This is where widgets can be incredibly useful and so necessary. I find that, in moderation and using the right ones, widgets can be a valuable asset to you and the blogging community alike. I particularly love using the widgets that allow me to meet and stay connected with my audience. Still, there are widgets out there for every taste, and bloggers have an ample varietyof widgets  to choose from in the blogosphere.

My favorite widgets are listed below, but you can look around for widgets and you’ll be sure to find so many of them out there that your head will spin.

Yes. I am a Twitter addict. I spend a great deal of time posting on Twitter, letting people know what I’m doing and giving them insight into my exciting (or not-so-exciting) life. For those of you oblivious to the marvel that is Twitter, it is essentially a way of people letting each other know what they’re up to through status updates done either online or through your mobile phone. It can get pretty addictive if you’re really into the social networking aspect of the Internet like I am. Now, Twitter has created a widget that lets Twitters share their updates with blog visitors. The site will give you a code designed for your blog or profile, be it for Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Typepad, or any other site that you would want it for. Now, not only can I share my Twits with my Twitter friends, but I can share them with the rest of the world.

By far one of the most functional and useful widgets I’ve come across, the Bitty Browser widget will simply blog your mind. The Bitty Browser is exactly what you think it is: a mini-browser embedded into your site. It can be used as a way of sharing your favorite websites, podcasts or files to your blog readers, or it can just be incorporated into your site as a way of letting your readers search for content without ever leaving your website. It keeps your readership where they belong — on your page — and it adds an interesting, useful and, yes, I’ll say it, adorable  widget to your page.

When we need storage for our large media files, many times we go to an online media storage site like Box.Net. We’re not always able to share those files with everyone we’d like to share with, however. That’s where the box.net widget comes in. This simple, slick widget allows box.net users to share their online media files with the rest of the world. It’s very simple, there’s not much to it, but if sharing media is something that you want to do with your blog, this is the best way to do it. It’s also very easy to sign up for and very easy to add to your page.

Skype is another one of those applications that has become almost indispensable, especially for business owners. Which is why this widget will be especially useful for those of you with either business blogs or personal blogs that mention business matters. The Skype widget lets people from all over the world see if you’re online and allows them to communicate with you through the Skype application. It’s incredibly user-friendly and the buttons add some flair and color to your site.

Widgets are a fun, useful way of increasing traffic to your blog website, but more importantly, they can also connect you to your readership in ways that other Internet tools can’t. Take a little while to look into widgets and see what they can do for you.

Recently, however, I started to miss reading my books and my novels. As much as I love print copies of books, the reality is that it is so much more convenient these days to look for e-books that can fill that void. The problem is that a lot of the mainstream e-book sites charge for books, which to be honest, in this economy, is not what I’m looking to spend my money on. But I did a little research and found a list of sites that have what’s called public domain e-books. Those are free to download and enjoy, and there are many titles to choose from, no matter what the genre.

Here are a couple of the ones that I found that I was really excited about!

Gutenberg.org, home of the first online project to bring free digital books to the masses, has been around for a long time, and its library is composed of over 25,000 public domain books for you to enjoy. It includes books in almost every language, ranging from classics like Machiavelli’s The Prince to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. It might be difficult to find more contemporary titles, but this is definitely a good place to start should you be in the mood for some literary genius. Especially useful for high school students needing to read something for class!

Manybooks.net is a wonderful resource if you’re looking for digital books for your PDA, iPhone or eBook reader. It’s pretty amazing where technology has taken us; once upon a time, cell phones were completely separate from organizers, which were an entirely separate thing from books. My, how times have changed! Now, thanks to sites like Manybooks.net, you can turn your PDA phone into a book with the push of a button or a touch of a screen. This particular site has everything from romance and non-fiction to suspense and pirate (yes, I said pirate) tales.

Now, here’s one that I was fascinated by, not so much because of the books that it carries, but because of the aim of the site itself. The free e-book site Read Easily was created specifically with the needs of the visually impaired in mind. The print of the e-books is large enough so that anyone who has problems reading the small print in regular books can enjoy the same books that we all have access to. This is a great site for the elderly especially, and there are some well-known classics in their library, books like Huckleberry Finn and A Tale of Two Cities and The Count of Monte Cristo. I was quite intrigued by the home page which, in addition to introducing visitors to their free services, gives statistics for visual impairment worldwide and why the web site is so important.

I was very happy to find these sites and many more. Go here for a list of some more sites that might keep you reading.

The only drawback to YouTube? Its limited useability. Upload, watch, link or embed — those are the only four choices for YouTube videos. Or are they? I have scrambled and scrambled all through the web looking for some cool applications and tools that can maximize my YouTube experience and I’ve found a few excellent ones that I’d love to share with you.

Video Downloader is my favorite YouTube tool because it integrates right into my Mozilla Firefox web browser. Video Downloader allows you to download videos onto your computer so you can do whatever you want with them, whether it’s watching them on your own time without having to go to YouTube and search for them again, or extracting audio for various other uses, whatever your need is, Video Downloader helps you get it all done. The Firefox extension gives you immediate access to it by providing icons to add to your browser and its user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to use.

Have you ever seen a video on YouTube and wished that you could watch it at any time, from any device? You don’t have to wish anymore; this application, TubeSock, makes it possible for you to do so. TubeSock allows you to rip videos from YouTube and format them so that you can play them on your iPod, or your PSP, or your Mac. There are some particularly awesome things about this application that I love. For one, it’s supported on both Mac OS and Windows XP. It can also download videos from other video sites, not just YouTube. My favorite thing about TubeSock though is that if you’re like me and you only have an audio-only portable device, TubeSock will rip the audio for you and convert it to an audio file. Very cool application, indeed. And so easy to use!

Splicd is a neat little website that is pretty self-explanatory. For those of you that are easily annoyed by extremely long YouTube videos that only have a snippet of useful information that you want to share with friends and family, Splicd gives you the opportunity to take that little snippet and create a link for that specific spot on the video, so you can send friends that link instead of having them agonize over an extremely long video clip. When you go to the Splicd website, you paste the link to the video in question, then you plug in the start time and the end time of the clip you want to extract from the video. When you hit the submit button, it gives you a Splicd link to share. It also shows the video that you’re sending so you can make sure it’s the right clip. It’s pretty easy to use, very fast and very convenient, I have found, especially for educational videos.

What kind of cyberworld would it be if we couldn’t have a WordPress plugin to help us improve our blogs? TubePress comes to the rescue with a plugin that creates beautiful and crisp video galleries for your WordPress blog. It is simple to use and integrates nicely with WordPress. I really love it because video can add so much variety to a blog, and TubePress makes it so easy to achieve that. I love anything that can enhance my WordPress experience; WP is one of the most user-friendly blog hosting sites on the Internet, and plugins like this make it so much more fun to use! No longer do I have to go through posting videos on my blog the old way. TubePress makes it easy and fun to add videos to my site.

Using these and many other applications, widgets and plugins will enhance your YouTube experience in spades and help you make the most out of the most popular video site on the planet.

Get Paid To Write

Smorty – If you have an opinion about products, services and websites Smorty pays you weekly for simply writing your honest opinion in a blog. Select areas that interest you the most. They allow you to have more than one blog to make more money while you are online.

PayPerPost – Now you can blog your way into a PayPerPost advertising position. Once they approve your blog, you are paid.

Blogsvertise’s Advertisers – Get paid to mention and talk about other people’s products and services in blogs and journals. Payments come via PayPal per task.

Advertising Programs

Google Adsense – Earn money from ads people click on that are relevant to your website. These ads adjust to the content in your webpage.

Text-Link-Ads – Sell basic ads with relevant text on your website. Keep control over whom you approve and allow advertising space. Get paid according to how much traffic your site brings each day.

BlogAds – Find someone in the network that will sponsor you and join the others that are making anywhere from $50 to $5000 per month by blogging.

Affiliate Networks and Programs

Amazon Associates – Link to Amazon products or services and get content for your site and visitors get 10% in referral fees for doing so.

ClickBank – This is one of the largest digital market places on the world wide web. They have much to offer for those buying, selling or promoting digital products.

Commission Junction – If you want to maximize revenue opportunities with top-tier advertisers you can get paid for every sale lead you generate them. Qualifying publishers take the program to another level with exclusive solutions for top-performers.

Paid Social Media Programs

Dada.net – Refer friends, help get traffic and get paid by this social site. They offer revenue sharing as a great way to earn online.

Jyve – Another one of the resources to make money online is Jyve an online knowledge exchange. Share experiences, expertise, meet others and market products. Get paid for your answers, advice and peer support to others that need your help.

Cruxy – Sell any type of media through a digital download through Cruxy and make money. They keep 10% + .15 cents per transaction but the rest is yours. Filmmakers, musicians and artists of any type benefit from the profit earning potentials of this site. All of your fans can use PayPal, Google, Checkout or any major credit card to buy your works today. With resources to make money online like this, there is almost no reason to leave home.

Box.net – This free online file storage gives you 1GB of storage with no ads. Add more space for a minimal fee as you need it.

Yuntaa – This file storage in Beta mode is giving free accounts with 1GB free (that stay free even later) with the option to add more storage space for an additional fee.

BlogBackupOnline – Little to no effort is needed to back up, restore or export any blog. It is free until the Beta version is up with 50mb available.

Egnyte – Receive 1 GB of secure storage to back up your computer to use in the event of a crash free.

gDisk – Now you can turn your GMail into a portable hard drive. The requirements are a Mac with OS X 10.3+ and a Google GMail account.

MyOtherDrive – 5GB of free storage online are available free. You have the option of uploading files in bulk up to 2GB at a time. Great for large storage upload needs.

Steekr – Store your music, photos, videos and more with 1GB free.

Driveway – Upload multiple files up to 500 MB per file. Get 2GB of free storage with the ease of managing files folders and tracking downloads from anywhere.

DropSend – This free online file storage has some limitations with the free account of 250 MB of online storage and 5 sends per month. The maximum size and download limitations apply as well.

FileFactory – Get 300 MB of free online file storage without registering. There is unlimited file downloading each month.

JustUpIt – You do not have to register for this free storage online. The max size of files is 100MB.

Localhostr.com – Now you can get free online storage where you can upload a file that is no greater than 50MB. Access files anywhere you are online.

MailBigFile – There is no registration required for this service and you can send up to a 100MB file to a recipient.

Sharebee – This free online file storage has a max file size of 100MB and uses advertising to support its free service.