I’ve just added the ability for readers to put a ProBlogger Widget on their blog’s sidebars using a new system called Blidgets by Widgetbox.
To use my widget you can get it at Widgetbox – ProBlogger Widget or click this icon.
If you use it I’d love to hear about it – let me know in comments!
I clicked it but I got an error message as below:
Oops! Something went wrong…
An unexpected error has occurred. ….
Maybe you should fix it.
and what’s the use?
hi,
it’s pretty buggy and not working right now.
Cheers,
Marcus
the website gave an error message!
Yes, the link does not work !! ;)
Cool service – thanks for sharing that Darren.
[…] I wanted to talk about a neat offering I saw from Widgetbox this morning after readin Darren’s post about creating his own Blidget. I figured I would go through the system and set up my own in order to see how it all works. I have created a Blidget for LeeDodd.com and you can grab the code for it by clicking on the button below. […]
Here’s the link to Darren’s blidget.
I love you Darren, but that’s a lot of real estate to give up for a link back to your site ;)
Darren,
I put the Digital Photography School widget at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar at http://blog.LarryEiss.com.
Take a look. I’ll leave it up and see what happens. On a site as tiny as mine I doubt it will be meaningful, but I love DPS, so what the heck.
–Larry
http://www.LarryEiss.com
[…] Thanks to a tip from Darren, we stumbled across a great service for bloggers: a widget blidget of your blog’s latest posts for others to show on their sites. […]
Do I want people to leave my site by clicking on a huge widget so Darren Rowse can amass an even larger readership? That will make me a better problogger how?
Heheheehe…well John, good point view!
I believe that Darren must introduce the Widget(thing) service and mention that people can create their own Widgets(since it`s a free service)….and then offer his widget to readers :)
thanks all – for some reason they gave me code that didn’t work – should have checked it – apologies. It’s fixed now.
Thanks Larry for using the DPS one and thanks for those others who are using the PB one.
In terms of who should use it, why they should and how much real estate it takes up – I guess its the type of thing that I would see being useful for bloggers who blog on similar topics to those that they use the blidget of.
I wouldn’t expect the majority of PB readers to find it useful as the topic here doesn’t relate to everyone’s blogs – however blogs on similar topics could use these successfully to create more dynamic content and to build relationships with other bloggers in their niche. I personally don’t see what the problem of sending people away from a site is – in fact as I’ve written lately – it can actually be highly beneficial to have outbound links to other sites on your blog if they point to relevant and quality content.
I highlighted the tool because it was new (heard about it via a press release) and thought it’d be an interesting blog tool to test publicly.
It’s not about me amassing readership (although this is a tool that some bloggers are already using successfully to promote their blogs) but I throw it out there as a tool that some bloggers might like to test and try – either as a blogger with their own blidget or as one wanting to check out other blidgets that might be useful for their own niche (like Larry who has a photography site and put my DPS one on his site).
Not forcing it down anyone’s throat – its one of those things that people can take or leave.
Looks a lot like FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost – but open to anyone. Interesting concept – can you please post an update as to how many people use these? It’s a powerful tool, if you can get people to use them! :)
I have added it for now. It looks pretty snazzy, I started to use Widgetbox a while back but I wasn’t really getting on with it so I didn’t add it again when I changed themes, but now it’s back. If users don’t want it to take up too much space in their sidebar they can adjust the size of the overall Widgetbox in their panel settings.
I put it up on my site to try out. I don’t know how many visitors you will get from my site but I’m always willing to try out something new. And, as you said it is a nice way to build relationships with blogger with similar content or focus. I read your blog each day and encourage others to read it as well by having you on my blogroll and now through your bligget.
Graywolf.com had some articles about MBL… but I never quite got it… and while it’s a tiny bit interesting to see “faces” of people that are visiting, I still didn’t get it.
Honestly, I think that you should have included more of an introduction into wtf a blidget was and why anyone would want to use it.
If you had said “hey, this looks interesting, I have no idea what it is going to return, but if you want to try one out on your site, go here and then leave a comment if you figure this out…” it might have made more sense.
… you know what… ignore that post above… I read the post and looked at the widget and clicked on something, came back and had a brain fart… I’m not sure where I linked MBL to the widget…
The bad thing… I still don’t see wtf the widget is supposed to do.
While I don’t think the PB widget will be useful on any of our blogs, I was excited to find the gaming widgets. I’ve already set up a small test arcade at our toy blog. It will be interesting to see what impact it has.
http://thejumpingbunny.com/toys/arcade/
Thanks for looking at Widgetbox’s blidget feature! We’re very happy with how it’s being adopted in the blogger community so far: hundreds upon hundreds of bloggers are creating widget versions of their website every day.
I’m also happy to say that these blidgets are proving effective at promoting those blogs: the number of people subscribing to those widgets are growing very, very fast. Bloggers can keep track of the spread of their widget on the graphical metrics dashboard that Widgetbox provides for free.
Sorry for giving Darren the bad link, and sorry for giving an error when you followed that link. We’ve fixed both sides of that problem. We have a dedicated support staff and respond promptly to every incident. Widgetbox’s primary focus is helping bloggers be successful with their widget-based promotion and distribution strategies.
Dean Moses
CTO
Widgetbox
That’s a lot of free advertising you’re asking for Darren!
Hey Darren,
Thanks for sharing this. We just set up our own widget for our Dating & Relationship advice blog.
We also added the “get my widget” blingage on our sidebar, but opted for the more verbose badge – the one that says “Get my blog as a widget from Widgetbox” to spell out its purpose clearly.
I think it looks pretty good actually – using the all black one with white text.
The Widgetbox setup was very easy and it just works… Feedburner has a Javascript synidcation option but that won’t work in some places such as your MySpace page – and SpringWidgets seems to be quite a handful to get up and running.
** Dean – thanks, you guys did really a really nice job with this. Best of luck.
Have an awesome day!
Dan
Hi
You have a great blog with a lot of information, i am looking forward to add 3rd widget in my blog. As it has only 2widgets, i am unable to make it look great. If you can help me, Please visit my blog and let me know where i have to improve on. Also let me know, whether you can blog few of your thoughts in my blog. Please update me about the same. Can you help me by adding my blog to your blog as a link or can i send you an invite to so that i can show your blog in my blog.Please help me.
Take care
Ganesh.KB
Hi Darren,
I’m one of those that has used your widget on my site since I started my blog in late February. My reasoning at first was to have your content delivered to me daily as I was learning a lot about blogging at the time. Since then, I’ve realized that a lot of people that read my blog have a minimal understanding of the latest tools, trends and techniques in blogging, so I’ve left it there for them. A lot of them don’t read the ‘tech’ pages to find out more. I figure yours is one of the best sites to send them to so they have a minimal amount of surfing to do to increase their knowledge.
Camille
This tool is amazing.
With your loyal reader base I think it would be prominent.
But, on a budding blog like mine, I think it would take eternity to make it out and let it reach at least 100 people.
Thanks for sharing it anyway. Placed it on my blog Darren. Do check it out.