What's Hot Weekly

Give Me A NIche

2010-08-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

Whats-hot-weekly.com was originally GiveMeANiche.com. I was trying to basically create a site that used the eBay API to help one find cool niche marketing ideas. The "Most Searched" keyword feature was originally used on GiveMeANiche.com.

When I wrote Whats-hot-weekly.com, I created "Most Watched Items" features as the main part of the site. The "Most Searched" feature was added later, and I just pointed GiveMeANiche.com to Whats-hot-weekly.com as a redirect. It has been this way for about two years.

Recently, I decided to go back to our original idea. We wanted GiveMeANiche.com to be true to its name. We wanted it to give us new niche ideas with the click of a button. So, that's exactly what I built, a simple web app with one big button. Try it out and see what kind of niche ideas you can get.

2010-06-28T15:45:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I can send text blog posts from my phone. This will come in handy.

Used Acoustic Guitar

2010-06-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

If you are in the market for a good used acoustic guitar, check out my latest site. I built it with ProNicheStore, my new niche software suite. You can get this software now for $67. Check out the demo on the site as well.

ProNicheStore For your Niche Site Software Needs

2010-06-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned this before, but I have written a complete content management system called ProNicheStore. This software can be used to create great niche sites, complete with eBay and Amazon feeds. This software retails for $67, which is an extremely low price for the amount of work I've put into it. I've created about 10 sites with it so far myself. I'm constantly either coding or working on my niche sites. Check it out when you get a chance. I will be changing whats-hot-weekly.com very soon. There are changes in the API that will effect it. I've delayed it about as long as I can. I will be revamping the site but I may be adding new features to it and cleaning up the code as well. Chances are, I'll be recreating whw from scratch.

Enough with the delayed posts already, Randy!

2010-02-26T23:50:00.001-08:00

Ok so it's been forever since I posted to the whats-hot-weekly.com blog. I apologize. As I've said in previous posts, I've been involved in a huge project that is taking most of my time. However, as that project gets closer and closer to completion, I've been thinking about my plans for Whats-hot-weekly.com. My site has never received any SEO treatment so it doesn't rank very well in search results. That will be one point I work on.

Next I'll be revamping the interface, and lastly, I'll be working on some of the internal workings of the site. We may even add a few more features.

In case you are wondering...

2010-02-20T23:33:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a very large project which should be complete within the next two weeks. I'll be spending a lot of time working on that project for maintenance purposes, but a new whats-hot-weekly.com is planned for this year. I plan to revamp the site completely by June.

What should you expect? Well the interface will be much much better. I've spent the last six months working with ExtJS. ExtJS is a javascript library that helps one create amazing interfaces. It also includes many Ajax functions. The site is going to be a breath of fresh air in a few short months.

As far as features go, I'll be changing how whats-hot-weekly.com access eBay's API. I've not been able to read about it thoroughly but I believe that aspects of the shopping API or the entire API are being removed. I really need to find the time to read up on that. No matter what the case may be, I will be updating the site very soon.

I'll try to keep everyone posted on when they can expect to see the changes.

Long time, No post

2009-12-13T19:25:00.001-08:00

I've been completely swamped lately. The holidays are upon us. All three of my children have birthdays around Christmas. I've also had some home improvement projects going on. I'm also still working on my BS degree, and I'm working on a huge new software project which I hope to release sometime in January. I was hoping to get it ready before Christmas, but I don't see that happening now.

The new project is top secret, but I will say that it's the best work I've ever put into coding. It is going to be very useful for online entrepreneurs. It will be a great tool to have at your disposal for making money on the internet.

Many of you are taking full advantage of the "most searched for" feature at Whats-hot-weekly.com. It provides valuable information for marketers and sellers. Thanks for your patronage. I was looking through the list and as always "ipod" is the top searched for term on eBay at the moment. Everyone is looking for an ipod. In fact, the top three positions are related to the iPod and iPhone. This has been the case for nearly a year. There are some new players on the block, however.

You may notice that one of the main keywords now is "Zhu Zhu Pets". I've never seen a Zhu Zhu Pet but apparently they are very popular this holiday season. That would be a great niche to focus on. In fact, I know some marketers that have been doing quite well with Zhu Zhu pets in the last few months. There are other great niche ideas on that page.

As for Whats-hot-weekly.com itself, I do apologize that there haven't been many changes lately. I have a complete remake in mind. At the moment, there are a few things that I really don't like about the interface, even though I can use it very easily. There are some quirks. One major quirk is something that comes along with using javascript extensively on one's pages. The back button doesn't work as expected. There is a way to fix this but I haven't implemented it, and my other project has been eating at my time.

I will probably rewrite whats-hot-weekly.com with the next few months to provide a better user experience. Hopefully, everyone can live with the quirks until then. Feel free to email me or leave your comments here. I like to hear from users. Suggestions are always welcome, though I'm not sure how fast I can act on them.

Cigar Box Guitar For Sale

2009-11-08T22:44:00.001-08:00

Being a guitarist, I'm slightly ashamed that I've never heard of cigar box guitars. Apparently they are a cheap way to make a musical instrument, and amazingly enough, have a great tone. I was totally unaware of them for some reason. I guess I've been living in a closet somewhere. While there aren't a lot of items on the "most watched" list, there are a few highly watched parts for cigar box guitars. So if you are in the market for cigar box parts, take a look at whats-hot-weekly.com. If you decide you aren't in the mood to build one of these gems, you can also find a lot of cigar box guitars on eBay.

If you've never heard of cigar box guitars, you may be in for a treat. Search YouTube for some videos of them in action. Some sound pretty good.

Cheap Apple Mac Laptops at whats-hot-weekly.com

2009-09-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

The words "cheap" and "Mac" rarely fit together in the same sentence. A new Mac is expensive. A slightly used Mac is usually quite reasonable. Whats-hot-weekly makes it easy to find the best deals on Macs anywhere on the internet. These Macbooks are priced for everyone.

Do I have to tell you how awesome MacBooks are? I love mine. There are only two things I would change about it. It is a brand new MacBook Pro and both of these problems are in the new design. The Macbooks from a year ago don't have these flaws. In fact, having owned a Macbook from the previous generation, I can honestly say that I preferred their design to the brand new ones. That is only because of these two issues though.

1.) The hinge is just a little too soft on it. That's to say the LCD display closes too easily when at an angle. This will only effect someone who likes to use a laptop while laying down. Here is a video describing this issue in more detail. This is actually a feature because it allows the MacBook to be opened with a single hand. This is a bug for some of us, because we don't really need to open the laptop with one hand and we don't like the lid to move when held at an angle. For some of you, this won't be an issue at all.

2.) The other issue with the new Macbook Pro design is in the aluminum unibody
itself. The edges one would normally rest one's arm upon while typing are sharp. They won't cut you but they are uncomfortable at first. You eventually get used to it, however. So, again, it's only a minor issue.

For the best deal possible, get one of the older MacBook Pros. It's easy to tell the difference between the two because the newer Macbook Pros have black keys where the older Macbook Pros had silver keys. In my opinion, the older design was slightly better, and those machines still have ample amount of horsepower for day-to-day computing. They are still better than many brand new laptops from other manufacturer. So if you are looking for a cheap apple mac laptop, try whats-hot-weekly.com first.

USB Microscope - Get up close and personal with your keyboard crud!

2009-09-28T19:37:00.001-07:00

My whole family has been sick lately. Around this time every year, we get sick with what I've dubbed "going back to school disease." The kids go to school and spread around their germs and such. I guess it helps us all keep our immune system built up.

I was thinking back to some of the conspiracy theory I read about Royal Rife. If you've never read about the man, do a quick search for him on Wikipedia. Some people claim that Royal Rife discovered the cause and cure of cancer and many other diseases back in the 20s and 30s. They also contend that all of his research was buried by the American Medical Association and other.

Believe what you want about that. I personally think it's a fairy tale. It did however serve to get me interested in something. You see, Royal Rife supposedly invented an amazing microscope, the likes of which the world has yet to see since. Some claim that his microscope could view viruses while they were still alive. The claim states that today's electron microscopes are just as powerful as Rife's microscope but they kill small organism in the process of viewing them, by bombarding them with electrons.

I said all of that to get to this. I decided I would look into buying a microscope. I found that there are quite a few good microscopes out there for one's computer. You simply hook it up via USB and record video or images to the computer. They range in power and resolution. As always, find the best deal on them at whats-hot-weekly.com

Changed Web Hosts

2009-09-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

There were some issues with whats-hot-weekly.com over the past two days. I have been changing hosting providers and had to work out a few PHP issues. The server's configuration restricted the use of some functions. I had to work around them to get the site back to its normal self. If you see any issues I may not have corrected, drop me a comment here.
Thanks!

Motivational Posters

2009-09-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some of the art that's available on whats-hot-weekly.com and I noticed that there is a high demand for motivational posters. There are motivational posters for all types of organizations/groups, including firefighters, military, surfers, golfers, etc. They are rather cheap too. One can pick up 5 posters for under $40. A single poster can be purchased for less than $7. The difference will be in the shipping. It probably costs less to ship five together than it does to ship 5 separately. Check out the motivational posters at whats-hot-weekly.com.

Macbook Pro Sale

2009-08-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a brand new Macbook Pro from Apple. About the only thing I can complain about is that I didn't think to check out whats-hot-weekly.com first. I opted to get the 17" Macbook Pro. These are the "mac daddies" of laptops.

The 17" Macbook Pro has a screen resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels. That's a higher resolution than my 22" widescreen monitor used with my PC. Of course you can lower this resolution if you need but I love having the extra screen real estate.

Other than the resolution, which you'll be very hard pressed to find on any other laptop, there are many other features that set the 17" Macbook pro apart from is competitors. As far as hardware goes, you probably can't even find a comparable laptop. It is equipped standard with 4 gigabytes of RAM. That's enough to run all your programs at once unless you are an extreme power user. I can run a virtual machine of Windows along with pretty much any other apps I want with no problem.

The 17" Macbook Pro also comes with a 500 gigabyte hard drive standard. Half of a terabyte is a lot of storage for a laptop. It's plenty for me and I'm a power user. I require lots of storage for various disk images and such.

To wrap up the major hardware features of the 17" Macbook Pro, it comes with two video cards, both of which are better than my PC's graphics adapter. They also both have plenty of power to make the desktop and gaming experience beautiful.

There are also a few small additions to the hardware that are just hard to find on other laptops. The touch pad on the Macbook Pro is superb. It's quite honestly the best touch pad there is. It has multi-touch, of course, which is Mac-only at the moment. It's very precise unlike many touch pads from other companies like Acer, Dell, and HP. It's huge. I mean it's almost 3 times the size of most touch pads I've used. I'm pretty much spoiled after using it.

Another small feature you just don't get from other manufactures regularly is bluetooth. The built-in bluetooth capabilities on Mac is great. It can be used with bluetooth mice, keyboards, and headsets as well as connected to phones themselves.

Finally, the iSight camera and built-in mic are much better than most I've seen before. The keyboard is backlit. The sound is great for a laptop.

If you are thinking about a new laptop, a new or used Macbook Pro is the only way to go. It's a much more enjoyable laptop experience and feels much more personal. Check out these deals at whats-hot-weekly.com. I wish I had checked there first. There are some great prices there.

Computers & Networking

2009-08-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

The computers and networking category has a few good deals at the moment. Apparently, Dell laptop batteries are prone to die or maybe people just want a spare. The batteries rank at the top for most watched items in the computers & networking category. A close second place is Dell's little netbook with Ubuntu installed. One of the items that really caught my is the 16 megapixel web cam for $14. It looks like over 2000 people have purchased one. Go to whats-hot-weekly.com and look at the most watched items in the computers & networking categore!

Obama Chia Head

2009-07-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

Wow I've seen it all now. Hail to the Ch..Ch..Chief. Apparently there is now a Chia "pet" of Obama's head. There are at least two poses, serious and smiling. There are quite a few on eBay. Here's the whats-hot-weekly.com page of them: Obama Chia head. They are cheap and sure to be a collectors item someday.

Major addition to Whats-hot-weekly.com

2009-06-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

I just added a very useful feature to WHW. The new feature will be very handy to sellers and marketers. It could also be useful to buyers, if they just run out of ideas for things to buy, I guess..hehe. The new feature shows all the top searched for keywords. Like the main site, this is by category or by keyword. It has a maximum result of 1000 keywords per request. It's great for drilling down to find long-tail keywords for micro niches.

I'll be posting a youtube video soon documenting some of the uses of the new feature, along with using how to use the main site efficiently. So, go find your next niche using whats-hot-weekly.com

One expensive lunch with Warren Buffett

2009-06-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hopefully, filet mignon and lobster are on the menu. The winner of this auction should at least order "big". Of course, it's for a good cause.

The auction is 100% charity. All proceeds will go to the Glide Foundation. Which works to alleviate human suffering in the San Francisco Bay area. The winner and up to 7 guests will get to sit down with Mr. Buffett for lunch.

The bidding started at $25,000 and looks like it could go as high as $500,000. That would be an expensive date. Wouldn't half a million dollars constitute at least dinner instead of lunch?

There are lots of people watching the bidding. Let's see what it hits.

# # #

Here's the auction: http://bit.ly/1aoVyF
To see how many people are watching this auction goto: http://whats-hot-weekly.com
and search for buffett.

What is the best brand of dual layer DVD media?

2009-06-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

This is the question I was asking myself recently as I attempted to burn a playable backup XBox 360 game. It seems that all DVD+R DL media is not created equal. In fact the folks in the Xbox modding society have it down to an exact science. The very best dual layer media is Verbatim DVD+R DL. Not just any Verbatim DVD+R DL will do however. The very very best media is Verbatim DVD+R DL made in Singapore. Apparently Singapore is the only country capable enough to produce a useful dual-layer media.

American jobs are moving overseas because we Americans don't have that "we can build it better" attitude any longer. The majority of our workers don't take pride in their work. Just go to a fast food restaurant and order enough food for a family of five. Eight out of ten times they'll mess up the order at my local restaurants.

Sorry for that brief intermission but really...Why does Singapore have the best dual-layer media, and why is Verbatim the only company that produces useful dual-layer media? DL media is expensive no matter which company you buy it from. So why don't some of these other companies at least put forth the effort to make a better product?

I can't answer those questions but I can point you toward the best deal on the absolute best quality dual layer media available. Enjoy!

Biometric Gun Safes

2009-06-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs a safe. They keeps things safe on the inside and out. Many gun owners have safes for this very reason. You can keep the guns safe from thieves and keep children safe from the guns. Safe, it's a great name for the device.

Biometric safes are the most secure form of safe you can get for your home. These safes use a fingerprint reading device. Unlike other combination or key safes, biometric safes will only open for the specific person.

You can authorize varying numbers of people depending on the safe model. There are a ton of good deals on these safes at whats-hot-weekly.com. There are many sizes ranging from small enough for one pistol all the way up to a full gun cabinet full of handguns and rifles.

Biometric Gun Safes on Whats-hot-weekly.com

XBox 360 For Sale Cheap

2009-06-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite toys is my step-son's XBox 360. I have a PS3 and he has the 360 and Wii. I play all three but only claim the PS3 because its a bit more adult than the other two, meaning it has a Bluray player. I made the mistake of paying full retail for the XBox and the PS3. The Wii, however, I bought new on eBay. It was the only place that had them at the time.

I should have bought all three on eBay. I bought the XBox on Newegg.com and the PS3 was purchased at Walmart. Each were more expensive than I could have bought them on eBay. If you want an XBox 360 cheap, check out whats-hot-weekly.com.

While I'm at it, it's also a good thing to check out the deals on xbox hard drives on whats-hot-weekly.com. If you are looking for a cheap xbox 360 hard drive, they are less than 30 bucks on ebay. That's a lot less than I expected. I can't imagine what these things cost from Microsoft.

To round off the Xbox topic, if you are looking for a cheap xbox live subscription, ebay is the place to look as well.

Baby Clothes Lots

2009-06-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

Since it's Fathers Day, I thought it'd be a nice time to reflect on what being a father has been like. I have a step-son and two daughters. It's truly amazing to have kids of my own. It can also be expensive, and they aren't even close to being teens yet.

Yikes! At any rate, baby clothes are expensive when you buy them retail. Most people will buy clothes, toys, and everything retail for their first child. By the third, we've wised up and are trying to find the cheapest quality stuff we can. I have one word for those parents...eBay.

More importantly, whats-hot-weekly. Check out these inexpensive baby clothes lots.

Apple iPhone 3g 16gb Black Unlocked

2009-06-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Check out these great deals for unlocked, third generation, 16gb Apple iPhones over at whats-hot-weekly.com's static page. A quick search of "apple iphone 3g 16gb black unlocked" found quite a few deals. There are also a ton of good deals on iPhone accessories at whats-hot-weekly.com as well.

Surveillance Equipment is HOT Right Now

2009-06-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

With summer vacations starting, people are going to be leaving their homes unattended for extended periods. THE hot selling item in eBay's gadget category is security cameras. There are some massive security camera kits that can be used to monitor one's home remotely over the web or to record events that could be taking place at home while one is relaxing on the beach.

There's also a cool pen cam in the top 5 for that category along with some other cool gadgets.

As always, use whats-hot-weekly.com to find the most popular items on ebay.

3/10 pagerank after update and eBay's new w00t clone.

2009-06-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty happy with my new pagerank on http://whats-hot-weekly.com. I was coasting along with a pagerank of 0, and after Google's recent update to pagerank, I'm up to a 3. I know most people couldn't care less about my pagerank. I was just surprised at the jump.

In other news, eBay has started a new "idea" called daily deals. They feature a very low priced items each day and sell a limited amount of them. This is like woot.com for those who may be familiar. It's a good idea but like I said, "It's been done." They are promoting it pretty heavily. I'm guessing that means someone in upper management came up with the idea and thinks it'll be the saving grace of eBay.

eBay should have stuck with what worked for them. They are THE auction website on the net. No one else even comes close. However, they are trying to be more like Amazon.com. They are trying to steer away from the "flea market" atmosphere. That's why you see so many "Buy it Now" auctions and classified ads on eBay these days. Now, with the Woot remake they are again trying something new.

Their auction model is what makes them eBay. They should focus on making eBay the best auction site again and create another site if necessary for "buy it now" and classified ads.

At any rate, I wish them luck with the woot concept. If you want to see what it's all about, check out the front page of whats-hot-weekly.com. I added a banner on the page to show the daily deals.

gps for monitoring teen drivers

2009-05-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Hidden gps units are now available that allow parents to keep tabs on where teenage drivers have been. These small little units are simple to use and very efficient at maintaining the safety of your children.

The device is slightly larger than your average thumbdrive. It can record up to a week on a single set of AAA batteries. It has enough memory to store months of travel. You just put it in the vehicle. Let it do it's thing. Then, when you want to review the data, you just pull it out, put it in a computer, and look at the data via google maps. It's very easy to use and actually has several uses besides tracking a teen driver.

Companies can use it to track employees. They can also use it to show a shipment route. When you start to explore all the ways this thing can be used, there are plenty. You won't find a better device for this purpose than the Super TrackStick, and you won't find it cheaper than here: gps for monitoring teen drivers

Farm equipment cheap

2009-05-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

This will be short and sweet. I never realized how much farm equipment was sold over the internet, especially online auctions. It's very possible to find cheap farm equipment over at whats-hot-weekly.com. There are tons of tractors and lawnmowers. There are many attachments and other farming machinery for great prices.

Hot Watches on eBay

2009-05-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

There are some cool looking watches(as in timekeeping) on eBay at the moment. This watch is a 1305a Omega Speedmaster Professional 3592-50 Moon Watch. The current bid is at nearly $800. Of course this may be too expensive for some people (including me). However, $800 is nothing compared to the $2500 watch just three items down at Whats-hot-weekly.com. It's beyond me why someone would spend that much on a watch. That could be the poor boy inside me coming out, but I mean come on. You can buy a $50 watch at Walmart that does the exact same thing. I simply can't comprehend why someone would spend that much on a watch.

Internationalization is complete

2009-05-12T21:50:00.001-07:00

Is that a word? If so that is huge. Whats-hot-weekly.com is international at any rate. I retrieved all categories by site code and placed that into a new SQL database. I then made the necessary code changes to the site and hot swapped to the new database. The site was not down a second.

Since that day, the site did suffer from a major outage that lasted around 10 hours. This was due to the server having a major issue and at the time I didn't have access to submit tickets for a server outage. It made me wish I had the site on my own server. That conversion would be brutal for me right now though.

Free Candy Sample - Jelly Belly

2009-05-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't miss advertising this cool deal. Get a free sample of Jelly Bellies when you fill out a quick questionaire. If you like free stuff you'll like this.

I've liked Jelly Bellies since the first time I tried them. I can't stand other jelly beans. I thought they were all the same till my wife pointed me toward Jelly Bellies. They are now my favorite candy. They were also Ronald Reagan's favorite candy. They created a flavor for him and provided him with tons of jelly beans for conferences.

Grab a free sample.

Major Update

2009-05-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

There is about to be a major update to whats-hot-weekly.com. Up until this point, the site has been U.S. only. It only searches US eBay, and it only uses US dollars. I'm currently gathering the appropriate data for the all the categories on the other sites. After that, I will be converting the site to allow country selection. This should be accomplished no later than Tuesday.

Lululemon Yoga Pants Half off!

2009-05-02T17:47:00.001-07:00

Apparently there is a huge demand for Lululemon Pants. They are all over eBay. I did a quick search for them on whats-hot-weekly.com and found that there are some good bargains. Lululemon yogo pants are pants used for working out. These athletic pants are stretchy and conform to the body. They don't restrict movement. If you workout a lot, you should try a pair.

And don't forget to look for more deals at whats-hot-weekly.com

Cheap Blu-ray Movies

2009-05-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Whats-hot-weekly.com is great for finding deals. Everyone is switching to Blu-ray right now and that means re-buying our entire movie collections. That's how it was when we switched from VHS to DVD. I still have many movies in both VHS and DVD, and I'm about to buy them in Blu-ray. It's actually better to get movies that are more recent because they will be of much better quality.

Check out all the most watched DVDs and Blu-rays whats-hot-weekly.com. Also, I have a blu-ray specific site set up just for finding good deals on blu-ray movies. You can find it here.

LON Loot cards to buy or trade

2009-04-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for Legends of Norrath loot cards, there aren't many available. You can find some here (Lon Loot Cards to Buy or Trade)

Cheapest Mac Mini

2009-04-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Apple Mac Mini is a great computer for those on a budget. It's also very small and portable. Finally is very quiet compared to most desktop computers. Those are my three biggest pro's for buying a Mac Mini.

Why a Mac? Well, I'm a PC person, but I'm not particularly fond of Windows. I like Linux on my computers. I have, however, become attached to Windows Server 2008 lately. All that aside, a Mac is great for the normal computer user. It's much easier for most computer illiterate people to learn. The Operation System itself is very elegant and is only available on Apple hardware (actually this is false, Mac OS X does run on some generic PC components but legally it is supposed to be used on Apple hardware).

The Mac Mini doesn't take up much room, since it is 6"x6"x2". It has built in bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n wireless, a decent dual core process, and everything else you need. There are optional items like a DVD/CD burner (superdrive) instead of the stock DVD reading, CD burning combo drive. One can also order more RAM and bigger hard drives. All of this comes bundled in a sleek little aluminum package. Read my article at supremetechs.com. It has more information about the Mini and shows you how to find the cheapest mac mini. You can also look at whats-hot-weekly.com for other great deals on Mac Minis.

TV tuner cards must be flooding the market

2009-04-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wanted to watch TV or record TV on your computer, there has never been a better time to get a TV tuner card. I'm always looking through whats-hot-weekly.com for the best deals on things, and these are the best prices I've seen on these type of cards.

For example, the number one most watched TV tuner card at the moment is a PCI TV tuner card with remote for only $19.95. This looks like a bulk sale so that price won't be going up. They have already sold over 400 of them. There are many others for sale as well. There is one for $9.99. That could be the current bid price in a real auction though. I didn't look. The point is, these things are CHEAP. I gave $100 for the TV card currently in my computer. It was money well spent though, because it along with dual displays make for a very convenient work/play environment. I can watch/record TV while programming or blogging. Everyone should have a TV Tuner.

Find Niche Markets in Subcategories

2009-04-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

One of the best arguments I've heard for looking at the most popular items on eBay was from this website. In it the author sources an expert from AuctionBytes. The expert's name is Ina Steiner. Ina states that knowing the most popular items on eBay is bad for the seller because they are looking that the most competitive items on eBay.

Now this is true for the most popular items on eBay all-around. The general most popular items are going to be the most competitive. However, whats-hot-weekly.com gives one the ability to drill down into subcategories and search by keyword. This is a MAJOR advantage for the seller, buyer, or marketer. Other sites, not to name any names, don't allow one to drill down into subcategories. They only give the top-level categories. Drilling down into the subcategories allows one to find great niche items.

I know this works because my wife uses the tool all the time to find niche markets. I prefer to code so I spend most of my time looking for new coding ideas. She asked me to write whats-hot-weekly.com for her. With it, she can find great niches.

There's another one of my sites that she uses just as often if not more so. I haven't released it for public use yet but it's a bit more focused on niche market research. I had originally planned on selling it but I've decided that when I do release it, it'll be free for all.

So, even though Ina says that looking for the most popular items isn't a great way to find things to sell, I totally disagree. Drilling down into subcategories lets one find items that have roughly 10 watchers but are the most watched items in their particular category. These do not have a lot of competition. They are great markets.

Slow day

2009-04-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

There's not much to talk about today. I've been away from my office. No changes have been made to whats-hot-weekly.com. I do need some diggs from everyone who has a digg account. Just go to the main page of the site and click the digg button at the bottom. If you find the app useful, help me spread the word. That's not much to ask for a free app with no ads or such on it.

Official eBay Compatible App

2009-04-17T13:47:00.001-07:00

Whats-hot-weekly.com is now a certified eBay Compatible Application.

After some minor changes to the site, it became certified. This allows me to display the certified app logo on the site, and I can also list the application in eBay's solutions directory.

Hopefully, I'll have time to work on more eBay apps.

Vintage 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop

2009-04-16T17:24:00.001-07:00

Being the guitar nut that I am, I love to look at vintage guitars. I'm also a Les Paul nut, as long as it's a full-fledged Gibson. Of course, vintage Gibson guitars are extremely expensive. If you are lucky you may catch a good deal on vintage guitars at whats-hot-weekly.com. Recently I saw a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop for around $1600. It hadn't reached its reserve but hey it felt good to see it at that price :)

Tickets Tickets

2009-04-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure of the legality behind it all, but eBay is full of tickets. People sell everything on eBay. Apparently scalping has become a lot easier because of it. There are tons of hard-to-find tickets on there and whats-hot-weekly.com makes them easier to locate :)

Zippo Pipe Lighters

2009-04-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've recently taken up pipe smoking. I quit smoking cigarettes last September. I realized that I still wanted to "smoke" but I don't want to actually inhale. So I just puff on my pipe to relax. Of course, I get a bit of nicotine from it but it really isn't as habit forming.

So I decided I needed a good lighter. Seasoned pipe smokers will tell you that butane lighters burn too hot and aren't good for lighting a pipe. Your best bet is to go with a zippo pipe lighter. These are great for lighting a pipe because they are specially designed with a hole in the side. This allows for easier pipe lighting.

I did a quick search at whats-hot-weekly.com and sure enough, ebay is full of them. I'll probably grab one of the cheap, plain metal zippos. I've lost probably $500 worth of zippos in my life.

What's Hot Weekly Advantages

2009-04-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

There are other sites that do close to the same thing that whats-hot-weekly.com does. but those sites are limited. The number one ranked result on google for "most watched on ebay" is ebay pulse. eBay pulse only shows the top ten results. Whats-hot-weekly.com shows the top 100.

Another highly ranked site is watchcount.com. This site doesn't even allow you to drill down into the subcategories. I have a good suspicion why. I worked on the menu system longer than any other part of whats-hot-weekly.com. The menu is XML driven. Categories are updated bi-weekly at present rate. I store the categories in a MySQL database. This allows me to make less calls to the eBay API. It also makes the app a bit faster.

Watchcount.com also only shows the top 20. Again, whats-hot-weekly.com shows the top 100.

I put a lot of effort in creating local web services for the item lookup and category lookup. This allows the app to be fully dynamic. All data is transferred in XML format. I plan to expand on many areas of the app over the next few months.

Great deal number one.

2009-04-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the first great deal I found using my new whats-hot-weekly.com application. I mentioned this on my first post but I thought it would be good to show the actual product I was talking about. This most popular item on ebay is in the Computers and Networking category. The actually eBay category ID is 58058.

These are transparent to the user through the use of the dynamic menu on the left of whats-hot-weekly.com. This menu isn't on the static version of the site yet. However, they can still be used by affixing the category ID to the end of the url.

For instance, to create a static page for the computers and networking category, all one has to do is use this URL:

http://whats-hot-weekly.com/static.php?catID=58058

This is pretty simple. catID is used as a POST variable. The only problem is that the user would have to know the category number. I personally find this by using the firebug extension in Firefox and using it on the main site of whats-hot-weekly.com.

On to the actual subject here, the deal. The deal is a $1 Web Cam. This webcam would be great for Skype and other video conferencing software.

I'll keep an eye out for other great deals, but why wait for me. The tool is free.

What's hot weekly

2009-04-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, I just released a great new tool for finding the best deals on eBay. This tool allows you to search by category or keyword. I wrote most of the site in javascript. It is ajax driven, which really just means that the data loads without a page load.

There is also a static version of the site. I wrote this so users could link to specific searches.

There are many uses for this type of site. For instance, you could look for the best deals, which I already stated. You could also look for what everyone is interested in. This could give you a good idea of what items would sell the best on ebay.

I found some great deals using the tool. There is a webcam going for $1 in the computers & networking category. The last I looked it had over 8000 sold.

The app shows the number of watchers, the number of bids, and the current bid price. For "buy it now" auctions, the bid count will be the number of items sold in the auction.

I hope you enjoy, whats-hot-weekly.com. Check back in the future for updates on the development process.