SaneBull Launches Paid Widgets

NY-based SaneBull has announced the launch of a paid widget service. This comes as a result of large acceptance of their stock widgets and an overburdened server. They are offereing two plans: shared and dedicated. The shared plan is $20/month and includes shared bandwidth (though outside the public widget area) and Google Analytics. The dedicated plan is $60/month and offers a dedicated environment with an uptime guarantee, customized look-and-feel, Google Analytics and an adminstration panel.

Paid widgets are always an interesting discussion topic. The discussions I have had with people over the past year suggest that they could work if they provide an overwhelming value to the site's visitors. For example, a site that pays $720 for a year of SaneBull must believe the expected benefit to its readers to be $720 or more. I do like the idea of offering a widget that would guarantee no downtime. There have been many bloggers who have discussed the effect of a widget on an overall site.  The key for Sanebull is to talk to the 1,000 blogs/sites who are using their widgets now, show them the plans, get feedback and make any necessary plan adjustments. I do expect more widget creators to offer paid versions that offer more benefits and uptime guarantees such as the one SaneBull is offering. Check out our previous SaneBull coverage.