In which Daniel, Drew and Greg mull over the next generation, the history of blogging, Gentlemint.com, Drew’s new recording setup, and the travesty that is the grocery store toy aisle.

Todd Farmer recently said, “at what point will kids have no idea what “caught on tape” means?” – probably now. The three of us talked about how kids will not have the same touchstones we have, especially when it comes to language. We agreed though, that phrases can take on a life of their own, beyond their literal meaning. This is one that will probably linger.

Speaking of language, the AP Style Guide has issued a decree: it’s spelled “email”. No hyphen. [Here's the thing - someone on Twitter linked to this story, and I assumed it was current. In writing the show notes, I discovered this change was made 10 months ago. Oops. What does the AP say about doing proper research for a story?]

Next, we transitioned into the history of blogging and general internet evolution. Greg keeps up with rebeccablood.net, one of the earliest blogs – and it shows. It’s an example of an old school blog, from a time some considered blogging “pure”. The layout is minimalist, which reminds me of Sam Harrelson’s new site as well as Devin Tonhaeuser’s - two old school looking sites in 2012. Minimalist. Focused on content.

Are you using Pinterest? Are you a guy? Are you wondering how your super macho, manly interests fit into the predominantly female, DIY aesthetic at Pinterest? Wonder no more, now there’s Gentlemint.com. If you have an interest in sports car shaped caskets, giant pizza tacos, motorcycles, grilling or beer, this might be right up your alley. Speaking of Pinterest, Drew brought up an interesting thing…

Drew’s got a new microphone! He’s rocking the Blue Yeti microphone, an excellent choice. His audio is 1000% better… now we just need a more reliable Skype and all his problems are solved! Several podcasters I know are using the Yeti (or its cousin, the Snowball) with great results. If you’re talking into your laptop’s internal microphone or you’re using a cheap headset (itself a better choice than the internal mic) upgrading to a Yeti is a great move.

Next, I talked briefly about buying toys at the grocery store. Overpriced? Yeah, a smidge. The branded toys – Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, that kind of stuff, were nearly ten bucks for the little 3″ action figures. Generic action figures, without the big licensing deals, were like, a buck. Moral of the story? When your 3 year old says he wants a toy at the grocery store, just say no. Yikes.

Lastly, our friend Tricia Meyer is running a contest. Ladies, this one’s for you, and Dads (or husbands or boyfriends), this is a big chance to be a Great Guy™. Enter the drawing, then go get on Twitter and spread the word:

RT @sunshinetricia Share your mean mom story and win a gift to pamper yourself www.themeanmom.com/contest

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about a few things revolving around Affiliate Summit in some way or another. Plus, Game of Thrones, which was saved for the end in case people want to avoid spoilers and talk of taboo subject matter.

We started with a catch-up with the guys since last week. Drew’s getting settled with the new house, the new baby and all that domestic goodness. Greg went on a comic book shop tour in the Atlanta area, visiting six shops. He used a site called Comic Shop Locator to find them, and some of the places he went to were pretty funny.

Next, an update on Affiliate Improv!, the new monthly webinar series that kicks off this Saturday, January 28th, at 2pm Eastern. It’s an extension of the three-time Affiliate Summit session that I’ve helmed, and it’s totally free to attend. We demonstrate effective brainstorming and show the process of going from idea to action list. Plus, attendees get inside info on the sites, services and techniques we use on our own sites to blow them up and attract attention. Come check us out and spread the word, won’t you?

We covered Affiliate Summit Central, coming up in May. I’ll be there, Greg will be there, Drew is on the ‘maybe’ list. The Emcee for #ASC12 was announced today  and she seems like an awesome choice. Her name is Heather Romiti. None of us know her yet, but going by her bio and the trust that Shawn & Missy have placed in her, we’re sure she’s fantastic.

One of the more popular and well received sessions at Affiliate Summit West 2012 was Mastermind Groups Exposed: Success in Affiliate Marketing by Eric Nagel, Todd Farmer and Tricia Meyer. I recently got an invitation to join a mastermind group, and thought I’d bring up mastermind groups as a segment. I didn’t realize Greg would have so much to say on the matter! (Sidebar: you know what I just realized as I was typing these show notes? All three of them are Pinnacle Award winners now that Tricia won her award at West 2012. How cool is that?)

We finished up with a discussion of Game of Thrones, the enormously popular HBO series. Tune in to hear Drew and I ramble about how awesome it is and butcher the pronunciation of a few names. Warning: the segment is full of spoilers. Also, full of talk about what makes the show so controversial – the sex and violence. That’s why we held it til the end of the show, so listeners could drop out if they felt they needed to.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Drew welcome Sam Harrelson back to the show for our New Year’s Special. Topics include spotty resolutions, video games, social media, Shoemoney, affiliate marketing and more.

My new New Year’s resolution is to not agonize over the show notes. Rather than many paragraphs of overview, I’m going to break it down for you more simply. Let’s go!

New Year’s resolutions? Drew and Sam don’t do ‘em. Me? I’m resolving to have fewer paper cuts, listen to more Tom Waits music, and start smoking. Everyone resolves to quit, but I’m a rebel. I go against the grain.

Video games – we talked about the new Godfather multiplayer game from Kabam!,Unreal Tournament, Skylanders, Skyrim, and the granddaddy of all the modern resource allocation games, Utopia.

We talked about social media, Facebook and the “freemium” business model, which Sam wrote about just the other day.

And Shoemoney! Did you hear? Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker called me “the best podcaster in the affiliate marketing business and a great interviewer”. Now that’s what I call a compliment. The guys and I knocked around some thoughts about Jeremy and his upcoming appearance at Affiliate Summit (less than a week away as I write this!).

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out Jeremy’s 75-minute interview on Inside Internet Marketing #39.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Drew talk about a forgotten anniversary, the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program, holiday decoration deals and 2012 being the best year ever for movies.

We started with yes, the anniversary I forgot. Oh, not my wedding anniversary, no. Today is the third anniversary of Geek Dads – the third anniversary of my very first podcast experience. Everything that I am today in my podcasting career stems from that first episode of Geek Dads three years ago today.

And I completely forgot about it until it was too late to plan anything to mark the occasion. I suck.

After that bit of happiness, I mentioned that the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program closes tomorrow, December 23rd. If you’re interested in participating, please sign up by the end of the day tomorrow so I can make the final matches over the weekend.

Drew brought up late Christmas shopping next. Not shopping for presents, shopping for his tree. Yep, he left it a little on the late side on this one! That led into a nice discussion about finding great post-Christmas deals on decorations.

Our main segment this week covers the movies coming up in 2012 that we’re looking forward to (provided we’re not all dead). We had a great talk about movies and television from the 80′s to today and how things have improved significantly over the last 25 years.

Lastly, the winner of our last giveaway was Christopher Sorel, congratulations! We have another copy of the Green Lantern: Secret Origin hardcover to give out, so enter! The winner will be notified next Thursday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Drew tackle such heavy topics as cello-based Star Wars videos, joke thievery, Louis CK and a Green Lantern contest.

Right off the bat, check this out:

Awesome, right? We also mentioned Lindsey Stirling and the Barely Political series during this opening segment.

Did you know that The Gutters is a site of lousy joke thieves? It’s true. Someone clearly heard our Emo Wolverine show and decided to do a web comic featuring Emo Wolverine! Thieves! It’s true, as far as you know.

Speaking of noted joke thieves, we were reminded of where that phrase came from. I haven’t kept up with Sarcastic Voyage (or most other podcasts) much this year, but Aalgar and Matt continue to put out a stellar show, according to Drew. Drew was featured on this year’s ClusterFlonk event, so he might be biased, but I’ll let it slide. Keep up the good work, gents!

Next – Louis CK. This guy is my new comedic hero. The story behind his latest comedy special is inspiring. I won’t rehash it here (I do that on the show) but click on through to his site and read up on it. It’s a great lesson for content creators, affiliate marketers – anyone who wants to sell anything online, really.

Lastly, we have a new contest. I’ve got a bunch of Green Lantern hardcovers to give away, and we’ll start with two. I can’t promise delivery by Christmas, but hey, it’s a free hardcover. Call it your New Years’ present if you want. Now, here’s the catch. Well, it’s not really a catch, it’s a request. I’m trying to secure a sponsor for other really awesome contests and I want to show them that QAQN and Geek Dads Weekly knows how to throw a contest. Get your friends to participate! Tweet it! Facebook it! Throw it up on LinkedIn, if you think anyone there would notice! Put it on Google+ if you know anyone who’s actually using it! Join in the fun! Details below!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In which Daniel and Drew get a late start, don’t do the show live, and have to deal with Ian wandering into the studio. Turned out to be a pretty good show nonetheless. 

It’s the legacy of Geek Dads, whether it’s @ Home or Weekly. We drop the kids in front of the TV for 45 minutes to do a podcast and they invariably get bored and decide to see what we’re up to. That’s probably a good thing, I guess.

This week we’re talking about Drew’s new baby boy and how he’s affecting his family. We also covered Marvel Super Hero Squad Online and classic video games (like Baldur’s Gate, Bard’s Tale and others). I explained how I deal without cable TV – between Hulu, Netflix and various network sites, I’m pretty much okay. Catching live sports is a problem, but I’m not much of a sports guy, so that’s okay.

Drew mentioned that he’s doing even more giveaways, despite Swagsgiving being over and done with!

We wrapped with a segment about DC Comics’ commitment to their New 52 project. I don’t think they’re in it for the long haul.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Drew welcome Eric Nagel to the show to talk about his epic Christmas lights display. Also, Drew and his wife just added another human being to the planet and we mourn the loss of a Geek Dad. Still great, just different.

The show is divided into three segments this week, the first of which features Eric Nagel. Eric has just debuted his annual Christmas display at his home and is here to tell us all about how it came about, what it takes to plan something is this magnitude and how popular it has become. The event (and it really is more like an event) has its own Facebook page and you can see more pictures and video over there. Here’s one to whet your whistle.

Next, Drew and I announced that long-time Geek Dad, the only other remaining founder of the show, has taken his leave. Joe Magennis and I, along with Sam Harrelson, started Geek Dads almost three years ago. We celebrated our 100th show a few weeks ago. He’s been a rock, and he’ll be missed as he begins a new business venture. Joe’s welcome back anytime, and I hope he’ll jump on an episode periodically to catch us up on what’s going on with him and his family.

Out with the old, in with the new? Drew talked about his new baby, a boy by the name of Andrew Bennett IV: The Quest for Peace. Or Andrew Bennett IV: The Dream Master. I’m not sure which cheesy 80′s movie title to go with. Perhaps Andrew Bennett IV: The Revenge. Everyone is doing well, the baby is great, and I’m looking forward to more pictures. Also – Drew’s got more Swagsgiving goodness going on at BenSpark.com.

We wrapped up with a bit of talk about the new-ish direction of the show. We’ll be intersecting the paths of geeks and of dads a lot more in coming shows. We’ll have topics ranging from video games, comic books and TV to kid-oriented stuff like… well, video games, comic books and TV. But lots of other cool stuff, too (like biking, movies, making fun of celebrities and acting like we’re above all that, books, technology, social media…). If it’s geeky and we’re interested in it, we’ll cover it. Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesomesauce. Not lamesauce. That’s what the kids today say, right? Awesomesauce?

We’re giving away FIVE Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West 2012. Want to enter? Click on through to enter, and good luck!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

The Affiliate Summit West 2012 Gold Pass Giveaway!

We’ve got FIVE Gold passes to giveaway, valued at $549 each! If you’re thinking of hitting Summit in January, we’ve got your hookup. Follow the instructions in the widget below!

In which Daniel and Drew welcome the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics to show, talk about divorce, Facebook, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and a video game. None of which have anything to do with the other, sadly. Also, Emo Wolverine.

Our guests today were Mike Buechele and Trisha Lyn Fawver from the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics podcast, a great show you can find over at GeekCast.fm. This episode is the first of a two-part crossover, Law & Order -style. I play Detective Munch in this scenario. When this episode finished, Drew and I headed over to their place to sit on their guest couch and talk affiliate marketing. (Their episode hasn’t been posted yet – I’ll put up a link when it is)

We opened with a story of a divorcing couple who have been ordered by a judge to disclose their Facebook passwords to each other. This could have grave ramifications down the road. The story came to us by way of ZDNet.

To satisfy Tricia Meyer’s insatiable need to know more about my history in stockings, I told the story of my time performing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show about 20ish years ago. It was a Friday/Saturday midnight show performance with the actors performing in front of the movie on-screen. I played all the roles at one time or another except for Magenta. Yes, I wore the costumes. Yes, I was smokin’ hot. No, there are no pictures… that I’m aware of.

And from one extreme to another, we wrapped up with a brief segment about a very family friendly video game, Marvel’s Super Hero Squad Online game. The kids, especially Ian, have really been loving this game. It’s not seriously violent, there is quite a lot of well-written comedy, and I highly recommend it for small kids that have an interest in super heroes. Wolverine doesn’t cut anything up in this game (not in the way he does in the comics at least), which led to an interesting note to end the show on. Emo Wolverine. I’m not going to spoil it. Go listen to Mike’s joke about Emo Wolverine (pick it up starting at about 30:41).

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew celebrate the first 100 episodes of Geek Dads Weekly!

You know how sometimes you have a birthday and it’s a giant, no-holds-barred, massive blowout of epic proportions, but sometimes you just stay home and hang out with a few friends, kinda low-key? This anniversary show was the latter.

We talked a little about the history of the show – a few minutes about where we came from and how we got to where we are now. There was a little bit about politics… oh, don’t worry, we don’t get political on this show. We were mostly just lamenting the whole sad state of politics all around.

Drew gave us a big rundown of his Swagsgiving event, and we covered our planetary near-death experience with an asteroid (and noted that there will be an even nearer-death experience in less than 20 years’ time).

Birthday parties, the fall of Joe Paterno and we gave away a Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012! We’ll have more of those to give away in coming weeks.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew talk about video game systems, Gmail’s new look & feel, managing giveaways & contests and Zac Brown. Hang on, who’s Zac Brown? Oh, and I’m going to start betting on sports.

We started with a mention of next week’s milestone episode #100! Be sure to hit QAQN.com at 1pm Eastern next Thursday to listen live and get your shot at winning an Affiliate Summit West 2012 GOLD Pass (valued at $549!). We’ve got six to hand out to listeners, so you won’t want to miss that. We’ll have some other stuff, too. Also, a special guest will be joining us, one of the original Geek Dads, Sam Harrelson!

Drew told us about a game he’s been into lately, Skylanders. Sounds great, and a true cross-platform experience. That led us into a segment about which video game system to get for a family with young kids. X-Box? PlayStation? Wii? We decided on X-Box with a Kinect. Drew brought up a great kids game, Once Upon a Monster as well as Kinectimals.

Gmail has a new look and feel, and we spent a few minutes checking that out and offering some commentary. Some users will probably be put off by it, but some users always are.

Drew gave us a rundown on his Swagsgiving event, currently in progress. GO WIN STUFF. He’s giving away some really awesome things in the month of November, you should take a few minutes and go see what he’s got. He makes videos for each thing. In one of them, he sings.

Rafflecopter is a new system for managing contests, and Drew’s using it. I’ve just been accepted as a Beta user, too. It looks great and I’m looking forward to running more contests!

For Halloween, Drew was Zac Brown. I, of course, have to ask the big question: who the hell is Zac Brown? Turns out, it’s this rather famous guy…

Zac Brown. Famous guy. Note: no pink microphone.

…who doesn’t look completely unlike this other not-famous guy…

Zac Brown's beard-brother, Drew Bennett. Not-famous guy. Probably because of the pink microphone.

We finished up with a story about a winning sports bet on the Cardinals winning. The bettor spent $500 and won $375,000. I explained how.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.