NoFearMan.com

First off let me apologize if the following post sounds like one of those late night infomercials.  I’ve seen way too many of them and know how corny they sound…especially that one with Mr. T.  I just have to explain how genuinely happy I am with this product.  It ACTUALLY does what it says it does, and when that’s the case I’ll shout it from the rooftops.

You see….Serendipity Deals sells several types of products.  One of the lines we carry is Kitchen Stir.  We recently received one of these products the Chef’s Stir Pan: Stir Cooker (Model # KS1000)

I wanted this product because my wife is an INCREDIBLE cook and I thought this would make her life easier.  Especially when she makes Alfredo sauce, which requires constant stirring for about 30 minutes.  This product is supposed to continually stir while it cooks your food.  I figured “Hey…this would be great for that”.

Here’s what it looks like.

Now, we opened this up and looked over the recipes that come with it (I also have several recipes available in my email if anyone needs them).  My wife decided that she wanted to make the Cashew Chicken dinner.  Wow!  My favorite dinner at the Chinese Restaurant but made in my house!  I looked over the directions, simple step by step instructions were included with this product.  It said, turn on the stir cooker and let it preheat for 30 seconds to get to the required temperature.  30 seconds?  Are you kidding?  Apparently not….that puppy got hot…and it got hot fast!

Now….my wife never follows directions to the line.  She decides that she really wants to test this product out.  After all, we sell it…let’s make sure we can really trust it when our customers buy it.  She decides to make DOUBLE the recipe…and add a few more ingredients!  I’m a little nervous here…it’s chicken that’s she’s cooking….that NEEDS to be cooked thoroughly!  Well, she doubles that up anyways, then she also uses snow peas and sliced mushrooms, and of course the cashews.   Now…let me be clear, this was not filled to the brim with heavy chunks of food, but the recipe itself was doubled.  She had that cooker going, and you can see the sauce bubbling (she used low sodium soy sauce, chicken broth mixed with corn starch to make it thicker, and fish sauce) and my house smelled like a Chinese Restaurant.  I stood there watching as the chicken (which was at the bottom to start) was mixed with the rest of the ingredients WHILE being cooked….and eventually it was just one pot of great smelling ingredients all mixed together nicely.  When I say eventually…I’m talking 10 minutes or less.  Yea….it was that fast.

So, anyway, she separately made brown rice on the stove top to go with it.  After the rice was done (which took three times longer than the main course) she put the rice on our plates and we scooped up some chicken and cashews.  I took one bite and told my wife that we no longer need to order out for me to get my favorite meal (although I’ll still need to get my Dim Sum).

Later Friday night I looked through the recipe book at a few things….it was written so simply that I actually feel like I could get the ingredients and make almost any dish in there.  I’m going to start with a dessert I think…they had Caramel Almonds listed in there…I think I’ll make that and add some cinnamon and nutmeg.

Oh…one other neat thing….there are actually recipes for granola bars and such!  Yes!  I can make my own snacks, and snacks for my son for school!!!

I have to say, my favorite answer when someone asks me if I can cook used to be “I burn cold cereal”…..but now…I can say “I can stir cook!”.

Look….you read this far into my story….I’ll give you an exclusive gift for getting here.  If you like what you read and you want one yourself I’ll save you some money on it.  I have an exclusive coupon code for my readers that only works on the two Kitchen Stir products listed at Serendipity Deals.   Just go there with one of the links I provided…add the product to your cart….Log In or Register if you haven’t yet….when you get to Step 2 add the coupon code “NFMBLOG” (without the quotes) into the section for the coupon code.  That will give you $20 off the sale price!  You can then check out from there with any major credit/debit card (processed through PayPal) or with Paypal itself.

For those of you that like to cook….or that want something healthier than a microwave but just as easy…I can tell you with 100% certainty that I stand behind this product and would not recommend it if I thought it wasn’t one of the best products on Serendipity Deals.  In fact, if I had any doubts about it at all it wouldn’t even be on the store!  Why would I sell something I don’t believe in?

~NFM

Wow….what a crazy month the last month has been.

Serendipity Deals was selling RC Cars pretty well when suddenly the supplier just “disappeared”.  That caused some of our customers to get angry.  We did the best we could to help them but the last time I heard anything from our supplier was June 24th.  I’m currently awaiting approval from a new supplier of RC products, with a LARGE supply of different types and brands.  I’m looking forward to opening that account.

However not all has been lost….

On July 11th my wife and I adopted our new Pekingese Sasha.  You can follow her ongoing tales at SavingSasha.com and see what a great dog she is.

Since we adopted a new dog I decided to look into more pet products for the store.  I just recently opened a new account with a great supplier….expect to see some awesome new products show up at Serendipity Deals in the Pet Supplies section!

Here’s to another busy month!

~NFM

I was talking to DJ FiremanLen this weekend and he mentioned that he wanted to redo his website.  I told him I’d give him a Wordpress site, that it would be easier for him to post info and other stuff with it and it’s a lot easier to use.

As I’m looking through some themes to use for his site I come across this AWESOME theme.  So….I used it on his and gave it a “fire” subtheme…thought it would be fitting right?  Well…I liked it so much that I decided to convert my site to that theme too.  Now I have to find a way to create a new sub theme that’s more fitting to me…lol

I hope you guys like the new set up.

~NFM

Well, summer is pretty much here.  (Come on we all count Memorial Day weekend as the real start of Summer).  For most people that means relaxing at the beach, grilling and pretty much just getting a tan after a day at the office.

Not me….

See, I do get to relax.  Every weekend I go to Kymer’s Camping Resort in Branchville, NJ.  I’ve been up there for 20 seasons, every weekend from April 1st till November 1st.  It’s nice to have a place up in the woods.  It’s very relaxing.

However when you own an online store you really don’t get time to “relax”.  I may be away from the computer and the internet when I’m up there but I still get all my sales sent to my cell phone so I can make sure I’m keeping up with my customers and making sure that they get what they need in a timely manner.

Now, on top of that we have Castle No Fear.  A gaming community that wants more games.  I have “plenty” of new games to add, problem is, I don’t have the time to add them since I’m still working on getting as many products added to the store as possible before the Holiday shopping season starts in September.

September?

Oh yea….that’s the start of the Holiday shopping season when you own an online store.   Crazy huh?

Anyways, between going away on weekends, adding products, processing orders, adding games, managing an internet radio station, attempting to blog on this site, and being a husband and father…..I need a clone.

Even without one though, I couldn’t be happier.

~NFM

Serendipity Deals Joins the “Race” to End Malaria

The weather is getting warmer here in the United States. You know what that brings in most locations? Mosquitoes.

However in the United States the most you have to worry about is being itchy and having a few bumps. Consider yourself lucky. 40% of the world suffers from malaria caused by mosquito bites. Worldwide, malaria causes around 350 to 500 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually. Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills an African child every 30 seconds. Many children who survive an episode of severe malaria may suffer from learning impairments or brain damage. Pregnant women and their unborn children are also particularly vulnerable to malaria, which, during pregnancy, is a major cause of mortality, low birth weight and maternal anemia.

However there is hope.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs) work by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur. The African malaria mosquitoes generally bite late at night or early morning, between 10pm and 4am. Most mosquito nets can accommodate more than one person – a mother and an infant or a few siblings – for up to three to five years. A net treated with special insecticides offers about twice the protection of an untreated net, and through its repellency, can even protect other people in the room outside the net. When enough people (about 70 percent) sleep under LLINs, entire communities, even houses without an LLIN, can be made safer.

We at Serendipity Deals have decided to step in as a small company and try and help fight this disease and stop it from killing innocent children and families. We’ve decided to join the “race” with one of our best selling product lines. With each purchase of an “Ultra Series” RC Car from today April 22nd 2009 until August 31st 2009 we will donate a mosquito net to help with this cause. We’ve spent the last few days adding in all the highest end remote control cars that are available to us from the manufacturer, and then giving them a $70.00 discount as a special way of saying “Thank You” to our customers. Now with each purchase you can know that not only are you getting a great car, but you’re helping to save a life.

For more info or to make a donation yourself please visit http://www.malarianomore.org

Every donation helps

Help me out here.

I know this will more than likely be one of my shorter posts but…for the life of me I can’t figure this out.  I’ve even tried to do it myself and it didn’t work.

As a business owner I need to know how people are finding my sites.  Of course out of those I pay the closest attention to Serendipity Deals.  So….imagine my surprise when I look and see that in the passed 30 days a total of 124 people have found the store by searching Google for the word “cookie”.

What?

We don’t sell cookies, and right now I don’t have any cooking supplies that have to do with cookies.

The only remote way I was able to get the store up in the first page was to type in cookie + Serendipity Deals.  By doing that it brought up a link to the Privacy Policy for Serendipity Deals which mentions that we use cookies to save your shopping cart so that you don’t have to re-add your products every time you go back to the store if you don’t purchase them the first time you add them.

So…color me at a loss for words here….but apparently there are a lot of hungry people out there.  That…or Cookie Monster will be my next customer….

~NFM

You know, I can appreciate a good “cover” song.  I also admit that sometimes I like the cover song more than the original.  For instance my wedding song is “Your Song” which was originally done by Elton John, however our actual wedding song is “Your Song” as sung by Ewan McGregor in the movie Moulin Rouge.  That’s a good cover in my opinion.

Other “covers” that I like?  “Land of Confusion” as covered by Disturbed, “Careless Whispers” as covered by Seether, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2″ as covered by Korn.

A “cover” is just that….it’s a cover.  The band is playing the song in their style and usually in honor of the original song…and typically it has the same name as the original so it doesn’t try and “fool” you into thinking it’s their song.

What bothers me though….are these “so called” artists that “sample” parts of other songs and call them their own.  As if we didn’t know that there was an original song not long ago.

Take for instance Flo-Rida’s latest “hit”….”Right Round”.  He’s all excited since he’ s no longer a “1 hit wonder” and now has a second song that gained popularity.  He’s proud of himself for this accomplishment….

Yea….great song…I liked it over 20 years ago when Dead or Alive did it originally.

See, Flo-Rida’s “Right Round” isn’t a cover.  All he did was take the beat and the catchy part of Dead or Alive’s “Right Round” and add it to his “song”.  He did it again with his next song too…song called “Sugar”.  I heard a clip of this song….it’s funny….but last time I heard most of that it was called “Blue” by Eiffel 65.

Is that what we are breaking down to?  Giving these hacks millions of dollars to just take a formerly popular song and chop out the “catchy” parts to add to the crap that they make?  It’s sickening and sad that they are called “artists”.

They act like they struggle to make a number one hit song, all they are really doing is sampling a number one hit song from the past and adding it to their words and calling it their own.  Since the song was popular back then of course it will be popular now….they’ve got all these teenagers brain washed into thinking that it’s all theirs, they did it….give them the money.

Now…I need to state something to make it clear….I’m NOT saying that these songs are all bad (some of them are though)….what I’m annoyed with is how they act like they are theirs.  I’ll listen to the song, hell…I play them on Fired Up Radio but don’t think for one second that I appreciate their talent.  Until they actually get an instrument and play THEIR OWN music….don’t refer to them as artists to me.  Is it a song?  Sure in most cases it is.  Is it a good song?  Sometimes sure…. But is it their “art”?  Hell no…it’s someone elses…that’s it period.

Also, I’ve singled out Flo-Rida only because I recently listened to him on Howard Stern (btw…he sucks “singing” live)….but there are SEVERAL others out there that are guilty too….the difference is that they’ve had other number one hits that were actually THEIRS.

I’d go on but this is spinning my head right round right round….

~NFM

I never claimed to be a genius…

My wife went out shopping on Sunday….so I decided to be a good husband and clean our room up a bit.  Now…by a bit….umm…I decided I should completely change the layout of the bedroom.  Now…I have a bad back due to a stupidity injury I got about 9 years ago….so…I decided to move all the furniture on my own anyways.

What furniture does that entail?  Simple…a bed, a wood dresser, a wood entertainment center that has drawers, oh…and a HUGE (about 7 and a half feet tall) armoir.

So yea…after about 3 hours of moving this stuff around in my bedroom (which really isn’t very big) I finally got it all set in to place just before she got home.  She walked into the bedroom surprised and happy that I did all of that…….but….

There’s always a but…..

But she really doesn’t like the new layout since she’ll be too close to the window……

@#%@#^@#$@^@#$^$@^$%$!@#%^$@

Now…mind you…every muscle in my body is aching, my back hurts just sitting still.  I can barely move my arms, and my legs feel like knives are cutting through them…..

Dinner with my daughter’s new “boy” friend was in about an hour.  I showered and got dressed….had dinner…and then….

Off to bowling?

Now…that’s entertainment…it hurt to press the button on my tv remote to turn off the tv….now I have to hurl a 16 pound bowling ball down a lane for 30 frames?

Somehow I pulled it off and my team (The Ball Busters) won all 7 points for the first time in weeks (we usually take 5 of the 7).  We are now solidly in 2nd place.

So….I get to bed…in pain….and…what do I do on Monday?

Relax?  No….Work on Serendipity Deals? No….

I completely re-arrange the bedroom….AGAIN.  I’m already in pain….what’s a little more right?

My biggest problem was going to be lining up two mini dressers that we want to use as night stands on each side of the bed and getting them up against the wall.

This time I was smart (again not a genius)….I measured the night stands and the bed.  Okay…night stands are a “little” less than 2 1/2 feet long…bed approx. 5 feet wide.  Hmm…so…about an inch or two less than 10 feet.  Let’s measure the wall….

…..

…..

10 feet

Yea….a bit of a squeeze because of the molding around the bottom of the wall.  However….I got them all in there!  My wife just can’t put any marbles or anything that will roll onto her night stand….lol

So…now I sit here today….every muscle in my body aching….every joint cracking…and even typing this out hurts….

But….it won’t stop me from working on the store today….oh no…no pain…no gain….

Somebody…catch me….I’m about to fall out of my chai…..

~NFM

Yea, I was pretty much useless yesterday.

I spoke with a supplier on Sunday and I did something I never do.  I told him that I would make sure to have at least 40 products up from his company by Tuesday morning.

Doesn’t sound like a big deal does it?

I get minimal info on the products, and the biggest worry for me is always shipping.  See, I like to make sure shipping is included with the price you see at the site.  It saves people from having to worry about a “suprise” in the shopping cart.  So, I have to make an educated guess on how much the shipping is going to cost.  If I guess under…well then I usually get stuck having to pay the difference and losing money on the sale.  That’s not good when your company is only in its second year.

So…I had to go through, add all of these products, look up an estimated shipping cost, add the product to the site as well as the OpenOffice Calc sheet that I use to keep track of how much I should be charging to keep my margin low but make a small profit.

It quite literally took me all day staring at the computer screen with minimal breaks.  At the end of the night I had to go out somewhere and I ended up at 37 products.  Just to keep a promise…the next morning I added a few more.  I didn’t make the full 40 since I was hurting so bad yesterday I was only able to add a couple products and then had to lay down since I was sick to my stomach.  I took some medicine and made it through dinner….after that I was out of it for the rest of the night.

Today I get to add more…..

Here’s to a new headache!

~NFM

Yes….that title is correct.

Through my email at Serendipity Deals I received a response from Doba about my recent blog post about them.

It wasn’t some customer service rep, it wasn’t some PR guy that wanted to talk to me about it….no.  It was Doba CEO Blaine Nielsen.

I quite literally just got off the phone with him.

Why did he call?  It wasn’t to try and get me back, it wasn’t to argue with me.  It was to discuss what Doba could do better to improve.  I am honored to say that he wanted my input.  To that extent I give Doba credit and Mr. Nielsen my respect for wanting to be sure they can provide the service and vision that he had in mind when he opened his company.

I gave him my recommendations, mostly about notifications to the retailers about stock.  See, Doba has a “Watch List” that you can add products to when you add them to your store.  That watch list will keep track of inventory levels for you.  However…it still doesn’t make keeping track of inventory much easier.  Why?  Simply because you would still have to sort through the products you have on the watch list to see what is out of stock.  I told him that those watch lists should email their creators with out of stock notifications or back in stock notifications of the products listed.  THAT would make the retailers lives 10 times easier.

The same should go for when they remove suppliers from their list of products.  Don’t just drop them and hope that the retailer notices…we’re busy people.  If you’re going to drop them let us know, we can remove the products before they become unavailable through Doba.

That was most of my conversation with him.  No arguing, no threats, a very polite conversation with Mr. Nielsen.

So…where does this leave me with Doba?  Well…until they fix the issues I still won’t add products from them to Serendipity Deals.  My account with them expires on June 7th….and I have no intention of renewing without a good reason to.

However I do thank him and the company for his email and proceeding phone conversation.

~NFM