Herb.

I don't really like widgets – I presonally don't use them on my site, unless it is something I had to post. But, most publishers I know don't have widgets on there site. If you do see them they are on blogs – but I can't say I have actually clicked any. Also lots of publishers don't have a place on their site for it, unless its in a post. I can't and wont place a widget on my site the need is not there and my design of my site don't allow for it.

The only widget I have put on my site was a CNN Electorial WIdget for he election last year and that was a post on our daily news blog and I knew my audience wanted it. And if you notice, one these publishers grow and get a professional designed site – the widgets get dropped.

Since we are talking about it – I would love to know how our demo uses widgets, as well as a report from bloggers that have widgets – meaning do the ones they use or are placed on other sites really bring in traffic. Any research on this?

As for your platform using them [widgets] – I have never seen a widget for a video site so I don't know how they would work (meaning a video based site – with a widget with links to drive traffic back.

The one thing that comes to my mind is why would I place a widget on my site to drive traffic to another site – for me it has to be two reasons – it's a online friend that I want to support and help or I LOVE the sites content and want to share it with everyone, but even then I wouldn't put a widget I would just present it to our readers.

In my opinion a widget does not bring any value to my readers. Also for me – if I don't like the content – then I am not going to put it in front of my audience – it's like I would be cosigning or supporting a product I am not in love it or back.

Articles on Widgets:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/...
http://chiefmarketer.com/Channels/online/web_wi...

My advice is get the design and content together, as well as get your traffic to a point where you have a big following then introduce the widget – cause they seem to only work for sites with a big following and the big sites are not using them to drive traffic – they are creating them as add-ons for their advertisers to help them (the ad client) to get visibility for a campaign or application – but if you are using this for brand visibility and traffic – I honestly don't see this strategy working.

Also, I hope you are not thinking of this widget as a affliate or ad network – meaning if a publisher puts in on their site you pay them or something. Cause that sounds kinda different and different in a bad way. Your target “Premium Publishers” will see this coming a mile away and it won't get any traction. In this day and age when publishers get approached by companies trying to do this daily – you won't get your foot in the door before you hear “no thanks”.

Traffic and visiibilty can't be bought —well it can for a little while — but if the product is not where it needs to be when they show up you risk the chance of them never coming back or giving your brand the time of day again.

I'm no expert though…really…

In terms of widgets, yes, you got it right on the money. Basically, publishers tailor the widget to their sites-picking the news, movie, or other video content from Africast that is relevant to the themselves-the publishers. It is essentially a premium white label content add on for the publisher and for Africast it is distribution. There is more to it and I must say also, that this is something that I am personally involved in. As a matter of fact, if you don't mind discussing it further-I think its a topic that we'd like to revisit with you within the near future.

Please let me know. Thanks.

When you say “widgets” do you mean that the video is embeddable on other sites? Or are you saying that a viral widget showing the content from the site that lives on other sites to direct traffic?

Stanley is just trying to get any content in there – yeah it's cool content – but not what I would be checking for. Same for Africast – cool – but nothing something I would go crazy over. The outlet needs to be something that will cause a crazy following and in my eyes bringing new and old successful shows will get things rolling quickly and create quite the following.

No problem. I appreciate the response. And can see where you are coming from with the programming piece-especially for African Americans. But the way that these types of platforms get traffic is primarily through the widget distribution. So the traffic levels for such services will depend upon which sites the widgets are on. If premium publishers buy into the idea, then viral growth would likely follow. there is another company that is doing something similar called broken curve. Similar to Africast their concept was originally aimed at one of the Diaspora groups-Jamaicans, but is attempting to harness the spill over effect to target African Americans.