Information Archives - Justin Germino Ramblings

Experimenting with Amazon Affiliate Autoblogs

So I was testing out a new WordPress plugin called Amazomatic which is a plugin which automatically connects to Amazon API using your own affiliate account so that you can create automatic blog posts based on Amazon products. I wanted to start a few micro sites that were dedicated to very specific product niches to see if they would be able to run on automatic and generate a small amount of revenue each with minimal effort. This was very easy to do and in all honesty each site took me about 30 minutes to setup and get fully automated and working. Completed with a custom Facebook fanpage for each site and a Dlvr.it feed which auto posts the new articles to the fanpage as well.

The new WordPress sites I setup are:

Remote A Day – This site I designed to feature and focus on all things related to remote control devices including drones, RC Cars, RC Boats and just about anything that is controlled with a remote.
PS4 Headsets – This site was specifically to showcase PlayStation 4 headsets and all headsets that were advertised as being compatible with the PlayStation 4.
Only Gaming PC – This was another smaller site that just focused on pre-built gaming PC’s sold on Amazon and must meet the minimum criteria of having an Nvidia or AMD dedicated graphics card and fall under the “gaming PC” category which rules out anything with just integrated graphics in my opinion. This includes laptops or desktops that are considered gaming PC’s.

These sites are all auto-blogs with some manual posts thrown in when it suits me, depending on if they grow I will make more or less use of them over time as this is just an experiment that only cost me the plugin and the domain names, since my WPX Hosting plan allows for 15 websites I had plenty of room. I also leveraged WPX Hosting for configuring free SSL certificates to make all my sites HTTPS which is known to rank better for SEO as well as provide more authority for a site.

What I really like so far about the plugin is how flexible it is, the creator did a great job giving you plenty of options. It makes the purchase options for the product very easy and gives you buttons which auto link with your affiliate ID front and center.

I will do a much more detailed review of the plugin itself in a later post, this was merely to showcase what I am up to. I did work with the plugin developer who already added several features within my first 48 hours of purchasing the plugin so he is great to work with. If you want to experiment with running an Amazon Auto Blog, the Amazomatic plugin is already shaping up to be a great choice and you can pick it up from Code Canyon for a very reasonable price.

By Justin Germino| 2017-12-28T10:23:43+00:00 December 28th, 2017|Information|Comments Off

The Most Affordable and Comfortable Mattress for Kids?

I have two kids who both share a bunk bed and they needed new mattresses, yes they were using the ones that came with the bunk bed when we purchased it and this was your generic spring mattress that was low quality but did the job. We did purchase a mattress topper to help but when both kids started having back pain and complaints over the bed not being comfortable of an extended period of time I was looking for a way to kill 2 birds with one stone by finding the cheapest high quality mattresses I could find. I normally would buy ones from Ikea but those flat rolled mattresses with the additional topper never really worked well and were thick and unwieldy with my kids sleeping on them in Arizona before we moved to California.

Now most people would think that kids could sleep on anything and this would be true, but considering how important sleep is to kids and they get 8 hours a night plus have bad posture while sitting all day long I consider a comfortable mattress really important. You spend 8-9 hours on a mattress you don’t want to have one that will cause you to be uncomfortable in your sleep or worse cause some back or neck problems later due to it not providing proper support. This is more true for older kids as they get heavier, the younger kids probably have lighter bodies and aren’t as affected by lower quality mattresses (just guessing don’t really know here).

So how do I test? Well I use my own adult mattresses that I paid in upwards of a thousand dollars for as a frame of reference and I took some time to sleep on my kids bed and mattress to make sure if it is good enough for me, it is good enough for them. Believe me I have slept in a lot of mattresses over the years and I can say for the price these are surprisingly good unless you are looking for frills. I mean this would be the ideal mattress for kids, teenagers and for a high school dorm. I was never a fan of the super thin and hard IKEA mattresses, but I do buy the frames and then going forward would just pick up one of these.

So the mattress that we bought from Amazon was the LinenSpa 8″ Memory Foam and Innerspring Hybrid Mattress which costs $99 and when you compare what you get in this mattress you will see that it is a fantastic deal. The mattress has a combo foam/inner spring and I will show you a diagram from their website on how the mattress is designed.

When the mattresses arrive they are rolled and compressed in a vacuum sealed bag, I am really surprised ad just how crushed down and compact these mattresses are when they arrive and I initially had my doubts on how much they could expand. It is best if you get them close to the bed and pop the seal on the plastic, then spread them out quickly and they will start expanding rapidly.

I would say it takes about a full hour to expand 100% and get the full 8″ thickness, but once it does, you can see the memory foam layer on top of the spring layer clearly.

Again, I bought 2 of these for a bunk bed and I can tell you they are far better than you would expect for the $99 and blew away any of the cheap mattress at Ikea plus were better than buying a cheap mattress and a topper separately. I found them to have a quality nearly as good as my own $1200 mattress when I tested them by taking a few naps in my sons bed to test it in comparison to the old mattress.

This is a product where the Amazon reviews are spot on for averages and has an incredibly high star rating, with statements like the following:

For a product to have a 4.5 star rating on Amazon with over 2090 reviews you know it is going to more likely end up being a worthwhile buy. So if you need a budget mattress that combines a memory foam and spring then this LinenSpa 8″ Memory Foam and Innerspring Hybrid Mattress is going to be excellent. I actually preferred not having 100% memory foam and some spring support.

By Justin Germino| 2017-12-05T07:28:22+00:00 December 5th, 2017|Information|Comments Off

Is the My Pillow a Good Pillow?

This is my thoughts on the My Pillow after comparing it to about a dozen total pillows including feather pillows, stuffing pillows and foam pillows. I have used many pillows over the years and wanted to let you know if I though the My Pillow is worth buying or whether it is a dud like so many other As Seen On TV Products. So of course I have been someone who has bought those random pillows from Walmart and Target over the years and I have tried expensive Mattress Store pillows that cost $200 per pillow like the memory foam ones we have now on the bed that my wife loves but I can’t stand to sleep on them because they never get flat enough when I sleep on my side.

I have tried the Sobakawa pillow and many other bean/filling pillows that felt like little soft rice grains that help the pillow conform to your head and neck as well as feather pillows as well which I do get the poking in my neck or scratching from the down occasionally. All in all, finally after my wife needed to use one of my pillows to prop her foot after an injury I was left having to find another pillow. So like most people I have seen the commercials for My Pillow and thought another cheesy as seen on TV product like most people.

I went to legit reviews from Amazon purchasers who are verified and saw a mixed bag, but still I have picked products that were so-so and I decided to spend the money and buy it from Amazon. I do this because the return policy is far superior than going to the source if there is a problem with a product. The pillow arrived and I was eager to get to sleeping.

Now I never give the first night any weight for anything but I can tell you that this pillow has little soft balls inside of it, not quite as small and hard as Sobakawa pillows but smaller balls than some foam pillows. They do conform around your head and neck well and it is very comfortable, where this pillow really shined for me is that it shapes easily and on my side it is extremely comfortable to keep just enough bunched under my neck to keep it in a good alignment. On my back is even better, where I can give just enough support to arch my neck and the pillow does seem to not cause as much heat generation when sleeping on it because my head was not as sweaty as it is on some pillows, especially the foam ones.

I haven’t washed the pillow yet so I can’t speak for it’s survivability after a machine washing but I can tell that for the price this was far better than most pillows I have used and I like it better than the $200 memory foam pillow I had purchased previously. So in my first 3 weeks of using the My Pillow I can tell you that I really like it and it may not be the best pillow but it so far is my favorite pillow out of the dozen or so pillows I have used over the past decade. I want a 2nd one that I can use as a body pillow.

By Justin Germino| 2017-09-08T09:36:33+00:00 August 22nd, 2017|Information|Comments Off

Review of the Potato Chip Maker from Vat19

So my son wanted to spend his earnings on a potato chip maker from Vat19, he loves Vat19 and previously bought a slushy maker and was very impressed with it. Oliver loves potato chips and this was a way to somewhat get healthier versions that could be made at home in 4-5 minutes from a fresh potato without having to turn on the oven or use a dehydrator.

The Healthy Potato Chip maker is a simple premise, it has a mandolin slicer to slice out thin potato slices which you place on a circular rack and then microwave the slices until they turn into crunchy chips. They say 4 minutes in the instructions but for me some of the chips were hard and some were still a little chewy after 4 minutes so you may have to play with the time a little bit to find the amount of time that gives you that crunchy chip. Just remember to let them set for about 3 minutes after the microwave turns off so they can coast cook and cool down before you start eating them.

The first thing I will let you know is everything that comes with the kit, this is a clear plastic bowl with a red lid that has a mandolin style slicer. A white potato slice holding tray and a plastic holder which is supposed to grab one end of the potato so you don’t risk your fingers. I will tell you that the lid gets knocked off of the container too easily, the mandolin slicer isn’t stable and the plastic piece to hold the potato is not stable for large russet potatoes. I think this product is way to risky for a kid under 13 to use and I would be the only one slicing the potato for my son Oliver. I will say that while slicing a thick russet potato on the slicer it takes some force to slice it straight through and because the plastic lid is very light weight and the bowl is also light weight, there doesn’t appear to be enough of a sturdy structure to properly slice a heavy potato easily.

This means I wound up having to make sure I held the lid tightly while slicing quickly and I was always worried the lid would come off of the container bowl even though it fits and slots in place, it isn’t very sturdy. It should have had some sort of clamp mechanism to hold it firmly in place in my opinion. I personally think all mandolin slicers are risky though, so just know what you are getting with the slicer. It does work and you get thin potato slices as you can see in the below picture.

Now after filling the entire chip holder with potato slices you place it on a paper plate or napkin and microwave it for 4 minutes to start according to the instruction and let it sit for 3 minutes to cool down after. I found I had to microwave it a little longer and you do have to play with times to make sure it cooks the potato slices into chips. Even Vat19 says you may have to adjust the times because microwaves don’t always all cook at the same wattage.

Before you microwave the chips you can add your flavoring, while the chips are wet from being freshly sliced you can add a little salt, black pepper, paprika or any seasonings or spices that you like. They will stick to the wet potato chip and it is easier and better to add them before you microwave them into chips than after when they become dry and the spices would just fall off.

By Justin Germino| 2017-07-15T07:28:00+00:00 July 15th, 2017|Information|Comments Off

Aicok Knife Set and Magnetic Knife Holder Review

Sometimes you just need a new set of kitchen knives and I have bought and reviewed ceramic knives before but was ultimately disappointed that they did lose sharpness rather quickly and in fact the tips were able to break off easier than steel knives at least in my case and my previous set. So Aicok reached out to me and told me to give their kitchen knives a review and particularly what made the set unique was the granite block magnetic holder that way after your knife was dry you could just set it and let it be held magnetically to the stand.

The box is fairly heavy and most of the weight is the heavy stone block that the knives magnetically attach to. Aicok includes plastic tips that you can place on each knife which is a great touch and I say is highly recommended that you use them when you are done and the knife is washed and dried.

You get a variety of knives for just about any purpose in your kitchen, though it doesn’t include a thin filleting knife for fish.

The bread knife I found worked particularly well for baguettes and other hard breads.

The block itself is heavy and has a stand, it does take up a large amount of counter space and you cannot mount this block to a wall. Something to note is that when you hang the knives magnetically onto the magnetic block stand you need to make sure the handles are above and slightly resting on the block top. These knives are not seated very well magnetically and I found they were too easy to knock off accidentally by bumping the counter or bumping the block with something. This would very easily cause scoring or damage to the countertop from the sharp knife tips if you don’t use the knife tip covers that are included, so I would say make them mandatory. Overall I would have preferred the used a stronger magnetism and made the resting sturdier for the knives and have the ability for them to be more vertical so you can wall mount the block, or simply not have it consume so much countertop space as it does have to rest at an angle and the stand behind it takes up quite a bit of countertop space. The fact you don’t have the block where you slide knives in and when wet can cause bacteria build up in the wood is good, but it comes with a risk of countertop damage and possibly risk to children in the home if you don’t put tips on the knives you have kids prone to climb on counters.

So with that I would say, it is nice in appearance, the knives themselves work great but the magnetic stand and block was a bit of a let down. Still if you need a good set of knives the Aicok knive set works well and these knives are made with 420 German stainless steel.

By Justin Germino| 2017-04-01T19:02:17+00:00 April 1st, 2017|Information|Comments Off

Amazon to Crack Down on List Sale Price Scams

I am no stranger to Amazon as not only I am an affiliate but I buy dozens of products from Amazon per month and I can tell you one of the most false and misleading things about the Amazon marketplace is the way 3rd party brands give the appearance that things are on sale or you are getting a huge discount on items from them when in fact they are offering the product for the same price as everyone else, they are just fixing the “list” price so that it would appear they are giving a huge discount or sale.

A prime example would be if you did a search for the Play Station VR Starter Bundle (or launch bundle) and you can see one product lists it as “Save $1,380” because it is only $619.99 but had a list of $1,999.99 and the other is simply $608 without listing any sale or discount.

Articles like the one from the LA Times recently are shedding light how consumers are being duped by the allure of “discount” or sale, when in fact they are paying normal retail premiums. Now Amazon from what I know doesn’t specifically set the List Price for products, this is something the individual store can set and Amazon will compare the list price with other list prices for the same product and remove the list price if it finds the list price isn’t a fair match or appears to be defaulted. But when a store is clever like changing the “Launch Bundle” to “Starter Bundle” which is not the proper and official term for the PSVR Launch Bundle they likely didn’t find another “list price” because no other store sells it by that name, so therefore the list price gets set and shown indicating a discount that really does not exist.

This is more stores that game Amazon’s system than a direct Amazon fault in my opinion, but Amazon should have been more aware of it and kill it as soon as possible. It should have AI or algorithms that can spot keyword changes and such when a product is in fact the same thing by scanning more details in the product information to appropriate a listing match. But this is far more rampant than you would believe, just do a search for any product term like “Bluetooth” for example.

Are we really to believe that so many stores are having sales and discounts on products greater than 35% off all the time? No this is simply setting a list price high and then putting the actual price so that the buyer perceives that they are getting a discount and saving a lot of money on a product that would normally retail for 35% or more than the current price they are seeing. It is misleading, it is like putting a $10 item in a store that you know you are selling for $10, then putting a big sign on it listing it for $99.99 and crossing off the $99.99 and then putting $10.00 in red to catch someone’s eye. You never were going to list it for $99.99 and if a store front did this and was caught there likely would be penalties for doing such a thing.

List prices for Amazon products however are on their way out and will be phased out of existence very soon, between the consumer lawsuits, investigations and marketing strategy shift of Amazon I look forward to where list price is non-existent and you can simply shop on product alone and compare the different sellers + shipping costs for a final total cost of purchase. Here are some other sources for more information related to the Amazon List price.

By Justin Germino| 2017-03-29T15:37:33+00:00 March 29th, 2017|Information|Comments Off