Web workshop part 6: Sharing your portal

So, you've created some beautiful Netvibes tabs - but you won't want to keep them to yourself, will you? Netvibes allows you to get social with your work. We've already explored Universes, which currently are only open to corporate users who are prepared to pay for them (explaining the presence of training shoes and those rock bands upon whom record labels lavish the most marketing spend), but will "soon" be opened up to everybody to create.

While you can't - unless you manufacture shoes - set up a universe, you can share content. Both modules and whole tabbed pages are available to share - click the drop down arrow on either, and you'll see a 'share' option. If you choose this, you're then given the option of sharing by email, instant message or 'on my blog', etc.

Netvibes

Each option will offer you a small piece of code which you can paste into an email, an instant message, or into the HTML somewhere on a blog or a website. Anyone clicking on the resultant link will be invited to add the module or tab in question to their own Netvibes service.

So, for example, if you run a knitting club, and have created a tab full of videos, pictures and feeds about knitting, you could email the code around your club and everyone could share in the results.

We’ve created a module which lets you explore course material from Open University IT and Computing courses. Why not have a go at adding it to your Netvibes tab? Simply click on this button:

You can also publish your module or tab into the Netvibes directory - so when other users are looking for content, they might discover that the feeds and tabs you've shared with the community are just right for them.

If you publish you own blog or podcast, by the way, you'll certainly want to add your own feed to your Netvibes page - and then make sure it's listed in the directory for new readers or listeners to discover you. You can even create a button to allow visitors to your site to add your content directly to their Netvibes page - you'll find the instructions on the Netvibes site.

If your site is designed to make money for you - perhaps through advertising or affiliate marketing schemes - you might want to balance the extended audience a service like Netvibes could give your content, against how many visitors who might have visited your pages will now read the content elsewhere. You'll be pondering a question all web publishers are now facing: how do you make money from your words and pictures when your readers may no longer need to visit your site to access it?

As you might expect from a service which stretches across thousands of universes, we've only been able to give you a brief taste of what you can do with a personal portal. The best way to really get to know them is by diving in and having a go for yourself.

To get you going, we've collected a selection of Open University material in the following tab:

And once you feel you've got the hang of NetVibes, why not explore the other services, like MyYahoo, iGoogle or yourminis. Each offer different ways of tailoring your chosen feeds and the way they display. It's worth spending some time comparing their various attractions to decide which is right for you.