Torn Elements - Latest Comments in The Sidebar Bog Down

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

AJ Kohn — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:04:32 -0000

Thanks and I've subscribed to you as well.

You have a hybrid 3-column template and ... most of all, you have restraint! The problem is few people do, which creates the type of sidebar pollution seen on an increasing number of blogs.

I look forward to reading more. Happy New Year and all the best.

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

LarryMonte — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:44:26 -0000

Enjoyed your article. Good points there. Subscribed! :)

This particular theme is technically a 3-column design. However, I'm not taking advantage of the extra column for ad purposes. (You can see the extra column about half way down where I list the archives, categories, etc) The rest of the sidebar appears as 2-column. Just a small block of text links which I doubt is much of a distraction at all.

If it wasn't for my need to make this blog self-sufficient financially, I probably wouldn't have even bothered with the ads I have at this point.

Thanks

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

AJ Kohn — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:33:05 -0000

The side bar HAS become polluted though I think it's mostly to do with advertising. In part, I blame 3 column blog templates:

http://www.blindfiveyearold...

But you bring up a great point which I didn't touch on. The load time will further depress CTR and repeat visits which will continue to force CPMs down because of poor performance.

Lastly, what exactly do you want folks to focus on? Your content or the cool avatars, visitor map or other 'cool' widgets. The decision is easy IMO.

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

Webomtica — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:41:37 -0000

Yep there are some blogs in particular that have some Flash widget that fires off a debugger warning on my computer - it's really annoying. The old rule of pageload time applies also - if a site takes too long to load, I'm outta there :)

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

LarryMonte — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:12:27 -0000

Yes, header images are out of control too. Hi-def imagery is great but the load times can be astronomical on dial-up.

The Facebook interface is almost entirely Javascript. It's slow even on my DSL connection and slightly antiquated equipment. It must be murder on anything older and slower that what I'm using.

Thanks :)

Re: The Sidebar Bog Down

pB — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:54:59 -0000

I hear you Larry! Over the holidays I was staying with my parents, who have a 33.6K connection - it's true!

Most of my daily "must read sites" went unread as I couldn't even stand to wait for the header image to load in many cases.

While we were staying my Mom got an invitation from one of her cousins to join facebook, she was curious - sounded good and so she clicked. I don't think she will ever join facebook and she will probably also never see the page load. She even misinterpreted the invitation which went something like "if you want to keep in touch with me join facebook". A couple of days later she said to me "If the only way to contact him is through that facebook thing then I guess we will lose touch." I had to explain to her that facebook was one *good* way to keep up with him, but not the only way. Still, the page took so damn long to load on her 36.6k connection that she would rather have lost contact with him than persevere, so what would that tell you about her chances of sticking around to read a blog that takes too long to load, even if it was on a subject dear to her heart?

Another good post, I wish other blogs I read would take it to heart.