We take a look on the glorious TBB Blog Review Lists once again. Because TBB stands for quality. Resist the click bait bullshit!
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Blog action yesterday was very light and I did not get enough material to curate for you. And I don’t feel like mailing it in. I am saving the freebie “How To Support TBB” monthly post for the time when we are on vacation, thank you for your understanding.
So, I decided to take a close look at my Blog Review lists and make some changes. I follow 284 blogs in Feedly. I always keep mental track of what needs to be added and deleted. I am proud of these lists. In case you don’t know where I am coming from and whether I am qualified to be a blog critic…let me explain one more time.
I have been in this hobby for over twenty years. I have been lurking in Flyertalk since 1999 before I signed up in 2000 I believe. I still visit daily. I have been reading all the miles and points blogs since they started. All the Titan blogs you are familiar with? Yep, reading since Day Uno! I have met most of these bloggers personally as well. Many I consider friends. Some hate my guts. Hey, have you seen a critic of anything be loved by everyone? Not possible! Lets just say I feel I am qualified enough to judge quality of content.
Nobody owns me. I do not belong to any blog network, I do not kiss ass. I do not have to be nice to someone I do not like even though that person can make a huge difference in my blog’s readership. I cherish my independence, it is precious and I value it the most. Therefore, when I say something sucks…well, I feel confident in such judgment. Some (usually in the receiving end of blogs being called sucky) feel I am angry . They are wrong! I see it as doing public service. In a way, TBB is like the Yelp of blogs. Without the Alexa rankings and funding money that is. Bwahahaha! Just remember you blogger out there:
The whole idea about this blog in the very beginning was to keep track of the numerous blogs now in this space and once a day give you the Buzz of what you should know so you don’t have to go hunt down all of them. Save you time! The thinking was, well, I read this stuff every day so why don’t I put it all together in a blog format? Seemed like a good niche to me at the time. Some blogs still do short summary posts of some links. But, lets face it, none comes to my comprehensiveness hey? 🙂 Plus, I like to keep it fun and deliver beatings only when they are fully deserved.
Most newbies who discover this hobby (you are soooo late by the way!) have no clue that they have just entered a huge business. I am not talking about the loyalty rewards. I am talking about the sale of travel rewards credit cards of course. No wonder all the big blogs are always pumping credit cards, their job is to SELL plastic! So, BE CAREFUL out there whose affiliate credit card links you click on! All.Clicks.Matter. I am NOT joking about this!
The Blogs I Like list is now listed in order of importance. I mean my top blog is at the very top. And so forth.
For the bad list, the one that sucks the most (again, to me!) is at the top. That was very hard to rank as they are all “special” to make this category lol.
No changes in the Blogs I Love list. Those three have been there for ever. I wish Yomadic posted more. I joined his Iran Tour, he is the real deal, no BS guy!
I had two deletions in the Blogs I Like list: PointsCentric and Lazy Traveler. Both broke my heart. What if they had gotten more support to keep going? This is why I stress so often how important it is to support good bloggers to keep going! They have not posted since January. Guys, if you get back in it, please let me know in case I miss it (I won’t). I moved Doctor of Credit way down on the list because he can’t stop linking to View From The Wing. Loyalty Lobby will be going down the list if the site does not stop posting click bait crap like View From The Wing. On the bubble: . Travel Codex and The Free-quent Flyer who both used to make my Buzz posts a lot more often. Just not much consistently worthy out there these days.
I added GreeceTravel to the Travel section. I think it is the best site if you visit Greece. I send many readers who ask me about Greece to this site. I am considering to add GlobalGaz. In the Other section, I am not sure what is going at Wait But Why lately, posts have nosedived so it is on the bubble.
In the Personal Finance Section, I deleted Pragmatic Capitalism and now the blogs are listed in my preferred order.
All the blogs in the Ignore section are still there, no changes. I just rearranged them again in order of suckiness (again, to me!). Many only post when they can make money and/or post horrific click bait shit….it has gotten so bad lately. So has this hobby as it has gotten way too much publicity, sad!
And I leave you with this…
TBB BLOGS I LOVE
Weed in Albania. Communist party headquarters in Bulgaria. Homeless people in Budapest. My favorite travel blogger. I enjoy every post, they are all unique and original! And the pictures are awesome too. Hope he posted more often.
How can you describe Twisted Sifter? Eclectic appears to be an understatement. I get this feeling that my life being is enhanced with what appears here.
Ok, not a blog technically. What they do is find flight deals. I recommend following them on Twitter. I get their tweets on my smart phone and I get excited every time. I also wished my home airport was not Detroit!
BLOGS I LIKE
MILES/POINTS
TRAVEL
OTHER
PERSONAL FINANCE
Morgan Housel Now blogging HERE
BLOGS TO IGNORE
Delta Points Renés Points
Points, Miles & Martinis
The Points Guy
View from the Wing
The Frugal Travel Guy
Million Mile Secrets
Canadian Kilometers
Milevalue
One Mile at a Time
Deals We Like
Mommy Points
Thanks for updating the lists!
It is very helpful. Thanks.
Doing my best to enhance world peace and understanding among all us humans.
Robots too 🙂
And just when you thought this blog could not suck more…
Urine Smell Delays American Airlines Flight 4.5 Hours — View From The Toilet
#barf
“BoardingArea – Required reading for frequent flyers”
Thank you for updating the list. Thank you also for continuing to blog and trying to educated newbies in the hobby. Indeed, it is not the same in 2017 as it was in 2007 or in 1997 — I jumped in around ’01-’02…
WaitByWhy had 1 real post since the election, so that is about 7 months now, so I am not sure why you’d keep it up there, but of course that is your list and your choice. 🙂
It’s been an enjoyable journey here at TBB. I have to admit, I comment less frequently, I think I am just not as involved in miles/points or maybe just keep on doing the same thing and have nothing new to say. Balances still go up, still redeem, still travel, but it doesn’t have the same level of excitement as it did before. “Churn, earn and burn” is still my motto, that hasn’t changed. As a side note, cycling is going well, I recently did a 201km (125 mile) single day ride — that was my 2017 goal.
Cheers,
PedroNY
Yeah, in hindsight, WaitButWhy should have been canned. It will be in the next Update edition if it stays as is. Not sure what happened there in 2017, kind of a mystery.
As always, thanks for the kind words.
I am with you on this. Certainly this space is nowhere near the excitement levels we were accustomed to. I have stopped many earning activities and still trying to burn my stash. I just developed my little blog here to try to replace the dopamine hits that this hobby used to provide me 🙂 I am not sure we will ever see a return to those times. But, you know, hope dies last…Shit happens in life when you least expect it.
Speaking about cycling, this year is the year that I have used my bike the most. By far. And we are not in mid July yet! As a bonus, Mrs. TBB in the past week has used her bike more than she has used it in the past several years combined. Fair to say she is getting into it. But I am nowhere near your levels, 125 miles in one day, WOW. The most I have done is 25 miles. Yesterday we rode our bikes and stopped for dinner, she ate pad thai and I had a gyros sandwich. We may do it again and ride to Ann Arbor downtown tonight for dinner…Cool!
I think we need a big fat recession.
Markets need one (selfish reasons lol)
Credit card companies and airlines need one to bring them back to reality. Both having record profits. As soon as the economy nosedives there aint gonna be butts in seats and people signing up for cc.
You are correct.
It is kind of sad that we wish for this though…
But for this hobby to have a shot to survive…
What do you normally seek out at flyertalk? I went there a lot early on (I started in late 2013) but kinda got bored with it for regular following.
Mostly I hang around here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources-723/
and the Fairmont threads…waiting for the final shoe to drop any day now…
The Community Buzz…mostly for the Ann Art Fair DO
Way way less on FT these days
So many JetBlue miles left on the table as asshole greedy bloggers are on an Amazon pimping orgy streak trying to get moron readers to click on their own links to make money off them when they can be earning 3 points per dollar then giving the finger…
Never underestimate this space to mess with your morals and ethics.
Hey, I am the one without integrity at all based on that Ingy dude…
Don’t be angry, get even. Choose TBB or some other blogger who thinks of you FIRST…
%^$*D$#eq^&*$
for your consideration/LIKE LIST………………………………………. DANNY THE DEAR GURU
get worthwhile money saving tips without the pimping … all day long, me like!
If we can resell all the diapers from Dan’s site…