Lisa Barone is our blogger extraordinaire at We Build Pages.

She is also ga ga crazy in love with knee socks, in fact if you follow her on twitter, you will see that every day before she goes to work she posts a new photo of that days knee socks. How many knee socks does she own? Don’t ask. She is really into them and we love her anyway. The point however is that she loves knee socks and when she was deciding on what her first affiliate site would be, the answer wasn’t too tough.

I helped her out on this site, and we started brainstorming. We started buying knee socks. Hundreds of dollars worths of knee socks. Why did we buy them?

The answer to that is in essence what this whole blog post is about.

How To Make an Affiliate Marketing Site That Doesn’t Suck

1) Create a site on a subject you love and enjoy.

Lisa chose knee socks. Thumbs up.

If you do not love or are not pleasured by what you are doing, you likely won’t take the extra steps that are required to make a real go at it. You also are not likely to know your subject very well.

2) Do something useful.

One of the most common opportunities in affiliate marketing is niche sites. Have you ever wondered why that is true? Some answers may seem obvious, but I want to discuss what affiliate websites do that is actually useful. They often create useful resources in fragmented industries.

Knee socks are a great example of this. As we did our research I realized (Lisa already knew) how hard it is to actually look for knee socks. You might find one here, two over there, or one or two great sites, but there was not one place where you could find, for example a selection of socks of a certain color or pattern. For example if you search for “black knee socks” or “striped knee socks” you will find typically results that offer one sock at a time, not a selection. The search term is pretty self explanatory. A user searching for “striped knee socks” probably would like to see a selection of knee socks that are striped. As such we made a striped knee socks page. Our page actually shows a selection of knee socks with stripes from various manufacturers and stores.

My point is this. If you have a hard time finding something online, then that means there is an opportunity. If you know you can create a better resource then what exists then you are golden.

3) Identify problems with the current resources in your field and solve them

We noticed that many of the knee socks were displayed in their packaging or just laid on on the floor flat. Lisa mentioned she liked to see knee socks on actual people, and it helped her make a decision on what those knee socks might really look like.

This is why we bought all those socks.

Lisa put on like twenty million outfits, and we started taking photos of her in the knee socks. Providing different angles and showing them on a real person is very useful to someone wondering which knee socks would be best for them.

We also noticed that the socks were often described minimally, I don’t know about you but does a description like this seem helpful or useful? (the answer is no)…

Cushioned bottom. 75% acrylic. 25% span

dex. Wash cold. Dry low. Imported.

We decided that we could really do well to describe the socks individually, and with real language. So that is what she started to do.

Each pair of socks will have their own page filled with photos and text that are useful. We will eventually have all custom photos too. This is a nice addition to world of knee sock shopping!

4) Interact with others who love that subject too

Lisa invited her friends that she knew liked knee socks and invited them to help her. Lisa would give free knee socks to people in exchange for photos and descriptions. She got a great response from people in our industry (to see a list of who is helping out go to her blog post introducing the site to the world). We hope to have many people involved, but if you are interested just ask Lisa

Once we have great descriptions and photos we will look to other ways to interact with the community of people who love knee socks by offering ways to interact or post photos, or whatever. (Can’t get into details on that yet)

5) Make a real blog about the subject

Anyone who knows Lisa knows that she is a talented blogger, and in addition to that, she is writing about a subject she loves. A great blog is the quickest and easiest way to interact with a community and/or become a resource for that industry. But it has to be real.

The site is KneeSockz.com and make sure to check out her new knee socks blog.

First Night in Kosovo
“Why is my glass empty?” I asked the table.
Giorgio picked up one of the wine bottles and held it out in front of him as he stood.
“This,” he said in English, “is shit wine.”
Giorgio filled my glass and then his own. Still standing he began dancing in salsa steps with himself, not spilling a drop of his wine. After telling someone to turn up the music, Giorgio held out his chubby hand to one of the women at the table. She took it and they danced off together between tables of amused diners.
Giorgio was old, he was funny, and I was pleased I would be sharing a house with him. After dinner I drove with Giorgio to our house through the dark streets.
“I have decided to learn American slang”, Giorgio declared in Italian, “I will use a word you teach me each day twenty seven times, today I have provided my own word and that word is ‘shit’.”
“Shit,” he continued, “is a wonderful word that is fun to use.”
I laughed and tried to follow the turns Giorgio was making so I would know how to get to our house.
“Our house is shit, it is a shit house.” Giorgio smiled, pleased with himself.
We were pleasantly drunk and despite my efforts I had no idea where we were when Giorgio stopped the car.
Inside, Giorgio lit a gas lantern and we removed our jackets. I followed him down a hall that ended in a kitchen, our shadows from the latern were everywhere. He plopped into a chair, lit a small propane burner, and started coffee.
“Welcome to our shit house.” He laughed.
I could see my breath.
Giorgio looked at me.
“The house is shit.” he said.
We drank coffee and then some brandy while discussing the fast approaching winter. Giorgio knew of at least two projects we would be working together on. The first project would be acquiring and distributing fifteen thousand wood burning stoves. These stoves were the only heating method that people could use this winter, it was unlikely that electricity would be restored before the snows came. The next project, Giorgio told me, would be providing wood for all those stoves.
“Why provide wood?” I asked, “This whole area is a forest.”
“Twelve people have already stepped on land mines while gathering wood, three of them were children.”
We talked for awhile and the ashtray between us became full.
“We go to bed now, no?” Giorgio said, “I will show you to your room, it is shit.”
I followed Giorgio, who again had the lantern, up some stairs. Giorgio opened a door and handed me a candle.
“Buona notte, Americano.”
“Good night Giorgio.”
I went inside the bedroom, it was pleasant with big windows, a large bed, and four quilts folded neatly on the floor.
“Pat!” Giorgio shouted from another room.
“What?”
“Do you know how the local army is clearing land mines?”
“No.”
“Cows,” Giorgio laughed, “They put cows out to graze until BOOM, another land mine is cleared. Stay away from cows Americano. Cows are shit.”
“Good night Giorgio.”
“Buona notte.”

Meeting Giorgia

Giorgio was in the center of the dance floor and had a crowd of people around him, leading them in a salsa lesson.
The locals started their traditional dances where they formed large circles, interlocking their arms. I joined a circle because drinking and spinning looked fun.
As I spun my eyes met with a woman’s. She was walking through the dance floor and looked Italian, thick dark hair and large eyes beneath eyebrows that practically roared at me. The woman looked away and I continued to watch her, turning my head as the circle I was in spun so I could keep her in sight. She had passed me now, her hair was pulled behind her head loosely tied somehow and moving with her gait. I watched it and I liked watching it. She
turned around and looked directly at me and as our eyes met for the second time our two mouths smiled. She turned away and I lost her to the crowd. I continued dancing then jumped into the middle of the circle. The group laughed and cheered their approval as I danced very untraditionally in the center.
I saw Giorgio and left the circle. Giorgio had a bottle of wine and held it out to me. I drank from it and watched the crowd. I glanced around, looking for the woman I had seen, what I saw instead was an elderly woman walking slowly and purposefully towards us.
When the woman saw that she had Giorgio’s attention she tilted her head back and threw her arms into a dramatic pose. After a clap of her hands above her head and a stomp of her feet, she gestured with her finger for Giorgio to come to her while moving her hips to the music. Giorgio made a jokingly shy “who me?” face and an instant later the portly man and the silver haired lady were doing the cha cha cha to a song that had no cha cha cha in it at all.
The song was Italian, it was called “lumbelico del mondo” and declared over a festive drum beat that Italy is the “belly-button of the world”.
I laughed and was pulled by someone into one of the dancing circles.
~
Later that evening Giorgio came up to me and asked me what my plans were. I could see that he was tired.
“We can go if you want.” I said
“I will go soon but if you want to stay…”
A woman interrupted us and began chatting with Giorgio. The party had thinned out and there were only a couple of circles still dancing. I saw that the woman in the center of one was the woman I had met eyes with earlier.
This is good, I thought and joined the circle. The woman was lovely as she danced, her eyes closed and her arms moving above her head. When her eyes opened she looked right at me and her whole face smiled.
“Ciao!” she said to someone who was apparently directly behind me. She left the circle, skipping away from it with excitement. When the turning of the circle allowed, I saw the person she was so delighted to see. It was Giorgio.
This is good, I thought and continued dancing until Giorgio pulled me from the circle.
The woman was no longer there.
“Who was that woman?” I asked
“Her name is Giorgia”, Giorgio answered, “you like?”
“She is incredible”
“I told her that I am just a fat and old man who is tired and that it would be just shit if I had to drag a young, healthy, single guy like you home while the night is still young”
“You didn’t”
“I did, and she is Italian, so of course she offered to make sure you had accommodations” Giorgio winked.
“I can’t believe you”
“I go now, you dance and drink and be merry”
“I will, Giorgio, be safe”
“It is not for me that I worry” another wink and Giorgio left.
I looked at the group of people still dancing, the woman was in the midst of one of the circles again, and I thought once more how good this all was.
~
It was clear that the party was over, no one was dancing, there was no music and the few people who remained were in small groups talking quietly. I was sitting in a worn leather reclining chair.
The woman, who I had still not spoke with, walked up to me.
“Hi, I am Giorgia”, she said, “You are Giorgios friend?”
“Yes” was all I could manage.
“We go?” she asked in Italian.
“We go.” I said and got up from chair. We walked together out of the compound and into the quiet streets.
“Where are we going?” I asked
“To my house, there is a couch there you can sleep on.”
Giorgia stopped walking and looked around with a confused look on her face.
“I am assuming you know where you are,” I joked, “Since I have never been in this city before.”
“I am not sure,” she said, “we will walk around a bit, no?”
“You really are lost?”
“A little,” She put her arm through mine, “we will find our way.”
I looked at her. She was beautiful, Italian and I was walking arm and arm with her at dawn. I didn’t care if we were lost.
We walked into a park and she said that she knew where we were now. As we walked through the park a flock of birds flew startled from a tree above us, the sound of the birds was nice somehow and seemed to continue for a long time. After the birds the park was silent.
We walked a couple more blocks and she found her house. In the kitchen she lit a gas burner for coffee and asked me to light a fire in the stove. I watched her as she got water from the coffee. I was amazed I was there with her.
We sat together on a couch next to the stove and spoke of Bosnia and Croatia, where she had lived before and of her project here. She worked with children at a school in a village outside of Peja. She had been in the former Yugoslavia for years and she was working as a volunteer. I liked her nose and told her so.
“We go to bed?” she asked later and I followed her to her bedroom, glad that “my couch” wasn’t the one in the kitchen. Giorgia laid a sheet on a couch in her room and pointed at some quilts, then left the room to change. When she returned to the room I was already under the quilts on the couch. She got into her bed and a few moments went by in silence.
“Pat?” she asked quietly.
“Yes?”
“If you are cold you can join me”
I was cold.

Google Gadget Promotion 101

Let’s get right to a couple of obvious things first so that we don’t waste any time…

Usefulness:

If your Google gadget is not useful to anyone, it will not do well no matter how well you promote it. It is better to begin again with a new useful gadget than to promote one that is not useful to anyone. What makes a Google gadget useful? It must somehow pleasure someone. It must make them laugh, make their day easier, provide information that is not available elsewhere, entertain them, or be fun to interact with. Ask anyone other than you to try it and tell you what they think. A useful gadget is amazingly easy to promote. The first step in Google gadget promotion is to determine honestly if your gadget is worth promoting.

Is it useful?

If yes start promoting.

If not, start over, make a new gadget. Promoting your gadget won’t help.

Know your audience:

The audience of a Google gadget is in large part iGoogle users. iGoogle is a personalized homepage. This means that only the owner of that page can see your gadget. I want to say that again. Only the owner of the iGoogle page can see that iGoogle page. It is not a public profile that others can see. Think about that when designing and creating your gadget. A great example of this would be the use of viral installers (those little buttons under gadgets that say “get this widget”).

If there is only one person at a time seeing your gadget, then there is no reason to have a “get this widget” button because they already have it.

These buttons or viral installers are not appropriate for Google gadgets the vast majority of time. It is not useful and it takes up space. Space is what you have the least of in your widget so use it wisely to be useful and pleasant to the users of the widget.

Does your Google gadget have a viral installer?

If yes, get rid of it and make a iGoogle gadget specific version of your widget that does not include the “get this widget” button.

If no, continue.

Simplicity:

The Google gadgets that are the most popular are also the Google gadgets that are the most simple. Bells and whistles are not often appropriate for a Google gadget. They can have bells and whistles by visiting your site if they want. Gadget users want the basic  functionality of your website on their homepage, they do not want your website on their homepage. A simple search box is virtually always more universally used than a fancier type of gadget. There are millions of users of the Wikipedia search gadget. This gadget is just a searchbox that redirects to Wikipedia… Notice the lack of any dancing elves or branding overkill? You should also notice that it is small and simple. The overall reason this widget is used by millions is that is provides a simple and useful interface to information that is used by alot of people. It doesn’t need flashy design elements. It does it’s job. It is useful.

Okay, let’s get to the promotion guide…

Google Gadget Promotion

The most important part of gadget promotion is usefulness and functionality, but what is the next important thing?

Representation in the Google gadget directory:

The way that most users find gadgets is the Google gadget directory. The single largest mistake that I have seen people make is to not submit their gadget to the directory. If you are not in the Google gadget directory, users will not find you there. To be more clear, if you are not in the Google gadget directory then your gadget is not represented in the single most used place that users find gadgets. There is a hundred million or so users using the Google gadget directory. I can name dozens of Fortune 1000 companies who do not understand this. If somebody goes to the Google gadget directory and searches for your exact brand name they will not find you unless you have submitted your gadget to the directory. The reason so many people (and particularly large brands) are not represented in the Google gadget directory is because they trust their widget spread to media companies who use viral installers.

It is important to know that just because a user has the capacity to install your gadget on iGoogle does not mean that your gadget is represented in the Google gadget directory.

Search for your gadget or your brand name in the Google gadget directory

If it is there continue.

If it is not there, submit it to the directory

Presentation:

How your gadget or widget is presented to people is the number one factor in if they will even try it out. Let’s look in detail at what presentation options we have on the Google gadget platform.

Description: What you say about your gadget in your description is very important and should be concise and describe the gadget and it’s usefulness quickly and simply. But people won’t even read or bother to see your description unless they like the…

Thumbnail: Each Google gadget has a thumbnail. This is a small image that represents your gadget. This is one of the most important pieces of promotion you have. It has to get a point across and it has to stand out from the other thumbnails users are presented with. The first step to having an effective thumbnail is to actually have a thumbnail. Tens of thousands of gadget do not even have a thumbnail image! When a gadget does not have a thumbnail then Google displays a default thumbnail (image on left). If your gadget is based on a feed then it also shows a default image (shown on right). If there is no distinction between you and other gadgets, there is a less likelihood that a user will even click to your gadget description page. To illustrate this point, let’s search for “SEO” in the Google gadget directory… Of the first 5 results, only one has a thumbnail. See how the others just sort of blend together and seem sorta “blah”? When someone searches for anything in the Google gadget directory the only visual indication they will get of your gadget is the thumbnail.

They have to click again before they see the other visual indication of your gadget (the screen shot which will will speak of in a moment). This means that the first visual indication of your gadget a user receives is the thumbnail image. The thumbnail is important.

To have a thumbnail in your gadget requires only one line of code… thumbnail=”urlofyourimage”

The specs of what a thumbnail should be are provided by Google as…

Thumbnails are used in the content directory to give users a preview of a gadget. They should capture the main functionality of your gadget without showing it in its entirety. The value for this attribute is a string that gives the URL for a gadget thumbnail. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Thumbnails should be 120×60 pixels. They should not include title bars.

Does your gadget have a thumbnail?

If yes continue

If no, add a thumbnail. The directions of how to do so are provided by Google here.If that page seems confusing, you may want to start with my Google gadget tutorial.

Screen Shot: The screen shot of a Google gadget is displayed to a potential user when they are asked if they want to install a gadget and it is also displayed in the Google gadget directory description page for that gadget. The screenshot should show visually what the gadget will look like on the users homepage. Here is what Google says about the screenshot in their documentation….

This is a string that gives the URL for a gadget screenshot. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Gadget screenshots should be 280 pixels wide. The height of the screenshot should be the “natural” height of the gadget when it’s in use. This helps users understand how much space a gadget will consume on their screen before they add it to their page. The screenshot should not have any whitespace above the gadget’s blue header bar. Screenshots should show your full gadget, including its title bar, but nothing else. Alternatively, you can screenshot the gadget with the edit window open. Screenshots should not be resized or cropped. For quality and consistency, Google may take its own screenshots of a given gadget.

Let’s take a look at a screenshot on a Google gadget description page…

This is a Google gadget from Google itself. The image is the screenshot image. It shows a potential user what the gadget will look like on their homepage. It is always worth looking at official Google gadgets to see what they are doing. They are well aware of what works and what does not. Often by just looking at how a gadget built by Google is listed can tell you alot.

Does your gadget have a screenshot?

If yes, continue

If no, add a screenshot that follow the guidelines I quoted above.

Other directories that list Google gadgets:

Your gadget should be in as many directories as possible. Here is a list of places to submit your Google gadget.

Display your gadget on your website

The best way to introduce your gadget to the world is through your own website, or through already existing interactions between yourself and your customers or users. There are different ways to accomplish this.

One way is to simply have a page dedicated to different ways that a user can interact with your website.
A great example of this is the website Sphinn, where they have a specific page that highlights different ways users can interact with their site. It is important not only to have page like this, but to make that page prominent. Sphinn accomplishes this by listing this page in their top navigation.

This is smart for a couple of reasons, one so that people can find it, and two, because gadgets, like webpages are listed in relevance in the Google gadget directory. The same algorithm that also ranks gadgets (I will speak more on this later).

Another way is to use existing  interactions between your website and your users to promote your gadget.

An example of this would be a commerce website that takes payments. If you take payments, then you also give receipts. Consider mentioning your gadget on your receipts or “thank you for your purchase” page. Even better, give them a reason to use it. Consider saying something like “save 20 percent on items bought through our Google gadget”.

Yet another way to use your website is to actually display information through a Google gadget. Look at your sidebar, what are you showing?  Using Sphinn.com as an example again, they are displaying the “Top 10 most Sphunn in What’s New” which is an ever changing list of what stories have been voted on the most that are not yet promoted to the front page. That information could be shown in a gadget that people can grab.

The popular news site Digg is a great example of how to do this. They have the very same type of scenario. The have information to show their users in a sidebar. They are showing that information inside a widget.

This tactic is very successful.

Is your gadget mentioned on your website?

If yes continue

If no, put it on your website.

The best place to get information about Google is Google itself, here is what they have to say about promoting your gadget.

Here is another Google page about what users like to see in their gadgets.

Widgetbox has offered for over a year something called “blidgets”. These are widgets that take a feed and, well, turn them into a widget. It takes only a couple of minutes to do it. In fact, you don’t even need to tell it your feed address, just your blog address.

You just go to their feed widget page (shown above) and enter the url of your blog. After you hit the continue button, you will be presented with your new widget (pretty tough huh?) and you will be able to customize it.

Customize it then save it (you will have to make an account, which is simple and painless). Widgetbox has an extremely strong domain SEO value. Your description page for your blidget on Widgetbox will likely rank in the top 10 or 20 for whatever your blog name is within a couple of days.

2) Google Gadget

To make your feed into a Google gadget is also simple and easy to do. I once explained this over at SEOmoz but this time I will add a couple of details and suggestions. The steps are…

1) Go to the Google gadget directory

On the bottom of the left hand navigation there is a link that says “Add feed or gadget” Click that.

2) Enter your feed URL and click “Add”

It will think a second and then tell you it is

done. Go back to your iGoogle home and you will see a gadget displaying your latest posts…

You are done!

When you are looking at your feed gadget on your iGoogle home page, click the little down arrow on the upper right hand corner of the gadget and choose “about this gadget” you will be taken to a page that describes your new gadget.

You can also add just a button using Google’s button creator.

If you have dealt with some programming before, I highly suggest taking a look at another Google product that is just fabulous… the Google AJAX Feed API

3) Sprout

Sprout is an interface that allows you to create flash widgets without knowing flash. It is a very impressive tool that is used by some big players. For the purpose of this tutorial I am just going to describe how to make a feed, but you can add videos, pictures, twitter, just about anything really.

Let’s make a widget out of the SEOish feed…

Go to the Sprout Get Started page and click the enormous button that says “Start building now”. If you are in IE it may take awhile to load. Whe it does it will present you with some choices. Choose “Blank Slate”…

Once you click that you will asked to enter a title and description of your project. I put as a title “SEOish” and as a description “A fabulously wonderful resource on widgets and SEO”.

Next you will come to the canvas. The white square in the middle of the page is your widget canvas…

In the upper left hand corner, click “general”. Once you do that the menu will expand and now you have to choose “News Feed”…

When you choose news feed it will then think a minute and then present you with a square in your canvas you can adjust this square to cover the whole canvas.

Next we must tell the widget builder what feed to put in there. Over on the right hand side of the page you will see bunches of choices, but let’s look at the one that says “Feed URL”.

This is where you enter your feed url and once you do you will see your latest posts show up in the widget.

In the upper right hand corner look for the “preview” button. Click it and it will show you a preview of your widget…

Now you can do whatever you want, add pictures, format it or just leave it as it is.

When you like how it looks just click “save” it is in the upper right hand corner near “preview”.

To see it and get the code you will have to hit “publish”. You will be asked to make an account (again, simple and easy). Congrats! you now have a flash widget.

4) Dapper.net

Dapper.net is a very strong a robust tool. You get alot of choices of how to display your feed as a widget (flash, Google gadget, Netvibes gadget, etc.).

To get started on dapper go to the create Dapp page.

Choose the tab that says “In an existing RSS Feed”…

Enter your feed url. After you enter your url look at the choices you have (in the pic to right the choices are to the left of the RSS button).

Choose if you want a Google gadget, Netvibes Module, or just an RSS feed. If you choose the Google gadget or the Netvibes module, that is what you will get. Pretty simple.

If you choose RSS feed however, you get some more interesting choices…

Let’s choose the RSS feed option for SEOish.com. I entered http://www.seoish.com and then I choose RSS feed, then I hit the “Next step” button. Here is what the next page looks like…

This page is a preview of what is possible to display from your feed. If you have titles, descriptions, and dates then you are doing good. You can make some changes on this page like remove the publication date (by unchecking it in the upper right hand corner) but for the purposes of what we are doing right now let’s just go to the next step. The next page will give you a host of choices of how to display your content. Play around with them all. You will have to make an account to do this (simple, free, easy).

Google gadgets that are only listed in the English language are missing tens of millions of potential users.

The Google gadget directory, when seen in Italy, prefers to show Italian language descriptions and titles. They are more useful to Italian users. Also consider that when an Italian user is searching for a “cat” gadget they are actually typing the word “gatto”. They are looking for things in their own language. This is naturally true of all languages.

Consider this - There are currently no “gatto” (cat) gadgets in the entire Google gadget directory. If you do actually have a cat gadget, I highly suggest you internationalize it to get those Italians

Many gadgets are not language specific, for example a gadget displaying cute, adorable cat photos need not be limited to English or any other language. Clocks are another example of a non-language specific gadget.

If you have a Google gadget and want it to display in different languages when it is displayed in different countries, here is how you do so…

The best place to get information about Google is from Google itself. The process I am describing is documented at Google under their Gadgets and Internationalization Spec (i18n). This walkthru of the process is just a simplification of that spec.

Click the image below to see up close what the same gadget looks like when described in different languages.

There are basically three steps to gadget internationalization…

1. Decide which countries and languages you wish to cover and then acquire the translation of your gadget description and title.

2. Make small text files called “message bundles”

3. Edit your gadget code to include the language support.

Ready? Let’s go international.

First you need the translations. For most gadgets you need only translate two things, the title and the description, but you also can translate user preferences as well.

Translating your Google gadget title and description

Copy and paste your gadget description. Using the Panda gadget as an example the English description is…

“Adorable Panda bear for your homepage. Interact and feed your panda some bamboo.”

Go to Google’s translation tool and paste your description into the text field…

Choose the language you description is in and then choose the language you want it translated into, in this case I am translated my English description into Korean. Click the translate button….

Now copy and paste your translation and save into a text file. Repeat this process for your gadget title.

Congrats! You now have a Korean description and title of your gadget. Now let’s set up our gadget to display the Korean description when someone in Korea is looking at it…

Message Bundles

A message bundle is a small simple xml file that contains callable information. For example, when Google detects that someone in Korea is looking at your gadget it will look for a Korean “message bundle” if you have instructed it to do so in the gadget code (we will discuss that part in a minute). This message bundle is just a small text file which the gadget calls to display the Korean text. The below image shows the code…

The above file is called for the Panda gadget when it is being displayed in Korea. The above shown code is the entire message bundle. It may look a bit scary in Korean, but if you look closer you are only defining three things…

Title, description, and Directory_title (which is for almost all purposes the same thing as the title).

To make your own message bundle follow this link to go to the above code. Important! When you go to that file make sure to left click and choose “view source”. Copy and paste the code into a text editor and save it as “ko_ALL.xml” (I will explain why is a second). Take the title and description translation you created in the first step and paste them in the appropriate parts of the code.

Paste the title you translated and paste inbetween the <msg name=”title”> and the </msg> tags. Also place the title translation in the “directory_title” part too. <msg name=”Directory_title”></msg> Now do the same for your description.

For each language you need a separate message bundle file. These files must be hosted somewhere, they will be called from your Google gadget code, as described below.

Altering Google gadget code for internationalization

In order to take advantage of Google’s impressive geo location abilities, we must first add some code to our gadget.

In order to display the information contained in the message bundles (the translations) you must first call for them. Google will figure out where the user is coming from, but you must tell Google what to do with that information.

The way to do this is by changing some information in the ModulePrefs of your existing gadget. If you do not know what moduleprefs are you may want to see my Google gadget tutorial.

ModulePrefs (Module Preferences) is the first part of a Google gadget code and it’s function is to tell Google certain things that are specific to that gadget. Things like the title, the author, etc. If you already have a Google gadget, you already have a ModulePref section.

In the image below I have circled the parts of the ModulePref that I have altered in the Panda gadget to make it international…

Notice that the title and the descriptions are now calling a variable instead of just using text.

title=”__MSG_title__”

description=”__MSG_description__”

I also changed the directory title pref…

directory_title=”__MSG_Directory_title__”

By changing these values I have now made them variable which means that Google can decide what to put in those fields depending on what language Google detects is being used.

Now the big chunk of code I have entered is the Locale part. Let’s look closer at what it is doing in there…

The first line tells Google where to find your default message bundle. The default one is named “ALL_ALL.xml.

The info in the ALL_ALL.xml message bundle is the default info that should be displayed in case thing go kooky or something does not work, so this is an important one. This should be a message bundle in the default language of the gadget. In the case of our Panda example it is in English. See the ALL_ALL.xml file for the panda gadget here.

Each message bundle is exactly the same code, just different content for different languages. Each message bundle is named something different depending on what language is contained within it. For each language you choose to cover with your gadget, you must tell Google. this is what the remaining code in the image above is doing. For example let’s look at the Korean message bundle we made above and how it is listed in the gadget code:

<Locale lang=”ko” messages=”http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/panda/ko_ALL.xml>

This line says to Google “If someone using Korean is looking at this gadget - use the information contained in the message bundle ko_ALL.xml”

Each of the lines you see in the code image above are just repeats of this same message for different languages.

So to change the gadget code we had to make the title, description, and the directory_title variables.

We then had to add a line telling Google where to find the default information for those variables.

We then had to provide a line of code telling Google which message bundle to use for each language we want to cover.

To learn more go to Google’s documentation: Gadgets and Internationalization Spec (i18n)

To see the panda gadget example code go to: Panda Gadget Example code

To see how the Google gadget directory displays languages go to: Google Gadget International Usage

BTW. Google did some form of an update, lots of new shiny results.

A guide to search marketing for non profits and NGOs. Yum. Good stuff.

I will be dong some basic widgets for a few sites as part of an upcoming series. Let me know if you are interested in getting your stuff widgetized.

note to Brent: before you do anything with this widget, email me. I want to use in a test I am doing starting Wednesday or so.

We Build Pages no longer engages in paid links that violate the Google guidelines.

This change is not an easy one, but it is vital for our clients well being. We have guided our clients through thick and thin, through many updates and algorithm changes. We are convinced that paid links that are not machine readable will not only stop being effective, but will also bring real and significant risk.

To be more clear, we believe the age of penalties will soon be upon those engaging in paid links.

We also recommend to webmasters that they not risk themselves, or their ranking by accepting payments for links that are not machine readable. Back in August of 2007 Matt Cutts described in detail what paid links are considered in violation of Google policy.

Paid links must be machine readable, which means they must, in some way, be nofollowed or redirected. The common ways of achieving this are…

- redirect through url blocked by robots.txt

- redirect through url that does 302 Javascript

- rel=”nofollow” on individual links

- <meta name=”robots” content=”nofollow” /> on entire page

We Build Pages is still a link building company.

We will be offering many other services as well very soon, but our expertise was and is link building. Our link building services are the heart and soul of our business, and our link builders are the heart and soul of our office. We have dozens of talented and experienced link builders and they are hard at work even as I write this.

The change of policy of how we build links does not change the fact that we build links. Our link builders will be finding the right links for our clients that provide strength, not weakness. We provide free links or the right machine readable links for our clients content.

Speaking of content…

Our team of over 100 writers create content for clients that help our link builders do their jobs.

If you want to work with We Build Pages, the first step is an intensive and exhaustive report. Often these reports are around twenty pages long. They are created by Rhea Drysdale and are so intensive that you may very well feel violated by the time you are done with it. But there is a reason for this report. In order to survive and excel in Google requires real content that is link worthy. If you do not have linkable content then we will explain to you that you need to get some. We can create this for you, or you can create it for yourselves, but the bottom line is that without linkable and useful content, your rankings will not survive.

Paid links are over.

They are too risky for Jim or myself to recommend to anyone. If you are serious about your company you need to seriously consider stop using paid links that violate the Google guidelines and policies.

This is the best advice we can give.

Here is what Jim Boykin said aboout this over at the We Build Pages blog: Paid links are not worth it

I spoke of him and his widget ad company a few months ago here on SEOish - Mediaforge and widgets for affiliate marketing.

Tony has led the widget space for affiliate ad widgets and has come up with some unique and profitable revenue models for the widget world. Officially, his company is described as….

About mediaFORGE
Founded in 2005, mediaFORGE is socializing and monetizing branded, immersive, and portable widgets that leverage existing online advertising inventory. The company received a $1.5 million Series A in July 2006 led by Prospector Equity Capital and private equity firm Gazelle Investments. www.mediaforge.com

(Unofficially, I would describe Tony as someone it is wise to have a beer or two with while discussing widgets.)

MediaForge will now be teaming up with Linkshare as a widget provider. From their press release…

“mediaFORGE announced the integration of its socialized widget ad platform with LinkShare’s Flex Links and Targeted Merchandiser API. This powerful combination gives retailers in the LinkShare affiliate network the benefits of mediaFORGE’s visually rich and highly portable widget ads along with LinkShare’s contextual targeting at the product level – driving greater engagement rates and campaign success across affiliate sites.
mediaFORGE adds an entirely new social dimension to banner ads by incorporating extensible widgets that enable users to interact with content – whether it’s browsing exclusive deals, watching a promo video, taking advantage of personalized specials, viewing product details, or searching a retailer’s website – right from inside the ad. As a result, retailers can create meaningful brand interactions on a social network site, vertical site, or even a consumer’s desktop.

By integrating mediaFORGE widgets with LinkShare’s technology, affiliates can easily add rich, interactive content to their site, by simply copying and pasting a link. As a result, retailers can increase customer interaction and sales conversion across their network, as well as use mediaFORGE’s rich analytics to accurately track and measure the engagement of ad units on affiliate sites. LinkShare’s Targeted Merchandiser API automatically populates the widget ads with product offerings optimized for each site based on keywords and relevance.”