Justin Germino Ramblings

After using Netflix for about a year I can conclusively say that the Instant Play of movies which streams to your TV, Laptop or other Internet streaming device is awesome.  However, the selection is limited and you can rarely find movies that are breaking new releases or even major Hollywood films less than a year old on Netflix Instant Play.

This is where having a DVD by mail system comes in, Netflix does an adequate job with the DVD by mail system but Blockbuster Total Access does it better.  Blockbuster Total Access allows you to search movies to add them to your queue faster, gets the movies 28 days sooner than Netflix, allows you to trade in your mailers in-store for instant movie exchanges (no waiting for DVD to arrive by mail) and you can even rent console games or DVD’s with the same subscription which pits it against Gamefly as well.

The Blockbuster Total Access by mail has a 2 at a time plan for $16.99 which is only slightly more expensive than Netflix but you don’t get any Instant Play.  This is why I have decided to change my Netflix plan to just Internet streaming at $7.99 and instead reactivated my Blockbuster Total Access plan at 2 at a time for $16.99.

Netflix is good, no problems with it as I think the Internet streaming will continue to get better.  Until it does however, Blockbuster has a better DVD by mail system and allows you to pick the newest titles sooner.

If you do have Netflix or you want to stream movies, then I do recommend the Roku XDS as it gives you the highest quality movie streams and works with any television.

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-Justin Germino

One thing about ordering magazines online is it still takes 6-8+ weeks just to receive your first issue of a magazine.  This is completely absurd and I approach my 6th week waiting to receive my copy of Maximum PC and PC Gamer which I ordered through Amazon.com so long ago I nearly forgot that I ordered them.

I don’t read very often anymore, I listen to audio books when I drive into the office, but my reading is actually done two places.  When I am in the restroom or when I am on a plane traveling.  I still manage to digest more than a daily paper and a magazine a week in my limited amount of reading time and hate finding myself with nothing to read.

I probably should get an iPad2 at some point and use that as my magazine equivalent but I still like the tactile feel of pages and being able to fold pages in magazines or papers so they can prompt me to write blog posts later.  I still think that it should be much faster when ordering a subscription to a magazine than to wait 6+ weeks to receive your first issue.

-Justin Germino

Just as you would see in the title, this is a blog post about nothing.  Nothing came to mind and I just decided to write a post with no intention of having a topic or thing to write about.  Ironically though, as I was writing about nothing I became increasingly more inspired to continue adding to this article and use it to help me brainstorm so a future post would be about something.

So when you don’t know what to write about or don’t have a topic, then don’t write about anything, just write in an editor like LiveWriter, Word or anything and just write what comes to mind.   As you write you will probably prompt yourself to flush more details out on a subject you spewed across the page and this can be a subject for a blog post.

Never start with a title, the title of any article should be the last thing you create.  Write the article and then spend time crafting the perfect title to your blurb, remembering to optimize the title for SEO by using keywords that will rank better in the SERP.

So I guess this post which was originally about nothing kind of transformed into a post about how to just start writing with nothing in mind and nudge it to make it transform into a post about a subject you happened to gain interest in while you were just writing your ideas and hoping for something to stand out.

I noticed that Chris Brogan has an offering where you can pay a monthly subscription rate and you will be sent "post ideas" to give writers and bloggers ideas on what to write about.  I don’t mind that he has such an offering, but in general I think if you can’t at least come up with an idea from just writing on a page, spending time on Google Trends, read the news or something of that magnitude then why stress about writing and just take a break.  Or better yet, if you really don’t know what to write about just send out a blanket "What should I write about?" on your social networks and see what curious responses you get.

-Justin Germino

The other day I downloaded and played the demo for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom on the Xbox360 and I really liked the demo.  The game has you play a thief who stumbles upon a legendary creature known as the Majin except he is missing many of his powers, yet still formidable.

Your goal is to help the Majin recover his powers so the two of you can combat the forces of evil in the world and the game has you give orders to the Majin like telling him to attack, stop, crouch, or even to push a wall over to crush enemies.

It reminded me of the original THQ Summoner game which I was very fond of back in the Playstation days, I have read nothing but good things about Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom so I just ordered a copy from Amazon.com for only $19.57! A brand new Xbox360 game as good as this for such a great price is hard to pass up.

If you like Action RPG games that are story driven, I can tell you this one has a Kingdom Hearts feel based on the shadowy creatures you fight.  I am hoping this game is as good as the demo makes it appear.

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-Justin Germino

I was a bit bummed when I found out that Blubrry Powerpress WordPress plugin no longer displays a podcast cover image anymore.  The latest update must have broke this functionality because I used to be able to display a custom image whenever I uploaded an mp3 file and set it as a podcast.

I tried configuring it both ways, in the configuration settings allowing a video poster image and setting it manually.  But I also used the powerpress shortcode by adding the image=”path to image” after the powerpress shortcode and it still didn’t work.

The previous images that showed up for all my previous podcasts are vanished, now I am left with just the “play” bar without any image on it to help the player stand out better.

I mentioned this in the Blubrry Powerpress forum hoping someone will respond to my thread with some instruction or update that will work here.

Update:

The Bluberry Powerpress folks were very responsive to my thread and mentioned that they would look at restoring functionality in a later update.  It must have not been a heavily used one as the image/cover feature works for video casts, just not for audio at the moment.  I also had a typo in my original article which I corrected.

-Justin Germino

A very good article over at Money Dummy Blog run by John Paul Aguiar about Blogging Income Lies and Truths talks about lies or myths told and spread online about making an income blogging and what you must do, or must not do to be able to succeed.  The article does a good job answering a new person’s questions who may be thinking about starting a blog or want’s to know more of what they must do or get an idea of what they must do to make their blog successful.

Truth is, most of the big time bloggers are not successful because they have some magical advice that the smaller time bloggers don’t have.  They are successful because they were pioneers and were the first, like any industry the first ones to make a mark are often the most successful and it very difficult and becomes increasingly more so to stand out against others who already dominate the same niche/market.

You can create another site and join the 17+ million blogs online all competing for attention, readership and trying to make some money for their authors.  Some do it for the fun of it, some for experience, most do it to make a few bucks to pay bills and fewer still have the grand dreams of being able to blog for a living and make enough to fully sustain themselves. 

I have been blogging for 2 1/2 years now and have much more experience and wisdom in what it takes to reach online markets but I can tell you that reaching a huge success online is no more easy than an iPhone game developer trying to create the next Angry Birds.  The competition is fierce and you need to not only bring an authentic and original message to the table, but you have to also spend the time to spread your message.  It only takes a good idea to go viral, something that fills a gap that exists and people didn’t know it existed. 

Quick success that bypasses the years of hard work comes to those lucky enough to create a product or service that people feel they must have, this is something that the ultra successful affiliates know.  They find the products that people don’t know they need yet and they market them first, others with some programming or writing ability will create the first eBook, Tutorials, Video’s, plugins…etc to promote and convince people that they need this product. 

The truth about blogging for income is that you have to actually have a purpose, a shotgun approach without any purpose will lead to months of frustration and flopping.  However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because you will gain experience and it may help you find focus and channel your efforts to something tangible and something you can profit from.

I disagree with the mentality to go into blogging thinking you are going to make $100,000 in your first year, or you will be able to retire and live off of your blogging income.  The truth is, you start blogging because you have an idea and you enjoy doing it and want to do it for free.  Only if you can sell yourself on committing to doing something for free, will you be able to endure enough to make it profitable.

I think anyone can start a blog, but should you?  The answer depends on whether it is something you truly love to do and you can enjoy doing it even if it doesn’t meet your expectations as far as monetary earnings or readership growth.  If you are to make blogging your job, then you need to be committed to it like a job.  Just because you can stop and start anytime or work your own hours doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put in that razor sharp focus and dedication that you would to any job.  It is your business, you are vested in it like any entrepreneur vests in a brick and mortar business.  Your odds of success are even less than a brick and mortar business, but this comes with the much lower start up costs too.

The truth about blogging is, it isn’t as easy as you think it is.  Some people have talent, some people have experience and luck plays a bigger factor than people are willing to truthfully say. 

-Justin Germino

Illinois recently passed a law requiring affiliates to collect sales tax from purchases made to consumers in the same state.  Amazon affiliates of course have now way to implement these required sales taxes and are therefore dependent on Amazon to collect the taxes on the sales on their behalf to meet compliance.

Instead Amazon.com sent notice that they no longer affiliates in Illinois will no longer be able to sell products through Amazon and will not be eligible as Amazon affiliates, they would get 0 commission for their sales.  Amazon does not tax items sold in Illinois and instead of writing a system in place to allow for adding taxes to items sold through affiliates who ran businesses in the same state, they instead opted to just separate from their affiliates.

The odd thing is Amazon.com already complies with some sales tax laws and charges sales tax for shipping certain products from certain merchants to certain states.  According to the Amazon.com Sales Help page, this is the list of merchants and states where taxes are applied to an order:

The following is a partial list of merchants selling items at Amazon.com which may be included in your order, and the states in which they charge sales tax.

• Amazon.com LLC: KS, KY, ND, NY and WA
• Amazon Digital Services, Inc.: KY, ND, NY and WA (Kindle content, MP3s, and digital videos are only taxable in KY and WA)
• Electronic Arts, Inc.: All States except for AK, ID, ME, MS, ND, NM, SD, VT, WV, and WY*
• Magazine Express, Inc.: AL and WA
• New York Times, Inc.: AL, DC, KY, and NY*
• Synapse Services, Inc.: WA only
• Target.com: All states other than VT
• Hachette Digital, Inc.: AL, AZ, CO, CT, DC, HI, ID, IN, KY, LA, ME, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, WA, WI and WY*
• Harper Collins Publishers, LLC: All States*
• Penguin Group (USA) Inc: All States*
• Simon & Schuster Digital Sales, Inc.: All states other than AK, DE, MT, NH, and OR*
• Macmillan: AZ, CO, CT, DC, HI, IN, KY, ME, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, WA, WI and WY*
• Dow Jones & Company, Inc: AZ, CT, DC, HI, ID, KY, NC, SD, and TX*
• Zondervan Corporation LLC: CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, NC, NV, OH, PA, SC, TX and WA*

So I guess wouldn’t it have been better if Amazon just update their system to be able to apply taxes to affiliates who had sites registered in that state?  This way they could keep getting the sales, and just automatically collect and submit the taxes on behalf of the affiliate?  Or, at the very least collect the taxes and distribute them to the affiliate to submit to the government?

Not sure what the easiest way to accomplish this was, but this is now spreading and there are several states that left bloggers scrambling to find other ways to make affiliate income since they can no longer be Amazon associates. 

Here’s to hoping Arizona doesn’t pass an absurdly stupid law that taxes an Affiliates sales, after all the state is already collecting taxes on our Affiliate income as an income tax, it would be a double tax to collect from us both ways.

-Justin Germino

I see many bloggers talk about making money blogging and associate affiliate marketing as "blogging" which I disagree with. 

Blogging

Blogging in the way I interpret it is when somebody shares their opinions, feedback, thoughts or insights on a semi regular basis to an online CMS system.  This is opinion based unlike a journalist who just reports the facts without any personal opinion playing a factor.  A blogger also engages in two way conversations with readers who interact with their blog.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is specifically promoting or selling products to your readers with the intention of convincing them they "need" the product and should purchase it.  You have a direct incentive to convince readers to purchase the product as you make profit based on whether you can convince them to buy it. 

Is Blogging Affiliate Marketing?

I think the two can be used hand in hand and may be similar at times, but they are not the same thing and saying you make money as a blogger when you do affiliate marketing is not the same thing in my opinion. 

How about your opinion or point of view here?  When you think of blogging and pitching affiliate products, do you see it as one and the same?

-Justin Germino

There are way too many games for Xbox360 rated Mature+, Truthfully in my experience these games should have settings for parental control, too many kids want to play the games that are advertised on TV for adults like Halo 3, Dragon Age…etc and these kids are like 10 – 14, they should have a parental control to set a game to PG, PG-13, R ratings and let there be a password set by parent. This way the game could remove blood, gore, sex, language based on parental control setting. This would allow every game to satisfy an E10+ rating as long as parents load the game and put in the control lock. Granted some kids may figure out a way around it, but most would be older anyway and probably not need the parental controls.

Old PC games used to let you do video graphics settings and remove blood and such, a simple thing like showing the action without any blood or gore can really make the rating go down and not be as disturbing.  There is no reason with the technology in place today for the Playstation 3, Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii that game developers can’t add the additional programming to remove certain aspect layers from a game to make it playable by a wider audience.

My kids love to watch me game but I have to restrict what I can play in front of them because I have a hard time finding kid friendly versions of games that appeal to the role playing genre these days, I remember when all games in the RPG genre were PG or PG-13 at best, why do they feel the need to add more shock, gore and such?

There isn’t enough high quality content for the kids who want to play the older kids games, and most parents don’t care enough and just let them play it anyway.

My wife always loved keeping a vegetable and herb garden in the yard which is no easy thing to do in the blistering sun of the Arizona desert and even harder when I have a dog who loves chewing the heads off of the drip system and digging out the 1/4" tubing to chew up.

So four gardens and eight drip system rebuilds later, I think I finally have used my human intellect to thwart my dogs attempt to undermine our attempts to grow a garden.

I buried the 1/2 drip very deep, and I threaded the 1/4" tubing inside 1/2" tubing to protect it, in addition I enclosed the drip heads with a metal mesh screen so my dog can’t get to the plastic drip head itself.  He won’t bother the screen, and the only way he can destroy this landscape system is if he decides to dig it out.  He tends to tug what he can grab, but isn’t a digger so maybe this will survive his destructive tendencies.

Meanwhile we did a line of flowers in the back against the wall and planted tomato plants, bell peppers, radishes, rosemary, thyme and more.

Here’s hoping we have a decent garden in a few months.

-Justin Germino