I have found a new resource on the Internet, whilst not entirely free, the free option is very good.  I am talking about Widgetbox.  The two widgets at the side of the page here were created using Widgetbox.  There are four variants of widget that you can create and over time I will be experimenting with them all.  They are highly customisable and not only that, once you have shared it with the community you can then embed your widget into your chosen site.  The great thing is that the community has thousands of already created widgets for you to use.  All good stuff.

If you want to turn off the ads and remove the ‘add widget’ option then for a reasonable annual fee in US$ you can.  I may well explore that possibility over the coming days and weeks.  Great tool though.