Why Affiliate Bloggers Suck

January 11, 2017

Rant: The Misleading Headlines on the Sapphire Reserve Offer Ending

Below I’ve copied several headlines from bloggers in the points/miles blogosphere regarding the Chase Sapphire Reserve. These were all posted this week though I expect similar, additional posts today as well.

mms

From Million Mile Secrets

From Dans Deals

From Dans Deals

Email from Award Wallet

Email from Award Wallet

ba

From Travel Skills


Dans Deals for a Second Time!

Without any other background and simply reading the above headlines what do would a reasonable person assume? I would argue a reasonable, logical person would think the 100,000 point signup bonus offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve is ending for good and the last day to apply for the current offer is today (1/11). That seems like a pretty fair conclusion no?

Guess what? It isn’t true.

In case your favorite affiliate blogger failed to mention this or buried the actual end date of the offer in 1,000 word exposé on why you need the Chase Sapphire Reserve before Thursday, this offer is available in branches till at least March 12th. There is no question this is probably one of the strongest bonus out there right now – in fact, I demonstrated how this offer was worth $1,100 CASH in your pocket at a bare minimum – but unless you don’t live near a Chase branch, there is no reason to rush into this offer especially if you have concerns about 5/24 status and/or can’t meet the required minimum spend.

I don’t know why it irks me that many of these bloggers fail to put their readers first but is it really that hard to make the headline “Last Chance to Apply Online for 100k Sapphire Reserve Bonus”, “The 100k Online Signup Bonus for the Sapphire Reserve Ends Wednesday” or something similar? Actually it’s not as I saw at least a few bloggers do the right thing.

From Pizza in Motion

From Pizza in Motion


Trust me I understand why bloggers are failing to do this as any in branch applications don’t make them any money. They only make money when readers apply via their links – in fact, good money as the rumored commission on this is $200 to $300 per successful application if bloggers have direct Chase links for this card, less so if not direct links. Starting Thursday their sales pitches to readers to apply via their links gets much harder when their links will literally offer half the public, in-branch offer. So unless you don’t live/work/travel near a Chase branch before March, there is no reason to fall for all this  “Last Chance” or “Hours Left” (you know some blogger will post that headline today) bullshit. 

Hey bloggers be better than this…

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November 10, 2015

There Was a Ton of Bad Blogging Yesterday

Start Rant.

Yesterday seemingly every blogger except yours truly posted about Hyatt Points & Cash awards being available online along with other features such as the ability to upgrade to club rooms using points online. That’s lovely and all (and actually quite useful for many people) but if you took the time to read through all 5,683 posts on this yesterday you could quickly figure out the good bloggers from the bad. How could you determine that? All by looking at their affiliate links or lack thereof in these posts.

Personally, I don’t believe any credit card links needed to be included in a post about Points & Cash award being available online but let’s say I’m wrong and you had to have one or two links because some bloggers are allergic to posts without credit card links (cough MileValue). One would think that breaking news involving Hyatt maybe warrants the inclusion of I don’t know the HYATT CREDIT CARD?!?!  You know the one that offers 2 free nights at any Hyatt, a $50 statement credit and 5,000 points for adding an authorized user? That’s a pretty solid offer right there that you never hear about from all these “expert” bloggers.

This drove the blogosphere crazy yesterday

This drove the blogosphere crazy yesterday

Instead my eyes were repeatedly slammed with Sapphire & Ink links in most of these posts. Yes, I understand that Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt and you are presenting your readers with an option to earn Hyatt points via those cards. Fine I don’t love the way you’re doing it but I get it. But please explain why it is so difficult to add in a link to the Hyatt card as well?  Oh wait you didn’t include it because it doesn’t pay you anything? Ah that makes more sense but for the sake of your readers you couldn’t just included it in your post along with your Sapphire and Ink links? Is it too much to gamble that a reader might choose to apply for a card that *gasps* don’t make you any money? I mean look I just included a link to it here – that wasn’t hard, it doesn’t pay me a dime and look I survived!

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – before you go trusting all these bloggers and signing up for cards left or right from their links think about how they handle themselves on topics like this. Did they at least mention the Hyatt card in their post ? Or did they say screw the logical insertion of the arguably the most applicable credit card for the post (if one was even warranted) and instead just took it as another opportunity to blast their Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink links? It’s almost like they care more about padding their wallets than helping their readers….

And don’t get me started on bloggers finally getting their links for the Citi AA 50k offers and claiming the offer just returned. Newsflash the 50k offer never went away if you knew where to look!

End Rant.

Good Day.