Jason Brubaker

Some Practical Thoughts On Building A Marketing Funnel

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A marketing funnel is the most essential component of your web business. When working properly, your marketing funnel allows you to automatically convert visitors to leads, leads to customers and customers to repeat customers!

The problem is, with all the fancy software options available, setting up a funnel can be confusing. When I started my web business, I was frustrated by all the complicated technical stuff. As a result, it took me years to learn what I’m about to share with you…

marketing funnel

Building A Marketing Funnel?

Here’s the thing. Despite all the marketing guru flowcharts that would make you believe otherwise, a marketing funnel is NOT linear. People don’t just come in the top of your funnel and then fall out of the bottom.

A marketing funnel is messy. It’s complex. And it has nothing to do with software. Paradoxically, a marketing funnel is also extremely simple. It is really just a way to get you (or your brand) in front of as many people as possible. Then you offer value, gain trust, and gain subscribers.

From there your goal is to create engaging campaigns (through email, retargeting, chat bots, videos, post cards, phone calls, and… smoke signals?) so you can add more value, create more trust… And eventually, you can make your pitch.

  1. Then you build more trust.
  2. Then you offer more value.
  3. Then you make a BIGGER pitch.
  4. Then you build more trust.
  5. Then you offer more value.
  6. Then you make an even BIGGER pitch.
  7. Then you build more trust.
  8. Then you offer more value.
  9. Then you make an even BIGGER, BIG pitch.
  10. And then you repeat the process. . . Again and again.

Don’t make this process overly complicated. All the fancy software (like this email service I promote) are just tools to help you accelerate this process and reach more people. The more people like you and trust you, the more they buy from you.

Secret Side Hustle: Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This Article

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If you’re sick of your job, starting a side hustle can help. And I’m speaking from experience. If you’re like most people, your job was fun in the beginning. You came to work each day, energized to make things happen. But over time, enthusiasm faded.

Market conditions, regulations and interpersonal crap with your co-workers and clients beat you into submission. And now “you’re woke,” asking yourself if this what life is about? Is this really the best you can do?

side hustle

Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This

At least you’re not alone. Everyone else at your work is going through motions like a bunch of task zombies. Even your boss. Except she’s worse off than you. Because in addition to also despising her job, she has to pretend what you’re doing matters. (It doesn’t.)

If this sounds familiar, you have two choices.

  1. Stay miserable until you get fired or die.
  2. Plan your exit strategy NOW.

To be clear, you don’t need to quit your job today. That would be reckless. But you do need to plan your exit strategy. And that is going to take some planning, courage and (eventually) action. To help you put things in perspective, watch this video:

See what I mean? When compared to the rest of the known universe, your work challenges are insignificant. Of course, this grandiose perspective doesn’t change the fact that come Monday, you’ll still have to white-knuckle your way through a bunch of bureaucratic BS.

The easy solution is to find another job. But this is a short term fix. Sooner or later you will hate your new job as much as you hate your current job. So instead of quitting, I suggest you keep your job and start a secret side hustle.

Establish Your Secret Side Hustle

A side hustle is a business you run on a small scale to grow and eventually replace your current income. And you should keep side hustle secret until it starts making money. The reason for secrecy is three fold:

  1. Your side hustle could make your intention to leave your current employer blatantly obvious… Which could prompt your boss to help accelerate your exit. Depending on your financial situation, that could suck.
  2. You don’t need the added pressure of friends and family continually asking about your business. And you certainly don’t need more unsolicited opinions outlining all the reasons your side hustle could fail.
  3. And finally, having a secret side hustle will give you clarity and confidence. While all your co-workers are mucking about, worried about their fate as an employee, you’ll be able to watch the show with delightful detachment.

As you gain success in your secret side hustle, don’t be surprised if you get promoted at work. It is hard to describe, but having your own source of income gives you interpersonal super powers… Suddenly your opinions matter and your influence grows… Probably because you don’t care. I think this clip from Office Space sums it up nicely:

If this sounds good, here are next steps for planning your secret side hustle:

Step 1: Know your number. How much money do you need to make each month to afford your desired lifestyle?

Step 2: Find your side hustle: Out of the gazillion businesses you can create on the side, which one grabs your attention the most? (Since you’re reading this blog, I suggest you create a blog business.)

Step 3: Research successful people: Find people successful in your niche, already selling stuff to your ideal customer. What are they doing that you like? What are they doing that you don’t like?

Step 4: Take baby steps to get there: Building a profitable side hustle into a full time business takes time. Work backwards. Break your big business goals into monthly tasks. Then break the months into weeks. And break the weeks into days. What task will you complete today to get one step closer?

Step 5: And finally, keep learning. The only way you’re going to gain success in life is by learning new stuff, and by meeting people more successful than you. That’s it. Everything else is more of the same.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

How To Leverage Social Stacking In Facebook Boosts

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Social stacking is a Facebook ninja hack that allows you to build ad campaigns around popular posts (and other ads) to generate cheap traffic and leverage social proof in an attempt to lower your CPA. One way to test a social stacking campaign is to boost a popular post on Facebook.

To get started, post an article to your business page. Then do nothing for a few hours. If the article has good engagement (sharing, clicks, comments) then you may want to boost it. And just in case you’re unsure of which posts to boost, Facebook will usually prompt you with something like this:

facebook social stacking

Facebook Social Stacking

Once you have an engaging post, click the Boost Post button. You’ll then have options to choose your targeting and set a budget. As long as you have your pixel correctly installed on your website, Facebook will track all engagement and activity. (And this data will help you in future Facebook ad campaigns.)

Because my primary blog revolves around filmmaking, I usually choose “filmmaking” as the broad interest. I then limit the geographical reach of my ad to the United States. And I then set the budget to $20-$100 dollars per day.

boost post ROI

Social Stacking Momentum

When your boost comes to an end, go into your Facebook ads manager and look at the data. If the ad performed well, you will have generated traffic, gained subscribers and possibly made some sales. In this example, my $50 dollar boost converted 3 sales for a total of $291 in revenue.

Since your boosted post will also have likes, shares and comments, you can further benefit from social stacking by recycling your ad into a new campaign. This gives you the advantage of social proof. And because Facebook factors the previous ad data, you should have a head start for achieving your marketing objective.

Facebook boost post

Get Email Subscribers

While there are multiple marketing objectives worth testing, when it doubt, I recommend you choose conversions and then work to get more email subscribers. You’ll then select your targeting, budget and placement… And you’ll simply select your popular post (as the ad) and get started.

Like all things marketing, nothing works all the time for every campaign. So I suggest you keep your budget low until you start seeing results. And with a little luck and persistence, you might some favorable results with social stacking.

How To Grow A Profitable Blog Working Your Day Job

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If you want to grow a profitable blog while working your day job (so you can eventually quit) you’re not alone. A quick Google search on the subject reveals a gazillion training courses promising that four hours is all you need to free up your life. But you and I know this is BS. But yet still buy the courses.

If you think about it, the reason you aren’t yet a full time blogger (or internet marketer) is because you are bound by negative beliefs. Think about it. From a young age you have been conditioned to seek the approval of family and friends. Can I do this? Can I do that?  Is this a good idea? What should I do?

profitable blog

How To Grow A Profitable Blog Working Your Day Job

Your ongoing need for outside approval has spilled into your professional life. Instead of growing your own profitable blog (or writing your own book), you feel an intense responsibility to get a good paying job, create a family and buy a home. You do this because this is what people do.

Even though you have the talent, interest and desire to grow an profitable blog, you still have an intense desire to find and keep a job. Heck, if you’re like most budding bloggers, you probably make a few internet sales each week. Then you drive to work and suffer though nine or ten hours of feeling like a caged animal.

Why do you do this? Why do you keep a job when you obviously have the capacity to make money to free yourself to continually grow your own profitable blog? It is because you don’t yet fully believe in yourself enough to take the plunge. You don’t believe your blog will survive. You don’t have enough gumption to quit the dead-end job and live life on your own terms.

Live Life On Your Own Terms

It’s true. You are doing okay at work. And you are on your way to making a modest amount of passive income through your blog. But you are also miserable. You spend each day eager to get out of the office – just so you can rush home and work on your own blog. But by the time you get home, you’re too damn tired to do anything.

One thing is certain. Asking for permission to live your life is a loser’s game. Asking permission makes you feel like a little kid. Asking permission makes you feel like someone else has power over your life. And without venturing too far into hyperbole, asking permission makes you feel like a slave.

The powerful never ask permission to create their world. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned this lesson after many years spent living in quiet desperation. And I officially learned this lesson when I started hanging out with successful people.

Successful People Leave Tracks

I know you’ve probably heard this voodoo stuff before. So I’ll spare you the eye-rolling nuggets of wisdom. But I will tell you that all the stuff they say about having a network is true. You really do become the people you spend the most time with. And your network becomes your net-worth!

When powerful people want to accomplish something, they do it. So if you want to be powerful, you need to stop asking permission and go after everything you want. Powerful people never ask: “Do you think I can grow a profitable blog?”

The powerful say:

“I’m saving every penny. When I reach 20K, I am going to quit my job and start my own blog.”

Does that mean that you should be reckless? No. Not at all. What I am saying is, you need a prudent plan of action. You need to ask, and then answer some serious questions:

  1. What do I want in life?
  2. How much will it cost?
  3. What small step can I take today?

Since I live in Los Angles, maintaining a reasonable lifestyle is expensive. As a result, my desired baseline is set at $10,000 per month. If I can maintain 10K, I’m doing okay. Depending on where you live, this number may be much lower. And that’s a good thing.

When growing a profitable blog, small steps add up.

One more guest post…

One more blog article…

Build A Sold Foundation

All of these tasks become a solid foundation for your future blog business. But nothing will happen overnight. In fact, you will likely not see any results for weeks or even years. But one thing is certain. If you do NOTHING, you’ll never get there.

Throughout this blog, I’m going to provide you with experience from the front lines and provide you with success secrets I wish someone shared with me a decade ago. I believe growing a profitable blog is possible for anybody smart enough to read this article.

If your definition of success is personal freedom, then there is only one course of action: You need to start today. Your objective is to start small, build your experience and create an internet following. Once you have a following, you can write your own ticket.

Don’t Break The Chain (And Other Habit Hacks)

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Don’t break the chain. That’s the mantra I keep repeating to myself every time I reach for a donut… Or bread… Or french fries. And I am not going to sugarcoat it. Despite the fun stuff happening in my career, achieving physical fitness is a challenge. At five-foot-ten, weighing 215 lbs, my BMI is a roughly 31.

How I got to this point is both subtile and obvious. Subtle because gaining excessive weight has taken me ten years to achieve. Obvious because I got into the common habit of eating (and drinking) more and moving less. Looking back, it’s easy to see how an overabundance of bread, chips and salsa, french fries, donuts and alcohol led me to this point.

don't break the chain

Small Habits Add Up Over Time

When you look at the image above, I look pretty okay by most standards. (It also helps that I’m standing next to my beautiful wife.) But according to a number of medical professionals, my BMI (body mass index) is not within the healthy range for my height. And this puts me higher than average risk for acquiring some sort of obesity related disease. Fun times.

More than the health benefits, some things don’t FEEL right. Over the past year my wife has surprised me on a few occasions with awesome dress shirts. Even though she bought the large size, many don’t fit. This alone is motivation to take action. And if I’m really being transparent with you (which is the goal of sharing this story), the most embarrassing aspect of the extra weight is a set of man boobs. Man boobs!

Suffice it to say, this is my wake up call. Because I want to live to at least 85 years old 110 years old and still have youthful mobility (and be present for my wife and family), I figured NOW was a good enough time to change the way I eat, live and sleep. My goal in sharing this is to help keep me motivated, while at the same time provide you with inspiration for your own life.

Don’t Break The Chain

One tool I’m using is the “Don’t Break The Chain” philosophy. This method was supposedly used by Jerry Seinfeld early in his career so he could consistently write new jokes. This is basically a calendar where you set ONE goal and place an X on every day you achieved the goal. Over time your X’s look like a chain XXXXXX. If you miss a day, you need to start over.

Here is a wall calendar you can grab from Amazon, if you’re interested:

don't break the chain

Track Your Progress

My fitness goal is to drop 45lbs of fat. That will put me square at 170 LBS, adjusting my body mass index to 24.4, which is right around the normal range. I’ll then fit into my shirts and feel better about myself. Instead of getting overly complex, I’m going to achieve these heath and productivity goals by replacing bad habits with good habits.

Habits To Cut:

  1. Alcohol Intake: I won’t get into it here. But I’ve spent too much of my life enjoying too much alcohol. And while my version of “rock bottom” involved embarrassing myself in a chance meeting with Rob Pattinson (which I’ll share some other time)… If I am going to change, I have to get real. Alcohol has mad me fat. So I need to take a break.
  2. Eating Bread: Yes. I get it. Oprah loves bread. And while I can’t speak for her journey, I love bread too. A little too much. And I also love donuts. And while I’m thinking about it, I also cannot stop eating tortilla chips. So these need to go.
  3. Internet and TV: Bottom line, I spend too much time watching dumb videos online. I also debate politics. This is time I could be spending with my wife, dog or working on new projects. So I’m cutting the dumb media down.
  4. Stop Complaining: I’m not sure how this will help my physical health. But I’m pretty sure by cutting down on my complaining (about politics, a challenging work day or life) I’m going to start thinking clearer thoughts.
  5. Avoid Toxic People: This is a little harsh. But you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. My goal is to only spend time with people who lift me up, and not put me down.

Habits To Keep:

  1. 30 Squats and 30 Pushups: This may seem overly simplistic. But I wanted to create at least one daily fitness goal I could stick to without much effort. And being able to accomplish this one should be super easy.
  2. Write Every Day: I’m resolving to write at least 300 words per day.
  3. Uplift Friends: Every day I’ll be reaching out to at least one friend to see how they are doing. When appropriate, I will work to uplift them and provide useful advice to their lives.
  4. Networking: Each day I’ve resolved to reach out and connect with someone just beyond my reach. My primary goal here is to meet and build relationships with new people. But I will also reach out to old friends too.
  5. Record Food Intake: I am using MyFitnessPal. And I plan to meticulously record every morsel of food I ingest.

While it is unrealistic to expect overnight results, “Don’t Break The Chain” is a simple personal development ritual, designed to help you establish habits to get you where you need to go.

Side Hustle Update – 02/08/19

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Every few weeks, I get uber transparent about the steps and the struggles I’m taking to build an online business. Feel free to follow along so you can gain useful internet marketing tactics (and avoid my mistakes). Here is my recent side hustle update:

1.) Online Income: I ended last year on a good note. With lots of promotion, I was able to surpass my revenue goal. And while I don’t yet feel comfortable posting income reports, I’m happy to report it was double my monthly job income. January slowed down quite a bit. And that’s a bummer. I suspect it’s because I slowed down my online advertising and started pushing my $97 per month mastermind.

2.) Monthly Mastermind: If you hire a coach who wrote the book on coaching, then sooner or later you’ll start a coaching program. In my case, I set up a monthly mastermind. And I kept it very simple. For $97 per month, mastermind members hop on the phone with me to discuss business challenges in a safe, collaborative, environment. While my numbers aren’t significant, I’m pleased to report NINE people have signed up.

3.) Company Valuation: Every few months someone will ask if I want to sell my company. When it comes to valuations, I lean towards a three year multiple. And the numbers can be pleasantly surprising. For example, let’s pretend that only ONE customer signs up for your $97 per-month membership. It’s easy to think there isn’t much value in one customer paying $97 for one month. And you’re right.

But what if you multiply the $97 times twelve months, times three years? Now your company is worth $3,492. Again, this sort of money isn’t life changing. But if you get 100 customers paying $97 a month, now your company is worth $349,200. Get 1000 customers, and your company is worth… $3,492,000.

4.) Sales Goals: Given what I just shared, the big question is HOW. How do I get my first 100 customers? It’s not an easy question to answer, but it’s the correct question to ask because it prompts you to get creative.

5.) Life Vision: I’m working to define my big life vision. And I imagine making my living helping other people find success. To do this, I plan on writing (more) helpful articles, putting on talks and sharing the stuff I know through membership sites, masterminds and one-on-one coaching. This will afford me time to spend with family, friends, and do good for humanity.

New Years Resolutions Suck: How To GO BIG In 2019

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New Years Resolutions suck. And if you’re like most ambitious people, you just spent the last few weeks thinking about how you’d like to go big in 2019… You thought about who you are and who you want to become. And maybe for the first few days (in the New Year) you actually took some steps to get there.

But then life happened. And you already dropped some of your “resolutions.”

So why does this happen?

go big in 2019

New Years Resolutions Suck

The reason you haven’t (seriously) achieved the BIG LIFE CHANGING GOALS is because it is easier to stay comfortable every day, than go big. And you might even be comfortable, being uncomfortable… And believe me, I’m speaking from experience on this one!

Every day you wake up and you make similar decisions as the day before. Sure. You know what you should be doing. But you put off until tomorrow. Then days become weeks. And if you don’t figure out a way to change, you’ll be right back here, reading a similar article 365 days from now. And that will not feel good. So if you’re not where you want to be, you have two decisions:

  1. Do nothing and continue to let life push you into a comfort zone.
  2. Take serious action (not just theory) in the direction of your goals.

If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’re the type who wants to take serious action in the direction of your goals… And go big. But maybe you’re stuck on something. And maybe you don’t know what actions to take next?

How To GO BIG In 2019

Here are two tactics to help you go big this year:

  1. Learn NEW Stuff: Seriously. Read more books. Listen to audio training and podcasts. Watch instructional videos. Go to workshops. Make it your mission to listen to at least one informative podcast or audio book EVERY DAY. Over time this creates new thinking. And new thinking will eventually lead you to new action.
  2. Meet NEW People: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If the people you hang out with are average, you will remain average. You need to find people who are playing a BIGGER GAME and spend time with them.

Attend networking events in your area and make it your mission to take at least one (successful) person to lunch or breakfast every week. This practice will eventually help you make new friends, get you thinking in new ways, which will open the doors to new opportunities. And if you don’t know where to start, I suggest joining the local toastmasters club.

The secret of going big is achieved through small steps over time. And if you’d like to network with me, make sure you sign up for the most awesome newsletter you’ll ever read. Actually, I’m a little biased. But I do think you’ll like the stuff I send you.

How To Build A Simple Sales Funnel That Gets Results

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If you want to build a simple sales funnel that gets results, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed. Between chatbots, social media advertising, non-linear email solutions, and complex landing page software, it often feels like you need to become a software developer before you can promote your product or service. But that’s not true.

Regardless of technology, the fundamentals of selling should always be your focus. Put simply, people buy from people they like and trust. And a sales funnel is simply a series of “touch points” that helps you build profitable relationships at scale.

Sales Funnel = Automated System To Build Trust And Make Sales Online

simple sales funnel

How To Build A Simple Sales Funnel

One of the easiest ways to build a sales funnel is by focusing on email subscribers. Unlike social media, email offers a great way to cut through noise and build relationships with real people. By real people, I mean people like YOU. Think about it – You’re not just some number in a vast ocean of faceless subscribers… And neither are your email subscribers.

Subscribers + Trust + Targeted Email Offer = Sales

Your email subscribers have problems that need solving. And it is up to you to find ways to continually provide more value.

Get Started

When it comes time to build your simple sales funnel, you’ll need to focus on three components including a landing page, a trust sequence and a sales sequence. To make this easy, let’s pretend that you’re a professional puppy trainer. And the goal of your business is to find more customers who need puppy training. In this example, your simple sales funnel may look like this:

  1. Landing Page: This is a simple page that asks people for an email address in exchange for something of value, called a lead magnet. In this example, your lead magnet might be a basic puppy training course, delivered via 5-7 emails…
  2. Trust Sequence: The goal of your trust sequence is to share value and position yourself as an authority. In this example, it would be the puppy training course.
  3. Sales Sequence: Once you build trust trust via the puppy training course, your sales sequence is simply 3-5 emails added to the mix, designed to sell your puppy training services. (If you don’t yet have a way for customers to transact with you, just set up a PayPal account and then include a link to your PayPal page in each sales email.)

The experience gained by mastering these basics will naturally lead to other, more complex sales funnels. But for now, just keep it simple. And if you’re ready to get started, I recommend researching Aweber (they pay me to promote, but I’ve used them on my own sites for years.) Aweber is a simple email software solution that allows you to do most of this stuff.

Side Hustle Update – 11/01/18

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Every few weeks, I get uber transparent about the steps and the struggles I’m taking to build an online business. Feel free to follow along so you can gain useful internet marketing tactics (and avoid my mistakes). Here is my recent side hustle update:

1.) Online Income: This is the third month in a row that my online revenue has surpassed my job income. While I do have business expenses that cut into my profits, I’m super encouraged by the trend.

2.) Mindset Weakness: Despite business success, I am so conditioned to believe I need an employer, that I have a hard time imagining life without a job. This is ironic because I’ve always worked in sales. And I’ve generated several million dollars in revenue for my employer. Why can’t I take the same skillset and generate millions in my own business?

I understand this is a huge mindset weakness. And if I don’t figure out how to reframe my thinking (and soon) I fear I’ll eventually become one of those old dudes living with regrets. So it’s go time…

3.) Expanding Network: To overcome limiting beliefs, I’ve been pushing myself to do two things: I’m learning new stuff via training videos, books and audio books, and I’ve been meeting every successful entrepreneur I can.

When I meet entrepreneurs, I always ask the question: “What’s it like to be free?” Most times the responses are similar: “It feels damn good.”

Many of these folks ask me when I’m going to take the plunge, prodding: “How much would your business grow if you chose to do it full time?”

This reminds me that freedom is possible. It also reminds me that there is only so much you can do before a “side hustle” has to become the “main hustle” or it stops growing… I’ve also been praying a lot.

The Impulsive Traveler’s Guide to Cruise Hacking

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Cruise hacking is a subset of travel hacking. And if the concept of travel hacking is new to you, here’s the deal: Travel hacking is simply the art of maximizing loyalty and travel reward points so you can get discounted (and most times free) hotels, flights, car rentals and cruises. And before I share the actual mechanics of how I scored a $1160 rebate on an upcoming cruise, a little context.

For the past three years, my wife and I have celebrated New Years in Europe. Our trips included stops in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. While all these cities offer unforgettable experiences, moving from hotel to hotel mid-trip is exhausting. That’s what prompted us to explore the possibility of spending our next European New Year on a cruise. A cruise allows you to visit popular destinations, while also keeping the same hotel room.

cruise hacking

Planning Could Have Saved Us Thousands!

It didn’t take too long to discover New Years is possibly the most expensive time to take a cruise. After scouring the internet for an entire Sunday afternoon (not kidding), we settled on an MSC Cruise with several stops around Spain and Italy. The cruise totaled out to $3,648, another $1,756 for our flight and roughly $210 to cover two nights in a hotel.  Suffice it to say, spending $5,614 represents a pretty sizable chunk of change. And blowing this kind of money is the opposite of cruise hacking!

Despite our excitement, my wife and I could have planned better. Just a month earlier we squandered 100,000 Alaska Airline Miles to fly first class from California to Pennsylvania. Had we flown coach, the leftover Alaska miles would have covered the Europe flight. We also discovered that some airlines allow you to use miles to purchase cruises.

To make up for our frivolous mileage spend, we decided to think ahead. If we were going to pay cash for this trip, we may as well leverage the spend in preparation for a future trip. Because we didn’t have much time (before flight prices increased), we booked our $1,756 flight with my Alaska Airlines Visa. This at least earned us 1756 airline miles, which isn’t much.

Cruise Hacking With Credit Card Reward Points

MSC allowed us to reserve our room with a non-refundable $398 deposit. Once set, I quickly applied for the Capital One Venture credit card. The card gives you 2X miles per dollar on every purchase, and 50,000 bonus miles once you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months. When the card arrived, we immediately contacted MSC and paid the remaining balance of $3250. We also made a few additional purchases, including a hotel. This gave us a total of 61,330 miles.

When I initially applied for the card, I didn’t realize how quickly Capital One would reward us for the purchases. Unlike other cards that usually take a few cycles to process, the miles were ready for use in days. I was also happy to discover Capital One Venture also allows you to redeem travel purchases!

venture card travel hacks

Capital One gave us the option to redeem our miles to towards the hotel (which we booked through Expedia) and a portion of the cruise. We selected the cruise, and the 61,330 miles reduced our cruise total by $613 or $2637. While not the most groundbreaking example of cruise hacking, saving a few hundred dollars was better than nothing. But it wasn’t good enough…

Prompted by the cash back rewards at Capital One, we researched other credit cards. My wife found and applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. After spending the required $4,000 minimum (which also required some creative spending I’ll share in future articles) we received an additional credit for $547.

Chase Sapphire Rewards Travel Hacking

When added up, the credit card rewards reduced our total out of pocket spend from $5,614 to $4,454, providing a total savings of $1,160. Here is how it looks from a reimbursement perspective:

  • $110 – Hotel, first night (Reimbursed!)
  • $100 – Hotel, last night (Reimbursed!)
  • $1,756 – Flight for two (Reduced to $596)
  • $3,648 – Cruise for two

While these reimbursements aren’t life changing, getting some cash back is better than paying full price. Had we done our research a year (or even six months) in advance, we could have generated enough reward points to cover the entire trip. So bottom line, when it comes to cruise hacking, advanced planning is key!