Once in a while I would like to do shorter blog posts that highlight some blog posts that made a huge impression to me. Minimum three items because, you know, I just don’t feel comfortable with myself mailing it in and just like to mix it up and raise hell while mostly entertaining myself 🙂
TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order
You can support TBB by clicking/forwarding any of our Referral Links and starting your online shopping at our Amazon affiliate link . Or click on the Amazon Banner on the right, thank YOU!
Airheads in the Rewards Credit Cards Bubble
This is a must read by Loyalty Traveler. Needless to say I agree with it! The comments are also very educational, including mine which expands on where I am coming from. Actually I was thinking of doing a mega rant on the “I only know one person who got too deep in debt in this game” but, thankfully, Ric’s post said a lot of what was in my head! As I said, this is a must read post. All of it. Bravo.
Before me nobody dared speak up because, you know, the rules of Fight Club 🙂 One of the main reasons I started my blog (other than I was a little bored and just needed a fresh challenge!) was seeing my dearest hobby become an arena full of marketers who keep serving different products to everyone who breathes. Let’s face it, doing this hobby right is NOT for everybody; in fact, it is DANGEROUS for most. Because, you know, because most people are not wired this way. Having said that, today I activated both the 100k Amex Business Platinum and (gasp!) the Spirit card…because I KNOW I can handle it! See ya at the mall you guys and in America’s favorite store late at night (to avoid those lines). LOL. Ok, sorry humor got in the way.
This is SERIOUS! Doing one post about the dangers of reward credit cards while continuing to come up with ever more ridiculous ways to push credit cards to everyone (i.e., “Go out and eat, you deserve it” WTF!) IS part of the problem. I mean, look at the posts by the bloggers in the Nobel Peace Prize winning TBB Blogs to Ignore list. It is a never ending daily barrage of credit card sales, top 5 cards this/top 10 cards that. Pretty soon they will run out of moronic reasons to push them and resort to “Top 5 Cards When You Have Diarrhea”. Anyways, respect to Ric for writing this. This is what bugs me with Boarding Area ad revenue going lower, bloggers like Ric who don’t push financial products down readers’ throats daily get hurt the most while it causes other bloggers to push more #lifeisnotfair. And please stop using the world “pimp” WTF!
When Blogging Becomes a Slog
Another must read article at the New York Times. This is a MUST read by fellow bloggers at least! Stop and read it. Now! You don’t have to thank me. I see the blog Efficient Asian Man posted about this a few hours ago but I have been saving it since it came out a few days ago. I like breaking things out to our community but I guess some blogger was way too efficient (pun intended) on this one 🙂
I have been thinking along these lines dear readers. Blogging is hard work! Becomes even harder when it is done “part time”. It consumes you. You think about “It” all the time! You must have a deep deep passion for the reasons you are blogging otherwise I can see how quickly it can overwhelm you. This is the main reason I have not really explored monetization seriously. I want to keep it FUN. When it becomes about THE money, it will very soon turn to a slog and may keep me away from the gym where I go every day to keep up my handsome physique, driving my daughter to dance practices, taking care of clients, terrorizing opposing goalies in soccer games or going on family trips (need more of those!) or other more important things in life. As Ric above said, Health is your most important asset. To some of the big bloggers, take some time off every day and exercise please if you want to keep blogging for a long time, you are not taking care of yourselves! And don’t get me started about the crappy airline food, even if it is up front!
I still want to do this for the love of it. It is insane actually but this is a way of channeling my insanity and an outlet for creativity as I always wanted to create something (mostly music but I just sucked playing every music instrument I tried!). I also think that the nature of our hobby is “hands on” that it is all consuming. You know, a mistake fare “book and ask questions later”, hitting all promotion requirements (IHG Rewards Into the Nights), earning and burning/loading and unloading and on and on. You know what I mean. You then take this on to a blog and you burnout fast because it is HARD! This is the reason most blogs die at some point, the bloggers burn out or have a personal event that makes them to (health event, family tragedy, etc.).
This is why I think many younger bloggers will probably be better off if they devoted all this consuming attention to learning more marketable skills or furthering their education. I am in the second half of my 40s now and am in a lot more solid financial position that I can afford to do this for the love of it. Many do not and start out all convinced their content will take the internet by storm and be able to retire in a year or whatever. Yeah, good luck with that. It takes TIME. Should you be doing this to make it to the promised land if you have a law degree, engineering or whatever background when now there are SO MANY other bloggers trying to do what you are doing? Perhaps you shouldn’t. You are really relying hoping that the finicky banks will somehow be there to shower you with all the commissions from selling their credit cards. But that game may one day end and end suddenly. Then what? You really expect to make a living wage from advertising alone? Really? The big commercial bloggers have managed to make this a full time career. Fine. We know better than to support them, they get enough Google search passers by who buy what they sell. I lost my train of thought so I will stop. Just read this. But read Loyalty Traveler‘s post first (and the comments there too!).
Long Story Short – Albania is The Biggest Secret in European Tourism
If you are new, Yomadic is my favorite travel blog. Nate has been posting the most unique stuff traveling around the world (mostly in the Balkans and getting ready to travel to the Stan countries in Central Asia!). No one has done more for Albanian tourism than Nate 🙂
Here are some pictures you will find there:
and I leave you with this from my HS glory days…
Check out my updated blog lists: Blogs I Love, Blogs I Like, Blogs I Ignore
Please pass my blog link to your friends and family if you think they will enjoy it too.
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Join over 3,065 TBB followers on Twitter @ FlyerTalkerinA2 and add TBB on Google+
Primo?
Primo!!
Second, I’ll take a medal!
4th comment. 3rd place. Greetings from Chi City!
Games night dropped me down to 4th.
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play”
Spirit card? Seriously? Are you also getting a Motel 6 card?
Thanks to all for playing along this silly game. All the medals are bought with the TBB Amazon link 🙂
@Jed: re Spirit: Never flown them yet. They fly to a gazillion places from Detroit. Aiming to snag tickets to Cancun sometime in 2015. For real free 🙂 At the very least, aiming to do a hilarious trip report. As far as businesses go, they are doing phenomenal and eating the lunch of the “full service” airlines every day…I am actually kind of scared to be honest with you 🙂
Should have flown them first, apparently the sign up bonus is higher when you apply in flight. Spirit really isn’t that bad, that said I really don’t have a problem with ULCC’s so maybe it’s just me.
No, same 15K miles and same card. And once again to every non-believers out there, flying Spirit is fantastic when you sit in the first row. Can’t promise any hilarity, though, it’s just a flight like any others. 🙂
The hilarity would be in my review of it. Think selfie in the bathroom with terrorized look 🙂
Really? I’m pretty sure it was 20k+ last time, but maybe I have a bad memory.
Pretty sure the extra 5k came with some sort of fee 🙂
Stay at Hyatt Zilara if you’re leaving the kids at home.
That will likely happen when they are both in college. I wish 🙂
You really need to pump your Amazon link more aggressively if your financial situation is so dire that you have to fly your family on Spirit! Or maybe start of kickstarter campaign to raise money to pay for tickets on a better airline 🙂
Yesterday’s TBB revenue:
My ad space: 38 cents
Amazon link: 7 cents
Can it get any worse? Maybe….flying family on Spirit is it…I like to test limits lol.
You’d get more hits on your Amazon link if you embedded the link at least five times in every post, posted pictures of your wife posing with the merchandise people can buy on Amazon, and of course show pictures of cat food that people could buy using your Amazon link.
No doubt, no doubt.
Meanwhile, I still feel bad for the tweet with my Uber link I did…last week!
I suck in pumping, what can I say?
Nothing wrong with Spirit if their schedule works for you. I have flown them half a dozen times over the past few years. Their on-time record is atrocious, but that is all part of the fun!
Looking forward to it actually. I am not a “we all must fly up front all the time” and certainly will never call coach cattle as some do in this space! Plus, it certainly builds characters on the kids by keeping them “grounded” 🙂
Completely agree with the Ric’s message. Completely disagree with the examples. The two posts in question actually do warn people of dangers. If anything, there are hundreds of truly pumping blog posts out there that could make a much better illustration of Ric’s point. I can see how that one paragraph in MP’s post could annoy people, but the post in general does the job quite well, IMHO.
Didn’t find much fault with Miles Professor’s post either. What’s it all about? This?
“While I personally don’t know anyone who got themselves into financial trouble with reward credit cards, I do have a story of quite the opposite. Someone who let hundreds of dollars go to waste because he didn’t do enough.”
So? I also don’t know people who got themselves into financial trouble with reward credit cards. Does anyone? Mostly, because people tend to be very open about their successes and very tight-lipped about failures. 🙂
Again, those two posts are warning posts. They are better posts that convey the right messages. Why rip people for doing a good job?
As you and I know, there are bloggers out there who advocate going into credit card debt to book PAID travel, for Christ’s sake! Now, that’s wacky!
I agree that you agree with Ric’s message and I disagree that you disagree with the examples 🙂
I think you are missing the point. Both of these blogs just pump credit cards every day. By doing one post once in the blue moon warning about the “dangerous” is just BS imho.
Are there worse bloggers out there. Sure! I mean, I can go on and on and on and do this 24/7…this space has gotten THAT ridiculous lately!
I think he was challenging the delusional/ sheltered numbers implied by the two MPs. That only 0/1 in 1000s will get into trouble with credit cards. And only from their own reckless behavior/lack of self-control.
Buzz, I know I am getting old and out of touch but this is ridiculous. I just signed up for a new gmail address and under gender it said Male-Female-OTHER. Other? WTF? what would be other?
I saw on Twitter the other day a pic about an app signup process that returned an error message telling person that 2 letter last names are not acceptable and must be at least four letters. So I guess if your last name is Kim and Ng you are not welcome!
Bad design is everywhere!
The link to the dangers of the credit card is a good article. I can’t stand mommy points trying to defend herself and her carelessness. “I meant only the travel card for travel purposes, I have friends who’ve ruined regular credit cards.” What a f*cking moron. Obviously the purpose of the credit is irrelevant and all that matters is the fact that the credit ruined them, who cares the intended purpose of the credit originally. Thank god I have only been to her site once. I fear it would make me vomit.
The only reason the endless pumping continues is because some idiots fall deep into the hole and subsidize the bloggers who sell the cards and me and you for taking advantage of the cards. So, as long as this happens, expect it to continue. Regulators are not going to do much…
To all please refrain from using the F words. I do not want to lose my new ad source provider (which paid my site 38 whole cents yesterday). And please to all, do not use the word “pimp”. I had a real pimp email me and tell me it is an incredible injustice to compare true pimps to cc pumping bloggers 🙂
Wow! You’re getting soft in your old age.
I like the word pimp in describing the credit card pumpers. According to merriam-webster.com, the transitive verb definition is “to make use of, often dishonorably for one’s own gain or benefit “.
What are you going to call the credit card pumpers if some weight lifter (pumper) emails you that he’s offended of you using the term pumper?
And why is a real pimp emailing you? A real pimp is not only highly unethical, immoral, and disgusting, he’s also a law breaker. Call the police and give them his contact information!
Don’t take me seriously 😉
Good point about the pumper emailing me too!
I just always disliked the word pimp, I prefer pump. Maybe being associated with misogyny may have something to do with it.
Then again, according to a few “fans”, I am the worst pimp of affiliate and referral links that has ever lived LOL.
I ate a whole Trader Joes fat free greek yogurt large cup with a banana and honey…I think I got a problem 🙂
If course regulator agencies won’t do anything. Just look at the Fed’s behavior leading up to the financial crisis. It almost seems as if the Federal bank lives in Goldman’s pocket. And it hasn’t changed. Countdown to the next crisis has already started.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/536/the-secret-recordings-of-carmen-segarra
Yeah…talk about cozy. She was likely pissed off she didn’t get hired by them 🙂
I need to make time to check this out but being very lazy today…
Thanks.
Fat free Greek yoghurt?? Forget the pimp/pump controversy, enjoying a Greek yoghurt sans fat is plain heresy!!!
Anyway, remember our talk at the Starbucks last month. I don’t think John doe is applying for travel cards. The people with (potential) bad credit don’t have a passport and are not even thinking to go to the usual cliché cities and get some Vendoming into their system.
What is attracted to this hobby are the one with time on hand, mostly students and retirees. 80-90% of the American middle class aspires to fly to Hawaii or Vegas. OK maybe Florida or Cancun perhaps.
Haven’t seen any major pimp/pump in that direction. Mommy points has left that track long time ago and Gary/Ben would not appeal to them at all.
There are LOTS of John Does out there! We are all attracted to FREE. If it is not the Vendome or LH flat bed it is the places you stated. I see lots of family travel oriented sites lately marketing the angle you stated.
I miss MP pushing free trip to KC so little C can see grandma 🙂
Fat free Greek yogurt rocks…need to work on my abs. Personal trainer focused on abs today…I am not sure I have any muscle there…it’s all fat lol.
Not many bloggers are good at rants. This one was below average.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I will try to do better 🙂
Why is BoardingArea ad revenue declining? Lower traffic or lower prices for the ads?
Lower prices. Industry wide problem.
Traffic is way up.