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Everyone is always speaking about their blog. It is a well-established fact that blogs are an effective and fresh way to share content with others as a vehicle to build relationships. But, what about your blog’s sidebar?
A blog sidebar is a section on the side of the blog that contains widgets. A widget is a small application that often takes the form of on-screen tools (clocks, event countdowns, auction-tickers, stock market tickers, flight arrival information, daily weather etc.). You can populate your blog sidebar with whichever widgets you feel will be valuable in your blog.
There are several interesting and important elements that can help your business if you place them on the sidebar of your blog. Remember that it is very important to be discriminating and choose which elements you want for your sidebar so that you get the maximum benefit from those elements. If you have any elements in your sidebar that don’t help your business, you should delete them and fill the space with meaningful elements. The following are some suggestions about what you might want to use:
A list of categories: The category list is also called “categories” or “topics.” The list makes it easy for your readers to find the content that they are interested in reading. The majority of blogging platforms automatically generate this list for the categories that you designate when you configure each of your blog posts. If possible, you should not assign more than three categories to each of your blog posts. Any more than that and you will be detracting from the value of categorizing your content.An option to subscribe to your blog: Your readers will want to keep returning to you to read subsequent blog posts. You may as well make it as simple as possible for them to do just that. You should add a “subscribe” button to your blog that links to your RSS feed URL. A simple way to do this is to use Google Feedburner to create this URL from your initial RSS feed URL. Remember to include an Email form field so that your readers can subscribe through Email. Your posts will then go straight to their inbox. Additionally, make sure that you include a Privacy Policy notice on your blog.Most popular blog posts: Your sidebar is a great place to display some of your blog posts that did especially well with your readers. If you do this, you will be making it very simple for your readers to go immediately to the blog posts that they want to read most. It may also get your readers to want to find out why those particular blog posts were so popular.Recent blog posts: If you include links to your most popular blog posts on your sidebar, you will be helping your readers to get exposure to more of your content even if they entered your website through a single blog posting. This is an excellent method for compelling your readers to remain on your website and look around at all that you and your business have to offer.Social media options for connecting: There are many different ways nowadays for your readers to connect with you. One very effective way to help your readers is by including links to your various social media profiles.Search box: You should have a search box that will enable your readers to find content that is of interest to them by typing in keywords or key phrases. You can put this on your sidebar and your readers will see it easily and be able to take advantage of it.Calls-to-Action: You now have all of this wonderful stuff on your blog’s sidebar. Another very important thing to put on your blog’s sidebar is the call-to-action so that you can give your readers a way to connect with your website
Conclusion
It is very clear that having a blog in addition to having a website is critical to the success of your business. Now you are taking it one step further by adding important and valuable elements to your blog. You can think of the blog as the empty house that you just purchased and into which you just moved. The elements on your sidebar are the decorations in the house.
We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to ” like ” our Facebook page.
Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company’s Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.
His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.
Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.
Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
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