How This Blog Makes Money

Updated November 2019

Every so often, I get questions from friends and acquaintances on how this blog makes money. “So you have a blog just for a fun hobby, right?” “Writing for a blog isn’t a real job, is it?” “How much money does your blog make?” Yep, I’ve gotten all of these questions!

So since Leana and I try to keep it real on here, I want you, the readers, to understand how this blog makes money.

The Majority of Blog Income Comes From Credit Card Applications

The majority of the income from this blog is generated by our readers applying for credit cards from our affiliate links. We earn a small commission from each approved application. Sorry, we are not allowed to divulge how much we earn for each card, and the commission is always changing anyway.

When I was a new reader of miles and points blogs, I didn’t understand that miles and points bloggers got paid for credit card applications. I used to just use Google to find card application links. Eventually, I clued in and started applying for cards from blog I enjoyed.

Aren’t Bloggers Just Plugging Credit Cards and Encouraging People to Get Into Debt?

Some miles and points enthusiasts believe that any blogger who makes money from credit card applications is evil and greedy. They believe that bloggers constantly pump up credit cards and don’t talk about cards not in our affiliate network.

There may be bloggers out there that do this. However, Leana and I always try to give you the honest truth about credit cards we feature in posts. We regularly discuss cards that are not in our affiliate network (like Leana’s recent post on the Terps Visa).  We keep an updated list of the hottest credit card offers, and several of them are NOT in our affiliate network.

Sometimes, the offer in our affiliate network is NOT the best offer out there for a specific credit card. For example, in the past the IHG credit card bonus was 80,000 points in our affiliate link but 100,000 points in a non-affiliate link. We don’t have control of the specific offers in our affiliate links. But, if we know of a better offer, we will mention it in our Hot Deals section.

Traveling with travel rewards credit cards is NOT for people who don’t pay off their credit cards in full every month. Leana and I would never encourage anyone to go into debt for this hobby.

Why Don’t You Use Regular Click Ads Instead of Relying on Credit Card Commissions?

Update: As of late July 2019, Miles For Family is part of the BoardingArea network, and we have advertisements on the blog. If you use ad blocker software, you can support us by whitelisting our site.

We have tried generating revenue from other ads that pay on a per-click basis. However, in order to make substantial money, a blog must have a lot of traffic. When we displayed ads, we found our blog pages loaded more slowly, and the small income wasn’t worth it.

How Can We Find a Credit Card Through Your Affiliate Link?

 

As of November 2019, we are also partnering with Travel Freely on affiliate credit card links. Our affiliate landing page is accessible from our Apply for Credit Cards menu at the top of the blog.  Once you’re on our affiliate page, scroll down to the card filters to find your desired card.

Even within this affiliate page, if there is a better public offer for a credit card, the link will forward you to that better non-affiliate offer.

We also now have the ability to have direct affiliate links for specific cards within a blog post. Clicking on the link will take you to a page that looks like this:

 

What Are Other Ways We Can Support Miles For Family?

We really appreciate it when you read our posts and comment. We also love it when you share our posts on social media and recommend us to friends and family.

On the Support the Site tab, we’ve listed personal referral links for several credit cards and websites. Usually, when someone signs up through our referral links, we get some bonus points. As of November 2019, we partner with Travel Freely on sign-ups for a really cool tool to help keep track of your credit card sign-ups. It’s free to sign up!

Why Should We Support Miles For Family Over Bigger Blogs?

There are just two of us working on Miles For Family. Leana built this blog from the ground up and has been blogging for over five years.

We don’t have a staff of people who use an expense account to travel to destinations for articles. We don’t pretend that you can take your family on first class flights for every trip, multiple times a year. The trips we write about are our own trips that we earned by applying for reward credit cards, just like most of you. Leana and I are true hobbyists.

We’ve corresponded with many of our loyal readers for years now. We respond to blog comments. As Leana once said, we’re like the bar in Cheers, “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.”

And yes, this blog is also a business and a job for two women, not just a fun hobby. We both love to write, travel and learn from our readers. While writing articles takes time, we also spend time on social media promoting the blog and work on the technical/accounting aspect of the business. I hope we can continue this blog for years to come.

If you have any questions about how this blog works, please ask. Thanks for your continued support!