Note: This article pertaining to Why More Trip Reports are Usually Not Posted was originally published on Sunday, July 19, 2015 at 3:37 in the afternoon and has been updated.
“Personally I find most ‘trip reports’ that only focus on the airport lounges, airplane seat, food, and big chain hotels pretty boring. The destination is much more important to me. The F or even C seat on airline X is pretty much the same whatever the route. Same with lounges. And generic big chain hotels. But I guess there must be people out there who do care about that sort of thing for some reason.”
Why More Trip Reports are Usually Not Posted
This comment — which was posted here by FlyerTalk member glennaa11 — is one of many which I read on FlyerTalk and in the comments sections of weblogs…
…including The Gate With Brian Cohen — and this is my attempt at a response to glennaa11, based upon my experience.
Whenever I post an article here at The Gate With Brian Cohen, I attempt to determine what you want to read — and suggestions from you are always welcome, by the way. Sometimes it is news that may affect you. Sometimes it is about frequent travel membership program miles and points. Sometimes it is an offer from which you might benefit. Sometimes it is a weather report for a travel alert. Sometimes it is simply something which happens to be on my mind…
…and sometimes it is a trip report or a review of a place where I visited or experienced.
Of all of the types of articles which I write, the trip report or review consumes the most time to prepare — and yet typically does not garner the amount of views which other types of articles receive.
Not counting the actual experience or photographing it — or any technical glitches which I encounter from time to time — time and effort are needed to prepare for articles pertaining to trip reports and reviews, as they require:
- Sorting through the literally hundreds of photographs to select the best and most appropriate ones for the article
- Cropping each of the photographs so that they fit within the space of the article without slowing it down when you read it
- Applying adjustments to the photographs whenever necessary to compensate for any anomalies which may have occurred at the time the photograph was taken
- Adding the photographs to the media library within WordPress, which is the application software platform which powers The Gate With Brian Cohen — and that can at times be tedious, depending on the Internet connection and how many photographs are being uploaded
- Writing the article itself — usually with an attempt at creativity so that you do not find it boring
- Researching and posting links to articles which are related to the topic about which I am writing
- Checking information posted as fact — such as statistics or historical data — and that often entails checking multiple sources
- Placing the photographs within the most appropriate sections of the article
- Adding captions to the photographs
- Formatting the article — such as adding subheadings, bulleted items, tables, or stylizing certain words with color, bolding or italicizing as several examples
- Proofreading the article — and mistakes still slip by regardless, to my chagrin
- Publishing it to The Gate With Brian Cohen and BoardingArea, which is no more than the click of the Publish button
An article containing a trip report or review can take several hours to compose and post from start to finish, as I do not believe in “slapping together” an article just for the sake of posting it.
Curious about the statistics from within WordPress itself — which are admittedly not the the most reliable — I last revised the list of the top 50 articles of all time posted at The Gate With Brian Cohen in 2023 in terms of views; and while there are a few reviews sprinkled about in several places throughout the list, the only trip report of an actual destination which appears on the list is Review: At The Top, Burj Khalifa in Dubai — and Why You Should Avoid the Premium Experience…
…so here I am, having traveled to dozens of countries over the years with literally tens of thousands of photographs — from which I first must select — waiting to be shown. Waiting “on deck” are trip reports to still be written of many places over the years…
…and that does not include additional experiences with flights, rental vehicles, and lodging on which I have yet to report.
“Think of this as writing a diary”, reader Joey posted in the comments of this article I wrote on Friday, October 17, 2014 about how travel “blogging” is not easy. That — combined with the following statement which was sent to me via e-mail message from a person who will remain anonymous…
“I’ve always thought it was unhealthy for any blogger to break down their blog posts in a financial contribution manner as it tends to desensitize the reason why most bloggers get into having a blog.”
…are words of advice to which I strive to adhere daily. As I have stated multiple times in the past, revenue for The Gate With Brian Cohen is mostly dependent on views, with a minor portion of income that is derived from affiliate links…
…but I also try to write with you in mind — if only because The Gate With Brian Cohen is publicly posted at BoardingArea and not simply just a personal weblog for me. The natural tendency is to post more of what gets the most views — and it can be difficult to resist that at times — but if you are part of the subset of readers of The Gate With Brian Cohen who enjoys the pure trip report written by me, you are the reason why I continue to post those trip reports. My goal is to ensure that the information I post is useful to you — if not at least entertaining.
There are “bloggers” who are indeed doing this solely for the money. Although it is nice to earn revenue for doing something I enjoy — in fact, I believe everyone should earn a living doing something they enjoy instead of working at a job with which they are not happy — writing The Gate With Brian Cohen solely for money is simply not me as a person.
Final Boarding Call
The amount of views that any article receives is quite arbitrary and unpredictable; but I must admit that I was rather disappointed that my article pertaining to Staring Down Into the Crater of an Active Volcano in Vanuatu did not receive significantly more views than it did. I traveled all the way to Vanuatu earlier this year to be on the rim of an active volcano — something which I do not believe can be easily done anywhere else in the world. It was a unique experience that I will never forget — but despite sharing about it here and via social media, the tepid at best reception that that article received temporarily discouraged me from writing new trip reports about my experiences.
Next month, The Gate With Brian Cohen will celebrate its nineteenth anniversary; and you can count on more trip reports and reviews to be posted by me for as long as The Gate With Brian Cohen continues its run…
…but although there are exceptions to the following statement, my experience, glennaa11, is that reviews on airport lounges, airplane seats, food, and hotel properties of major lodging chain hotel and resort properties typically get more views than pure trip reports of destinations — and discussions with other “bloggers” and their experiences tend to confirm it. Aspirational experiences of gourmet food, suites and business class seats — as well as ways to travel for “free” or as close to free as possible — are what people are typically interested in reading. “Click-bait” headlines bring in more readers as well — a practice which I generally eschew but have done on occasion; and never with the purposeful intent to mislead you.
With some exceptions, it is simply human nature to be drawn to articles with “click-bait” headlines laced with controversy, sex, aspirational experiences typically not enjoyed by the “common folk”, and how to beat the system than to be drawn to trip reports — but perhaps I am incorrect…
…but maybe people would rather read about almost naked women who urinate on the floor while biting and spitting on a member of the flight crew while their dogs undergo violent diarrhea on a seat during a flight than a bonafide trip report that pertains to an actual experience — no matter how unique it may be…
…or perhaps I should simply treat The Gate With Brian Cohen as my own personal diary moving forward into the future and write about my experiences at my own pace.
As always, I am interested in your thoughts…
All photographs ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
