Good honest post. Thanks Ben. Keep providing us solid info.
Ben, after getting a job back in early 2020s that required me to fly and stay at hotels weekly, your blog absolutely helped me utilize and take advantage of what seemed like at the time an overwhelming task of maximizing points/miles as a newbie. I will always appreciate your reviews and work and will continue to support your page. Thanks again for all you do!
Thank you for your honestly. Like all of your posts this one was well written with sincerity. I believe you more than Isom delivering his state of the airline speeches.
Sorry, but OMAAT to me was a source of information. If you turn that into a commercial entity, I'm gone. I know that I am old-fashioned (and old), but it reminds me of a song by Tom Petty, "The Last DJ": "all the boys upstairs wanna see, how much you'll pay for what you used to get for free". Listen to it and think about it.
Alex, I'm also huge fan of Tom Petty, but you'd think after all these years we... Won't Get Fooled Again. If you're worried about OMAAT becoming a mere "commercial entity," the last fifteen years of affiliate links mean that ship sailed long ago. Still, private equity ghouls are a different beast, which is why it's disturbing to see folks like George Romey (see below), who are gleefully inviting those vultures in. So, if a content-mill ever swallowed this blog, it'd probably be more 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss'—just with a lot less soul, and no comments allowed (*cough* TPG *cough*). I hope Ben will keep these independent spaces alive as long as possible.
@Alex, what I hear you saying is that you don't want Ben and the others to be able to earn a living providing you with the information you use. Is that correct?
@Alex--No, you're just used to getting things for free, and never thought once about the labor it took to deliver it to you.
Woah, I just checked. Turns out TPG brought back some comments. When did that happen? Did they like literally see my whining and took it to heart...
Firstly, thank you for openess.
And second and honestly - do a subscription without ads. You can keep ads for one-time visitors or those who cannot afford to pay. Everyone will be happy.
If you gave me 3 guesses about that YouTuber I wouldn’t need two of them.
Super thoughtful Ben and Jeremy on so many levels!
Thanks for a peek under the hood.
I work for a pretty large SEO/marketing company. While I manage the backend data and don't know many of the tricks of the trade I do know that we're evolving. In the past that meant adjusting to Google changes and today it means AI readiness for our customers. Your right to adapt; it's not doom and gloom these days, it's changing for future trends
Just keep up your good work. You brighten our day, every single day.
I feel bad how it became difficult to use your referral links. Banks began to offer better bonus or better approval odds if apply through their own links. AMEX has so called NLL links that otherwise I cannot get approved anymore. And with huge spendings required these days, I open less cards than before, meaning even less chances to use your referral links.
Question for Ben or Jeremy: appreciating that nothing is a given, what are you thoughts about what happens in 6 months since the gold status from newsletter + Google will expire in February?
I'm guessing you'll play by ear based on the economics of ads and other factors?
onlyfans??? 😉
I know you attempted to do video previously and probably found out how much work it is.
You can try video again! It might not go hand-in-hand with the blog, but there should be a big audience on socials for the content that you'd create. You're a one-of-one when it comes to flight/hotels/and now cruise experiences.
I'm a video professional and I can talk you through what you can do to get back into it. Probably don't need to hire anybody right now, but it could be a way to really help the monetization.