As I was expected, in last weeks blog widgets are rising all over the Internet.
Couple of them caught my attention and I will try to explain a few things about them and how to take the most out of these FREE services.
The first one widget service is developed by
SpringWidgets. They define themselves as a "widget search engine".
The beauty of this system is that they allow you to build your own widget as long as you have a blog. Supported formats:
RSS, ATOM, OPML, RDF, MP3 Podcast, FLV Podcast.
Even more, you can create your widget online or from your own computer!
The online version allow you to choose your main widget characteristics: width, height, colors, background, URL, and add an image.
There is an example of how this widget looks on the right side of my blog, under the "Monthly Archive".
Why would you use
SpringWidgets? Just because once you create your OWN widget, it is automatically introduce into their database (online gallery) and make it available to a large database of site owners and bloggers.
If your content is good, people will add your widget to their blog or site. Or read your content which can translate into a more potential targeted traffic to your site.
The desktop version of
SpringWidgets is awesome. Once you have downloaded their widget platform, you will be able to "spring widgets" to your desktop using a single click.

Cool feature, right?
With SpringWidgets you will have a lot of fun.
The second widget came from a real internet marketing legend, John Reese, and it's called
BlogRush.
BlogRush is suitable most for the internet marketing blogs, and you have a few options.
For example, you can add as many blogs you want, change color design, add a filter. You can see a live example on my blog, on the left side navigation section.
What really surprised me with
BlogRush was the launch of this service. From my point of view, it was a total failure -- no stats, a lot of spamming problems, no video tutorials, etc.
And this was VERY curious, because Reese is a top marketer and make $#1,000,000 from another product launch. I'm wondering:
IF
BlogRush supposed to be a PAID service, does John Reese makes the same product launch mistakes??! I have no answer here...
OK, enough about bad things. Here are the good ones.
In a few sentences,
BlogRush is a "Cooperative Syndication Network". It's a network of blogs that run a small "widget" on their pages. Each time this widget is loaded, it will contain 5 clickable headlines which are the blog post titles to other users' posts.
BlogRush users earn "syndication credits" based on each time their blog loads the widget as well as each time any of their referrals (users that signup after clicking the "add your blog posts" link on the widget) loads the widget.
So, as you can see, you DO NOT make money with this service, but you might get a lot of traffic back to your blog IF you have compelling headlines and good content.
And more targeted traffic is equal to more online profits!
But
if you are into a niche market and sell tangible goods (
cameras, computers, electronics, toys, games, sports, movies, music, health and beauty, books, clothes, etcetera), here are another two GREAT free widget services.
A big "gorilla",
Amazon, release recently his own widget service.
These new
Amazon widgets are small, visually dynamic, very easily configurable and allow you to feature real products from
Amazon on your blogs, your web sites or social networking pages!!
In less than a minute, you can add a widget with your favourite
Amazon products, your comments about those products, and select from a large set of color and layout themes.
You have the option to add different widget styles...
Slideshow: simply pick your favourite images from the Amazon catalog and present them as a stylish slideshow. it also lets users caption chosen images.
Wish List: make your own "wish list" in a widget and let everyone know what about that.
Product Cloud: you can now show clusters of product titles that are relevant to your web page. Your readers can click on the title and it will take them directly to the Amazon product.
Product Previews: keep your readers on your site until they're ready to buy. This feature is simply amazing!
Unbox Video Previewer: show excerpt from classic movies or television shows available from the Amazon Unbox video download service.
My Favorites: let your readers know about what you like.
Search: readers explore products from Amazon without leaving your site!!
Quick Linker: link to relevant Amazon products by including custom HTML tags.
Recommended Product: feature products based on product categories or keywords.
Text Links: link to favourite destinations, search results, or any other page on
Amazon.
And don't forget: IF you want an Amazon widget on your site or blog, you have to sign up for the Amazon Associate Program!
By linking to Amazon products and services you can add compelling content to your site and receive up to 10% in referral fees for doing so.
Amazon send monthly payments to his associates.
Warning: your
Amazon associate ID will only earn you referral fees from sales in the same locale as your associate ID!
For example, to earn referral fees from an Amazon.co.uk widget, you must be a member of the UK Associates program and use that UK Associates ID in your UK widget.
You must sign up to be a member of the associates program in each
Amazon locale for which you will be building widgets!
The last free widget service I want to talk about is released by
WidgetBucks.
The program is just launched and it's worth testing against the other "money making" options you have on your site or blog to see if it performs better.
You can integrates their widget with
Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, Movable Type, and other large blogging platforms. When one of your blog readers click your ads, you get paid.
WidgetBucks claim that they seeing $3-$6 CPM on widgets, about three times that of traditional ad networks.
You have the option to customize your widget colors, sizes and categories, or have
MerchSense auto-select the category for you based on your site or blog content.
(
MerchSense is a patent-pending contextual algorithm engine that detects and analyses the content of your site or blog to determine what product offers are most relevant to your audience.)
If you open an account now,
WidgetBucks credits your account with $25 for free. They also have an affiliate program were you can earn a 10 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer.
Note: affiliates receive 10% for the full 12 months after the new member joins. Payouts to affiliates are monthly, along with their commission checks.
You can get started with
WidgetBucks in two minutes by
clicking here!
My final conclusion:
All these free widget services are just launched. All of them are very customisable, you have the option to choose what category of products you want to feature on your blog or site layout.
Take your time and test them until you find the best money making option. Run your own tests over a few weeks and see what results you get.
If the results are poor according to your standards, you can easily switch back to whatever is the highest earner for your blog or site (e.g. -- AdSense maybe?)

Tags:
widgets, widget services, SpringWidgets, BlogRush, internet profits,profits, Amazon, business, money, marketing, WidgetBucksLabels: Amazon, BlogRush, business, internet profits, money, SpringWidgets, widget services, WidgetBucks, widgets