Its Googlewallet, not ribs……get with the program.

Brows > Ribs, bro. Take care.

I agree that readers should know who wrote it.

I consider Brian TPG a friend. One of the nicest persons I know! I comment on blogs only, not people…Well, it is hard to distinguish these days isn’ it? We can knock down his blog’s practices all we want; bottom line is he has built an incredible business! Fact.

Response to Rob:

I also agree that if your brand includes outright honesty and then try to improve on that by pretending you personally spent 80 hours working on a particular project when you did not…well, it is a collossal mistake! At the same time, we all make mistakes when BUSINESS considerations come into play. My blog has resisted the business factors so far. If I ever decide to make this a business I am afraid I may fall into the same kind of mistakes.

Response to Anon 11.57 am:

I have never posted with a random name, here or elsewhere!! Never have, never will.

No reason to hate anything. Love is better.

Regarding Steele, for the last time. I was on a major mission to have a daily post for the first three months. I was at a conference and could not post for a single day. I accepted Jason’s guest post because I thought (and still think) it was very relevant to my audience. I could have skipped a day or do a filler post like other bloggers do. That’s all. Stop busting my chops.

Hey, what I do is not a science. I write whatever comes on my mind. Do I have biases? Of course I am human, we al do! But I do try to be even. Maybe I should try harder.
Regarding Ariana: A talented blogger who was featured here many times. I am not sure writing for FTG adds to her brand. I was sad to see it.

It is very funny being accused of deception and hypocrisy! Just imagine all that deception and hypocrisy with no dinero coming to me at all. I can’t wait to see what else you will say if I go down that route dude:-)

I am getting worn out. I would love to be bought out like FTG:-) Please make an offer. Latest numbers: 190,000 page views. Alexa (US): 76,000
I promise to stick around and keep the TBB brand going, not another typical sell out l;ol.

Or maybe, like you suggest, $#@^ it and just go on and make some money since I can not win…Win what anyway? Is this getting to me? Yes I think it is…I am very proud so far that I have managed to build this all alone, it was a personal challenge! Not sure where I go from here. But I hear you…

I am already seeing a therapist. She is really good and of course she takes credit cards, come on!

Freelance? How about a monetization specialist position at TBB? You take care of a separate tab in my site with affiliate links while I focus (in the Frequent Miler way) on the content. I hear it is the next BIG thing after ghostwriting lol.

Response to Anon at 12.09 am:

I am asking for a response in an open letter. I also told him what is the right thing to do. I will leave it there. I can’t wait to see the other parts of the LH series:-)

Response to anon at 12.19 am:

I am moving on:-)

This is part travel blog. I think I find some pretty good travel related stuff for my readers. I hope you are all not here just for the blogger buzz stuff lol.

Guest writings: I am open. BUT I am VERY touchy of what appears here! Anyone, feel free to send me potential guest content. I read it and if I like it I publish it with your guest links of course. If I do not like it, I do not publish, I delete it and thank you for trying. That’s all.

Now I need to go check to see if more eyegbrow hair has gone missing…

Yep

Well, like I told Rob, no point in getting frustrated over all this. Let it go from the system. Move on, it is not going to stop.

Think something more constructive. Even better build a travel blog 🙂 Need someone to guest writer, let me know. Despite spending time here getting all worked up, most long time FTers know stuff 🙂

MMS is in a lose-lose bind here.

It’s very clear he didn’t write it himself but it’s just as clear that if he admits that it was ghost-written that it will raise several other questions and it will make the article itself full of inaccuracies.

Thus he will continue to ignore the authorship question and hope that the “controversy” goes away.

I agree with the TBB love affair with MMS being nauseating.

Why is he asking for a private email from MMS on whether he wrote the article?

Only George should get a response? What about the dozens of people that have asked him over the past week that he’s dodged?

He should be asking MMS to answer that question in public, not in one on one secrecy

And if/when MMS answer that it isn’t him (everyone except George knows the answer already), what is TBB going to do? Keep from his readers this information they are no less entitled to than him?

Call him out on shady/lying/TPG’esque (and then some) tactics?

Ask him to inform all the readers that said they’re clicking his links because they thought HE wrote the articles?

Don’t count on it….

I am not the anon at 9:21 but I am one of the critics. In my opinion it is pointless to argue with TBB or MMS(yes they post here with random names). I wasn’t an MMS hater, but certainly never liked him because of the way his site was built. Extracted and copied/pasted packaged information. Then the arrogance on FT and on his blog never accepting some obvious concerns of the community at large. Once the $$s roll in it can get hard.
Visiting this site during the initial days certainly fueled the fire but I gradually saw the change in tone once Steele wrote a guest blog. It started to go downhill from there. Suddenly TBB was not even feeling shy about being an MMS apologist. If you exchange emails or have personal conversations, it will never be the same. I am fine with that too. What pissed me off majorly was when he started to apologize for MMS and then at the same time picking on TPG and others, especially young girl like Ariana. Enough already. I probably wouldn’t have disliked MMS as much if not for TBB and the shenanigans that kept building over the last 2 months or so. Deceptions and hypocrisy at every corner in life these days.

I think anyone else considering a similar type of travel buzz type blog thinking about being critical of excessive credit cards, affiliates or other community dislikes will get worn out or bought out. Do it if you want to network with others (always going to be useful in any career choice). It can be tough from all sides and you will never win. It is either make $$s or consider seeing therapist, who hopefully accepts credit cards. Don’t let this get to you too much.

I need to freelance.

2) It is important to know because unlike TPG who everyone knows is a slimeball, Darius tries to portray himself as some honest do-gooder “mother in law rule” type of guy. So when he hires someone to put together link orgies (you think he shelled out $$$ so that his readers can be informed on LH?), it kind of goes against his reputation. Unless his reputation is that of TPG’s?

3) If it wasn’t him who wrote it, that would mean there was outright lying in the post and comments. Also, many commenters noted that they’re giving him the clicks because they’re under the impression Darius spent 80 hours researching for this. I would think those people have a right to know who actually spent the 80 hours….. don’t you (TBB and Anon at 9:21) agree?