It seems like every month a new ad unit appears and webmasters go mad for it. It appears on every website and every is proclaiming it’s the next big thing because they are earning affiliate credits if you sign up.
After a while the posts and threads start appearing talking about the service’s poor performance, reporting not working, poor conversion and the lack of information and updates from the creators of the widget. Sounds familiar.
How quickly we forget
There has been a few high profile widgets recently such as Auctionads, Widgetbucks and Blogrush. Webmasters reported that the Auctionads widgets were slow loading then the conversions went down dramatically. WidgetBucks is very new but recent posts suggest conversions are very low. WidgetBucks which I am still testing has been on temporary reporting for several weeks and no news.
Now I am not out to bash these widgets I just want to make a few points. The widget creators and webmasters are to blame. Widgets are released too early without proper testing and feedback and openness seems to be non-existent.
Webmasters want an easy fix
Webmasters expect to be able to install a widget and get traffic or commissions without any testing or work themselves. All websites are different so the same widget is not going to work on every site. You can’t expect to be able to sell many ebay items on a site for webmasters, the same is true for selling home and garden goods.
Think and test
The next time a new widget appears remember what happened with the last one you installed. Before you are sold on a new widget think about whether it would be something that you would click on if you were a visitor to the site you want to put it on.
If you do decide to go ahead with the widget then have a test plan and goals in mind. If the widget doesn’t work for you then remove it and move on.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
