Widgetbox has an enormous gallery of user made widgets. There are around 150,000 different widgets and they are about to achieve a benchmark in their widget distribution: 10 billion widgets served over 3 and a half million different domains.
Your widget will be removed from this gallery soon if it is not “ad compliant”.
Part of the reason that Widgetbox has succeeded where others have not is their relationship with other platforms.
Displaying widgets can be tricky however when dealing with different platforms and providers and one the biggest issues is where and how ads are displayed within the widget. Different platforms have different rules for this.
Widgetbox has solved this problem well by their new requirement for widgets to be “ad compliant”. Basically, Widgetbox needs the ability to turn off ads when widgets are displayed in certain environments.
This does not mean that they are saying no to ads, it just means that ads must be coded in a certain way.
Below is the text of an email Widgetbox is sending to developers:
Widgetbox Developer,
We’re writing to inform you that action may be required to keep your widget listed in the Widgetbox gallery. We are enforcing our policy of ‘Ad-compliance’. This is to prevent Widgetbox Pro users from seeing ads in widgets. You can find detailed information on how to implement any required changes here:
http://docs.widgetbox.com/2009/05/making-your-widget-ad-compliant/
Starting Monday, May 18, 2009, we will be reviewing the gallery for any widgets displaying ads. These widgets will be delisted until the widget is Ad-compliant. Moving forward, only Ad-compliant widgets will be approved for gallery listing. Additionally, Widgetbox Pro users have a mechanism to inform Widgetbox of ads in widgets.
When a user reports a violation of Ad-compliance, Widgetbox will review your content and your widget will be delisted with a clear message regarding Ad-compliance. When you’ve made the required changes, you can resubmit for gallery approval.
You can feel free to contact us regarding the implementation of Ad-compliancy here:
http://getsatisfaction.com/widgetbox/
Thanks for your continued support of Widgetbox,
Widgetbox Team”
The URL mentioned in this email is a guide to make your widgets ad compliant, and seems to be a very good guide.
Learn how to make your widgets ad compliant here because if you don’t, you will be booted from their directory.
“This is to prevent Widgetbox Pro users from seeing ads in widgets.”
?
It might appear from the wordind above as if Widgetbox are offering a subscription service which shows widgets with no ads.
What revenue model are they offering the owners of these widgets instead of advertising revenue? Surely Widgetbox aren’t simply stripping the business model out of our work?
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Hi I m one of your funs I read your blog on daily basics, the information you are sharing is worth gold. please can you give more info on this topic widgetbox ad complaience or just send the code. AT THE SAME EMAIL ADRESS OR PUT IT HERE FOR THE FOLKS TO FIND.
thank you and wish you happy new year 2010.