Your Blog Does Not Need A Side Bar →

MarketingXD believes that most Websites should be much simpler. This improves User Experience and ROI. You need something more like an iPad App. So I was delighted to read Does Your Blog Really Need Sidebars? [Maybe No] by Robert Dempsey:

Going on the theory that if a reader wants more information on anything it’s going to be the topic they are currently reading about, I restructured the site as follows:

1. Redesigned the front page to show the latest post in each of the categories we cover
2. Removed the sidebar from the single post (one of which you are reading here)
3. Added the share, connect and subscribe buttons to their own area directly below the post content
4. Created an area to show a banner for a content-relevant opt-in offer
5. Added a related posts section that shows 5 posts from the same topic area
6. Moved the comment area to the bottom
7. Menu – created a drop-down menu with all of the topics for fast browsing

I also updated the design to look round, shiny, and more center of the page (the header no longer goes across the entire top of the page). That was a long Sunday…

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