Subscribe by RSSBest and worst of Blog widgets!
You see widgets everywhere these days. When people get into blogging the first thing they do is fill up their sidebar with junk that they don’t need, and in the end it just slows your website down and makes it look a mess. I have myself done these things and will probably still do them in the future… But some of you can learn from my mistakes.
On the other hand you will also find many widgets that are very good and will really improve your blogging for you and your readers.
I will list some of the worst and best widgets and what they can do (Or not) for your blog or website.
Worst:
- Games and Cyber Pets.
These will just slow your website down. I see many people using the cyber pets these days and the truth be told I was at one point going to use one. Luckily my brain kicked in and I realised it would just slow everything down and take up so much space. Games also take forever to load. It is OK to use them if you have a page for them and make sure it is tagged so people know it will take forever to load. - Spottt
This is just a rip-off from Entrecard but is a much more simple version. It has no settings that give you any control and you will very rarely get any clicks to your blog. I used it for around one week and got under 10 click backs after giving thousands of impressions. The stats are none existent and you never know what will appear on your site. If you want this type of widget use Entrecard. - Clocks
You do NOT need a clock on your blog. Do you know why?Look in the bottom right corner of your screen… That’s a clock. Unless your living on Mars and it is really important that you have the time displayed I see no reason to have a big clock widget taking up space. - Music Players
Music players just annoy people. Some load the whole song even if it is not on auto-play. The really annoying ones play the music on its own! These will make me block the website as I do not want to listen to music while browsing… And if I did I would use my own music. So these slow connections, take up loads of room, and annoy people! Not a good mix! - Paid Link Widgets
The ones that give paid links. Some charge $1+ and some do it for free. These were all the rage a while ago. You sometimes got a free link back and the blogger got a bit of cash. The big problem with these is the servers they used sometimes slowed down. This would make your site load slow (or not load) and just put people off your blog. The other BIG problem with these is it can effect your PageRank with Google (BAD). They are now lowering peoples PR for paid Linkbacks! If you are using this take it down… One other not is THEY ARE UGLY! - Bookmark buttons
I do not know if these can be called Widgets as most are just images and do not work in the same way. But I see people with 10-30 tiny images for every bookmarking site in the world! Why not just use AddThis and have one image/Widget? Why do you need all these tiny images taking up space? They suck, remove them!
Best
- Entrecard
Entrecard WILL drive users to your blog. Yes it can just have some users just comes and go… But some do stay and it also looks good on your stats. Entrecard also has a amazing community of members. The admins and owners are very friendly and are always looking at ways to improve the idea. Watch the video on the frontpage to find out more about how it works… Then get hooked on EntreCrack like the rest of us. - AddThis
AdThis is a widget that can help people bookmark your website with many book marketing communities like Digg and StumbleUpon. It saves having loads of buttons and also saves loads of space. the servers are very fast and I have never had any lag from them. You can also use it as a RSS feed button which can work with all the top readers. - FeedBurner Chicklet
FeedBurner is a must for all bloggers. Without going into what FeedBurner does (You should know… If not click the link) ill just talk about the Chicklet widget. The widget shows to your readers how many RSS/E-mail readers you have. This can help show you have a good blog and can give some sense of achievement to you and your readers. It is also very fast and small too. I am aware I am not using this. I will in time. - * My µStats
This is a new plugin that I have been looking for for awhile now. It give you and your readers all the needed info on how your blog is doing in the blogging word. They have 2 widgets right now, small, and big (125×125). I do wish they had some different styles but I guess we will have to wait for that. From what I have seen the servers are very fast and have given me no lag so far. This is a new Plugin for me so things may change. *New and might be unstable - MyBlogLog - AddMe
Many people will disagree with me on this… And I understand why. but I will include this for now as I do believe it has its place in the blogging world. This Widget can show your readers who is looking at your blog. It shows some small custom images of the people who have come on your blog. It can also display the images in your comments if you have the right plugins and give you some info on yourself for readers to look at. I have had no real issues with this plugin and love it very much. - ProjectWonderful
Project wonderful sells space on your website for real money. It is like a link exchange but with a hint of ebay in it. people big on your spaces and the top bidder gets that spot while they are the top bidder. Its simple. Some spaces are going for free until more people bid on that spot then it will go for 0.01 cents. It is a nice way for bloggers to make a bit of money when they cant from other websites.
Remember these rules when using Widgets:
- Will they slow my blogs loading time down?
- Do I need it?
- Does the style fit my blog?
- Will it distract people much?
- Does it fit in my sidebar?
- Will it annoy people?
You should only use widgets if it will IMPROVE your blog.
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15 People have left comments on this post
Mar 10, 2008 - 01:03:01You can probably lose your calendar, too as when you hover your mouse over that number in the lower right, it tells you what day it is as well. I hope I’m saying that nicer than Sam Freedom said it to me
M
Margaret’s last blog post..Dead Days of Summer ? a Review
i have to disagree with the calendar. When I removed it from my old template I had some people complain as they told me it helped them know how many new posts and history I had. I know there are other ways to find it… But I guess some people feel comfortable with calendars… I don’t though
What a fun post - of course one of my favorite things to do is browse the widgets and randomly click on one’s that catch my.
The font on the My µStats widget when I expand it is kind of hard to read.
One good thing about moving my blog from Blogger to my own domain was that it made me spring clean my sidebar and remove all the useless widgets.
Lis’s last blog post..Funny Signs
I cannot agree more on the music widgets, if I want to listen to music I have the iTunes going in the background, and music widgets are a great way to ruin a good song. Unless your a band featuring your own music, or perhaps a music site, this is a totally useless waste of bandwidth. Even in those scenarios you should give the user an option to start the music on their own rather than the auto play.
Ken’s last blog post..Lost an Hour? Dawn Redwood - Day 66
Some good advice you have posted - I will have to check out the Addthis service.
kml’s last blog post..Green Thumb Sunday - Overgrown Driftwood
@Lis
Yea I agree that the font is hard to see… Fingers crossed they do some updates on it. I never really used Blogger but I still have to see a Good looking blog that cant be made better one WP.
I always think its worth doing a spring clean every month or sooner. I know I have to do one soon.
I tried the My µStats too and didn’t like the way it appeared on my blog. Maybe they’ll make it more readable eventually.
I’m with you on everything else. I do, however, have a countdown clock to my son’s Bar Mitzvah, but that’s because I’m blogging about the planning process.
feefifoto’s last blog post..Into A Nearby Telephone Booth …
I have to admit, clocks and the weather pixies annoy me. Then again, some widgets are fine when used in moderation. It’s just the blogs that go totoally overboard that annoy the hell out of me.
Elle’s last blog post..Job-hunting: The Six Degrees of Desperation
yeah, I agree with you on this. I try to keep my blog as uncluttered as possible.
Besides, it’s a free Wordpress blog; I can’t even add Adsense to it. LOL
Callith’s last blog post..I must be very uncultured
One popular type of widget is a brag badge or display counter. Back in the day people used to use overall site statistics counters but these have become less popular over time.
hello Lee Doyle,
i agree with your point on Bookmarking buttons. One link - like addthis - to deal with it is all that is necessary!
thanks for the info
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