Why I Blog and my Future use of Credit Card Affiliate Links
Before I was a travel blogger, I was a travel blog reader. I started playing this crazy travel game a few years ago after reading a post on Frequent Miler’s blog and continue to read his blog everyday because I love his content and writing style. If you read other blogs on Boarding Area and elsewhere on the internet, you probably notice that Greg (aka Frequent Miler) does not have affiliate links in his postings… ever. Unfortunately, that makes him different from other travel bloggers and makes him stand out in the crowd. For that reason, I have applied for several credit cards through his links and recommended my family and friends use his links as well.
I believe in the philosophy that if you write good content that others want to read, the money will follow. Just like an artist, you paint because you love it, not because you want to get rich. If money follows, great. If it doesn’t, oh well, at least I did something that I enjoyed.
Since starting my blog in May, I have earned some money (don’t ask me how much) from family and friends using my credit card links. If you divide the amount of hours spent working on this blog by the amount of money made from credit card affiliate income, it probably comes out to $5 a day, maybe. If someone were to pay me $5 a day and told me to keep writing, I might give up and find a more productive use of my time. But I don’t write for the money.
If I had no credit card affiliate links, my content would probably remain the same and my enthusiasm for writing and helping people travel more, while spending less money would remain unchanged.
Therefore, I am pledging to my readers to never write another article with an affiliate link in it (a la Frequent Miler). People, especially readers of Travel with Grant, are smart enough to find the affiliate links on this site and apply for the credit cards if they wanted to. (Hint: look for the words credit cards.)
You have many choices in who’s credit card affiliate links you use and it does not hurt my feelings if you do not use mine. As long as I am happy with the content I write and the feedback I receive from readers, my job as a blogger is done.
Thank you! We need more like you guys that create useful content rather than writing about the current Starwood deal 10 times in 10 days – and writing the 100ths review of CX First Class…
Haha, I’m probably the last person to write about Cathay Pacific First Class. Here’s an idea, if people are already reading travel blogs, they probably already know what an SPG point is and what it can be used for (unless SPG created another use for the points that no one knows about…)
Grant,
Why don’t you put Adsense on the blog? It is easy, automatic and at least you WILL get some passive income.
Just a thought.
Thanks Kyoshiro, I have heard that suggestion from lots of people. I don’t think it would earn enough income (site traffic is too low) to offset the ugliness factor on my site.
Dude, you just moved way up on my list, way up. I will link to you today. And you have made more money than me. Why the rush to make money? Somehow if you have a passion and work hard money finds you. Having said that, maybe you should go to school? Get a reaj job or something? This blogging thing, as you are finding out, is time consuming as hell!
Thanks TBB, it is an honor to receive praise from you. I realized early on that I would not be a multi-millionaire overnight (darn!), but I am hoping my blog will help me land a real job.
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Nice move. I’ve added you amongst the list of bloggers I will read. And definitely on the list of blogs to click for CC.
Thank you Andreas, I’m trying to turn the tide in the travel blog world. Content before commissions.
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