Kids, how’s about we start the new year off right by all agreeing to make our blogs a wee bit more respectable? Because I’ve been looking around, and frankly, there is just way to damn much fugly out there and it’s time to do something about it. In the service of making everything look just a little bit nicer, I’ve gone to the trouble of identifying several annoying and often aesthetically depressing mistakes that many, many bloggers out there are making, and today I’m going to tell you how and why you must fix them. Now. Be forewarned: this may hurt. But please remember: I only tell you these things because I care so damn much. Sniff.

1. Clean out your sidebars. If you are posting any kind of badge or promotion in your sidebars at present for which you are not being compensated in some manner, then you are not meeting your blog’s potential. That’s right: I want every last pixel of your screen space to be working towards making your blog stronger. Your blog, not somebody else’s blog. All of those badges and buttons are only doing one of two things 1) nothing; or 2) advertising somebody else’s blog. Why would you do this? Are they paying you? If not, are they your good friend? If not, why clutter up your sidebars with them? When you put useless badges and buttons in your sidebars, you are training your readers to ignore your sidebars. This means you are taking actions to make your sidebars worthless. And that means that you’re taking actions to make your blog worthless. Why are you making your blog worthless? Stop it.
2. Stop giving out and/or posting blog awards. This is not going to win me any friends, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you want to succeed with your blog as a business, you must get out of the habit of participating in blog awards and their associated memes. Why? Aren’t these great ways of promoting community and getting new people to read blogs? Yes, in some ways, they are. In other ways, they are like an albatross around your blog’s tiny newborn neck: once you receive an award and give one out, you become a target for every weblog award meme ever created, and before you know it, half of your posts are dealing with awards. I’m telling you: participating in these award memes is one step down a slippery slope towards losing all of your readers permanently. Here’s how I want you to deal with blog awards: if you receive one, graciously thank the person who awarded you with genuine kindness and accept it from them. Then, don’t talk about it again. If somebody asks, you can tell them that you have a policy of not participating in these kinds of awards because you don’t have enough time to post everything, or don’t know how to choose a person to give awards to, or whatever makes you feel better. But anyway, nobody will ask. They might think you’re kind of a bitch for a little while. It’s OK. They’ll get over it. It’s uncomfortable, but necessary, to maintain a firm hand with these things or they will bring you crashing down.
3. Stop using AdSense. Except in very few cases, most bloggers do not make their money online from using AdSense. It takes a long time to build up enough money to even receive a payment in your payment account, and even when you do it’s a horrendous return on your investment of time and precious space. AdSense ads are ugly and obtrusive: they piss off your readers and make their reading experience unpleasant. Except in very isolated cases, any money you make from AdSense ads will be far outweighed by the money you are losing in annoyed and put off readers. So get rid of the “obey this one magic rule weight loss” ads and hold out until you can get your blog onto a premium ad network or until you’ve earned the right to make your audience an offer.
4. Take any and all Amazon or other affiliate widgets out of your sidebars. I’m OK with you participating in affiliate programs, provided that you disclose to your readers that you are doing so and that you do it in a tasteful way. Posting a widget for Amazon is not tasteful. It’s stupid and ugly, and not worth the return you are going to get on the free webspace you’re giving to the single largest online retailer in existence. Your readers know about Amazon already. Why are you telling them about it again? If you’re going to get any money from affiliate sales, it is most likely to come from something in one of your posts, where you describe a product you have used and like yourself, and disclose to your readers that you’ve linked to it with an affiliate link. People usually feel OK with giving you a commission on a product to which you’ve directed their attention in a respectful, tasteful, and unobtrusive manner. They do not need flashing widgets coming at them from all directions.
5. Put all that space to good use. Now that you’ve got all this space in your sidebars, what are you going to do with it? Well, it’s time to start looking at how to use that space toward the service of two equally important goals: 1) promoting your blog’s best content; and 2) providing your readers with more opportunities to read valuable content that they might have missed. Use your sidebars to create new links to your best work, adding pictures to make it look attractive. Direct their attention to stuff that you wrote a long time ago — give them a reason to come back. Everything on your site needs to be working for you and your blog: it’s time to brainstorm new and attractive ways of doing this. Good luck!

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