Jan 29, 2013 / Beginner

Quick Tip: Get Widgety

WordPress.com widgets are a great way to add new content such as your Twitter stream, or to display del.icio.us links, a tag cloud and/or a calendar to your blog, either in the sidebar, header, or footer of your site.

To see the widgets you have available to you, log in to your WordPress.com dashboard and click on Appearance > Widgets. To add a widget, simply click on it and drag it up and over to the right of the widget screen, into the Default Sidebar, Header Area, or Footer Area section of your site. If you choose to use several widgets in your sidebar, for example, you can click and drag them to order them as you see fit.

Here’s a bunch of my favorite widgets:

  • Text: Text widgets allow you to enter some custom text, say for a short “About” statement in your sidebar. Text widgets also accept basic HTML, so you can add headings, paragraph breaks, and links if you wish.
  • Image: Just as the name implies, the image widget allows you to add a image to your sidebar.
  • Tag Cloud: The tag cloud widget shows your most-used tags in a cloud format. The larger the type size for the tag, the more often it’s used on your site.
  • Milestone: The milestone widget puts a countdown box on your site, that tells you how many days are left before the big event — you might use it to countdown to a product launch, to your wedding, your birthday, or a graduation, just to give you a few ideas.
  • Goodreads: The Goodreads widget connects to your Goodreads profile and displays the covers of your recently read books.

The five widgets I’ve listed here are just a start — there’s many to choose from, and we’re just getting started. This week, Michael Pick brings us a new piece you’ll love on branding and how you can use image widgets to make your blog’s look unique. Additionally, Cheri Lucas will take us a bit deeper on how to use widgets to add your own personal design flair to your site. In the meantime, take a minute to peek at your widgets and drag a few to your sidebar — it’s never too early to start experimenting.

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  1. love all current widgets but would really find a three tab sidebar widget that accepts text and basic HTML a big help in making best use of posting real estate.

    Regards,

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  5. I love the image widget – I use it as a button! When I want to feature something cool, I use and image and simply add a link. 🙂 It’s really cool and I’m sure people sometimes wonder which widget that is. 🙂

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  6. Ooh, I’m excited for the upcoming branding and personal flair posts. Love the text widget – it’s versatile, and I like that you can use it to post a linked image. Thanks for the tips.

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    1. Excellent to hear! Experimentation is the name of the game. You can try as many options as you like — and if you don’t like the result, all you need to do is delete the widget.

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  13. I love the text widget too. I’ve used mine to link to a Creative Commons licence to welcome people to share my cartoons so long as they link back to the original source (that’s me and my blog).
    Some people have funky world maps of visitors etc. Where do they get these from?
    Marti

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  24. Hooray! Got my Gravata profile set up, put it on the primary right section. but, but but,… Now I can’t log in to the blog now. The login button’s gone! checked the web tried several links none work. How come wordpress’s so hard. I couldn’t get in to my blog before with “invalid password” no matter how many new passwords I reset. Somehow everything’s fine. Then can’t copy paste pictures, now this. H—e—l–p—— Am I going to lose my access?

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  25. Is it possible to have a tag cloud that shows ALL tags? Either on the sidebar, or a page attached to the toolbar? Been wondering for a while, seems as good a place as any to ask!

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  26. Thanks I’m just getting started so the more insight you share the better for me. I was wondering what the tag cloud was. 🙂 nice

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