Well I had the pleasure of breaking my nose today. It was pretty brutal. I was helping a buddy cut down a huge tree in his backyard. I had made the final cut and the tree began to fall. I jumped to get out of the way, I turned back because I thought the tree was falling my way, I turned back around and Wham I ran right into a different tree. Nose first.

Blood began gushing and I saw stars. My eyes were watering big time. My friend immediately took off his shirt and covered up my cut. He looked pretty concerned, which scared me. After going into the house and cleaning up all of my cuts, we could not stop the bleeding on the cut and inside of my nose.

I went to the emergency room, they stitched my cut and told me that my nose was broke and there’s nothing they can do. I just have to wait until it heals.

It hurts pretty bad. Plus I scraped up my face pretty good. Plus I have a huge gash on my nose. I look like I was in a fight…and lost.

I get the pleasure of going to Las Vegas for a few days on a business trip. I will be working at the Real Estate convention from March 3-7th. I get to stay at Cesar’s Palace and get away from the brutal Minnesota winter. I haven’t been to Las Vegas since I was seventeen. Too bad it’s for work, although, I’m hoping I’ll have some downtime and a chance to lose my money.

I get to talk with Real Estate agents all day about blogging. The sad thing is, nothing I’d rather do more than talk blogging. So…I’m into it. I’m a total geek. However, I think Real Estate agents are definitely a different breed. They can be very “interesting.”

I’ll letcha know how it was next week, when I get back.

I recently passed the Google Certified Adwords Professional exam. But part of the requirement to get your logo, is you have to manage an Adwords account for someone else with a balance higher than $1,000 a month. That’s easier said than done. Not too mention, I’d feel really guilty if I tanked someone’s campaign.

So my Adwords skills lately are going to waste. I’ve been trying to brainstorm and create an affiliate site and spend my own money, just so I can get more experience with Adwords. But haven’t had the time lately to pull the trigger…

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time using Google Video Search and Youtube. You can find some really amazing things out there. They have videos for everything. I have recently decided that I’m going to start including Youtube and Google videos on my blogs. I found a plugin for WordPress called Extreme Video, you can download it here.

Extreme Video allows you to include all sorts of video formats right into your WordPress blog. So, I’ve been adding videos as much as I can to my blogs. Love it! This will really add excitement to all of my blogs.

Todd Fugere is the Director of Community Development and has been with Blogging Systems since August, 2006. Todd has been working in Information Technology for over twenty years. Working in such areas as Network Administration, Web Design and has recently become a full time Blogger. Before joining Blogging Systems, Todd created his own Blog Network, employing several writers and covering a variety of topics. Todd is a Certified Adwords Professional.

I decided to become a Blogger when I realized how much potential blogs have, both on a commercial and a personal level. I have been living and breathing blogs and affiliate advertising for the past three years. It’s very exciting to see where blogs are heading and how they are turning the Internet upside down.

I am a husband as well as a father and love animals and the great outdoors. In my free time, I enjoy playing music, art, fishing, camping, snowmobiling and skiing. Technology and the Web have always been a major part of my life. “Once a geek…always a geek.”

Well it’s been almost a month at my new job, and I love it. I love the fact that I’m working from home. I also love the fact that they are very good about giving you praise. Making you feel appreciated.
It started out a bit slow, but now I have 9 clients that I’m setting up blogs for. So, it’s very busy. The days go by extremely fast.

I’ve learned a lot. I’m still working my way thru the process. But each day that goes by, I feel more and more comfortable.

I still keep in touch with a few people from my old company. I feel sorry for people left behind there. I know that I made the right decision and would never work in that disgusting, greedy sinking-ship, backstabbing environment again.

Well all of my friends laugh at me now. They all say “I can’t believe you turned blogging into a full time position.” They’re just jealous. They wish they had done what I told them over a year ago.

Now I wake up, work from home, and get paid a decent salary. I can work in my underwear. I can walk the dog. I can do almost anything I want. Something to be said about not having to deal with the rat race…and it’s only my first day.

My last day of “real work” was on Friday. Very stressful quitting a job of 14 years. But I know I made the right decision.

Well after 14 years at my current company, I have resigned as Network Administrator. It’s a bitter sweet thing. I’m glad to be out of the “negative” environment, but there are a few people I will miss.

I am looking forward to an exciting change. I will be working from home. I will be blogging full time now. I’m a little concerned about the future because I left my 14 year safety net. But things should be ok. I’m a lot more employable than I was two years ago.

The last year or so has been an incredible learning experience. I’ve been living and breathing blogging and internet martketing. My wife thinks I’m a dork cuz I’m constantly listening to podcasts on internet marketing and strategies.

I also have a ton of blogs on the subject being fed into my Thunderbird via RSS. I read a ton every day. Not to mention I belong to the forums where all of the major players hang out and I read those every day. Nothing’s getting past me. I even have Google and Yahoo news being spoon fed to me.

I also have started attending conferences in the industry. I just got back from Ad Tech in Chicago and am hoping to go to Webmaster World Pub Con in Vegas at the end of the year. That’s the thing that blows my mind, is how much information you can get from people by just networking. Forums are great, etc. but belly up to the bar with someone and you’d be surprised what secrets they tell you.

So I’m hoping the next year to be as lucrative as the last. And I hope to learn as much as I have in the last year, hopefully my head won’t explode.

I am 36 years old. I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life. I grew up in New Brighton, moved to Minnetonka in sixth grade. Graduated from Hopkins High School. I’ve lived in Richfield, Northeast Minneapolis, Mounds View, Crystal, St. Francis and now I live in East Bethel.

East Bethel is up highway 65 about a half hour north of Minneapolis. It’s a nice place to live. It is very quiet. We have a house on 3 acres.

I was just married two years ago to my lovely wife Christina. I am the father of a boy named Houston. Being and husband and a father have both been rewarding experiences.

I also love animals. We have a boston terrier named Cujo, who is just about two. We have three cats. Homer, Boris and Socks. We’ve also toyed with the idea of alpachas, goats and chickens. But I haven’t yet convinced the wife on those yet.

I have been working for the last fourteen years at a collection agency as their network administrator. I have been attending college at night to learn web development, programming and databases. I’d like to study business and graphic design as well. Too much to learn, so little time.