When I first had the idea for this widget, it was because my mom asked for it. I had set her up with her own blog, and since she is new to blogging in general (but not computers thankfully), the only thing she had trouble doing was something a lot of new users struggle with.
Bling.
And by bling I mean any kind of badge a user wants to stick in their sidebar. Simple, right? Well, if you know HTML the general way is to upload the image somewhere, drag over a text widget, add the img src code, add the a href around and it bad-da-bing, ba-da-boom, you’re in business.
If you have a WPMU install with novice users, this is the kind of widget they will *love* you for. Many buzz-worthy and blog-builder sites for your users ask that they put an image in their sidebar and link back. This makes it even easier.
In code terms, it’s pretty straightforward. It registers the widget and a control – the control is the options box for the widget. In this case, the widget can have a title, an image link (the url to the image itself), an optional link to another site which will surround the image, and an image width to constrain it within any sidebar.
Nifty stuff, hope you like it. 
Image Badge Widget (652)
Nice. But how to allow it to be used multiple times?
good question
I’d love to see that feature too.
Hi, i have a free wordpress blog. I have added the widgets that come in the widget section. But how do i add widgets that are from third parties such as clustrmaps? If free wordpress blogs don’t allow that, which free blog service allows that ?
Can i insert the widget multiple times?
Hey,
Personally I prefer the HTML way but I have to admit these widgets are great for novice users.
Really it’s very niec, it seems to be very useful for your mother.
How do I get a thumbnail in a widget badge? Could some one point me to the page or give me the construct for making a thumbnail image appear in a badge like the weather one on the widget badge creator page?
If you have a WPMU install with novice users, this is the kind of widget they will *love* you for. Many buzz-worthy and blog-builder sites for your users ask that they put an image in their sidebar and link back. This makes it even easier.
@corporate gifts Yeah, true, but you can only add one widget. If users want to go for a lot more than that, you can’t
very good
How to install it in WPMU?
I put it under /mu-plugins folder, is that the right place?
After I added the wiget, The other stuff n the sidebar disappeared. Any idea?
I think it is a problem of wrapping an image with a link tag and somehow getting a less than desirable result from your CSS. I was having this problem trying to create badges the html way and my theme went awol.
It stopped responding to drop down categories and a whole sidebar disappeared. Then I removed the link the image showed up, but it went foobar every time it was added. Also it brought the footer into the sidebar, odd.