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| Entering Lysjeford, Norway. I miss it already! |
ON MY MIND
I find it unreasonably unfair and harsh that a few readers have been on my back for adding a few referral links of two products I am a faithful user of with proper and full disclosure (with $$$$$) in almost five months of blogging! When others can spend a few minutes per day cutting and pasting along with many more credit card affiliate links DAILY while I labor all day long to pick out stuff you will find worthy. Ok there, I feel better now…
Here is a an article listing all the online banks. I could have “conveniently” added my cha ching link here but I will spare you all the agony:-) I can’t believe there is a “Mile High Bank”…I would not be that confident this bank would be so sharp lol. But if you are going to open a Capital One 360 account please take a look at yesterday’s blog.
Brian Cohen, who writes at the Gate, joined First2Board and now writes What’s Your Point? Wow, I am impressed. I welcome the competition and of course I will be reading as I have always enjoyed Brian’s writings! Come on Brian, produce something so spectacular so I can just quit and get my life back;-)
I can not help but think of yet another Internet Brands connection…
MILES/POINTS
It is a new month and time to get back to say hello to my friendly CVSemployees! I could do more with gift cards but WalMart is a bit out of the way and am afraid to go inside. Maybe later in the month I will find some time to hit some pin enabled gift cards and such. Then I think how many miles/points I have and I wonder to myself “Do I really need more??”
At last Delta enhances something!
Airlines Auctioning Upgrades. Yep, get used to it. More of this is coming. A new era is around the corner. Speaking of a new era…
Loyalty has to be a two way street, otherwise it is just bribery and that’s not sustainable. From The Wandering Aramean. I liked the ending and I so agree with it:
The industry is entering into a period of significant change in the coming years. There is significant pressure to reward the right types of loyalty, not just time on a plane and not just absolute spend. There will be moves to shore up programs, ensuring that they remain revenue positive for the airlines while also not losing too much in the competitive landscape. Then again, with less competition, that is much easier to do. It isn’t like there are any programs out there which are ridiculously generous across the board.
Frontier announced today changes that are leading to it becoming the next Ryan Air! The next blogger who pushes the Frontier credit card will have a free pass to my doghouse!
TRAVEL
9 Insane Cities You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photoshopped. From Cracked.
Amol at Hack My Trip has a workaround on how to get free wifi on Delta. I no longer fly Delta so I feature it here for anyone who may be interested. Let’s not get into the ethics of doing this please. Take some responsibility:-)
Improving Relationships Through Travel. From Landlopers. An absolutely wonderful insightful post about the subject. Certainly applies to all relationships!
All big four airlines now charge $200 to push a few buttons to change your domestic ticket. I am happy flying Southwest next week.
The new Radisson and Radisson Blu hotels keep on coming!
ODDZ & ENDZ
North Koreans sure love their choreographed human mosaics. From theCHIVE. Another WTF North Korean moment #shakingmyhead
20 Plays That Made Announcers Lose Their Minds. From Bleacher Report. Some of these are absolutely hysterical!
“I find it unreasonably unfair and harsh that a few readers have been on my back for adding a few referral links of two products I am a faithful user of with proper and full disclosure (with $$$$$) in almost five months of blogging!”
The criticism stems from hypocrisy, not from your potentially making any money.
And while you say it’s just a couple of links you’ve been dropping hints about an interest in doing much much more with credit cards (ka-ching!).
It’s cool if done correctly, and I’m sure you would, but the blog began primarily as a vehicle for criticizing credit card pimping blogs. So don’t be surprised if a few readers rib you a bit about the anticipated transition!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it!
I have been dropping hints mostly for amusement purposes. This subject is, well, very very touchy indeed. I have not done a damn thing about getting credit card links, fyi.
Please elaborate on “It’s cool if done correctly”, I am very interested!
I could criticize credit card pimping blogs 24/7, yes there is infinite material!!! But I have moved on from that to maintain my sanity. I do miss it, it was so much fun raising hell and shaming the shameless cc pushers!!
I could have easily stopped dealing with trying to get a handle on the avalanche of blogs to pick the best material to feature here and instead spent my time researching how to cha ching with cc links…but I don’t. I am in this for the long term…or at least until my wife says “Enough already” 🙂
Very well said, Anonymous… almost. It’s never “cool if done correctly”. There is no correct way to eat your own words without looking like a shameless hypocrite.
I’m waiting for George to jump on the next bandwagon and throw some Ink links into tomorrow’s post.
Hey S&S, I missed you here, where have you been?
I love cool stuffy. Please show me
An Internet Brands blogger joins F2B…I’m SHOCKED….SHOCKED I tell you! /sarcasm
Just wait…
Thanks for your support, George! We are thrilled to have Brian on board. Of course, we continue to be loyal followers/supporters of TBB – so keep it up!!!
Sounds like a deal to me, thanks!
MY EYES MY EYES the sockets are burning from $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ it must end
It’s the disclosure, stupid!
How hard is that?
Don’t tell me “it’s all about the readers” oh yes, my dear anonymous readers who I love so so much! I could just reach out and hug you and hold you and kiss you, my darling readers!!!!
When it’s all about the cha-ching!!
What are we CHUMPS? or chimps?
Here’s Stacey over at First2Board, again about that stupid deals page with sucky deals (for suckers):
http://first2board.com/verygoodpoints/first2board-secrets-revealed-2/
“You may have also noticed our launch of F2B Deals – a site dedicated to travel deals! This site is not a blog, there’s zero editorial content, only travel deals that the manager of F2B Deals think you might like!”
Deals you’re gonna like! Just like Smisek, if he were a referral-pimping blogger. Yeah, baby!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>>>>>>>What are we CHUMPS? or chimps?
Well…it appears there are a gazillion bloggers who think readers are chumps, verdad?
I hear you about the F2B Deals page. I won’t bite. At least they are not pimping credit cards left and right. Now if they stopped promoting others specialists in the field:-)
It is a very murky world…monetizing/staying afloat and keep going with quality content…
How do you like my disclosures. My five $$$$$ signs after my referral link pretty much guarantee no one bites. I am shocked no one imitated me lol.
Thank you for the comment and for reading my blog!
“I hear you about the F2B Deals page. I won’t bite. At least they are not pimping credit cards left and right.”
1) C’mon, they aren’t anti-monetization, they aren’t pimping credit cards because the site is new and couldn’t get links! They’ve used BentOffers to feed their banner ads!
2) Their ‘deals’ page is WAY WORSE than credit cards, since they’re hawking crappy deals that are downright expensive. With credit cards, people actually get something valuable much of the time. Instead of getting 50k miles, here you’re spending a boatload of cash.
3) F2B is saying these deals are great, they’re DEALS!! Without disclosure of their financial relationship. They’re ACTUALLY misleading their readership, which is certainly worse than credit card folks who do disclose in every post…
As for YOUR disclosure $$$$$$ I love it!!
But make no mistake, an actual newbie who comes to your site would have no idea what it means. It probably doesn’t meet FTC guidelines.
@Anonymous – First2Board provides full disclosure of all financial relationships with our affiliates in our site terms and conditions, privacy and legal policy.
Most people do not bother to read the T&C, privacy & legal policies. Sad but true. The anonymous poster has valid points. Focus on building the site and don’t worry too much about comments in loner types like TBB:-)
And… speaking of F2B, have there been more than 5 good posts on that entire site, total, from all of their bloggers combined since they launched?
MrPickles shared a great Avis code that wasn’t honored, and he had a good April Fool’s post. Ok, I get to two. Maybe others can help me round out to 5 on that entire site?
I’m going to be the impolite one. I’m going to say what has to be said. Not everyone who blogs in this space is very good. There are several BoardingArea bloggers who aren’t very good. But First2Board has assembled an UNUSUAL NUMBER of bloggers who aren’t very good…
When you compare the amount of time the site has been live vs Boarding Area when it first started…I ‘d say F2B is ahead.
I think the best coup was Brian Cohen from the Gate at FT.
Must focus on quality vs quantity I think. But first they need to build a mass. I don’t know man…this stuff is new to me! It has been very educational…I knew nada!!!
I enjoy watching how the scene is developing. I should have started doing this around the same time Randy started instead of watching it all:-)
Thanks George! We’re working on building a brand, sometimes as you know, you’ll hit road bumps along the way, but that’s all a part of growing!
F2B has a number of really good bloggers about to board in the next month or so and we have developed an internal forum so we can critique each other and work towards building a better website. I hope you have already seen many improvements so far.
It is a little difficult to transition from an independent blog site to a hosted blog team and I hope that you stick with us through these growing pains. Our traffic has already propelled F2B to be very popular in the national rankings for travel blog sites (per Alexis.com)
I am all for constructive criticism. Some bloggers take that the wrong way and make it personal. I have nothing against everybody. I do have beef with bad blogs and will state so in my own blog. So, please take that all in account. I deal with business owners and startup types and I have built my own firm so I really know where you are coming from and what you are going through.
I am also obsessed with doing things the right way. I am still trying to figure it out myself, this blogging thing:-)