Five Questions about Widgets

Musestorm suggest you ask five questions about Widget platforms. This makes sense, it's a good starting point. I've been banging on about this for a while - we need some sort of method of making a comparison to find out what platform to use. Here's Musestorm's take on it (they will be at Widgety Goodness to take a closer look at this stuff):

Five Questions about Widgets

What are the authoring capabilities of the service?

Time to market is crucial in today’s fast-changing world with fickle user preferences. Publishers and media companies need a solution that enables them to quickly and easily author widgets and applications for the right platform and distribution channel. Solutions that require you to create your own widgets and applications might slow down your time to market.
Learn more about the MuseStorm Authoring module and the Widget Studio.
# Which distribution channels are supported by the syndication service?
As your users become more and more tech savvy, they demand more interaction with your message and content via different destinations, formats and devices. A good syndication solution provides more than just Web widgets. Desktop, Instant Messaging and mobile devices are all part of the mix, and your syndication service should support all of them.
Learn more about MuseStorm Intelligent Delivery.

Can you capitalize on and monetize your distribution effectively?

A powerful distribution solution enables you to capitalize on your hard-earned distribution. The flexibility of integrating advertising with your content, the ability to trigger monetization options based on user actions and the dynamic nature of the solution all play a role.
Learn more about the MuseStorm Capitalize module.

Does the service provide both Distribution and Interaction Metrics?

In order to measure the success of your distribution and user engagement you need in-depth metrics. Distribution metrics provide information on impressions, unique users, geographic location information and more. Interaction metrics provide insight into how users actually engage with your content and message, which message is more effective, and so on. The combination of the two types of metrics enables you to continuously optimize your distribution and effectively engage your audience.
Learn more about MuseStorm Total Analytics .

Pricing and Total Cost Of Ownership

When considering a syndication solution, pricing is a key factor. The cost of widget creation (authoring) might eclipse the cost of syndication and should be carefully considered and calculated. The service should offer flexible pricing models, from straight licensing, to CPM based models.

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