The Vacation Gals are celebrating their two year anniversary with a 50,000 Delta SkyMiles giveaway. Enter a comment on ”Happy Two-Year Anniversary to US and 50,000 SkyMiles Giveaway from American Express” – Sep 20, 2011  post telling where you would like to go with the Delta SkyMiles for a chance to win. One entry per day allowed through September 29. The winner will be randomly chosen on September 30.

Beth Blair, Jen Miner and Kara Williams are three of the hardest working travel bloggers making a successful venture in the blogosphere while sharing hotel stories and adventures. Congratulations on two years as The Vacation Gals.

The Vacation Gals - Beth Blair, Jen Miner, Kara Williams

I repeatedly had the feeling of being a little fish outside in the big pond of travel journalism when speaking with hotel and tourist board representatives at the U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow 2011 in San Francisco.   

The most often asked questions I received from travel industry representatives over the past few days were “Who do you write for?” (Loyalty Traveler is my own business); “Where is your work published?” (Loyalty Traveler blog is online and hosted on the BoardingArea.com site of business traveler blogs.); and “How do you make any money?” (I get paid for freelance writing projects and I receive ad revenue share from BoardingArea.com).

I do not make much money at the present time compared to what I could make working a wage job (I still haven’t bought a new DSLR camera this year), but I make more money now than I did a year ago and I haven’t fired myself lately. Also, I think I have significantly more opportunity to increase my income ten-fold as a self-employed blogger and business owner than I had as a wage employee. 

My favorite question during International Pow Wow had to be “Since it’s a blog, does it start with ‘www’ on the internet?” 

The perception of bloggers is quite interesting to me in an analytics sense.   

Take an online publication like HotelChatter.com, a Condé Nast-owned website for an analytics comparison. Compete.com numbers show 56,000 unique visitors for April 2011 while BoardingArea.com site is listed as 53,000 unique visitors. 

Loyalty Traveler blog is a subdomain on BoardingArea.com and I don’t have comparable Compete.com numbers for Loyalty Traveler, but Google Analytics shows Loyalty Traveler blog had 35,705 unique visitors and 101,152 pageviews on April 20, 2011 and Loyalty Traveler blog posts are regularly fed into USA Today and Reuter’s news feeds. 

Bloggers like Gary Leff with ‘View from the Wing’ and Ben Schlappig of ‘One Mile at a Time’ have significant influence in the sphere of frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs along with Brian Kelly, ‘The Points Guy’, who has made phenomenal growth in the past year with his blog that also focuses on how to use travel loyalty programs. Travelers seek travel value for their money and each of our blogs are focused on providing travelers good value tips.

Bloggers are the long-tail of travel influence. Ten influential online travel bloggers might even approach the influence of a major publication like Condé Nast Traveller. A blog post I came across today expresses my sentiment about the influence of bloggers compared to traditional media, even though I am not listed as one of the “Top 100 bloggers hotels and airlines should fly out first class”. 

Yes, my blog does start with www.   

Loyalty Traveler blog post on an Aria Resort Las Vegas Sky Villa from Dec 2010 ranks just below AriaLasVegas.com website on 5/26/2011 Google search.

Loyalty Traveler post: Aria Resort Las Vegas Sky Villa 19  (Dec 19, 2010)

U.S. Travel Association, the same folks who brought us the Discover America Daily Getaways for discount hotel loyalty points and car rentals last month, organizes the annual International Pow Wow. The 43^rd International Pow Wow is currently being held in San Francisco from May 21-25, 2011. The convention objective is to market the U.S. as a travel destination for international visitors.

This is the marketplace showcase for international tourism to the U.S. generating $3.5 billion in sales. Over 5,500 delegates from 70 countries meet with U.S. travel suppliers during several days of greetings, meetings and parties. All the major hotel chains have representatives here.

Best Western booth at International Pow Wow 2011 San Francisco

Several hundred regional and state tourism boards make contact with travel buyer representatives who sell U.S. travel packages in countries across the globe.

California Central Coast Tourism Council booth at International Pow Wow 2011

Travel journalists play a significant role in this convention. Over 400 international travel writers are here in San Francisco for the Pow Wow. The objective for bringing international journalists to San Francisco for Pow Wow is to provide U.S. regional tourism information and story ideas for influential writers and media in the travel world. Journalists create the stories informing travelers about U.S. tourism destinations and generate desire among international tourists to visit the U.S.

There was a two hour window for meeting journalists and only 20 tables of more than 200 were occupied by US travel writers.

Wowed by International Pow Wow

San Francisco as the host city has opened wide the Golden Gate City for delegates.

Sunday morning was a media reception at the Ferry Building plying journalists with coffee, alcohol and food at 9am. Most people were drinking from the wine selections of local vineyards, but yours truly is a beer connoisseur and I took advantage of the local microbrew selection including Thirsty Bear Brewery and 21st Amendment brewery imperial stout.

The day was not all dining and drinks, although the majority of my day was consumption oriented. There were many options for press tours to various parts of San Francisco such as historical tours, a movie location tour to see some of the settings for films shot in the city, a music history tour to reminisce about Haight Ashbury in the 60s and the punk venues of the late 70s, early 80s. 

I lived through much of that history as a local regularly visiting my grandparents who lived in San Francisco from the 1920s. I was an active spectator from Monterey in the punk music scene of the late 70s, so I wanted to try something I had never done – Bike the Golden Gate Bridge.

Three outfits provide bike rentals and guided tours of San Francisco. Bike and Roll, Blazing Saddles and Bay City Bike guided small groups of delegates on a seven mile ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. The wind was fierce and the path crowded on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Bike the Bridge Tour

Alcatraz Islandwas reserved exclusively for Pow Wow delegates Sunday afternoon. That might seem unusual except for the fact that the National Parks Service is a major sponsor of the International Pow Wow. I was there in December and I needed to check into the InterContinental San Francisco, so I passed on that excursion.

Sunday night the Pier 39 entertainment and dining complex in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco was open exclusively for the Pow Wow guests. Every restaurant on Pier 39 provided complimentary buffet selections and drinks. Live music was playing in multiple places with everything from string quartet to steel drum to a cappella quartet and the Cal Berkeley Marching Band. Doors were open from the merry-go-round to the Aquarium of the Bay.

Neptune’s Palace Seafood Restaurant and Hard Rock Cafe held my attention much of the evening as I met delegates from Chile, Australia, Germany, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kuwait, China and the U.S.

Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco at Pier 39

Monday morning the formal industry contacts began and I met with representatives from Hilton, Hyatt, Kimpton, Marriott, Starwood, Best Western and tourism boards around the country in a whirlwind travel industry equivalent of speed dating. With over 1,000 U.S. tourism representatives in attendance, the International Pow Wow allows three days for meeting delegates at booths and nights for making informal contacts.

Yesterday afternoon I spent time with other travel bloggers including Jennifer Miner of The Vacation Gals and Chris Gray Faust of Chris Around the World blogs.

Time to get back to the meetings. Today I will be tweeting more about the International Pow Wow. Follow Loyalty Traveler and search #ipw11 for more information.

A wonderful occurrence happened this weekend. I woke up today to see Loyalty Traveler ranks #9 on the Technorati.com Top 100 Travel blogs.

Technorati.com blog rankings fluctuate daily. I can’t discern any correlation to blog rank going up or down and my Loyalty Traveler website traffic or blog topic. I am just happy to see some independent measure showing Loyalty Traveler on a scale. Website ranking sites like Alexa.com, compete.com, and others rank BoardingArea.com as a site, but they do not show Loyalty Traveler as an individual blog. Technorati.com is one place where I can see Loyalty Traveler ranked as an individual blog.

Loyalty Traveler blog has been in the Technorati Top 100 travel blogs for most of the past six months since the blog ranking website changed its algorithms in October 2009. Loyalty Traveler blog has consistently ranked in the #60 to #99 range for all but a few weeks out of the Top 100 travel blogs and a few weeks in the #43 to #59 range. Then yesterday I looked at Technorati and saw Loyalty Traveler blog jumped from #61 last Monday to #12 on the Technorati Top 100 Travel blogs.

Loyalty Traveler shoots up to #12 on Technorati Top Travel Blogs (4-10-10)

Today I broke the Technorati.com top 10 travel blogs for the first time, entering at #9 on April 11, 2010.

Loyalty Traveler breaks Technorati Top 10 on April 11, 2010

The time looks right for growing.

Hey hotels and luggage companies, I am seeking advertisers so I can finance an accompanying Loyalty Traveler website separate from the blog with more hotel travel related resources and hotel loyalty program guides.

Contact me ricgarrido@loyaltytraveler.com if you are interested in discussing highly focused target group advertising for your hotel, hotel brand, hotel chain, luggage brand.

Of course, I plan to keep writing here at BoardingArea.com for the foreseeable future to offer Loyalty Traveler hotel travel tips for free.   

After all, I want to stay in the Technorati.com Top 100 travel blogs!

Lucky over at One Mile at a Time is promoting Marriott SpringHill Suites with a $300 Marriott gift certificate prize to be given to one “lucky” reader who posts a comment on his blog by Sunday evening, November 29. The promotion is based around a video memory challenge game on the SpringHill Suites site.

BargainHuntingMoms also has been given a $300 SpringHill Suites gift certificate being offered to readers.

SpringHill Suites Napa Valley lobby area

SpringHill Suites is Marriott’s upscale all suites brand. I was at the new SpringHill Suites Napa Valley property this past summer. This hotel is conveniently located at the southern end of Napa Valley, at the intersection of Highway 12 (the Napa Valley wine road) and Highway 29 (road to Vallejo).

SpringHill Suites Napa Valley courtyard and firepit

The new SpringHill Suites property is on the opposite side of Napa from the much larger and old-style hotel design of the Marriott Napa and Spa.

SpringHill Suites Napa Valley pool area

The outdoor pool and barbeque area of the SpringHill Suites is a comfortable space to hang out, although the road is a little nearby and the newly developed area is sparse on trees.

SpringHill Suites Napa Valley fountain

I have a plea for assistance if anyone from SpringHill Suites management reads this post.  

Can you spare another gift certificate to donate as a prize to the Passports with Purpose raffle and help travel bloggers raise $13,000 over the next month to build a new school in rural Cambodia?

SpringHill Suites Marriott Napa Valley, California

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Shout Out to Hoteliers  –  Passports with Purpose Needs Your Assistance with raffle prizes.

Passports with Purpose is in its second year of bringing together the online travel community in an effort to mobilize social media to a charitable action through this year’s travel bloggers global fundraiser.

The Passports with Purpose action for 2009 is raising $13,000 for American Assistance for Cambodia to build a rural school in Cambodia.

Passports with Purpose is organizing a $10 per ticket raffle for the chance of winning travel gear, products, and destination prizes.  Hotel rooms were a popular raffle prize last year.

My Loyalty Traveler Request

Hoteliers – Please contribute a hotel oriented prize for the Passports with Purpose raffle or consider becoming a sponsor for the Passports with Purpose fundraising effort.  A $500 sponsorship will buy a good amount of advertising across the blogosphere.

A hotel room night (or two), a robe, a spa treatment, a hotel restaurant dinner certificate are just some of the items you might consider for donation to Passports with Purpose.

You will get high quality advertising through the Passports with Purpose travel bloggers fundraiser.  I’ll be repeatedly promoting the Passports with Purpose fundraiser over the next six weeks through Twitter, Facebook, and Loyalty Traveler blog.

While I recognize this is a hectic time during the Thanksgiving holiday week with many hotel industry personnel on vacation, I am asking for a quick response from charitable hoteliers who can donate a raffle prize within the next week for this high value humanitarian and educational cause.

I have already committed from my personal resources to provide a hotel night prize for the raffle.

Any airlines or other travel companies who want to contribute a raffle prize, by all means contact me soon.

Contact me at RicGarridolt@gmail.com or the women at Passports with Purpose to donate prizes or become a sponsor.

Travelers – My request to readers of this blog is bookmark the Passports with Purpose link and return next week to view the prizes being offered and contribute through the purchase of raffle tickets to the goal of raising $13,000 to build a new school in Cambodia. $13,000 to educate Cambodian children is very little money that goes so far in building education infrastructure in this developing country.

The raffle begins November 30, next Monday, and lasts through December 19, 2009.

Who are Passports with Purpose?

The founders of Passports with Purpose are preeminent Seattle travel bloggers Debbie Dubrow (DeliciousBaby.com), Michelle Duffy (WanderMom.com), Pam Mandel (NerdsEyeView.com), and Beth Whitman (WanderlustAndLipstick.com).  These are travel blogs with loyal followers and each blog reaches a large audience in the travel blogging community. Debbie maintains a Top 5 travel blog and Pam is currently listed in the top 25 travel blogs on Technorati. Debbie Dubrow’s DeliciousBaby.com ranked #1 travel blog on Technorati’s Top 100 Travel blogs list last month when its newly revised rankings were released.

The participating travel bloggers form a global list of the online travel community.

Act now, donate, and contribute. Minds need education. I know as a public school teacher with ten classroom years instructing children.

The force of social media is fully realized when a concerted effort brings about an authentic change in a short period of time through sheer numbers of participants.

Loyalty Traveler believes in Passports with Purpose.

Join us for change.

For more information on Passports with Purpose 2009 fundraiser please read these blog posts from the Passports with Purpose founders.

Beth Whitman – Passports with Purpose  - Build a School in Cambodia! (Nov 22, 2009)

Debbie Dubrow – Please Join Us for Passports with Purpose (Nov 18, 2009)

Pam Mandel – Passports with Purpose 2009 (Nov 20, 2009)

Loyalty Traveler is ranked #73 in the Top 100 Travel Blogs on Technorati today. Yesterday my blog was #72, so my star is already fading. Like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jack in the movie “Titanic”, I’ll gloriously ride the waves at the front of the ship as King of the World today before I go under tomorrow. For the time being I’m elated to be listed in Technorati’s top 100 Travel Blogs.

Loyalty Traveler #73 in Top 100 travel Blogs 10-20-09

The best aspect of the Technorati recognition is I am staying at my parent’s house in Las Vegas (going home to Monterey today) and I was able to show my mom the Technorati page with the Top 100 Travel icon. My dad asked me again, the fifth time this week, “What is a blog?”

I happened to be reading the State of the Blogosphere 2009 report being posted each day this week on Technorati.

Reading over the SOTB2009 report, I thought to myself, “Yeah, I fit the professional blogger profile. I have a graduate degree (labor studies), work like a dog over 40 hours a week for virtually no pay, I’ve been at this for over two years, and I have launched four or five websites.”

I also fit Stephen Colbert’s moniker of “internet hobo”. I’m a bootstrapper blogger and lifestyle entrepreneur struggling to carve out a living as a travel writer and social media player in a narrow niche of the travel industry before I go bankrupt.

Only 17% of professional bloggers in the SOTB 2009 report their primary income source comes from blogging. I currently fall in the 83% who do not get their primary source of income from my blog, however, I do earn my primary meager income from writing.

After browsing through the SOTB report I read the Penelope Trunk interview and her response to the question, “What’s your advice for aspiring professional bloggers?”

“Professional blogger? Really? Think about your blog as an audience builder for selling something that has a higher margin than advertising.”

Some advertising revenue from my blog sounds rather nice to me at the moment.

Odds are against a self-employed travel writer surviving as a viable business entity. I launched a Hotels-and-Points newsletter two years ago and sold one copy after four monthly issues. Obviously I needed a new business model. Then, I moved into blogging with the basic axiom of “write it, share it with the world for free, and they will come”.

The Loyalty Traveler blog has always been planned as a way to build an audience by sharing travel tips and analysis with others who may not realize the potential of hotel loyalty programs or simply desire more information about hotel loyalty programs. The leisure traveler and/or business traveler has scarce information on the value of hotel loyalty programs validating, analyzing, and critiquing the information provided by the corporate hotel entities aside from the FlyerTalk forums and the blogs on BoardingArea, SmarterTravel, and FrequentFlier.

The developing aspect of my business is Loyalty Traveler’s role as a marketer of California, and more specifically the marketing of my local region in the Monterey Peninsula and San Francisco.

“Travel globally, promote locally” is a business objective of Loyalty Traveler.

My aspiration is simple, but difficult to realize.  Work independently for myself in collaboration with the travel industry, provide real value to other travelers and the hotel travel industry as a writer and educator, and create a sustainable travel-oriented business that can keep me self-employed for the next 20+ years.

I’m not trying to build an empire, just make a basic living so I can afford to continue my life in Monterey  –  the environmentally, aesthetically, and culturally cool area of California where I was born and would like to remain. And of course, I desire to continue traveling the world which has been much more difficult since I became entirely self-employed 30 months ago.

Travel loyalty programs have allowed me to travel well on a rather limited travel budget for the past two decades. Some call it gaming the system. I call it travel economics and getting the best value for the money you spend as a smart shopper.

The real point of Loyalty Traveler blog is to build an audience and develop a community of travelers who can help each other travel better wherever our travels take us. I am a facilitator who brings up issues in my blog. I need readers to contribute additional insight to develop and grow the information into the knowledge base we need to travel better. So please leave comments on my blog. I have met some wonderful travelers and travel industry professionals through Loyalty Traveler. It takes a community to be successful in social media.

Honestly, I am not clear how I should develop my relationship with the hotel industry. Affiliate marketing, sponsorships, accept freebies so I can stay in more hotels and have more places to write about?

I’m looking for a win-win relationship where I can market hotels, hotel travel, and the value of loyalty programs while remaining a consumer advocate.

Admittedly I have made some errors in content, made some mis-steps in public relations, and I’ve probably been too critical of some hotels and hotel loyalty programs in public with my blog. But always I have strived to be honest and accurate, and constructive in my criticism. When aspects of my hotel experience suck I think many other frequent guests probably had a similar experience. I try and separate what I believe are one-time circumstances compared to what are likely systemic issues with a hotel or program.

I admit when I’m wrong, apologize when I go over the top (or delete, although nothing can really be deleted once it is published to the web), and I reach out to help others when and where I can. I desire to build a lasting relationship with the hotel industry as a traveler, writer, and consumer advocate. Hey hotel PR people –email me. And don’t be afraid to comment on my blog.

Loyalty Traveler blog needs to improve both technically and stylistically. That is an immediate objective. My writing needs to improve aesthetically. That is a life-long process.

I work to create trust with my readers by providing high value and accurate content. Believe me. I beat myself up whenever I realize I published a content error.

My main goal is to remain true to myself and the community of travelers seeking value for their travel dollars. Sustainable travel should allow travelers to get good value for money spent (i.e. not get ripped off). I will continue to develop Loyalty Traveler with the simple aim of providing a community of travelers informed analysis of hotel value for frequent guests.               

And that is all for my self-reflection as Loyalty Traveler blogger and entrepreneur. Anyone with teacher training knows self-reflection is a vital part of professional development.

My next blog post will be back on track with a hotel topic.

Congratulations to:

Debbie Dubrow – Delicious Baby #1 Travel Blog 10-20-09

Heather Cowper – Heather on her Travels #9 Travel Blog 10-20-09

Gary Leff – View from the Wing  #23 Travel Blog 10-20-09

Gary Arndt – Everything, Everywhere #29 Travel Blog 10-20-09

KiwiFlyer – Musings of the Global Traveller #70 Travel Blog 10-20-09

And there are loads of other travel blogs I need to look into from the Top 100 list.

I came across this blog today through FlyerTalk. I realized Geoffrey is blogging his Around the World in First Class trip and he has just reached his first stopover of the journey in Singapore today.

The blog looks like it may be a good read for an armchair experience of a First Class Round the World month long trip as it is in progress.

http://gpalcher.wordpress.com/

His itinerary shows several fine hotels. The Conrad Centennial in Singapore is one of my favorite all-time hotels. I have good memories of my stays.

Conrad Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand