Within the last few weeks, I’ve really tried to reinvest in my business and feed my professional soul. A new habit I have is plugging ye olde ear buds into my MacBook and listen to pro bloggers wax poetic about the finer points of blogging. Fascinating! Well, it is for me.
I *just* finished listening to the above video post from Darren at ProBlogger: don’t let your blog be like my sock drawer. Well, I love an edifying analogy and this was a good one! Darren wants you to inspect your blog – specifically the sidebar – and check for holey, mismatched, and ugly socks. Then throw them out!
Does your blog’s sidebar support your creative business?
I was discussing sidebars with a client this week. She had been blogging for quite a while and she was experiencing what I refer to as “sidebar creep” – the sidebar was full of what was probably useful information at one time but was now mostly noise. Your sidebar (the skinny column that stays generally static throughout your blog) is a key place to display secondary information. Links to your store, contact information, further reading, newsletter subscriptions, etc… are key things that need to be displayed in this area.
Here’s a list of things that should be in your sidebar:
- short “about” blurb that links to your “about” page
- contact information
- prominent link to your store, shop, or services
- search
- list of your columns, categories, labels, or tags
- subscription form (rss or newsletter)
- links to connect with you elsewhere (social media)
- blog archives
- friends
Things to avoid in your sidebar:
- links that don’t enhance the content of your own blog
- “sunshine” or “nicest little blogger” award badges
- ads for other people’s stuff
- mis-matched styling – your sidebar should “match” the rest of the blog
- anything that completes with the content of your blog
How’s your sidebar?
Your task tonight is to approach your sidebar ruthlessly! Ask yourself if each gadget, widget, or whose-a-whatsit is supporting, promoting, and enhancing your business. Get rid of, edit, or makeover each one that’s not.
While you should never obsess over the design of your blog to the point of distraction, you’ll want to regularly inspect this area of your site to see how you can enhance or edit it.
What’s in your sidebar?
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This is a great little post. I just recently re-did my blog design, and eliminated a lot of the things mentioned above.
My sidebar is still pretty full, but I’m hoping it is full of the right sort of stuff now… things that will enhance my readers’ experiences and lead them to explore more deeply into my blog – and hopefully, my business, too!
Thanks Tara!
hi jess! thanks! full is definitely fine if its being used by your readers – use your analytics to determine what’s most popular and what you could get more traction on.
Now I’m wincing at the sight of both my sock drawer and my sidebar. I wholeheartedly admit to having all kinds of buttons in my sidebar to my favorite reads. Is that a bad thing? Is there a recommended way to handle lists and such?
hey jen!
i just took a look at your sidebar. you do have a lot going on
keep in mind that “enhance/support your content” rule. does linking to a site like mine or indie icing support your content? you bet! it underlines the legitimacy of what you do.
does linking to blog directories? not really… you’re just adding busyness and diluting your SEO.
as for the facebook & flickr badges, i think text links or icons that match the style of your blog are better for those. that falls into the mis-matched territory
hope that helps!
Great info! I just started my blog in January and learning new things everyday!
thanks chris! i consider myself a professional blogger and i’m learning new things everyday. i think that’s why i love it so much!
This post is such an amazing reminder! I am often worried about the sidebar of my blog!
I have just cleaned it up after reading this post. We have four buttons in our sidebar, leading to our shop, our flickr account, contact form and a ‘follow’ button to follow the blog. I have added something new as well: a small form to subscribe to our fresh and new monthly newsletter.
Lastly we have our blog archive in the sidebar.
i chose to put other information like our link and press section, and our about info in different pages. the tabs leading to them are right below our blog banner.
i’m really enjoying reading your blog! i will be visiting often!
I think it’s rather amazing to see you succeed in keeping your sidebar crips and clean and still having so much information in it!
Bisous,
Miss TD
I probably need to look over mine soon and do a re-edit. I redesigned my site and switched to Thesis about a year ago, but while I’ve added stuff and subtracted stuff to and from the sidebar since then, I haven’t fully taken stock of all of it. There is probably some clean up that could be done!
I have been hacking away at this VERY THING ALL WEEK!
Good post! Made me look at my sidebar and think how it could be better or what’s missing.
One of my issues is what links to share with others. I decided to focus on Canadian artists & crafters since I am from Canada. I try to include links only to work that I like but sometimes people ask for a link exchange and I end up doing it for the benefit of the exchange and not because I like their work. Maybe I need to have a response ready to turn people down nicely.
My other focus for links is ‘green’ links because that’s one of the things I care about and I’m also trying to combine handmade & sustainable in my work.
I like the idea of creating some sort of buttons to draw attention to my regular columns…that’s on the to do list.
Thanks Tara!
Hmmm…this is interesting.
Concerning the ‘ads to other people’s stuff’. Does that mean that you shouldn’t offer advertising space once you’ve got a good readership on your blog?
I actually don’t have a ton of stuff on my sidebar probably because I have the top line with the links you mention about. Should these links be repeated on the side bar or would that just create clutter?
In fact, I could potentially eliminate a column and just put everything under one and make my writing area larger. I’m just not quite sure how to do that! *lol*