Justin Germino Ramblings

Kids really say the funniest things sometimes, and my six year old son (who will be seven very soon) is no exception to this.  We were driving in the car the other day and my son blurted out:

I want to be a nomad when I grow up, not the kind that live in tents, but the kind of nomad that lives in his car.

The fact that he used the word nomad tells me he is playing Age of Empires way to much (the nomads using Wagons to settle new territories is probably where he got the idea).  I just found the whole statement hilarious and literally couldn’t stop laughing.

Right now he keeps changing what he wants to be when he grows up, sometimes a doctor and other times a scientist or robot inventor even a video game designer or a blogger who runs charities…etc

Ah, what it is to be on the verge of seven years old with the world ahead of you and infinite possibilities at your disposal.

Let’s just hope the desire to be a nomad doesn’t stick.

-Justin Germino

I read a disturbing article by Carla K. Johnson who writes for the Associated Press the other day.  This article cites statistics that show that 1 in 5 teenagers now have hearing loss to the point where they can’t hear a whisper or leaves rustle.  That’s right, 1 in 5 teenagers can’t hear their mother whisper goodnight to them in their ears at night as they can’t hear in the 16 to 24 decibel range.

The hearing loss increase is attributed to increased listening of music with earbuds, concerts and volumes being set so loud that scarring occurs in the microfiber tissue of the eardrum. By contrast, hearing loss has been increasing overall since Walkman days, and used to be about 15% in the 1988-1994 range.

Some music devices have audio level controls which allow parents to lock the setting so a device can’t go louder than a certain volume and this certainly may be a good tool to help younger kids avoid damaging their hearing from personal audio devices, but surely only educating and trying to convince your kids that they don’t need to listen to music at 100+ decibels to enjoy it.

Of course, if you are the type of person that is blasting your car audio to where you can’t hear each other speak, or playing music so loud in the kitchen you can’t hear the blender, then this will fall on deaf ears.

-Justin Germino

I know so many people who own the P90X Home Fitness Workout Program now that it isn’t funny.  Like any Fitness program you purchase, it is only effective if you set a strict routine and stick with it.  Nothing will work to help you lose weight and get fit if you don’t adhere to a regimen.

The P90X system has something going for it that I have rarely seen in infomercial based products.  There are over 621 reviews on the product on Amazon.com and 430 are 5 star reviews, 85 4 star reviews and only 60 which are 1 or 2 star.

The majority of the complaints are not about the program itself either, but about the DVD’s being damaged or shipping not being prompt, and hassles with return policies. 

I myself was adhering to a bench routine, stepper with Wii Fit Plus periodically but got lazy and let my workout routine slip.  As a result I have gained about 15 pounds in the past year and am considering adding the P90X Home Fitness program as a potential item to jumpstart my motivation and dedication to working out again.

The program has 3 guides, and 12 diverse workout programs with online and other tools to keep you on track to meet your fitness goals.  I am always engaged in the science and information about muscle plateau and how the system uses a constant cycle of new exercises to keep your muscles learning and adapting.  The question is, do I have one hour a day to dedicate and commit to the program?

Has anyone used the program and do you recommend it?

-Justin Germino

I was browsing around for games online to see what might come after Starcraft 2 and I saw that Final Fantasy XIV is coming out for the PC and is a MMORPG game that looks to be pretty impressive.

The game features five playable races, several classes with dozens of abilities and much of what you would expect from an MMORPG game.  The fact that it is set with Final Fantasy theme and created by Square Enix means it probably will be exceptional.

I didn’t get into the Final Fantasy XIII MMORPG game because I didn’t want to commit to monthly fees for a game I wouldn’t play that much.

Final Fantasy XIV may change my mind after watching some of the animations and artwork for some of the creatures.

This looks like a game that might be worth pre-ordering and playing.  I have been a huge fan of Square Enix games and particularly the Final Fantasy series since the early 1990’s with Final Fantasy for Nintendo.  I just don’t own a PS3 or a Wii so didn’t get a chance to play Final Fantasy XII myself, but did play X and X-II the sequel which I enjoyed immensely.

As I don’t have as much time to game lately, I liked the linear game style where you just followed the story.  Games that are too open ended can end up costing too much time and that is something I don’t have as of late.

How many Final Fantasy fans are out there and what do you think of the latest Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG set in a Final Fantasy theme?

-Justin Germino

I actually have been a writer for AssociatedContent (now owned by Yahoo!) for a year and a half.  I joined on February 3rd 2009 and have earned nearly $70 with the site since that time frame.

Now my earnings mostly came from writing up front articles which paid out between $1 and $3 per article, with articles ranging from 400 – 600 words to qualify.  Then I earned between $2 and $3 monthly for pageviews on my articles.

I have been curious on how the Revenue sharing program works for AssociatedContent because they pay X amount per 1,000 pageviews, which is $1.50 or 1.5/10th of a cent per pageview until you reach the higher account status where you can earn up to $1.75 or $2.00 per 1,000 pageviews.  I currently am a Clout level of 7 which earns me $1.55 per thousand pageviews.

I was thinking that for my own personal preference, I would rather forgo doing up front article payments if AssociatedContent would have an AdSense Revenue sharing, something like 10% or 20% of AdSense for your articles that you publish.  I understand that the site earns AdSense revenue as a primary method for paying writers, but the cost per pageview is just much lower than Helium and far lower than your own blog running AdSense with the same content you would have submitted to AssociatedContent.

I do however that AssociatedContent will let you submit articles for up front payment as long as they are unique and can be on virtually any topic and at any time.  My wife used to make $20-$30 per week writing about 10-12 articles per week for AssociatedContent and she wrote about everything from food, parks, pets and as long as you write a good informative article you can get a pretty decent payout.  So when paid opps come thin for my blogs, sometimes I fall back to AssociatedContent and write some articles to pick up some extra change when I don’t have any offers coming from my usual blogging sources.

You can follow Justin Germino on Associated Content and see some of my poetry or unique and original articles which I submit to A/C.  I do sometimes repost some content from DragonBlogger or my Personal Blog, but many of my original Haiku’s and poems can be found there which aren’t shared on other sites.

Who else uses AssociatedContent? 

Do you think AssociatedContent should setup AdSense revenue sharing and give a direct portion of Ads clicked from your articles to you?

I know Helium pays more but you don’t have the flexibility of writing whatever you want, you have to find a title and write for their titles.  I have had several articles rejected and disqualified because I wrote for their "Title" and they deemed my article not "on point" enough for the topic.  This has caused them to even reject some of my poetry (which makes me question how they can be so objective, when poetry can be abstract even when not directly mentioning the Title).

-Justin Germino

Do you know your blogging purpose?  Why do you blog, is it a means of self expression and do you do it for yourself or with your audience and readers in mind?

My biggest mistake when blogging is having too many idea’s and not spending enough time to flush them out and create clear "business plans" for my various blogs.

You should treat blogging like any other entrepreneurial business if you ever have any intention of doing more with it than just venting your own writing/thoughts and don’t have any regard for turning into a product or service offering for readers.

Create a business plan for your blog

• Why start this blog?

I started DragonBlogger.com to offer technology, gadget and other reviews as well as to share my blogging tips and experiences learned with my audiences.  I figured whatever I learned as a blogger, I would share that knowledge with others so they can learn and avoid mistakes, mirror the same principles and systems that worked…etc to help with their own blogging.  My personal blog is similar in blogging experiences, but covers my personal thoughts, Arizona specific events and parenting tips. 

I created my poetry blog purely to let my poetry art be available on the public internet, I had my poems locked in an unpublished book and figured I mine as well put it online for people to read.  My poetry blog is my art and I do it for me, I really don’t have a regard for what "readers" want or look to provide readers information with my poetry blog.

• What do I offer my readers?

My primary blog offers technology reviews, news and blogging advice and tips that I have learned from my two years as a blogger.  I am establishing myself as a trusted source for honest reviews, feedback and information on technology and blogging related topics.  My poetry blog offers hundreds of original poems for any mood or occasion and has an interactive poetry game.  My personal blog is sharing insights from an Arizona resident, blogger and has some life lessons and blogging advice.

• Who are my readers?

My readers vary from poets and art lovers for my poetry blog to tech and blogging enthusiasts and peers for my personal and technology blog.  I also get lots of search traffic as people stumble across my blog looking to learn more about Paint dot Net, WordPress issues or more.

• What do I want to accomplish?

I want to become a trusted source of information, technology reviews and blogging tips for my readers.  I am hoping to expand my site into an online magazine at some point in the future and be able to offer a wide variety of articles that appeal to several topics.

• Where do I want my blog to be in 2 years?

DragonBlogger.com will be more of an online magazine like TomsHardware meets Mashable with a little IMDB mixed in as well.  In theory this is what I envision, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

In Summary

It is important to setup your blog like a business and have clear action plans and goals.  How about you, where do you see your blog in 2 years?

-Justin Germino

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

So I was thinking about the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes contest which is going on right now and the grand prize is winning a whole Hampton hotel 100 rooms for 2 nights, plus you get $5,000 to help cover any taxes so you don’t have to deal with that additional worry that comes with winning a gargantuan prize sometimes.

I know that if I were to win this grand prize that I don’t have enough friends to fill up 100 rooms, so I would probably try to do something truly fantastic.  I would hold a mini blogging convention and invite as many bloggers that I know and I would coordinate maybe a few conferences, food and turn it into a very small, very personal networking experience for the blogging community.

I am sure I could probably find 100 local bloggers, social media folks willing to network and come together for such an event.  I would even invite companies to sponsor and possibly cater food.

The First place contest is winning a two night stay for yourself and three of your friends.  This one is simple and we would probably coordinate a California trip for a weekend if I were to win this prize package.

All you have to do to enter the Chain of Friends Sweepstakes is click on the sponsor link above or below, and enter your registration information.  Typical name, email, address kind of information.  That’s it and it takes no time at all or any cost to enter the contest.  You don’t have to buy anything or commit to anything (heck I didn’t even get a single piece of advertising email from Hampton in (yet) when I subscribed and said I didn’t want offers or promotions).

This contest is open to anyone, even if you have never stayed at a Hampton in previously. 

What would you do if you won 100 hotel rooms for 2 nights?  Do you have enough friends to hold a party that big, or would you coordinate some sort of event?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Was checking out the deals offered by Boost Mobile and found they had some really good unlimited plan and monthly rates for a small variety of phones. 

One phone that looked pretty awesome was the Motorola i1 which is based on the Android OS and has all the features you come to expect in a Smart Phone.

With Boost Mobile you get unlimited talk, text, web and email for $50 per month which is a fraction of the cost for other mobile competitors which can charge over $90 per month for the same features.

Still other providers aren’t even offering unlimited data plans anymore, so purchasing an unlimited plan now may be a great way to save money so you don’t have to pay when you exceed your data bandwidth or the number of texts you send per month.

I even found that you can get a Blackberry Curve 8830 plan for $60 per month that also includes unlimited text, phone, data and web.  This is a really good price for a blackberry plan which can exceed over $120 easily for unlimited plans on other networks.

Boost Mobile offers something different called Re-Boost which is an allows you to create an account that can allows other methods to "fund" it.  This is a good option for teenagers or college students where parents can fund their accounts and add credit or partially pay bills for them if needed.

With Re-Boost you can pay online and add automatic payments from your credit card, or just register your card for future payments.  You can find an in-store locator to pay your Boost Mobile bill in person, or pay by phone as well.

Boost Mobile offers some nice phones and even nicer unlimited plans and if you are about to end your contract with your existing wireless provider or you don’t have a wireless cell phone provider yet, you should check out Boost Mobile and see if they have a plan and phone that fits what you are looking for.  Their prices are very competitive and worth considering to save some money every month, also note that there are no annual contracts with Boost Mobile.

I wrote my two year anniversary post on my Technology Blog yesterday and I found it hard to believe that I have now reached 24 months since I started blogging.  It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I started to branch out online and start writing, and writing and writing.

In fact, I have written so much varied content that I can’t keep track of it except by visiting my own sitemap on my sites.  I wrote over 1100+articles for DragonBlogger.com, over 780+ original poems & haikus for Wanderer Thoughts Poetry and another 875+ posts for JustinGermino.com.  This doesn’t include the 200+ articles/poems/haiku’s for AssociatedContent and about 25 guest blogging articles on varied sites like FamousBloggers.net, BlazingMinds, and BloggerTalk.net and Evoire.

I enjoy writing and especially writing about what I learn and the things I know, I have always been an enthusiast for technology, Internet and all aspects of computers and it comes out naturally in the things that I write about.  Blogging is my expression and something I will continue to do until I grow weary of it and don’t enjoy doing it.  I don’t see that happening in the near future, and even if I stopped I would still maintain my blogs just to keep them in circulation and online presence in case I wanted to start again at a future date.

I envy the bloggers who have stuck it out 4, 5 or 6 years in the industry and still blog as hard today as they did when they first started.  Blogging can be exhausting and your commitment to this enterprise can be taxing if you let it.  Remember to take it one piece at a time and set clear goals so can be as efficient as possible.  It is too easy to lose time to social media or other online avenues and not dedicate that time to building your blog by writing quality content.

-Justin Germino

What do you sacrifice?

We all sacrifice something every day of our lives, whether it be time, money, or something tangible.  I find that my own sacrifices mostly involve time and sleep, I work far too much and sleep far to little as of late.

I sacrifice my sleep and my free time in the hopes that I can really start jumpstarting my blogging to reach the next level.  I have been plateaued for almost nine months now and haven’t seen enough growth in both traffic and monetary terms so I have to make more effort and spend more time in trying to expand my online influence.

I only sacrifice these things because I actually still enjoy blogging, the moment I cease to enjoy it I would stop and let my blogs idle until I felt like doing it again.  My wife always hated my competitive nature in games and this same nature to achieve perfection in anything I do is what drives me constantly.  Because blogging is something that you can get a return based on how much you put into it, I feel that the more that I put in the more that I will get out of it in the long run.

It is exhausting sometimes, because my blogs take a backseat to my day job (rightfully, they should).  So on weeks where I am busy at work I just let my blogs sit until the weekends and I can play catch up.

I kick myself for not starting blogging back in 2003/2004 like most bloggers who wish they started earlier.  I was always in the IT industry and worked for more than 11 years in the web server/Internet space and for some reason only stumbled onto blogging in the middle of 2008.  Ironic considering I always enjoyed writing and wanted to be a novelist when I was a kid.

The fact that over 30,000 unique people visit my combined 3 blogs per month amazes me, and to think that more than 1 million people have visited my sites in the two years they have been live is even more astounding.  Now if only I can figure out how to refine and focus my energies and improve efficiency and productivity without sacrificing more time.

Who else sacrifices something for their work, hobbies or passions?

-Justin Germino