I de-clusterized my sidebar. Are you happy now?
I am. I still have stuff over there, but not as much.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll chop and prune and pull up some more weeds. I said maybe.
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After Holly’s question and Extreme John’s less than subtlety I finally took a hint. Okay, they may or may not have been referring to me when they wrote their posts. Either way, I listened.
Here is what I removed:
Facebook Networked Blogs Widget – I really don’t need Networked Blogs AND a Fan Page widget, so one had to go. Maybe I’ll create a social media page instead.
Amazon Lightning Deals/Deals of the Day Widget – I like this one, but no one ever buys anything from Amazon from my site. I did leave the link to free and inexpensive mp3’s.
A few random blog buttons – I know blog buttons are a great way to get a visual out there of your blog, but too many on any page just slows down loading.
AJAX Random Post widget – I like that this would pull up random crap posts from last week, last month, or even last year. A great way to expose your old posts to new visitors. I don’t know if anyone actually clicked these. The reason I removed it, I couldn’t figure out how to shorten the post excerpts. When I figure it out I will probably put it back. For now, it’s outta there!
My site is loading a bit faster now. Yippee!
Last week I removed the Featured Content Slider as the images were not lining up correctly which annoyed me. I figure if I was annoyed others might be as well.
This is a shame since this was one feature I really wanted for my site. Once removed my page load time improved, so it can’t all be bad.
Why can’t things just work the way we want?! The first time? The last time? Any time?
Finally, I reduced the number of post excerpts. I had 20 due to the featured post slider. Without the slider it was just too much [in my opinion]. I reduced the number to 11.
Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, mail – upgrade it,- Daft Punk, Technologic
What do you think?
Did you notice the changes? Is the load time faster? the same? slower?
Does the site look better? worse? the same?
Suggestions?
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image courtesy of Big Fat Rat
Sire (29)
Rose (25)
Dave Doolin (15)
Mitch (10)
Ms. Freeman (10)
Heather Kephart (9)
Jannie Funster (9)
Anne Moss (8)
Extreme John (8)
jan geronimo (8)
I don’t generally pay attention to sidebars but since you’ve drawn my eye over there, I’ll tell you what I think.
It looks nice and clean.
That is all.
Dwippy.
Dwippy shares some words of wisdom ..PR 0 A-H
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Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
@Dwippy, Thank you, Dwippy. That is my goal.
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Another great post by you, thank you! I have been reading here for some time and finally decided to give some credit where it is due, thank you again.
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Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:04 am
@Linda, Thank you, Linda.
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Your sidebar looks clean to me. I only have 3 widgets on my sidebar; Categories, Recent Comments, and Recent Posts. But that is because my blog is still new. Maybe when my blog has grown, I may have to de-clusterize too.
Mr. Cheesy shares some words of wisdom ..Love Letter Template
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 9:05 am
@Mr. Cheesy, It’s so easy to get carried away with pretty shiny things to put on your blog. I know I have made many adjustments and like my space a little better each time.
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Twitter: AussieSire
says:
The only sidebars I’m interested in is the ones that serve food and drinks. We are talking about bars we find on the side aren’t we?
LOL just kidding Anne. It looks good to me. I got rid of a whole lot of widgets ages ago as they weren’t really doing anything and slowed the site down to boot. Nothing wrong with a bit of spring cleaning, even if it isn’t spring.
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Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:06 am
@Sire, Exactly! I need to remove Project Wonderful, but was so hoping to collect my meager earnings first. I may just start advertising and use it up instead.
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Sire
Twitter: AussieSire
Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
@Anne, I’ve still got project wonderful on one of my blogs. I’ve taken some of my earnings and will remove it once I cashed out the next lot.
Sire shares some words of wisdom ..Where The Bloody Hell Are You…….
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Twitter: extremejohn
says:
Haha I don’t want to be held responsible for you changing up your blog! Haha just kidding, I will say that your blog loaded much faster for me today and the sidebar looks great
Extreme John shares some words of wisdom ..What Should My 1000th Post Be?
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 9:08 am
@Extreme John, It’s all about signs. When I keep reading the same thing I figure maybe I should start looking at my little home here and what can be improved. Glad it loads faster for you. Maybe more people will come by and peruse now.
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Twitter: Happymaker
says:
Doing some Winter sprucing, Anne.
I thought it looked great before, and it looks great now. I don’t notice a difference in load time, but I never notice those things unless they’re just awful.
I just feel sad that you removed some features that you really liked.
But I’m happy that you feel lean and mean!
Heather Kephart shares some words of wisdom ..Life returns to normal
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 9:10 am
@Heather Kephart, I like that, ‘lean and mean’.
I really hoped the slider would work for me, but it annoyed me more than anything. I’ll just enjoy the one I have over on my writing blog instead. 
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Twitter: Bloggertalk
says:
Your sidebar looks clean, not that it was too bad before.
Rose shares some words of wisdom ..How to setup a 301 Redirect in Wordpress
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
@Rose, I started paying more attention to the sidebars of the blogs I frequent and found mine is about middle of the road as far as clutter. At least my blog seems to be loading faster now.
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Twitter: wchingya
says:
Anne, first of all good job on de-cluttering. It’s the issue like this I feel like changing theme and start over. lol.. Yeah, house-cleaning is good but when it comes to coding in WP, I’m a little scared.
Frankly, I think the sidebar is better although before this it doesn’t seem too clutter to me either. ^^ At least now you can focus on promoting what truly matters in/outside your blog, so hurray!
For me, yes I may need to do some cleaning. The trial period of infolinks on my site is almost over so I think by next month that’ll be gone. Don’t think that’ll change any loading speed though.
Overall, good job on the clean up.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Ching Ya shares some words of wisdom ..7 Productive Things To Do When You Can’t Blog
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
@Ching Ya, Thank you. There are so many great themes available sometimes it’s hard to pick the right one. And it’s worse when you do a little tweaking and think another theme may be better. I like some of the really clean no sidebar themes, but I would like to share a little more than just my posts. Sometimes too many choices is a bad thing.
I’ve never added Infolinks and after Holly’s post on it I’ve avoided it altogether. Not sure how it would affect load time.
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I go back and forth with widgets here and there. I added the tag widget because, well, I think it looks pretty cool, but I doubt anyone ever even takes a look at it. Truthfully, I don’t think I have tons of stuff, but my bookmarks widget makes it look like there’s lots of stuff there. But I’m not giving that up.
Yours looks nice, and I’m glad it’s running faster.
Mitch shares some words of wisdom ..King Holiday #24
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
@Mitch, Is the bookmarks widget the one on the left? If so, then I don’t think it clutters your site. You don’t have a bunch of different ads everywhere. It all ties in nicely to what you post. I wouldn’t give it up either.
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Mitch Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:22 am
@Anne, Thanks. Actually, I meant my blogroll, which is to the right, along with the tags cloud thing.
Mitch shares some words of wisdom ..The Ethics Of Your Writing
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 31st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
@Mitch, The bookmarks don’t look cluttered either. If you had a ton of blog buttons then it would. The tag cloud is a personal preference. I think they’re kind of neat, just not something I’ve decided to implement on any of my blogs.
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I think the reduction is great. We run a pretty clean sidebar at my place, too… but it’s a commercial site, so we actually have to watch what goes there to make sure it matches the corporate image.
Gomez shares some words of wisdom ..The weather and your windshield
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
@Gomez, Business blogs are definitely a different animal. In order to be taken seriously by your intended audience you don’t want a lot of clutter. I’m not really all that serious, but want an audience all the same.
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It looks very nice indeed. I’m always changing up my sidebar, but then there’s always something new to add. I know mine looks cluttered but I just can’t say no to so many of the widgets I have up already.
ConnieFoggles shares some words of wisdom ..I Don’t Want To Miss Contest With Danny Gokey
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Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
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January 31st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
@ConnieFoggles, It’s hard when you do a bit of PR like you do. I don’t think it looks cluttered. I’ve seen some blogs that do PR and are so slow loading that I tend to give up and go elsewhere. I’ve never had that problem with yours.
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Twitter: freemanlegacy
says:
I like it the color scheme and the clean lines are really nice. The comment widget is really neat too, it make it easy to see what other readers are saying in one quick glance.
Ms. Freeman shares some words of wisdom ..Don’t Scrap Your Goals Just Re-Evaluate Them
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
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January 31st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
@Ms. Freeman, Thanks for the critique. I need to know what is appealing and what is not. I want people to come visit and feel comfortable staying a while and leaving comments. I even made sure the comment widget has a link to the commenter’s site to give a tad more incentive.
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Twitter: israelimom
says:
It looks fine to me now.
I’m also happy, thanks for asking, but I can’t say you’re decluttered sidebar is the only contributing factor
Anne Moss shares some words of wisdom ..Managing the Content on Multiple Blogs
[Reply]
Anne
Twitter: AnneOnline
Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:15 pm
@Anne Moss, Thank you.
And it’s always good to be happy, whatever the reason [as long as it's not at someone else's misfortune].
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