Eliminate Blog Clutter
Posted on 02. Aug, 2008 by Benjamin Patton in Blogging Tips
As you can probably see their are some changes going on here to the blog. Think of it as a live update. While the majority of work is done their is still a good list of things that will be changed and or adjusted. I hope everyone enjoys the new logo design as well as its placement in the new header. In a later post I will reveal who is doing this work for me and how you can commission him to revamp your site too. If you know I ask you do not spoil before the official post.
One of the many tasks I have appointed myself to do in the mean time is to eliminate my blog clutter. Items that would otherwise just be there to exist. These to your reader are a turn off especially when they go all the way down and around your blog. So in the interest of keeping your blog popular and well read I have decided to lend you a hand it making sure your blog is not clutter.
Something to keep in mind while deploying and maintaining your blog is the old adage “You only get one chance to make a first impression” This is also very true of your blog and its prospective readers. You see this is doubly important for your blog as you may get a second chance more times often than not you will not. It is in your best interest to approach every possible issue you can handle with your blog from this impression.
During my latest trip through the blogosphere I have noticed that many blogs just did not have their thinking cap on during the design phase and leaves me to ask what were they thinking? If you are distracted from the main content on the site by shout boxes, overly flashy advertisements and other random noobish things happening how are you going to retain anyone? If you feel like you are on focus overload while trying to pay attention to the text on your blog you know you have a problem. That is to much clutter.
Some of the easiest mistakes made by bloggers with their side bar are to throw every possible widget and cool little gizmo’s into it. You really must put yourself in your viewers shoe’s for this and ask what they would think of all your clutter and trash jammed into the sidebar a.k.a. dump. Obviously this has a very negative effect on your visitors experience and while some may weather the storm your new readers arriving daily may just keep clicking through without actually seeing your content because of this.
A new potential viewer which has stumbled upon your blog is really only looking for only two things. The answer to their search and any excuse to never visit your site for not having the answer to their search. If your blog’s design, structure, layout, and content does not give them the answer they want, you have given them just cause to bounce away fast. You have just lost a potential dedicated reader, commentator, lead, etc because of clutter.
Some things to take warning about putting on your site without good reason or above average deployment which can drive away your potential new traffic:
Archives in the sidebar.
This is a tricky one while some blogs can pull this off it is better to put a scanable replacement in its place to showcase your better posts.
Anything that blinks.
Some animation is OK, but if I am on the borderline for a seizure? Use commonsense.
Useless widgets that tell the time and temperature.
We all know about these. When we first started our blog we were looking for something fun and novel to add to the excitement on our blog in hopes of encouraging a return visit from our new found viewers. It does not work. Remove these and focus on your content.
Music you can not turn off.
Their is never an excuse for music on a web page unless its youtube, google video or the likes. No one is ever prepared and its 100% not cool for those of us that cruise the blogosphere at work. Remove this post haste!
Posts that do not stop but run the entire length on the main page.
This is my pet peeve. I really hate going to a well written blog that FORCES me to scroll for no reason for like five minutes to see the content and bottom of the page. Take a Que from me and use your <!–More–> attribute in wordpress to make it an excerpt instead of listing 10 dam pages on the front page. 
TY!
To many posts on the front page.
This goes hand in hand with the above mentioned. Along with posts that go on forever are the blogs that have their entire catalog on the front page. STOP THIS! list 5-10 of your recent posts and make use of a featured post or acrhived post plugin to show off past content instead.
Overmonetization.
We have all seen those blogs with 1% content and 99% ad’s. Find a good balance and stick to it. If you are over monetizing your new readers will think your only in it for the financial gain.
Service and Friend Badges.
Another phenom I have noticed as of late is that everyone has 900 badges for every service they use, and just about anything else. I do not want to see your stats for technorati, your back links for Y! or your PR. I have an seo plugin for Fire Fox and google toolbar/alexa toolbar Trust me I know how bad your analytic’s are. Remove this and focus on your content and let the content drive the numbers.
Twitter, Plurk, etc.
This is debatable. I recently removed my friends time line from twitter and at first it was painful, but for readers that are new to the site it improved the overall first time experience by at least a factor of ten. Most of these services cause your blog to load slowly which in itself is really bad, and they can add off key content to your blog that can drive away potential readers.
Shout boxes.
These things are a little redundant on a blog don’t you think? I mean we post sometimes more than once daily, and have sections for commentation, top commentators and even personal contact information. Why do you need this? Get rid of it and focus on the content instead of the novelty.
The writing that is in the sidebar is important to creating an outstanding first impression. They should support and represent the content found within the blog and its purpose, just as a featured post, and your last 10 posts or so as I have done here.
If you operate under the premise that your content>the rest of your site you will be taking the first step to letting the most important part of the page sell your blog. While other key elements and nifty gadgets are acceptable moderation is the key. Be simple and clean whenever you can. A blog which is to busy is often flying lower in terms of visitors than it should.
I challenge you to audit your own blog and let us know what you found that was clutter or no longer needed. Did your readers like the changes?
What are some things you absolutely dislike when visiting a blog?
Related posts:
- 20 Tips For A Better Blog
- How To Avoid Common Theme, Layout And Color Scheme Mistakes
- Organizing Your Creative Process To Blog Effectively
- Blog Networking
- Keep Your Blog At Work While You Relax On Vacation….
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Big Ben Patton
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EmmaB
Yeaaaaah boyeeeeeee….I went through this myself. You should have seen my blog in the beginning! I had mad adverts, flashy banners, and widgets that could tell you what to cook for dinner! Okay…maybe not that much, but it was bad.
One day I looked at my site and just decided “NO”, and started trimming. I still trim what I don’t need and try to keep it very clean.
Great post….you sure you don’t wanna know my PR lol
JK Swopess last blog post..How to Develop An Efficient Blog Commenting Strategy
@JK I will NEVER forget your video on the subject with your PR “Certificate” That was a priceless moment for me.
Ugh, i think my blog falls under some of these. I am currently contemplating a redesign though.
Hopefully i can make it so that it loads nicely
EmmaBs last blog post..5 DoFollow WordPress Plugins-UTOW is now NofollowFree!
Great points! I agree absolutely on the music that does not turn off. That drives me crazy!
heidis last blog post..Need Energy? Give These Healthy Foods A Try!
Hey Ben,
A frequent visitor here, but a new commenter.
This post is definitely a quality one. Some people are way to obsessed with the widgets that the blog does not load in a few seconds. You know what that means. 
Exit.
Speaking of… Did you check out some of those blogs on Entrecard campaigns page? Great bloggers, but again, a LOAD of widgets.
Statics last blog post..Stop Reading and Try It!
@emmab its all part of your blogs evolution no biggie just keep chipping away and eventually you will be there. In my opinion a blog is never finished.
@Heidi I really really cant stand music in webpages lol.
@Static Welcome to the commentors section
And yes I did and yes thats partially what inspired this post people have gone overkill. novelty is ok, overkill is not.
i really love the redesign ;D pretty sweet
narendra.s.vs last blog post..Designing a good forum
Thank you so much! I hope many people learn a lesson from this! I hate all of this too!
The thing I hate most is probably the music you can’t turn off. Though I know someone who hates it more than me and would flip out at it, the music on there is very annoying.
I also hate how people just stuff the page, with whatever, just junk. You can barely get to the content, it is all messed up and there are things every where. This is called a 99% full blog, but trust me, I also hate the 1% full with the rest empty space.
It’s easy to put all sort of stuff, especially on a WordPress blog with thousand of available widgets out there. As bloggers, we often forget what’s really important and what readers come for: good, clean and readable content. Good article and I like your new design.
excellent article.I agree with the music you can’t stop.If I visit a website of any kind not just blogs were music automatically starts I leave immediatly.Myspace pages are the worse.I avoid myspace like the plague