Yeah. Here’s a nice example of a boldface propaganda-to-tickle-your-ears (and maybe get-your-money) blog post title:
50 Tips from Experts on Ways to Make Money Traveling
-claimcompass.eu
Let’s take a moment to think about this…
(Notice that I did not link to their abovementioned post. I have no intention of giving this type of thing help showing up in google; if you want to know why and want to get the long story short of why I am posting this, read my “Lies Someone Told You: ‘Travel the World’“)
First off, let me let you know, I have no problem being perceived as a cynical “hater.”
Hate has it’s place. Not everything that everyone one does is “okay” despite what that purple dinosaur Barney taught you.
Why am I hating on these travel bloggers. It’s not because their methods don’t work but because pain and failure are left out and MOST people will -at some level- fail. And so I hate them.
So let’s commence with the hating –
(For those of you who will google it, that is what the page looks like so you know you are in the right place when you get there… / also people like pictures)
The post after starting out asking a few rhetorical questions designed to remind us that we don’t have endless amounts of money, has this to say
Most, if not all travelers, don’t rely on only one source of money. The cash flows from multiple streams at once. These few bucks here and there add up to enough money to maintain your lifestyle as a traveler.
Multiple Streams of Income, nice to see that our author has at least read some business books. He’s probably a smart guy unfortunately reselling the get rich cool-aid.
Then come all the claims of living the dream life… I won’t even quote these.
But we all want that, right? A billion dollars in the bank so we can finally be happy… (can you hear my eyes roll?)
So we can acheive that he’s made us this nifty guide:
That’s why I compiled this checklist of 50 ways to make money while traveling, based on proven recommendations from experts living the dream.
Really now? “Proven” recommendations? Proven by whom? How? How do you measure that proof? I am pretty sure that for everyone one who had “success” with one of these tips at least a nine others failed and we will never hear about it.
But my favorite part is that these are tips “from ‘experts’ living the dream.”
Let’s stop here for a second. By the time I authored my “Lies Someone Told You: ‘Travel the World’” blog post in December of 2020, I had lived (not play play travelled) in no less than three Asian countries for more than 8 years. I was an international student in Japan. Later my wife and I lived in China and I worked as a remote business consultant for a Japanese company. After that I was University professor for a time. And currently am a freelancer living in Taiwan.
I think I could rank pretty decently on his list of “life abroad experts.” And this is what I and any honest person on that list will tell you: “It is NOT a dream” (unless maybe you consider nightmares and dreams to be the same thing)
But let’s not shoot it dead just yet.
He’s about to tell us how we can make money in ways that sound plausibly easy. (some of them are even good, and clearly from people who have lived the pain of making-due abroad, but wait…)
Wait…. I just read number 8 on the list: “Claim Compensation for Your Disrupted Flight”… you can even get ClaimCompass.Eu to help you for a small commision….
And there you have it folks!
The real reason for the post.
Linkbait to promote their (ClaimCompass.eu’s) flight claim service.
Now, I’m not against linkbait lists. I’m barely against anything.
Except I DO find it incredibly ironic that a blog post about getting rich and travelling the world in bliss is being written by a company that helps with claims for cancelled flights!!!
I’m pretty sure that their clients who missed transfers and were stuck in airports don’t think that travelling the world is all sweet bliss.
Trash. Garbage. That’s what that propaganda is.
If you are thinking of travelling or living abroad, my advice to you is what I said in my “travel the world” post:
You better have a strong reason for going, because you will need it to endure the pain.