{"id":2654,"date":"2021-09-22T13:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T19:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?page_id=2654"},"modified":"2023-05-30T12:39:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T18:39:35","slug":"why","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/why\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend of September 18, 2021 I was in Minneapolis at the first Milenomics<\/a> meet-up. I saw a few long-time friends, shared war stories with travel hacking veterans, and traded a few insider tips. I was also asked quite a few questions about travel hacking and the blog, but the most common was some variation of \u201cWhy do you blog if you\u2019re not trying to monetize it?\u201d That happens to be the most common question that I get from readers lately too. The answer really has two sides:<\/p>\n

First: Networks are Everything<\/h4>\n

Having a partner in crime with whom you can share candid data-points will magnify your earnings and prevent certain failures; you\u2019re each probably looking at different things, you likely have a different set of credit cards, you definitely have a different set of biases in how you look at the world, and you can divide and conquer when you\u2019re probing something new. As a pair you typically amplify each other\u2019s strengths and cover-over many weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Obviously if you have a few close, trusted friends the above effects will be even greater still. Have I found deals that no one else had ever mentioned or hinted at? Absolutely. Have I learned about great deals from others that I\u2019d probably have never even thought to look at? Also, absolutely. In this game, trusted colleagues simply make each other better.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s circle back to the blog. I started it to grow my network, which frankly has worked really well and also been a bunch of fun.<\/p>\n

Second: I Don\u2019t Hate Money, But I Value Trust More<\/h4>\n

Do I hate money? Of course not. I don\u2019t put affiliate links or ads here though because I want to make sure that you can trust me; even more so if we start working together on something going forward. I want to make sure that there\u2019s absolutely no question about ulterior motives. If I\u2019m writing about a credit card, you can be sure it\u2019s not because it pays me a commission, but rather because I think it\u2019s genuinely valuable and that it may be worth your attention.<\/p>\n

Where does that leave us? Well, I have someone ask me how they can support me or the blog in some way almost weekly. I very much appreciate the thought, and earlier this year I set up a Patreon for the site<\/a> so people could do so (it\u2019s the little present icon in the upper right of the toolbar). I don\u2019t advertise it because it\u2019s not the primary goal and I don\u2019t want you to feel like you\u2019re not going to get my honest opinion unless you send money my way. You\u2019ll get it either way. If you want to give me money though, who am I to say no?<\/p>\n

Bonus: Genuine Connections Mean Free Drinks<\/h4>\n

Just this weekend I had more than a dozen people offer to buy me a drink because they wanted to say thanks and have a nice discussion about travel hacking and the world in general. Thanks to each and every one of you! You don\u2019t have to buy my a drink, I\u2019ll be glad to talk anyway. Of course, a free beer never hurts anything.<\/p>\n

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A bonus for running the blog: A new friend bought me this \u201ccheap champagne\u201d while I was waiting to catch my flight. Special thanks to D C Domer of Bonvoy cookie fame<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend of September 18, 2021 I was in Minneapolis at the first Milenomics meet-up. I saw a few long-time friends, shared war stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2654","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7709,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2654\/revisions\/7709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}