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Here’s an announcement for Remix Developers regarding our Affiliate Program!

If you haven’t already heard about our Affiliate Program now is a good time to join!

We’ve listened to your feedback that we need to improve our affiliate offering, and we are taking action.

• For the SXSW conference we are offering a flat 5% commission rate on all products as opposed to our normal .25%-3.00% rate (excluding laptops, desktops, and hard drives) until 7/31/10 for Remix Developers. (rate structure subject to change).
• After 7/31/2010 we will present our plans for a new approach to the Affiliate Program for Remix Developers.

What are the requirements?

• You must be registered to use Best Buy Remix.
• Affiliate links must be setup properly using the Remix API. (See API Documentation)

Why not just wait for the new program?

If you are in the program now, you will be ready to go when we announce any changes after 7/31/2010.

How do I get involved?

We are performing live signups if you are at SXSW. Stop by our booth at the trade show or come see us in the Circus Mashimus Lounge!

If you are a new Remix user, perform the following:

• Register for Remix and obtain an API key
• Apply for our affiliate program
• Email remix AT bestbuy DOT com with your Remix username and affiliate PID. We’d also like to hear your idea on how you are going to use the API.
• We will accept you into the program.
• If you experience any problems during this process contact us via email, twitter, or the Forums.

NOTE: If we can not verify you are signed up to use Remix, you will not be accepted into the new terms.

If you are an existing Remix user email your Remix username and affiliate PID to remix AT bestbuy DOT com.

If you are an existing affiliate, please bear in mind that you will need to be a Remix user as well; email your Remix username and affiliate PID to remix AT bestbuy DOT com. If you’re not intending to use Remix, then you’re not eligible for this offer.

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Greetings from Austin, SXSW, and the Circus Mashimus Lounge!

After a bit of an interesting travel experience for some, we’ve made it!

We are setting up our space in the Lounge and getting our booth ready for the Trade Show!

Change of Schedule for a Day:

Our developer guest Alex Stone from SuperDVDRobot! had some travel issues yesterday and will be joining us by Saturday afternoon. If you stop by the Lounge today or tomorrow AM there will still be someone from the Remix team around! Come check us out! Alex will be on hand Saturday afternoon.

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Greetings everyone!

By the end of the day most of the Remix team will be in Austin, TX for SXSW. We hope to see many people we know there as well as meet new people and build some quality relationships.

Make sure you come see us in the Circus Mashimus Lounge and stop by our booth at the Trade Show!

A few things to note:

• Alex Stone from SuperDVDRobot! will be showing off his app and be around to discuss his use of Remix in the Circus Mashimus Lounge. Please stop by and say hi!
• We have an introductory Affiliate Program rate for Remix Developers we’ll be talking about, look for more news on that soon.
• We now have Canada data available! We’d love to hear your thoughts.
• We’re love to talk the future of Remix with you!

A few twitter accounts to follow:

• Obviously @bestbuyremix
• Alex runs @al3xstone and @superdvdrobot
• My account is @jzwack
• If you want to keep up on all SXSW conversation check out the #SXSW hashtag.

I’ll be updating throughout the event, pictures, cool stuff, etc.

I hope to see some of you at the event! Of course you can still talk to us on our Forums, twitter or email while we are in Austin!

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Last fall, Best Buy Canada Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc.) undertook a collaborative effort of getting Canadian data into the Best Buy Remix API with the good folks from the Remix team.

Now we are finally at the finish line. Well, at least the first finish line. Data from Best Buy Canada and Future Shop (a division of Best Buy Canada Ltd) is now available in a version 0, or beta if you will, when calling http://api.remix.bestbuy.com/v0/ca/….

Currently, the Canada API contains active products from our two online catalogues (bestbuy.ca and futureshop.ca), in-store and online availability, and store location and opening hours. More data will be added as the API ‘graduates’ from version 0 to version 1. If you have suggestions to what can be added, go ahead and post them on the forum.

A couple of points to be aware of when using the Canadian data:

• Because the Canadian data consists of two brands, the default query result shows data from both brands (bestbuy.ca and futureshop.ca) and in English and French.
• You can qualify what brand and/or language you want returned. See more on this in the documentation.
• For simplicity and ease of use, your API key grants access to both the US and Canadian API Remix data.
• Please note that the Remix Canada API is V0, or BETA status. It is subject to change at any time. Updates will be posted via the blog and/or forums.

And then on the more serious side:

• Don’t use the Canadian data for shopping comparison engines or websites.
• Don’t claim to Best Buy Canada or Future Shop when presenting the data.

That’s it. We are super excited to finally be part of the Best Buy API family and cannot wait to see all the innovative, cool stuff built with it.

- Klaus
(project manager with Best Buy Canada Ltd ecommerce department)

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This little event called South by Southwest® (SXSW®) is coming up in a little over a week. We will be there again this year! We will have a presence once again in the Circus Mashiumus Lounge (by Mashery) as well as a presence at the 2010 SXSW® Trade Show.

What’s the plan?

As I mentioned previously, we will be all over the place. You will find the Remix team in the Circus Mashimus Lounge and the Trade Show.

Circus Mashimus Lounge

Last year we officially launched the Remix API at the Circus Mashimus Lounge. This year we are letting our developer community do the talking.

Alex Stone (@al3xstone or @superdvdrobot via Twitter), the creator of Super DVD Robot! will be on hand to demo his application and discuss his use of the Remix API for you. It’s one of the more creative uses we’ve seen of our data yet, and he does it all on his own time which I think is awesome. In the meantime sign-up, check it out and have questions ready for him!

I figured having someone talk about their use of the API and their creative path in general for their application would be better than just having us ramble on the whole time, but if you want to talk to us we’ll be there too. We’ll be on hand to answer questions about Best Buy Remix, talk to you about your next cool Remix powered application, and let you know what we are working on.

SXSW Trade Show

The Best Buy Remix team will also have a booth at the Trade Show. Here we will be showing Remix powered applications, be available to answer questions about the API or Affiliate Program in general. We will be in booth 828.

When is all of this happening?

The Circus Mashimus Lounge will be open from March 12th to the 16th. Geek Sideshows demo area will take place from 2:30pm to 6:00pm. The Trade Show is open from March 13th to the 15th.

We want to see you there!

If you already have plans or are making them to be at the conference we would love to see you face to face. If you have a Remix powered application come hang out at our booth and tell people about it! Tell us about it! I personally would like to meet everyone I can in person.

I will be blogging as much as possible during the event. I will also be on Twitter constantly (@bestbuyremix, @jzwack) throughout the event. Anything in specific you would like to hear about? Anything you want more explanation of?

If you are making plans to be at the event and are interested in a specific time to meet up, let us know!

So come hang out with us! We’d love to hear about what you have going on! I’ll have more to post about as the event gets closer and closer.

Sites of Interest:

Circus Mashimus

SXSW

Super DVD Robot!

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I am receiving reports that some users are unable to login to the portal. We are looking into the issue now and I will provide an update ASAP.

UPDATE: We are still working to resolve the issue. It appears logins work on the Forums but not the main blog site. In the meantime if you have questions you can find us @bestbuyremix on Twitter or via email: remix AT bestbuy DOT com.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Issue has been resolved. Users should now be able to login properly.

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These things are never without their potholes are they?

As you can see we’ve switched to the new portal, but currently the links for registration and obtaining an API key are not working. We are working with our Mashery partners to resolve the issue.

Look here for further updates! Thanks for your patience.

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Thanks for taking the time to check out the new Remix portal. Everything is new: Gallery, Blog, Documenation, Forums. It was built by TopCoder!

What I really want is for you to check it out and give me your feedback.

Your Mashery login should work for logging into the forums, etc. Please let us know if it does not.

How to give feedback:

I have a list going already in the new Forum.
Via Twitter: @bestbuyremix
Email: remix AT bestbuy DOT com

I want to hear about anything and everything you do and don’t like about it. We are pretty flexible on being able to make changes so let’s hear it!

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As many of you may have heard today Napster has officially launched their API to the public.

Check out this article on Billboard Biz: Napster Opens Service To Developers

Thanks to those of you in the Remix community who helped us test the API recently! If you read the article and press releases about the API today, you’ll notice that you (the Remix Community) recieved credit for helping them test it out. So awesome work!

Check out their developer portal at: http://developer.napster.com

Now lets see some cool results with the API. How about some that use Remix somehow as well?

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Forum user Pricedit recently posted on the Remix forum asking for success stories with the Remix API. Myself and Steve named off a few (ShopSavvy, Milo, CamelBuy, Google integration, etc). He mentioned he was looking for responses from fellow indie developers.

Since it’s a good topic, I thought it would be a good idea to post my response up on the blog and see if I can generate some good discussion around the topic.

It all starts with an idea, the key here is a unique idea. Most of those ideas are either:
1) Something nobody else is doing
2) A way to do it better than someone else is doing it now

It shouldn’t matter if they only use Best Buy data, other data sources in conjunction with Remix, or decide not to use Remix at all. I’ve had this conversation with many developers over email recently, the first question I ask after they tell me their idea is “How is what you are doing different or better than X or Y or Z?” That’s the first question you have to ask yourself. Not only that but how are you going to market that difference? How do you tell people your idea is better and they should use it?

I’ve said it in previous articles, but lets say you are creating a site or application that basically does the same thing that BestBuy.com does. Why would people use it when they can just go to BestBuy.com? Now same scenario, except you have a set of 5 features that BestBuy.com does not have. When someone comes to your site do they know that on the home page? Do you communicate that in search results? Do you talk about it where you can? If not then you aren’t showing off why your application is more powerful than what’s already out there.

Take basic marketing for BestBuy.com for example. One of our key offerings is in-store pickup for products purchased online. It’s promoted quite a bit in our ads and online, right?

Also keep in mind that things you develop by yourself may get you noticed by other companies who wish to have you do something for them based on your current work. There are multiple different ways these stories can play out.

What we promise to do is provide data, support and assistance where we can to help you with your idea. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or another perspective I’m happy to do that. With our upcoming portal improvements there will be a new sample gallery that is easier for me to update and maintain. I don’t see any reason that we can’t put most applications in there. That would also help with getting noticed.

Again the call to action here is the same as in previous articles, what are you doing that’s unique? How do you stand out in the crowd? Also with that, how can I help?

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