When I tell people that this blog is my career, the next question on everyone’s mind is how the blog makes money. I know this because nearly everyone asks. For readers, I answered this, in detail, many years ago: My job? I blog. Here’s the answer to your next question… In that post I described how the blog’s income comes from ads and credit card affiliate links. That’s still the case today. Additionally, just as before, we only show the best public credit card offers even if it means not displaying our affiliate links. We often sacrifice affiliate revenue to ensure that readers get the best offer. Read that old post if you want to understand all of that better.
So that’s how we do make money. What’s left to say about how we don’t make money? Every now and then someone comments that we are “shilling” for this or that company; or that so and so company must have paid us a lot for a given post. Nope and nope.
We don’t shill
Google says that a shill is “an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others.” That’s not us. We write enthusiastically about stuff that we’re truly enthusiastic about. Occasionally we’ll earn some affiliate commission from that thing, but usually not. For example, we’ve written over and over about ways to get fantastic value from the Wyndham Earner Business card. We’ve never had an affiliate link for that card. When I’ve written about getting great value from Wyndham points for Vacasa rentals, or when Nick has written about starting with the Wyndham business card to status match your way to a dozen or more free cruises, we haven’t earned a cent from the many people who have clicked through to sign up for that card.
Sometimes we do have an affiliate link for a card we’re excited about. And sometimes, that affiliate link is the best public offer for that card. When that happens, it may seem like we’re shilling for that card. We’re not. It’s just a happy alignment of interests. In fact, on the Frequent Miler team, I’m the only one who can see how much the business has earned from any given card (and I hardly ever look at those numbers). No one else would have any motivation to shill. Everyone else on the team is paid a fixed salary regardless of what they write. And I have no interest in shilling. None.
We don’t accept payments for content
We write what we want to write. Period. Sometimes a business will inquire about paying us to write about their product or credit card. The answer is always no. If we think the product would be interesting to our readers we may write about it anyway, but we won’t accept money to do so.
Similarly, we won’t change our content just because an advertiser or affiliate demands we do. Well, that’s not exactly true. When an affiliate says that we have to put the registered trademark in the first use of a credit card name in any post, or write “terms and conditions apply” next to the mention of certain benefits, we’ll do that. That doesn’t affect the quality of our content in any meaningful way. But when a bank once demanded that we remove certain types of posts in the past, I said no and I lost that affiliate arrangement. The revenue drop hurt, but not as much as it would have hurt to lose full the full control of blog content that we enjoy today.
Bottom Line
Frequent Miler is a business. We do earn money from ads and affiliate links. But we’ve been proudly separating the business of the blog from the content of the blog for over a decade now and we won’t stop now, or ever.
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Thank you each for the many great compliments!
Greg, you still had a “day job” when I started reading FM. And I met you in Chicago in 2013. I have been dabbling in the points and miles arena since United started the MileagePlus program. I read most of the original Boarding Area blogs, but yours is the only one I’ve stuck with. Lots of good and diverse content, and it’s nice to read posts that don’t have a credit card link every other sentence. Keep up the good work and thank you!
FM is my go-to source for credit card rewards. These bloggers are fun and they do look out for their readers’ interests. My wife and I can attest that our 7 months, 2player credit card applications yielded us around 2 million pts with 18 credit cards approved (wife and I) and we both still have above 815 credit score. We are both in our early, early forties…lol. And we are enjoying free flights for a family of 5, free hotels, and free cruises (2 free staterooms on Royal Caribbean sailings that we can cruise for at least 3 times a month…every month!), I am actually being subtle about our rewards, as we discreetly earned additional rewards helping our other friends and families jumped on board the credit card game with the help of FM. I appreciate the transparency of this blog, but it is up to the readers to trust FM and FM does not need to apologize to anyone who can not do proper research. This is a monetary game, so please take this seriously because it is your finance that FM is not responsible for. If you are old enough to be responsible with credit cards, you are old enough to think and research for yourself (apologies if this sounds like lecturing, but this is very wrong to read why entitled commentors do these complaints and they expect someone to spoon feed them rewards and then turn around and accuse those giving helpful tips of schiling). In the furture, I will hope to support this site by commenting with some hidden succesful loopholes I accidently came upon. I wish everyone good luck on earning easy travel rewards. FM family can count me in as a loyal reader!
A worthy blog indeed, but accepting free hotel stays and status creates conflicts that inherently undermine impartiality and thus engender distrust in readers..
I have the same policy for my website, FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com. But I found that providers of commissions did not like my posting better offers, and thus dropped me. I am surprised that you still earn commissions. I get just a few via a secondary referral company.
I don’t care. My project has never been about the money. I believe that travel is the key to intercultural understanding and thus world peace.
You folks are consistent and have been doing this for so long, I appreciate what you do and all the effort you put in.
I checked FM daily for multiple years and I am still doing it. Some folks talked trash as “what-they-believe”, but I have to say “what-I-saw”.
Honestly if I choose only three blogs, I would say DoC, OMAAT and FM. No matter what people said, YOU GUYS ARE ROCK!!!!!!!
I hope you have best-ever-days and keep post your bright ideas. From bottom of my heart, I hope you (and all FM family) keep doing what you did for years. God (of credit cards) bless you 😉
I think OMAAT is one of the ones that is always trying to sell credit cards. But I agree, I love Frequent Miler and read it everyday.
OMAAT does provide links and a fair amount of CC content but they aren’t like TPG where the articles are unreadable because of all of the credit card links and side notes.
OMAAT is garbage. Unlike FM, he routinely deletes comments that legitimately criticize him or his blog.
@shilph I don’t know how you can put DoC in the same bucket as FM and OMAAT. No offense to FM, but DoC doesn’t make any commissions on credit card applications. He has no credit card affiliate links on his blog. He is truly independent.
It’s simple. His bucket is: “blogs I like to read”.
You guys are such shills! I can’t believe you would write such satire like this. It is obvious you in the hands of credit card and airline companies!! You write and talk about Vacasa through Wyndhym nonstop, no one talks about something that much without getting paid to do so.
I hate this blog!!! You came very close to releasing all my Unicorns to the peons. If the average person can’t spend 10 hours a day shitposting and reddit and the blogs like me, they don’t deserve easy AA status and couch MS methods.
I take the above comment to be intended as sarcasm, though admittedly it might have been nice if that intent had come through a little clearer.
I can certainly agree with OP that this blog is regularly full of “unicorns” and that it saves a person from otherwise needing to spend 10 hours per day doing their own research!
Agree it appears to be actually a compliment in the form of sarcasm. Surprised so many people downvoted.
Remember It’s not always show the best offers! last year I applied Chase IHG 140k, later find out through USCREDITCARDGUIDE there’s a 140k+$100 Offer, I tried to report to your website but can’t find easy way to contact, so always do your homework don’t just believe this is the best offer available.
I will say I too find it hard to contact you FM with useful information. The reach us on FB is useless for those of us that don’t have or want to use FB. Wanted to give you guys a heads up about business availability through ANA to AKL back in the spring, but can never find a good way to reach out.
Regarding the best offer, we certainly endeavor to always have the best one listed. That’s obviously on us to seek out and we certainly work to make sure to know about the best publicly-available offers. That said, if and when you find something better, please do reach out and let us know — we absolutely want to get that changed right away when there is something better available (and we have indeed listed that 140K + $100 offer in the past, so I’m not sure if you simply found it before we did or what happened there).
In terms of contacting us, I am surprised to hear both of you saying that it is hard to contact FM with useful information. You have quite a few options:
I’m sorry to hear that you guys didn’t find any of those options more intuitive. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can make that more obvious / accessible?
Hey Nick! I can’t speak for them, but the little envelope icon on the main menu (desktop, chrome) is very light on my screen — I don’t think I ever noticed it till just now. FWIW.
I find out better offer after I was approved, regarding contact us, now I see it from mobile site a little icon under about us, last time when I try to report I click about us and find out under each person’s name there’s no email
Chase has a pretty good record of ‘matching’ better offers, when you ask. Worked for me earlier this year when I got the CSP and 5 weeks later they upped the offer.
Over the years, I have subscribed to multiple other BoardingArea blogs. As of today, FrequentMiler is the only one I still maintain a subscription to.
Your site/blog is a class act!
You have given me so much great info leading to fabulous travel opportunities that I would never begrudge you a money-making opportunity, so long as it benefits your readers. Keep up the good work!
Here here!!!
FM is definitely my favorite, too.
Darn, I did use FM’s link for the Wyndham Rewards Earner’s Business Card and got approved thinking it would help the blog.
It is nice that you addressed this issue but I will not give oxygen to this topic so the whiners will feel small and ignored. I appreciate that your blog educates us ways to maximize our hard earned miles and points, without exploiting the opportunities to the max that the banks and hotels will clamp down the abuses. It is a win win for all of us. However, I hope your blog will cover more trip reports in the “off beaten path” countries in Asia, Africa and South America. First, the residents in those areas will be ecstatic to bring their countries to the forefront in the travel world. We will learn more about the forgotten part of the world by reading their comments and suggestions. Secondly, it helps readers, like myself, to plan our travel plans that require hiring dependable tour guides to explore the unknown and tricky countries.
Just to add to my comment. I started USMint coin buying for MS with PFS, which I read in one of FM team’s blog posts. I have purchased coins worth over $26K from US Mint for PFS and have sent it to them. Always the checks come on time. More than that they have earned my trust. I have never seen them, everything through email.
As the old adage goes a man is known by the company he keeps. Kudos to FM team!!
With the limited time I have , I don’t have bandwidth to follows 3 or 4 blogs. This is the only blog I follow , because of FM team only writes content that is good for the audience. Its been that way ever since I started following your blog in 2014 (yup early adopter)
How about the YouTube videos? Does getting up early on Saturday mornings and refreshing the Boarding Area link and YouTube Home page (plus the monthly weeknight Ask Us Anything) til it comes up, make or not make any money? It’s been a great addition these past ~4 years and I’ve always been curious if it’s a revenue generator in itself or just drives traffic to the blog?
It warms my heart that you do that. Does it produce any money? A little. We earn a tiny bit of ad revenue from YouTube.
This is my #1 site on the internet precisely because of what Greg said in this post. It is OBVIOUS to me that this is a labor of love, since very often the FM team gives away secrets that a “shill” would never do. The honesty of this blog is what makes this the first site I open every day as I sip my morning coffee.
For the longest time, aside from a token review article, none of the writers were impressed with the Bilt Card. Then, a couple things changed. Rent Day double points. Rent Day transfer bonuses. Those massively changed Bilt’s value proposition and FM reported on it. But, instead of attributing FM’s promotion of Bilt to this massive change in Bilt value proposition, some JERKS accused the FM team of being shills. How offensive. Whether I agree or disagree with something the FM team writes, their sincerity is never in question.
You guys are awesome. Really appreciate all the great content.
You guys are the first thing I read every morning, and I follow 3 blogs. You’re the most helpful and unbiased and have educated me tremendously. When I retired 11 years ago from 35 years as a “road warrior” (w/ 2.6M on UA, Marriott LTE and Hyatt globalist) I didn’t know the nuances of the points world. But FM has brought me up to speed on all the best ways of traveling. With the flexibility of being retired I think we easily have saved $25K over the last 3 years. We’re off to Greece and Italy in 2 weeks, for 30 days, and next May-June we’re in 8 countries over 40 days. All but 4 room nights are covered with pts at 4/5* hotels and Biz class across the pond. Couldn’t have done it without FM!
That’s all well and good Greg but please take our money somehow. I’m sure 80% of us would throw in $10 for some exclusive content even some 1-1 chats. Don’t give it all away for free.
Brett makes an worthwhile point. Smart folks like Matt at MEAB use a freemium model that might resemble something you could adopt.
It would also insulate you from diving affiliate revenues should new legislation or other external factors cause them to radically drop.
I think maybe there’s a misunderstanding around the title of this post. I don’t think it means “This blog does not make money, and here’s how we manage that”. I think it means “This blog does make money, but here are things we don’t do in order to make money”.
Given that Greg seems to hire a new staffer every couple of years, his current model is probably doing well. So, if people continue to use the links posted at Frequent Miler, secure in the knowledge that they will not be missing out on a better offer just because it doesn’t benefit Greg, I think we don’t have to worry about Frequent Miler staying in business.
The title of the article is misleading (not purposely) and it should be changed. I remember the article that Greg linked to in this article about how the blog makes money. It was very straightforward just like this article.
Thank you. I’m sure I can speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate the fact that readers are interested in supporting the site. People have repeatedly suggested the paid content model over the years, but our stance on that hasn’t changed: we don’t want to take resources away from our efforts to make Frequent Miler the best it can be (in other words, if we had a patreon or other paid content model, we would be taking time away from the blog in order to produce content that doesn’t benefit our broader readership. We want to focus on making Frequent Miler the best resource we can for all of our readers).
Seriously, as Greg has said, if you want to support the site, keep reading regularly and sharing it with friends and family. When it makes sense, use our links. I think a takeaway from this post should be that we are aware that there are a lot of ways that we could increase revenue – but increasing revenue has never been a focal point for us. We’re fortunate to be doing something we enjoy doing and to be successful doing it and what has driven that success is focusing primarily on what’s best for readers. We obviously want to continue earning a good living doing it, but we’re both hopeful and confident that if we continue writing about what we’re passionate about and focusing on what’s best for our readers, we’ll be able to do that. That’s not to say that we’ll never consider other avenues for revenue, but the paid content model is one that I just don’t anticipate us pursuing.
Agree with others: your blog site is my No.1 go to place whenever I intended to apply for a new card, because I know that I will always find the true best offer link here. Thank you all for keeping this place my most trust one.
I’ve been following you since the beginning and you guys are the best in the business, Greg! One of the only unbiased sources on points and miles.
As good as the website is, the YouTube video each week is even better. Much appreciated.
FM and DoC are all I need. Growing up our big vacation every year was driving up to my Great Grandmother’s house in north jersey, and now the only thing limiting my travel is vacation time at work.
We skied in Taos last winter, visited family in FL over new years, and have biking and climbing trips scheduled for Romania and New Zealand coming up, capped with business class to/from Austria to go skiing over Christmas. The quality of my life has vastly improved since I started following this blog and understanding some of the rather simple things I could do be doing to make travel more accessible.
All of which you guys have made accessible without even a tinge of underlying self interest. I love that this place has flourished under the guise that maybe the people want honesty and transparency and not rampant self interest. I love that I can read an article without having to sus out which card or hotel they’re trying to sell me on. Its a refreshing and sadly novel concept these days
I would throw in DansDeals as well. Those three are the go to for everything you need in terms of miles, points and offers.
Those 3 do the job for me as well. There is some overlap however they each have their niche.
That said,I wouldn’t mind paying for a blog that would give valuable secret tricks.
One of the few blogs with integrity. Great job.
Greg, I really appreciate your work. It’s very clear that you love what you do. Thank you!
I’ve never commented here before this but this warrants it. I’ve often wondered about how you guys structured FM & now I know. Moving forward, I’m all in. Great blog.
Thanks Guys!!
Great job. Keep it up!
I have had to stop reading so many blogs because of the rampant shilling. Your readers appreciate your integrity and honestly. Thank you!
hoo-rah!
You guys are awesome. Thank you for al the hard work you do. I love your blog and I am looking forward to Saturday’s post each week. There is just so much to learn, and it is reassuring to know you write YOUR own opinion about cards, hotels etc, and NOT what you have been paid to write. THANK YOU!
I love this blog and the videos that you produce! It is one of the few sources of information that I genuinely TRUST. Keep up the great work. You are appreciated!
Thank you Greg and Nick, and team! I really appreciate the content you have created and shared with us. One thought I have is that at the end of each year (quarter), you allow us to “tip”, maybe a cup of coffee. This way it does not feel forced and hopefully generates a reasonable amount of income. Thanks again!
Love the blog. When are the hats and t-shirts going to be available? I need a I fly Frequent Miler Style and a I learned to travel at Nick Reyes University shirt.
Thanks! Search for Frequent Miler on Zazzle to find some merch. Zazzle frequently has 30 to 40 percent off sales FYI
Greg – Does it hurt Frequent Miler if we use ad blockers? Would we be “supporting” you by turning off ad blockers? Do you gain anything if we click through on an ad?
We do lose some revenue from ad blockers but the amount we earn through ads from any one person is so tiny that I wouldn’t ask you to go out of your way to remove those blockers. I’m not sure about whether clicking through ads helps at all. Seems likely that it does but that’s not something I’ve paid attention to
A couple years ago I switched from TPG to this blog because TPG was getting too corporate, littered with inferior affiliate links and sponsored articles that true points enthusiasts could see were biased. I really appreciate how your team works to find the sweet spots in a fun, intelligent way. Your annual challenges are unique and inspiring. Your podcast is a part of my Saturday morning routine that I always look forward to. Thank you FM team for staying true to your roots and sharing your ethusiasm for points and miles with the world!
But you are missing out on scintillating TPG articles like, “Which cruise ships have the nicest handrails? (A five-part series.)”
Oh boy… this made me laugh.
I remember when TPG said that ATL was the 4th best airport in the country and DTW was the 4th worst airport in the country and promptly cancelled comments a couple days later because they were told how stupid that was. Their logic was that DTW didn’t have enough non-Delta lounges….in the Delta terminal!
They literally had pre-reno LaGuardia above DTW. I mean, at least set foot in a place before you call it the worst.
As somebody who grew up in ATL, ATL airport sucks. It is wayyyyyyy to big. Try going through there on a holiday without Clear/Pre-check. Good F***ing luck. Better have a book b/c you are in a line that wraps around the TGIF before it even gets to the actual security line. And if they want to complain about lounges, ATL literally has 1 non-delta lounge, which is mediocre on their best days.
You guys rock, I think a Patreon would be great and a lot of people would sign up to support you for all that you do!
Agree! And this would give those of us who block ads a way to chip in something to compensate.
Greg, you and your team are doing great things for us…keep up the great work! And I want to echo the comments about keeping the politics out of your articles! Much appreciated!
Thank you for all your hard work, you guys outshine everyone else! I’ve only been at this points and miles for almost a year and in the beginning you read so many different blogs, frequent miler is on a whole other level and is the only blog I read now. I appreciate all what you and your team do!
This is exactly why I read this blog consistently and ignore all the others. Thank you.
What about the advisory board position for Bilt? Is there a financial relationship there?
No. We have an affiliate relationship like with other card issuers, but we don’t earn anything for being part of the advisory group. Nick and I did accept a visit to Moskito Island once and to Miami once for advisory meetings (we had to pay our own way to get to each of these, and we’ve written previously about why we thought these would do more good than harm for our readers), but we’ve refused any extra gifts. For example, a Virgin rep was at the Miami meeting and offered us each free Virgin cruises. We first asked if we could give these away to readers but after being told no, we turned them down.
Nice. Thanks for the transparency.
As others have commented, this is why I value your blog and trust the info you provide. Keep up the good work. I’ve learned so much.
Greg, you run a great blog, and your honesty an integrity shines through.
My only wish for you is that our friends at Capital One could see you the way we do =)
LOL, me too!
Here’s Greg shilling for big morality again. How much did Ethics Incorporated pay for this post?
Man I thought this was a pretty good bit making fun of the squawkers who always accuse Greg of shilling.
LOL. I’m pretty sure Landon is joking
Folks, Landon is kidding!
Great post. Thanks.
Just got into the points game and found your blog. Now joining your fb group. Very good content. Going on my first business class trip in 2 weeks. Over 5/24 already but I will make sure to check your links first before applying for my next cc.
Interesting about the bank that demanded you remove the MS guide post, Can you say which bank that was?
Obviously Capital One
Lmao
No, it wasn’t C1. I don’t want to draw the bank in question’s attention to this. Years later we got indirect affiliate links to this bank thanks to CardRatings, but the bank still has the ultimate power to pull out of that if they want to.
Why do people care how you make money, as long as you are doing it ethically, it doesn’t matter. Why do some people want others to earn less…I hope you make as much as possible and I am certainly doing and will continue to do my part to make sure that happens. Anyone I ever talk to only gets your links and I often let them know that this is the only site that is at all useful and will always do their best to give you the best information and offer. I don’t like all the other blogs showing their terrible affiliate link offers only. Truly unique. Keep it up FM team. Great job Greg!
I think people appreciate knowing that Greg et al:
I’m not arguing with those other blogs’ rights to engage in their business model (and I do read them) but I do care about the fact that I won’t necessarily get the best information for me from them.
Love what you guys do, keep up the great work. I am sure you have a lot of supporters here because of how you guys run your business!
Best points blog around, hands down.
Hands down one of the best blogs out there.
Which bank didn’t like your MS post?
And that’s why I keep reading the posts and tfm is the first place I send people new to the hobby
I got into miles and points when your blog was “learning to fly”. The Frequent Miler has been my go to source ever since. The information is spot on and insightful. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
Thank you for everything. Best blog out there!
well done team, thanks for all you do!
Agree 100% with what’s already been said here. I never would have had the “success” I’ve had in the points/miles game without this blog. For my father’s 75th birthday I took him and 4 other family members to Poland to see the church his grandfather was baptized in. Literally life changing trip and all paid with points/miles. And it was possible because of this blog. That’s the impact you’re having.
People ask me all the time how to get started and the answer is always the same. I tell them they can learn all the need from Frequent Miler.
And one last thing I want to reiterate that others have mentioned – no politics or tabloid crap here. Just points and miles.
Ya know…I’ll bet that every political party is represented here in all these comments. Look how we can all get along.
Thanks Greg and team. You guys really are the best!
And this level of transparency and not constantly hocking a signup Lu k is why you are my most read blog and o Lu affiliate links I will use! Love your content!
And for all of these reasons, FM is the only miles blog I still read.
This is why FM is our favorite travel blog. Your suggestions make sense and are in our best interests… I do not have to read a ridiculous article with a comp’d room and pictures of the bloggers baby.
Not having paid review is a huge reason I am a big fan of frequent miler. So many sites have this is a paid review on so many posts its impossible to trust what they write. Really appreciate all the hard work you all put in.
Trust is everything.
Three words in a nutshell. In the beginning I followed all the points bloggers but it quickly became apparent that Greg’s blog was trustworthy in its insightful content. Like others, Frequent Miler is the only blog I recommend to everybody. Greg has also done a great job of hiring like-minded people. Amen!
Greg, your integrity is the reason I follow you and your team, thank you. Keep up the good work.
Potato’s are going to potahate. The people that complain are probably the same gatekeepers on Reddit churning lol. A lot of us get into this hobby as a way to subsidize or take trips that we wouldn’t be able to normally take. Some though go far too deep into the rabbit hole, and their “trips” are predicated about getting atleast X amount of cause. Hell I’ve seen people choose vacation spots based on what’s available via award bookings. That’s crazy too me. Getting too deep probably made those peoples cranky, atleast until their next “award” booking anyway.
Greg,
Thank you for the post. This is one of my trusted blogs and I read it everyday.
You guys are Awesome! I’m a proud long time reader and supporter of your blog.
My #1 go-to blog since 2013. Keep up the good work!
The Blog of Integrity.
Since I started reading your blog I have vacationed over 440 days and traveled over 270,000 miles. Right now I have over 2.5 million points in various credit card, hotel and airline miles with my wife. We have had some mind blowing and life changing experiences. And by the way, we”ve done it all without a business or points earned from business travel. I have all but exhausted my bucket list. I would never have been so fortunate without the help of your blogs and readers. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!
+1. Life-changing is not an understatement. The things that we’ve been able to do, we could not have dreamed about a few years ago. I think of it as I sit here… Rome, Paris, Tokyo… Your ethics shine through, and your resources are unparalleled. And so much love for your phenomenal team, Caroline, Tim, Stephen AND NICK!!
* overstatement not understatement duh
Great to hear that . Love your content even though l am from South Africa and cannot avail myself of the card offers. I have learned alot . Keep up the good work.
I would very much like to show my support via Patreon or someother way! I’m sure many readers would do the same!
Yes.
Agreed!
Thank you! But seriously, the best way to support us is to keep reading, listening, commenting, and most of all to recommend us to your friends.
Greg, the blog has integrity, no political bias. It puts great ideas and the readers first. Your team truly is truly different and everyone can see that!
I’ve been with you for more than 10 years. Keep up the great work!
And there’s zero political bs which we appreciate. Other bloggers must tell us where they stand on everything.
Best points and miles blog out there by far! Keep up the great work.
+mic drop*