Gaming the sidebar?

Steve Hodson suggests that your sidebar widgets if done correctly could give people a reason to click through to your Web site: A blogger's secret weapon- the sidebar. I'm not sure how people are supposed to know that you might have something of interest in your sidebar, but that's another story. I know that on this blog, the number of people clicking through to actually read something is somewhere around 5-10% of the readership. Not very many people. Steve asks the question:

When was the last time you looked at your sidebar as a visitor?

For me it wasn't very long ago. I looked at what you were actually clicking on amongst all that crap, and figured out that you weren't clicking on anything. Which is why I removed it all. If you're coming to read, then I wanted to make reading as efficient as possible. All that other junk was just a distraction. I did put back a single link to my ClaimID after a reader suggested that it was important for students to know who wrote something should they want to site it. (Like that has ever happened. :))

Jakob Nielsen in his 2008 usability study tells us:

Web users were also getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, being added to sites to make them more friendly.

I was glad that I had cleaned it up before having to be told.

sarahintampa's unknow list: I'm famous

You can imagine my surprise this evening when my vanity search returned this zinger from sarahintampa: Welcome Unknowns! Yep, I made the list of "unknowns". How cool is that?

HighTouch - no about page, how mysterious!

Which is exactly the reaction I was after when I removed every single widget from the site. I started to remove the widgets that no one used, and before I knew it I'd removed them all. In retrospect, it was the right thing to do. Let's take it widget-by-widget starting with Sarah's keen observation about the missing profile:

• About - my name is attached to every post. Want to know who I am? Google it... I will also note that my link to claimid.com was clicked once about every 400,000 visitors.
• Search - no one ever did any local searches. Well, a person used it once and they should be embarrassed. I was embarrassed for them. Regardless, I know a few things about y'all from Google Analytics, and search isn't something you need. You know how to do site:blah.blah.com And quite honestly the best site search is to just type: hightouch andsomeothersearchterm. I felt terrible about cutting out that Lijit search box. I did mention the woman from Lijit who sang for me while she fixed my problem at the Defrag conference? That alone made it a tough widget to delete.
  
• Tag cloud - dang I loved that tag cloud. People did occasionally click on tags, but they mostly did it within the context of a recent post. So the cloud was totally unnecessary. Which is too bad cause that was one nice cloud.
  
• Twitter - there are 10 times more people subscribed to my Twitter feed than this blog. You can read my tweets there.
• Social bookmarking - del.icio.us and now ma.gnolia. Almost never used--poof.
• Second Life land pricing trends - I don't think I need to explain this one--snip.
• Copyright - everything is licensed, "Use it any damned way you choose." Like you're going to look for a license or ask before you take it anyway.

Were there some widgets that I missed? Regardless, removing all those widgets let the posts spread-out a bit more across the page, and I think they are much more readable. Which reminds me, no one ever comes to the site to read anyway. Y'all read this in your feed readers. I was discussing this with one of my most loyal readers tonight. She said, "I can't remember the last time I actually visited your site." Exactly, none of this site stuff is needed. Maybe I should remove the header too?

Techmeme, traffic, and the Ukrainian Air Show of 2002

I'm getting a huge number of hits this morning to my blog. I had no idea that you could get so much traffic talking about an air show disaster that happened in 2002. The thing is I didn't write about the Ukrainian Air Show disaster, but Techmeme thinks I did.

For those of you who followed the Techmeme link I hope you aren't too disappointed. You'll find no crashing airplanes here.

UPDATE: Now the story about the Techmeme problem is on the Techmeme front page: Techmeme and Google Shared Stuff: WTF?, and here Canadian Writer Buys Google, TechMeme Thanks to Strong Loonie, and here Techmeme Confuses Me Sometimes. Kind of funny.

Polling widget?

I'm going mountain biking in Western North Carolina for the rest of the week, and the day I return I fly out to a conference. So, I won't be blogging much, if at all, for the next couple of weeks.

I was thinking of running some sort of fun poll while I'm gone. Anyone have any recommendation for a polling site I might use? Once I find a good widget I just need to think of a good question. Suggestions are welcome. I'm also worried that no one will bother to participate exposing the fact that this blog only has four readers. So please vote!

More Google Reader lag discussion

My initial discussion of the unacceptable lag of Google Reader was conducted via Twitter. Both Sam Harrelson: CostPerNews and I took the discussion to our blogs. Being that he has more comments, I thought I would point you in his direction:

I’ve been having a Twitter conversation with k1v1n on Twitter over the use of Google Reader. I have to say that I (as has k1v1n) been completely frustrated with the lag time of Google Reader.

Basically, it takes WAY too long for Google Reader to grab feeds and get them to me.

As I told k1v1n, I like my feeds like my coffee… instant! So, I switched back to the Liferea feed reader, which is a Gnome friendly reader (since I use Ubuntu Linux full time).

I found Sam's posting because I was wondering why the Technorati ranking for my Twitter page took such a large jump. :) I'm committed to the idea that the day my Twitter page outranks my blog I will close her down for good.

My weekend todo list

I'm so excited that it's the weekend, and that I'm actually at home for a change. My todo list is considerable. Here's a taste of the stuff I'd like to get done:

• Blogging - at a minimum I need to address...


• Lisa's tagging from weeks ago: No Longer a Tag Virgin
  


• Beth's wanting a real-life example to illustrate an "oh crap" moment when looking at a Google Analytics depth of visit graph: Web Analytics As Simple Gifts to Measure Vision
  


• Mitch's wanting to know how to create private Twitter groups: Twitter- Just a Start
  


• Cycling - mountain biking today and road riding tomorrow. (With this list can I afford 4 hours for a road ride? Maybe it'll rain tomorrow. :))
  


• Photography - to the JC Raulston Arboretum in a quest to capture a blue flower.
  


• Second Life


• I need to make a couple of teleporters for the new island.
  


• I need to explore Angel Learning Island. I received a pre-opening invite to look around. I feel so special... :)
  


• I must score one of those cool scripted AngryBeth sitting cubes (at least the script) like they have at the ISTE Skypark.


• Gardening - out to Greta's and Duck's to get some hostas for the new bed. I must plant them as well.
  
  
• Movie - I want to see 300. I know...
  

It's time to get started.

Needing a badger widget

I'm desperately wanting to join the Badger Campaign. I've been totally excited about this since seeing it on the O'Reilly Radar. My problem is that I have no mechanism by which to build the required badger widget. I used to have these capabilities, and even the requisite skill, until our local plastic dinosaur wrangler decided that I was unworthy of one of our precious Photoshop licenses.

If someone will just make me the widget I'll join the club.

UPDATE: Thank you Ben!

My new tag cloud generator

One of the main reasons I moved to Blogger was that Roller didn't support tagging. I had a tag cloud up for a little time last week until a confidant started asking me some questions about how the cloud was generated. Details, geez! It didn't take long for me to figure out that it was a fake tag cloud, a concordance actually, so I immediately took it down.

I went searching for another solution and found this nice tag cloud code thanks to phydeaux3: Setup and configuration for Blogger in Beta Label Clouds. This is very nice, and the install was a breeze. I need to do some more playing with some of the formatting options, but for now I'm a happy person.

While I was looking at the pydeaux3 site, however, I came across this: New Blogger Feed Sorting....uh Sorted:

One thing many people did not like about New Blogger was a new "feature" of the feeds. In New Blogger, when a past entry is edited then it goes to the front of the feed. In other words, the feed is sorted by updated status rather than published.

This was by design by the Blogger folks, and depending on your situation is useful. There are good reasons to give the feed the updated content. But it differs from what most people are used to, and how most feed readers work. And much outcry has come from bloggers affected by this. People have been trying different work arounds (using Pipes, or going through other feed sorters) to stop this behavior

Oooh, this is exactly what I have been looking for. I've been wanting to go back and tag some of my old postings, but I didn't want to spam my feed with a bunch of trivial updates. I've also been wanting to go back and fix the line spacing issues that Ben, our UI person told me not to worry about. I've tried to ignore it but seriously it's driving me nuts. Now I can fix them in private. Great stuff!

Twitter driving blog traffic

I noticed this Rex Hammock twitter:

google-ego search of "rex hammock" revealed that Twitter is first page results. Same for steve rubel, robert scoble. SEO-types take note.

This is really interesting. I've noticed a lot of people starting to twitter that they have new blog posts with the links. Not sure what to make of this. I'm still thinking it might be a passing fad.

Your blog reader stat tools?

As anyone who knows me is aware I'm a tad obsessed with Web stats. This old Gaping Void favorite of mine describes me too perfectly.



Here's what I use, in the order that I started using them, if you're wanting to follow in the path of my addiction:

• Google Analytics
• Technorati - My new ranking since moving to Blogger keeps me awake nights.
• Feedburner
• MyBlogLog

And my latest potential obsession:

• 103bees

I just found 103bees this morning on CyberNotes: 103bees Tracks your Search Traffic.

It's a real-time online tool for webmasters, bloggers and internet marketers that is highly focused on natural search engine traffic analytics. It provides tons of detailed statistics and in-depth information on the search terms that drive targeted traffic to your websites.

I just set this up and did a couple of searches. Wow, I might not want to know this much. This is a very cool service, and I can see where this would be extremely useful to people who worry about Search Engine Optimization -- as opposed to me who knows all the SEO tricks but just doesn't care whether I am found or not. I just want to be sure I can spy on you, know your every move when you do.

Twitter and referrer links

The number one referrer link to this blog by a factor of two for the last three days: Twitter! Go figure? More have come from Twitter than Google Blog Search, Technorati, and all the others combined.

I know that most readers are subscribed and don't come to this site from anywhere, but still this has got to make you wonder...

UPDATE: Technorati searches just pulled even with the links from Twitter. BUT, guess what the Technorati search term is?

QOTD: Adriana Lukas

I saw this Peter Drucker quote on Euan Semple's blog and thought it worth trotting out here:

In a knowledge economy there are no such things as conscripts - there are only volunteers. The trouble is we have trained our managers to manage conscripts.

But it was this comment by Adriana Lukas that is my QOTD:

Love the Drucker quote, I just wish it could shut up the corporate control freaks as effectively as it inspires us.

I found a new must read blog.

Does Twitter have substance?

Duncan Riley asks: Does Twitter have substance? Understanding the latest in Web 2.0 hype:

We already live in a feature and content rich society in whichinformation overload isn’t theory, it’s an every day problem. Why then would sane people want to add yet another layer of information input when most of usstruggle to cope as it is? As a contributer to the site, why would I want to post my every thought to Twitter when doing so takes me away from doing work of more substance? As a content creator why would I want to create content that only benefits a 3rd party site? After all Twitter is a hosted solution, not a platform like WordPress. As a reader, do I really want to know or even care about the latest off the cuff thought from Robert Scoble or other users for that matter?

Then he follows up with this question:

...and sell me on why Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread?

My answer: The Twitter phenomenon has almost nothing to do with the content of the posts although some humor doesn't hurt. It has everything to do with presence. It's more like an IM away message than a blog posting.

The only navigation that matters?

A good read on in-page navigation from PebbleRoad: Improving the User Experience with In-page Navigation

In-page navigation techniques are used to layout web content on a page. When used properly they improve the user experience. But when misused they just add to the anxiety. This article chalks out the different in-page navigation options available to us and offers some tips on using them effectively.

It seems to me that in-page navigation may be the only navigation that matters anymore (or at least in the very near future), and it only matters in a rather small and almost insignificant way. In the era of the come-to-me-Web, the only site design anyone is ever going to see is that which exists within a single page, and then it only matters to the user who arrives through search.

As an example, yesterday we were discussing that the CSS I'm using on my blog site is broken. If you are one of the few people not reading this through your feed reader you can see how it is broken in this post. After using a blockquote the line spacing doesn't return to its previous state. I was asking our resident designer about this and his answer was, "Who cares? No one sees it anyway." And he's absolutely right. A few people might arrive through search, and they might find the line spacing sort of odd looking, but if they really find the content compelling they'll hit the subscribe button and will never see the screwed-up CSS ever again.

If that broken CSS is driving you nuts, please subscribe. I'm trying my hardest to ignore it.

Why people read certain blogs

I saw this study mentioned by the @lphaMarketer on why people find and read certain blogs: Blog Readers Look For Fun And Are Loyal

What's really interesting though is the answers on what makes a blog a good one. The top reasons were the topic that is focused on, with 43.6 percent saying that was the determining factor, while about the same, 43.9 percent, said that the quality of writing was the major reason for reading a blog.

Yikes! How about another chicken photo?



So you know, the last chicken photo I posted has been my top pageview by a factor of 4.

Google Docs as my blogging editor

I've been using Google Docs for the better part of a week now for writing posts for the new blog site. Where it is has been incredibly handy, it has two glaring failures. First, tagging within Google Docs happens outside of the "publishing" process so the tags never make it to the blog. That requires my having to go into the Blogger editor to enter tags which makes publishing a two step process. That's not good. The other place that Google Docs lets me down is that titles from Google Docs don't come over as titles into the blog. So that means the titles aren't linked on the blog, and there is no permalink unless you look way down the right panel to the archive. I've been putting off going in and fixing these by hand but I know I need to do it sooner rather than later. The job isn't getting any smaller as I wait.

That said, I'm going to give ecto a test drive. Perhaps I'll be back to Google Docs, but it's failed the test of being "all the tool I'll ever need". I have high expectations.

I start again...ouch!

This is my first post on the new Blogger site.

I can hardly describe how much that hurts!