eday 2007: Lawrence Coburn Widgets

Widget Strategy and Execution Lawrence Coburn Founder, RateItAll Author, Sexy Widget

Agenda
Widgets: A Brief Timeline
The Business Case for Widgets
Distributed Business Strategy: The Four Pillars
Widget Market Sizing
Building Widgets: 5 Principles
Widget Distribution
Widget Monetization
Widgets and SEO
Tools and Resources

Widget Timeline 12/05 NBA Launches Widgets First widget appears on MySpace MyBlogLog Hits 1M Widget Impressions 11/05 12/06 YouTube Launches Widget 10/06 4/07 5/07 MySpace Blocks Photobucket Facebook Platform Launches 6/07 Comscore Begins Tracking Widgets Clearspring Serves 3Bth Widget 1/07 MyBlogLog Acquired Google Gadgets Launches 2007 Named Year of the Widget 9/06 Sexy Widget Launches YouTube Acquired Photobucket Acquired 6/06 Widgetbox Funded 7/07 Bay Facebook App Fund Social Media .com Launches Google Gadgets Ventures

A Business Case for Widgets Conclusion: You Need to Deliver Your Web Service to Consumers where THEY are

Why Widgets?
Proven method for getting your web service to go viral
It’s another distribution channel
Gives your users the tools to promote your business
Increasingly difficult to build critical mass for a destination site
Organic back links
If you have a Web site, you should have a widget strategy

The Four Pillars of a Distributed Web Strategy
Widgets
Examples: Photobucket, MyBlogLog
Toolbars / Extensions
Examples: Google, StumbleUpon, Adaptive Blue
Facebook Apps
Examples: iLike, RockYou, HotOrNot
API
Examples: Yahoo! Maps

Widget Market Sizing
15M Active Blogs (Technorati)
30M+ Active Facebook Profiles
75% have added at least one App
70M+ MySpace Profiles
239M Widgets Used in August (San Francisco Chronicle / Comscore)

Building Widgets: Things to Consider
Content / Experience
How compelling is your widget? What’s in it for the publisher?
Customization
One style will not fit all when it comes to profiles and blogs
Branding
What if YouTube hadn’t branded their video player?
Accessibility
Targeting a blog’s sidebar? Make sure it works in a blog sidebar.
Sharing
Remove all obstacles to a widget’s propagation

Widget Distribution
“In the Wild” / Widget to Widget
Don’t Put Obstacles
Grab embed code from widget
One click add (Check out Clearspring, Widgetbox, Gigya!!)
Early adopter blogs critical
Destination Site
Widget Galleries
Widgetbox
Widgipedia
Snipperoo
Cross promotion (RockYou, Social Media)
Your Own Blog
Brute Force
BizDev

Widget Monetization – Hub & Spoke
Hub & Spoke Model
Widget Hosts Get:
Functionality
Content
Traffic
Widget Publisher Gets:
Leads
Content
Organic, Inbound Links
Monetization happens at home base via existing ads / affiliates / subscriptions / etc.

Widget Monetization – Affiliates / Ads / Sponsorships
Widget footprint is leveraged to serve ads / affiliate links.
Challenges:
MySpace doesn’t allow ads
Google AdSense doesn’t allow you
to insert add code in widgets
Widget real estate is precious
Low click through

Widgets and SEO
Widgets provide an unmatched opportunity to generate large numbers of organic, targeted, one way, inbound links
Link must be crawlable HTML
Experiment with your anchor text
Don’t forget about deep links

Resources
Blogs
SexyWidget.com
Widgify.com
Blog.snipperoo.com
Stickiwidgets.com
Widgetslab.com
Service Providers
Gigya (distribution)
Clearspring (distribution, analytics)
Widgetbox (distribution, analytics)
Snipperoo (distribution, monetization)
Musestorm (distribution, analytics)
Social Media (distribution, monetization)

Lawrence Coburn Founder, RateItAll Author, SexyWidget.com [email_address] rateitall.com/widgets

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eday 2007: Lawrence Coburn Widgets

by Emerce on Sep 18, 2007

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eday 2007: Lawrence Coburn Widgets — Presentation Transcript