Only smart things have the answer?

Hands up, no excuses, I'm a geek. If it has a plug, a touchscreen or some kind of circuitry inside it, then I'm interested. It comes with the territory of working in computers and the software industry that there's this inate need to play with things that can be played with; to tweak settings of that latest gadget; to work out how to automate things to make life simpler (oddly, it never really does, you get sucked into a time sink, messing with the tools and technology in most cases).

Along dame the Internet of Things - connected devices that could all talk to each other and be controlled externally. No longer do you have to turn the dimmer switch to alter your mood lighting (who really used the dimmer switch anyway, really), you can now program your lights from your smartphone to change colour, flash with the beat of you connected music system (streaming songs from the ether), or come on and off at certain specified times - Home Alone style

This is like a kids toy shop to me - I get to both play around with some cool tech, but also stuff that can be programmed and interconnected to do amazing things (and a lot of mundane things too). But where does that come into our grand plans to make millions and retire to the sun-kissed beaches of some tropical island, I hear you ask. Well, not least, it's an expensive hobby to play with all the gear that comes with the connected home - smart speakers; virtual assistants; connected thermostats are all in the 'ouch' pricing bracket compare to their analogue forbears. Taking that into account (and know that my willpower to avoid buying things like the Automatic Dog Ball Launcher with Treat Dispenser pictured to the right is likely to be low, finding a way to make money from this personality trait could be a good idea.

The Grand Plan

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely a moving picture is worth considerably more. That explains why I hear a lot about YouTube 'stars' making millions doing the most mundane of things on film. Well, let's see if we can't get a piece of this action. Given that we (the royal we, as in just me) end up buying a bunch of these smart devices anyway for 'the house' let's make it into a bit of an enterprise. If we setup a site to host reviews, fill it full of videos and posts about the various things we buy - reviews; setup guides; etc - with the videos on YouTube. Then we might (OK, it's a big might, but you never now) scrape together a little advertising revenue. Even better (OK, depends on your perspective, but look at it like the geek I am), we might even get some freebies to review and comment on.

First things first, lets grab a domain and start putting together the site. SmartHomeTruths (see what I did there) is now a proud member of our burgeoning portfolio. We'll roll out our static site setup and get the thing up an running over the next week or so, and then start to look at YouTube and how we get on that bandwagon - might veven mean I need to buy a new camera to do the filming. Now what was this blog about again, oh yeah, making more money than we spend....