Talking Tech with Eric from Modern Day Tech

Todays Guest: @ModernDayTech

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Pete's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DIYSmartHomeGuy1
Brandon's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonDoyleMN
Vince's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DIYwithVinny

In this engaging conversation, the hosts welcome back Eric from ModernDayTech, who shares his journey from starting a YouTube channel out of boredom to building a successful business around product reviews. The discussion covers the importance of honesty in reviews, navigating sponsorships, and the evolution of content focus towards smart home technology. Eric also shares insights on robot lawn mowers, the challenges of managing tech products, and unique review experiences, all while maintaining a light-hearted and humorous tone. In this engaging conversation, the hosts discuss the challenges of video flagging and resubmission processes, share insights from international tech shows, and explore cultural differences in tech events. They delve into innovations in pet care technology, the role of AI in content creation, and the importance of diversifying revenue streams in influencer marketing. The discussion emphasizes the need for constant adaptation and enjoyment in content creation.

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Transcript

• I think you need to uh review one of those bar control collars. I've done like two of those. Oh yeah, they work. Did you try it on yourself? Hey, I did. You touched it. It hurts. I actually did that. It hurts a lot. It hurts. I put it on my neck, too. I didn't not a Spider-Man would have maybe just put it on your arm, but I I needed the real If I'm going to subject my dog to this, I got to be able to take it myself. I'm bigger than him, so it'll be fine.
• But [Music] We are back for season 4 of the Technical Difficulty Smartome podcast. I hope you enjoyed our hiatus as much as I did. But the fun is over, people, cuz we're buckling down for another 12week run with several exciting guests lined up. We've suckered so many of the biggest smart home creators to join us this season.
• We've got Steve Does Smart Home Solver, Life Hackter, and so many great guests all lined up. And to kick things off this season, we have friend of the show and friend in real life, Eric from Modern Day Tech and Modern Day Reviews. He joins us for a modern-day podcast interview. We had so much fun talking to him and we'll jump right into that in just a minute.
• But of course, this show would not be possible without the support of our sponsor, Zeus. Zeus makes smart home Z-Wave products you can depend on. While we may have been taking it easy in the past couple months, Zeus has been launching new products like the new Zeus Zen75 heavy duty wall switch.
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• For the best price on this heavyduty switch or any other Zeus product, visit the smartest house.com. That's the smartest house.com. And now on with the show. We are back from a hiatus. This is season four. With me as always, I got Vince. Vince, how you doing? Doing doing great. How are you? That's the level of excitement I was hoping for after a long break.
• Brandon, are you doing good, too? Super excited to be back and very excited to have Eric as our guest here today. There we go. See, Vinnie, that's what you got to do. Do we want to start off? No. No. We're going with this. We're going with this. Eric, what's up? Doing good. Doing good. Eric is We're happy to have you were one of the first guests we had on one of my lives.
• Um, he's one of my first friends I met uh as a former fellow fellow YouTuber. Strong word. Okay. All right. We're friends. Acquaintance. You sent me a Christmas card, so I think that uh that qualifies. I didn't get a friend card. So, all right. I don't I don't think he even knew you at Christmas. I didn't know you did. I don't think I got one back.
• What the hell? Wait, I sent you one, Brandon, because I searched your address. Yeah, this guy's a spy for something. Like, I have no He got my address somehow. I don't know. Throw your addresses in in the video, so it's pretty easy. I know. I'm terrible. Don't people watching, don't don't go through former videos and try to find me.
• Um, I've got robot lawnmowers now and a dog that will come chop you up. So, but Eric, it's exciting to have you on the show, I think. Can you kick us off with your with your theme song? I think I got to hear your theme song. All right. This is quite old. My channel was never it was never it wasn't supposed to be about tech.
• It was like a family channel. I just So my old name is modernday family mane family man. That's that was my channel. Let's hear let's hear it. Dope reviews on YouTube that you get a new package. What's in the new set? He been around the block like a true bed. Where we at with the GPS? We stay modern. Yo, welcome all my guests. You need reviews that are honest.
• So many good reviews that you don't want to miss. How to know how to nittygritty. We get down to day. [Music] I can't believe this one was a top 40 hit. This is outstanding. He's like, "Wait, you're getting to the best part right here." Yeah. He's like, "Shut up, guys." This song's 8 minutes long, so we're going to listen to the whole thing.
• Oh, that that's fantastic. How much did that cost to have a little under bucks, right? And did you like use it for anything? So that was 2015 I think I bought that 10 years this big celebration here. Yeah, that was those are real people singing. By the way, I'm my my channel. I play lots of silly songs that are all AI voices. But that that's a real person, real music.
• Pizza Trendsetter. There's a pretty big name that picked up on that idea and has really run with it. I know. Paul, I'm going to get Paul back. That's Paul Hbert you're talking about. I'm gonna get him back. Trust me, it's I'm coming for him. Can't be copying my music stylings. Inspired by be honored. Yeah, I should get a little cut of all his all his monies. Well, take us back to 2015.
• What the heck got you into YouTube? Um, sheer boredom. It was actually 2013 I started and my daughter But 2015 is when you made it your music. That's right. I was famous. I was like, I gotta have my own song by then. So yeah, so uh sheer boredom got me started and I had twoyear-old daughter or three-year-old daughter and it was right after Hurricane Sandy and I got bored, couldn't go out drinking or anything or have any fun.
• So, I just picked up a camera and started reviewing a little emergency flashlight and uh just started reviewing like different emergency products like it was um like bugout bags, emergency bags, and then I started getting into like uh stuff on Kickstarter and I did tile for little Bluetooth trackers, which wasn't actually a Kickstarter.
• It was their own crowdfunding campaign and that video blew up which back in 2013 that was 40,000 views back then that was a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, it still is. Like I would take a 40,000 view video right now. That'd be awesome. Yeah. So, uh, every other Bluetooth tracker company saw that video and, uh, I turned into the Bluetooth tracker guy. Just like Pete is now the lock. Oh my gosh. I'm getting lock manufacturers. Send him your locks. Not me.
• They're they're coming fast and furious, my friends. The locks are palm locks. I'm sure coming out. And Oh, yeah. We got palm locks. We've got all sorts of cheap, expensive locks. They're they're coming. They're coming. And I love it. I love everything about smart locks. No, it's it's good.
• So, how long did it take you? Uh I mean, you've done thousands of reviews at this point over the years. How at what point did you start turning this into a business? You know, at first when did it really kind of take off? Um, probably right during COVID it started taking off just because I got into the Amazon thing and uh, you know, one thing led to another thing and I kind of spun off the tracking stuff from the main channel onto a secondary channel and then I did the Amazon reviews, turned that into another YouTube channel.
• So it just now I have like three YouTube channels at Amazon and uh just one day checks started rolling in and I was like okay this is cool. This is uh I can do this as a full-time income and you know yeah I mean yeah checks rolling in is awesome. Full-time income is is super duper awesome. So you said you have three channels.
• Can you just tell our audience what those three channels are so they can check it out after the podcast, not jump away? So, you got Modern Day Tech, um, which is, you know, lately it's been a lot of robot vacuums and lawnmowers and bigger the robot mower. Yep. The Arbo. Um, got some other stuff in the works and kind of stuff that just a little bit more costly, high-end stuff that really interests me a little bit more than the standard tech stuff.
• Um, and then I have the tracking channels still. So, if you're into like Bluetooth trackers, air tags, tiles, chopos, um, and there's starting to be a lot more third-party devices also that have trackers built into it. So that's on a different channel called Track This or Track, right? That's that's channel name.
• Do you have all your kids and your pets and your grandparents and your wife, they're all bugged? Yes, absolutely. Like it. So I just put my daughter on a plane this morning and everything is bugged. Um, and then the third channel that I have assistant doing is all my Amazon reviews is put onto a YouTube channel and she pretty much takes care of all that for me.
• So, Whoa. You've made it so far that you've gotten an assistant now. Tell us more. Part time. Part time. So, she's a college student and um she just takes all my Amazon reviews, chops them up into shorts. She posts the full video. She postes a short every day and uh you know she does all the backend stuff for that channel. I just you know keep on making content.
• Yeah. Yeah. So you're so the modern day reviews that's your channel that's it's based off of your Amazon reviews. Uh modern day tech that's your tech channel has a high-end stuff. How do you Okay. You're putting out a review almost every single day on modern day reviews and on on Amazon.
• Uh, can you tell people the process of what it takes to get a product, how you select your products, and the process of filming, and then you say you hire an assistant to help you out? Can you just kind of walk walk us through the process of of getting that making that happen? Um, obviously having the YouTube channels, companies see these videos and they reach out to me is one way, but I'm very selective on the products I actually pick.
• Um, I get 200 emails every day, as I'm sure you guys do also, and 99.9% of them are just junk. So, I'm very selective on what I'm actually reviewing. Um, I also buy a lot of products I'm interested in. Um, so pretty much anything on Amazon. It could be a bottle of water and you could review it if as long as Amazon sells it.
• So um you know you have to be very what percentage would you say that you are receiving for free or are purchasing? Um it's a good question. It's probably about I probably buy 60 to 70%. So, and is that just typically things that you are going to use in your everyday life anyways, or is it things that you're buying specifically to create the review because you think that there's a audience for it? Um, more of the stuff that I'm reviewing is actually bought for the review.
• Um, just because there's, you know, like higher price things get, you know, get better commissions. Not better commission rates, but bigger higher, right? the more the more someone spends, the more money you're gonna get, right? Plus, I'm more interested in that stuff anyways. So, you know, I'm not going to review toothpaste. It's just not what I'm interested in.
• Even though, you know, toothpaste sells like crazy. So, you know, someone is probably not like searching like, oh, what what what's the best toothpaste? It's kind of a commodity and very little thought goes into it. Whereas if they buy a robot vacuum that costs thousands of dollars, they want to make sure they pick the right one.
• So, right, you know, the more pricey item is, the more research someone's going to do. Um, so more likely someone's going to watch your video, click on your links and you know, but you also got to be transparent about everything and be honest in your review because you know my model which you guys know is affiliate model and if they return it, you lose your commission. So there's no reason not to tell that truth.
• So yeah. Yeah, that that that's a that hits hard when someone returns a big item. like, oh, yeah. Then or the item goes on sale and then they don't just get the difference in price. They have to return it first and then they reby it. You don't get credit on that. Yeah. And not through you. They reby it through through wherever they they they found the sale from. Um Yeah. No, that's cool.
• How do you um I should had the how do you was not the right way to start that question. Editor guy. We have an editor now, by the way. He's going to be editing this. He's gonna Is it the same guy that you use for all your videos, Brandon? Uh, no. This is someone that does just does podcasts. Okay.
• My guy would have been too expensive. Yeah. So, all right. Okay. So, we are Oh, man. Now that I'm thinking about it, Cole is going to watch this and be like, "Oh, no. I was the cheap option." Cole, you are reasonably priced. Uh, we love you. Make us look good. Well, that went well. It's like you can't like like a little secret like you can't hear or something like put it in the chat. All right. Okay.
• So, we're we're we're back. Okay. So, for the people who are watching and saying, "Okay, these four idiots can review stuff. Why can't I just review stuff on on Amazon? Is this something that anybody can jump into or is it take special talent and skills that only Eric from Modern Day Tech has? Anyone can do it, you know, as long as you have a Amazon account and log in.
• And you know, there there's a process to it. And you know, the more you do it, the more you learn and you have to be um strategic in the products and when you do the reviews. But pretty much anyone can do it. Yeah, and I I agree with your honesty take. I get a lot like we get those emails and you know I get emails from companies they have these expectations that I'm going to like make an ad for them basically and I don't Yeah, I don't do that. And they want to turn around in two days from when you receive the product or before you even get it somehow.
• Yeah, I'm not into that game, you know. Just if you want to send me the product, great. If not, that's okay. And there was actually a company recently I'll tell you after the who it is. I can't disclose yet. Um, but it's been a company I wanted to work with for a very long time and an agent reached out to me and they wanted me to do a contract. And I don't do contracts anymore.
• I've done them and back, you know, three, four years ago, I would done a contract, rip it, you know, red line it crazy. I spend hours and hours, you know, negotiating it. Now it's just a flat. Sorry, I'm not interested in any contract whatsoever. And they sent me the product anyway. So, I was like, "Cool." Wow. Awesome. Yeah. No, I I sign have to sign contracts for some of them.
• Um, if I'm not getting paid for it, then I'm defin I just The only thing I say is I will make a video. That's the only thing I will commit to is I will put it in a video. I'm not going to give them any feedback. They don't get to see it before it's put out. Um, there are some things I will do. I won't do a review if they're doing a sponsored.
• I' I've got one sponsor I'm working with right now for a video that's coming out in a in a couple weeks. Um, and I said I will have you do a sponsored video. We'll work together to come up with the content, but it's not going to be a review. I can't tell the audience, hey, this is a sponsored review because like, yeah, nobody's going to believe that I'm honest about that.
• So, it's a it's like I'm using their product to demonstrate a a It's a demonstration. It's a Yeah, it's a like I like these creators who, you know, do these different words. It's a showcase video. It's a demonstration video. It's not it's not a review, you know. So, yeah, it's but I'm like, yeah, I'm showing their product, but it's a it's it's a more a general lawn mower robot lawn mower instead of like this robot lawn mower specifically is great.
• I'm using there is to demonstrate some of the qualities of robot lawnmowing compared to mowing a lawn by yourself is all I'm doing, right? So, it's I'm not I'm I tell them up front like this is not a review, you know? They they paid me money, whatever. So, uh but we're we're gonna have fun. I'm sure there's going to be a song. Of course, there's gonna be a song involved. Wish there wasn't.
• Lots of Come on, man. Do you get a lot of uh like uh manufacturers reaching out to do a contract? I feel like that's kind of like super old school. Yeah. And they they still try to Yep. try to I think some of the companies like the agent is paid by how much they can get and stuff. It's more of the agents than than the actual brand.
• If it's directly with a brand, most brands, they don't want a contract. They don't have time for that. It's the agencies that are want they want a contract. But you gota you got to comb through it with a with a fine tooth comb like you said Eric because they always want to use like we get unlimited use of your video in whatever method we want.
• I'm like no no you don't get that like then you should hire me to make a video for you for you and that would be thousands of dollars that's you're not you're not getting that for what you're what you're paying. So, um, they're usually cool. If you cut it out, they might You had started with trackers and then obviously more tracker companies are like, "Well, we want that, too.
• " And Pete did a a lock video and now he's guess every lock manufacturer reaching out. How do you u take that and kind of pivot into maybe something you're more interested in or broaden the topic further? So when I went from trackers to smartome, I just started to do like a smart home once a month or something. It was like trackers, trackers, trackers every week and then like then a smart home and then eventually the audience just kind of learned that there was a smart home channel.
• So, you kind of have to slowly bring it on to your your subscribers and see if they're even interested in other stuff. Um, and then if you want to if you want to continue, like for me, it it was a no-brainer to move all the tracking stuff to another channel just because I was more passionate about the smart home stuff than than the trackers. So, you know, you just got to easily slow, you know, put it out there and see what the audience is is interested in. Yeah.
• But I turn off a lockpicking or a smart lock just like the lockpicking lawyer. He's but with smart locks. That's his new channel. And then it's the DIY will go back to being DIY. No, he's he's right though. You gota you got to like what you're doing. It's very hard to do things when you're not enjoying it. Yeah.
• Sometimes I get into a video, I'm like this, why am I doing this thing? I don't want to I don't care about this. But you're you finish it and sometimes I get really excited about it. It's a lot easier to finish when you're doing the things that you're enthusiastic about. Uh I want to say you have one of the widest breadth of uh I don't know, knowledge or experience with smart home stuff of all the creators out there.
• Can you just tell me a little bit about what some of your favorite smart home tech is just in general? things that not you maybe it's things you like to review or maybe it's just things around your house like what are your favorite things about your smart home? You don't want to talk to my wife especially two nights ago.
• She's pissed off at me in the smart home. That's never happened in my house. I don't know what you're talking about. You and the smart home are synonymous. They are the same. Um, to me it's just um it's for me it's like the automations like like I'm lazy. I I can admit I'm super lazy and I don't want the house to run itself.
• Like I have so much chaos in my life. I don't want to worry about mowing my lawn or, you know, washing the floors and that kind of stuff. Um, so having like those robots, that's awesome to me. So right now I'm currently that's what I've been doing lately. Um, if you ask me a year ago, you know, it was more, you know, the lights and, you know, turning on, turning off and, um, you know, being able to, you know, show off my smart home was a lot to do with it.
• Like I would used to have friends over, I'd be like, you know, turn on the TV, you know, just voice activation. Um, but I'm getting to a point where it's all about the automations. Like like like I know there's going to be like a Apple Home screen coming out soon and I'm just not excited about it. Like I just don't think that's cool.
• And I see Vince's uh what is that show back there? Yeah, it's an old eight. Yeah. So I've I've had the you know the shows and I've just never used them. So I I just think a smart home should be all about automations. Yeah. So what are you using? Are you you're a home I mean you use Apple Home I know a lot but uh is Homie Pro still your homeie pro is second? Um even though I've had some some uh Z-Wave issues with Homie Pro recently.
• So just yeah other people have said that too. I I honestly have not had uh the Z-Wave issues with and maybe it's just the different types of devices we have. I don't know where my location, but I haven't had the Z-Wave issues that some people have been having with it. Yeah. So, um I don't know if it's a range issue because I do have a larger home.
• So, I was thinking about getting It's the What was that? I was joking. You're like, I have a larger home. So, I was So, you know, I was thinking I don't even know if like the homie bridge will that extend the Z-Wave like I don't know. Uh the Homie there's the new Homie uh Pro Mini which does. I don't know if the bridge extend it does or not, but the Homie Pro Mini definitely does.
• So I feel like that's the evolution, right? Like kind of like all of us you're focused mostly on the hardware. Oh, hold on. Homie Pro Mini doesn't have Z-Wave though, does it? I don't think. Does it? I should check into that. You go amongst yourselves. I vaguely remember that new stuff does not have it have the Z-Wave. All right, Cole, cut all this rambling out. No, this is what people love to hear.
• Sorry to interrupt you, Vinnie. Vinnie, go ahead and talk. Yeah. What? What the hell, Pete? I got ADD. You can't do that to me. You know, I do, too. This is our train of thought and everything. Also, ADD, which is why I interrupted. This is why we haven't done thing for two months. Now, we're trying to get back. All right.
• So, it's kind of I feel like that's a natural evolution of like kind of like you first really focusing on the hardware and then like once you get all the hardware, you're like, "All right, now I'm going to do something with all this.
• " That's when you kind of like evolve to be like, "All right, now I'm going to focus on all the different automations that are around the house." Yeah. Like you get way more focused on those type of things. Sure. And I feel like Apple is just falling way behind and Homeie Pro is kind of satis satisfying that itch a little bit, but like I want more, but I don't want to go to like home assistant.
• Like I just don't have time for that. So yeah, exactly. That just becomes a part-time job. Yeah. If you have home assistant. So, but hopefully Apple will step up. Uh, you know, I don't want to go back to, you know, the other ones that can't mention, but She who shall not be named. No. So, Vince looks puzzled. I'm not follow up on that.
• Just want to punch Pete in the face. Oh, man. Are we doing this? Just kidding. I didn't think I had a punchable face. I thought I I mean, dude, you have a very Oh, come on. I I've honestly never been We should do a poll. I do too. Can you put a poll please on this uh on this video? Yeah. Yeah. Who who has the most punchable face? I uh between the four of us here.
• Honestly, I think it's Brandon. No offense, Brandon. I love you, but like I feel like just face from a face perspective. Like I feel like you have the most punchable face. That MC that Mcloven face I was just watching that last night. I was watching. I feel like it's a fun effect. Super bad. Oh, wait.
• Where's my license? I have my license. My super bad. Do you really have one? Yes, I do. I put you in videos freaking Amazon. I think I just need to make a t-shirt for Brandon. Like Mcloven license, but literally just put his face in there. I don't think anybody would be able to tell a difference.
• So, fun fact, when I was in college, when I was underage, I actually got into a bar using the Mcloven ID from that came with the DVD. They just thought it was so funny. They're like, "Whatever, man. Just get in here." Like the balls to do this, so you're in. Nice. So, Eric, what are you trying to like you said you're way more into automations now like what what problem are you trying to solve like most currently with automations? I want them to work like Well, that's not going to happen. So, yeah.
• Which ones are you trying to get work to work to make? Well, I just want like the basic stuff to constantly work. So, I'm I'm tired of, you know, them working for a week or two and then something will happen and, you know, they just stop working. So, that's where I am right now. Um, and once I get that everything working for a straight month or two, then maybe I'll add more sensors and more complicated stuff.
• But, yeah, that's to to dream the impossible dream. I I wish you luck in making that happen. A lot of it is also time and which I just don't have to like I probably have 20 different accessories I got to go change the batteries on you know. Yeah.
• And that that is the annoying like the whole idea of home automation to me like I'm a lazy guy like you is just to save you time. But if you have to keep babysitting it doesn't doesn't do that um as well. And that's kind of so I I want to talk about you had a lot of robot lawnmowers. I I know. And you got the Yarbo. Um, we've heard about some of the issues with that. We all have the Yarbo. Oh, wait. Hey, except for Always.
• The one guy The one guy that drafted Yarbo in his fantasy smart home team didn't get the Yarbo. I don't know what happened with that. I was So, I'm I'm down on Yarbo. Maybe they'll send me a Yarbo. I talk to him. I did. I not have a Yarbo. I'm just confused by this. What's that? How do you not have one? I'm confused that I don't know. It's probably my email. They probably tried to send me one and my email didn't work cuz that's how it goes. It does.
• Oh, my email sucks. Anyways, um I would love to hear about uh how you feel about robot lawnmowers in general as far as a time-saving device in as far as do they work as well as you expected? Are you constantly having to chase them around, get them unstuck from things? What's your what's your opinion on the robot lawnmowers? Hopefully you don't hear my cleaners. They're back.
• Um, so I do, like I was telling Brandon earlier, I still have a weekly service. So I'm not at the point yet where I'm cutting that off, but I will hopefully do that or cut them back shortly because between the Yarbo, which I have in the backyard right now, and the Eavax A3000, which I absolutely love, that thing.
• Is that the goat? That's the goat, Brandon. Yeah, I saw your video, Brandon. So, so, um, that thing's awesome taking care of my front yard and I have it going out every two or three days and you just set it and forget that one.
• So, I know I'm going probably have to do some maintenance and that's probably, you know, I'm not happy about because I do have the lawn service right now. So having a robot lawn mower to save you time, the weekly maintenance, you know, the weekly going out being out in the heat and dealing with all that. It'll save you a lot of time and effort there. But then, you know, you have to still change the blades. You have to grease the tracks.
• You know, grease the tracks. Oh, that's a yo. Yo. Yep. You know, deal with broken wheels. Yeah, that was Wait, how often do you grease the tracks? I have not done that yet. Um, so I just did the once I have I've only had it for two, three months. So, all right. Just making sure I'm not missing.
• Yeah, I forget what they recommend, but I remember it was like it was pretty like short period. Like a short period was like every two or three weeks they recommend. Brandon definitely hasn't done that. Yeah. Sell it. Get a new one. You know, it's not maintenance. Now they have the pro version. The pro the yarn. Yeah, I just saw that. See, that's what I That's They're going to send that one to me.
• That's That's what they're holding out for is the Well, it's the same It's the same core module. It sounds like it's just a different mower attachment that has actual metal blades, like full like mulching blades. They got metal blades. I didn't just release it on Tuesday. the mulching thing because if you're sending out like these robot lawnmowers are supposed to be sent out more often, not just once a week.
• So it it just kind of trims it every two to three days. So really what's the point of having a mulching mower when it's all everything's just really small to begin with. So yeah, plus you need that suction. I don't know if the will will have a rotary blade that you're saying it'll have the suction power like a traditional lawn more. It'll push it down.
• Yeah, it's like 300 watts of power. I'm assuming that it'll just have to take quite a few trips. Yeah, maybe that's better for like leaves to like mulch up. Yeah, like leaf mulching. That's my one concern with the robot lawn mower. I haven't been able to test it is like Yeah, in the fall it's not going to suck the leaves up and chop them up, right? It just kind of rolls right over.
• Rolls over or worse, it'll see as an obstacle. But then you can get the the leaf blower for the yo. Yeah, the arbo is the leaf blower. The the mimotion. No, no leaf floor attachment for the Motion, but I think that one is just gonna race right over. I like I do like the Motion. I think it's a pretty good Yeah.
• Well, I I tested both of their Well, not this year's models, but last year's I did both. Yeah. Yeah, they were pretty good. So, I have this um big hill in the in the front. It's a more of like a a swell for the storm water. So, it goes down and goes right back up. And it's the only lawn mower that's been able to go straight down. They go straight back up. All the other ones have to go sideways.
• So that's Yeah, that's awesome. Does it do any of the the mowers you've tested, do they chew up your yard a little bit on some of the turns or anything or they do it pretty Oh, the YBO just in in front of the power pad and sides of it. It's just it's just all torn up. I agree. Just a little bit.
• my yard gets trapped underneath my um my trampoline and so then I'll like go but it'll like just keep bouncing around and so like by the time I I see it it's completely dirt underneath my Oh jeez. Well then it doesn't need a motor anymore. You can just set it as a no mo zone and you're you're good to go. It doesn't have very doesn't have very good vision yet.
• I feel like the technology has got a little bit ways to go. All right. So, I'm just thinking of like the trampoline having these legs and you're it's a you have enough gap to go through. Can you make a path through like the different directions? So, there still be some to trim, but at least you can get a path through there. So, it's just going straight through. Yeah.
• The problem is with that is that the bars go down and then so but it sticks up like in between the bars. So, it can't see the bar, but it'll it'll run into it and then detect an obstacle and then turn around and then try to go around it. Issue with a lot of robot vacuums when like in my office I have Get rid of the trampoline. There's that. I agree.
• The Mimotion drives right over those bars, by the way. The ones that are on the ground. Oh, just Yeah, it's got It goes over pretty much anything. So, make sure you don't have anything you don't want chopped up on your your lawn that's that's low to the ground cuz the emotion it little doggies. Yeah, little it does.
• It has an animal mode that actually somehow it's supposed to detect animals. It won't it won't hit my dog. It It does go around the dog. It didn't kill the puppies, so we're good. None of them did. Puppies are fine. Trust me, they're good. Yep. The other issue. The other issue I have with the Yerbo is like it doesn't can't detect anything that's height mid height.
• like trailers for example or so it'll like try to go under and like snap off the RTK antennas or what happened to a Michael? Yeah, I had to replace two of those already. Really? Yeah. Did you have the high ones on or the low ones? I had the high ones on, but it wouldn't have mattered either way.
• I have like a scrape right across the top like going across like the module unit and the core unit where it tried to go underneath the trailer. Just like takes the whole top off. Do you guys uh get a lot of weird looks from your robot lawnmowers? Yes. People stop at the end of the driveway. Especially when you run mult. True. Yeah. Brandon, you got eight of them going at a time.
• I are you gonna do a video of all of them working at the same time at some point? By the time this is out, the video that video should be out. Oh, awesome. Awesome. All right. How many individual and then the grand finale is all of them at once. So, how many you have now? Eight. Eight. Well, yeah. Now I have two. You sold them. Hidden revenue stream to pay for the editing is the liquidation of said tech products, which is a good segue.
• What do you do with the tech when you're done with it? It's actually a major issue for me. I have a lot of anxiety about all the the crap that I have and uh I need to find someone local to come get a trailer, pick it up and like sell it for me and you know give them you know he's just fine 40% of it or something. Just find an online auction person. Yeah, Vince is your guy there. He specializes in liquidation. So, yeah.
• Eric, didn't you say for Thanksgiving, Maryland? Eric, didn't you say for Thanksgiving you had a bunch of people over and they all walked away with a with a vacuum? Yep. All my friends came over friends giving and everyone took home with a robot vacuum. Now, the dining room is filled back up. So you could have like had a had a pin like a a little pen and made them battle and then depending which one won then they could pick first from the remaining robots. That could be fun.
• Yeah. Next time. How do you even compare them anymore? Like there's so there's so many robot vacuums now. Like there's 20 30 brands out there now. It's And it's How do they not all just like meld together in your brain? And how do you keep them separate? Yeah, I I have a feeling they all come from one factory.
• I mean, it's kind of weird when one comes out with something new, the other ones will jump right on it and they just try to outdo each other and so they either have like Yeah. either the same factory or the same people working on the software and then I think it gets leaked and then they kind of keep up with one another. But yeah, I've noticed that too. It's like, "Oh, well, we have this now.
• " And and and the, you know, the suction power, the numbers keep going up, but you know, does it do a better job cleaning? Just louder. It sounds like it's working harder. So, in your review, do you get like super technical like Rob does where you're measuring things out or you just like living stuff? Yeah. I'll get into the scientific.
• Um, it's more about user experience for me. And you know, you don't lay out 30 grams of flax seed. No. And like, how long do you want to use a product before you do the review? I tend. It's probably two to three weeks minimum. So, it it some are months, but the minimum is probably about two or three weeks. Yeah.
• for a for a a item like a vacuum or a lawn mower. Yeah. I had someone they wanted to send me a lawn mower and they wanted it done in like two weeks. I'm like I I need I can't run it just once and like say, "Hey, this is great or this is bad." Like you got to really experience it. Yeah, there are definitely people that do. It's like the product came out and they already have a review. It's like, "Oh, okay." And sometimes commercial, not a review, I should say.
• And sometimes I'll do follow-up videos, especially with the Amazon stuff. So you can do like a six month review, one year later type of thing. So, a lot of people like those types of videos. Um, which I channel just on six month reviews. I think they do pretty good. Yeah.
• So, so what's what's the most interesting thing that you have reviewed? Interesting appropriate channel. Oh, yeah. We forgot about his fifth channel, the adult toy channel that he which I did see him over at the booth. I've shown my wife the toys that we've seen at CES and she wants me to, you know, review this stuff. So, not just for males, but for females.
• Um, so interesting. I actually tried to do Well, I I have a friend that did a review for me on for Amazon and it was a female sex toy and I was not able to get it approved. So personal information in there so it got flagged or medical claims. That's another fun one. You can't use HEPA filter. Yeah. Trying to get through the Amazon filter these days is it's a full-time job.
• How many of your videos like what percentage gets flagged and like what's your process for resubmitting I guess when they don't tell you what the actual issue is? Yeah, I mean, we've been asking for them to have some timestamps since 2018, and um they actually did a beta program um that some of my friends were in that did the timestamps, but they never came out with it for the masses. So, um you just you just got to comb through it.
• Look for barcodes, look for uh serial numbers, phone numbers, uh street addresses. Um if if if there's a car, just might as well blur out the whole car because they don't want the the the license plate. Um so yeah, it could it could be a challenge. Yeah.
• So what percentage you say get get 90? These days it's probably about 90% fail the first time. Wow. I'm actually dealing with three right now that so like I did the Thornbolt lock two three weeks ago and I still can't get it through Amazon. I can't figure out why. So two of my recent mower ones got flagged and then the cooler one was fine and then a week later after it's like getting sales it got pulled and I was like what? So, I don't know if like there's a way for people are flagging it or something. And I think they just they randomly re-review stuff.
• Um, also if you change the title of the thumbnail, it goes back to review sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes or if you rettag it. Um, so you got to keep on top of the asens and companies change changing the asens. So, you have to read it. For the lay audience, describe AS. Describe AS. Yeah. What is it? It's I know what it is. Amazon number. Like every product gets a Amazon number.
• It's like a It's Yeah, for Amazon. Do you know what ASIN stands for though? Amazon something identification number. I'm guessing. I don't know what the Look at Pete. We can totally redeem yourself with it with abbreviations. Standard identification number. You're right. See, I had three of the four, right? So, I'm pretty good. That checks out.
• That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But he couldn't figure out what CES stood for. I still don't know. No, it was CDIA. That's the one. I don't know. Consumer Electronics, digital interactive entertainment show. I don't know what it is. I don't know. Something is installers and aggregators. I don't know what it is. But uh we're we're not going to Cydia this year. Eric, you've never been to Cydia. No. Right. Uh we see you at CES.
• That's awesome. We had a good time uh last year, but you have been to Germany last year and you're going to Germany again this year. Can tell people what that's that's all about? that is the CES of Europe and um people-wise the number of people it's actually bigger supposedly um but it's not as as big as far as brands or at least brands that we know in the United States and that's kind of the reason I go is to learn or get in front of these new brands and you know learn about their products and eventually everyone wants to sell their
• stuff in the United States. until um I thought last year there'd be a great opportunity. Um and it kind of worked and it kind of didn't work. Like it didn't work as well as I thought it would. So I'm going to go back one more year. Double down. That's right. Double down, baby. Yep. Not going to pass up a trip to Germany.
• Does it line up with October Fest at all? It does not because it's early September. No. So, for those watching, October Fest is actually in September, despite the name, so you're aware. You know, you think the end of September, isn't it? It's the end of September. With the Germans, they're so precise.
• You'd think they'd be a little more on top of it having October Fest in in actual October, but plus I went last year because I've never been to Europe, so that was my first time to Europe. And it was it was a cool trip. So, I hung out with uh Mark and Valerie. They were there also last year. Nice. Yeah, we've had them on the we had them in our last episode, I believe, of the last of the last season. So, nice.
• Yeah, they they do they're probably they do as many Amazon reviews as as you do almost. I think you guys are kind of the kings of the uh the Amazon review space. So, uh yeah. Did you meet anybody there that you really expected, hey, this is going to be awesome. was going to come here and it just hasn't come to America yet or any products the brandwise no products yes like so a lot of like robot vacuums like Dreamy Robot Rock um they were all there and they they were announcing products there that eventually came to the US um but as far as brands wise
• I don't think I've met anyone really knew that I didn't know about already that had anything interesting. So, I'll give it another shot. See what happens. I mean, plus I think more creators are going to be there this year, so I'm always down to hang out and have fun. Let's name some names.
• Uh, we'll see if it's worthwhile. Is Eric being there not enough for you, Brandon? Eric is gonna be there. All right. Because I didn't get invited to Shane's birthday, that's all. I'm inviting you to Epha. Come on, let's go. I think I'll go. That sounds fun. Let's do it.
• When you go to these shows, it might be a dumb question, but like uh is um what's their first impression of like, you know, media coming from the the US over there for products and things like that or looking at what they're selling or trying to sell? Um I mean, they I don't know if they know that we're from the US. I mean like everyone's you don't wear your American flag t-shirt.
• Hold on. A trucker hat. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Your uh your evil conval jumpsuit. You don't wear that? I think maybe you should. Um I don't know. What was the question? What's How is How does it differ from like CES here in the United States? Like what's what's probably the biggest differences that you see? Do they speak English? Yeah.
• Yeah, that that's what I was trying to get at, but I didn't want everyone English there at at the event. Everyone spoke English. Um what about like getting to the event like traveling? We got to take an airplane. Yeah. So, I flew to Iceland, which was like three hours from Maryland, from DC, and then I have six hours from Iceland, which I'm doing it again this year.
• Um, and then the events, um, is pretty much all in one location, but it's multiple buildings all in one location. And it the biggest difference for me was the amount of kids that were there. So I kind of felt like it was like a national holiday where they had like school buses pulled up in the front and you know kids you know probably 10 11 at the youngest were they all went in and it was like a a field day for them and they were like working working boots.
• Brandon's like all those kids I'm out. Yeah. which I I never heard there was an AC. So, I'm a little They It's Europe. They don't believe in AC. So, it was definitely warm on the warmer side. Um especially for me, I I love the cold. Um but I when I first got there and I saw the school buses, I was like, "Shit, I got to deal with these kids running around and asking dumb questions getting in the way." But actually, it was kind of reversed.
• They were, you know, they kind of just disappeared somehow. You were getting in their way. Um, and when I did see them, they actually, they were like really into it. Um, and they asked great questions. I was like, "Wow, this is this is this is different." So, I was I was impressed with the amount of kids and how into the event they actually were. So, that was the biggest difference.
• So, is it is Germany known as a like is any of the technology coming from Germany? I guess I guess I should ask. Are they still all coming from China for the most part? But this is a cool place to to come hang out. Yeah, I think it's just there's there were some German companies, but mostly still a lot of China stuff and Taiwan and you know. Yeah. Can you guys hear my dog? Oh, yes.
• Yeah. Uh there's a tarp. Our neighbor has a tarp hanging outside and she really doesn't like tarps. So, she's letting you guys know that there's a tarp and it's waving gently in the breeze. So, uh, thank you, Haley. Thank you. Thought maybe it was all the Amazon packages you were getting for all the No, she's fine with that. It's just it's tarps.
• Sometimes my neighbor also they have a shed and if they don't shut the door like tight, it kind of waves in the wind like big things moving slowly. She as a real I think you need to uh review one of those bar control collars. I've done like two of those. Oh yeah, they work. Do you try it on yourself? Hey, I touched it. It hurts. I actually did that. It hurts a lot. It hurts. I put it on my neck, too.
• I not Some people Spider-Man would have maybe just put it on your arm, but I I needed the real If I subject my dog to this, I got to be able to take it myself. and I'm bigger than him, so I think it'd be fine. But it was not a fun experience. Wouldn't recommend it. Did Did you give it a good review or a bad review because of that? You're like, "Oh, this works. This definitely works.
• " Five stars. Yeah. They have those ones where it doesn't shock, but it'll like spray like spray something in their under their nose. I don't know. I've never seen that one. I've seen ones that were like make different noises or vibrates. Yeah. Or like the high pitch. Like the vibrate first, but they didn't. Oh, yeah.
• The remote had like different settings. So, it can do a noise, vibrate, or then shock it. Yeah. What does how what would you do for a spray? Like what kind of spray would a dog not like? Like they love everything. Oh, I don't know. They love skunk. I'm sure you'd love skunks. She loves every stinky. Anything that's stinky, she's like all over it. So, I don't know. She went and rolled around in a dead squirrel in our backyard one time.
• That was like e the worst thing ever. Is there technology to to take care of that? I don't know if the robot lawn mower is gonna enough passes that'll get it done. You guys clean up after your dogs or you just let the robots robot mower? Yeah, I clean up. So, we have our old corgi is a poop eater and so now we have two corgi puppies and the one has poop eating tendencies already and so we just pick everything up right away. So, I'm going to give a tease.
• Uh, we got to set the date. Uh, but the, uh, the guy who invented the poop copter is coming on our, our podcast later on this season. I'm very excited about that. He's a local guy from Minnesota. He invented a uh, a drone helicopter that can identify poop in the yard and scoop it up and and take care of it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Mindful drink.
• We also have a robot mower guy coming on. He totally just booked while we're recording. Nice. Yeah, we did. He'll We got more robot lawnmowers. or this is like the year of the robot lawnmower. So, it is. And not to like ruin the title of my upcoming video, but it's the year of the robot lawnmower. It's so original. Go watch it, people.
• You're the robot. I've tested eight. I got eight in one video. So, now that I as soon as I release it, someone will have nine or 10 in their video and I will be one up as this always happens. But that's okay. Your biggest moment in time I'm going to claim to have tested the most in one video.
• So one recently probably my history that was up there. I don't know if there was eight. Rob had one. Well, Rob did one. Eight. There wasn't eight. If there's anyone that's going to beat me, it's going to be him. But so I did that 16 lock review video, right? And the biggest comments I get are, "Why didn't you do this lock?" or "Why didn't you do this?" I'm like, "I did 16 locks." The 38 lock review. I know. Half of them are the same.
• Yeah. Exactly. Minor difference. What do you think of the ultra wide van stuff first? It needs to get here. I'm disappointed that we don't have this. Okay. I Yeah, they asked to send one to me and I'm like, "Yeah." And they said I uh the uh Ultralock Ultralock sending me the the ultra wide lock when I thought it was be here already. It's not here yet. They want me to do their their lock.
• So, them and Schlag and I think Lley should have it. Lockley. What do you think about the technology or what you know about it? Like I know little and I am excited. But like you saw the demo at CS, right? And it knew what side of the door that you were on which is really cool. But I'm still you still need a device.
• You still need a watch. You still need a phone. and having facial as your as your video said your facial recognition lock is the best. It's still the king, man. Right. Still the king. So for me, I mean that that's just I mean that to me that's just faster and a lot of times I'll forget something like I'll be backing out of the garage and be like I forgot this and I just put the car in park and I run to the front door and I don't usually wear a watch even though I have one over here. So then I my phone's in the car and ultra wide
• Dan's not gonna work then. Then I'm g like facial recognition to me. Real first world problems over having to type in a fourdigit code my fingers noises either. That's pretty impressive. So, I do think the cost should be lower though because if you're just adding a chip and the chip is already in your phone, the camera tax there for the facial recognition is not cheap. Like lockly locks are on the premium side.
• So, if we could get this down to like a I don't know, ultralock is pretty affordable. Like a Yui or an Accara price point like that could be gamechanging. Yeah, it's it's going to be big just because these companies are going to get behind it. You know, Apple get Apple gets behind it. Google, Alexa, they all get behind ultra wideband.
• It's just gonna blow up. Even though I think to me personally, I still like facial recognition. So, yeah, I think I get a lot of comments and I I tried to refute them, but people are very concerned about the facial recognition and like, oh, it's easy to fake. I tried to fake that. You cannot fake that thing. I don't know.
• I videotaped myself and held the iPad up at the exact size of my face and it just it it didn't work. I mean, your phone is facial recognition, so Yeah. Right. People are really concerned about that too, though, because you can, you know, hold someone hostage and just hold it up to your face. There's nothing you could do.
• You can't just like I don't know. I'm not I think I tested that. It still works with your eyes closed, man. Yeah. Example, I don't know. I tried to open my girlfriend's phone with her face while she was sleeping. It didn't work. Let's dive into this a little more. Okay. What were you trying to uh try real hard? Did she watch this? No.
• No. Wives don't watch our podcast or our videos. Don't as Never mind. How long did you try this for? Did you like try to do multiple angles and Yeah, it was probably like uh maybe like a 45 second period a couple times and within 15 minutes. Oh man, I had to I thought she was waking up so then I had to, you know, put it back her password. What's that? You don't know her password? No.
• A lot of trust in that relationship. It's okay. I I just don't want to know. But does she know your password? Yes. Right. Exactly. People would be very disappointed if they got into my stuff. It just a lot of houses, like some craft beer, tons of puppy photos if you're into that. But that's that's about it, man. Day life over here.
• If people got into mine, they'd be like, you need you have problems. You need to be committed. Like, I don't know how your brain even functions with what you've got going on. Like so your AI conversations. Oh yeah. No, not my AI my AI prompt store are interesting. I try to get AI to do some some fun interesting things. Uh that reminds me though.
• So Brandon are you use AI for scripting and things. Um Eric, do you Is it that obvious? Well, you told me and yes, but Eric uh do you use AI to help out with any of your uh empire? my empire. Um, yeah, you write video descriptions, give me suggestions on video titles and that kind of stuff. So, nothing too advanced.
• Not I'm not making any music with it. Yeah, I don't recommend that necessarily for a lot of people. That's just a problem that I have. Uh, yeah, but you're not using AI AI to do any editing or do any scripting or anything like that. You I've tried all that and it's just never it's not what I'm looking for.
• Um, even the scripting, like I've I've tried to script myself and it just doesn't come off natural. I rather use like bullet points and kind of just come off the cuff with it. And you know, if I don't like it, how much time are you putting into recording and editing each review like for Amazon? Maybe not. It varies quite significantly.
• I mean, I could I've I've done a one take wonder and, you know, be two, three minutes and be done. Um where then there's videos that it's taken me two three months to do. So it varies. It's a pretty broad answer. Yeah, I like it. There's the best no answer ever. I mean, you also got to understand what the product is.
• Like if it's a maybe the higher the price point, the more effort is put into it and what channel it's going to be on. Um you know, and what my ultimate goal is of the video. And so sometimes it's just I make videos for fun sometimes, you know. I know it's not going to make me any money, which is fine. Like the Yarbo, I know the Yarbo is not going to make me any money.
• I mean, what an affiliate sale on that would be pretty juicy, but yeah. But I mean, I've spent three months on that thing. Yeah. So, and there's a sales right now, so maybe people will buy it. I don't know. I think it's shown like 200 people. 00 videos of the Arbo right now. So, yeah. And there's a lot of competition. Yeah.
• I like how do you decide if like a product has too much competition versus one that's like a blue ocean strategy here? As far as like like the stuff on Amazon, they're soft. Yeah. Like when you're buying products to to create the reviews. So like and it's something that you don't necessarily need. You're buying widget A, B, and C to do videos. How do you determine like this is the right price point, this is the right audience, this is, you know, doesn't have a ton of competition because maybe if there's like every reviewer under the sun has already done it, maybe that's like less
• attractive to you. Yeah. So there there's software that you can tell of how many like for the Amazon stuff you can tell how many influence videos are are out there, how many sales per month or per day, um price point, um if there's a sponsored, you know, if they if they're doing paying for advertising, obviously your video is going to be seen more. So um there's software out there that you can do your research on.
• How do our viewers find this software? I'll I'll send it to you after there's the viewers the Oh, the viewers. Um there's flu fluencer fruit is one of the first ones that I started using. Um so that will give you the basic breakdown of the the number of influencers per video or per product. And then if you want to get into more of the sales aspect, there's Jungle Scout, which is actually more of a seller tool, but it's integrated with Fluencer Fruit.
• So, and those are all, you know, they they cost money, you know, like think the Fluencer Fruit is like $1,000 a year or something like that. Um, Jungle Scout is pretty pretty up there also. So, it's gonna these tools do cost you money, but they make you more money in the long run also. So, like you got to be full on business hat on. Yeah.
• For some of these tools, I mean, there's a there's a few free ones, but they're very basic. Um, and obviously like Amazon tells you right in the listing of how many sales there are per month. Um, if you have the influencer account, normal consumers don't see that. No, they don't. No. If you log out, you won't see it anymore.
• Then you log back in, you'll see it again. But yes, it's a good tactic. Yeah. So, um, but if you want more specific details, you're gonna get something like Jungle Scout. What kind of volume are we talking about per month here between Amazon, YouTube, and how does it break out between, you know, affiliate revenue, influencer revenue, and AdSense, or maybe even sponsors if you're doing sponsored stuff? Yeah.
• So, I don't do any sponsors just cuz I it's my own ethics where I kind of feel like for my model like I just wanted to stick with reviews and it's a I want a win wininwin situation where you know brand will win because they got a sale that the consumer will win because they bought something they liked and then I will win because I get a commission and if the consumer returns something then everyone loses.
• So, it's just for me it's more of an ethics thing. Um, but you know, I know a lot of people including you guys, they do full-on sponsored videos and that's up to you guys. You know, I don't Shout out to our sponsor zoos. We have no we have no ethics and morals. I'm easily bought for those that are watching.
• Like, if you're a company and you're interested in sponsoring a guy, I can't promise I'm going to do a ton for you, but like I'll take your money. That's my promise to you. You're You're not alone. Probably. No, I I'm But I'm with you, Eric. I like I said, I've done a few sponsored deals, but they're not reviews. They're more project type videos that I'm incorporating. Yeah. Uh the the product into it.
• Um but yeah, I don't Yeah. And you don't you do mostly reviews. I You did do a video a while back about uh building your home theater, which I I thought was enjoyed. those bigger projects like you know I did the um building my smart deck I did and these videos they for some reason like the cool passionate videos I would love they just tank so I was actually in Sennsylvania talking to uh Andrew O'Hare you guys know him from Apple Insider Insider yeah and he was telling me about this passion uh project of his that he wants to do
• and it's going to be a video and he's asking me what I think. I was like, "Dude, it's just going to tank. It sounds awesome." Like one of the best ideas I've ever heard of. It's like it's a video that's going to take just because he had so much passion about it. And so I I feel that deeply.
• Every video I do, I try to turn into a passion project. It's maybe not the best business move in the world, but uh it's Brandon's like, "You're a You're a I've been telling you for two years now." I mean, I tried to help him out. He did solicited advice and some solicited advice. You know, you could read the horse to water, but you can't make him drink. So, this is true. This is This is very true.
• So, just know that I'm here for you and I'm a supporter. I appreciate Brandon. I appreciate that. But um but anyways, back to the question at hand. Let's break down some percentages here. What kind of numbers are we talking? The audience wants to know. The audience, including Brandon, specifically Brandon and other people specifically being me, but I think other people might also be interested. Let's break it down.
• So 60% comes from Amazon and then you got um the YouTube and other sources. If you have direct affiliate programs, which you tend to get more percentage from a direct affiliate programs but less sales. So if you're looking for higher commissions, um you can go direct and those are also negotiable where you're trying to negotiate with Amazon. They're you know, right? I'm having a good day.
• Yeah. Right. I'm I'm no buyer, you know. So sometimes I'll do both the Amazon links and a direct affiliate link underneath that and let the consumer pick, you know, um where they want to buy it. Plus, you know, if I can get a promo code for the consumers, usually that's going to mean it's going to go direct because that way they take out the Amazon commission that they whatever the flat fee is and all that kind of stuff.
• So they make money, they make more money by offering a discount to the consumers um when they sell it on their own website. Yeah, the margins are certainly higher. I found there is you can get better pricing on the manufacturers's websites directly, but a lot of times like when you factor in the shipping and stuff and it's right back where it was on Amazon. Yeah.
• So for the convenience returns, I think a lot of people still just choose to go through Amazon. Yeah, most people are going to go to Amazon. It's, you know, they're just more trusted than a direct, you know, direct brand. And so for that 60% like how does that break down between the influencer program and the affiliate program? Not quite sure. I mean, obviously, I mean, you know what on-site is? It's mostly on-site.
• Um, probably 80% of that 60% is on-site and 20% is off-site. Um, yeah. And so for those random numbers aren't aware, when you watch a video that's on Amazon, that reviewer can get paid on that. And offsite would be, you know, driving traffic driving traffic to Amazon to Amazon. Created a video on YouTube and you drove people there.
• That would be offsite. So yeah. And when you're on Amazon, no one really knows how it works. like it used to be or they used to say, you know, if someone watched 30 seconds and bought something in the same category, you would get a commission, but no one really knows these days. So, I wish they would give us more numbers and more analytics, but maybe they don't even know.
• It might be a point they taking over. They don't know what's going on. We're so big. I don't know. We'll just send some people some money. And so Mark from Atmy Home is the person that originally tipped me off to the influencer program. And when I first got into it, I was making like 2,000 a month, but now I feel that it's kind of gotten a little bit more saturated.
• I'm probably making $200 a month, which is better than a poke in the eye, right? Like I'm repurposing videos. is not my full-time gig or anything, but are you seeing that as well with just a lot of competition or So, what I usually tell people, I might have told you this before, like back in the old days, you could sell a bottle of water and make $1,000 a month off a bottle of water. You try to do that today, you'd be lucky to get 10 cents.
• So, it's it's just more strategic of the products that you're doing. um and different programs obviously you know um there's different incentive programs on Amazon that gives you more of a percentage of the actual sale um so that kind of entices a little bit for you to do those reviews but you got to be careful because everyone's seeing those like creator central those create connections connections yeah yeah um but there's other programs also there's off-site programs there's seller networks um that you can get um instead of you're using your own affiliate link,
• you're actually using a seller referral code. So they get instead of the normal have to whatever it is 15% they have to sell or they the Amazon fee is 15%. they might only have to pay like 7% or something and they give you part of that commission towards, you know, your commission because they, you know, they don't have to pay Amazon. They pay you instead.
• And they might save one or two% by doing a sell referral fee if that makes sense. I might mess that up. Interesting. And how do you find out about those opportunities? Inquiring minds again. Yes. Go to Eric's Modernday Reviews Amazon course. It's available for $1.99. It's a It's a $45,000 value available course. Actually, the course, if I had a course, there would not it would not be under a,000 bucks because that's what these things are running.
• So, yeah, it's insane. All right. Well, we'll we'll get on the course. Next time you're on the show, we'll have you uh talk about your upcoming course that you're selling for again $45,000 value for for $1,200. Uh is now on sale 196 hours. And are you still doing the live streams like the QVC style on Amazon? No.
• Um, it's kind of weird because like I look at the app and I'm still making commissions off of the old streams I did. Um, but it's just not worth the time anymore, especially since you're not showing up on the product pages, which I'm quite surprised because I always thought that would take off rather than the shoppable videos. Um, but they kind of kind of they didn't fully shut it down, but they definitely pulled, you know, pulled you from the the product pages. So, that's where the customers were.
• So, it kind of makes sense to like uh a lesson here, not put all your eggs in one basket. And so, if you were a YouTuber and then AdSense came down, you kind of be screwed. But if you're diversify and you're doing affiliate sales, you're doing sponsorships, you've got merch, you've got all these different revenue streams, and if you own the audience, like if you have an email list or something, you know, then then you have something.
• But if you're reliant on that, the program could change. It could get shut off at any moment and then you're kind of stuck. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, you got to keep your ears and eyes open constantly and you got to be able to pivot. Um, like I've been doing this since 2013. have pivoted channel the main channel from like um the prepper to trackers to now smartome. So you know you got to be able to pivot.
• What should Pete pivot into now something that he enjoys. You you gota enjoy it like golf. Golf. It's golf. It's golf. I got to figure out do it, dude. Let's figure out a way to monetize that. And I'm I'm in. I'll um DIY golf guy. You could drop the DIY. I don't know how you would DIY golf, but or maybe like is DIY.
• I DIY my own swing, man. Don't need coaches. I'll uh learn myself. Yeah, do golf reviews. So, that was actually I I started a channel like that and never got off the ground and I abandoned it. Um maybe I should have done that. I could have be I could be big. I am big. I'm a big You should review the uh simulators have got some ins for you. Oh yeah.
• Yeah. Those companies are trying to get more uh eyeballs and kind of raise the space. So the ones are pricey too, aren't they? Yeah. 50 to $100,000. Yeah. I feel like they're a lot more accessible now than they've ever been though. They I got my hobo level simulator that I spent about $2,500 on.
• So that was uh not bad. Yeah. Well, those so those companies actually will put them in those the prey to homes and stuff and cover the cost and then if the people don't want them, they actually remove them. Why would someone not want them? That's crazy. Well, for someone like me, I don't golf. So, and you're crazy.
• So, I'd have a feeder there, but that's the trend now is the in in-house golf sale miners for the luxury market at least. Eric, thank you so much for coming on uh to kick off season four of our podcast. Always great to talk to you. I'm looking forward to seeing you again at CES, if not earlier. So, hope you have fun. Let's do it. Yeah. So, anything you want to plug before we we kick you out of the show? Yeah. No, thank you for having me on.
• It's always fun. See you boys and uh hope to see you guys at EHA or CS. Indeed. Indeed. So, always fun. and Brandon Vinnie, thanks for kicking off the season. My name is Pete. Everybody, thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. All the things. We'll see you next time. [Music]