Embedding external websites and widgets

[leafar]

My website is for people who are into a certain style of music (funk and soul). Its also to promote my music, and make money in whatever other way i can.

Ive decided that i need the following :

- A music player
- A store
- An amazon AStore
- Maybe a library
- A video page
- A forum
- A lounge page, with games, chatrooms, etc
- A news page
- A charts page

And so on.


I want to embed them on my pages because i do not want visitors to leave my site. My main concern is :

Is it professional to embed widgets and pages or parts of pages from other sites?

If it is not, then how can i have all the above things, without having visitors leave my site? Yes i can have links that open new pages but i think that people would be put off by lots of pages on their screen, which is why i want it kept simple, with my nav bar there all the time as a result of them always staying on my page.

Your thoughts?

[Zeegal]

If you want to keep the users on your site then you should post as much content as possible on your site, not only linking to other sites.
Can you tell us the url of your site?

[leafar]

Here is a rough version :

http://leafarmusic.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Of course i want to have good original content, but all i have to offer is my music. For what im trying to do theres not much need for me to write much.

The idea of the site is to provide a community for people who are into a certain type of music, while promoting my music.

Due to the nature of my site, it requires a lot of external content. Thats why i need to know if it is generally considered profesional to embed other sites, such as a forum.

It would be bad news if it is not, as then it would ruin my whole idea.

By the way, i want to actually embed other site into my pages, not link to them. ie my forum becomes my external forum embedded into a page, so that the nav bar etc is still there. The idea is that visitors dont need to leave my site.

[houstonmarketing]

The issue with external sites and widgets is the lack of consistency. You may run into the problem of very inconsistent graphics, fonts, etc. If you can embed the external content with consistent imagery and graphics, you shouldn't have a problem.

[leafar]

<iframe height="410" width="100%" frameBorder="0" src="http://www.funkandsoul.forumotion.com" mce_src="http://www.funkandsoul.forumotion.com"></iframe>

This is the code that i use when i want to embed a webpage from elsewhere onto one of my pages.

To be able to display only the relevant parts of pages, i need to know how to chop off the left side and the top side (which is where most nav bars / headers / other stuff which would be irrelevant on my site, usually is).

How do i do that?

No unnecessary jargon which i wont understand anyway, please. Just a bit of code that will allow me to adjust what i need to adjust, with an explanation too so that i know wats going on.






But i also really really need to know if this is generally considered unprofessional, or if its acceptable. I believe that it is absolutely essential when it not possible to do a certain thing on your site and so you need it from elsewhere. If anyone disagrees i need to understand why.

[leafar]

Thats not what im referring to. Embedding a webpage means actually physically putting it on one of your own pages. The very purpose of this is to not have visitors leave my site. Sorry if you knew this already but i need to make the distinction. I amalso talking about widgets, which i use a lot.





I know this stuff. What i need to know is if its considered professsional or tacky.





Thanks for the link, ill look at it.

Youve just reminded me of another thing : Many websites have a Links page. Despite what you say about not linking too much to other sites, surely its ok to have a links page with lots, even loads and loads of links to other sites?