Comments on: Why Widgets Scare Me

By: ANCA

ANCA — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:33:13 +0000

I’ve seen good sites (or that had the potential of becoming good), with experienced bloggers behind them, having made a total mess out of their design and sidebar. Too many widgets, banners, advertisment, pictures…such a turnoff

By: 23 Things I've Learned Blogging | Blog About Your Blog

23 Things I've Learned Blogging | Blog About Your Blog — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:35:31 +0000

[...] a block on your sidebar as long as it blends. Don’t compromise your site by throwing a bunch of widgets and cluttering your [...]

By: Lin Burress

Lin Burress — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:45:14 +0000

Funny that I should happen upon this post, since I just published a post this morning dealing with widgets, amongst other things that have negative affect for bloggers.

Overdoing widgets, lousy post titles, are just two of the things that greatly affect bloggers chances of increasing subscribers and comments.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:11:10 +0000

Widget or not, it all comes down to clutter. I agree that some widgets are more responsible than others when it comes to dragging down the load time. I’ve gone widget-less with my flagship blog and have taken the route of manually coding it myself. Maybe it’s just a mental thing, but I just feel it’s a better choice at this moment in time.

By: Delores

Delores — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:47:41 +0000

I love this article for the title alone. Cracks me up. Thanks for the opinion though. I’m adding “Entrecard” right now but the widget code won’t display properly. Hhmm…

By: Heather in Beautiful British Columbia

Heather in Beautiful British Columbia — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:41:58 +0000

Oh, you are soooo right.

I put every silly widget in the world on my sidebars and not very many give much back… other than Entrecard which I’m absolutely loving!!!

I’m going to clean up my act on my own – ‘rehab is for quitters’ and I’m no quitter!

Thanks for the motivation

By: Paid Surveys

Paid Surveys — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:58:31 +0000

I try to keep widgets to a minimum and will only add them if I feel they add some value to the readers or if it is profitable to the blog. The space on your sidebar is just way too valuable to waste it, especially if you’ve got enough traffic to monetize that space.

By: Damien Riley

Damien Riley — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:24:14 +0000

That’s what I figured it meant. Thanks for the clarification. I said “troubling” because mine is a personal blog and yet I have high standards. I saved your post to del.icio.us and Stumbled it.

By: Matthew Henrickson

Matthew Henrickson — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:10:31 +0000

any a-lister doesnt have an overload of widgets, which is what I mean with “established”

personal blogs are a different category because its about you and your life, not really ‘professional’ websites although there are some.

By: Damien Riley

Damien Riley — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:47:39 +0000

This is a very well made post. You have a good topic and develop it well. I think your distinction between”personal” and “established” blogs is troubling, but maybe I would understand once I was in the established camp.

I’ve gone minimal with widgets and then had more than IE could even handle loading. I think your guideline of needing them to be useful is the best think to takeaway.