TBB readers discovered two gems that made me shake my head how far along the pumpization of my hobby has gone!
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TBB readers uncovered this gem yesterday in the awesome TBB comments in yesterday’s blog post. Please take a look (HT: Gabriel)
http://trademarks.justia.com/853/51/the-points-guy-85351809.html
Was there an announcement we missed? Don’t you think readers should know this little detail? Of course it is great that people monetize their sites, it is capitalism. But I think readers SHOULD know ownership details like that, they are IMPORTANT.
Ok, one more:
Look what landed in my inbox! I will let you make up your own minds, you are smart. I believe this was sent to a bunch of sites not into miles/points.
Subject: Husband-wife team helps readers find “Big Travel with Small Money”
Date:
From:
To:
Hello _____
I hope you’re well. I wanted to “introduce” you to the husband-wife travel team behind Million Mile Secrets [1]. Before creating the blog in 2011, Daraius D____ and Emily _____ thought that travel was something they could only aspire to do in their golden years. But by the time they married in 2012, they were able to fly first-class to honeymoon in Paris, where they spent seven nights in a five-star hotel. The sticker price for this trip of a lifetime: $32,000. What they actually paid: only about $2,000, thanks to their credit card rewards.
Daraius and Emily created Million Mile Secrets as a way to help other time-starved consumers learn how to acquire airline miles and hotel
points, and travel around the world for a fraction of the sticker price. They follow the constantly changing deals, strategies and requirements
of travel rewards so that their readers don’t have to.
The couple is regularly called upon by news outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and Business Insider for their expertise in what they refer to as “Big Travel with Small Money.” Below, I’ve included a sampling of some of their expertise – their beginner’s guide to travel
rewards. In addition to the points and steps they outline, Daraius and Emily can also speak to seasonal travel trends, outline some of their
preferred travel rewards programs, or highlight red flags for aspiring budget travelers to look out for.
If interested, I’d be happy to coordinate a meeting or call.
Many thanks,
__________
____________Associate
Should I make a few comments at this mega BS the PR hired guns feed to bloggers? Since 2011, really? Went to Paris in F and stayed in a five star hotel for $2k and we are supposed to be impressed? Oh deal Lord how can you package such BS so pretty? Now excuse me while I go to the airport and look for some carts to make some dough…%$#* Flog me Dorothy!
Now on the Gem comments:
IHG Into the Nights Fiasco, Stopovers, America’s Great Spaces, Hot Air Balloon in Cave, Wildlife Photos, India to US, MythConceptions, Blog Buzz
Karen: In a comment on Drew’s Sell Out post, Drew said “I have heard Daraius tell me multiple times that he doesn’t care to make more money.” The “Ink is Awesome” FT thread shows that MMS is by far the leader with 25 posts on the Ink Plus promo. So if MMS is not in it for the money, why so many posts on 1 card in a couple of weeks?
Drew also says he hasn’t noticed a decline in MMS’s content over the past couple of years. He’s either ignoring the facts or suffering some type of delusional disorder. After all, his conclusion is that the real sell outs are the haters and not the credit card bloggers who sell non-stop.
Sam: See this is why TBB is such a valauable resource. I completely missed that Daraius told Drew that he doesn’t care to make more money.
I know how he feels-it’s the same with me and sex. I really don’t care that much any more if I have sex. A whiule back, I realized how selfish I was being, and now I only have sex to bring joy into the lives of women. It makes my heart glow to see what it means to them. Maybe not quite like getting 70k UR points for an Ink sign-up bonus, but then you don’t have to wait 18 months to see me again.
Good to see there are people looking out for other people. It’s all about giving back.
Leslie H: Yeah, the more time I spend in mommy blog land, the more I think miles & points credit card land is actually pretty ethical.
Air France Flying Blue, Best Day to Buy Tickets, Barclaycard AAdvantage, Another Knife in the Back by Skymiles, Yosemite, Top of France, China’s Strange Buildings
Sam: …Folks in the financial services game like me (and George) have been watching this game for most of our professional lives. First round I remember was the whoe life insurance salesmen in the 1960s and 1970s. They made big money and treated everyone like their best friend-birthday cards to your kids, BBQ on July 4. They never mentioned that your first three years premiums went to them as commission, and if you cashed out before about 40 years into the deal, you’d get skinned.
Nest were the annuity guys (often the same whole life guys, moving down the road). These guys could get at most of your balance sheet, with big juice provided by tax advantages. They sponsored the high school basketball team but never mentioned that redemption fees gave you a big haircut if you quit the anuuity in the first 8 years. One more thing-those fees pretty well matched their commissions.
Then in the 1990s, Maria Bartiromo went on TV, everyone got into the financial markets and so did the “expert” down the block (including many whole life and annuity sales people). You paid for his (or her) ‘expertise” not by a share of how much they made you but as a percentage of what they sold you. These guys took you golfing or out on their boat during the year and maybe to Vegas for a weekend. They could afford to, with your money. They never mentioned the mutual fund they sold you with a 5% commission, or another similar one, had another “class” of investors who got the same stocks with lower or no commissions. Why would anyone sell a mutual fund that didn’t pay them a commission? Substitute the word “credit card” for “mutual fund” and you now see how this has evolved.
Since then, we’ve seen many examples where volume rather than results earn the commish. How about mortgage brokers? Rates go down, let’s refinance. We even have doctors who get tickets and trips based on how much of a certain medicine they prescribe. See your mother was right about going to school-doctors won’t have to take pictures of toilets.
To not be too cynical, I should note that each of these products, used in the right circumstance, can be financially advantageous. The problems arise when a good idea is spread around to people for whom it may not be right, and often the ones doing the spreading, while giving out some good advice, are acting like an exoert and like your pal, getting you to like them and then hoping you will buy the product that pays them. It isn’t that they want to sell something you that won’t benefit you, the problem is that they are selling it whether it is or not because it is that product that pays them.
Charlie: TPG’s app is out. Gotta say – there is no way I would every sign up to give my card info and rewards program info away. So, I think it is pretty much worthless. I could care less where in the world he is and do not want to use his app to read his site.
TJ: It’s just the wallaby app with branding, including inflated TPG point valuations to make those inferior affiliate links look even juicer.
Steve: Breaking news from Gary and MommyPoints!!!!! Huge News!!!!!
Alert your friends!!!!!
The Citi AA card is offering 50K miles!!!!!
Granted that’s absolutely nothing new and has been the case for years, but then when you type in “sellouts” into wikipedia, it redirects you to the BoardingArea page
Chris: “Best Offer of the Year” HURRY!
mike: But this offer includes not 1 but 2 admirals club passes!!!!
TJ: Remember Mommy Points is the one who claimed, on national television, the value of 3 United Club mini-muffins is ~$15.
harvson3: Didn’t see that segment, but… wow. Being a Titan of Travel requires believing (or just saying) some pretty incredible things.
American Airlines & US Airways merger update, IHG Rewards Into the Darkness Promo, Delta Sucks Even More, AMEX Everyday, Netherlands to Mongolia, Bishek Kyrgyzstan, Market Noise, Millenials, Blog Buzz
Steve: I suspect that now that bloggers have affiliate links to the superior AA offers, they have years of missed ground to make up
Heck, it might even get standalone posts, in stark contrast to it normally only being mentioned in a top 10 post
Somewhere, Howie is hurriedly trying to figure out the AAdvantage program so that he can manufacture news about it
American Airlines changes, Venice, Hilton Promo, Marriott Wifi, Swiss Alps, Hotel Perks, Kirkuk, Blobs Cats & Mustaches, Toilet Paper, Best Blog Buzz in Blogland!
Chris: If one googles “The Points Guy” and “Bankrate” together, there is some funny stuff coming up.
Gabriel: If you do a trademark search on the US Patent and Trademark website, it shows that “The Points Guy” is owned by Bankrate. I can’t provide a direct link because it comes up as a search result, but here is another website that tracks trademarks which shows the same: http://trademarks.justia.com/853/51/the-points-guy-85351809.html
Pumpization of my hobby & Gem Comments & other stuff like that
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first? LOL
2nd, from the future
Booooooooooooooooo
Dia de los muertos second
Or 3rd
George-
What’s wrong with Bank Rate setting up an in house sales team?
I’d say what’s wrong is that anyone reading advice posted on ThePointsGuy.com, which generally involves signing up for credit cards, should be clearly informed that a company that profits from credit card referrals has an ownership stake on the site!
I believe we should now refer to the site as, “The Credit Card Referral Entity Formerly Known As ThePointsGuy.com”
But it’s abundantly clear that the site itself profits from credit card referrals.
Who cares if its Bankrate or any other.
Tinder is owned by IAC (the owner of Match.com)…
Doesn’t bother anyone. Companies have sub-brands all the time.
I would love to see the results of a scientific poll done on TPG readers who believe it is “abundantly clear that the site itself profits from credit card referrals”. If that is true, I bet my Robo Form revenue (bwahahahahaha) that they would have no clue how much dinero cc approval generates! I tested that in a cc session at the FTU LAX after asking this exact question of a couple (CPAs, not dumb!) who responded with “umm, advertising mostly, maybe some money from cc’s”. When I pressed them to take a guess, they came back with “Ummm $5 or $10”. I tried not to laugh at their face. That’s when TBB “turned” 🙂
Again, I don’t mind the cc’s if the content is good, fully disclosed & not pumped to oblivion…
seriously?? think of how tpg promotes himself and figure it out
You mean there’s a conflict of interest there?
I said the same thing to my broker who told me how great the mutual funds he had were. I asked him how they compared to other mutual funds, and he said he only carried the best so there’s no reason to compare them to anything else. He asked me “Don’t you want the best?”.
It’s like that episode on the old TV show The Maverick when Bret Maverick got into banking and everyone asked him if the deals he was pulling off were legit. He said “If you can’t trust your banker, who can you trust?”.
Thanks to all for taking the time to comment!
I got a tight deadline and need to take a day away from miles blogs. Not sure if I will post tomorrow but knowing me I will probably think of something.
My whine about the two items I posted:
Readers should know that your site is owned by another company providing your merchandise. But that is the site not well know of doing disclosures well. Sure does not help the brand hey?
Still can’t get over the $32k trip for only $2k of the “experts” couple who started their site in 2011 to share their expertise. So….my Amtrak trip and flat bedding it to Santiago and Chile staying in 5 star hotels for $595 for a trip worth $27k for FOUR people over two weeks must make me a super genius…dang, I need a PR Dept too 🙂
And now I am going to drink my Panera coffee and try to come up with some stuff about experts and stuff like that…
Happy after Halloween!
Like I said above.
Tinder is owned by IAC / Match.com.
Credit Karma was seeded by Transunion.
This is nothing unusual. Companies invest in competitors or new entrants all the time.
The site’s content has been lackluster for a while now anyway.
Yes that is true that companies are owned by other companies left and right.
I don’t see many companies with a brand built on one person being bought out and that important fact is not being disclosed and we have to hunt for it. I think readers should know. Unless I missed the announcement. Anyways, it explains the conflict of interest. The owner comes first, not the reader. That’s my point.
And another circle of Hell is revealed.
Hope you don’t write the same sentence when TBB gives readers what they have been asking 🙂
June 21, 2011 was the date that Bankrate Inc. completed a merger (moved company from Florida to Delaware). They had an IPO on June 22,2011.
Given the changes that happened in 2011 – TPG left Morgan Stanley, he moved to Miami (near Bankrate headquarters) and he hired staff, I would assume that he sold it sometime in the 1st half of 2011.
Thank you for the info. We still don’t know if all or part of his company was sold. Can someone ask him at the next Seminar? Thanks.
Hmmm, just found this…………….
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/the-points-guy-how-to-pick-rewards-card-1.aspx
Wow, who knew…………….
Chachinging it lol
I don’t care about bankrate. What I want to know is why the Aeroplan glitch is so off the radar, and if it’s cuz the blogger circle all booked a bunch of awards.
Although it was on FT way before on the blogs. But hardly anyone noticed.
So much generates at FT is…ridiculous 🙂
Read rest of your article on ‘Daraius’ Million Mile Secrets doesn’t care to make more money.
He has to be the worst of the lot. The least trustworthy.
At least I trust TPG will put the party line forward, but keep a metro-urban aspirational vibe that fits his personality.
Daraius is much more manipulative with his persona / facade.
MMS follows its business plan.
You are just angry 🙂
It’s all marketing…
I can’t believe now you’ve got me getting in on this TPG thing:
thepointsguy.com URL is managed by, gasp, creditcards.com, which is part of bankrate:
http://www.whois.com/whois/thepointsguy.com
The address of the admin (9430 Research Blvd Bldg) is the creditcards.com office.
And if you look at the page source for “WalletUp by Creditcards.com”, you’ll see that the email address for “email us” is appsupport@thepointsguy.com:
http://walletupsupport.creditcards.com/customer/portal/articles/1516933-walletup-overview?b_id=3457
(look in your page source tool in your browser to see that email address)
That all certainly makes posts like these (about “great tools” like one from creditcards.com) a little suspect:
http://thepointsguy.com/2013/08/maximizing-targeted-offers-and-the-card-match-tool/
And it’s probably just a coincidence that the PR contact on the TPG press release is, gasp, a PR Manager at Bankrate:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/half-of-americans-dont-know-what-travel-insurance-covers-213110521.html
Or that Zoominfo lists that guy as both a PR Manager at Bankrate and at TPG:
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Ted-Rossman/1653101307
(This is sorta fun, actually)
Hey Jared, sorry it took a while for your comment to show…not sure why it was held up…I approved it as soon as I noticed it.
You mean that all this about TPG was not common knowledge to you (per Jason Steele, the contributing writer there).
Who knew? 🙂
What I find totally wild is the guy who signed the trademark purchase papers was just fired by not agreeing to testify in an SEC probe, something about massaging earnings or something…
Down with the Titans lol
Sometimes this whole hobby and all the people in it is just…too much…too much. Good to see you kicked the habit….well, mostly it appears. It’s like a disease, is there a cure? lol
I tried a 21-day ebola-like quarantine of all this nonsense but I can’t fully shake it. After 17 days I absolutely needed to know the best credit card to get a free night at a Hilton if I’m a teacher.
The sleuthing part is kinda fun, tho…
I am working on a vaccine for us infected…and I don’t mean Ebola lol