BLOG BUZZ TO EVOLVE
This blog is evolving every day. If you had told me I would still be here blogging almost 12.5 months after I started I would say you were on crack!
This section is taking a different turn. I just can not be constantly beating up the usual blogs that I do not think much of. I think the TBB message has been delivered! TBB has brought a higher awareness of the intense commercialization/corruption of my dear hobby that is fast leading it to its demise in the name of plain old greed. Not much else to say than constantly hammer the usual suspects who will (let’s face it) not be stopped from delivering to the blogosphere yet more credit card links and biased content to justify yet more credit card Inks (pun intended)!
It is time to move on!
If I had a dollar for every Chase link my poor eyes see every day reviewing over 600 blogs in my Feedly feeds I would be really rich lol! As stated here before, my beloved “Blogs I Ignore” list will be published soon. No, let’s set a date! How about December 1st, 2013. There won’t be any surprises in it if you have been reading TBB for a long time.
To everyone who has been offended by my rants, I am sorry and I apologize for any hurt feelings. I repeatedly stressed not to take things so personally, TBB is all about the blogs. I don’t take things personally. I forgive everyone who has spoken of me in “glowing” terms. I understand, sometimes things can get heated and we all have bad days. You have every right to despise my blog and so do we 🙂
I still think of Rick (Frugal Travel Guy the person) as my friend. Even René at Delta Points! who has taken more criticism here than any other blogger…I am sorry. I sure would like an apology some day from you too regarding those emails. And please stop including TBB with the Flyer Talk “censoring blogs” wiki, it’s unbearable 🙂
I also pledge publicly to reveal my true identity here (for the few who don’t know!) when every blogger in my “Blogs I Ignore” list also does the same! Feel free to email me anytime if you are dying to know who is TBB!
To my readers: I needed to create me some breathing space. I could devote a whole separate blog commenting on all the things bloggers do but I do have a whole separate life that has been neglected just a bit to accomodate my latest obsession. You have no idea how hard it is to come up with yet more snarky comments on yet another credit card barrage by the same bloggers day in and day out, no idea 🙂 This will allow me a little more time to scour the blogs in my Feedly list and bring you what I find worthy for you to know. The entertainment factor may be a little down and I am sorry about that. But, at some point as several of you have pointed out and encouraged me to do, that it is time to move on because it is like beating a dead horse again and again.
For the record, I decided to change the name of the list from “Blogs I Avoid” to “Blogs I Ignore”. This is my own list based in my own opinion stored in my own blog.
All three lists will be in their own pages under “Blog Reviews”. I will still keep track of all the blog posts but there will be no more beatings in the TBB blog posts 🙂 I will still try to make things entertaining as much as I can and make fun of myself instead of making fun of these bloggers (which I always thought was done in a funny and constructive manner). But maybe I stepped over the line sometimes. It is not my style anyways, I pride myself in getting along with everybody. Just don’t phuck with me, just kidding.
I do have a quirky sense of humor that sometimes can get me in trouble. Get used to this humor, that is NOT going away.
To all my readers: Thank you for reading. Please demand full transparency and full disclosures. Demand bloggers improve and add value to your life and stop reading them if they don’t! Demand they always put the reader first because, well, it is the right thing to do! (and be aware that sometimes they can be faced with perverse conflicts of interest too as the latest CSP episode clearly showed). Because, you know, if it is worthy you will likely find it here at TBB anyway as long as I can keep this baby going.
To the person I had to delete the ONE comment I ever deleted, I am sorry. To the person who went off on a rant against a blogger in my “Like” list I am sorry I did not dig too deep in the Spam folder to unspam it, I am very scared going there.
Please express yourselves in the TBB comments. Please try to keep it constructive and polite at all times. Please give me ANY feedback, it shows me you care!
To the bloggers who censor please consider changing and allow dissent and different opinions to be aired so you can learn and grow from them. It IS the American way.
I hope now I don’t get the same feedback as Frequent Miler did after his “Volunteer” post. Please be kind and together we can bring eternal peace and cure world hunger.
At the end of the day it should always be about our love of Travel and miles/points. I hope we get back to it and not have the banks/affiliate companies keep driving the content…
And I leave you with my favorite quote:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
To Miles, ole!
TBB Chief Idiot
Let me be the first to say…I like it! I look forward to continuing to enjoy TBB’s quirky sense of humor!
Thank you! I was born quirky. Entertainment is to remain, it will get a little more challenging. Let’s face it, I had easy targets 😉
Yeah, I’ve been reading your blog since the beginning and I always admired your ability to post daily rants – as well as the lively conversations in your comment section. I know that I don’t have that sort of stamina and I would have gave up long ago.
Anyway, props for evolving and I’m looking forward to reading more!
I was just exhausted. I think having the talk with Mrs. TBB had something to do too 😉
This will allow me some space to do a better job. One year of ranting was enough, I think I made my point!
Thank you.
e with the accent: ‘alt’ + ‘1’ ‘3’ ‘0’ (on the number pad, not the top row numbers)
I figured it out, thanks!
Good move, makes you more marketable to get credit card affiliate links 🙂 In all honesty it looks like you did take some of Ingy’s feedback to heart and are going to adapt to make your blog more creative. I have no doubt the content quality will be just as good if not better than it already is. Best of luck with the morph!
If I had taken all of his feedback I could have made a killing but that would be so unlike me 🙂
It just came down to time. If I was going to call out a blogger or make a snarky comment (all in the name of entertainment) on another one I had to keep it up to be fair which just totally exhausted me to keep this baby going at this pace.
I hope this gets me some more free time to devote to more important things in my life. And no cc affiliate links is not one of them. I just need to add plink to my “Support TBB” page next…
Thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated.
a little bit disappointed. you’re killing off the best part!!
TBB Comments are always open, you know how I feel about censoring 🙂
But the beating up of the same bloggers day in and day out just exhausted me. Deep down I am a lover not a fighter….LOL
Thanks. This gives me extra motivation to try harder!
George,
On being a lover here is a comment from an old two and a half men show when it was still funny. Berta says; “He’s Greek, a man of passion. You can’t tie your shoes around those guys.”
Lol. Yeah, darn ethnic stereotype jokes!
Didn’t you delete comments one day when Dungy complained about people leaving comments without a name, then people started posting under fake blogger names? I vaguely recall Dungy and/or Delta Putz threatened to sue if you did not remove the comments.
I think I removed some quotes once to comply with one of those emails. After that I ignored them 🙂
I feel good about the decision and my wife is happier.
I am going to the gym and shoot some baskets. I have good stuff coming up in the next Buzz post. And yes I will miss taking some shots which I always thought were well deserved. I even got FTG (the blog) to do a single post featuring the non affiliate US Air offer ALONE. That made me feel good…
Thanks again for the feedback, always appreciated.
I’m still new to all these miles shenanigans but it doesn’t take long for someone to realize that man these people keep showing links for the same credit card on some airline that I might have heard of one time and then also go, is that even a good deal, and then find your blog which is hilarious and has interesting pictures and gives out useful information.
Anyways, keep up the great work even though it’ll be a bit different.
Cheers!
This game used to be a hobby.
Now it has become a big business and it’s just different.
We all learn and grow and evolve.
Thanks. I realize it will be different.
My exchanges with Rick, you all must admit, were highly entertaining but was getting to a point where we both were making the same exact points repeatedly. We agreed to disagree. I still consider him a friend 🙂
I have read your column daily since the
start. I love the photos and summary content and this shift in “tonality” will probably serve you
Well (especially at home!)
Keep up the good work!
John
Thank you very much John, I really appreciate the feedback.
Those who believe in conspiracy theories might just see something in your new direction… I just hope Comcast didn’t extort the change out of you before agreeing to fix your service. 😉
I have enjoyed the blog quite a lot and will be interested to see how things go from here. Hopefully you’ll find other things to rant or riff on but if you see something that is super-duper, over-the-top egregious do tell us!
No, Comcast had nothing to do with it. The problem was fixed and called me it was done around 2 pm (promised time was 1.30 pm, not bad!).
No conspiracy theories here even though we all must admit they can all be entertaining lol.
I think ranting is healthy, you should not keep stuff inside. And it keeps my therapist bills down lol. But I am done naming names, it’s the same ones in every Blog Buzz post. I am tired, they are tired. I will park them all in my list in my Blog Reviews in the separate tab and we can all move on. I will publish that list on Twitter at times just like I do the other two lists. As a public service announcement you know.
Knowing me something may set me off. And I may rant. But I will not be singling out any blogger in particular. I did that enough for over a year and I think we all enjoyed it 🙂
I, too, have been around since your beginning, and have benefited mightily from reading your rants and your comments… (And I do know who you are! {wink}) I’ve enjoyed the morphing of your blog to not just travel blogging call-outs, but to include amazing pix and interesting links. So, unless you get really boring (and I doubt that’s possible) I’ll still be here!
I will do my best not to get boring! If I become boring that means I must be bored myself…so it is time to pack up and go home then. I guess I could then morph into a cc pumper (it has happened you know lol) but I could not live with myself.
I still believe the most noble way to monetize is to make sure it does not affect the content in the body of the posts. No perceived and/or real conflicts of interest this way. But that does not generate the apps compares to pumping. It is the way it is. We go on…
Thank you!
Buzz, as you might know by now, I’m a little slow. So let me get this straight, TBB is evolving but not going away. You should be proud of your work, exposing these Carpetbloggers for what they are.
It sure opened my eyes to what is really going on. Be especially proud of the fact that your blog has virtually eliminated the deluge of photos of toilets we were shown on so many trip reports. God bless you sir, for that!!………….So do this mean TBB with continue in a more eclectic and fun way? Will the topics be varied on how you feel that day? Your fans want to know, we need to know. Ribs.
If you are slow, I am slower 😉
I am not going away. I think TBB has brought of some awareness of vast Carpetblogginess rampant in this hobby, err, I mean business. Thank you!
I saw a few toilet pics today man, we need to work harder on this lol.
Everything will be the same. Singling out bloggers by name in the body of my posts is not going to be there.
TBB comments are not going away 😉
When Dubya stepped down, I wondered whether the Daily Show could keep being as funny without its biggest target. Jon Stewart has proved me wrong (BO has unfortunately provided him a lot of fodder). I am hoping you will manage fine without your biggest target as well.
Will the blog still be called TBB given that there is no more BB?
I hope so too, that is a tall order!
I think I am stuck with the TBB name now. How do I change URLS, emails, profiles, etc.
I will still have a Blog Buzz section but it will be different…
This is a work in progress. I have a stressful life with two kids who specialize in domestic terrorism so this blog will still act as a refuge for me 🙂
Thank you for the feedback and support.
” I have a stressful life with two kids who specialize in domestic terrorism”. Isn’t this the norm nowadays?
You obviously do not know my kids 🙂
Yawn.
Thanks 🙂
“TBB Blog Buzz Section To Evolve”
Is this like one of those loyalty program “enhancements” which is really just a code word for devaluation?
Can we do a TBB pool on when tomorrows interview on MMS of a miles and points expert started in the hobby?
“I started collecting miles and points 12 hours ago, and I wanted to teach my friends and family how to do it. So I created the blog right before this interview started”
You crack me up!
I just published the first blog post in the after “enhancement” period…Felt a little different I must admit. Not as another “in your face” carpetbombing blogger selling pseudo expertise and stuff…you know.
Maybe this is my way of slowly fading away (or folding like a cheap suit lol).
I hope I earn me some time back…
Time will tell.
Why would I go on an interview on a blog that will be on my next blog list? Solely for the mega traffic pickup? Naaaah, not me.
Actually, very late at night, I could identify who the next interviewee is….Nada yet! Maybe there are no more lined up?
TBB comments will stay open you know…
Got numbers to back up this “mega traffic” rationale? It is one of the things you have tried to shove down readers minds along with “he is great marketer”, “he is busy developing online shopping maximizer”, “he is busy traveling”, “he is targeting newbie market” etc etc …
What kind of delta are we talking about here? Does anyone really care? Does it make any difference whatsoever in sustaining traffic?
It is all a poor excuse for a filler that no one gives a sh!t about. You just fail to call it out for what it is.
I DO have numbers to back this up! A blogger shared with me screenshots of the effects of traffic right after the MSS Friday interview. It IS mega traffic if you have a small blog! It makes sense to do.
I explained myself why I was being so apologetic about a blog I never really cared for. That was wrong of me thinking I can get the mega traffic bump my way and convert all of them to regular readers 🙂
Not sure the online shopping maximizer is going anywhere. It is a separate company. They approached me to feature it in my site. But it works with affiliate links which I am obviously putting off as long as I can…
Thanks for taking the time to comment as always.
And the numbers are ….?
I didn’t say anything about online maximizer going anywhere. I said you were pimping this as an MMS product that he was busy developing. BIG difference.
Abt 850 visits from the link at the MMS interview…the FIRST day.
I was wrong about the online maximizer among other things. We all make mistakes. I asked for forgiveness. And life goes on…
Apologies TBB. Didn’t mean to hit the rough there 🙁 I only did that because I didn’t want my point about online maximizer to be misunderstood from your response. Perhaps pimping was the wrong verb to use, but I let the emotions get better of me. Sorry again.
Now regarding the number. THAT IS PALTRY. It is an embarrassment to call this traffic “mega traffic” even within the confines of small travel blogging. This is what I was after. You are trying to portray this as some kind of life changer and a game changer and it is not. I am pretty sure YOU provide similar traffic when you link to some blog. I used to be a very active member in digg and reddit when they were just hatched back in mid 2000s and that is where mega traffic term came from. An article featured on those two would bring down the website in question due to traffic. Digg even had to come up with a solution for this and started hosting cached pages locally to overcome traffic.
I belt half of them don’t even care about the “interviewee” by now since it is crap. The other half probably never return to their website. The problem is not the comments which get through or don’t. The problem isn’t that a newbie wants to now make cc money.
What kind of “mega traffic” do you think DP is providing?
I think we are running out of room here for “Reply” button!
The number I listed is not paltry when it is 10 times your average daily hits 😉
For small blogs looking for a wider exposure…it is HUGE! If they can grab the attention of at least 10% of these new visitors…it is, well, HUGE!
I never got the hang of reddit and digg…But I am slow on these online marketing stuff. Still don’t know much about meta tags crap 🙂
I heard a rumor there may be some cuts in affiliate commissions coming down the line….Expect lots of these new “experts” who only started blogging to help “friends and family” to go back to their day jobs full time…Time will tell.
I don’t get the obsession with which bloggers post their full names. For one thing, couldn’t it be a security risk? If burglars know your full name and when you will be traveling, they could arrange the best time to rob your home. If some bloggers choose to reveal all, that’s their business but I don’t think bloggers need to put their home security at risk if they don’t want to.
I also prefer an International Man of Mystery. Keep that Mojo strong.
Yep, security was and is my primary concern about this. And I tend to blog about what I am currently doing so this becomes an extra concern. You can never be too careful. If I was doing this full time of course it would help credibility to reveal identities which would obviously assist in media PR efforts.Not there and most likely no plans to ever get there 🙂
@TBB and @AgendaGuy, 850 page views is a ton for a new blog. Great way to get new followers if your blog is good. I get about 350-400 visitors per day from search engine traffic.
If MMS, FM, or a FT blog links to an article you wrote, you can see about 500-1000 visitors the first day. Unfortunately TBB traffic to other blogs is not quite at that level (yet).
In my biased opinion, there hasn’t been as interesting a MMS Friday interview (with comments) since mine in early July.