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10 easy ways to help launch a successful online shop

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10 easy ways to help launch a successful online shop

If you ever wanted to launch an online shop, but you’re not quite sure where to start, I get it. With all the website platforms that exist out there, it can feel rather daunting. 

But whether you’re looking to start a side hustle or finally begin that passion project after retiring, I want you to understand how someone with no prior experience can easily create their own online presence. 

I’m here to help you launch a successful online site – like a shop, for example – one step at a time.

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A woman working on her laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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How to set up your online shop: A beginner’s guide

There are many website builders available, like Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress and Wix, but only a few specialize in online selling. Among those, even fewer make it easy to design, publish, manage your shop and handle all the in-between tasks on one platform without needing to integrate other services. Here’s how you can do it in this step-by-step guide.

1. Create your online storefront

Your website design plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining customers. Although it’s often said not to judge a book by its cover, many of us naturally do. Consider the intersection of form and function, how structure and design elements guide shoppers through their buying journey. If design isn’t your strong suit, many website builders offer a variety of e-commerce templates to choose from.

Here are some tips:

  • For a large product catalog: Opt for a template with pre-built product categories, deep search functionality and clear navigation.
  • For a small product catalog: Showcase your entire catalog on the homepage, making it easy for shoppers to find and select products.
  • For single products: Focus on a quick buyer flow, emphasizing a straightforward purchase experience.

When it comes to colors, fonts and other design aspects, familiarize yourself with color marketing to determine what will work best for your brand and store. Ensure your logo and/or shop name is clearly placed on your storefront.

Remember, strong product images and descriptions are essential. Use this opportunity to integrate customer support, cross-selling features and social proof to pave the path to purchase.

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Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

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Illustration of a website template (Wix)

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2. Create products and product options

Once your design is ready to go, start by adding your products to the store. Whether you’re selling physical items or digital downloads, consider the following:

  • Physical products: These can be sold as one-time purchases or part of a subscription model.
  • Digital products: Offer items like e-books, software or image files.
  • Product options: If your product comes in different sizes, colors or materials, add variants so that customers can choose their preferred option.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all of this figured out yet or if you only have one product to sell right now. You’ll need to start somewhere, and there’s no time like the present.

3 WAYS TO MAKE THE MOST MONEY ONLINE SELLING YOUR THINGS

3. Use categories to organize

If you do have multiple products or plan to add them later, you’ll want to group similar products into categories. This helps organize your catalog and allows customers to browse related items together, in addition to being able to easily search and filter through what they are looking for. In order to do this, follow these steps:

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  • Create categories: Set up categories like “Candles,” “Ceramics” or any relevant groupings.
  • Display categories on separate pages: Create the category, add products to it and then use a platform editor to display them. You can also manually create a page linking to all your categories if needed.

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4. Optimize product pages (and more)

After deciding which products to sell and categorizing those products, you’ll need to make it easy for your audience to find, read about and see what those products are. Without getting a good description and visual of what they’ll be getting, they’ll be less likely to order from you. So, here’s what you’ll need to optimize those product pages:

  • Product images: Use high-quality images and, if applicable, videos that showcase your items.
  • Descriptions: Add clear and compelling descriptions that highlight benefits. Bonus points if they can be optimized for SEO (more on that later).
  • Cross-selling: Suggest related products that customers can add to their cart to increase sales before they check out.
  • Social proof: Display reviews and testimonials that attest to the quality of your product.

Additionally, you’ll want to add to your site:

  • General information and contact info: Set your email address, location, language and currency. It’s also a good idea to have a contact page and/or phone number and email on your website for additional questions or concerns.
  • Customer support: Include FAQs so that customers can get answers to common questions. Depending on the size of your store, consider adding a live chat so that customers can contact you to discuss an order if need be. If your site grows, you may need to hire a team or ticketing software for this.

Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

online order

Illustration of order page (Wix)

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5. Enter site settings

It’s important to enable site settings to ensure your site functions smoothly. You can do this by entering essential details such as:

  • Roles and permissions: If you have employees or partners, manage their limited access to your site so no one accidentally deletes products or pages from your online store.
  • Privacy policy: Outline how customer data is collected, used, stored and protected. This builds trust with your visitors by reassuring them their personal information is safe and complies with legal requirements.
  • Disclaimer: Provide a clear disclaimer to limit your liability regarding the information on your site. This is especially important for sites that provide advice, sell products or offer services that may have varying results for different users.
  • Security certificate: Obtain and install an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmitted between your site and its visitors. This ensures sensitive information, such as credit card details, is protected, boosting customer confidence and improving your site’s SEO ranking.

Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

6. Shipping and delivery options

Having a site to showcase your products is the first step, but you also need to have a way to get those products to your customers in a timely and cost-efficient manner. This is the part that can make or break your customer base, as you’ll need to be able to create expectations for your users.

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Now, decide how to get your products to customers:

  • Shipping: Ship products to customers using Wix’s flexible shipping rules.
  • Local delivery: Hand-deliver to customers in your area.
  • Pickup: Allow local customers to collect products from your physical locations.

Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

7. Accept online payments

Now, how will your customers pay for those products? Be sure to set up secure payment gateways so that customers can pay seamlessly and with multiple payment options. Many platforms support various payment methods, including credit cards, PayPal and more, and it’s easy to accept those payments directly through your site.

Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

website template

Example of website templates (WIX)

8. Optimize for search engines

In addition to making your product pages look snazzy, you’ll also want to take the time to optimize those pages – and other pages on your online shop – for SEO. What this means is that when someone searches for a specific product or type of store on a search engine, your site/product pages will be the ones that come up. People accomplish this by finding relevant search keywords that people are searching for, like “handmade necklaces of fruits” or “organic soaps online ship to Atlanta.”

This may require you to pay for an SEO research tool or hire an SEO specialist to help boost your visibility, ensuring your people can find you. Some platforms have SEO tools that can help you ensure you’re putting in all the keywords correctly, and you can also hire an SEO specialist directly through the site.

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Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

9. Promote your store

SEO is a way to organically lead customers to your store, but there are other ways to spread the word with outbound marketing. You may have to put a little extra effort into this, but it can help increase your sales and, at the very least, raise awareness about your shop, which people can share with their own networks, thus spreading the word. Try to have an idea of where your audience is, though, before putting all your resources into all of these methods. Sometimes just one is enough!

Social media: Use social media platforms to share product updates, promotions and behind-the-scenes content. You can also insert social icons onto your site to help visitors share products with their network.

Email marketing: Build a subscriber list and send targeted emails. Sometimes the best place to start is by contacting people that you already have in your network, as they may be thrilled at the idea of supporting your store! Email marketing automation, like sending an automated “thank you” email after someone purchases a product from your store, can also be very effective.

Paid advertising: Consider Google Ads or social media ads to give your products and site an extra boost.

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Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

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10. Monitor and improve

Last but not least, running an online shop isn’t much different from running a brick-and-mortar store, especially when it comes to monitoring your store’s performance and checking your inventory. There are many tools available to help you regularly check your store’s performance:

  • Analytics: Use analytics tools to track visitor behavior, conversion rates and popular products. This can help you determine whether you need to add, improve or remove any products on your site that aren’t serving you.
  • Feedback: Listen to customer feedback and make necessary improvements. Encourage visitors to write reviews on products or offer a discount if they submit a testimonial on a product they liked.

When launching a website, you have a variety of choices to suit your specific needs, whether you’re seeking simplicity, customization or advanced features. Explore these top website builders to find the perfect fit for your online presence: Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify and WordPress. Learn more about these options by clicking here.

Enhance your e-commerce experience

It’s important to have a comprehensive e-commerce solution that allows you to sell everywhere with ease: online, in person and across multiple channels. Look for features like POS systems, a branded mobile app, drop-shipping and more, so you can adapt and scale your business effortlessly.

You want to gain complete control of your business by managing all your inventory, orders and sales from one centralized dashboard. You also want to optimize your site traffic with built-in SEO tools, marketing automations and ad campaigns. The ultimate goal is to ensure a seamless experience for your customers.

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Kurt’s best website builders for building your online shop

Kurt’s key takeaways

Launching an online shop might seem overwhelming at first, but with the right tools and guidance, it can be a smooth and rewarding process. A comprehensive platform that simplifies everything from design to payment processing can make it easier for you to focus on what you love: selling your products. Remember, every successful store starts with a single step, so don’t hesitate to dive in and start building your dream shop today.

Now that you’ve learned how to set up your online shop, we’d love to hear from you! What challenges or successes have you experienced in your journey to launch an online store? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

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There’s a blender hidden inside this insulated travel cup

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There’s a blender hidden inside this insulated travel cup

Nutribullet’s new Flip incorporates a blender into an insulated stainless steel tumbler that looks no larger than a typical travel mug. If you don’t have enough time in the morning to blend your breakfast, the rechargeable Flip works anywhere you don’t mind making a bit of noise. (Maybe skip the crowded subway.)

The $99.99 Flip isn’t Nutribullet’s first single serve blender, nor is it the company’s first rechargeable one. What sets it apart from past offerings is that the blender part — including blades, an 11.1 volt electric motor, and a rechargeable battery — are all incorporated into the Flip’s lid, instead of into a removable base that gets left behind.

You can drink and pour from the Flip’s cap which includes the blades, motor, and battery.
Image: Nutribullet

On a full charge the Flip can run a 30-second blend cycle over 14 times before it needs to be plugged it back in via a USB-C charging cable. Seven minutes isn’t a lot of time, but should be sufficient for blending up a drinkable breakfast, and maybe a lunch later in the day.

You can fill the 20-ounce tumbler with whatever ingredients you want. Nutribullet claims the Flip’s motor is powerful enough to blend ice, fresh ingredients, and “most” frozen fruits. But it also warns against using heated ingredients, as they can cause pressure to build up inside that could result in the lid forcefully opening or completely separating from the tumbler.

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When filled, the lid is then attached to the insulated tumbler and the whole thing is inverted before blending so the contents fall into the chopping blades. It’s also worth pointing out that the Flip weighs 3.45 pounds on its own. A 20 ounce Yeti mug, for comparison, is just over a pound. Adding ice and frozen fruit is going to give you a real work out when carrying this around.

Once complete, the lid can be left on and used for pouring or drinking. The best feature is that when the Flip is empty it can be easily cleaned by filling it with soap and water and then running a single blend cycle. What you don’t want to do is submerge the Flip, or stick it in the dishwasher, as that USB-C port is not waterproof.

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Asus ROG Ally X review: the best Windows gaming handheld by a mile

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Asus ROG Ally X review: the best Windows gaming handheld by a mile

The Asus ROG Ally X is the best a Windows gaming handheld has ever been. It’s got the most comfortable grip, the smoothest gameplay, and the longest-lasting battery — three of the elements that make a PC gaming experience truly portable for me.

Most of this is no surprise: It’s smooth because Asus makes the only handheld that pairs AMD’s powerful Ryzen chips with a variable refresh rate screen, which better syncs up with your game. It’s got longer battery life because Asus now stuffs an 80-watt-hour pack in there, the biggest we’ve seen in a handheld to date. The battery’s so big, you can keep that AMD chip humming at higher power levels for higher framerates.

But what might surprise you is this: the Ally X is the first handheld I can recommend alongside my gold standard for handhelds: the Steam Deck OLED. That is, if you’ve got a few extra bills burning a hole in your pocket, don’t mind wrestling with Windows, and trust that Asus has actually learned its customer support lesson.

How we rate and review products

My ROG Ally X review unit arrived just before I went on vacation — the perfect opportunity to test its massive 80Wh battery. As of today, I’ve spent more than 24 hours playing actual games on the Ally X.

At first, the battery life didn’t seem like anything special. When I navigated the Japanese high school demon drama of Persona 3 Reload at maximum brightness in the car and on the beach, I got 2.5 hours per charge. That’s not enough to last the drive from Northern California to Southern California, at least not without an external battery. I did get an entire additional hour in Dave the Diver compared to the Lenovo Legion Go, but my total runtime of 3 hours, 19 minutes still paled in comparison to the Steam Deck OLED’s total of 4 hours, 42 minutes. 

But when I fired up more demanding games, the Ally X pulled far ahead. I got nearly an entire extra hour of Armored Core 6 (2h59m) and an extra half-hour of Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2h41m) at 720p and medium spec, using the Ally X’s default power mode. That’s the best I’ve seen handheld for games that intensive! 

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Want to see some comparisons to the original ROG Ally and Steam Deck? Here are my photos with the final Ally X, followed by earlier comparos with a near-final one.
Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge

Then, I played two full hours of one of the most demanding PC games currently in existence: Alan Wake II.

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Technically, the ROG Ally X is the first handheld that even begins to meet Alan Wake II’s system requirements. It wants 16GB of system memory and 6GB of VRAM, and it’ll throw errors at launch if you’re short; on the original ROG Ally and Steam Deck OLED, which have to share 16GB between system memory and GPU, the game is a choppy mess.

But the ROG Ally X has a full 24GB of shared memory, and it shows! At a 540p render resolution, upscaled to 1080p with AMD’s FSR 2.1 tech, I could actually delve through the game’s lush, eerie forest without wanting to throw my handheld against the wall. The game did dip as low as 29fps in combat, but I saw a smooth 35–45fps just running around.

It felt playable enough that I finally sat down and beat the game on Ally X — and I had enough battery to do so for two full hours using the Ally X’s 25W “Turbo” mode.

As you can see in my comparison screenshots, the game’s only running 5fps faster on the Ally X when Saga’s standing still over this corpse. But when we’re playing a game that would dip below a smooth 30fps if not for that boost — on a handheld with VRR and Low Framerate Compensation that works right down to 30fps — it makes all the difference in the world.

In game after game, benchmark after benchmark, the Ally X produces the smoothest gameplay I’ve seen from any handheld, even in the valleys and caves of Shadow of the Tomb Raider where the Legion Go technically produces more frames per second. That’s because Asus’ screen is dynamically working to smooth things out. (Even the Steam Deck OLED’s brighter, more colorful, and faster-responding OLED panel can’t match it there.)

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Speaking of benchmarks, Alan Wake II isn’t the only game where the Ally X pulls ahead. Despite having the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip as the original ROG Ally, the faster memory, more efficient cooling, and power tweaks make their mark.

Tested at 720p low, save Dirt Rally at 720p ultra. Ally X tested with 15W custom TDP, 17W “Performance”, 25W “Turbo”, and 30W “Turbo” AC modes.

While you should note that the Ally X now defaults to a new 17W “Performance” mode rather than 15W, I’m getting better numbers in almost every game with the newer handheld, regardless of wattage.

See how Returnal is now hitting 38fps in my 720p benchmark in the 25W “Turbo” mode, up from 33 with the original Ally? Like Alan Wake II, I bet that means it’s finally enjoyable on a handheld.

The ROG Ally X’s massive 80Wh battery is bigger than that of most laptops. It’s also easy to remove: four Philips head screws, no glue.
Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge
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But again, power is only half the performance story. A year ago, the original ROG Ally drained its 40-watt-hour battery pack at 40–50 watts in Turbo mode, meaning you’d get less than an hour of gameplay if you ran the Ally that fast away from a charger. With the Ally X, I’m draining an 80-watt-hour battery pack at 33–40 watts in Turbo mode, generally giving me two full hours in a worst-case scenario.

I’m not even seeing any slowdown as the battery reaches empty — it’s good all the way down to the 3 percent mark, when it puts itself in hibernation, and I can begin playing again at full speed almost as soon as I plug into the wall.

Even configured to its lowest wattage of 7W TDP, the Ally X isn’t as power-hungry as the original. Balatro gave me over eight hours of magic roguelike poker at 50 percent brightness, by draining under 10 watts the whole time. So far, my best result was total battery drain of 7 watts in Slay the Spire, down from 9 watts with the OG Ally. At that rate, the Ally X should be able to play for 10 entire hours before shutting down.

The ROG Ally X is still easy to repair — though slightly harder to pop open — and Asus tells me it’ll offer spare parts this year. More insides here.

I’m not going to rehash everything I already told you about the ROG Ally X in my early hands-on — there are so many substantive little changes they deserve their own story, and I’ve already written that one. But I suspect you may have three distinct questions that deserve answers here:

  • How are the revised ergonomics and other physical changes?
  • Can Windows really be so bad that you’d choose a Steam Deck with worse performance?
  • Why trust Asus when it dodged our SD card reader defect questions and its customer support reputation is in the toilet?

I find the ROG Ally X so much more comfortable to hold than the original, despite its additional weight. The meatier grips, triggers, and pebble-shaped omnidirectional back buttons no longer have any protrusions to get in the way. The joysticks and bumpers feel tighter and more premium, the face buttons have a deeper (though noisier) throw, and the D-pad has gone from meh to quite decent — though I am already getting an annoying squeaky sound when I press the down arrow. The fan is also genuinely quiet, not that it was an issue with the original.

I like that you can activate the back buttons from practically any angle. The ROG microtexture is neat, too.

It’s also nice to have twin USB-C ports for charging and peripherals, even if I haven’t yet been able to hook up a Thunderbolt eGPU (Asus tells me there’s a driver issue with AMD eGPUs at the moment).

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But I vastly prefer the Steam Deck’s symmetrical analog sticks, which always lie right under where my thumb naturally lands, instead of the Ally’s offset right analog stick that makes me uncomfortably shift my grip. I miss the larger screen I get on other handhelds and their less cramped 16:10 aspect ratio.

And I cannot stand that Windows still cannot reliably make a gaming handheld Go the Fuck to Sleep and reliably wake up again. The Nintendo Switch does it perfectly, and the Steam Deck does it nearly perfectly, but I couldn’t keep track of the number of times Windows decided it could no longer recognize my fingerprint on the sensor or black-screened my game, or the Ally X simply woke up again the moment I set it down, or Asus’ Armoury Crate settings app simply forgot my choices (like whether to turn on my joysticks’ RGB lights) on wake.

Windows is still lurking under the surface.

I’m happy to say that Armoury Crate has actually improved tremendously over the past year — the game launcher now intelligently sorts my games, lets me easily map buttons and gyro controls for fine aiming, and seamlessly downloads updates (including BIOS updates) without navigating to a website or separate app.

But it’s nothing compared to the ease of use of SteamOS and its compatibility with generations of older PC games thanks to community support — and Windows itself is more of a pig than ever. I spent nearly 45 minutes waiting for mandatory updates and clicking through unwanted offers for various Microsoft products before I could use the Ally X for the first time.

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Did I get a joystick-navigable virtual keyboard or PIN screen or a pre-mapped Alt-Enter shortcut for my trouble? Nope — instead, Asus added a Copilot shortcut, there’s a copy of Outlook sitting on my taskbar, and OneDrive is on by default. The only mercy is that Microsoft Teams doesn’t launch on startup this time.

As far as the whole SD card situation, Asus has only told me that it’s not the same reader as the old one that it won’t admit has an issue — it’s the one it uses on laptops. That’s somewhat reassuring, I guess. I haven’t yet had issues playing games from SD after a week of play, in case you’re wondering.

The ROG Ally X doesn’t check all the boxes I personally need in a handheld. The one-two punch of performance and battery life is tempting, but not tempting enough to steer me away from a $549 or $649 Steam Deck OLED that will play my legacy library of Steam games more easily, then reliably go to sleep when I want to put it away. The customer support controversy is just one more reason to hesitate.

But if you must have Windows or play the latest games on the go, the Ally X is the best Windows handheld yet. I hope it normalizes bigger batteries and VRR screens, and I hope Asus will seriously consider a SteamOS version, too. I hope to test it with Bazzite, an unofficial SteamOS clone, later this year.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge

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New technology makes it nearly impossible to kill house plants

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New technology makes it nearly impossible to kill house plants

Remember that “pandemic garden” you started in 2020 that didn’t quite make it? 

Well, you’re not alone in your plant care struggles. In fact, many people unintentionally send their houseplants to the great compost heap in the sky each year. 

But fear not. There’s a new gadget out there that could change the way we care for our plants.

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SmartyPlants smart sensor (SmartyPlants)

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Meet the plant whisperer you never knew you needed

SmartyPlants is a smart sensor designed specifically for houseplants. It takes the guesswork out of plant care. This clever little device monitors crucial factors such as light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture and nutrients and sends all that vital info straight to an app on your smartphone.

SmartyPlants 2

SmartyPlants smart sensor (SmartyPlants)

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No more guessing games when it comes to plant care

Gone are the days of wondering, “Does my ficus need water, or am I just being paranoid?” SmartyPlants provides real-time updates on your plant’s needs. And here’s a fun twist: You can name your plants in the app. So when “Dave needs a drink,” you’ll know exactly which of your green buddies is feeling parched.

SmartyPlants 3

SmartyPlants smart sensor (SmartyPlants)

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From serial plant killers to green thumb gurus

The brains behind SmartyPlants know the struggle is real. In fact, the Founder and CEO Ben Beaver’s partner was a self-proclaimed “serial plant killer” who had managed to keep only one hardy cactus alive for six years. Drawing on his background in biology and technology, the CEO realized there had to be a better way. After numerous prototypes and tests, SmartyPlants was born, giving even the most challenged plant parents a fighting chance at nurturing thriving indoor jungles.

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SmartyPlants4

Founder and CEO of SmartyPlants Ben Beaver (SmartyPlants)

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More than just a water reminder

SmartyPlants is packed with features that go well beyond simple watering reminders. It can assess your space and recommend plants that would thrive in that specific environment. You can set up automatic watering systems over Wi-Fi, perfect for worry-free vacations.

The device uses AI image analysis to monitor your plant’s progress over time and keeps tabs on past issues to prevent future problems. It doesn’t just measure light intensity but looks at the full spectrum to maximize photosynthesis.

SmartyPlants 5

SmartyPlants smart sensor (SmartyPlants)

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SmartyPlants quickly became a sensation

Launched on Kickstarter, SmartyPlants quickly became a sensation. Within just four days, the campaign had over 500 backers and raised more than 10 times its initial target. By the middle of the campaign, they had over 1,000 backers, putting them in the top 1% of all Kickstarter projects. They even snagged a coveted “Projects We Love” award from Kickstarter, given to only the top 10% of projects on the platform.

SmartyPlants 6

SmartyPlants app (SmartyPlants)

How can you snag one of these?

You can get your hands on a SmartyPlants sensor by heading over to the SmartyPlants Kickstarter page. For a single sensor, you can grab an early bird discount of approximately $43, 15% off the regular price. If you’re dreaming big, a monster pack of 20 sensors is available for about $605, a whopping 40% discount. Simply back the project and wait for updates on shipping and delivery.

Remember, this is a Kickstarter campaign, so the usual crowdfunding caveats apply. But given the project’s success and the team’s dedication, it looks like a pretty safe bet for plant lovers.

After reading this article about the SmartyPlants gadget, are you now considering a houseplant to add to your home or office? Well, you’re in luck. After evaluating a wide selection of plants and suppliers, I highly recommend a plant subscription service. Services like these offer a variety of beautiful and easy-to-care-for plants delivered right to your door. It’s a perfect way to start or expand your indoor garden, ensuring you always have fresh greenery to brighten your space. For more information and to get started, check out this link.

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SmartyPlants app and smart sensor (SmartyPlants)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Let’s face it, constantly replacing dead plants can get expensive and disheartening. At around $43 for an early-bird Kickstarter deal, SmartyPlants seems like a solid investment if it can keep your green friends alive and thriving. While it can’t protect your plants from curious pets (sorry, Fluffy) or magically turn you into a botanist overnight, SmartyPlants might be the tool you need to achieve that lush, Pinterest-worthy indoor garden you’ve finally been dreaming of.

What’s your most memorable experience with trying to keep plants alive, and how might a device like SmartyPlants have changed that outcome? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

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