HfP competition: Travel in style this Summer with a luxury polo shirt by Niccolò P.

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• Marcw says:

  21 May21 May 09:36

  I’m surprised. I few weeks ago, I criticised that HfP decreased the quality of its content with articles like this. Rob then replied that in fact, it’s the readership that “changed”, while not the editor(a)/author(s), because every now and then, your reuse old articles (which makes sense, the “basics” do not change that often). However, this article has absolute nothing to do with flying/points/Miles/airplanes/BA,… not even the polo logo has an airplane on it. Hopefully Rob, you’ll acknowledge that in the past years you did not publish this kind of ads/articles. That’s fine, however it’s the expectation vs reality matter.
  Also, that something is worth £xxx doesn’t mean its value is that high. As a comparison, whenever you write something about Avios, you never say how “worthy” they are (how much do they cost if bought through BA), you just give their vale, around 1-1.2p.

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 09:58

    Erm, here is a sponsored post from FOUR years ago: https://headforpoints.com/2014/04/07/discover-the-best-yacht-chartering-in-europe/

    Here are some from two years ago: https://headforpoints.com/2016/02/13/10-things-you-can-do-in-san-jose-2016/

    In general, you will see a lot more sponsored stuff (as opposed to competition) because the floodgates have opened this year and people are queuing up to throw money at us. Why? Because Adblockers make traditional ads less effective.

    • Mike says:

      21 May21 May 17:01

      Rob, when are you in Glasgow ?

      • Rob says:

        21 May21 May 17:12

        I’m not, looks like Anika will be at some point in June though.

    • Nick says:

      21 May21 May 17:34

      … which as I said this morning is absolutely fine with me. But please just write a line at the top – or even in the article itself – saying ‘this is sponsored’ so we know. It’s not that hard!

      • Rob says:

        21 May21 May 18:41

        It’s a competition …. clearly other companies are involved. I mean, I really am struggling with this one 🙂

        Can I suggest you direct your ire at, for eg, the glossy travel mag which operates a secret ban on winning one of their high profile annual awards if you don’t buy some advertising with them? Or the battle against non-recyclable coffee cups? Or even some other aspect of our own policies apart from one which is blinkin’ obvious?!

  • Prins Polo says:

    21 May21 May 11:32

    I do agree with the negative comments, unfortunately.

    Let’s make it clear – HfP is not a site that’s struggling to break even. It’s a successful blog which can decide what sponsored content to include. I’m fine with sponsored travel and travel-related content, as long as it clearly labelelled as such.

    I’m afraid we’re moving in the direction where we’ll soon have three articles per day, out of which two will be ads for pots and pans.

    • Charlie says:

      21 May21 May 12:21

      It’s such a shame we’re forced to read each article on this website each day :p

    • Rob says:

      21 May21 May 13:07

      Good to see you are on top of our financials. As I have mentioned before, the annual break-even (before I get paid anything) is well over £70,000. If we take on someone else this year it will jump to around £120,000.

• Phil says:

  21 May21 May 12:13

  FWIW, even within the Miles and Points world, many things don’t interest me that much, but will be of interest to many others. When I see something that piques my interest I read it, when I’m not interested, I tune in the next day. Same for ads.

  • Leo says:

    21 May21 May 16:01

    I agree with that point of view largely – but over time it would probably make me less interested in any site if I regularly ignore a significant percentage of it’s content.

• M Todd says:

  21 May21 May 12:21

  I seriously cannot believe the complaints about this! I get it is really not that related to the site but equally it is clearly labelled a competition on the main page and as such by complaining it is not clear that it is a form of advertisement then in my mind you are pretty much insulting yourself!

  How anyone can be capable of collecting miles, figuring out avios and all the other various things HfP shows, but not capable of knowing this is a advert of sorts is beyond me and to be honest probably won’t get much from this site anyway!

  Also end of the day it keeps the site free and I don’t notice anyone above suggesting above that they would prefer to pay a subscription for an advert / competition free version! Oh and what is the big injustice here, someone maybe conned into entering a competition for a polo shirt and win it, sounds like a terrible evil thing!

  Sorry but I just find it odd people take the time to complain about this sort of thing, its not like they are a daily feature! Still more people who never look at the site as they are offended by its hidden sneaky adverts the better, the more chance I have of winning those competitions;)

  • Lumma says:

    21 May21 May 13:03

    It’s actually no less related to miles and points as winning a completely free economy flight to New York where you can’t use any status benefits or earn miles. You need clothes when you travel

  • TT says:

    21 May21 May 19:41

    I have reread all the comments and I do not think that people are complaining. It is clear that revenue streams seem to come from other sources a little more these days. I must admit that HFP was my daily click with morning coffee, now I flick through every few days, as I do not have the” you read it first on this site and blink and you miss it” feeling anymore.

    • the real harry1 says:

      21 May21 May 19:45

      I started posting again, TT 🙂

      As ever, will irk some, others not too displeased.

      • TT says:

        21 May21 May 19:52

        From the polo man’s website…..a little quote….. made me laugh..”.With a background of over 15 years in finance it didn’t seem right to me that so little of the retail price actually went into the garment itself.”….
        We found the only person in finance in the world that finds its not about maximizing profits…15 years in finance…..You think Rob is the polo man? Lol

    • Rob says:

      21 May21 May 20:52

      You won’t be off to the Goodwood Festival of Speed then 🙂

• Tony says:

  21 May21 May 13:43

  Keep up the good work Rob.

• luckyjim says:

  21 May21 May 19:22

  Oh Raffles, you can’t boast that ‘people are queuing up to throw money at us’ and then plead poverty in the same thread !

  I do agree though, it’s pretty obvious that a competition is an advertisement feature – no further disclaimer needed.

  I think the issue here is how little money went towards the prize versus how much went towards the Rob Burgess home for Rob Burgess. I don’t think anybody would have complained if 50 t-shirts had been up for grabs.

  • KBuffett says:

    21 May21 May 19:48

    Rob, I hope you make millions from this site, like Martin Lewis did with his. Keep up the great work. Any chance that you could run more advertorials? It’s always nice to learn about new companies trying to establish themselves and various products and services available.

• Spurs debs says:

  22 May22 May 07:32

  Well I for one hope I win as my son loves his expensive shirts. Any chance of Hugo boss could sponsor next comp? You won’t have to tell me it’s sponsered as I’m an adult and can work it out for myself.

  Nothing in life is for free, Rob has to make a living, if you don’t like it just move along!

  Plenty of other bloggs out there for you to read if you don’t like the way this free not behind a paywall one is run.

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