Creative Compulsion

Everyone that knows me knows that I just have to try out anything new that comes along. The eBay To Go Widget is no different

It’s a pretty nifty tool. Unless you put your user ID or some identifying word in your titles, only the single or multiple item showcases are going to be useful for showing off your items. The search option (which I think looks the coolest) pulls auctions from various sellers based on keywords or a key phrase. Not exactly what you want if you’re trying to draw people to your own auctions. That said, the widget is still very useful and has the potential for being a great marketing tool on blogs, social networking sites or anywhere else you can think to plug it in. Here’s mine:

I found this really cool site today courtesy of Blogs By Women (and thanks Nicole, for pointing me there!).

This site does exactly what the name says - it makes chicklets! You know, those cool little rectangular graphics you see on lots of blogs. The Chicklet Maker lets you choose background colors, font colors and family and even offers three sizes: Standard (80 x 15), Yahoo Size (91 x 17) and Google Size (104 x 17). Very cool and useful tool!

Visit the Chicklet Maker

It’s not a widget, it’s not wikipedia, it’s Widgipedia! The new site by Vendio is a place where developers can upload and share widgets and webmasters and users can try out the latest.

From ecommwire.com this morning…

“Vendio™ Services, Inc. today announced the official launch of Widgipedia.com, a new website devoted to accelerating the development and distribution of Web and desktop “widgets” across a growing number of widget development platforms.

Widgets have exploded over the last several years as the Web 2.0 ecosystem has enabled developers to use open interfaces to extend website functionality to the desktop and to embed features of one website into another. A YouTube™ video seen on a site other than YouTube.com is a widget. Widgets also enable you to get the local weather forecast on your computer without going to a web page.”

Read full story here

Ever since I installed the Filmloop script on this site, I’ve been fascinated by all the different widgets you can install on your site. Realizing I really could get carried away I’ve had to restrain myself, but there are tons of useful applications out there that will make your life as a webmaster easier and your visitor’s life as a browser more interesting. A quick browse through the new Widgipedia site revealed games and fun utilities as well as helpful widgets such as an order form creator and question and answer form. Very useful stuff here!

As an example, here’s a widget that is useful for eBay bargain hunters, Misspellr. This utility will help you cash in on the spelling mistakes of others. Find auctions that you otherwise may have missed due to errors! It also works on Craigslist, ebid.net and Yahoo! Auctions. Click on the screenshot for more information and to download:

This is really cool! Filmloop allows you to create slideshows/loops of pictures. The nice thing about it for eBay sellers is that you can go in and “grab” your gallery pictures and the Filmloop Studio will let you create a loop that displays clickable pics to your auctions (see mine on the left). You can adjust how the loop is displayed including colors, sizing, etc. Very cool - FREE - marketing tool!

Just came across a post on the PS boards - Firefox has a new addon for eBay!!

Most people are getting really sick of the shipping gouging going on over at the Bay. It might look like a good deal for $0.99 but with $20.00 shipping is it really the best price?

For me when I’m shopping, I want the bottom line. Who REALLY has the lowest price? This nifty lil tool for Firefox figures it out for you by inserting 2 additional columns when you search eBay: Total price (for auction) and Total BIN price. You can sort low to high in either column. What a time saver!!

Get the ShortShip eBay addon here!