I love finding new toys to put on my blogs  This widget is something I am hoping to incorporate over at my travel blog shortly.  However, I wanted to make sure that anyone who was interested in travel checked out this widget first!

This is Flash travel map that is very easy to embed into your site.  You can display flight route information and is free to to download too.  You can fully configure it so that you can show your readers a fixed departure point, fixed destination point, fixed departure and destination, or an ‘anywhere to anywhere’ open search.  There are 20 languages to pick from, and it can also be added to added to iGoogle Netvibes, and your desktop.

Even though Skyscanner the most powerful and flexible flight search engine in Europe (which provides instant online price comparisons on over 300,000 flights and over 600 airlines), this maps tool widget works for the United States also.  I used it to map all of the trips I took this year without any problems.  When I typed Chicago into the Maps Code Wizard, I was able to pull up all three airports here (Midway, Ohare, and Rockford).  This is a great way to show your readers where you are going when leaving for vacation.  If you do live in Europe or have a big European readership, this is a great way for them to check prices for trips. (see Cheap Flights Map Widget)

Head over to Skyscanner and check out their maps tool widget!

If not, what are you waiting for???? Seriously, Entrecard is one of the best ways to get traffic if you are a small to medium size blog. All you need to do is put the widget (which you can see in the sidebar) on your blog and the traffic will come. Ok, it’s almost that simple. Entrecard actually is a huge network of blogs that you can check out. People advertise on each others widgets. Plus, you can drop cards everyday (up to 300 per account). If you look in your inbox, you can actually see who drops cards on your site. There are tons of people (including myself) that go through in their inboxes and drop on everyone who is in there (way 1 to get traffic). Another thing you can do is advertise on other people’s widgets. When your ad appears on their blog, people can click your picture and be directed to your blog (way 2 to get traffic). The third way to get traffic is to be an active community member. They have a forums that you can talk on and I have gotten a ton of traffic from people clicking on me from there. After you find yourself there for a while, you will feel like you need addiction treatment. Actually, you’ll need EntreCard rehab. It is highly addictive, but well worth your time.

Let me know if you try it out!

Entrecard is one of the new ways to drive traffic to your sites. I have been using them for several months and have been happy with what I have seen so far. The best part of Entrecard is that is free. All you need to do a put a widget on your site so people can drop their cards on you. You’ll see one on the sidebar on this blog. That’s all you have to do. To effectively use the system though, you want to be dropping your cards on other blogs. You will be amazed at the number of quality blogs you’ve never seen before that is in their system. Entrecard drives approximately 50-100 more visitors daily to each of my blogs that I have it on. I can’t complain out those stats. Actually, it makes me want to send the creators of this some wine gifts. The only complaint that I have is that each blog has to associated with its own email account. If you are needing some extra traffic to your blog, this is worth trying out!

If you have been Google slapped like myself (not on this blog but my other one was), you probably are trying to find new ways to get your site out there to more people (not that traffic helps PR but linkbacks do). The newest Social Media, Social Networking site out there is EarthFrisk. It is a combination of Digg/Thoof/Sk*rt and MyBlogLog/Blog Catalog. However, you get to choose what you want in your widget (as compared to the latter). You can definitely lose several hours of your days reading posts and watching videos (so make sure you have some free time while viewing). The site itself has several interesting facets to it.

I even enjoyed this:

I know it is so wrong (but very funny). It is hard to get comments. That being said they are running a pretty cool contest right now for cash and prizes (who can turn down a great contest?). Actually, they are running several different contests.

The first contest is for the largest network of friends. Right now, no one has over 80 friends, so you have a chance. First prize will net you $2,000 among some other cool stuff (but the cash should have gotten your attention. It is super easy to enter. First, you need to join (you know, fill in a couple of blanks with your information). Then get all of your friends to join too! The next contest is for the most submission and you can get yourself $500 for winning this one. You can also win by making the most commens on their boards and that will win you $500 too. Lastly, you can win $100 for the best looking/original homepage. Seriously, there is something for everyone to try for. Go check it out!

I know I normally write reviews for you.  However, this is my new theme, and I would love to know your thoughts on it.

There are several things I love about it.  First, I love the color.  I do like the blue themes.  I have not seen a theme like this before which is why I chose it.  It is not boring like my other one was.  It is also widget ready which I do not think my other one was.  I did spend a ton of time getting  the sidebars to work, but I think it looks good now.   I love the social bookmarking over my the date.  My favorite is the little dig guy.  Isn’t he cute?