One of the real issues I have with widgets is that they are not the most thoughtful solutions for those of us with our eye on the real prize - revenue. Many bloggers rush to test out each and every 2.0 widget that comes down the virtual highway and many weblogs and website over time become inundated with rather useless, poor performing utilities that do little more than take up space. Take a look at your own weblog - has that happened to you?

7Search.com announced by email this morning a widget that by all accounts does not fit the typical 2.0 mold. It's less about collaboration than it is giving Web workers the opportunity to generate income. The SearchAdRoll is a collection of sponsored keyword links and phrases (similar to a blogroll) that affiliates can placed anywhere (weblog, website, social network, e.g. MySpace). Each time a website visitor clicks a link, a search return list is generated in a new window. When that user selects one of the sponsored listings they get paid. Pretty simple by all accounts but a real game changer.

Selecting the right keywords will be an important part of SearchAdRoll. Fortunately 7Search has made the process pretty foolproof. For example, submit a keyword like "marketing" for your SearchAdRoll and when a user clicks the payout is $0.26-$0.50, but take 7Search's suggestion and choose internet marketing instead and you could be earning double that ($0.51-$1.00) per click on an advertisers listing. By recommending additional/alternative terms and phrases based on traffic volume and aligning those terms with the highest potential payout, affiliates can be sure they will always receive the most revenue possible.

See an example of the SearchAdRoll in the right-hand sidebar of this weblog.