Comments on: Bloggers: Watch your Widgets (and their links)

By: BloodhoundBlog.com | Seven Deadly SEO Sins for real estate pros…Vanity | National real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgage and investment news

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:49:12 +0000

[...] this isn’t the first time I have warned people about widgets and badges either. Why do these guys still do [...]

By: Eric Blackwell

Eric Blackwell — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:04:35 +0000

Hi Mary;

Not much in the way of widgets (or anything else) is free…only a matter of who pays. If someone authors a widget, it is their right to set the conditions of use.
Part of the “drag” of having a mortgage rate widget is that they are going to try and use it to generate business…

A couple of ways around it…you could find someone and code it into your site (not that hard) or find a mortgage pro that you like and use their widget. I like the coding option better, myself…

Best

Eric

By: Mary Pope-Handy

Mary Pope-Handy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:51:54 +0000

Found this post while attempting to locate a mortgage rate widget that would not siphon traffic from my site. Not finding one! I’d like to provide that information to my readers, but not send them off to some lender I don’t necessarily know, like and trust.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:19:57 +0000

It can really make your site look messy as well.

By: Sharon Simms

Sharon Simms — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:07:16 +0000

In many cases the widget actually takes the consumer to another site – i.e. a mortgage site, or a currency site.

Further, adding widgets often slows down the loading of your page.

By: Toby Barnett

Toby Barnett — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:39:01 +0000

I personally just “say no” to widgets as the amount of clutter increases as new widgets are added to a site. It also raises a point of distraction from the true purpose of a site/blog…to draw in business from consumers. Widgets seem to focus more on a industry/segment as a way for them to communicate or stay in touch but in my opinion they are not that good for B2C relationships.

By: Mary Alexander

Mary Alexander — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:56:31 +0000

This is very disappointing information. It’s sad that people that don’t have a lot of web knowledge can be duped big time.

By: Number1Expert/Trulia Widget Link Count Correction | BloodhoundBlog: Real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgages, lending, investments

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:41:58 +0000

[...] Bloggers: Watch your Widgets (and their links) – Eric Blackwell, EricOnSearch.com [...]

By: Malok

Malok — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:17:22 +0000

Great advice, Eric.

Its like a drug dealer – they give you a “free” sample, but ultimately the cost to you long term is very expensive.

The “free” widgets come with a high price tag:
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