Too many toys is too many toys

[A Clear Blogging Tip.]

It's kind of like bringing toys home for your cat. You bring home a toy - a little red catnip pillow or stuffed mouse. You're cat is head over heels rolling around over it, you are happy, you're both having fun. But a few minutes later he wanders off, bored and the new toy gets added to the pile. And the plle grows, and grows.

Today's tip is this: Your blog should not resemble a pile of discarded cat toys - not if you want to build your readership. Everything - the ads, widgets, badges and links - should serve a purpose, preferrably your readers'.

Have a look at your blog: Is it time to put away some of the toys, freshen the catnip and clean things up? Here's how to do it right:

1. Trust, but backup first. Backup your blogs layout before touching anything.
2. Take a before screenshot. You won't really appreciate the "after" if you don't have one.
3. Broken toys get thrown away. If a link, widget, search field or badge is broken, yank it.
4. Too many toys or too small a toy chest? Consider your layout. Maybe the problem isn't too many shiny buttons on your blog, it's that the layout you have is bulging at the seams.
5. How big is too many? Take a count of how many different elements you find on your blog's home page that are not contained in posts. How many?!? Sometimes the first step is to admit you have a problem.
6. Only the strong survive. What 20% of your blogs widgets provide 80% of the value of all widgets there? Keep those. As for the rest, in TypePad you can just turn then off; in WordPress you'll probably turn off a fair number of plugins you've forgot about and edit out of existence the rest.
7. Throttle back the ads. Which ad slot makes you the least revenue? Kill it and breathe a little more room into your blog.
8. Plan for the next time. Like cleaning out your garage or hard disk - cleaning up your blog is a good candidate for a future reminder in your calendar.
9. There, doesn't that feel better? Compare before and after. If you were reading your blog for the first time, which would be easier on your eyes?

One nice thing about weeding out your blog is then you can go shopping for new accessories guilt free! After all, why should you - or you cat - be deprived of a few new toys now and then?

Comments

[Kathy]

Great post! I have serious clutter issues at home, AND on my blogs. I think the two are probably connected. :)

[Shine With Grace]

Great tips, good metaphor and nice writing!

[Angie Clever]

Good advice!