Updates to the PayPal Storefront Widget

Today's guest post comes from John T. Unger.  He's sharing some news about updates to the PayPal Storefront Widget:

When I first wrote about the Paypal Storefront Widget, I called it "the fastest, easiest eCommerce solution for blogs." If you're looking for a quick and easy way to add fully functional eCommerce to your blog (whether selling goods or services) you should definitely give the Storefront Widget a look. The widget works equally well for TypePad blogs using basic or advanced templates. You can add a storefront with a single click by visiting TypePad's Widget Gallery. Or, you can embed as many stores as you like, anywhere you want, by cutting and pasting a snippet of code provided by PayPal at the end of the set-up process. For a list of features and an overview of what the Storefront Widget can do for your blog, please check out my previous articles on Everything TypePad and my own blog TypePad Hacks.

I'm writing about the Storefront Widget again today to tell you about some new features and to congratulate Judy Chang and the PayPal Distributed Payments team on the fantastic effort they've put in to supporting widget users and continuing to improve the widget for everyone.

Here's a list of what's new for the widget:

Multiple Currencies: One of the most-requested features that was missing from the initial release was the ability to sell in currencies other than US Dollars. This has been addressed and you can now configure your store to sell using any of the 17 currencies that PayPal supports.

Product Options: Just like the original PayPal buttons, you can now customize up to two options for a product. For items that might come in different sizes, colors or materials this is certainly handy. Even better, you can now also include a surcharge for certain options if you want to. For instance, if you're selling jewelry, you could set different prices for the same ring done in gold or silver. Or you could use the surcharge to offer upgrades to services.

Inventory Control: For items that have limited quantities, you can now specify the available inventory. This can be broken down further to allow you to set inventory numbers for each item by options or combinations of options (ie: I have 9 red shirts, size xxl and 15 blue shirts, size xxl).

Store Reputation: We all know that favorable feedback from buyers is one of the best ways to increase trust online. Now, customers who buy from your Storefront Widget can provide written feedback and rate your store from 1-5 stars. Only one rating per transaction is allowed and buyers must provide the invoice ID that PayPal generates in order to leave feedback.

Shipping Options: Originally, shipping had to be included in the sale price. The obvious drawback to this approach is that it makes items look more expensive. Although the widget does not yet include a way to automatically generate shipping costs, the PayPal team has called attention to a clever hack developed by sellers using the widget: You can add shipping fees to your storefront and have buyers select the proper shipping rate as an item based on the order subtotal. This is still an imperfect solution for some situations, but should prove useful for many sellers.

Here's what the updated widget looks like in action:

For a more comprehensive overview of features and benefits, visit my PayPal Storefront review at TypePad Hacks. If you'd like to compare the widget to several dozen other eCommerce options that can be integrated with TypePad please check out my article: Blogs as Stores: A Comprehensive Overview of eCommerce Solutions for Bloggers.

-- John T. Unger
TypePadHacks.org

Guest Post: A review of the PayPal Storefront Widget

In our post announcing the launch of the PayPal Storefront Widget, we linked to an in-depth review of the tool by John Unger on his TypePad Hacks blog. John's a long-time TypePad blogger who's written extensively about eCommerce in TypePad, and uses his TypePad blog as a storefront for his TypePad consulting work, handmade firebowls and other artwork. We asked John to share his thoughts about how the widget can be used as part of a blog-based eCommerce solution.

The Paypal Storefront Widget is an amazing tool for bloggers who want to sell goods or services without diving deep into coding a custom solution. You can add a storefront with a single click by visiting TypePad's Widget Gallery. Or, you can embed as many stores as you like, anywhere you want by cutting and pasting a snip of code provided by PayPal at the end of the set-up process. If you're looking for an easy way to monetize your blog or to sell goods and services online, this is one of the best options I've seen yet. The widget works equally well for blogs using basic or advanced templates.

Don't let the ease of use and simple set-up process fool you… although the Paypal Storefront Widget was designed as a tool for "casual sellers," the widget contains almost all the features you would expect from a full eCommerce tool. Because you can have as many different storefronts as you want, there's no limit to how you can use this widget to grow your business. You could use it to offer special deals from within any post. Or to create a "catablog" with your full range of products. You could use it to feature product spotlights. The possibilities are limited only by imagination.

The PayPal Storefront Widget is free, and fees for transactions are the same as those for the standard PayPal shopping cart buttons. This makes it an ideal solution for testing new products and ideas. You only pay if you've made sales and the costs are much lower than most eCommerce products currently available.

Who is the Paypal Storefront Widget for?

• People who want to focus on blogging about their area of expertise and drive business, rather than spending all their time configuring and coding their blog.
• People who want to test new ideas in the market or grow their existing businesses.
• People who need an inexpensive eCommerce solution that delivers real features.
• People who need a simple eCommerce solution with a low learning curve.
• People who want a fast eCommerce solution they can set up in minutes.

Even for people who are comfortable with writing code, this widget offers a great solution for quickly adding one-of-a-kind items or special offers that might not justify the amount of work needed to hand-code product pages.

Turn your blog into a store with the PayPal Storefront Widget

Our friends at PayPal have just launched their new PayPal Storefront Widget. The widget – designed to integrate seamlessly with TypePad blogs – lets you embed a virtual storefront into your blog you can use to sell...well...just about anything! With the holiday season in full swing, we see this as a great tool for crafters and artists looking for an easy way to sell gifts through their blogs. The widget is a complete eCommerce solution that includes product descriptions, a shopping cart and integration with PayPal's secure payment system. And it's very easy to set up. Have something to sell? Create your own PayPal Storefront and add it to your blog today!

You can see the widget in action, and read a detailed review on John Unger's TypePad Hacks blog.

This widget is a bit wider than most, and fits nicely into the two wide themes we released last month. Want to use a wide sidebar, but keep your current theme? If your account level is Pro or higher you can set the width of your sidebars using custom CSS.

I had a lot of fun working with Judy Chang and the rest of the PayPal team bringing this together. We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments! You can read more about the widget on The PayPal Blog.

More great widgets from Amazon Associates

Back in March, we wrote about three widgets the Amazon Associates team built for TypePad authors. Since then, they've been hard at work developing new widgets and now have a library of 16 widgets that integrate with TypePad to let you do everything from display a slideshow of your favourite books to let readers search Amazon directly from your site.

If you've signed up for an Amazon Associates account, you can earn referral fees when readers make a purchase after entering Amazon from your widget

The widgets work both in sidebars and entry bodies, and are all available in the TypePad Widget Gallery.

Here, we've used the slideshow widget to feature some of our favourite books from TypePad bloggers. Click "Get This Widget" to customize it to match your interests and the style of your blog.

Host your own internet radio show with the NowLive widget

Have you ever wanted to host your own live radio show? Well now you can do it straight from your TypePad blog. Using NowLive’s Talk Show widget you can begin broadcasting a live call-in show from a TypePad post or page in less than 60 seconds. What is really cool about this widget is that it will let you take live phone callers, post pictures and videos and text chat with your audience. You can host a show from a regular telephone or on a PC headset. It is super easy and requires no downloads. The broadcast even saves as an iTunes podcast for audience members that can’t listen to your live show.

Get started at NowLive.com!

Adding a job board to your blog

If you're writing your blog for a specific audience -- technology enthusiasts, healthcare professionals, designers, etc. -- a great way to help make money from your blog and provide a service for your readers is running your own job board.  Our friends at Simply Hired recently introduced Job-A-Matic, which lets you build your own job board, sell job listings on  your site, and make money along the way.

What we love about Job-A-Matic is just how easy they've made it to integrate a job board with a TypePad blog. 

• When you create a new Job-A-Matic job board, you can customize it to look like your TypePad blog by importing your TypePad theme.
• You can promote  your job board on your blog through the Job-A-Matic Widget.

And don't worry about having an empty board; when you create your job board you can choose to syndicate in job listings from the Simply Hired network.  And when someone posts a job on your board, that listing is shared across the Simply Hired network and out on to sites like LinkedIn and MySpace, giving your listings more visibility.

Job-A-Matic runs their blog on TypePad, and it's a great place to learn more about how to get started with a job board, and how to make the most of their service.

Twitter + TypePad Widget = Twidget?

Do you Twitter?

The TypePad team’s all a twitter (sorry, that was just too easy) about the new Twitter widget that displays your latest tweets on your TypePad blog, and makes it easy for your readers to follow you on Twitter. It even auto-magically formats itself to match your blog’s theme!

You can get the widget here.

For the latest news from TypePad and the rest of the Six Apart team, follow the Six Apart Twitter stream.

New Widgets from Amazon Associates

We've been adding a lot of new Widgets to the TypePad Widget Gallery recently, but we couldn't be more excited about our newest Widgets from Amazon.com Associates. They have just unveiled typepadwidgets.amazon.com, which features three Widgets built specifically for TypePad users.

• The Express Yourself Widget lets you recommend and comment on products from Amazon.com
• The Search Widget lets your readers find and explore interesting products from Amazon.com without them leaving your site
• The Quick Linker Widget lets you quickly link to relevant Amazon.com products, by including a custom HTML tag as you write your blog posts.

The Widgets are highly customizable -- not only can you pick the products to display or the categories to search, but you can also customize the colors and look and feel of each Widget to fit well with your TypePad blog.  And if you're a member of the Amazon Associates program, you can enter your Associates ID when you're customizing the Widget to make money when readers purchase items you link to.

As with all of our Widgets, installing takes just a few clicks.  To get started, visit the TypePad Widget Gallery or head straight to typepadwidgets.amazon.com to explore, customize and install an Amazon Widget for your blog.

Getting Started with Widgets

You’ve heard all about the great new widgets that are available for use with your TypePad weblog, but you’re not sure how to start using them? The Knowledge Base is here to help you!

Widgets are a great way to add all kinds of extra functionality to your weblog.  With widgets, you can do everything from placing customizable polls in your sidebar to highlighting the television shows you watch.  You can even turn your entire blog into a widget!

Most widgets are very simple to add to your weblog.  You would first go to our ever-expanding Widget Gallery and choose the widget that you would like to add.  Click the "Get This Widget Now" button and you'll go through steps to configure your widget.  You'll then usually be presented with a button or an option to install your widget, which will take you to the "Add a Sidebar Widget" page within TypePad, where you select the blog you'd like to use the widget for.

We have a number of articles to give you more detailed information on how to get going with some of our most popular widgets:

• Vizu Poll Widget
• FeedBurner "Subscribe Now" Widget
• FeedBlitz Widget
• Snap.com "Preview Anywhere" Widget
• Blidget widget from Widgetbox

If you have questions about configuring or using widgets, we encourage you to open a help ticket by going to your Control Panel and then clicking the Help tab.

Turn your own blog into a Widget

Interested in spreading your blog's headlines around the web?  Last week our friends at Widgetbox introduced a really easy way to turn your blog into a viral Widget -- they call them "Blidgets."

Widgetbox has built a custom "Blidget maker" for TypePad users, and it couldn't be easier to use.  Just give Widgetbox your TypePad blog URL, pick your layout and color preferences, optionally select an image to spruce up your Widget, and in no time you'll have your Blidget listed in the Widgetbox directory.

And when you're through configuring your own Blidget, check out the other Widgets that are available at Widgetbox; we've partnered with them to make it easy for you to install any of their Widgets on your TypePad blog.