While I will be working to transform how we pay for all the great stuff that we buy, I am also reminded that the starting point of any new job is critical. Sure everyone gets to start out fresh with a new job. But what are you going to do with that clean slate?

It is often the first 3-4 month at a new job that determine your long term success with your career at new company.  Or as best-selling career guide The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins emphasizes – you need to put yourself on the path to a virtuous cycle, not a vicious cycle. The start of a new job is a situation that you have to figure out key questions like:

• How can I accelerate my learning in the organization?
• What questions should I ask… and to whom should I ask them?
• What is the best way to successfully promote myself?
• How can I secure some early (and highly visible) wins?

For the next several weeks, BobAngus.com is going to be a how-to guide for marketers who are starting a new job. I am going to share how I apply the tips and best practices from The First 90 Days in my approach to my new partner marketing role at PayPal. This is the framework that I have used successfully in previous jobs. More importantly, my goal is to provide a step-by-step blueprint for anyone who is starting with a new company or a new career. Make sure to follow along!

No related posts.

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: angus, Bob Angus, books, eBay, jobs, PayPal

Build A Niche Store is incredibly easy to use and is perfect for anyone who wants dynamically show relevant eBay auctions on their site. You make money when your visitors click through and either create a new eBay account or make a winning bid. Note: You will need to sign up for a publisher account at Commission Junction to start generating affiliate revenues. For an excellent review, see what Alan has done using BANS.

Of course, I am not eligible to win or use Build A Niche Store to make money. That would be a direct violation of Valueclick policy (see my disclosure post for more info).

Good luck! And don’t forget to subscribe to the Affiliate Confession RSS feed while you are there. Alan is a hard working affiliate and shares incredibly valuable insights into the daily life of making money online.

Related posts:

1. Web Services Reviews – Week 1 Introduction
2. Web Services Review – eBay’s New Shopping APIs
3. Tell CJ what you want and how to do it

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate marketing, Commission Junction, eBay

At eBay Devcon 2007, there was a separate affiliate and buyer tools track. Several of the sessions focused on eBay’s newly released Shopping APIs. These are different from the more extensive Trading APIs that provided access to the entire auction lifecycle. The new Shopping APIs focus only on querying and presenting data relevant to potential buyers – find an auction item they want, provide information about that auction, and provide information about the seller.

The benefits of these web services are that they are lightweight, have faster response times (up to 4x faster than the Trading APIs), and allow for token-less authentication (no private data is being shared). The Shopping APIs support SOAP, JSON, Name Value pairs, and HTTP/GET via Javascript and ActionScript toolkits.

The idea is to create and propagate applications that promote specific eBay auctions where the buyers are – namely browsing websites. The best part is that developers and/or users of these applications can make money when someone uses these applications. As a developer, you simply apply tracking code through eBay’s affiliate program, which is a part of the Commission Junction network.

Here is a really cool, visually compelling example widget. In the first example, the widget displays a current auction based on my desired keywords – Don Drysdale.

In a second example, a skyscraper widget displays several auctions based on Sandy Koufax as my keywords. Notice that they present a BidNow button which really entices a potential buyer to check out the auction.

You can also configure the widget to display auctions based on a specific seller ID or an individual auction ID – HINT HINT – your auctions. Configure your own version of the widget and get the code by visiting the Javascript example site.

Here is a link to the eBay Devcon presentation on their Shopping APIs and all of the presentations from this year’s developer conference. For more information, on the Shopping APIs, check out the eBay Shopping Web Services developer site.

Related posts:

1. Web Services Reviews – Week 1 Introduction
2. MySpace Opens the Door to Developers
3. Win a copy of Build A Niche Store at AffiliateConfession.com

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate marketing, API, Commission Junction, eBay, reviews, web 2.0, web services

Another fantastic part of working with web services is that I get to check out and benchmark the technologies, applications, developer resources, and business policies that other internet platforms and marketers have delivered. For the next several weeks, I am going to be reviewing some of the web services leaders and innovators. I will also show off some of the cool applications that are being designed using these APIs.

I am not going to start off with the Commission Junction APIs. That would cut too close to home right now. Besides, there are plenty of other blogs currently covering our web services. So to kick the series off, I will discuss the eBay Developer Program in my upcoming posts. I went to eBay Devcon 2007 about a month ago and learned a ton about the how, what and why eBay uses web services to propel their ecommerce platform. Here we go!

Related posts:

1. Web Services Review – eBay’s New Shopping APIs
2. CJU 2007 one week away
3. Win a copy of Build A Niche Store at AffiliateConfession.com

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate marketing, API, Commission Junction, eBay, web services