Does The Sidebar Of Your Blog Help Visitors?
Read the full post to learn how you can receive feedback from me directly regarding how helpful I find your sidebar as a new visitor.
A blogger is a publisher. And a publisher is a person or company that prepares and issues content. One of the key advantages the blogging platform has over traditional publishing platforms is the lifespan it provides the content published. In other words, once an article is published, readers will be able to find it online without having to contact the publisher in effort to hunt down an old issue.
Or will they?
Though the blogging platform makes it possible to publish content with a limitless lifespan, it’s up to the blogger to guide the reader toward that content.
Connecting The Dots With Your Sidebar
This is where the sidebar can make a huge difference in how visitors interact with your blog.
Take a moment to imagine a rather complex connect-the-dot puzzle … perhaps there are 50, 100, or even a 1000 dots jumbled together. Each dot represents a different piece of content, including posts, pages, categories, tags, and media. This is your blog. And though you can see the dots, your visitors can only see the dots once you’ve connected two together. Unless a visitor happens to land on a piece of content through the search engines, it’s unlikely he or she will find your older content if it’s not connected to another piece of content, which is also connected to another piece of content, which is also connected to another piece of content … catch my drift?
The more dots you connect, the clearer your blog becomes to visitors.
While you can and should certainly practice interlinking within pages and posts, the area I want to focus on here is the sidebar. The sidebar is an area that lends itself particularly well to visitors interested in other content you’ve published. Once a visitor has a glance over your latest content, he or she will likely select a post to read or check out the sidebar for the all important MORE. I stress MORE because this is the point where visitors will either find something of interest or leave.
This is where you need to help your visitors.
A few ways to do this might include the following:
- A Resources List – this is a list of links to any series of posts you may have published, entire categories or tags you think your visitor might find helpful or interesting, popular content on your blog, polls, and pretty much anything you think will connect with your visitor. This is best when publishing an informational blog rather than a personal blog.
- Another Resources List – why create one when you can create two? Diversify your resources lists in order to increase the chance of attracting a visitor into your content.
- Popular Posts – this is by far one of the best tools a blogger has at his or her disposal. This area provides the best of the best content on your blog, decided by how many comments or views it has received … so there’s no manipulating this one. If the visitor doesn’t connect with anything in this section, you either have a visitor in the wrong niche or you need to work on publishing better content (hey, aren’t we always?).
- Categories – again, this will help reveal the topic(s) of your blog and direct visitors toward more content.
- Tags – ditto.
- Recent Posts – this is one of my least favorite options simply because of its redundancy on most blogs. That said, if the majority of your traffic lands on pages other than your front page, this might help direct visitors to your latest content.
- Archives – this is a bit less glamorous, but still provides help to those interested. For visitors interested in checking out all the content from a particular month or even year, the archives section will provide them link after link into your older content.
In addition to connecting your content, you will also need to connect your social profiles and subscription options. Where you do this is up to you, but starting at the sidebar is not a bad choice.
Submit A Link to Your Blog Below – I’ll Check It Out!
I’d like to check out your blog and provide you with a little feedback regarding how helpful the sidebar of your blog is to a new visitor.
If you’re a regular in the community, then you already know how this works … or do you? I have a feeling there a quite a few of you out there that aren’t participating even though you want to.
If you’d like to see how this works, check out my two earlier posts:
- Are You Giving Your Visitors A Reason To Revisit Your Blog?
- What Do Visitors Learn In Just 10 Seconds On Your Blog?
I’m Ready If You’re Ready
In addition to submitting a link, I’d also love to hear about any concerns you may have regarding your visitors, connecting the dots, and featuring content.
Looking forward to seeing your blogs!
photo credit: SuperFantastic
Christopher Rice is a publisher, entrepreneur, and abstract artist in Santa Monica. He’s a founder of Wearabl, editor of CreativeBlogger, and creator of Gumball. Friend him up at Twitter | Google+ | Facebook | Pinterest |
One thing i liked on some websites is when they have one of the widgets on the sidebar with a different style to grab atention and divide the others and i was thinking on maybe doing that on my blog. Below the search widget maybe a subscribe widget with a colored background and rounded corners..
I agree on the Recent Posts subject: if people want to see the recent posts, they’ll click the home button to go there. I have a Random Posts widget on the sidebar and a Related Posts widget below each post. I think it’s more useful, even though the Random one gets very few clicks
If you’re hoping to grow your following, that area on your blog is definitely the place to do it. One of the best subscription boxes I’ve ever seen on a blog is Copyblogger’s … its design and contrast makes it so attractive.
It would be interesting to see how a related content widget would work in the sidebar.
I’d love for you to check out my blog http://www.baconismagic.ca as I’m in the middle of a redesign this week.
Hey Ayngelina – thanks for sharing your blog!
The “Start Here” area in your sidebar is definitely a great way to reveal content from your archives. Adding more to this area over time will also increase the chance of someone connecting.
Phenomenal Blog Ayngelina…I was hooked!
thank you for time and energy to share
You’re right on point about the ‘Recent Posts’ idea. I hadn’t thought about it before.
I’d love for you to check out my blog: http://www.benreed.net.
Hey Ben!
Your blog looks awesome – solid profile picture, great social proof, beautiful theme. the only thing I might see helping your readers is if you added a popular posts or resources area near the top. There’s a quite a you’re promoting before your content in your sidebar, including your twitter activity and several ads. I wonder if you might be able to draw your visitors into your content by providing a few links where the “Things I Write About” section.
By the way, nice theme … might you be a tentblogger? :D
Keep up the great work, Ben. I’m following you on Twitter!
Thanks for the feedback, Christopher! Yeah, I use Standard Theme, and have tweaked it to do what I want.
Those suggestions are great. I’ll get to work.
Looking forward to seeing what you do!
An interesting theory of the blog being thought of as joining dots up together. If you wanted to check out my blog the link is http://www.zipbox.co.uk/blog/
Some feedback would definitely be good, thanks.
Hannah,
Your blog is beautiful … I mean, really beautiful! I can’t stop looking at it.
Anyway, in terms of our sidebar topic, I wonder if you might increase your pageviews by including a popular posts area in your sidebar … dare I say, instead of the recent posts area.
The recent posts area is just a bit redundant.
Providing your visitors with an area to find your most popular posts give them a way to click deeper into your blog and find the content other readers have made made popular either through visits or comments.
Thanks for sharing your blog with us … and, uh, if anyone wants to see an awesome example of design at it’s best, check out Hannah’s link.
Thanks for the positive feedback! I think your right regarding using a popular posts area instead of a recent posts.
I will get on this and make the changes. Thank you.
No problem!
Hi Christopher,
This was a great article, and especially helpful because my start-up company has been working on our blog content for a couple of months now. I would love for you to check it out and send me any feedback that you may have.
http://www.progressivemediaconcepts.com
(Our posts are under the blog tab.)
Thank you,
Nicole
Hey Nicole,
Your sidebar definitely serves as a helpful area on your blog. First serving up popular articles, categories, and then the ability to search through your archives is a great way to make it easy for your visitors to find the content they want.
If you’re focusing on building your email list, which every blogger should be, I’d consider bumping up the subscribe box … perhaps even above the popular posts section.
Think of it as the element you want to promote most. The reason you want to promote the email connection most is because unlike Facebook, Twitter, or any other social platform, an email connections puts you in touch directly with your reader, thereby enabling you to grab their most focused attention.
Everything below that doesn’t really help the visitor … in fact, it’s more of a distraction. One thing I like to stress to my readers at CreativeBlogger is the importance of focusing in on a specific platform where you want to build your following. If you want to build your following on Facebook so you can register you vanity url, limit what you promote on your blog. I see you’re available on Blogger, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Blog Lovin, and Networked Blogs … it’s an overload of information.
Focus building your following on one platform at a time, and be sure to diversify what your readership and visitors will find through their connection with you on the various platforms. This will help you build a solid following and enable you to clean up the sidebar a bit.
Thanks for sharing your work, Nicole – let me know if you have any specific questions, or if I can help out in any way.
@CreativeBlogger
Thank you so much for the feedback, Christopher. I’m very thankful that you took the time to look over our blog and provide me with such helpful suggestions. You are definitely correct about having too many links to other social networks in the sidebar, and I’m glad that you helped me realize how distracting it could be to our readers.
Thanks again, and I will 100% be coming back to Fuel Your Blogging for your future articles.
Nicole
My pleasure, Nocole!
Another article you might like is over at my own blog, CreativeBlogger – it’s called “Where’s The Best Place On Your Blog For Social Links?”
http://goo.gl/haC7Q
I am interested in having my sidebar looked at http://www.flixelpix.com
David
Another example of beautiful design. Exceptional, David!
Your sidebar has a sharp point, providing visitors with exactly what they need in order to do exactly what you want – connect socially, subscribe, and read the featured posts on your blog.
I really like how you’re focusing your efforts to build your social following to one platform at a time – at the time of this critique, it’s toward Twitter.
Great work, David. Very inspirational.
David, love your site design. What theme have you used? (assuming its wordpress!)
I’m pretty sure it’s a custom design Chichi … looks like they’re calling it FlixelThree.
Yes, please give me your opinion of mine. Appreciate it!
Brenda
Hey Brenda,
Thanks for sharing your blog with us here at FUEL! I took a look at your blog and it looks like a great blog for the readers in your niche. Nice job.
I really like your popular posts area in your sidebar – especially since it includes the thumbnail of the image in the post. Very visual and compelling. One thing though … why so far from the top!? :D
I’d love to see this just below your profile area. Depending on where you’re seeing traffic arrive from, I’d consider scraping the Google translate and saving the Google connect feature for your about page or contact page. This might bump up the amount of subscribers via rss and rss-email.
Overall, blog looks awesome. Keep up the great work, Brenda.
We just launched our co-authored blog this week and I think our side-bar is a hot unprofessional looking mess. You would be saving me from possibly committing hari kari if you would give us a looksee and your thoughts. http://www.witbehind.com.
Awesome!
I think the best way to start is by eliminating any redundant elements in your sidebar.
For starters, the social links you’ve provided at the top give the visitor the option to connect with you – excellent job there, – but scrolling just a little further reveals the “Facebook twit us” and “Feeling Twitty” banners in your sidebar. These aren’t necessary.
Another area you might be able to condense is the subscribe via email option, as you’ve already made it available using the icons at the top of the sidebar.
One suggestion I’d make is this: promote your mailing list as much as possible – even above your social links. This will help you build a following you have direct connection with at all times. Consider implementing the subscription form from mailchimp into the sidebar if possible – this way, people can hop on the list no matter where they are on your blog.
I’d also recommend removing anything that’s extraneous to your actual blog. I’m not sure what inlinkz is, so I might be jumping to the wrong conclusion, but is it something related to your blog?
Looking good, Gwen.
Thank you!
The redundancy is something that has really been bothering me. However, I needed your experienced wisdom to convince my partner that I was right. Now I have the ammo to take the issue up with her again.
Glad to me of assistance :D
I would be interested to see what you think of our category side bar at http://www.ordinarytraveler.com. I like when blogs look clean and don’t have links all over the place on their side bar, so we have tried to keep our pretty simple.
Looks really good, Christy. Definitely simply and straightforward. One thing I think might be a little confusing to your readers, however, is the mail chip banner placed so prominently in your sidebar.
Is it relevant to your readership? Will they find value in mail chimp?
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Christopher,
I’ve seen how this works before, and I’ve always been too chicken to invite you to my blog. I’m such a beginner (3 weeks ago, I couldn’t have told you what SEO stands for), but I’d really like to grow into a respectable blogger.
I humbly submit http://modernaboriginalmama.blogspot.com for your review.
Delena
Hey Delena,
Thanks for sharing your work! I checked out your blog and think you’re spot on with your sidebar.
For those interested in connecting socially, you’ve provided the links to do so. Likewise, you’re promoting your email subscription option prominently, which will help you build your list over time, you share a little about yourself (very important), and you’ve included an area for popular content.
As a first-time visitor, your sidebar is very helpful in terms of helping me understand what your blog is about, who you are, and how I can connect.
Nice job. Thanks for sharing!
I just started following your blog. I really didn’t care what any body thought about my blog until recently when I decided to start trying to make a little fun money for me…..that is when I added my affiliate ads again. Would love suggestions from you. Thank you.
Hey Karen,
Thanks for sharing! The top of your sidebar is great – offering visitors a little information about you, a way to connect socially, and the option to subscribe via email. Excellent.
That said, there are a ton of things in your sidebar as you scroll down that don’t particularly enhance the experience of your visitors. In addition, because you provide so many links in your sidebar, the search engines may be frowning upon your site a bit. I’m not Google, so please don’t take my word for it, but in terms of guidelines, they’ve made it known that they prefer webmaster only provide a maximum of 100 links per page … I haven’t analyzed your blog, but you might be close or over that limit due the banners in your sidebar. In addition, and to get really nerdy, you might be flowing a lot of your PageRank to those sites to which you’re linking.
Just a few things to consider. Overall, I think the top of your sidebar is excellent.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m also planning a redesign, and would love your opinions about how to improve my sidebar ;-)
Hey Duncan,
Your sidebar looks awesome at it is. One thing I might slash, however, are quick links section near the bottom. Though it’s seldom a visitor will find their way down there, it’s simply not for your visitors.
Also, I’d add an email subscription option somewhere in your sidebar as well. This way people can connect. If you’re building a list with a service, such as aweber or mailchimp, this is the best place for your sign up form.
Keep it up!
Many thanks! A better sign-up form is a must…
No problem, Duncan!
Hi Christopher,
You make great points in your article. I’ve often seen the most popular posts on other blogs, and after reading your tips, it’s now on my to-do list. Here is my blog:
http://martinairing.com/blog/
Would love to hear your feedback! Thanks :)
Hey Martina,
I love your theme!
Popular posts might just be my opinion – every blog is different, – but I do think it will out-perform your recent posts area by far.
I’d also consider slashing the twitter activity from your sidebar. It takes up so much space and you’re providing the same content from twitter on your blog, which doesn’t help you diversify your content much. Reserve your tweets for twitter, your facebook updates for facebook, and so on. This enables you to focus your readers toward your content. Let them know you’re active on a social platform, as you’ve done with facebook, but try not to give them the value you’re creating before they follow you.
I’d also consider changing up the facebook badge, perhaps implementing the like box, as your current badge is shmooshed.
Experiment with your topics area by bumping it higher in your sidebar – you might find more click throughs from your readership.
Again, I love the look you’ve created here and for the most part your sidebar is clean and direct.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Christopher,
I really appreciate you taking the time to look at my blog! I find your comments really helpful. Your suggestions are on my to-do list.
Thanks again :)
My pleasure – it’s nice to connect with you here at FUEL. Looking forward to connecting elsewhere as well.
Cheers.
I’m going to come out and say it. My Side-Bar(s) are a hott mess… I’d love to se how to fix ‘em up!
http://mommydoes.blogspot.com
I want to give credit to all the amazing blogs I follow but I find it time consuminy to go in and adjust the HTML code to “center” each button. Also, I put button in catergories and still have a hard time (my page is too long) and I have no idea how to “streamline” my blog…
Hey Brooke Anna, thanks for sharing your work with us here at FUEL.
One idea that comes to mind is to bump your email subscription option all the way tot he top. It’s buried beneath a ton of other content, which makes it unlikely you’re going to be able to build your following via email.
Building on that, I would take a look through the 125×125 units in your sidebar and ask yourself whether or not they provide value to your readership. If you think about it, each one leads your reader away from your blog. If you’re interested in sharing these blogs with your readers, consider featuring a link within an actual post. First of all, it’s been rumored that the search engines (Google in particular) prefers web publishers to keep links to a max of 100 per page; second, it provides a better quality link to the blog you want to share, because it will include context. This might spare the need to center every button, and you’ll always have something to write about for those days when ideas seem short.
Another option you might consider is to create a resources page where you can share your favorites with your readers.
Finally, and you’ve probably heard me say this before, consider bumping your popular posts section up toward the top. This will act as a quick guide to your best content on your blog for new visitors.
Would love some input from you, Christopher.
Thanks.
Hey Mrs! Cool blog – I like your count down!
You have a really nice popular posts area in your sidebar, but it’s too far below other content to see it as a new visitor. Bump this area up if possible, as it will help visitors find your best content.
Your categories section is another area to boost if possible. This will convey what your blog is about, which helps people decide whether or not it’s for them.
One suggestion I’d consider is to remove some of the banners that have little to do with the content of your blog. Looking at your categories, it seems the GoDaddy, TurboTax, and SwagBucks has little relevance.
Thanks very much Christopher. I appreciate your input.
My pleasure, Mrs.
: )
If you’re offering count me in! http://www.homemademom.com.
I don’t know much about the giveaway scene, but it looks like your sidebar is pretty helpful in terms of pointing to the current giveaways, offering an email subscription option, and revealing a few of your most common tags.
Again, and I know I sound like a broken record here, consider amplifying your popular posts section a bit if possible. It may improve click-through rates, which will help people dig deeper into your blog.
Also, if you haven’t already, consider tacking the performance of the ad you’ve placed in the upper portion of your sidebar. There’s nothing wrong with ads, but if they aren’t converting for you, it might be better to promote your facebook page or twitter profile instead. Just an idea though – for all I know, you’re raking in the dough with that ad!
: ) Cheers, Heather B
one should arrange and design his sidebar with utmost care… I have seen people fill their sidebars with ugly ads… and the site feels cheap
or her*
: )
Apart from the sidebar, which has the Popular Posts section, I also installed LinkWithin at the bottom of every post. I’ve seen a rise in readership as a direct result of it.
http://www.scrollwork.blogspot.com
Do you think my sidebar is too distracting, though? Apart from the blog, I also use it promote my etsy shop and my Flickr photos. To me, all three pursuits are equally expressive of my worldview.
Hey there,
I really like the look of your blog – simple and welcoming! Nice job there. I also think the design of the sidebar elements help create a sleek presentation, which is essential when including a lot of function to your sidebar.
The first thing I noticed was that you’re pointing to the places where people can browse and buy your work – great job there. I’d consider bumping up your profile area waaaay up – the lower right hand side of your blog is most likely unfrequented by visitors. That goes for your subscription options as well, which are at the very bottom of the sidebar.
My general guideline is to keep the sidebar features to a minimum. For example, use it to share your online shops, popular posts, and your subscription options. Which features you include is up to you obviously, but when you include too many, it’s likely your visitor won’t see any of them.
Keep it simple. Keep it focused.
Would love to have your feedback on my blog please Christopher.
Hey Ian,
Nice to see the 2010 WordPress theme in action! It definitely creates an elegant welcome for new visitors.
Your sidebar looks good. The one thing I’d recommend for your sidebar is bumping up your subscription up from the very bottom to the very top. The lower right hand side of a blog is hardly noticed according to eye-tracking studies, so you’re probably not going to find much success building your readership with your form in that area.
Keep up the great work, Ian.
Simple change, big results. Thanks for your help!
My pleasure!
I started my blog to keep a record of my travels, but now I do want to attract and engage visitors. I feel like I don’t know what to do.
If your main topic is travel, think about what you have to offer other people interested in travel.
It’s all about creating helpful or entertaining content. Whether you decide to do one, the other, or a combination of the two will depend on your experience, voice, and style. Perhaps sharing personal stories that also provide readers with a few tips?
Your labels are pretty extensive on this blog, so perhaps it might be best to start anew?
That’s just one idea, but it might help you focus in on the type of content you want to create and the type of readers to which you want to provide that content. Remember, it’s all about the readers. It is possible to create a personal blog that some enjoy, but to attract the type of readers that subscribe and await your next post, you have to do it all for them. You have to create content all about your readers.
Just an idea, Tammi. You clearly have a passion for blogging, so either way, just do your thing and focus on your readers.
Hi Christopher,
I’m just wondering if you have any sidebar advice for very new blogs – blogs with only a handful of posts so far. I’m still in the pre-launch period of my new blog, but am aiming to have a few posts up when I launch so there’s already content for readers. Thing is, while I eventually want to include a “Popular Posts” or “Favourite Posts” widget in my sidebar, it’s going to look pretty silly if all of my “favourite posts” just so happen to be the only posts I’ve got so far.
With that said, I don’t want to miss an opportunity to draw readers deeper into my blog. What would you say is essential in the sidebar of a new blog, besides the obvious subscription options, bio, etc.?
Good question, Kait.
I’m probably not the best to answer, as I kinda just launched my blog without much planning … I didn’t figure I’d have readers and I’m always tweaking things here and there. I think a lot of bloggers make the early days of a blog a bigger deal than it has to be.
If you’re new to blogging or your niche (as I was), just focus on creating compelling content for future readers.
If I were to re-launch CreativeBlogger and I wasn’t allowed to change the sidebar for a month, I’d probably keep it as simple and bare as possible – I’d create an email subscription form and link to a welcome page, where I’d make it clear what I’d be writing about and how visitors could stay in touch.
Focus on the content. A sidebar shouldn’t be the main focus of you or your readers.
Hey Christopher,
Great post and I KNOW that my blog sidebar probably could use more love. I personally don’t like sites that are way too busy, that you can’t find your way around or they have too many advertisements all over it. So with keeping that in mind, I created mine to be more simple. I’ve gotten a few compliments because others like the same type look.
I know that it has a lot to be desired though. Like I use to have a resource page but recently took that down. I hardly ever had any visitors to that page so I changed that out. I probably need a widget for more popular posts and was thinking of putting a recent visitors one as well. But if you would like to take a look at it, I’m open for criticism…. Hey, I appreciate the help.
Thanks for this and I’ll be back again, this is my first visit and glad I stopped by.
Adrienne
Thanks for sharing your blog with us, Adrienne.
Your sidebar looks good. I’d bump up your affiliate 125’s above your recent posts, or scratch the recent posts all together. I’d also get rid of the ezine articles widget. Other than that, it looks good. Nice to see your subscription and ebook offer prominent at the top.
: D
Creative Blogger,
Great article …. and challenge accepted! If you feel like providing feedback on blog layouts, consider reviewing mine.
(I’m dropping this link single posts in this blog look a bit different from the main page).
As you can see, I’m not using a sidebar at all on individual posts. Rather, I turned into a …footerbar(?), because I want visitors to stay focused on the actual content – with no distractions all the way through.
There are some unusual dot-connecting choices I made that probably make little sense to you (such as removing all “previous post” and “next post” links), but no detail was left to chance, as strange as it may seem. Let me know your thoughts,
P.
Hey Pedro,
I think the footer works particularly well for your blog and the content you’re publishing. However, I wouldn’t say it’s helpful to visitors looking for more mid-way down the page. When a visitor’s interest wanes before reaching the footer, it’s probably safe to say they’re going to bounce.
It probably depends on the content and niche, so maybe you’re seeing a result that clashes with this?
Interesting approach though – similar to a landing page, but throughout the entirety of the blog. Risky, but possible effective.
Let us know how it’s working out for you.
In terms of the next post / previous post … it makes total sense. I don’t know anyone who uses those links.
Yeah… this is an unconventional approach I’m using, and there’s not sufficient data yet to draw any conclusions, since most of the details in this design were implemented within the last couple of months.
I do feel this way of presenting information makes it easier to focus the attention of visitors within specific posts, as well as channelling the flow of visitors inside the website.
Also, this template allows for a good deal of harmonious experimentation with different types of content in the same website (from inane blabbering to highly targeted sales copy), which is something I like doing.
You mentioned something interesting in your reply, which I’ll look into. For the more generalist, casual-browsing landing pages in the blog, it might be good serving some alternatives in the sidebar, in case the interest of the visitor wanes before scroolling down to the footer.
Thanks for the attention,
P.
Hi,
I just started my blog and I’m checking out ways to get it to grow and possibly just read by more than my boyfriend. I seem to have most of what you talked about but it would be great if you could check it out and let me know if my sidebar helps the visitors.
Thanks,
Mariajose(:
Hey M,
The best way to increase your readership is to publish the content your target reader wants to read. If you don’t have a clear sense of who your reader is, you should start by brainstorming on that aspect.
Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has recommended creating profiles for a few types of readers you want to attract, and I have to agree. Think about the person you want to subscribe to your blog – give them a face, their own interests, and a motivation to read your blog. Once you know who you’re writing for, you might find it easier to create content that attracts readers.
On top of that, it’s crucial you reach out to your social network of friends, including everyone here at FUEL, and let a few know about your post. The key is to let like-minded bloggers know about your content, with the hope that they will share your content with their friends. Tweet about your content, connect with strangers, and publish content that people are likely to link to (entertaining or helpful content).
Everyone starts out with one or two readers, and it usually includes a relative (thanks mom!) and themselves. Don’t get down on yourself, just stay motivated. I’ve only started CreativeBlogger a few months ago, so I’m right there with you. The key is simply to provide value (like I’ve been doing here at FUEL) and let your readers latch on to your content organically. If you find they aren’t connecting with your content, think about the content you’re publishing and whether or not you can improve it.
Best of luck to you! Stay in touch and keep us posted with how things go, Mariajose.
: )
Thanks so much. I have been “researching” ways in how to make my blog posts better and one of the things it said was to address things going on in your community hence my recent post on gas prices. I tried being a little informative and helpful hoping that it would attract more readers and after I shared the post on Facebook and Twitter, I realized it actually did help. I got two more people to read the post and actually like it. :)
The information I got on your post and the information that you just gave me now has been very helpful and there’s no doubt I will use it.
Thanks so much.
(Btw, you created this only a few months ago? It looks like you’ve had this for a while with the amount of comments I looked at. Great job promoting!)
I’m a regular contributor here at FUEL, it’s not actually my blog. You can see my blog at CreativeBlogger.net.
Thanks for participating, Mariajose. And I’m glad to hear you’ve experiencing success.
Hi my blog is two years old and the layout has evolved to what it is now. I always thought that the sidebar was a good place to place information but I understand that it can get too cluttered. Your article is really insightful and I plan to replace my ‘recent posts’ widget with ‘popular posts’ for a start.
I want to help new readers in particular find older content, hence the nav bar.
Aside from the recent posts change, please can you take a look at my sidebar and give suggestions on any improvements required.
http://www.fromnowtillido.com
Thanks
Everything looks really good, Chichi. :D
A few things I’d consider:
1. Bump your email subscription option (feedburner) to the top. This puts the option to stay in touch via email in front of your readers as much as possible, which is key to building a sustainable business online. The key is to leap-frog social networks and other platforms that enable us to connect, and connect directly. That way, if one platform goes down, we don’t lose as a side effect. That’s why building an email list is so important.
If you can, consider investing some time (and maybe money) into researching the various email list building tools, such as Aweber or MailChimp.
2. Live traffic feed … it’s a tool we’ve all loved at one point or another – it’s just really cool to see where people are visiting from – but in the end, it’s simply a tool for you, not your visitors. There are ways to track visitors behind the scenes, thereby creating a much cleaner, distraction-free experience for the user. Scratch it.
3. Previous posts (archives) … create a page specifically for your archives, and remove them from the sidebar. Again, it’s a distraction that users hardly use. However, if you see visitors making use of it, keep it. It all depends on the blog.
4. Google friend connect … scratch it. Google isn’t as cool as Facebook. People not on Google won’t be able to connect. Focus your efforts toward building your social following to Facebook.
5. Find us on Facebook … the banner below your badge is redundant as you’ve already made it clear you’re on facebook and provided a way for visitors to connect with you there.
6. Linking out … think about whether you’re two sections, books and daily reads, that link out to external sources are worth sharing. It’s never good to be a pagerank hog, but think about creating entire posts about each of the places you link to instead of having lists of links. Google isn’t fond of this, especially when they’re bunched so closely together. In addition, you’d be doing those other blogs and sites a favor by creating a little context around the links through the creation of a post, as search engines will understand what the link is about and figure that into their ranking. In essence, you might be able to clean up the sidebar and create more posts by focusing on identifying each one and providing them the attention you think they deserve.
Again, it looks great – these are just ideas! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your detailed feedback. I have taken onboard your comments and I’m currently implementing the changes.
One of the benefits of decluttering the sidebar is that the blog now loads faster as well.
Thank you!
Glad to hear it, Chichi!
Thanks for sharing it with us – it looks great, and helps focus the attention of visitors toward your content.
Cheers!
Hey guys – thanks for all your participation. I’m still looking to provide a few more critiques, so if you’re on the fence about sharing your blog here and receiving free feedback, share your blog here in the comments asap!
Also, if you have any other sidebar related questions, please feel free to post them here. If I can’t answer it, maybe a fellow blogger can!
Cheers!
You are kidding, right?
Now only did you NOT reply to my previous comment, but even went all the way and removed my links right off.
Well, you might as well have removed the comment itself, since it makes little sense without the links pointing to my website, whose layout I was actually hoping you review…. wasn’t that the idea here, really?
Or was I supposed to sign with a feminine name to be entitled to some thoughtful feedback around here? Certainly seems so.
Hey Pedro – my bad man. The link you provided was caught in moderation. Reply to this and I’ll add it to your previous comment.
Ok, I guess there was no reason for me to sound so bitter over something like this, but I was angry over something else when I noticed this post was removed. No harm / no foul… ok?
You are welcome to remove these final comments if you’d like, and if you don’t mind just add my website link to the original comment. I’ll get back there and add my considerations to your reply.
Sounds good, Pedro. Hope all is well on your end, and I’m looking forward to chatting more.
:D
Sup Chris! You can check mine out if you want. Some critique would be awesome. Btw, I am still working on that Twitter/Feedburner thing we talked about. I wrote a PHP script that fetches both values, now just gotta do some Photoshop/CSS work and plug it all in. Should be seeing it released on my site in a week or two.
Awesome! Looking forward to seeing it – as I’m sure a lot of people are.
I love the design of your blog! Very welcoming and organized. The only thing I might consider in terms of your sidebar is thinking about whether or not you need the “sections” area. The best place to highlight the major areas of your blog is in the main navigation – and you’ve done that with the header.
As you might have noticed from the previous critiques above, I’m a big proponent of the popular posts widget over the recent posts widget … but that’s just my personal preference. The only other thing I can think of is the recent discussions widget … any way to include a preview of the actual discussion? It’s cool to give commenter a little extra exposure on your front page, but it doesn’t really work as a means of compelling me to learn more as I imagine a snippet or preview of the actual discussion might.
What’s actually even cooler than your post is the fact, that you really take the time to go through all the submissions here. I’m impressed :-)
But back to your post. Decent points (ha!) actually and quite good advice. Got me thinking for some of my projects. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for checking it out, Sascha. Be sure to check back for the next post for more.
Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your work everyone – I’m still looking to write up 10 more free critiques, so if you have a blog and you held off from sharing it here because you weren’t sure if you were ready … now’s the time to go for it.
Post a link to your blog here in the comments section, and I’ll check it out and give you some feedback regarding your sidebar.
Here’s to you!
Ok, I’ll bite. Here is my site http://www.johndimo.com.
I’m sorta new to this even though I started my blog more than a year ago. I haven’t really decided on what topics to really concentrate on at the moment, so I just post whatever is on my mind here and there.
Hey John – thanks for giving it a go!
I really like your theme … not sure I’ve ever seen it before, is it custom? The one thing I’d recommend in terms of improving the sidebar of your blog is boosting that awesome looking popular posts section you have. Though the multi-function widget (gray) provides this feature with one of the tabs, I’m personally more attracted to the more linear version.
Other than that, awesome work. I think you do need to hone your topics if you hope to attract a dedicated readership, but then again, it just depends on the mix of topics you’re discussing.
Hope all is well.
Hey thanks for the kinds words! You may be right, I’ll probably end up pushing up the popular post widgets a bit higher up. As far as the design goes, it is the mystique theme for wordpress. It has a lot of customization options so I opted to tweak things so it didn’t too much like the default settings.
And I agree, my blog is like an identity crisis. I’m just posting random stuff until I can settling into 1 or 2 major topics to write about. Creativeness in terms of ideas has never been my strong suit and I’m trying to change that. I simply love the idea of putting my thoughts out their for others to read and possibly enjoy reading.
Right on!
Hey Christopher,
My blog is brand new, so I’m working the kinks out. It has a sidebar and a permanent “About” section across the top.
http://deniselnichols.com/
A couple of things I’m planning to add to the sidebar:
-Add a popular posts section after I have more posts on the blog
-Add a link to purchase fine art prints (any recommendations on where to sell work online?)
-Add e-book products
Thanks so much for your time & I’m looking forward to digging further into your Creative Blogger site.
Cheers! Denise
Hey Denise,
Thanks for reading — both FUEL and CreativeBlogger — I hope they help!
I really like the simplicity of your front page — giving the visitor the choice whether to explore your portrait work or pet work makes it easy to find what we’re interested in, which I’m guessing potential clients are either interested in one or the other as opposed to both … at least in the beginning.
I opted to check out your portrait side of the blog, and found it helpful as it was to the point and well presented. Good job there, and excellent photographic work, too — quite the eye you have!
:)
Hi Christopher,
Could you help me in optimizing my side bar. The ad in the side bar does not give much hits as the ones at the center and end of the post. So i was thinking of shifting the side bar ad to the top of my post below the title (as soon as i learn how to do it). What else can i do besides adding the popular post widget in the side bar?
Thanks Chris and your post is really great and helpful.
Hey Sanjiv,
Looks like you’ve already bumped up your ad to the upper portion of your sidebar — how did that reflect in ad clicks?
It will all depend on your traffic, of course, but I think this will help you increase your ad rev a by at least a few clicks here and there. You will probably see even more rev by including the ad at the header of each post, but doing this risks losing the interest of readers, as it’s highly distracting from the content and readers simply avoid that type of content all together.
Let us know what you see!
And hey Christopher,
Sanjiv again. Here’s another thought where you could advise me. I could put the side bar on the left so that the side bar ad could give me better clicks. Your advise is important on this one.
Hey Sanjiv — looks like I missed this one before addressing your comment above! Anyway, again it depends on the traffic — a lot of people find that the ad network ppc model doesn’t bring in enough to sustain, because only those experiencing a plethora of hits every day will likely be able to sustain based on ppc alone. The reason for this is simply due to the how inexpensive clicks are and the cut the ad network rewards the publisher in exchange for the ad space.
Consider selling your ad space directly if you’re looking to create rev from advertising … otherwise, you will need to build traffic upward toward 6 and maybe even 7 digits.