Hot or Cold: Achieving Temperature Balance in the Home

Heating with a wood stove has its challenges; especially, when it’s necessary to hold a balanced temperature within the goldilocks zone.

Ever since we moved in, finding that balance has been a challenge.  It helps having an outside and indoor thermometer to achieve that perfect temperature balance.  We have been using an old analog thermometer for years now and relying on it to make minute by minute readings is impossible.  However, this summer came an answer to the issue we faced.

During the summer months, I was contacted by a company called Smartro.  They sent me an email asking me to review one of their products.  I was skeptical at first and hesitant to even reply to their email out of the blue.  With the amount of scams concerning the Internet these days, I didn’t really consider it to be a genuine offer and thought it was probably a dummy corporation phishing for my personal data.

For some reason, my curiosity was peaked and I began investigating the company online, which wasn’t difficult.  They provided their web address and I started researching from there.  It turns out they have contacted several YouTube channels besides mine, and I became quickly aware of their marketing strategy.  Instead of paying for advertisements, they would send out test products to YouTube Channels that could reach an audience. I do not think that the size of the audience matters too much as far as subscribers goes since my channel is quite small.  The key to this marketing strategy is it quickly becomes a virtual or digital word of mouth campaign.  It’s actually quite clever, and it seems to focus their products, using a plain folks’ testimonial, type of propaganda to exposit and endorse their products to various people.

So, now you know some of the behind the scenes of the above video. You also know how much I appreciate this humidity and temperature monitor.  I have been using it the past two months now and I can regulate my home into the goldilocks zone quite nicely.  I am learning exactly when to damper the stove down and for about how long, which is saving firewood.  The great thing about this thermometer is that it also is a barometer.  It measures the humidity in the air outside and inside the home. The damp cold or chill to the bones is derived from the percentage of humidity within the cold air that is hovering around freezing temperatures outside.  I can also determine the humidity of the home and put a kettle of water on the stove to raise the humidity if the humidity is too low.

As far as Smarto is concerned, they probably see me as a lost cause.  I have had this monitor for almost 4 months, and with my father’s stroke in the late part of summer and the crazy work environment I have had to teach in this year, I just didn’t have the time to review the product.  In fact, I didn’t even open it for about 3 – 5 weeks after I got it.  I filmed the unboxing and the setup of the product for a possible video, but it seems that many people online do that, and I just wanted to talk about the features that my wife and I really liked verses the setup.  I am sure Smartro has their own video for that and why be redundant.

The Debate

Some YouTubers will not accept products without some fiscally rewarding contractual agreement or an invitation to become an affiliate marketer for the company or products they promote.  In fact, larger YouTube channels that pimp products regularly are generally annoyed at smaller channels like mine that would take a free product and do a review on it.  Personally, I don’t care what the debate is; I just know it exists and knowing it exists allows me to weigh options and decide which direction my YouTube Channel will go.  Personally, I think I would like to do future product reviews of the treasures I already own and love, like my wool coat for $6.50.  I had a lot of fun making that video because I was able to spend some time remembering some great times in my life.

Promoting a product that has helped us out.

The one thing my wife and I will always do with our blog or YouTube Channel is promote things we value.  We will never promote something we don’t believe in or do not value.  I believe the term used for people who do is ‘sell-out”.   I have seen a lot of “sell-outs” on YouTube these days, and it is becoming more challenging to find good, honest content. Money is not worth a person’s integrity and if someone says it is, then the price of their integrity is too cheap for my taste.

Let me know what you think of this type of style of marketing.  I would really like to know.

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