Don't worry, it's just an inside joke.
I think the only thing worse than not supporting a fellow DISer with a click is supporting TPG with a click.
Brian Kelly, aka "The Points Guy," started a blog about racking up credit card points and using them for cheap or free travel. The blog took off, and a few years ago Kelly sold the TPG site to Bankrate for millions of dollars (making Brian Kelly a millionaire and an even bigger d-bag than he already was), and he remains the editor and "face" of TPG. Bankrate, now owned by Red Ventures, also bought up Million Mile Secrets and Mommy Points, among other points and miles blogs and sites.
These blogs make money from a combination of digital advertising and affiliate links (the referral links to credit card offers that are littered throughout their articles and websites). For an idea just how much money TPG made in advertising dollars from the banks over the past 2-3 years, see a previous post
here and some of my thoughts on the matter. As for their affiliate links that direct you to apply for credit cards, these are not your normal referral links. They don't pay in points or miles, and aren't capped per year. Every approved application generated from an affiliate link could pay the site $10 or $20 on the low end, to $200-$300+ for the super premium cards. Here's an old
post that'll give you some idea what kind of money these bloggers are making when someone applies through their link.
As I've said before, if TPG (and any other blogger) is taking thousands or millions of dollars from the banks to push these banks' products, you really need to question whether the site is in it for their own pecuniary interest or the best interest of their readers in getting the best signup offer. [Normally, I'd have examples to cite here, but I'm on my phone and it's Father's Day, so forgive me if I generalize a little from memory.]
TPG will always sell you the worse deal because they are in the banks' pocket. Banks are constantly changing up their offers to generate interest in their card products. Sometimes the banks’ marketing affiliates like TPG will get links to the new, better offers first; other times, it can take a few days from when the banks announce a new offer and make it publicly available to when the affiliates get their links to the offer. TPG (and other bloggers) will actually withhold news of a better offer and continue to push the old offer until they have affiliate links that pay for the better offer. And then generally, TPG (and other bloggers) will sensationalize their affiliate offers as the “best ever,” or more than the previous offer, without also explaining how and where their readers can get a better deal. A few examples here include shilling the 40k Rapid Rewards points offers on the Southwest personal cards for much of this year when folks here were applying for the personal cards at 50k miles using in-flight links. (40k combined with a 60k SUB on the SW Biz would still put a TPG reader almost 10k miles short of a Companion Pass, whereas a link to a 50k SUB and the 60k SW Biz SUB would get us automatic Companion Pass for up to two years). Also, TPG’s been promoting the Amex Gold card at 35k Membership Rewards points (and to be fair mentions that some people may be targeted for 50k MR offers through Cardmatch); but doesn’t share that getting targeted on Cardmatch is pretty hard but pulling up the 50k MR offer on most any browser in incognito mode is really easy. Even with the recent re-release of the Rose Gold card, TPG will have you think if you want the “Rose Gold” card, you need to apply via referral (or their links) and the best offer you’ll get is 40k MR; but doesn’t share that you can apply for the “Gold” card via the incognito method for 50k MR, and just ask Amex chat to send you the “Rose Gold” color if that’s what you want. And not to mention that you can get better SUB offers on most cards by using various methods of referral/self-referral (i.e., not using affiliate links), targeted mailers and offers, incognito, Cardmatch, and dummy bookings. But of course TPG won’t share any of this because it doesn’t earn the site any money, and in fact takes clicks away from their affiliate links.
So where does Doctor of Credit come down on all this? DoC doesn’t have or accept any affiliate links from the banks. DoC has affiliate links up for
Amazon and eBay, and has a few affiliate or referral links to various apps or services, which they only push if their readers get something out of it. William and Chuck at DoC are about as honest and forthcoming as they get in the points and miles blogosphere.
Before you use a link, always ask yourself (and even the rest of us here), are you getting the best deal? Bloggers fall on a spectrum. Some are less shilly than others. Here at DISchurners, we’re not professional pushers and we’re more or less like you. We try to give the best advice we can and call things as we see them.
I hope you didn’t take any offense at my little in joke. Don’t worry, you’re in good company.
@amalone1013 is Mother Superior of the Shunnery and she’s got snacks.
nobody report me, @Lain asked for it!
C'mon, all we wanted was a vending machine of refrigerated items that didn't break for days at a time and then just got... turned back on 
Good thing I listen on 1.5x speed lol
