< 6 web design tips to remember : Embarking on a website redesign >
Happy New Year! Yesterday I explained how to make resolutions that you'll actually stick to. Today, I'm going to focus on one specific idea that I think we should all do from time to time - reducing the clutter on our sites.Don't bury your content!
Since I joined Entrecard, I've been looking a lot more blogs than I used to. I've found some excellent blogs along with some blogs that didn't do anything for me. Sometimes I'm just not interested in the subject matter.
Unfortunately, I've come across some blogs that I would keep visiting if they didn't use quite so much clutter. MyBlogLog / BlogCatalog visitors, ads, buttons, links to other sites, social bookmarking links... well, they're quite common, and there's nothing wrong with these really. At least not until you use all of them at once and readers can barely see the content of your blog.
If you use up more space on ads than you do on your blog content, it's a major turn-off.
Do you really need all those ads?
Ads are common on the net. If you make money from ads, then that's great. However, if you're new to blogging and you start by putting loads of ads on your site, it's just too much.
Start out slow and try a couple of ads at a time. Give each ad a few months to see how it performs. Remember that you may do better as more people find your blog, assuming you write good content of course. If an ad isn't doing anything for you, pull it. Then you can use that spot for a different ad.
The theory that you can cover more ground by putting up more ads is not usually true, because too many ads will drive away potential readers unless your content is absolutely outstanding. Yes, you should publish good content, but don't hinder your chances by filling every available space with ads.
Copycat sites beware!
I have recently noticed a lot of "make money online" sites that look a bit too similar to John Chow dot com to become credible sites in their own right. I have even come across a few sites that include the following in their design:
- A banner at the top with a picture of a car.
- A content area on the left that is 75%-80% wide.
- An area on the right that is 20%-25% wide with two columns of square ads, mostly the same as John Chow's ads.
Aside from simply being a copycat site and therefore lacking originality, the problem with copying other sites is that any issues with their current design will be inherited into your design. If the original site decides that certain ads don't work, that the ads should move around, or that they want to completely change their site, you'll be the one who is left behind on an inferior design.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but copying someone else's design this closely is a really bad idea. Do your own design and find what works for you.
Question every item on your site.
Do you need that ad? Does that script benefit your readers? Could you organise your links a bit more neatly? Do you really need to have a dozen social bookmarking links on every post?
Question everything! Leave no stone unturned.
What do you think?
Have you done any housekeeping on your blog or website? Do you plan to? What will you be changing? What do your readers think?
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Tags: clutter, ads, widgets, links, entrecard, housekeeping, mybloglog, blogcatalog, social bookmarks, copycat sites
Posted by Ben on January 01, 2008 12:44 / Edited: Never
Comments
Thanks for the comment Bruce. :) Good luck with your new blog!
Very thoughtful post Ben. (you know, I only started seriously reading your blog every since the comment comp.)
It reminded me to pull something out of my backlog and post it:
blog.jdonuts.com
I completely agree that there are too many small sites with too much advertising and that REALLY spoils the experience. Too many people look up to JC, try to do what he does but fail - because they aren't JC and never will be.
The MMO segment is flooded with sites and tacky advertising. I'll stick to Japan, Jokes & Traffic.
Thanks for the comment, Contamination. :) Glad I did that competition! Also, it's good to see you've registered - hopefully you'll find that the benefits of registering are worthwhile.
Your blog post is a good one. Sites need to stand out - copying someone else is not the way to do this. It seems like everyone wants to make money but too many people think they can get away with not writing good content. It doesn't work!
Great post you got here. Now I'm thinking twice if i should put down the ads on my site. I'm not really getting any from those things it's just that they look colorful and I wanted to add a bit decoration in my site..
Maybe I should put them down. Care to comment on my theme and my layouts..etc on my blog so I know which ones to remove.
Thanks! I appreciate it.
Thanks for the comment, webster. :) You do seem to have a lot of ads on your site. In fact you have quite a lot of other bits and pieces too.
To get started, I would suggest removing the following things:
- The college advertisement.
- The chatbox.
- The sitemeter and live stats buttons. (Try Google Analytics instead - no need to put a button on the site, just put the script on your page.)
- Remove the PayPal and Contact Me sections.
- Replace About Me with a separate About page, or just have the link.
- Remove Bookmark this Blog.
- Remove Web News.
- Remove any of the four ads under Affiliates that are not doing anything for you. You could just keep one of them although personally I would try to find some different ads. John Chow has some good suggestions - click on his Recommended Moneymakers link.
- Remove the free traffic ad - but KEEP Entrecard. That's a good one!
- Remove the Feedburner counter until you have more readers. (I recently removed mine - it's best not to show it until you have 50+.)
- Remove My Communities.
- Having removed all of the above bits and pieces, combine the two columns into one and make your content area larger.
That isn't everything, but it should tidy things up a bit. Hope this helps.
This and a couple of other blog posts had me looking at reducing clutter awhile ago. What I found that really works is a combination of scrolling scripts and adding three columns to my footer. I have most of the clutter hidden or packed away at the bottom, or both. It looks much better. Thanks for making this post and getting me inspired to find a solution. :)
Thanks for the comment, Laura - glad you found this useful. :)
Thanks for this article. I worked on my site quite a bit recently and even though it is far better than before, I secretly hate some of it.
Now I am feeling not so bad about streamlining it.
Stacy - welcome. :) Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you found it useful. I see no need for clutter - even a very tidy site can have more things than most people will notice, let alone benefit from. Don't worry about being very strict with what stays and what goes!
Great Post Ben,
We are in the midst of starting a type of Blog review site (I know it's been done a million times but I've been surfing since '93 and think I can make a worthy one).
All of your tips are right on the money!