A blogs sidebar can be used for many things, personally, I like to think of it as “real estate” and a gateway to more of my sites content. The “area above the fold” (this means before you scroll on the page) is one of the first eye catching areas and as “Google” will tell you prime ad space.
I have over the last 7 months tweaked Powerful Mothering‘s sidebars a lot!
Today I would like to share with you some things I have read, learned and realized about the sidebar on my blog.
In no particular order:
Determine the average length of your posts and adjust your sidebar to the size. Having an extremely lengthy sidebar that only 2 or 3 people will see is kind of pointless if it drags the load time of your page up. For my blog I determined that on average I post 4-6 pictures per post with text and that is how long my sidebar is.
Having an About Me is one of those things that I feel should not be left out. Readers like to connect with people, hear what and who they are reading about. Try including a picture of yourself as well, us humans are very visual. You will want to have this very close to the top of your side bar.
Prime above the fold advertising can bring in some nice revenue if you place the correct types of advertising. Try to place things your readers will be interested in, these usually get the highest clicks. Use affiliate ad networks, sell the ad space on passion fruit or set up a google related content ad. Scattering ads lower in your sidebar can also bring in revenue.
Having your social links and buttons easily accessible is important for gaining followers for your blog. Check out our DIY social icons set up if you need some help.
Offering a Newsletter or new post notification EMAIL sign up connects you to readers who follow your blog. Check out places like feedburner, mail chimp (we have a how to for multiple blogs here), mad mini and my favorite that I personally use, a plugin for wordpress called Wysija.
Proudly display products you offer near the top of your sidebar.
Doing button swaps with bloggers in your niche can also bring in new readerships.
I love nothing more than readers reading MORE of my posts! I set up a selected few featured posts in my sidebar to bring more interest to other posts on my blog. This is also a great way to bring attention to older posts.
Display your most popular posts, after all they are popular for a reason!
Have things that you are passionate about that you think your readers will associate with.
Get rid of out dated stuff! No one wants to see things from 2011 in 2013, it makes your blog look stale and neglected.
Keep your blogs sidebar neat and visually appealing, do your best to align and scale things you include in it. Try to keep flashing ads and graphics to a minimum. If you are on wordpress search for widgets to help you manage things.
I have also recently included links to my categorys in my sidebar so that readers don’t have to scroll back to the top, I find that most people do not know about the “to top” arrow in the lower right corner.
Here is a screenshot of some of the current sidebar. Pop over to view it live here.
Here is a list of the plugins I use for my sidebar:
Ads by datafeedr.com – Randomly display any type of advertisement anywhere on your site. Add rotating banner ads, Google Adsense, videos, text links and more to your sidebar, widget areas, posts and pages.
Ad Squares Widget – The Ad Squares Widget makes it possible for you to display 125×125 ad squares ( or some other configurable size ad, advertisement, banner ) into a widget-ready bar for WordPress®. It supports AdSense®, Javascript, XHTML and more.
Popularity Posts Widget – Allows you to show your most viewed posts as a widget on your blog.
Wysija Newsletters – Create and send newsletters. Import and manage your lists. Add subscription forms in widgets, articles and pages. Wysija is a freemium plugin updated regularly with new features.
WP MashSocial Wigdet – A beautiful widget inspired by Mashable to be used in sidebar, it allows you to add your Pinterest, G+ , Twitter , Facebook and Feeds Subscription in it.
PassionFruitAds.com – I paste the ad scripts provided by them into text widgets. No ads lined up no ads are displayed.
My theme for my blog allows me to have 2 separate sidebars, one just for the home page and one for posts.
I hope you found this run down about my sidebar helpful and that you are better able to keep your readers on your site or have them click on value added products and services you offer.
Can you place widgets above the fold on WordPress.com?
I have no idea 🙂 Have you tried to google it? I’m sure there are people wanting to do just that
I am now following you from bloglovin’, and I am glad I read this. I know I need to get my blog into shape, and this is something I need to find out more about!
Hello dear! new bloglovin follower from the hop!
Stop by whenever you like and share some love!
xoxo
Coco et La vie en rose
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I would love for you to share and link up at my weekly TGIF Link Party if you haven’t already this week. Your favorite posts, most popular, recent or new! The party is open every Thursday night and closes Wednesday’s at midnight. Followed by (Not SO) Wordless Wednesday! http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/. Hope you will join us! Have a wonderful week!
Hugs, Cathy
This post is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for sharing! Question:Which software do you use to create/ediit your pictures for your post?
I use awesome screenshot to take in browser screen shots and I either use pic monkey (free) or Fireworks (similar to photoshop) to edit images 🙂
omg. Clearly, not often enough! There are some really valuable tips here, Nicolette, and I intend to do some updating of my sidebar when I’m off this summer! Thank you!
Thanks Jackie! Glad I could help 🙂
looks like I’m okay then
Great news!
Great advice. I think it’s important to constantly look at your sidebar as well. Every now and then (like now!), I realized it’s time to do some updating and/or cleaning up. Thanks for the resources at the end.
A pleasure!
Such good advice – I know I have some work to do on my blog sidebar to get it fixed up!
I agree with your tips. I may have gotten a little carried away with my sidebar, but it’s working for me right now. We will see how it goes and I will remember to keep it updated. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for the great tips on how to improve a sidebar! I like your first tip on determining the length of the average post. I’ve never thought about it that way and it makes a lot of sense!
I was just working on my sidebar last night! These are great tips – the sidebar is such an important tool to help people get to know the blogger. 🙂
Great tips! I’m going to have to check on some of these plug-ins. Thanks for sharing.
Estelle
Thanks for the information!
Great food for thought, Nicolette…the sidebar is an area that I think often gets ignored. Like a garden, it can become overgrown and needs to be pruned from time to time!
o it is! love the thought of it as a garden 🙂
Great post. I have been trying to clean up my sidebar for the past week or so. But it is a work in progress. It is hard to get rid of things sometimes too.
interesting to read! I change my sidebars like I change my shoes! all the time
This is an awesome post! Very very helpful and started me to check on my blog side bar.
This is now on my to-do list this for the holiday tomorrow. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
I just redesign my blog last weekend and cleaned up the a LOT! I had too many redundant buttons and too may pictures. I too added the about me widget and then consolidated everything into buttons. Still a lot of categories, archives that I may hide eventually…. What do you think?
can you maybe condense them a bit? Like a highlighted section 🙂
Thanks!
Did I mention; love that first graphic too ;o) Totally pin worthy!
Thanks!
Awesome post! Love these tips! You completely pulled me in with that first paragraph (I never even thought of this)! I’ll have to do a site check and make the necessary changes :o) Thanks for sharing! I’m pinning now to my blogging board and group board!
Awesome! There are so many things to learn about just everything blogging related. Find new things weekly 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I like to keep a really clean blog on my personal blog without ads and such but I do have a couple blogs I monetize and you have some great suggestions! I think the best thing is to give people several ways to get somewhere on your site.
Do you have any widgets that you would suggest for blogger blogs?
J
Thanks for stopping in!
Unfortunately I do not know of any blogger based widgets. Hopefully someone will be able to leave a comment for you 🙂