buy.at, a specialist affiliate ad network in the UK with backing from DFJ Esprit is about to release a new web widget which “will help push the affiliate advertising model much further down the long tail of websites” according to Nic Brisbourne, a DFJE VC who blogged the info today. He is testing out Buy.at advertising on his popular blog The Equity Kicker (the money will go to charity, so he won’t be giving up the day-job just yet). The widget news follows last week’s buy.at announcement that it had struck a deal with travel focused social network WAYN (a DFJE stable-mate), whose ten million WAYN members will be able to promote products on their own profile pages and get a cut of any advertising revenues generated. As Brisbourne says: “This just might be the way to unlock the advertising potential of social networks.” Well, right now anything looks better that the total balls-up that is the Facebook Beacon advertising scheme which is now being described as a privacy nightmare. How times change.