Oh, sorry, that was last week.
I’m confused-maybe one of your anonymous commentators can help clarify.
Hmm, come to think of it…Did FTG made the CSP 3x post on Thursday or Friday? Or were too embarrassed by the fiasco of last week. Been a busy weekend, I need to send the new TBB intern on another undercover assignment 🙂
It’ll be July soon enough and we’ll get to see another CSP first Friday post from FTG’s very green editor again. Low hanging fruit….
Curious George sounds a lot like Ingy to me….
No, I checked the IP address….which may not mean much!
I agree with the commenters that say it is ridiculous to be listing VFTW and OMAT in the same league as Milevalue and some of the others. They both offer “real” content and should get some credit for that. Ignoring someone who offers some good information because you are annoyed with the solicitations is stupid (of course you don’t have to click on their links, but you do have to read them).
That part of your list is really just “blogs that sometimes give me heartburn.” OK, not that catchy, I admit, but a lot more honest.
>>>>> “blogs that sometimes give me heartburn.”
Lol, love it. You are right but that just is not very marketable you know. And we do lots of things for marketing at TBB (this is a joke!).
OMAT’s post about AA routing rules was really good. I will just wait for Drew to do one then 🙂
VFTW really likes that hotel in the Maldives & taking selfies in pajamas in lavatories #yawn
I understand a bit unfair these two to be included with the rest but current staff capacity can not handle the workload to add yet another list!
Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!