In a blog design, there can be a lot of wasted space. It’s easy to lose track of what can be some valuable parts of your blog, like your “sidebar” and your “footer.”
Don’t forget about these areas. Usually, they’re dedicated to advertising and/or navigation. They can be more valuable than that though. There was a great post at ProBlogDesign last February about re-thinking the “sidebar.” Wordpress design expert Justin Tadlock has been discussing the “sidebar” even longer than that.
The point is, don’t waste that space. Every pixel of your design is important.
Why The Italic “Sidebar?”
You may be wondering why I keep using the term “sidebar” in quotes and italics. It’s for good reason. The term sidebar or for the part of the blog that’s not where the “real” content goes, is very vague and subjective.
For one blogger, the “sidebar” could be on the left and for the other it could be on the right. For some, it could be below or on top or in the middle or anywhere in between. Really, a “sidebar” is just a different area of your blog that can be utilized for a different purpose other than blogging content.
I call them widget-areas, thanks to Justin Tadlock. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll continue to call them “sidebars.” Really though, the term should be changed because these areas shouldn’t just be used for what’s leftover or what’s extra.
Conventional Wisdom
Conventional Wisdom in terms of “sidebars” says that this is a secondary area of your blog. It’s for features like search, category and tag navigation, and advertising. Maybe, if your site has a lot of dynamic content, you can use it for most commented posts and the like.
This is great. When blogging was in its infancy, this was probably a great use of that “other space” leftover after the content makes its bed. But there is more that can be done with these areas.
My Suggestions
The way I think in regards to “sidebars” is really a combination of the philosophies I linked to earlier. The “sidebar” of your blog can be used to push content and keep readers moving in the direction you want them to go.
For example, I create my top picks to push readers toward those posts. It will keep them on the site longer and hopefully, inspire them to come back.
I offer tag navigation and ad space secondary to my content. Because that’s the way it should be.
Also, if you scroll down (don’t forget to scroll back up and finish reading) and look at my footer, you’ll see that I utilize this area of my blog for content too. I put recent posts here so when readers are done reading and at the bottom of the page, they are directed to more relevant content.
Don’t waste your space. Use everything you have to help keep your readers on the site longer. The “sidebar” and “footer” areas can be utility blocks to promote your content.
