As you will know, eBay recently announced the creation of eBay Partner Network, allowing affiliates to work directly with the world's biggest auction website.

I said at the time that I was happy about that because I have never enjoyed using Commission Junction. Well, I thought it would be a good move and so it has proved to be (for me at least) with me making much greater use of eBay links since I signed up for the partner network.

It's now just a more pleasant experience to go in and get the links you need, and there's also geo-targetting so you can sign up for various flavours of eBay (.co.uk, .fr, .ca etc) and it will display the right ads for you.

To mark my rekindled interest in eBay, I spent a bit of time playing with the eBay Shopping API and have worked out how to embed listings and search results into my pages (without using Javascript widgets). Here's one of my first attempts, where I display eBay search results below a toy listing to see if it can be got cheaper from the auction site: WWE Superstar Microphone

By the way, if you are working with, or planning to try working with the eBay API, you might well need to look at creating your XSL stylesheets to display the results nicely on your page. I can really recommend Oxygen XML Editor which I'm currently running a trial version of.

The only annoyance I have so found with the eBay Partner Network is that if you want to create plain links, it only generates Javascript code as opposed to HTML. This is a pain but can be got round fairly easily. Other than that, Im pleased with the new platform and look forward to making some dosh with eBay!

Labels: commission junction, ebay

Friends Reunited is, I guess, one of the original social networking websites, linking up old school friends and making a pretty good job of it with 19million registered users. I remember brainstorming sessions into the night in an effort to find the "next Friends Reunited". For a long time though, it has looked clunky and not as slick as the recent "2.0" style sites. Also, it's business model of charging members for emailing each other has been challenged by the free social networking sites like Facebook etc.

Friends Reunited, now owned by ITV, has mounted its fightback with a new look site and some interesting functionality - some of it replicating what's been seen elsewhere ("add as friend") and some new stuff like a timeline of your life. They also now emphasise keeping in touch with current friends as well as old friends. I was never a great user of the site but it does look a lot better and should revitalise a site which was starting to look a bit stale. Check out the new look Friends Reunited.



One I think I couldn't help but notice though is that the new logo bears a startling similarity to the logo used by Boris Johnson's campaign for the London Mayoralty.

It's always interesting to see new ways people are using the internet to make a quick buck. This tactic may not be new exactly, but it's new to me and kind of leaves me staggered at the brass neck of it...

The Wii Fit has been a smash hit, of course, and people are reserving it at branches of Argos using their online "Click and Collect" and then selling the 6-digit reservation code on eBay to anyone that wants to go and collect it. They don't all sell so there is some risk to the seller, but I looked through the completed auctions and saw that the average selling price is a fiver.

From the sellers point of view, there's practically no work involved. Go to Argos, find the item, find branches where it is in stock, enter an email address to reserve it and then just sell the reservation number. It's easy, clever and damn cheeky. From the buyer's point of view, it adds a £5 premium to a hard to get item so it's not too bad but it would certainly leave a bad taste in my mouth. I think Argos should look at requiring a bit more information for a reservation to try and eliminate and multiple reservations.

I did actually do a Wii Fit website myself and I kind of forgot about it and thought it was a flop project until I started seeing sales come through on Thursday night. It had managed to rank quite well on Yahoo! UK and traffic was great but, frustratingly, stock levels meant it was hard to cash in as well as I might of.

I hadn't planned to get a Wii Fit myself but after seeing the sales, I kind of got caught up in the buzz and went to get one on Friday. I must admit, I'm bored with it already, and when I got on it, it just said "get off, you're fit enough". But seriously, I don't think there's much fun to be had with it but I guess I should persevere with it since it just cost me £70!

It's great when you review a product that is genuinely very good and reaches, or exceeds, every expectation you have of it. I've been trialling 3's latest mobile broadband offering, using the Huawei E169G USB modem stick, and it really is excellent. I've already been using my HSDPA mobile phone to be able to enjoy mobile working, but I was still keen to check out this cool little modem stick and see how easy it is to setup.

They've really done a great job of making the setup process very simple. No CD is required because the drivers and installation program are on the modem itself - I guess using some kind of Flash memory like a USB storage device. After putting a SIM card into a discreet little holder on the modem, you simply plug it in, and then, using Vista, just click next a few times and before you know it, you are online. It's breathtakingly straightfoward to complete. Put simply: if you can turn a computer on, you can manage now to install mobile broadband.

I haven't tried it yet with my Eee PC although I read on the the EeePC User forum that some kind of software update might be required before this particular model works on there.

Web browsing occurs at very nice speeds, FTP works a treat (so I can manage my websites from anywhere) and also I was really pleased that I could connect up to remote servers using the Remote Desktop Protocol without any problems whatsoever. Remote Desktop is great - I can use it when I'm out to connect back to my desktop at home, or connect up to client servers that I work with or to a Virtual Private Server.

So what does mobile broadband mean to me? It means that I can blog, create websites and generally run my business from almost anywhere. When I started my website about wifi hotspots, they were like some perfect solution for being able to access the web out and about. But the truth is, often they have been expensive to use and the fixed locations do limit you. Mobile broadband solutions such as this one really trump wifi hotspots in almost everyway.

Find out more about the tariffs available from 3

I made this little video to go on myHotspots.co.uk to demonstrate how easy it is to set this up.

After quite a long time prevaricating, I decided to go ahead and buy the Canon HV20 video camera. It first caught my eye last year when I returned a rubbishy Sony HDD camera, and I would have expected some new model to have come in since then to sway me, but after checking the options (I'd have used Dave Fiske's camcorder comparison site if I'd known at the time) it seems that the HV20 is still one of the best in the marketplace borne out by it still being the bestseller in its class.

So at least with a decent camcorder, I can get down to creating video content to showcase products. Personally I always have a look on YouTube to see a gadget or expensive product before I buy these days. I think one of the challenges will be to move a viewer from YouTube onto my own site where the affiliate links will be.

I'm still getting a feel for the camera, but I knocked up this little video this afternoon featuring my other recent technology purchase - the Asus Eee PC.



I hadn't realised when I made the video that the MacBook Air ad is already heavily spoofed, including others with the Eee PC although I should have guessed it would be. This is the best parody I have seen...

Labels: video

I have put all work on hold and not sure when I will resume any work related activities.

The reason? I just got back from Woolworths with Mario Kart on Wii and I fully expect to be completely engrossed for the foreseeable future. I've just had a quick bash on battle mode online and it's awesome as anyone who has played Mario Kart before might expect. Only poor aspect to Nintendos online gaming is you can't really connect with the other players other than seeing their name.

If anyone else wants it and fancies a head to head, contact me to swap friend codes!

I chanced upon this page with 10 ideas on how to make money online. Primarily aimed at students, most of the suggestions are run of the mill stuff - blogging, surveys, selling stuff etc. I was surprised to see number 7 on the list though - Poker. Yes, the Times really is suggesting students consider playing poker online as a means to make money. That's not at all irresponsible, is it.

10 Ways To Make Money Online

One of the great things about working online is that armed with a computer and internet connection, you can work from anywhere. That benefit has largely been a theoretical one for me as I've not hitherto been one of the world's great travellers. But since a new international train station just opened recently 5 minutes from house, I couldn't not make use of it.

So I decided to go from Ebbsfleet to Paris, taking only 2hr 5 minutes, and am currently in the Marriot Rive Gauche in Paris' 14th arrondisement. Thanks to the ultra portability of my new Eee PC, keeping in touch with emails and my affiliate activity is really easy.



Last time I was in Paris, it was a work trip and a complete nightmare because of a mess up with the Eurostar, so it's nice to be able to take a more leisurely look at this city. The people aren't always over friendly (ok, I'm putting that mildly), but something I really like is that there seems to be some kind of collective pride in the city's appearance. Streets, trains, metro stations and other public facilities and amenities seem really clean.

If you're coming to Paris at all, look out for this cheeky little scam I nearly fell for. A woman bent down before in the street and appeared to find something. "ooh la la" she exclaimed. She showed me a ring she had found on the street and asked me if I thought it was gold. She pointed to the inscription and said she thought it might be. As it was too big for her, said I should take it. She shook my hand and wished me well. On I walked and then 10 seconds later, she came running back and said as she had given me the ring, could I spare some money for food. She even suggested that 2 euros would do the trick. Her ploy became apparent and I have her 10 cents, to her disappointment, and gave the ring back and told her to try someone else. About an hour later, I saw someone trying exactly the same thing on another obvious looking tourist. I kind of admired the ingenuity of it!


Parisian enjoys a game of Boule