Creating cool little web apps draws users—maybe

Editor’s Note: Lawrence Coburn is the founder of RateItAll.com and author of Sexy Widget, a blog devoted to the emerging widgetsphere. When I heard Lawrence—call him “Lawrence of Widgetabia”—speak at WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon Vegas 2006 last November, I asked him to pen a piece on using widgets to  help  draw traffic for the third part of our ongoing series. (See the first two installments here and here.)

When Michael asked me to write a guest piece on how to help drive traffic with widgets, I got a little nervous. I can talk all day about the causes behind the rise of widgets, about best practices in developing widgets, and about the benefits of having a comprehensive widget strategy.

But I can’t talk about how to drive traffic to your site with widgets. Why? Because as a publisher, it’s out of my control if my widget is going to drive traffic to my site.

So what’s a widget?
When I talk about widgets, I’m talking about chunks of code that can be grabbed on one site, and embedded on another. Depending on who you’re talking to, widgets can also be referred to as modules, blog bling, gadgets or MySpace Codes. Here are some of my favorites:

iLike Music Widget—the iLike widget aggregates your iTunes listening history and allows you to display your recently played songs via the widget. The widget is also a music player that allows readers to play samples of the songs.

Bunchball Widget—Bunchball allows you to embed classic video games like Asteroids or Space Invaders on your blog or personal profile page.

Bitty Browser—Bitty Browser allows you to embed a fully functional, mini-browser into your blog or personal profile page.

MyBlogLog—MyBlogLog is a distributed social networking service that allows blog owners to embed a visual display of thumbnail photos of their blog’s readers. Blog readers can message each other and post public notes for each other via their MyBlogLog profiles
 

Widgets represent the next stage of the Web 2.0 phenomenon of ceding control to your site’s users. If Web 2.0 is about giving the keys to your site to your users, widgets are about providing your site’s content and functionality in a “to go” bag for your users (and your users’ readers) to consume wherever and whenever they want it. (But Larry, dude, widgets can also totally be linkbait—Rand.)

So while there are things you can do to minimize the obstacles in the adoption of your widget and maximize user experience, there are no guarantees that your widget will be published and/or clicked on. That’s up to the distributors (your users), and their readers.

The 25 herbs and spices of wondrous widgeting
But enough with the caveats. Here is my list, in no particular order, of 25 things to consider when developing your widget strategy:

1. One-click installation is best. Make it easy for your users’ readers to grab your widget directly from the widget itself.
2. Choose the content and/or functionality for your widgets carefully. Not all content and/or functionality works in the reduced real estate that a widget provides.
3. Don’t miss the branding opportunity provided by widgets.
4. Don’t overbrand your widget, as it will look like an ad.
5. Give your users widget format customization options.  
6. Don’t miss the backlink opportunity provided by widgets.   
7. Don’t hide your backlinks in formats that are unreadable to bots. 
8. Don’t be afraid to feed different anchor text to different widgets.
9. Will your widget be used in blog sidebars? Make sure it fits.
10. Don’t hide your widgets. Will a first-time visitor to your home page be able to find your widgets?
11. Choose your format carefully, based on the most likely destination for your widget. JavaScript, Flash, static HTML, iFrames, or picture-in-picture are all options.
12. Personalized widgets versus standard content widget: The Allen Iverson widget is standard to all users; the iLike widget is personalized to just me.
13. Implicit vs. Explicit data: If your widget is personalized, is it powered by your users’ explicit actions (reviews, bookmarks, profile, etc.) or implicit behavior (music listening, clickstream, etc.)?
14. Implicitly, automatically generated widgets rule.  Think about what data streams your users are leaving through their regular behavior, and if those data streams have widget potential.  The less your users have to work to create a widget, the more likely that widget will see the light of day.  A great example of this is the Last.FM widget which widgetizes the user’s music listening history
15. Don’t make your users register to grab a widget.
16. Interactive widgets: Is your website a snapshot of your content or an interactive experience?
17. Widget distribution: Musestorm, AOL Aimpages, Widgetbox, Clearspring, Snipperoo, TypePad, etc., can all help you get distribution.
18. Do your users know what a widget is? Photobucket saw a big jump in adoption when they stopped calling their widgets “widgets,” and started calling them “slideshows.”
19. Be aware of the Terms of Service on possible destination sites for your widgets. Being banned by a social media site is not ideal.
20. Widgets should have value for your users, for your users’ readers, and their host sites.
21. Widgets and the network effect: Think MyBlogLog, a great traffic-driver.
22. Widgets and analytics: Check out Musestorm, Clearspring and Widgetbox. 
23. Widgets and monetization: Can your widget help make your users money? Can your widget help make you money? Can your widget help make the widget host site money?  Can your widget help make a third party money (widgets as ads)?
24. RSS and widgets: Remember the formula: RSS feed + RSS Reader Widget = Widget.
25. Web widgets vs. desktop widgets: Does your service have value on the desktop?

More Resources:

• Flying Seeds
• Mashable
• Read/Write Web
• Sexy Widget
• Widget Labs
• Widgetoko
• Widgify
• Yahoo! Gallery

Of course, you don’t need to be a master widget builder to take advantage of widgets and the network effect that they can help produce. Using the resources provided here you should be able to find easy-to-install widgets that your users will enjoy and that can make your site widgetacular.

—Lawrence Coburn, founder of RateItAll.com and author of Sexy Widget