One of the things I’ve noticed while jumping around entrecard sites is some people have tons of sidebar junk. Their actual posts might take up a page but then their blog has to stretch for 10 more pages to fit all the garbage they have on their sidebar.

If you want people to keep coming to your blog, then you probably shouldn’t make them wait 20 minutes for your page to load because you have 200 images and 5000 sidebar widgets.

I understand wanting some of that stuff to be seen, but when you have that much junk then nothing gets seen. Each item gets lost in the sea of other items. So in the end the visitor is blind to all those ads, widgets, links, pictures, so on. All they see is one big blur of color.

Honestly, do you have to sign up for every website on the internet and then link to all of them on your sidebar?

Blogs like that make me feel e-claustrophobic. There is so much clutter I feel like the site is suffocating me.

I feel like my sidebar is cluttered every time I add something to it, but some of these people act like they’re competing for a freaking clutter award or something.

All your flashy graphics are very pretty and all your ‘monetize your site with Adbrite/widgetbuck/magic’ ads are….helpful… but please don’t forget that your viewers have eyes. And it’s not very nice to make them bleed with your never ending sidebar.

These people are like… packrat bloggers.

(And sorry for the cluttered post, but I wanted to post examples.)

Pretty layouts are nice and all but how important is ‘prettiness’ when it comes to blogging?

Let’s say a blog has some decent posts and information but their layout isn’t anything spectacular. Just a boring, simple layout. How likely is it that the content would catch your attention, and possibly even make you return?

Now let’s say the same thing for another blog - decent posts and information - but a much nicer layout. Is it more likely to catch your attention?

Or does layout not matter?

I’ve heard before that you need to have a decent layout if you want to get anywhere in the blog world. But while pretty layouts are nice eyecandy, the content is what should be important, right?

Does a pretty layout make up for mediocre content?

So, how much does a blog’s layout influence your opinion of the blog?

I’ll admit, it influences me a little bit. Call me shallow but I’m a sucker for pretty things. So if I had the choice between two blogs with similar content, I’d probably choose the prettier one.

But, content is still more important. So if a pretty blog’s content is not as good as another blog’s, then I would choose the other blog. A nice layout won’t make up for content, even if it is easier on the eyes.

Next, how important is an original blog layout?

People can download nice themes and use them for free, but the problem with that is multiple people can end up using the same look.

So, nice downloaded theme vs nice original theme - which do you prefer?

I’d go with nice original theme. There are some nice downloadable themes out there, but after awhile I get sick of seeing the same thing over and over.

Also, I think an original theme helps give a blog their own ‘look’. And if you want to stand out in the crowd, having your own image definitely helps.

Hello my fellow bloggers and blog readers, I come bearing a question.

What kind of comments do you prefer?

It may seem like an odd question, but I’m serious. You see, when I’m commenting on someone else’s blog I’m always self conscious of my comments.

If I don’t have much to day - maybe only a couple words - I always feel like my comment is too short. I think Ah, I don’t want my comment to look like pointless spam. I try to leave at least a sentence, if I can.

But then if I have a lot to say, I feel like my comment is too long. They don’t want to read all this! There have been times that I leave a 3 or 4 paragraph long comment, but I always feel like I’m going to annoy the blogger if I do that too often. After all, you’ve got better things to do than read my essay comment.

So it made me wonder, What kind of comments to bloggers prefer?

Short and to the point or longer more detailed comments?

For myself, I like both. Short comments can be nice, especially because some people don’t have a whole lot to add, but longer comments give me something to work with. I think I’m more likely to reply to a longer comment, because I have something to reply to.

Most shorter comments I’ve seen don’t give me much to work with -they’re right to the point- so I have a harder time responding to them, so sometimes I don’t. I’m not the best at socializing, so a lot of the times I don’t know what to say.

I do like them though, since all comments are nice.

When I comment of other’s blogs I try to at least leave a sentence, if I can. And if I’m feeling chatty then I’ll try to cut my comment down to a paragraph or two. I do my best not to write out a whole book.

I also usually only comment if I have something to say. There are many many times where I read a post, and I want to comment to let the blogger know “Hey, I’m reading you!” but I don’t know how to reply to the post, so I end up not commenting at all. I’m not one of those people that can throw out some quick generic comment.

And my next question: What about commenting on older posts?

Do you comment on older posts? As a blogger, do you care if people comment on older posts?

I, myself, don’t mind if people do it. But when it comes to someone else’s blog I tend to avoid it. Even if the post is only a couple days old - and I really have something to say - I usually won’t. I feel awkward commenting on an old post. I feel like the conversation for that post is over and I should just move on to a newer one.

So bloggers and readers: What kind of comments do you prefer and what kind do you usually leave?

When I’m jumping around blogs I’ve noticed that everyone is crazy about RSS.

Subscribe with RSS! Rawr!

There are little notices to subscribe and big RSS icons to get your attention.

How important is RSS to everyone?

Personally, I don’t use it. I don’t promote it, and I don’t care if people subscribe to me. If I want to read a blog, then I just visit the site - no big deal to me. And if someone wants to subscribe to me, then go for it but I’m not going to shove it in your face.

In fact, I’ve only used RSS once - and that was only because it was one of those “subscribe and get suchandsuch!” type things. So I subscribed, got what I wanted, and never used it again.

So why is RSS so important to bloggers? What if you have 500 people subscribed but no one bothers checking the reader thing?

RSS just never seemed like a big deal to me. It can make it more convenient to the reader, but for the blogger I’m not sure why it matters.

To me, having a ton of RSS subscribers doesn’t make your blog anymore popular. It’s like having a forum with 500 registered members, but only 5 active members. High RSS numbers don’t mean anything to me.

But that’s just my view on it, since I don’t use it. How do other people see it?

RSS important? Not important? Somewhere in between?

Am I missing something?

Yes, another update. I’m feeling rather active at the moment.

First off, I wasn’t aware that when WP updated it changed the incoming links from Technorati to Google. Unfortunately Google doesn’t know all the sites linking to me, so my “Incoming links” only shows two links (from the same site). I had actually wondered if it was frozen or something, since it was never updating.

Because it doesn’t know everything, I missed it when someone linked to me. I was just checking Technorati website when I noticed I had an old linkback from 3rdworldblogger.

And I’m the type of person who likes knowing when someone links to me. It’s a nice feeling when I can go “Ah! Someone linked me!” Okay, well it’s not that exciting but I still like to know.

So thank you Mr. 3rdworldblogger -who-was-using-my-top-commentators-plugin- to-get-a-linkback (I’m glad it worked for you). Now you get another linkback from me.

And to ensure that no link ever goes unnoticed again (maybe) I have installed Technorati Incoming Links. This plugin allows you to view both Google incoming links as well as Technorati incoming links.

In other news, I was bored so I make some little icons.

I don’t know if I’ll ever use them, but whatever. I made them in photoshop, but if you don’t have PS - or are too lazy to open it - you can make some buttons here.

Now like I said, I’m feeling active, but I’ll try not to spam-update too many times today.

I’ve been slaving away all day for a new layout for the new year. It’s not quite the new year, but close enough.

This one I coded from scratch, so if you find any errors, please let me know. I have decided that I hate coding wordpress layouts. They’ve got more to them then my usual webpage layouts.

Anyway, I decided to just flip the colors. It was pink with blue, and now it’s blue with pink.

I also decided to make the layout wider. My screen resolution is 800×600 but I know everyone else in the world uses a bigger resolution. So my out layout looked tiny. I made it a litttttle bit bigger which causes my screen to stretch, but it gives me more room.

This is the 3rd layout for this blog, but the first one I’ve ever coded from stratch (though I did have a little help from a tutorial/guide). I’m sure I’ll keep tweaking it for the next couple days to fix this and that.

So Yay! New layout!

And Happy 2008! 

(and do you like my random emphasis? lol)