Showcase your recent creative additions on your blog/site with Wowzio FREE widgets.
Discover 10 reasons why you should try Wowzio widgets on your site.
**UPDATE**
Read Wowzio Widgets Help You Monitor Your Favourite Blogs to find out how to use Wowzio Widgets as a reader, get popular post RSS feeds of your favourite sites and do a bit of competitor analysis while you’re there.
- Read how you can get your own widgets in 5 easy steps.
- Check out our examples and see how we are using them on our sites.
1. Wowzio is a FREE Widget
It is FREE, therefore there is no risk. If you don’t like it, you just remove it instantly. It works on any blog/site that is javascript enabled.
- If you use the WordPress installation with your own domain name – it will work.
- If you are using Thesis Theme then it is perfect.
2. It Won’t Slow Down Your Blog/Site
The team at Wowzio say the application will not slow down the page loading time of a blog…
Our widgets are hosted on quad-core 64-bit super-fast machines, with RAID 10 disk storage and a Gigabit network backbone. We are absolutely obsessed with widget performance and uptime. We monitor our systems closely and try our best to respond promptly to support issues. If something goes wrong, we will fix it fast, tell you what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. What’s more, our widgets are developed to play nicely with all major web browsers, and environments.
3. You Don’t Need To Know How To Code
- The theme, color, size and interactions can be configured, using Wowzio’s WYSIWYG designer.
- You can change the look and feel as often as you like.
- The “Grab this widget” link at bottom of each widget, takes you to the widget’s Designer page.
- The “Auto-Fit” feature automatically sizes the widget to the size of its container. For example, if you paste the code into your sidebar or your post box, it will automatically resize to the container. If you want to set the height and width of the widget you can do that too.
4. Make A Wowzio Widget For A Single Site OR Multiple Sites
You can enter up to 15 feeds. Simply click on the “Add Another feed” and it will open up a new text field where you can input an additional feed-url, in the Wowzio Builder.
5. Wowzio Updates Your Site With Dynamic Content Every Hour
Wowzio picks up new blog posts along with associated images and tags every hour.
This is great for a static home page or simply adding a beautiful image/graphical interface showcasing your recent creative additions.
6. There Are 5 Widget Types To Choose From
Add one or add many Wowzio widgets to your site. Mix and match the different kinds of Wowzio widgets for different sites and locations.
Choose from 5 different types of Wowzio widgets:
1. Photo Gallery
2. Slideshow Widgets
These widgets provide an elegant and simple way for users of your blog/site to discover the awesome content created by you. Each photo links back to it’s corresponding blog post.
3. Activity Widget
This widget provides you and your users with a “live” feed of the visits to your blog or site. Everytime a page that the widget is on loads, the user’s location is located and the page they are coming from is displayed. This information is fed in real-time to every other widget open at that time, to give your visitors a rare insight into the vitality of your blog or site! [You do have to instal the widget on every page you want monitored however.]
4. Tagcloud Widget
The tagcloud widget helps bubble up the rich content that is deeply embedded in blog posts. When a user clicks on a tag, we display the matching blog posts inside the tagcloud widget frame, thus keeping the user on the same page.
5. Content Widget
The content widget is a syndication and content distribution mechanism. You can aggregate feeds from multiple sources ( up to 15 ) into one widget. You can use it for cross-promotion of content, or syndication via 3rd party channels.
7. There Are Only 5 Simple Steps To Get Your Own Wowzio Widget
Step 1
Go to Wowzio and click on Build Widgets or go directly to the Wowzio Widget Builder page.
- Select a category for your blog. If you don’t like anything on offer, go with “Other”.
- Enter the feed or blog url – it doesn’t have to be your site!
- If you want a combo widget, add more urls (up to 15)
- Click on “Continue”
Step 2
You will see the recent posts for the feed/url you entered.
- Check these out. Are they what you expected to see?
- If so, click “Looks great, create my widgets!”
Step 3
You now get to choose what kind of widget you would like to use. When you click on the “Customize This” button below each option, it will take you to the code page where you will copy the code for your site.
- Test the widgets while you are here by clicking on buttoms, arrows and tag words.
Note: The Live Activity that is displayed is a simulation only. People may not actually be surfing your site from Rio De Janero, etc.
Example: ProBlogger Blog feed widgets (24 Nov 08)
Step 4
Wowzio will ask you for your contact details so they can keep you up to date with any changes. You do not have to provide any information here if you do not want to.
Note:
If the feed/url you entered is not your site, make sure the “This is my blog site” box is not checked.
You can click on “Skip this Step” to go straight to the code or you can “Submit & Continue to Designer” if you have provided your details.
Step 5
This is the fun part. You can customize the appearance of your widget or select from several beautiful ready-to-go formats.
- Remember to change the title to something meaningful, e.g. your site name.
- Once you are happy with the appearance you simply copy the code and paste it where you want. For example, you may want to put your widget in your sidebar or place it directly into a post.
- If you discover you are using a widget type that doesn’t let you put a title on it and you do want a title, simply click on the “See all widgets for this blog” hyperlink at the top right of the widget and it will take you back to step 3.
8. Examples of Wowzio Widgets in Action
We have placed a couple of Slideshow widgets and a couple of Content widgets at the end of this article to show how nicely the “auto-fit” features works within a post. We also placed a slideshow widget in the sidebar of Timberwolf HQ.
9. Engage Your Audience
Wowzio widgets are an automatic and attractive way to get your readers to read more posts per visit.
Bloggers have told us that page views on their blog have gone up as much as 30% after installing our widgets. Additionally, since all the widgets link back to your own site, it’s a no-brainer to take advantage of them!
10. Grow Your Readership
Wowzio says it best:
Today’s internet is about sharing, distribution, and viral channels of growth. Wowzio widgets make it simple for you to channel traffic from other sites by empowering your users to distribute your content for you via the easy “Grab This Widget” links.
Share Your Thoughts
- Have you tried Wowzio widgets?
- Do you have some great ideas on how to use Wowzio widgets?
Add a Comment
Wow, very informative post, I really enjoyed reading it. I have never heard about Wowzio widgets, but now I want to try it. Thanks for recommending.
welcome to my blog
wowzio is not giving any widgets to new blogs. how to install it in a new blog??
pls mail me at peace.ind2007@gmail.com
Wow!!! interesting… what a nice and wonderful site it is!!!!
It really great ! Thanks !
But why you don’t creat a widget as : Random post widget.
I think, it will very useful
Great idea. I’ll definitely look into that. I also enjoy a random click on sites to see what I discover. I love StumbleUpon for that reason as well.
hi
when i click the link in step 1 it takes me to a page which says
Our systems upgrade is now complete. But instead of opening up our platform to everyone, we have instead decided to keep it on a invite basis. If you would like to install Wowzio widgets on your blog/site, simply write to us at invite [@] wowzio [dot] com, with a pointer to your blog/site. We will hand out 25 invites every 24 hours by email. The reason we are doing this is that we want to make sure that our added capacity is being used in a good way.
One more thing, to generate a revenue stream, we are considering 2 options :
1. ad-supported widgets – with a revenue share with bloggers
2. pro widgets that have a monthly subscription charge (starting at $1/month), and which are ad-free
In your email, please tell us which option you would prefer ? Feel free to be verbose and add your thoughts. Thank you.
– Wowzio Team
i have sent a mail long back but no response from them.
WHAT TO DO NOW ??
Their widgets count is increasing in hundreds of thousands. how is it possible when they are not giving any new widgets.
I just sent an email to Wowzio myself to see what I can find out. I’ll keep you posted.
**Jun 09 update** Wowzio are still running a lottery draw for membership. For those of us who got in early enough we were fortunate. For those of you who are still interested in Wowzio I can only suggest that you send regular emails. You may be able to schedule your email to send them a single email each day for a while until you get one.
Wowzio still have restrictions on membership: If you would like to install Wowzio widgets on your blog/site, simply write to us at invite [@] wowzio [dot] com, with a pointer to your blog/site. We will hand out 25 invites every 24 hours by email. The reason we are doing this is that we want to make sure that our widgets serving capacity is being used in a good way.
[rq=49381,0,blog][/rq]A “What the…” moment.
i sent so many emails.but can not use this widget. pls help and reply to my email asap.thanks
I sent you an email, unfortunately it is still very difficult to get hold of a widget – just keep trying. Maybe schedule a daily email to them.
[rq=103800,0,blog][/rq]Tutorial: Customizing Thesis – Standard to Unique in 5 Easy Steps
very informative post, I liked to read. I have never heard of Wowzio widgets, but now I want to try. Thanks for recommending. Music Downloads Legally
Imdb´s last blog ..Up
This is great for a static home page or simply adding a beautiful image/graphical interface showcasing your recent creative additions.
Wow, very informative post, I really enjoyed reading it. I have never heard about Wowzio widgets, but now I want to try it. Thanks for recommending.Movie Download linksfilm database
Imdb´s last blog ..Up
Very useful article, gives more information, ideas on possibilities of widgets.
Hi! Nice post…
visit also Unpaid Review
It took me a bit more then “5 easy steps” but it was pretty easy. :) Thanks for the clear directions, now we will see what all this can do!
Well free is always good! I love the auto fit feaure. So many times I use widgets that don’t seem to fit with my heavily customized themes that well.
They did not give invite… Urody(((
I think this is a great idea
I just got my thesis theme Real Estate blog set up a few days ago. This sounds like an excellent widget. Thanks for the tutorial.
Ashland MA Real Estate´s last blog ..Massachusetts Oil Heating and Insurance Law Changes
Great start over there Bill – a nice add on to your main website.
i really enjoyed reading it. I have never heard about Wowzio widgets, but now I want to try it.
This is very information and detailed information about Wowzio that Why it needed in your blog/sites and all. I have only heard about Wowzio is needed for attracting audience for reading our post.
Such a fun widget! Thank you for the very detailed tutorial, I will be installing this today. :)
Lisa Udy´s last blog ..Short Sale Process: Writing The Offer – Short Sale Approval Time Frame – Withdrawing Your Offer
Do you still need an invite to get this widget?
Julie´s last blog ..Blogs on Todaycom have Moved to Blogdogcom
You can only try. I think I heard they have eased up on their restrictions a little.
May I suggest that you consider using the background image I tweaked for you at this link – newclouds – (on my own server for now) and add a background color of #71859D instead of the background color of #ffffff (white) that you have now in your custom.css code – around line 56 of your code. This will give your background a nice blue colour instead of the harsh cut off to white.
The before and after will look like this (according to Firebug – one of the greatest Firefox addons for site owners)…
In other words where your code appears that reads…url(“http://inspiredtowrite.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/bg.jpg”) repeat-x scroll 0 0 #ffffff …change the color to #71859D and upload the new bg image to the same location and change the name here e.g. bg2.jpg. Apologies if this is basic for you or if you didn’t get around to it yet. I thought I would just try and offer my assistance. I love the look of your site so far – looking forward to watching it develop.
You can do this for any image you use that doesn’t repeat or that doesn’t quite fit a standard screen (whatever size that is these days).
Wow – thanks!!! ! How did you know the code on my site? I actually had someone help me with the background… I like your idea though. I can’t see that white on my screen, so I did not know it was there… I actually would love if the sky color itself was more of a blue to match the rest of the blog! I keep hearing about this Firebug, I will have to check it out…. I think I made the right changes – does it have the blue now??
Julie´s last blog ..Blogs on Todaycom have Moved to Blogdogcom
Perfect. It looks a lot better. Whenever you get the chance to check out your site on a different computer – do it. Go to the electrical store where they sell computers and they have the internet on and type in your url. Especially on those monster screens, laptops and mobile browsers like an iPad. Also, check its appearance in different browsers – especially safari, firefox, internet explorer.
Have fun learning how to tweak little things on your site here and there.
Few need to fix it! There is a conflict with the plugin wordpress backup. The next step is the theme of me an error.
Now what is Wowzio widget!
i have requested the wowzio widget for my blog (www.telecomandit.com). lets see how it will look after the deployment
Amazing ! wowzio widget is looking amazing one. I will try this widget for my blog (http://moviesbuzz4you.blogspot.com/ ) . Lets see how much it will increase the visits on my blog.