Creating Custom TypePad Widgets

I've been trying out WidgetBox.com over the past day or so in an effort to help out one of our clients, WhiteTrashMom.com.  She has her "White Trash Mom Handbook" coming out this summer, so we thought we'd write a little widget for her readers to install in their blogs in order to promote it. WidgetBox is pretty neat.  You can do a lot with it out of the box using the standard widget code.  But one of things that is really neat is that you can write your own JavaScript to do things like AJAX-ify the widget. The widget I created goes out to the WhiteTrashMom Twitter feed, grabs the most recent Tweet, and populates it into the widget.  Basically, when it's all done, we'll have a "Whte Trash Mom Thought of the Day" widget. Another cool thing you can do with these widgets is add parameters to the widget setup.  For instance, I created an Amazon ID parameter.  When you go get the widget for install, it will provide you with a text box prompting for your ID.  The ID gets appended on to the Amazon.com link to the book. Pretty darn cool...

Comments

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[Posted: Feb 20, 2009 2:50:49 PM]

Yeah but there is no way to remove that tacky Get Widget link on the bottom, even after you pay. The CEO himself refunded my money when I brought this up.

They claim "no advertising" when you become a paid subscriber, but it's a filthy lie because that Get Widget BS links right back to their site, not yours. They call this "viral marketing", and it is. Widgetbox is a virus, and they're marketing at the expense of your apparent professionalism.

Long story short, Widgetbox is a terrible service. If you do pay, don't ever count on getting your money back under any circumstance. I am lucky I did.