If you’re budget is so tight that you’re pinching pennies, there are a number of ways you can boost your e-commerce site's functionality and visual appeal without going broke.

One of those ways is to incorporate widgets on to your Web site. Web Widgets — little applications that you embed on your Web page — can do a number of things; like add instant access to your eBay listings, or share content between your blog and business site. 

EBay sellers can use this eBay widget to show site visitors what they currently have listed on eBay. (Click for larger image).

Best of all, many quality Web widgets are free.

Widgetize Your eBay Listings

EBay sellers who have their own Web site or blog can easily incorporate a small eBay widget on their site to show visitors what item they are selling on eBay.

The eBay To Go widget is a free eBay-developed application that lets you create a fun and eye-catching eBay display widget to display your current eBay listings. You can also monetize the widget by including your eBay affiliate referral link ID when you customize it.

The widget is quite easy to embed on your site and use. First, you get to choose a display type which could be a single item view or multiple item view. Then you want to choose options for a search, a seller’s username/ID or an eBay store.

Next, you enter in the search terms to display live items (best for affiliate referrals) or to select specific product listing IDs if you have eBay listings yourself.  To finish creating the widget, you then connect eBay To Go with your affiliate ID number, if you have one, and simply copy and paste the provided code to your own Web site, blog, of social profile page.

Display Blog, Twitter Content on Your Business Site

At WidgetBox you can try the popular Blidget widget.  The Blidget (short for blog widget) lets you share your online blog content with your Web site readers. For a business that maintains both a blog and a Web site, you use the Blidget to pull your blog feed to your business Web site.  When you update your blog, the new content is automatically displayed on your Web page inside the blog widget.

To create a Blidget, you start by providing the URL of your online blog and then customize the design and layout to your liking.

You can pull content from YouTube or your Twitter account in to the Blidget, in addition to your blog updates. The Blidget offers a number of themes (display colors and text options) so you can ensure the resulting Blidget will match your own site’s design and layout.  After you create the blog widget, you copy and paste the resulting code to your Web page.

The Add This button encourages customers to share your content on social networking sites, in a single click right from your own Web site. (Click for larger image).

Instant Social Media Sharing

With so many people now using social networking and bookmarking sites, it is a good idea to give them a way to instantly share your content with their network of friends. One simple and easy way to do this is to incorporate an "Add This" widget button on your Web site.

With a single click your site visitors will be able to share your content and URL with their friends on more than 200 supported social services. You can also choose to create an Add This Flash widget that you can embed on your own Facebook, MySpace, and other public social networking profiles, in addition to displaying it on your Web site.

To use Add This, site owners need to copy and paste the provided Web site Button code to their own pages. By registering for a free account, you can also choose to track the performance of your Add This button.

Add This is also easy for your customers to use. They simply choose the social services they use, like Facebook, Blogger or MySpace, and click the button to share your content and URL link on their own social profile.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!