Blog changes, an introduction, and the flu

I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to blog full-time.  When I started the Frequent Miler blog in 2011 it never even occurred to me that I could make money blogging, let alone make enough to live off of.  In 2012, though, I made the leap (with a little push from my then-boss, see: Up in the air) from a long term corporate job to full time blogger.  Since then, I’ve consistently earned enough from this blog to keep going.  How awesome is that?

The thing that is not obvious to most is that the life of a full time blogger isn’t 90% drinking daiquiris on the beach and 10% blogging from coffee shops.  Instead, I’ve found myself working day and night and weekends on the blog and blog-related activities.  I’m not complaining – I wouldn’t trade this “job” for the world – I’m just pointing out that it’s more work than it appears.

To make matters worse, I keep finding ways to add to my workload.  Early on, I setup the Frequent Miler Laboratory which is great, but requires active maintenance.  About a year and a half ago I added Quick Deals as a new feature and set it up with its own subscription channel so as not to deluge those who prefer to stick with reading just my regular posts.  And, of course, I developed a number of pages and resources that all require regular attention (e.g. Transfer Partner Master List, Best Signup Offers, Best Category Bonuses, Best options for buying MasterCard and Visa gift cards, the complete guide to Amex gift cards, etc.)

To cut down on my work load, as I’ve previously reported, Julian (author also of “Devil’s Advocate”) is writing his once a week “Bet You Didn’t Know” series.  See: Devil’s Advocate stolen and unmasked.  That has helped a lot, but I still find myself getting further and further behind on things I want to accomplish….

Introducing Shawn Coomer

If you look closely at the bottom of recent Quick Deals posts or this morning’s “Week in Review” post, you’ll see the following:

Posted by Shawn Coomer – Frequent Miler Staff

Shawn is author of another Boarding Area blog, Miles to Memories.  I’ve enjoyed reading Shawn’s blog for a while now and I’ve noticed that he and I often published very similar posts about the same deals.  I asked him recently if he would like a job working for me part time.  Luckily for me, he accepted.

Shawn will continue to write his own blog, but will also do the following for the Frequent Miler blog:

• Write many/most Quick Deal posts
• Help update and maintain Frequent Miler resources: Laboratory, Best category bonuses, etc.
• Write a Saturday Week in Review post which basically summarizes and links to each of the Frequent Miler posts for the past week.  Going forward we expect to add other posts of note from around the web.
• Write a Sunday “Deals still kicking” post (not sure what this will be named yet).  The idea is to summarize deals that have been published that are still available and make clear the end dates of each one.
• Answer blog questions, particularly for the Quick Deals posts that he has written
• Miscellaneous other tasks

The flu derailed plans

This past week, I’ve been laid up in bed with the flu (I’m mostly better now though, thanks).  I had planned to write a post like this one introducing Shawn before he started, but my fever, chills, coughing, and so forth led me instead to contact Shawn to see if he could start early.  Fortunately for me, he jumped right in and was a huge help!  Thanks to Shawn, we published a number of terrific Quick Deals that wouldn’t have happened without him on the team.

Going forward

By adding Shawn to the mix, I expect to have more time to work on my daily blog posts.  I want to be clear: with the addition of Shawn to the team, I will write as much or more than before for my daily blog.  My schedule has long been to put out one post every weekday (not counting Quick Deal posts).  At a minimum, that will continue.  I’m stressing this point because I want readers to understand that my goal with all of this is to write better posts, and likely more posts. 

Feedback

Please let me know what you think of the changes I’ve initiated here.  Better yet, wait a few weeks to see how things turn out, then comment below.  My goal, which is fully shared by Shawn and Julian, is to produce the best blog possible for our readers.  If we’re not doing that, we’d love to hear suggestions for improvement.

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