Which Widgets to Use to Enhance Your Site
Find out how to add interactivity and dynamic content to your site with widgets.
Aliza Sherman
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Which Widgets to Use to Enhance Your Site
I love widgets. I’m talking about the small pieces of code, usually javascript or flash code, that you can embed into your web site, blog or, in some cases, your social network pages, to add interactivity or dynamic content.
Before I talk about some of the widgets I think add value to a site, here’s a word from our sponsor.;
Why Use Widgets?
Widgets can do a number of things to enhance your website or blog. Widgets might be mistakenly referred to as badges, but the difference is that widgets are interactive and dynamic, whereas badges are static. Some widgets give your site more functionality, such as adding a button to your blog posts or articles that allows your readers to easily share your content throughout their social networks. Some widgets pull content from other sites, such as news or weather feeds, or from your own social networking pages.
The key to widgets is that they are generally compact and self-contained. A widget can pack a lot of information and interactivity into a very small space and there really is no limit to what they can do for you.
What are Some Useful Types of Widgets?
I recommend the following types of widgets to enhance your own website or blog:
Sharing Widgets – One of the most powerful types of widget is the one that adds a button to your blog posts or web pages so visitors can share your content easily with others. ShareThis and AddThis are two of the more estabished sharing widgets that also give you important metrics on visitor usage. Tweetmeme is giving both of those services a run for their money.
Aggregating Widgets – Some widgets will pull together a list of all of your social networking presences into a neat list with tiny logos of Twitter, Facebook, Digg and the like. A widget from Profilactic compactly represents all of your various social profiles and leads people to them with a click. Lijit not only aggregates and lists your social profiles but adds a search function so visitors can search all of the content you produce in social networks. Lijit also gives you visitor usage metrics.
Social Network Widgets – Most social networks these days will give you the code for what they might call a badge, but it’s really a widget that takes the content from your social network status updates, for example, and puts it into a small block of text with graphics. A Twitter feed widget can show your most recent tweets and it usually includes a link so people can visit your Twitter page and follow you. Facebook widgets for your Facebook Page can show a feed of your status updates as well as rotating pictures of a few of your Page fans.
Multimedia Widgets – Technically speaking, the codes used to embed video and audio players into your website or blog are widgets as well. Although YouTube has the most popular video player widget, Vimeo’s is much more elegant. For audio players, Utterli has nicely designed versions in several sizes and layouts. My favorite widget right now is from Whrrl and can be used to embed their easy-to-create photo stories that combine images and words to tell a story and give a sense of place. I use the Whrrl widget most often on my travel blog.
Don’t forget you can also produce and distribute your own widgets on sites like Widgetbox and KickApps.
Bottom Line: There are so many widgets but so little time so be strategic and selective. What are you trying to achieve through widgets? How much space do you have? Pick your widgets that satisfy your most critical needs.
Contact Me
That’s all we have time for today.
Visit the show’s website at digitalmarketer.quickanddirtytips.com for links to all of the sites mentioned in the show. If you’d like to ask a question or request a topic for The Digital Marketer, e-mail me at digitalmarketer@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email or leave a message by calling 206-339-6279. You can also find me at Facebook.com/thedigitalmarketer and Twitter.com/alizasherman.
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Resources
AddThis – Visit Website AddThis
ShareThis – https://www.ShareThis .com
Tweetmeme – Visit Website Tweetmeme
Lijit – Visit Website Lijit
Profilactic – https://www.Profilactic.com
Twitter – Visit Twitter
Facebook – Visit Facebook
YouTube – Visit Website YouTube
Vimeo – Visit Website Vimeo
Utterli – Visit Website Utterli
Whrrl – Visit Website Whrrl
Widgetbox – Visit Website Widgetbox
KickApps – Visit Website KickApps
Aliza Sherman’s Travel Blog – Visit Website Aliza Shermans Travel Blog
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Widgets image courtesy of Shutterstock