Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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can do something similar with the Text widget instead; it's more work, but you can choose,
order, and even describe the links.)
Note that these widgets are all from the Blog-Specific Links category; that's because the key to a
blog is always your posts (plus visitors' comments, if you're lucky enough to have them). Tools that
organize your posts, help people get to the best ones, and see which ones are related to each other
are all powerful additions to your blog.
Widgets that tie your blog to social media are great for any kind of social media that you're active
in, and where your blog and your social media use are related. If they're unrelated, you might help
your blog users more by leaving the widget out.
The widgets we describe as power tools are good if they fit the spirit of your blog. As with social
media widgets, you can overdo them if they don't fit what you're trying to do in your blog—to the
extent that you never figure this out precisely!
There are two widgets, though, that are special:
•
RSS
—This widget takes RSS feeds from anywhere on the Web and brings them into your blog. A
good set of RSS feeds can be even more valuable than your postings! For instance, the climate
change blog Climate Ark has an RSS feed of headlines, shown in Figure 3.9, that's among the
best around for its topic and is widely used.
Figure 3.9
Climate Ark
has a famous
RSS feed.