Hello, quarantined people of the world.
First, thank you for continuing to read my little blog. I’m trying to deliver things I think are worth knowing, not sweating the small stuff and it’s been fun to see how people are reacting to new ideas and concepts as we move ahead in a reinvented world.
If I could take a moment to highlight a few articles I think you should read, I’d suggest this one predicting future travel trends, and this one about how classism is coming back to travel in a big way. Anyway…
Speaking of reinvention, I wanted to talk to you about a few things we have going on this year, which aim to “enhance” your GSTP readership experience. For starters, we’ll be introducing a pay wall on our content. JK, that sh*t is so annoying, unless it’s like the New York Times and even then it’s like…ugh.
And no, I won’t be launching any 24 hour blackouts to tell you GSTP is irreplaceable and you should donate and receive nothing in return either.
Unlike the travel definition of enhance, I really hope we can actually make your experience engaging with GSTP more enjoyable and enhanced over the coming months. In a time where bloggers are making pretty much nada, we’re going to change the way you surf, with a brand new, mobile first website.
To the best of my knowledge, GSTP was the first travel blog to have a theme like this, and I’ve been amused to find (this exact theme down to the font) on quite a few blogs since, and with any hope we’ll find something new that will “inspire” others.
If you’d be so kind, I’d genuinely appreciate your feedback on what frustrates you, or makes you happy with the current design, so we can tackle this task together. There’s no wrong answer. Feel free to email mailbag @ this website dot com if comments section isn’t preferred.
And don’t forget to tell them about the podcasts!
Ah yes, the podcasts you ask! We’ll be introducing not one, not two, but three podcasts this year at a minimum. I can assure you, none of them have a thing to do with points. They won’t be weekly, they’ll be released in series, like Netflix, and I’m thrilled to unveil two of the series.
Series One: Travel Perspective
This series will lift the lid on travel through a variety of perspectives, from superstar DJ’s to pilots, family travels and more. Each episode tackles the interesting things around that viewpoint, with tips and lots of banter. We started recording last week and I have some amazing guests from the world of sport, music, flying, fashion, education and more.
Series Two: 48 Hours In
Our 48 hour guides have always been one of the things that give me pride on GSTP. They’re a huge pain in the ass to make, make virtually no money, but are 100% tried and tested glorious guides to the world’s most captivating places. If something is on there, it’s been personally tested and is worth knowing. We’ll feature friends and hosts from around each destination to break down these guides further in audio format, which is rad.
The rest? I could tell you, but then I wouldn’t be able to drain another page view out of you later in the future. Please, please do take time to let me know what you’d like to see from a new design, or any frustrations or things that can be done better. A successful build is all about how it works for you, not me.
Thanks for being here, I value your time. Stay safe!
Everyone has to eat but my thoughts are that all these “influencers” or is that “influenzas” ? don’t have the following they think they have when it comes to making their hobby pay. Every month I have wanabee people wanting to use some of my locations for free and then get pissed off when I suggest they make some payment and their entitlement meter goes off the chart. I’ll see these tossers with a squeegee at the traffic lights come Autumn.
I love the read. I like the content and of course I “need” the offers but I think I get 19/20 offers from other sources either in time or ahead of GSTP time. As a UK reader, all USA content is meaningless.
I think there may be a market (and if you develop it then I have the patent ok ?) for paid content aggregation but I don’t see a market for multiple paywalls trying to get fees for the same underlying feeds. But add those feeds together, aggregate them allow filtering (e.g. the USA crap) and offer something truly worth paying for and I’m in.
However, send me crap I don’t care about, being late to the party or in truth, wanting for me to pay for you to go sit on £1000 a night beaches and tell em how good it is, well, I’ll just go myself.
I like the ballsy way to reach out, to be a first adopter and to shove two fingers up at the rest of them, us and me but if this is your only gig and say you need £25/50k a month to make it worthwhile, that is a shit load of £5 subscriptions and even more $1.99 purchasers.
Ex banker, maths guy, now entrepreneur and in business. I can’t see how the numbers stack up when the freebies stop rolling in ?
Hello Talay,
Perhaps my joke fell flat, but there are no plans at all to launch a paywall, ever.
I don’t see any obvious flaws and think things are just fine.
Gil, I know I’ve given you sh** on here from time to time, but I do appreciate your content and the positive attitude you bring to it. Keep up the good work.
I really like header/banner photo on this post. You’re really starting to get/look creative. Don’t be shy about showing your face. Plus strong writing. Three of your posts made my personal “best” list last week — 11 things, cc to max quarantine spend, and Marriott gaming. Keep leading; I will follow.
I like change and looking forward to what you come up with. Also I like that you have shared some of your personal struggles plus given a little window into your personal life .I Enjoy the 48 hour post .
You seem very accessible do you ever think about making yourself available to Q and A with random travel questions as part of your page. I know It’s not a new idea ….
It would be great to have some sort of index of your posts! Especially the 48 hours series or similar. Something where you can sort by country or continent or even alphabetical. The default chronological by date posted makes it difficult to collect together.
For example, I want to plan a trip to Southeast Asia or Japan. It would be great to see all of those guides together to help plan travels to that part of the world without sifting through all the guides. Because they are *fantastic* to read.
Also, (minority user probably) I am a big RSS reader and use Feedly go aggregate blogs. GTSP only provides a snippet of the first bit, requiring me to click through to the website. Probably better for driving ad revenue (which I totally understand!) but frustrating nonetheless.
Keep up the good work, hope baby is doing well. We had a little one not too long ago and it sure changes perspective!
Your “Classism” and “Predictions” posts will either make us think, or make our traveler heads explode.
What I miss on a lot of points blogs is not just trip reports, but a real drill-down on how each part was booked— points transferred from x to y, and how/when you found availability, etc. seems like a lot of blogs are aiming more for aspirational then nuts and bolts.
I do enjoy the posts you provide with tips, award sweet spots, etc— is love to see it detailed out for a whole trip.
I look forward to whatever you decide on doing!
Your insights are great. For the future, I don’t prefer podcasts…at all.
I appreciate the blog although the UK info re flight deals does not do me a whole lot of good. I appreciate the different perspective then I get from other blogs such as MTM OMAAT etc.
Gilbert, your blog is my favorite in this space. But your attempt at a joke fell flat this time.
Haha I’m sorry! Thanks PM1.