De-clutter Your Blog

Have you ever visited a blog and been overwhelmed with buttons and badges and links? Or (here’s a huge pet peeve for a lot of people) scrambled quickly for the little X in the corner because you couldn’t figure out how to turn the music off?

Its tempting when you first start blogging to add all of those pretty buttons and audio players but it can quickly turn into clutter. Once you end up with too much stuff on your blog, not only does it detract from your blog’s content section, it also takes up valuable real estate on your blog that you could be using to sell as advertising space or promoting products as an affiliate.

So how do you decide what stays and what should go? It depends on your blogging goals. Since you’re reading “Profitable Mommy Blogging”, its probably safe to assume that you’re hoping to make money from your blog. That’s a good place to start the remodeling process.

Is it providing value?

When you look at each link, button or widget on your blog, ask yourself what value it provides. Are you earning money by having that link or graphic there? Does it promote another one of your projects or sites? If so, then keep it. The value doesn’t always have to be monetary. While advertising or affiliate promos may bring in a few dollars, you can also use your blog’s sidebar space to send traffic to your other sites or establish yourself as an expert in a particular subject by letting your readers know where else you write or blog about it.

Is it outdated or irrelevant?

Many contests and giveaways will require placement of their graphic on your blog in exchange for an entry in their promotion. The blogger stands to gain from this placement by having those links back to their own site. But once the contest is over, whether you won or not, do you still need that banner there? Or maybe the image was about some kind of online event or seasonal guide. Just like the holiday decorations in your home, your blog decorations should be taken down eventually too.

Spring Cleaning

Once you’ve decided what to keep and what to get rid of, you can now work on placement. If you’re like me, you might be a blogging pack rat and just can’t bear to part with some of your buttons, especially awards and links to your friends’ blogs. One option is to create a separate page for them. For example, if you visit my blog at That Crazy Mom, at the top you’ll see a page called “Link Love” and on that page you’ll see some of my favorite sites, some awards I’ve won, and some groups or directories I belong to. They still get their linkbacks and I still get to show off my favorites. You can also save some space by using just links, like your blogroll, rather than 125×125 buttons.

I admit I still have some that I can’t seem to take off my front page, so if that’s the same for you, consider where they’re located on your main page. Ad space or affiliate promos should be somewhere near the top, preferable “above the fold” meaning your readers don’t have to scroll down to see them. Same goes for your affiliations, other sites you own or contribute to. For example, you’ll see a button for Profitable Mommy Blogging on my sidebar among other places you can find me.

You can always re-evaluate your sidebars periodically and decide later on to part with something or at least move it. Your blog is your “home” online and just like the rooms in your house, it can benefit from some ocassional rearranging or remodeling.