No doubt, you heard the term “widget” in business and marketing classes and books regarding a generic or hypothetical product. However, online, a widget is a valuable tool and a fundamental tool to market.
A widget (also known as a “gadget”) is a “small piece of portable code written to perform certain actions or functions” in internet marketing. A widget may be a portable game, a schedule, a video game, or a survey. A widget can provide the current weather, time, headline news, stock numbers, sports scores, world population, countdowns, or anything else you can imagine.
A widget is portable because it can literally be shared and spread virally on social networking sites, blogs, email, or websites by simply cutting and pasting the code or copying it. Once the widget is copied and pasted, the appropriate information it has been programmed to show is automatically sent for, received, and displayed.
Why use a control? Displays are great tools to create a “sticky site,” which refers to a website that allows users to spend more time on your site.
You want people to remain on your website for many reasons.
The more time people spend on your website, and the higher Google ranks your website on a search engine result page provided they have found the site on Google search. Another reason is that the longer people spend on your site, the more likely they are to:
· Save your site or prefer to bookmark
· Share links with your websites
· Think your website favourably (if it is a good website, well designed, and easy to navigate with valuable, updated, functional, and precise content)
· Opt-in to receive e-mails and e-mail etc.
· Return in the future to your website
One of the core purposes of website design and development is to establish a sticky site. It all starts right from creating a website, which the search engines can easily find, index, and be classified. In addition, a site with a high conversion rate will be created.
Website conversion objectives may differ for each site. Still, the conversion may mean users are doing what they want, such as logging in, registering, buying, downloading, requesting additional information, loading their content, commenting on your blog post, subscribing to your RSS feed, or sharing your links and contents. You can have one or more conversion targets on a website, but they are all enhanced with a hot spot.
Widgets are especially powerful and virally spread on Social Media sites such as Facebook and MySpace and particularly on WordPress blogs as many widgets are made for WordPress.
Pre-made or easy-to-custom widgets are available on many websites for free or at a meagre cost. Look at www.widgets.yahoo.com and www.widgetbox.com, and www.mightyquiz.com. You can always search for “free widgets” find many more.
You can also use www.kickapps.com, www.buildagadget.com, and wwww.widgetbox.com for custom widgets for your specific needs or brand.
One should learn about widgets and use widgets to make your site more accessible, practical, entertaining, or more helpful. Also, keep in mind that your site and website user basis should not use widgets randomly or out of character. For example, news/weather and stock controls should be used for news sites, and a whimsical game widget can be unsuitable on a severe business site.
Advance your widget
You may want to use this fact to promote it and drive traffic if you have one or more widgets on your website or blog. Here are several ways to promote your widget and viral sharing or web-based distribution of your widget:
· Write and publish your press release and a link to the widget in your newsroom
· Write your blog post with a link to your widget
· Set a link to your widget in your email signature.
· Enter it with a link where possible in your online or offline newsletter.
· Talk about it on all your social media channels, with a link. Put the widget on your social media pages wherever possible.
