Justin Germino Ramblings

One thing I realized about taking a 12 day vacation from my daily life is that my technology blog finally reached a level where it earned a fair passive income without having to do any work on my part. I mean I did leave an incredibly competent team of bloggers and writers to manage my site while it was gone and they made sure new content was posted every day, responded to reader comments and kept the DragonBlogger site live and operating even while the owner was on vacation.

My team however doesn’t actively monetize Dragonblogger.com and I am the sole person who works with various programs to monetize my site. Two of the most successful online programs to passively earn income online are Amazon Associates and Google AdSense. With AdSense alone I was literally earning $5 – $7 per day on average from AdSense while I was enjoying a cruise vacation. I came back from vacation and my blog earned $75 on it’s own just sitting collecting on banner revenue while I was enjoying the Mediterranean ocean.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B004UW29IK” alt=”WordPress Power Guide – Using WordPress to Blog Your Way to Success – Blogging Guide” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JUWmy1MIL.jpg” align=”left” width=”250″ ]This is petty and small income compared to where I want the site to be, and I still recommend many methods to make money online when blogging. SocialSpark continues to be one of my most promoted and highly prized program for earning money from writing reviews on products and services from major companies.

The dream however to passively earn is something that you can make a reality with an online venture to some extent. Blogging in itself requires interaction with readers so that you can engage them and build a relationship with your audience. There are other online ventures, microsites, affiliate sites however where you don’t associate an “author” or personality into your site just merely showcase a product or subset of products and namelessly promote those. This is harder in many ways though I am attempting such a niche site with my weight loss belts site which showcases fitness products and primarily focuses on The Flex Belt which was given to me by the company to test and do a true review on.

I still see bloggers make lots of money selling the latest Clickbank offerings and by leaping on top of other blogger products the moment they go on sale so as to build a secondary niche site around it and in some cases I have seen the blogs rank higher on the SERP for the original blogging product than the product site itself. IMAGINE THAT!

Banner ad sales can be automated with services like BuySellAds or AdvertiseSpace which can help sell ad slots if you are out of town. I sell only about 2-3 ads per month with BSA but this is about $25 net profit per month (BSA does take 25% comission for themselves).

I don’t think you really can passively monetize a site with services like AdSense, Chitika..etc until you have at least 10 – 15k visits per month. There just isn’t enough casual clicks in less than that, but if you have a microsite focusing on a single product where you can get $20 – $50 commissions on a single sale all it takes is 2-4 sales per month to make a few hundred bucks. As I mentioned however this is easier said than done and my new fitness site just reaches about 200 visits in it’s first month but has yet to sell it’s first product.

You can earn money passively from online ventures and I highly recommend you experiment with different methods that work as your blog grows online. Remember though that you must put hours of research into products, domain names and even find a “market” that will potentially be profitable in the first place. So many sites are hit or miss that you shouldn’t feel like a failure or be discouraged if your first or second site don’t reach the goals you want. If you really feel after 6 months no progress is made start a new venture or experiment with two or three at the same time as I did with my own 3 blogs.

Out of the 7 blogs I created over the last 3 years only 1 has reached over 50k visits per month and only this one has made more than $300 a month in earnings. My two smaller blogs at best get between $10 and $40 per month in earnings.

-Justin Germino

It was funny while I was in Rome and managed to call my son the other week, I was asking him about how his week was without us being there and wondering what they have been doing. I had purchased a new TV with Roku XDS for my son’s bedroom so he was watching Netflix movies before bed and I asked if he found and watched any good shows.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B002XDE9JK” alt=”Mr. Bean’s Most Memorable Moments” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515EWGBeUiL.jpg” align=”left” width=”250″]He asked me if I ever heard of something called Mr. Bean and talked about how funny the show was. I couldn’t help but laugh, I remember watching Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean in movies and shows for quite a while on HBO and cable for over a decade before my kids were born. I didn’t even know there was an animated series for Mr. Bean or Mr. Bean cartoons as my son calls them.

One thing I do wish is that Netflix allows sub-accounts with parental controls when using the device. I have 7 devices in my house now that use Netflix including a PC, 2 iPad’s, Wii, Xbox and 2 Roku XDS devices. My kids use the Netflix about 3 of the devices and I wish I could restrict their devices and accounts so they could only see movies rated PG-13 or less. I don’t like that anyone can order anything and the only way to restrict the account is to modify the master or only account. I don’t think you should have to pay for separate accounts, and since each device registers on Netflix separately I would think there is a way to just restrict content based on device or at least create sub logins that have parental controls enabled.

I opened some enhancement requests to Netflix on this issue a few months ago but don’t really have a way to track or see te progress of it. To my knowledge though I have more Netflix enabled devices now in my home than anyone else I know that uses Netflix.

-Justin Germino

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It is all too easy to maintain a fitness regimen as I had tried to do before going on my Rome, Italy cruise. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to lose twelve pounds and drop from 184 to 172 in just about 8 weeks before the cruise. I just went to the gym a few times a week and made sure I pushed myself as well as cut down on the amount of fast food.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B002TWC2J4″ alt=”ISO 7X Isometric Workout Bar” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yd32CtaCL.jpg” align=”left” width=”250″]When ordering Chipotle for example I switched from the massive burrito’s to the trio corn taco’s and omitted some of the filler to reduce portions. Simple changes made a big difference overall, though this was all pretty much tossed out the window during the cruise.

When food is in near unlimited supply 24 hours a day and free I pretty much ate more than I should have at almost every mean on the cruise, and though I found time to work out at the cruise fitness center a few times I doubt it was enough to combat my food consumption.

The trick was to try and make sure I ate smaller meals but more frequently rather than gorge on 3-4 big meals a day. I did this by ordering lots of fruit plates to the room and eating more fruit and vegetables where I could over pastries and breads. There was an unfortunately high amount of cheese offerings and this is where I really lost sight of my goals as I had various cheeses in all it’s forms almost every single day.

Cheese was always a passion for me and even as a teenager I would spend my allowance on whole 1 pound bricks of Polly-O mozzarella just to take it home and consume it as a snack. While others snacked on cakes, donuts, twinkies I would take comfort in cheeses as my preferred snack of choice. It was only later as an adult that I learned pairing cheeses with nuts, fruits and honey made an even more spectacular culinary experience and certain hard cheeses drizzled with dark bee honey would make my tongue literally quiver in anticipation.

So now that I have been back from the cruise I have to take the time to catch up on work and then re-implement my fitness schedule so that I can bring myself to where I want to be. My fitness goals are to trim to a lean 165 pounds for my 5’10” frame and most of the weight I want to remove is in the dreaded belly fat section. I am looking to increase my endurance as well as I have known plenty of body builders who pack on muscle but get winded when they run for 5-10 minutes.

Ironically adding massive amounts of muscle isn’t the best for the heart either, one of my former neighbor’s father was an olympic bodybuilder able to bench over 300 pounds and died from heart problems as too much muscle puts strain on the heart as well to pump blood to your whole body. You can have muscle but still not eat right and your internal body mechanics fail to perform, it is my goal to gradually shift to a healthier eating lifestyle as well but this is far easier said than done when I love hamburgers, pepperoni and cheese as much as I do.

Still one thing I am proud of is that there isn’t a single meal served in my house where some fruit or vegetable isn’t served with it. I know families who serve nothing but meat and starches on the side without any vegetables or fruit. You need to eat more natural food, less processed foods and less red meat to keep your gastrointestinal tract healthy.

-Justin Germino

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For years, we were forced to sit back and hear how mobile would be the next big thing in marketing. Well, mobile has finally arrived, and while calling it the next big thing may be a stretch at this point, its significance can’t be understated. In this article, we will explain why it is so important to understand how consumers are using their smart phones to shop. 

Mobile E-commerce is the Rise

While very few consumers are using their smart phones to make actual purchases, numerous signs point to that changing in the near future. Merchants are increasingly creating mobile versions of their sites to cater to the fast growing crowd of mobile users. Consequently, this has resulted in a growing number of mobile payment services that connect the consumer to the merchant. One of the most interesting is Google Wallet. An innovative offering being perfected behind the scenes by the internet giant, Google Wallet aims to allow consumers to make purchases directly from their smart phones, essentially transforming those devices into universal wallets. With concepts such as this in the works, it could only be a matter of time before mobile shopping is as common as shopping online.

Smart Phones Already Essential in the Buying Process

Although the purchase represents the conversion the average marketer is after, it is not the only action indicative of how consumers shop with their smart phones. A recent study jointly conducted by Google and independent research company Ipsos OTX showed that people use their devices to aid in the buying process in a variety of ways. According to the findings, 48% of consumers users their smart phones to seek out coupons and discounts, 44% use them to find reviews and information regarding a product, and 34% use them to browse the inventory a retailer has in stock. This survey not only shows that smart phones are already critical in the buying process, it also reveals statistical data that could be extremely helpful to a marketer. 

Knowledge That Benefits Your Other Marketing Efforts

Chances are, you already have your hands full with one or more marketing channels. If so, taking the time to understand how smart phone usage weighs into the spending process is even more important. For instance, knowing that your audience members are using their devices to search for deals that will save them money could be incentive for you to put together a couple of email offers they can redeem upon visiting your store both on and offline. It is knowledge like this that could benefit your overall marketing efforts when used wisely.

Your Competition is Hesitant

Despite all the hype that surrounds the mobile channel, there are still quite a few marketers who are avoiding it. Some are intimidated by the mere thought while others still don’t see the value in trying something they feel is unproven. This is good news for you as some of your competitors are likely a part of the hesitant bunch. It is best to learn all you can about mobile marketing now because soon, the competition could be much more fierce than you’d prefer.

Author Bio:
Nan King, a tech geek and environmentalist at heart, is an advocate of business email marketing strategies that encompass the use of a permission based email marketing company.

Seriously I found a way around the limitations of the iPad 2 WordPress app to where it is now efficient for me to write blog posts in it with my bluetooth wireless keyboard, but I can’t figure out why no word processor or note application I use has the feature to display the number of words in your article? Seriously, I can’t get a word count in the WordPress iPad application or even Evernote for iPad 2.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B003CGMQ38″ alt=”Apple iPad Case (CASE-ZML MC361ZM/B)” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fVSX3FZWL.jpg” align=”left” width=”250″]I would like to know if my articles reach the 200-300 word minimum I like, and it would be much more helpful if the WordPress iPad application build a word count when you click on the details. Surely this couldn’t have been a problem for them to implement, the details tab itself right now is so limited and merely offers 3 options.

I would be so thrilled if Microsoft or another company were to make a blogging application as fully featured as Live Writer for the iPad. I would pay a good $5-$10 bucks for that app and promote it to others if it had the right features and made my life easier when typing on the iPad.

Speaking of writing blog posts on the iPad 2, I know have written about 40 blog posts and 24 poems on the iPad 2 since I received it as a gift 2 months ago and I have to tell you that before I bought the bluetooth wireless keyboard I thought it was hopeless to replace the netbook with an iPad 2 for blogging. This changed when I got the Targus wireless bluetooth keyboard however which allows me to type at near 75wpm speeds and has the much needed arrow keys to move up and down in paragraphs.

If you want to use an iPad 2 for blogging then getting a wireless Bluetooth keyboard is essential and with one of these you can pretty much ditch a netbook if all you want to do is watch movies, blog and browse the Internet. The one I went up going with is the Targus Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad and I did a review of the keyboard on my technology blog, it is also one of the lower priced keyboards and is under $50 which is a great price since many of the wireless bluetooth keyboards are $99 or above.

-Justin Germino

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For those who are suffering in the struggle between work and family, there are many work options available that you can consider or request from your employer. The stress and frustration of not having sufficient time for the family can be debilitating and can even present many health problems.

And if quitting your job is not viable in terms of the need for an income stream for the family, then perhaps a change in structure of how work is performed may be the answer you need.

Flextime

This refers to not having a fixed schedule of coming to work. When your job is results based, you may request for this change as long as deadlines are met. You need not come in

Monday to Friday or from nine to five which is an advantage especially when you need to be doing something else for your children on certain work days to say attend a school concert or go with them on their field trips. You can then exchange a weekend for a weekday and vice versa depending on your personal needs for time.

Inform your employer that this will let them keep a skilled employer like you longer instead of you having to quit your job and them experiencing the hardship of finding an equally competent employee.

Job Sharing

Working part time can be a solution as well to give you ample time for your personal dealings with your family and at home. You can share a position with another person and schedule yourself on days and time that suits you. This gives you the flexibility you need to address other responsibilities beyond the workplace and thus provides you with a better sense of balance.

However be keen of the changes this may entail on your benefits as your company may split them as well. Discuss this with the person you are sharing the job with and ask if one of you can fore go certain benefits say like medical insurance if one of you can be under a spouse’s plan anyway.

Self Employment

If you are keen on working independently with having no boss to tell you what time to come in for work, then this can be for you. Having your own business lets you control your own day and time although the starting stage may be a bit overwhelming and eat up more time than you expect.

You may need to work long hours with no steady income flow. You need to therefore plan carefully on how you want to work this out without too much stress and more possibility of success.

Telecommuting

Similar to being self-employed, you can opt to work as a contractor for some companies, working at home. This is a popular trend nowadays and so you must take steps to avoid being scammed. Find companies that are trustworthy and reliable in their payment schemes to assure that you are working for something.

You may also request this from your current boss especially if the nature of your work need not require you to be present at the office anyway. Many companies are beginning to realize the relevance of this set up as obviously getting the job done is oftentimes prior to just showing up at the office.

Jessy Troy is frugal mom and blogger for Broadband Planfinder, a free service for comparing mobile broadband plan options available to Australians.

I was reading a news story on CNN last week about the latest life expectancy studies came out with the U.S. dropping and averaging quite a bit lower than peer countries like U.K., Canada, Japan and Australia. The average male in the U.S. has a life expectancy of 75.6 years with woman at slightly over 80 years of age.

In U.K. the average male lifespan expectancy was about 78 years and women were very close to American results. The study cites some reasons that America lifespans may have decreased and these include that 1 in 5 deaths occur from smoking related illnesses and that 1 in 3 Americans are considered obese. These keep average lifespans lower but the variation in states is what was unusual.

It was quite unusual to see an independant study cite also that there were more infant and child deaths in the U.S. than other countries but once an elder age was reached the U.S. fared better than many peer countries for keeping elderly healthy. It was also cited the lack of health care for a vast amount of the population makes most people forgo preventative medicine which is promoted in Australia and Canada.

Obviously genetics play a big factor in how long someone will live, but if you eat in moderation, exercise regularly and keep yourself fit, don’t smoke you will likely be able to live up to the limit of your genetic programming. Of course some would say there are always random accidents that can end any life instantly, but there is no reason to assume such an accident will occur and it is imperative people take responsibility for their own health and it has taken me years before I was finally willing to admit that I had to make sure I didn’t let myself fall into the trap of excessive eating, idle sitting or just ignore my health.

-Justin Germino

For some reason our stainless steel sink faucet has started leaking water at the joint where the faucet meets the stainless steel sink which is annoying as it causes a mineral buildup and the water here in Arizona is very hard.

We just put this stainless steel sink and faucet in less than 2 years ago and we might have to now start browsing around for new stainless steel sinks and hire a plumber to install it for me.

I do like that our kitchen sink comes with a separate nozzle for sprinkling water on dishes besides the main faucet.

I am finding as the house is passing 4 years in age there are more and more items that start needing attention and I am just not proficient enough at being a handyman to address all of the issues that need to be corrected.

-Justin Germino

Looking for some Zerg Queen wallpapers or images to commemorate the release of [easyazon-link asin=”B002I0KP4G”]StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm[/easyazon-link] which will be released in fall 2011?

Here are 10 Starcraft 2 Heart of Swarm wallpaper images some of which are fan art and others are from Blizzard.  Just click on the image to load the full size or right click and save as to save the full size image to your computer.

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm now which features Warcraft III like character leveling as you play the mighty queen of blades herself trying to regain control of the brood, and I can’t wait until you can pre-order it!

-Justin Germino

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The Roman Colosseum is truly a sight to behold and it’s stature and presence are indescribable as you walk through the arches and tour the ruins of this once mighty gladiator arena.

To think that the Colosseum was once flooded with water where mock naval battles occurred and entire landscapes were erected to allow for animal hunts on public display is just hard to fathom.

One thing in common I felt as I am sure millions other do is the amazement that civilizations 2000 years old can erect such marvels of architecture.  Buildings that are both tremendous foundations and provide function as well as seem to double as artwork is incredible.

If you are ever thinking about visiting the Colosseum in Rome, Italy I can tell you that the lines get fierce.  The best times to go are very early at open and you can avoid the lines if you join a tour company group as there are separate group entrances that bypass the lines for regular tourists paying their own way into see the Colosseum.

Here are some pictures of our tour:

-Justin Germino