ON MY MIND
Ever since I stopped my constructive criticism of other blogs by publicly calling them out on some of their “outstanding” practices I felt something missing. As I manage my Google Reader (looks like I may be the very last user who switchs to Feedly!) all day long I come across so many blog posts I would love to say a piece of my mind:-) And therein lies the problem…there are SO MANY! There is no way I can do the buzz posts sharing with you what I find worthy of sharing AND rant on the blog posts I feel are, well, full of crap! So…I am thinking about marking blog posts that go above and beyond the ludicrous. Posts that just make me throw up or shake my head uncontrollably. And perhaps once a week let it all out? Hmm….I could do that I think. Feedback? And I will not be providing the links to “winning” blog posts. Hey, it’s my blog and I can do what I want. I am at this baby all alone!
MVP POST OF THE DAY
13 Arresting Travel Photos from Nat Geo’s 2013 Contest. From Matador Network. Holy Mother of God, you MUST CLICK!
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| The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan. Talk to blogger Rapid Travel Chai about it. |
MILES/POINTS
Preparing for the Dreaded American Express Financial Review. From View from the Wing. Fantastic post. My modus of operation has always been to not go all out and always stay under the radar and stay in the game longer. I recognize there are short term hits to such practices…and I am perfectly fine with that!
Travel Is Free (it’s not) wrote a really good post “Best Use of Club Carlson Points“. Worthy to include here. I love to see bloggers actually work hard to produce good content! I never rip them for getting rewarded when you see they actually spent some time on such posts! What bugs me is bloggers who spend a few minutes a day mostly cutting and pasting while never missing the chance to serve the affiliate links to their readers. By the way, I still have too many Club Carlson points!
A thought came to me today (yes, it happens!)…I have had almost all of the cards out there and it is getting harder to find new ones to churn…so, in a state of Frappuchinitis at Starbucks, I asked myself “If I was allowed just two cards to use which ones would I choose?”” After big gulps (hey, it is Mocha Light) I answered with “I am going all non Big 3 (Chase/Amex/Citi) (gulp). Say whaaaat? Yes, Barclays Arrival for the 2.2% points per dollar to buy my air tickets and the US Bank Club Carlson Visa for the 5 points per dollar on everything and stick with their properties (and get out to experience the location as much as possible). Hey everyone, Starbucks has Frappuchinos at half price from 3 to 5 pm for the next ten days!
TRAVEL
My Trip to Zanzibar. From JUST TRAVELOUS. Beautiful pictures with (sponsored by Nikon) her Coolpix 800c. I think product affiliate links like this are fine but “This trip was sponsored by XYZ Tourism Board and all opinions are my own…yeah right” are not.
24 hours in Mogadishu, Somalia. From Matador Network. I like adventure but I think I’ll pass. Great pictures though:-)
Loyalty Lobby wrote “How Fat Are Expedia’s Hotel Margins?” Holy macaroni, we are talking 25%. So, next time you see them “best matching” hotels at the top of your search you know why they are shown there. I am no travel industry insider….I was expecting 10%, perhaps up to 15%. But 25% is obscene. No wonder they are trying to cut these online booking agencies off the chain/distribution channels!
Top 10 Ways to Navigate a Tight Connection and Avoid a Misconnect. From Points Summary. Great useful advice here!
A new app Locish is about to launch in the US. You can take their US Survey and you could win an ipad. There may be some income opportunities for true experts in local communities. Of course some of my readers are true experts in many many parts of the world! If you have time please check it out. Full Disclosure: App was founded by two Greek entrepreneurs. I want to help contribute to Greece’s comeback!
ODDZ & ENDZ
Life Lessons with Kareem Abdul Jabbar. From Esquire. A beautiful post worth reading by all, especially younger people!
The beauty of the most haunted and mysterious abandoned amusement parks on Earth. From the Blog of Francesco Mugnai.
The Data Center Inside a Cold War Nuclear Bunker (in Sweden). From Twisted Sifter. Wow, how cool!
We featured the same post[s]! 🙂
Yes, saw your post last night & was going to tweet you but then got busy continuing to update my blog post.
George, don’t worry about going all Barclays: Club Carlson cards are from US Bank
Goes to show you what happens when you get a thought so late at night! Fixed now, thanks. Went back to my original thought:-)
How was the get together? I drove by outside the bar as it was starting to pick up my daughter from across the block on Main Street (826 tutoring) to drive her to ballet across town before turning back to pick up son from Crew practice in north of town. Weekdays at 5.30 won’t work for me, fyi.
Heh. The funny thing is that I often get mixed up the other way and think that the US Airways card is from US Bank (probably due to the name similarity).
Happy hour at ABC was great. Couldn’t get table outside, but inside was fine. I think we need to do lots of different meet ups because no one time works for everyone. Feel free to propose the next one!
I am in Vegas most of next week. Late May perhaps.
Did you ever notice Hipsters all try to look alike? So, whats so Hip about being a Hipster? …………………….Buzz the reason we all tune in is to read when you call out the Bloggers who have no content and just hope to sign up a newbie into what few affiliate links they have (in the name of helping friends and family). Never in my life have I seen such a copy cat industry! Those who provide original content and give full disclosure deserve everything they can earn! To those copy and paste, toilet picture taking ghouls, I say OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, an we’ll carry those heads around on a stick.
Dude, I hope you are kidding about the heads and stuff like that. Some people may misrepresent you are threatening actual violence! I hope and trust you are not!
I hope you are not tuning in for only that reason. Actually, ever since I started ranting about the carpet baggers traffic has gone up!
But I definitely hear you and I totally agree with these statements:
Never in my life have I seen such a copy cat industry [it is past the ridiculous point now…’Hi, I am Bob, I started traveling five months ago and I collect Delta Skymiles with my Amex and I watnt to help you see the world]
Those who provide original content and give full disclosure deserve everything they can earn [Yes, Amen!]
I agree that those copy and pasters do not provide anything useful at all and they do not deserve one click. But I digress.
Everything above is my own opinion ONLY.
Sorry about the off with their head thing, I just saw les Miserables, went with a French Revolution reference, just getting silly I guess.
I ‘m calling out “Travel For Less”, every week they always make a meaningless comment on MMS interview comments section, hoping someone will click on their link. Pass the zoloft please……………..SHOUT OUT TO EXTRA PACK OF PEANUTS thanks to him I have been able to stop my daily shock therapy treatments. Now I just listen to the Extra Pack of Peanuts Podcast ( i can only stand it for 30 seconds before i black out)………….We should send copies of his podcast to Guantanamo Bay, to replace water boarding. That should stop terrorism in its tracks.
I love my readers comments! Please express yourselves. I am at loss for words what to say here about EPOP. I have his podcast queued up and was going to get to it at some point…but now I am afraid:-)
At least The Miles Professor has stopped commenting on every single post put up by every blogger, hoping someone will notice her in her (from a great distance…) bikini pic. And click her links.
hahaha i’ve noticed the same thing. she’s always the first or second to comment on every post like she’s a crazed stalker. I made the mistake once of clicking through bec of the bikini pic and was sorely disappointed. what this game needs is a HOT blogger; I wouldn’t even care if she pumped credit cards every other day like MileValue either. Imagine trip reports to Hawaii, Bora Bora, Maldives, etc.
There ARE an increasing number of women in this hobby, some of whom write blogs, and a subset of those are even QUITE attractive…
What we don’t need more of is MMS trip reports with bikini credit card displays.
I should probably not say anything on the subject…I may get in trouble;-)
Referencing your comment reply to Thefrugaltravelingmompointsmileshacker maybe we should call the guilty copy and paste abusers, Carpet Bloggers.
And call those who post toilet pictures…..should be called?
Crappy Bloggers?
@daniel loverro – a bit of a strange toilet obsession you have, what would we call that?
@Anonymous I believe he was saying that it take no talent or creativity to post yet again another picture of a hotel toilet. And I agree with him.
Carpet Bloggers….I kind of like that.
I will not show my readers a toilet pic, even it if is a Japanese one lol.