Winner of My Amazon Gift Card Giveaway Announced, Plus an Update on the Affiliate Links

Thanks a lot to everyone who left feedback on that post! You have no idea how helpful it is to hear directly from readers. Nancy and I work hard to deliver useful content, but sometimes  it’s difficult  to tell ahead of time whether the “juice” will be worth the squeeze.

I was actually hoping for some tough love, but the feedback was mostly positive. Well, a few people said they ain’t digging my math posts (rolls eyes). Say what? I thought those are the best kind to read while enjoying a cup of hot cocoa on a lazy afternoon? No?

I love math and finding patterns because, well, I’m slightly OCD, that’s why! Plus, it’s the only thing in this hobby that’s not subjective. You just can’t argue with math. Nothing ruins the value proposition  of  mattress and mileage status runs  like good ole’ math. And what can I say, I kind of enjoy being the party pooper now and again. But I digress…

Anyway, the winner of the giveaway is my reader Shannon. I already emailed her the gift card. It was a bit hard to count entries properly, because several folks have commented twice. So, 12 people entered, and the number on Random.com was 7:

The feedback was extremely useful because I was contemplating a change in blog’s direction. You see, since I’m in “news” niche,  Google and experts are telling me that in order to build a successful blog we need to post 4-5 times per day. And indeed, if you look at the biggest sites, that’s the pattern they follow. It’s the best way to rank higher and attract more traffic. More traffic=more revenue. Nothing wrong with that.

Except, most loyal readers are telling me we post enough as is. In fact, few have said they don’t need to hear from me but only once every couple of days. There are several sites already that do a great job at news coverage. So,  I choose to listen to actual readers and ignore what Google is telling me. If we changed direction, I would probably have to bring in another contributor. I’m not saying that it will never happen, but it would make it complicated when it comes to splitting revenue.

I’m doing my best to make sure Nancy is compensated fairly because some posts of mine take only 30 minutes to write, while it takes her two hours (or more) to finish hers’. So, I try to count few of my posts as one, depending on the circumstances. I have to say, Nancy hasn’t complained once and in fact, tried to refuse a small bonus I gave her a while back. If you look up a definition of “no drama llama” in the dictionary, you will probably see a photo of Nancy there. That gal is  a keeper!

It was really scary to trust someone with the keys to the kingdom of “Crazy”(aka this blog), but I have to say, bringing  her in as a contributor was the best decision. And readers seem to agree.

On affiliate links…

We will still make commission on credit card applications, at least for the foreseeable future. There will no longer be separate category links, but there is a way for you to apply through my blog. You can check Support the Site and Apply for Credit Cards, and there it is, one shiny (bright red) key to this blog’s monetization.

Affiliate company would like for me to add banner ads on the side,  but for now, I’ll keep those off. I prefer a clean, ad-free look, but that may change in the future. As always, if you want to support the site by applying for a credit card and are not sure how to do it, email me at milesforfamily@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to clarify it. We also make commission on Amazon purchases, but at this point it’s a tiny percentage of the revenue.

There are a couple of other concerning changes that have to do with the affiliate program, but I’m probably not allowed to discuss them here. This part has always been tricky, but I think we have been able to navigate the murky waters in a somewhat successful manner.  For now, we’ll just keep on writing and hope you guys are benefiting from our rants. Thanks for all of your support!

Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses