Justin Germino Ramblings

iPad 3 Giveaway Passes 13000 Entry Mark

April 15, 2012

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Yesterday officially made the iPad 3 Giveaway contest on DragonBlogger.com my most successful contest so far based on number of entries the contest has collected as well as the number of other bloggers that are helping to cohost the contest. This is helping the reach of the contest and I thought my incentive program to get other bloggers to encourage people to join and enter from their own blogs so they could win the potential $50 cash prize awarded to the contest host was a nice touch.

Enter now for your chance to win an iPad 3rd Generation, the contest ends on May 31st 2012.

-Justin Germino

Facebook Account Setup for Increased Security

Justin Germino

April 14, 2012

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Facebook security is important, with Facebook authentication being used by so many other 3rd party applications and websites if your account gets compromised on Facebook you could face serious trouble. Top this off with people getting access to personal information and other details about you from your Facebook account and there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t do the steps outlined in this video to make your Facebook account as secure as possible.

All it takes is a little extra time and you can make sure your account is far less likely to be hacked and your data accessed at least through someone getting in through your own account login.

Do you secure your Facebook account, do you have any additional safety mechanisms that you follow?

-Justin Germino

Enter to Win a Free Kingston SSD Drive

Justin Germino

April 13, 2012

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Only a few more weeks left in my contest where I am giving away a Kingston Technology V+200 90GB SSD Drive to one lucky reader. This drive retails at around $125 dollars and will make a huge difference in helping the Windows and application load times if you replace your primary OS disk with this hard drive and use your 5400 or 7200 RPM disk as a secondary storage disk instead.

This is a SATA drive and is compatible with SATA 2 and SATA 3 but obviously you get better performance if your laptop or PC has SATA 3 support, still get at least 2x performance with SATA 2 though.

For more details and a full benchmark review of the drive comparing it to my 7200 2TB Seagate drive, click on the banner below.

SSD Giveaway Contest from DragonBlogger.com

-Justin Germino

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Playing with Photobooth

Justin Germino

April 12, 2012

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I don’t have Instagram setup for my iPad but was experimenting with Photobooth and my dog just for the fun of it last weekend, I really do wish the iPad 2 had a better camera, but that is what the iPhone 4S or iPad 3 is for I guess.

Porky was a good sport just standing there waiting for me to finish taking pictures of him.

-Justin Germino

Hurry Up and Draw Something

Justin Germino

April 11, 2012

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Was having fun playing Draw Something last weekend, but I noticed something rather annoying. You can wind up waiting for a long period of time for some people to respond and in doing so can end up with many games going at the same time with them all wanting your turn at the same time.

What’s worse, when you are desperate and do a random match, sometimes you get someone who just doesn’t really try at the game and just writes the words in letters you are supposed to guess. You can’t "cancel" or terminate a game with someone after it has started, so you are left just ignoring someone you don’t want to play with anymore.

Overall though it was fun to play with some of my Facebook friends, and my wife and I play together. It is an iPad / iPhone app version of Pictionary between two people though the words are a little repetitive even in the paid version, and it takes a whole lot of coins to unlock more palette colors and bombs.

My 8 year old even takes over for some of my turns drawing the pictures for me and is pretty good at it.

-Justin Germino

Easter Weekend that Went Fast

Justin Germino

April 10, 2012

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It was the Easter weekend that the family just did not want to end, we knew we had to get back to work/school on Monday morning after spending 3 days in Encinitas, CA. However when Sunday rolled around we all just dreaded going back and starting another work week, low and behold the family made a rather rare and impromptu decision to cut it as close as possible.

We stayed another night, and decided to drive back to AZ at 3am instead, to maximize every last minute spent in CA. Of course this mean’t slightly adjusting a few schedules, but this family time is a memory worth more than the conundrum of another day.

Seaport village brunch at Busters was delicious and the kids enjoyed having their first Pu Pu Platter at Chin’s Chinese Restaurant for dinner later that night. They enjoyed playing with the neighbor kid who moved in a few months ago and is nearly the same age as my oldest.

Friends, family and a whole lot of good food and relaxing time, this was the perfect weekend and the next won’t be until after Schools out.

-Justin Germino

Which Animal Has The Biggest Teeth?

Justin Germino

April 8, 2012

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Image by Jeramey Jannene

Which animal do you think has the biggest teeth?

A shark, like the Great White, might have teeth up to 7.5cm long – but are those the very longest teeth ever?

Could a cat-like mammal, like the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon, have had the very longest teeth?

The obvious answer might be some sort of dinosaur.

Find out the real answer below…

Sharks

While the Great White definitely does have impressive gnashers, its teeth seem tiny in comparison to the massive, ancient Megalodon, whose teeth reached up to and over 18cm in length.

That’s as long as a new-born panda, if you’re looking for a horrifying mental image to take away from this post.

No prizes for guessing what Megalodon means, either – from the Greek "mega", meaning big, and "odon", meaning tooth, meaning its full name Carcharodon Megalodon means "ragged-toothed big-tooth".

Imaginative.

Cats

With its canines (or should that be felines? No, because that is neither accurate nor amusing) reaching a mighty thirty centimeters, the big cat Smilodon populator, "sabre-tooth the devastator", had two teeth that could reach the same length as a foot-long sub.

In other words, they were a foot long, but I think the foot-long sub makes a better mental image, don’t you?

Dinosaurs

The T. Rex also had teeth reaching a length of up to thirty centimeters, but in the T. Rex‘s case, these weren’t two lone teeth.

A T. Rex‘s mouth was full of enormous teeth, and with its mighty jaw muscles it would have been capable of taking on much more diverse, and possibly lightly armored, prey than the Smilodon. Its teeth weren’t necessarily bigger, but T. Rex probably used them better.

Tusks

There’s one type of tooth that blows all these others out…of the water (see what I did there?).

The three meter long spiral tusk of the narwhal is a tooth – tusks are teeth because they are made out of the same material and grow from the same place, despite their different name.

Three meters is about the same length as a small city car, and long enough to spear you all the way through and then some if you ever pissed off a narwhal.

Just sayin’.

However, the very longest tusk belonged to an elephant, and is said to have reached a mighty three point five meters in length – to use my own ridiculous and pointless method of tooth measurement, that is as long as a small city car with one and two-thirds of a foot-long sub stuck to its boot.

For more of a visual: it’s about as long as a Rhino’s entire body.

About the Author

Neil Robertson writes blog posts for Smile Lincs, a dentist Lincoln residents trust with their own teeth. They offer traditional dentistry as well as cosmetic dental implants.

Bizarre Lego Sculptures

Justin Germino

April 7, 2012

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Lego: a construction tool that is the domain of children and adults alike, bringing to life everything from a toddler’s imagination to an adult’s depiction of the real world. Whether you were a fan of Lego years ago or remain one today, prepare to be amazed by the wonders of some of the most bizarre Lego sculptures you’ve ever seen!

1. Pinhole Camera

The creator of this unique Lego structure began by deconstructing a Polaroid 95a camera, stripping out its components and then rebuilding the entire thing with Lego. Beyond its cool look, the camera actually works; a manually turning crank takes a full 23 clicks to advance each frame.

2. Lego Pinball Machine

Hundreds of hours and more than 20,000 Lego pieces allowed Gerrit Bronsveld and Martjin Boogaarts of the Netherlands to create a fully functioning pinball machine with operational coin slot, working bumpers and a full electronic display to keep track of scores.

3. Raskolnikov’s Apartment

Fans of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment may recall this scene in Raskolnikov’s apartment with Zossimov and Razumikhin.

4. San Marco Square, Venice, Italy

Less bizarre than it is simply awesome, this recreation of beautiful San Marco Square in Venice depicts people, architecture, boats and nature, all using only an array of official Lego blocks. Details range from ripples in the water to the chic shops and cafes lining the lanes – you can imagine the time spent by the sculptor on this piece!

5. Lego Tree

Grown from nothing outside of Lego bricks, this tree represents only one piece in a fantastic series by a hardcore Lego artist.

6. World in Your Palm

A great example of Lego sculpture taken to an amazing artistic level, this sculpture depicts a full-featured village in the palm of a monstrous hand.

7. To Hell and Back

Whether or not this Lego sculpture is hoping to convey the idea of a man escaping from the depths of hell, the use of exclusively red Lego and the expression on his face certainly give that impression!

8. Lego Flames

A real campfire or a clever use of Lego? Given that we already know the answer, it’s easy to admire the realism of this sculpture.

9. Life Size Volvo

This incredible use of Lego portrays a life-size version of a Volvo XC90 SUV, right down to minute details on the trim and body.

10. Lego Cello

Done by Nathan Sawaya, the same talented Lego artist behind the ‘World in Your Palm" piece outlined above, this detailed Lego cello looks almost real enough to play.

11. Man on a Bench

Seen sitting on a city bench, this sculpture of a relaxing business professional drips with detail, right down to the folded newspaper in his right hand.

12. Escaping Brains

Either this sculpture brains are escaping or it represents a Trojan Horse of some kind but the artistic value and unique depiction offered by this sculpture are amazing no matter what scene it intends to convey!

13. Open Wound

In a piece similar to the all-red man emerging from the underworld, this all-yellow Lego man’s insides are spilling out.

To see more breath-taking Lego sculptures, visit Legoland California and have fun!

Really Giving Away an iPad 3

Justin Germino

April 6, 2012

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I have talked about it for a few months and some have even said they thought it was just going to be talk, but I finally kicked off the 3rd Generation iPad giveaway on DragonBlogger.com and it is on track to become the most successful of all my contests to date.

Something I am doing unique with this contest that I haven’t done with previous ones is that I am encouraging bloggers to co-host the contest with me. They can also get entries by co-hosting, but in I am also giving the added incentive that if the winner of the contest came from your blog, I will give a $50 cash bonus to the blogger that hosted the winning entry.

To achieve this setup I now require submitting the URL you are entering the contest from as a contest entry, this allows me to track back every entry to which URL / blog was the one that attracted the contestant. This is also a good way to show me how many users are entering from what blogs and I can use this to find out which blogs may be the best partners for future contests as far as driving a higher number of contestants.

In the meantime, feel free to go over to the iPad 3 giveaway contest and either enter to win an iPad 3 for yourself, co-host the contest to see if you can with the $50 cash prize or both!

Let me know what you think about my co-hosting incentive plan and if you think it was a good idea.

-Justin Germino

Experimenting with SocialSpark Ads from IZEA

Justin Germino

April 5, 2012

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I have told fellow bloggers repeatedly why I have been using the IZEA SocialSpark platform since I started blogging in 2008 as a means to earn from my blogs by doing sponsor review articles. Recently IZEA has introduced a few new concepts to SocialSpark like "Deals" which create your own branded deal site where you get a commission based on each sale you make.

Well, I didn’t have much luck in the SocialSpark deals but there haven’t been a ton to fit my niche specifically either, SocialSpark Ads however is a different story altogether.

What is SocialSpark Ads

SocialSpark Ads is basically leveraging a banner ad that is run by SocialSpark based on Google’s Ad platform. I think it is basically SocialSpark using Google Doubleclick where they are able to sell that advertising space to advertisers who want to specifically target your blog, but it also uses AdSense in unsold slots. (IZEA please correct me if I have these details wrong).

What happens as a result is IZEA is able to give you a minimum eCPM for your blog if it has 51% or more traffic from the U.S. and this minimum can vary but the fact that you will get a minimum per # of PageViews can be rewarding. The minimum for my DragonBlogger.com is .50 eCPM, which means if they sold no ad slots, it would get 50 cents per 1,000 pageviews of that ad. This technically means my site with 50,000+ pageviews per month should get $50 per month from one 300×200 SocialSpark Ad banner, which would be more earnings than a 300×200 BuySellAd slot which is what I replaced with the SocialSpark ad for my experiment.

My personal blog ironically which gets so much less traffic has a $1.00 minimum eCPM because has more relevant U.S. traffic probably. I also run a SocialSpark Ad on my poetry blog as well.

Can SocialSpark Ads Earn You Money?

The short answer is yes, it can earn you some site revenue but my experience so far with my smaller blogs is that it comes pretty close to Google AdSense revenue for the same ad spot.

Now, I still leverage Google AdSense and AdSense has a 3 ad maximum, so there is a way to leverage SocialSpark Ads as an additional ad. Without a doubt SocialSpark Ads allows me to earn from my blogs that aren’t able to sell 125×125 ads easily and won’t even get listed in BuySellAds for having too low traffic.

For my DragonBlogger.com site I only installed it a week ago, so it is too soon to tell how SocialSpark Ads will perform on my site after 30 days, but I can show that it’s earning me at least $1 per day right now and probably more. This means it will earn me more than Luminate or BuySellAds.com which means it would be a program I encourage and would keep around.

SocialSpark Ads Payout

The payout delay for SocialSpark Ads isn’t so bad, but they don’t’ credit your account until almost 2 months after you first install the ad, then it appears to be monthly after that. SocialSpark does transfer you the points and you can cash them out whenever your balance hits $50 or take a $2 penalty and cash out sooner, which is faster than collecting from Google AdSense where your balance must reach $100 in order to collect a payment.

SocialSpark Ads Limitations

Currently SocialSpark Ads has restrictions that require the ad to be above the fold on your blog, which means the ad must display as soon as someone hits your site, they can’t have to scroll to see the SocialSpark ad.

In addition, you can’t use more than 1 SocialSpark ad period on your blog the code doesn’t support multiple SocialSpark ads, so the theory would be if you earn $40 from 1 ad with minimum eCPM, why no earn $80 from 2 ads?

SocialSpark has limited banner ad sizes currently and only offers 728×90, 300×250 and 160×600 ad sizes. They don’t support the 468×60 which are popular at the top of posts, or some of the more obscure formats, so make sure you have a spot available above the fold that can fit one of these ad sizes.

Summary

Overall if you are already using the SocialSpark platform and you aren’t earning from AdSense or just aren’t earning much, it is worth connecting your blog and seeing what kind of minimum eCPM you are seeing offered from SocialSpark. You may just get more from replacing your AdSense banners with SocialSpark Ads banners, or if you have unsold BuySellAds banners that are 728×90 or 300×250 then you may want to consider replacing it with a SocialSpark Ad banner. Just note that there are no 125×125 banners for SocialSpark ads, and they only have 3 ad sizes (728×90, 160×600 and 300×250).

If you haven’t tried SocialSpark yet and you are a blogger, I encourage you to sign up for SocialSpark and give them a try, I have made over $3,000 from SocialSpark since 2008 and really enjoy the quality advertisers and opportunities they send my way.

If you have anymore questions about SocialSpark or SocialSpark Ads, let me know and I will be happy to answer them.

-Justin Germino

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