New Squidoo Widget Directory - WidgetSquid.com
The Captain has been hard at work following the announcement about the animoto module last week. After scouring the web for various piratey Squidoo tools that we can all use to make more money and draw more traffic to our lenses I’m proud to announce the launch of a site dedicated to Squidoo Widgets - Widget Squid.
Widget Squid is a directory of widgets that can actually be used on your lenses. In the past, there hasn’t been any way to play flash games on your lens or use eBay to go Widgets customized for your lens. That all changes today.
Adding the widgets to your lens is easy as can be, simply click on the ‘get & share‘ tab below any widget you want to use and select the ‘Squidoo’ button (or any other button if you want to share it on another service). If there are any configuration options, you are walked through them before being able to drop your widget right on to your lens. The whole process takes about 30 seconds from start to finish, maybe less.
Super Sneaky Widgets that will make you more money
If you do nothing else, check out the eBay to Go widget for Squidoo that we’ve put together. You can enter your search terms and EPN campaign ID and BAM, a new module on your lens that looks amazing! You get all of the commissions from the widget and it sets up in about 5 seconds.
Squidoo Widgets Just in Time for Halloween
If you are trying to round out a Halloween themed lens and want to keep your visitors on the page longer, check out the Killer Pumpkin Flash Game Widget. You (the pumpkin) go around and scare as many kids out of their candy as you can before you get ‘carved’. It’s a quick little fun play.
Coming Next at Widget Squid
We are planning to try to launch at least one new widget a day for Squidoo Lensmasters to use on their sites. If you are into RSS, you can subscribe to the Widget Squid RSS feed and get the latest updates to your feed reader.
Thoughts and Comments
I’m really excited about Widget Squid, I think it brings a ton of exciting new possibilities to the creation of Squidoo Lenses. Take a look and let me know what you think or what kind of lenses you would like to see.
This was announced here first so you guys get the first crack at your choice of new widgets to start wowing your visitors! Enjoy!
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Comments
Damon, you can use any EPN campain id you have in your Ebay Partner Network account. When you opt to place the widget on a lens, the widget asks you for a search term and an EPN id. the EPN id ties sales from the widget to your account.
What a great idea, Captain!
If we create smart widgets like yours, are we free to submit them to the directory? Sounds like a lot of fun!
Cheers!
[When you opt to place the widget on a lens, the widget asks you for a search term and an EPN id. the EPN id ties sales from the widget to your account.]
Hey, Captain, this is so great. But mine doesn’t ask for a search term or EPN ID. Could it be the browser?
Because I like the idea of the eBay widget a lot, I signed up for an EPN id this morning - about 7-8 hours ago now. Does anyone know how long it takes eBay to approve an application?
Nancy,
when you click the ‘get and share’ and choose the squidoo icon, what are you seeing? You can also try to click on the asterisk next to the ‘get and share’ words. The asterisk should let you change the settings.
Moby, If i remember correctly it can take up to a few business days. When I first signed up it was really quick though. If you don’t see an e-mail by wednesday or so it might be worth filing a help ticket.
I see what I was doing. I didn’t see the arrow offering you more choices, which is where the Squidoo icon is, way down at the bottom. Thanks, Cap.
Hey Captain. This is pretty cool. It seems as though once you have the widget on a lens it cannot be edited. Say if you want to tweak the search term/keyword a little. I have to delete it and start from scratch to do that. Is that right?
Jim, I believe you have an option to include an email address when creating the widget, this will then allow you to login and edit the widget, though until I do this I’m not sure how this works!
Captain, Awesome widgets!!! Am loving the new ebay togo one! Anyidea if it will be possible to include a custom id to this in future? I’d like to be able to track sales and also if I could use a Custom ID I could then use my squidoo details and share, track and receive earnings via squidoo! I imagine this is likely to depend on ebay polishing up the beta version, so if you are able to give them feedback to be able to include that as well as asking if we can get more search options too.
Thanks again!
Love the widgets, especially new ones because using same-old-same-old stuff Squidoo offers is getting pretty boring… And if you keep adding one new widget per day, I’ll be your fan for the rest of my life… 
Whoa, I’m really new to this lens building stuff and have a very basic question: Once I get the URL creating the ebay widget — what do I do with it?
In other words, which Squidoo module do I use to display it? Does it go in the RSS module? The Links module? Or something else that I’m not understanding.
Thanks!
OOPS! I see now that I just didn’t do the widget creation correctly. Got that done and the widget let me place it on a lens. Confusion is often a state of mind with me. LOL!
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This is so cool!
I have 2 questions:
Where do I find the EPN campaign ID? How does Ebay know the referral was from my lens so I earn commissions?