Justin Germino Ramblings

Nobody had ever planned it intentionally as a thumb rule to blog for selling. However, it is the best marketing medium in the present scenario. For more than a decade, people have been blogging to their interest. And, when blogging becomes a strategy to market products and services, companies innovate new trends in the field and add new aspects for others to follow. Corporate web development and ecommerce best practices remain incomplete if the site does not have a blog section somewhere clearly visible for the readers.

Blogging has taken several evolutionary phases to reach to its current status, though the basics have remained unaltered. Let us do a recap of the strong basics of corporate blogging, which earns for the company in many ways.

Before going to the overly detailed description, let us do a quick-look of the points covered.

· Inclination & Alignment

· The Biggest of All – ‘Call to Action’

· Links Work

· Keep Readers in your Good Book

· Sometimes Distract Them, Also!

Inclination & Alignment

Because this is not a personal blogging initiative, all the resources and information working for the project must be aligned with a view to feed your readers the exact stuff they are WAITING to read. Collaborate with the Product Team and Marketing & Sales team to fetch valuable information to write in the blog

Well, what all can you fetch from the product/sales team? Let us put them the way its customers do.

‘How is the product helpful for me?’

‘What are the Do’s & Don’ts?’

‘Tell me something more about the product.’

The common idea behind the product creation should be inclined with the interest of the customers. If you can connect with the customers, answering their queries and confusions, you have the fair chance of selling the product well.

The Biggest of All – ‘Call to Action’

‘Call to Action’ is certainly important for a successful blog; however, its placement becomes the biggest deciding factor whether it converts to a potential sale. People would not deviate from your site, if appropriate Call to Action points were at appropriate locations. The more customers spend time on the page, stay glued to the page, and keep on discovering with interesting Call to Actions, the more is the success of conversion.

Make it Easy – Shot, Concise, and Actionable

Make it Visible – Proper Placement

More is Better – Place them at Multiple Location (But, not Busy)

Another important aspect is creating the Call to Action points fitting to all user groups; tailored to connect them at any stage they visit the website.

Links Work

This means, DO NOT push the campaign or promotion in the main content. If done so, the page literally loses its essence and looks definitively PROMOTIONAL. Create links, such as promotional banners, offers, and contests, etc. on the page so that readers are prompted to click them at different phases. However, this strategy must be well planned and the consumer psyche at each stage must be researched excellently while creating the links.

While linking on the same page is relevant, linking in different pages of the website is equally helpful. To cite an example, if your website has separate FAQ section or Knowledge Base section, these are the best places to put the call to action for bring the customers more close to an informed purchase decision.

So consider both – linking on the page and linking elsewhere in the site.

Keep Readers in your Good Book

If you find a genuine reader for your blog, do connect with him or her every time you update your blog with information of choice. This helps in great dean than following up new readers and supplying them with content, which they do not care to read or LIKE. Make a list of such appreciators of your blog categorizing them based on the content type they love to read and connect with them as you post a blog of their liking. Remember, few genuine readers of your blog can spread your message to thousands of potential customers.

Sometimes Distract Them, Also!

At times, a sudden distraction that quickly prompts the readers to check your website does the task. However, too much surprise can bring heart attacks. (Just Joking) So refrain from doing this too frequently or meaninglessly. Wait for the right occasions or suitable time when people readily go for similar purchases without much researching. Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, and Thanksgiving are great occasions for a sweet surprise on your blog.

Blogging will ever remain as a powerful mode of selling. Marketers at all levels well realize the power of blogging and it is evident just by looking at blogs online that market. With changing search engine guidelines, the importance of SENSIBLE blogging has become many folds. Typically, the very basics of blogging will remain unchanged, only a few improvisation or customization will make it better time-to-time.

When we were kids, the only dangers that stared us in the face were on the streets. As long as we were in our own homes, we were safe and our parents had no need to worry about us. Not anymore! Times have changed and with the internet being such a fundamental part of modern life, our kids are no longer safe even in their own homes.

However, children need access to the internet. It is an essential learning tool and their teachers will expect them to be able to use it for research and homework. It is also a great way for them to learn how to use computers. There’s absolutely no point in banning them from the internet altogether, but you absolutely must make sure that they are completely safe whilst they are using it. Here’s how:

Set the Rules

You need to have a discussion with your children about what constitutes good internet use. Tell them (without going into too much detail) of the dangers of speaking to strangers on the internet. Let them know the perils of clicking on unknown links, and make sure they understand that they should never ever give out personal information. Establish these rules early and keep the computer in a communal area so that you can keep an eye on what is going on. Child predators are extremely clever about how they hook young innocent kids in, so always err on the side of caution.

Install Parental Controls

You may feel like spying on your children’s internet use is a little underhand and perhaps it is. However, as long as they know that you are able to see everything they are up to, it should be enough to stop their curious little fingers from wandering where they shouldn’t. It is essential that they know you can see what they are up to, otherwise it is definitely bordering on the edge of underhand.

Parental controls actually prevent children from accessing certain sites altogether and if you don’t have some sort of controls in place, then you are without doubt putting your children in extreme danger. You have a responsibility to protect them and parental controls will help you do this.

Controls are completely flexible, meaning you can tailor your permissions to suit every age in the house. They can help you limit the amount of time your child spends online too. They have built in keyloggers which record conversations over email, instant messaging and social media, so you can make sure that your child is not involved in cyber bullying.

Give Them Their Independence

No child wants to feel like they are being spied on, so once the rules and agreements have been put in place; leave them to it as much as possible. Only if you are suspicious should you start trawling through their activity. If you trust them, tell them. It will let them feel independent and will be less likely to abuse your trust. Understand that children need privacy and ask them to understand that you need to keep them safe.

About the Author:

Today’s guest author, Jim Powell, is a software reviewer at Well Researched Reviews, a software reviewing firm. He enjoys cooking and trying new recipes and calling friends over for dinner as a leisure activity.

July 4th 1999 is when my wife and I married at the Phoenix Zoo and our honeymoon was spent in Las Vegas.  Well 14 years later our Anniversary this year is in Las Vegas which it usually isn’t, we go to Las Vegas often, and only a few times was it to celebrate our Anniversary.  Last year was Napa Valley, but this year we decided on a smaller classic tribute for our annual vacation.

It is our time to celebrate 14 years of history, of great joys, loss, love, pain, happiness, sadness, learning and fumbling together.  It is also a time to get away from the kids and have a few days without demands for something every hour or Skype shouting over Minecraft matches echoing in the house.

There is no doubt in my mind if I could go back and do it all over again I would, this person is the person I was meant to be with, learn from, learn with.  A person who gives me purpose, helps me become better and be better than I would have been on my own.  Through all the faults, mistakes, bumps, bruises and communication mishaps that have occurred through the years, most of which was a learning process that comes from two people being so young when they get married and having to navigate and grow as individuals while still working at the relationship evolving and adapting with each other. 

Through so much it could write a lifetime it would seem, we are here and there is nobody who has my back more than my wife, my love and the person who I hold most dear in this world.

Some pics of us in Napa last year!

So Happy 14th Anniversary to my wife Shona, and Happy 4th of July to the rest of you.

-Justin Germino

I found a new flavor of K-cup the other day and it is quite delicious when Iced and makes a great after dinner desert drink.  It is the Cherry Chip Swirl coffee from Van Houtte for Keurig machines.

It has a light flavor and texture and isn’t artificially overpowering, it has a more delicate cherry flavor and was very pleasant.  This is a new flavor and it was just released in 2013 so if you have been on the look out for a new K-Cup flavor then try the Cherry Chip Swirl K-Cups from Van Houtte and let me know what you think.

Now there are other great flavors and Van Houtte actually makes many of the flavors that I like best, they also have a great sampler pack of 8 different flavors (2 of each flavor) which I highly recommend for you to find your favorites so you don’t have to buy a whole box just to see if you like a flavor.

I had bought a whole box for the purpose of experimental flavor testing and would give the flavors I don’t’ like to my Mother in Law who tends to like some of the flavors I don’t.  But it is a waste of money when you spend $12 or more on a box of K-Cups and don’t like the flavor.

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Headsets rule, Victor gave his readers a choice on whether they wanted him to giveaway a game or a gaming headset and the vote came in with most readers wanting a chance to win a brand new gaming headset.

This time it’s the Turtle Beach Call of Duty: Black Ops II KILO Limited Edition Stereo Gaming Headset that is being given away, which is one nice gaming headset.

The beauty of this headset is that it works with your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC or Mac so you aren’t restricted to a specific console or platform for the headset you can plug it into multiple devices and use it.

The Kilo edition headset features:

• 50mm full-bandwidth drivers fit around ear to block out external noise
• In-line amplifier with game and chat volume controls; Separate chat & game volume control
• Durable braided cloth over wires
• Mic mute switch; Bass Boost switch
• Headphone Amplifier: Stereo DC-coupled, 35mW/ch, THD ,1%, Frequency Response: DC – 30kHz; Condenser Microphone Frequency Response: 50Hz-15kHz; Speaker frequency response 20Hz-20kHz > 120dB SPL @ 1kHz

This headset has 60 5 star reviews on Amazon.com out of 95 reviews which shows you that it is a fan favorite.

Enter now for a chance to win and thank MetallMan for the great giveaway.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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I didn’t want to do a dual boot after all and wanted to keep my Windows 8 OS up and running all the time yet still run Ubuntu and host an Ubuntu Minecraft Server for the boys without impacting my home computer use.

Well it turns out an Ubuntu OS on VmWare Player was very easy to setup and I had the Ubuntu 13 up and running in only about 1/2 an hour, it was the McMyAdmin, MineCraft server itself that took more than an hour to figure out and setup for the first time but once done it is all good and good.

Now I can save the $12 per month Minecraft server hosting fees as I am running a fully working Minecraft Server with more RAM on my Ubuntu VM and I have it setup so my kids friend can connect from public Internet with port forwarding enabled on the router.

Life is good here.

For those looking for instructions, on DragonBlogger next week I will have step by step instructions with download links on how to setup VMWare Player and Ubuntu using a folder or separate hard drive for Windows 7 or Windows 8 so you can have all the Ubuntu VMWare fun as well.

If you are looking to make your laptop have lightning fast boot times and application load times than even more important than a minor improvement on CPU speed or adding RAM (if you are 4GB or more already) is replacing your HDD drive with an SSD drive. I saw this for myself when replacing my kids laptops with brand new Kingston 240GB SSD drives last week and the Windows 7 boot times went from power off to Windows login in 26 seconds on the older 5400RPM HDD drives to 7 seconds with the Kingston SSD Drive.

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Often you will see laptops billed with super high capacity drives like 750GB or 1TB platter drives at 5400RPM but many don’t realize these drives are really slow loading in comparison to a 7200RPM drive and especially slow compared to an SSD drive. Loading big applications, multiple applications or even Windows itself can take a long time. If you don’t have enough memory in your computer and Windows is using some of your disk space for paging, then a 5400RPM drive will even slow down general application performance if it is writing to the disk.

Now SSD drives are more expensive than typical hard disk drives and come with lower capacity, though they come up to 480-500GB now which is pretty close to standard HDD drives though at quite a bit higher cost. Still if you care about the Windows 7 or Windows 8 load times and want applications to load faster an SSD drive can make all the difference, especially if you bought a laptop recently and are disappointed with how slow loading programs or Windows is.

I have an upcoming article this week with video tutorials on replacing your laptop HDD drive with an SSD drive as Kingston sent me some models and though I lost some disk space and went from 512GB to 240GB it was worth the sacrifice to have a much faster disk in the Lenovo laptops.

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With each passing year, home automation technology gives rise to new and better devices to change the way we live. But do these high-tech doo-dads really make our lives better and easier? Upon reviewing some of the latest products to hit the market, the answer to that question is a resounding, “yes”. What follows is a short list of 5 very cool gadgets designed to make your life a little easier.

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Nest

We all know that home is where the heart is. And if your home is equipped with a NEST, the “brains” are safely tucked away in your thermostat. With abilities bordering on artificial intelligence, the NEST “learning thermostat” picks up on your heating and cooling patterns and quietly programs itself to provide optimum climate control while you go about your business. Sporting a super clean design and user-friendly features, the NEST provides the quality end user experience you would expect from its creators, being that they also made the iPod.

Hue

Sold exclusively through Apple stores, the HUE wireless lighting system by Phillips makes lighting your home both fun and easy. Utilizing color changing LED bulbs that also happen to be Wi Fi enabled, HUE not only allows you to turn lights on and off, but to change the brightness and the color while you’re at it. Controlled by an app on your smartphone, HUE offers a seemingly endless combination of “recipes” for lighting each and every room of your house. And in answer to the question, “How many people does it take to change a HUE light bulb?” You may never know, as HUE LED bulbs are designed to last for years.

Irrigation caddy

For most homeowners, controlling an irrigation system can be frustrating to say the least. But thanks to a gadget called the Irrigation Caddy, the process of watering lawns and gardens just got easier. Connected to your Wi Fi network, the device allows you to control your watering system through the web browser of your choice. You can even do your watering with your smartphone, as long as you’re connected to your home network.

Lockitron

With a name that sounds like a robot from the future, Lockitron basically has the ability to automate your door lock. Fitting over the existing deadbolt, this cool gadget allows you to lock and unlock your door from anywhere and at anytime through an app on your smartphone. No more wondering if you forgot to lock the door when you left for work. While you are away, the Lockitron will send you alerts anytime the door is opened. It also incorporates Bluetooth technology so it will open upon your approach. No more fumbling with keys or setting bags of groceries down to unlock the door. Currently, the Lockitron does not work on all deadbolts, but that should change as the device gains popularity. Although the device’s wireless nature could leave it vulnerable to hacking by smart thieves, being that the Lockitron fits on the inside of the door, chances are no one but you and those you trust will ever know it’s there.

Ninja blocks

In the future, all of our home techno-gadgets will be seamlessly connected. As far as the makers of Ninja Blocks are concerned, the future has arrived. Using Ninja Blocks, all of your gadgets can be connected to the web and controlled via your smartphone. If desired, each device can talk to your phone through instant notifications on Facebook and Twitter. With the ability to put total control of all your gadgets right in the palm of your hand, Ninja Blocks is one very cool gadget for making your life easier.

About the Author:

Lindsey Patterson is a freelance writer who specializes in technology and home automation. For more information on home security systems check out Vivint reviews.

Lately I have been re-doing many of the contact forms on all of my blogs to help improve automation and providing information to me the moment the form is filled out to save time.  These automated and comprehensive forms help my sites run more efficiently and automate some of the user contributed content that some of the sites that I run have.

For The Chefs Cookbook for example this site allows guests to submit original recipes and now the Formidable Pro form is updated to allow for separate sections, rich text formatting and will automatically turn the recipe into a post to review and publish.

For my Poetry Blog Wanderer Thoughts Poetry where I encourage guest posts to share their work and link back to their poetry book, websites, blogs…etc I also have a similar type of submit a poem form implemented.

For my GiveawayContests.net blog this site has a submit your own giveaway feature which includes you adding all the event information of an online giveaway or contest and it will publish after I manually validate all of the information is valid first. 

These are ways that save time instead of the usual email that comes in which requires a 2-3 email exchange or a doc attachment to read and sort through and makes my life a little easier and allows me to respond to requests a little faster.

DragonBlogger gets too many guest post submissions that vary in quality from very poor to decent, so I don’t allow any auto publication of posts for guest posting on DragonBlogger, but the form will allow a doc file attachment which allows me to review and continue on the next step of approving or requiring the author to edit the post further, or outright reject it if it is very poor quality.

When you run 7 blogs you have to automate as much as possible and it was only a matter of time before I build my Formidable Pro forms to be more feature rich and functional.  I also did something like change custom Post Title which required some custom code changes in the form to achieve this as it isn’t a built in function.

I have so much respect for 3D artists and the creativity that comes with creating animation, Minecraft videos are no exception and my kids often come to me wanting to show me some of their favorite Minecraft YouTube videos which I think are created with Blender but not positive.

Gods Don’t Bleed by Dillongoo is just amazing, it is about Herobrine fighting an army of rebel Zombies and when the Enderman comes out last it gets ugly.

Gods Don’t Bleed

As if that wasn’t impressive enough The Danu Talisman is about an underwater adventure and though it doesn’t have the fighting sequence is a full 6 minute movie short complete with all the elements of an underwater Indiana Jones adventure.

Seriously, This is just one of many talented dudes who create Minecraft 3D animations and I am in awe of their talent.