Six Apart has just announced that they’ve added a new feature to TypePad – ‘Widgets’. I’ll let them explain:
What’s a Widget, you ask? It could be a list of your most recent photos, or a topic-oriented search box, or a stats counter, or ads that help you make money, or a badge to help your users subscribe to your feed, or even a Flash game or a chat window. We call it “bling for your blog.” We’re launching with dozens of widgets from more than 30 partners, and more are on the way. Here are just a few of the things you can do with TypePad Widgets:
- Add your Technorati profile to your blog
- Share a custom search roll with Rollyo
- Publicize your FeedBurner feed
- Let your readers find their next job from Jobster, Indeed and Simply Hired
- Highlight your favorite lens from Squidoo to your blog
- Let your readers subscribe to your blog via email, thanks to FeedBlitz
Commerce Widgets – Among the 30 widgets released are a number of ‘commerce’ ones including CafePress TopicAds (make 20% commission on referrals on some sort of automated and relevant ads – you might want to check if AdSense allows this if you are running it on the same blog as them as it sound contextual), PostApp (an ebay widget – it doesn’t say if it’s an affiliate program or not), Fatlens (promote your favorite band or sport’s upcoming events – not sure how this is ‘commerce’), Tumri (a shopping widget – seems affiliate based) and Zazzle (a way to sell your own designs on different products – eg T-Shirts).
I don’t have a TypePad blog so can’t really comment on how it works but after an initial look at it I’d say it’s a good idea but that the ‘commerce’ ones don’t seem to be explained that clearly in terms of what the ‘commercial’ aspect of it is (ie some of them are not clear in terms of if they are affiliate programs or ad programs etc).
If you’re a TypePad user – feel free to leave your experience of Widgets in comments below.
