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As online advertising rates decline, publishers are seeking other ways to make more money from their pages. That's why startups like WidgetBucks are becoming an intriguing alternative to Google's AdSense or other forms of monetization. WidgetBucks, which launched in October 2007 as a spin-out of shopping site Mpire, aggregates products from a number of shopping sites, including Shopping.com and eBay. It matches highest-paying products with the demographic and content of its publisher network, consisting of 20,000 sites and blogs. The shopping widget concept is similar to the one offered by Wize.

WidgetBucks recently received the AlwaysOn OnMedia "Newcomer of the year" award. 

Who better to help us evaluate WidgetBucks and Mpire than Erik Stuart, who has a pretty good understanding of commerce. As viewers know, Stuart is the director of corporate strategy at eBay. His job is to know every hot e-commerce startup and bring them into the eBay fold as either a partner or potential acquisition. Stuart initiated and championed eBay's acquisition of StumbleUpon.

In this episode, Stuart and Box regular Ezra Roizen, join me to evaluate WidgetBucks and Mpire. 

I won't get into the highlights here. But I will say that both Roizen and Stuart agreed that of the two startups, WidgetBucks has more promise.