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| Room #1 at Faktum Hotels |
I started this blog on November 9th because business had slowed down just a little bit as it always does in the last two months of the year. Since I had been talking about doing this for several years I finally did it as I would not have been able to live with myself with this regret! It has been my motto, no regrets!
It’s been a fun ride. I met many people and learned a lot! But it sure has been very exhausting to keep up this frenetic pace! As January has rolled in, real work has picked up. A few more prospects are banging on my door and time is and will be an increasingly precious commodity to devote to this blog! Sooooooo, I am not quitting but the pace will have to slow down to keep my sanity!
Perhaps I don’t have to be so thorough in plowing through everything to pick out the worthy items, this is clearly unsustainable….until April 15th for sure at least. Perhaps I will start posting every other day only when I find true gems. Maybe do some personal posts of what I do with my addiction to scoring more miles/points. I would like some ideas. In fact, I will do a contest to ask for ideas when I get to own domain and leave blogspot off my URL! No monetizing ideas please, that is the furthest thing from my mind! If you like to share a secret way of scoring crack, errr, miles & points I mean, I am all ears! If you want me to keep it private, you have my word for it, sealedlips is my middle name!
Perhaps do a Rant of the week kind of post, the only ONE post that was the mega ridiculous post for the whole week! You like those I have been told;-)
Searching for a way to keep going and keep my sanity…#developing
Most likely no buzz post on Sunday, I need a break. Thanks for understanding.
Ways to contact me:
email: travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/FlyerTalkerinA2
Find me at FlyerTalk and Milepoint as: gpapadop
It was kind of light day in the blogosphere…you know, it’s Friday and the weekend!
MVP POST OF THE DAY
Book “Hotel Rooms” of Sweden’s Homeless People. This is a fantastic idea to raise money for the homeless! Wow. Talk about an innovative way to do good; you should watch the short video! No room service, sorry!! Amazing pics of the rooms here.
BEST OF
A very interesting interview finally at Million Mile Secrets with Glyph, a Detroit start up venture. I left a few comments. Exciting to continue to see all the innovation in this space! And thumbs up for the startup tech scene in South East Michigan. And we have the most accomodating drugstores around here too, you should visit and drop some serious dough, thanks!
Daraius: Finally you asked a tough question, we need more, it should not be a walk in the park, make them sweat for the exposure you give them;-) “I’ve been testing Glyph and I don’t understand how you assign values to each point currency. I also don’t agree with all the valuations so is Glyph still useful to me?”
Very interesting comments, including mine. And from Scott: “MMS’ new page “Blogger Wives” Maybe a calendar too?”
Delta has an updated app, be afraid, very afraid! And no there has not been a meaningful update to the award search, you know the one that finds low level RT awards anyway without shooting yourself in the process! It should NOT be this way, this is the point! Sayonara!
World Press Photo Contest Winning Entries for 2012. Wow!
AMEX will lay off about 5% of its work force. I wonder what effect this will have on card signing bonuses!
Deceptive Deals: The Pitfalls of Some Bank Rewards Points from Scott at Hack My Trip. Interesting take on the bank rewards points and oh so I agree! He totally trashes Well Fargo’s Enhanced Rewards. I don’t bother with any of these other than the top three and have even stopped using any Thank you Points…There is so much time and…spend and tinker burn time!
Heels First Travel reminded me of one of her earlier posts on Club Carlson and shows us how we can buy even more points cheap! And in that post I found the link to all the 9k Club Carlson properties, nice!
Ok, I LOVE this, an absolutely stunning interactive virtual map of Athens, Greece. It feels like you are there!
NOT SO BEST OF
Delta Points again has Tamara dishing out amazing advice, such as:
btw if you got in on the great 100k AMEX Platinum Membership Rewards[that was a link: editor] deal this week, keep in mind if you pay with this card they will rebate the fee back to you
If you don’t have Medallion status, or the Delta Gold/Platinum/Reserve [that was a link: editor] card you can purchase travel options now offered that allow you priority boarding & more.
Try to Print your boarding passes the night before, or if possible send your boarding passes to your smart phone. [Thanks Tamara, wow!!!]
Hope this helps to speed things along for you! – Tamara [Absolutely, thank you so much!]
Do any of my readers use a travel agent? Does ANYONE use a travel agent anymore ( I am talking for regular trips air & hotel!)? I am shaking my head here…I would have let it go but Tamara dishing out credit card advice on top of it all was just too much… In my own huble opinion always.
I must confess I had a horrible experience back in college with a travel agent flying me through JFK to Europe. She had a 45 minute connection at JFK. I did not know much then but that looked awfully short to me, she replied “no problem at all”. I spent one night in a crappy JFK bench, never forget it to this day!
it’s tough to blog – you’re right! i can’t even keep up with 1 post a day!!
I certainly found a new appreciation for bloggers after I started my blog, that’s for sure! This IS not easy, we all get so busy these days. I find that I am always thinking about it, how to keep up with the blog posts I review (talk about a time intensive niche I found!!!) and wondering “is this worth it?” or “how can I add my spin on this blog post?” “oh, this joke will go great with this link!’ or “omg, 45 cc links, he will get burned” etc.
Plus the editing, you do not want to look like an arse! And then editing again…and again.
And remember, I have stuck with the non commercial aspects of it all in my blog. Who has time to be listening to Bent Offers’ orders and find time to be editing affiliate links all the time and coming up with blog posts AROUND them;-)
As I said….#developing
I learn so much from your Best Of section. O man, the pressure will be on for a visit to Greece after I share that map link with the wife!
That is so great to hear, thank you so much! And Greece is so much cheaper than it was just a few years ago!
It was nice to see someone else who put into words what I was thinking. (re- credit card links, the world is ending get this 30k bonus before it turns into 70k……) best wishes JD
Blogging what comes to my head, keeping it real. Thanks for reading & commenting!
Gary has been pumping out a ton of really good posts over the past week.
The cynical in me feels that is a sign on of those recycled credit card posts isn’t too far behind
Yeah, they are coming! If only other bloggers were cranking a fraction of his useful posts this world would be a better place. The guy is a machine no doubt! I will go MUCH easier on bloggers who post useful content vs cc apps eye socket attacks. We can all b*tch & moan about guys such as MMS and Gary L and Ben but the quality of their content is so far above so many others! Actually, there are so many bloggers out there who provide crappy advice, are lazy AND shamelessly pump cc apps. I used to rip on them so much, it is tiring, not worth the exposure at all:-) I think I am going to highlight the most egregious examples from now on and pound on the positive…I was doing that anyways but some people did not fully realize it.
Anyways, it is a journey, trying to keep it real…
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I think travel bloggers ought to have to disclose how many miles they flew in the previous year, and how many miles they earned. Put that on the top their blogs. And I bet you’d see a clear delineation between the good ones and the bad ones. (Not all of the good ones are top elites, although flying a lot will correlate with actually knowing something about travel, but those who are not top elite will at least earn 7 figures of miles a eyar..)
I bet all my affiliate cc income that this is NOT going to happen;-)
I know the post was from 3 days ago, but just read FM’s post on his wifes churn
There is not a single affiliate link in that entire post
I can’t remember the last time I saw a post by any blogger that had the word “churn” in the title that didn’t have an affiliate link or 20 (in TPG’s case, 40) in them
FM continues lapping the field
And continues to be the only one to give the Club Carlson Visa its due
Yep…
I think treating your readers with respect goes a long way
I’m hoping that one day, the FTG’s of the world won’t be able to keep convincing that bloggers such as LoyaltyLobby aren’t for “beginners” just because his posts aren’t recycled from hotel websites…. and that FM’s posts aren’t only for people with advanced degrees in Rocket Science
Truth is, LL’s posts are perfect for beginners, and FM’s posts are perfect for intermediates
What I like about both is that they have original material. Well, LL appears to be quick on everything before anyone else and I think that may have to do as he live in Asia! CC practices, well that is a whole another matter, readers know where I stand on this!
FTG thinks very highly of FM!
He should think very highly of FM, since 2/3 of his “deal of the day” copy/paste jobs are from FM
Has anyone noticed that FTG used to credit the blogs where he found those deals, and now rarely does?
He’s getting almost as bad as TPG in taking others’ work and writing it as though no one else had ever done so.