i've read a few articles and blog entries about sidebars and what should be contained in them, but now i'm wondering whats the best order to put things in and is it ok to have a scrolling div for something really long like my blogroll? im starting out with blog design and any comments would be really helpful of course it would be better if you could see what i have right? but i'm kinda shy :blush: but even still, being shy doesn't get you anywhere, so here's a link to my blog comments on design only please, and most particularly the sidebar, whats the best practice for a sidebar etc. and dont mind the content thanks!
Nice looking site you have there belledumonde In my sidebar I have: Search Box Category List Translate buttons Newsletter Sign Up Syndicate Links Affiliate Buttons Blog Ads Blog Roll Popular Searches link It's getting a bit full at the moment so I plan to modify the template to hve the 2 sidebars on the right. When I want to bring attention to anything I move it to the top of the sidebar.
There seems to be something odd going on at the top of your main body content and sidebar belledumonde (in IE6) - see the attached screengrab... I select my sidebar content depending on the website requirements. On Watch This! for example I've just got: - social bar - fuzzy recent posts - fuzzy recent comments
I try to keep it as clean as possible. I'm a bit weird that way. I don't like anything on my kitchen cupboards, and I don't like unnecessary stuff in my sidebar. The most important thing to have in mine is my opt-in form at the very top.
it depends on your intent. if you're a hobby or social blogger it doesnt really matter. if you're blogging for income, you'll want to maybe put affiliate links there, an opt-in to your mailing list, useful resources so your visitors will keep coming back. if you have an excessively long blog roll or have too many outbound links, you're going to hurt your Google PR. you can use the tools at iwebtool.com to check your predicted google PR, the backlinks, etc.
I have a search box, an advertisement box and a category list. I like having my blog as clean as possible. It might get messy once I get the hang of blogging.
My Blog www.chattous.com has 2 sidebars (3 column theme) so i place many things in it : Links in 3 diff. categories, recent comments, a calender, blog rankings, ads, affiliate link images, and recent posts
i never found use for the calendar, i usually cut the code out or comment it out. how've you been using it sizzler?
thanks dct! i hope it does look nice to others, i just wanted it to be simple and kinda girly, thats a lot you have in your sidebar. i haven't seen it, maybe you can provide a link? but it sounds like 2 sidebars might be the way to go for you. thanks for the heads up in the behaviour of the site in IE6 revsorg, i'd appreciate it if anyone would notify me of problems they encounter with the site! to everyone else about keeping it clean, i've tried to do that with the new style on the sidebar and also by consolidating subscription buttons into one using feedburner. anyone have anything against this? how do i get a calendar? sounds like a nice feature. thanks!
Mine is www.coolest-gadgets.com and a redesign is a coming. You could add your blogs feed URL to your profile here so that a link to your latest post displays next to your username.
You don't always need a sidebar in a blog, i prefer my catagory drop down menu on my site, as it looks cleaner and I prefer this for my design on my blog.
in my personal blog : About Me Links Affiliates Blog Word Shoutbox Time Weather Mozilla Refferal Previous Post Archive
btw: the admin controls eg to register, login, etc, it's advisable to take the unnecessary out. i used linktemple.com to isolate the PR leakages and discovered that XFN is fairly redundant. not many people i know use it and it just sucks the PR out (it's a PR4 or PR5 i think) and doesn't give you PR back... if you want to link to lots of stuff, you could create a links page and list the stuff there, especially things like your ranking on a blog directory. it totally serves no purpose, unless you get a kick out of showing you're rank #6 on some directory and again, sucks the PR away from your site. i'd much rather trade a trackback to get more bang (organic traffic and PR) for my (hardearned PR) buck.
My blog's sidebar is cluttered and massive: www.swollenpickles.com I know I should cut it back, but I just can't do it!
if my blogroll is powered by bloglines using a script, then its ok isn't it? because the SE read the pages and they wont find any links there. will they? thanks! and to sizzler_chetan, how are making that calendar, im looking at the source code and is it done manually?? or have you implemented a script i might be able to find online? or does it come with your hosted blog? thanks.
Heya belledumonde, yeah, if you have javascript, then it's ok from a SEO perspective. using RSStoJavascript is ok too and wont leak yr PR.