I have visited 6 different blogs, to see what their sidebars look like. Some of the blogs I have seen before and some are new to me. I chose some of the blogs from the top of the Edublog Awards 2010 from the categories Best elearning / Corporate Education Edublog and Best Educational Tech Support Edublog. I visited the top 3 blogs.
My findings are some have quite a lot on their sidebars, but I didn't find it messy in any case. On Thumann resources , the first runner up in the Best Educational Tech Support Edublog, I found a few things that I might have put on an About-Me-page or Contact-Me-page. For example the "Who am I"-text and the "Where-to-find-me". On the edReformer there is something that I suppose is New Articles, but it isn't clearly stated, which might be a bit confusing.
There are some common things that you can find in the sidebars. Contact, search, RSS-feed and E-mail subscriptions, Follow us/me on Twitter/Facebook, Archives, Top/New Posts, Blogroll and Categories/Tags seem to be there always. Also Badges appear on most of the blogs.
As I myself wanted to add a Voki to one of my posts I explored how to add widgets to my sidebar as well. I tried to think about what I find important that I can find on other blogs' sidebars and from there I tried to create an unclattered sidebar with the most important things to me. I ended up taking out the About-Me, since I have the About-Me-page, and just added my avatar. Here's my sidebar:
- Subscribe
- My avatar
- Blog Archive
- Followers
- Blog roll
- Labels (Tags)
I would like to add a cluster map as well, and I added the visitors counter to the bottom, but maybe I should put it in the sidebar instead. I also added share-buttons, but they show up after every post. I am also thinking about adding Twitter, but as of yet I haven't been very active.
I love the background! I also like to see the blog archive in case I want to read more.
ReplyDeleteThese are just my observations: your avatar maybe could move more towards the top and the total page views and go more towards the bottom. Have you tried RevolverMap? That's like Clustrmap but it's in the shape of a globe and it spins. Kinda fun!
If you have a chance, please take a peek at my blog.
Theresa
Really like the avatar at the top of your blog. Adds a friendly welcome.
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on tweaking my sidebar. Since it is an organizational blog rather than a personal blog, I don't have my avatar on the sidebar, but I love yours there!
Thanks for sharing your findings. That was really interesting to read the comparisons that you made. I rather like a busy sidebar, as I can scroll around and find interesting bits and pieces or I can ignore it, if it does not really interest me.
ReplyDeleteI like the subscribe up near the top, as that is one thing bloggers do try to attract - people to read their work.
It is always difficult to know what order to make the sidebar content, but time does give experience and knowlege. I would give the twitter option a go. As people will read your posts if they have time or they sound interesting. What I do like, and what I have forgotten to do is add the Blogging Challenge to my sidebar. So I am off to do that now. Thanks for reminding me.
I like the theme of your blog. One thing to keep in mind is that I needed to scroll, scroll, scroll to get to the widgets at the bottom of your blog. It's like going down into the basement to look for a book. (ha). You may want to think about how to tidy up your widgets for easy access, as I imagine most folks won't keep scrolling.
ReplyDeleteTake care
Kevin
I love your blog! I have always wanted to learn Swedish! The colors in the background are so pretty too. Var er du fron? Jag can inte talle Svenske, men litte. Yag er fron USA.
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