You may have noticed lately that posts have slowed to a trickle. That’s for a few reasons – first, I’ve been working on a big bookbinding project for the first time in a couple years, so most of my non-work productivity has been going to that. Second, I’ve been trying harder than normal to fight off the creeping depression and despair that has plagued me at various times in my life. Trying and succeeding, I should say, but it takes a lot of mental effort. Third, and probably most importantly, I haven’t had a burning desire to write about points and miles topics lately. When something catches my interest, I usually live up to the name of the blog and vomit a couple thousand words about it, but I don’t like to post about stuff just to keep to a regular schedule.
(It’s ironic, I read a post on TravelBloggerBuzz recently about how all the people writing about the new Lufthansa livery were scraping the barrel in terms of content just so they could have some slurry in which to mix credit card pitches. I know he wasn’t specifically referencing my blog, but I do think it’s funny that one of the only posts I wrote in the last month was all about Lufthansa… only to find out that (at least to one person) it’s the most boring thing I could have written about!)
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that I like to write about what interests me (and I LOVE airline design). Of course, this is still pretty much a points and miles blog, rather than a personal blog, but I’m wondering how the handful of readers who come here regularly would feel if I started branching out with off-topic posts (that were flagged as such in the title so you didn’t waste a click). Possible topics include:
- Whisky reviews
- Music (and music equipment) rants and raves
- Day job musings (small business operations, sales, and marketing)
- Really dry stuff about design and typography
- Book collecting, and more aviation/travel-themed book reviews
Let me know in the comments. I pretty much feel like I should just write about whatever I feel like as long as I’m not clickbaiting you into something you don’t care about. However, I’m curious if you like your points and miles blogs to be fairly narrow in scope, or if you enjoy hearing random internet people’s perspectives on things you may not be specifically trying to read about.
I swear I’ll get back to miles/points programming sooner or later. I even have a couple posts loaded in my mind right now, but I just haven’t had the motivation to write them yet.
Thanks for reading/commenting!
Windbag Miles 
Listen – I read you and get a kick out if you . And I know about depression. Don’t stop / you have a voice . And make an Impact – for real
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Write about what you wish. You are a good writer. If I don’t want to read about a particular subject, well, that is on me. Have fun with the blog, it is yours, after all!
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I am not being hypercritical about your blog because I really enjoy reading it. BUT, like many of your confreres you are getting away from the basic reason for your blog which is to talk about and give advice to and to inform readers who are not as informed as you about award hacking and how to do it . So mAny of the blogs are becoming more of a travelog rather than an educational but entertaining experience. The blogs that actually give the novice specific information are becoming few and far between.
While I would enjoy the whiskey reviews, the rest leaves me cold and as a travel hacker frankly all of them are of no specific interest.
However it is your blog and you have the right to talk about whatever you want!
Certainly writing about what interests you is important but please do not be disappointed if your readership tails off until a new group finds your website and becomes interested in what you are writing about.
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Appreciate the constructive feedback. I agree with you that more and more of the blogs I like are either diluting the style by hiring other writers, or bringing in ancillary features like restaurant reviews. I’m trying to decide how self-indulgent I want to be. I think where I’m landing is that if I feel like writing about something and I don’t have a points and miles post in mind, then I’ll write the off-topic post. But I also want to impose the discipline on myself to keep points and miles the priority, and to put the other stuff on the back burner most of the time.
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I say write about what’s on your mind. The blog is free to me and seems to be unmonetized for you, so you should be getting whatever you want out of it.
I’m super there for typography posts and aviation/travel book stuff. Less so for whisky reviews, but I can read, and have no problem clicking “mark as read” on a post not up my alley and moving on.
As an RSS feed reader, I far prefer fewer posts that are interesting and engaged to any schedule that’s not filled with real content. “Sorry guys, no post on Tuesday today!” Always makes me roll my eyes. Seriously, blogger, I never noticed that you post on Tuesdays and every-other-Thursday, I just see whenever something appears.
Also, for real, I genuinely appreciated your post a while back about travel anxiety. My experience hasn’t been exactly the same, but has a lot of similar landmarks. Good to hear about another journey in those woods.
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Please feel free to post on all of those topics. When you’re an interesting person (as you seem to be), it’s no fun to confine yourself! Just please, please don’t make this a political blog :-).
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Write about whatever you want — I enjoy your perspective. Thanks for doing this.
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Ditto the other comments…I say it’s your blog write about what you like….I primarily read for points & miles info but would definitely still read the beginning of another article simply to see if I was interested in it…at the end of the day you need to write about what makes you happy. ..besides that’s how they say all great blogs are built
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You definitely don’t need permission from us! Your blog, you should express yourself. I personally have no interest in options 1, 2 & 4 and doubt I’d read them at all, but 3 & 5 might have some peripheral interest and I’d certainly open them out of curiosity. Then again my interests seem contrary to the previous commenters so it just goes to show once you start going random you splinter your audience more and more If it starts getting so 50% of your posts are no longer of interest then I’d probably unsubscribe but again you aren’t writing for me, you are writing for yourself.
If I were reading you because you were a celebrity or famous writer (let’s say you were Nathan Chen, or Adam Rippon, to name two random names after a LONG night of TV) then I might be curious about everything you had to say – whether on politics, fashion, what you ate yesterday, travel frustrations and yes, even whiskey tastings. But in those cases, as a reader, I’m hungry for any scraps from a personality I am interested in. In your case, I came to your blog with a very focused, specific shared interest, so it is less likely I’ll stick around when you stray from that interest. But again, as you mentioned, this isn’t a commercial blog, and while it is probably exciting to see the reader numbers go up and up, let’s face it, if you are running out of things to say then it can’t be much fun for you. I’m sure once you attain readership it must be tempting to measure your success in constantly rising numbers, but come on, I’m just a random guy on the internet – write about what’s therapeutic for you, don’t worry about me!
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Go for it!!!
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If you are going to write about bourbon and rye — especially rye, a whiskey I know little about, but am increasingly interested in — then I would like to read whiskey reviews.
If it’s scotch that you are headed for, then I would rather you stick to miles and points, plus typography. I never drink scotch. Of course, it you want to write about how Johnny Walker Blue is something like 450 euros a bottle at the Park Hyatt Vendome, I am willing to read that under the miles and points rubric.
Hey, my 30% bonus on the Amex Business Blue posted last week — never would have thought about that card, productive parlay with Amex Business Platinum, were it not for your blog.
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I agree with writing about whatever you want. I appreciate your writing style and sense of humor so I would enjoy reading whatever your topic is. Depression is a bastard, I’ve fought that several times. Stay on top of that.
Same as poster above, I just got my 30% bonus on the Amex Biz Blue. Reading your blog is what turned me on to that so thanks!
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I haven’t read the other comments, so sorry if this is repetitive.
I liked your Lufthansa post because it actually taught me about corporate history and design, whereas the rest of the industry was basically regurgitating press releases.
Write about whatever you want, it’s your blog. In order of your topics, my preference ordering is 1, 5, 3, 4, 2.
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Be as “self-indulgent” as you want to be. Life is short (but it’s wide).
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