Right or Left, Single or Double, Which Sidebar is Best?
I would imagine that it completely depends on your application but while I tinker with my blog layout I’m also considering what the best design is for different optimization routes.
I’ve recently displayed my disgruntled-ness over text-link-ads.com, mainly why aren’t they selling as well as others. I chalked it up to, after snooping the TLA listed pages, to the fact that it seems pretty random which blogs get more links than others.
Some people have commented that I sold another link, and you can see that yes it’s true. But I must confess, I sent out about 15 emails to people that I noticed bought links on other sites until I finally got one to bite. And trust me it ain’t price, I’m still at the cheapest in TLA.
But I digress….
The real reason for writing this post is to consider and look at what others do and how well they’re TLA spots are selling as well as other factors in selling more space and over all giving the professional blogging look.
The first blaring difference between blogs that sell a lot of TLA space and my blog is that they have their ads in a single sidebar on the left-hand side of the page. Some examples are Flee the Cube, Blotrepreneur, Problogger. OK, the last one really isn’t fair.
But I ask you this is there something to a single left-hand bar?
Will I gain more advertisers? does it look cleaner? I’m not sure, I’ve played with both and dig the two-bar righty but I’m no optimizing wizard and would rather not re-invent the wheel. Which brings me to the fact that b5media, weblogsinc, and Yaro over at Entrepreneurs Journey all have double right-hand sidebars, but….
They have traffic too. I like the way the double right looks. It puts your content up front and center in the viewing path but does it hurt your bottom line?
As I mentioned I’m no expert, so I’d love your opinions?
Comments
Comment from Erik
Time: January 23, 2007, 8:58 pm
Yeah, I’ve been noticing that their search engine isn’t that good at all. (Sorry Patrick, I see from my newly installed MyBlogLog that you’re hanging out around here.)
I’ve also dug through almost every single category at TLA.com and noticed that my other two blogs in there are no where to be found. Not to mention that when I go to edit those listings they don’t even show up with a link to them like erikvossman.com does.
I don’t mean to be rude again but you’d think since they’re earning 50% on peoples links they’d try their hardest to provide you will easy to find links to buy.
Oh well, I’ll have to stick to building traffic to my blogs and selling links on my own maybe.
Comment from Erik
Time: January 23, 2007, 8:58 pm
So what do you think about left or right sidebars? Does it matter as long as you can see it on most screen sizes?
Comment from HART (1-800-HART)
Time: January 24, 2007, 3:45 am
I think useability and navigation should be the first priority. For instance, most people scroll down the right side, and if they have to click .. it’s less movement from the link to the scroll bar if the sidebar is on the right. Google even thinks so apparently.
You can also look at the traffic. For instance, people coming here by bookmark only see the front page. Where are they going? And, the people coming from RSS feeds see the permalink first. Maybe you can consider some compromise? It’s not much but my http://HART-Oscope.com page is different for both views. I get no traffic though.
Comment from Erik
Time: January 24, 2007, 10:14 am
Interesting. I think I’ve seen that google page before. I wonder why the blog networks use the double right-hand bar and not the single? Would they get better click-through rates if they used the single?
I know their traffic is extremely high on most of their sites, but I haven’t found a good article, yet, from Jason C or Darren R amongst others, that states why the double is the choice of most blog networks.
Comment from Adnan
Time: January 26, 2007, 8:51 am
Hey Erik and firstly thanks for the link 
Secondly, I chose a double sidebar with one on each side of the page so that I could split my “extras” between the 2 columns. I find that if a person has a double bar with both bars on the right, there’s too much information to look at and not enough cleanliness and clarity.
At the moment, the left hand sidebar is dedicated to “linking out” and this is in the form of ads and the blogroll. I’m really not sure why I’ve sold 5 ads but I did email TLA recently asking to change categories. Since then I’ve sold 2 ads at $35 each ($17.50 for me).
So to conclude, I think its best to have clarity. At the moment whilst your general site design is extremely professional, I find myself browsing over your archives and past articles (especially in the furthest most right sidebar!). This really doesn’t do justice to them as they’re probably jam packed with juice.
Anyway just my opinion…
Comment from Jaro
Time: January 23, 2007, 8:45 pm
Erik, I think it comes down to the visibility of your websites in the TLA inventory. Their search function is very poor and it’s not easy to find a suitable website.
When you go and search for your website in TLA how do you find it? Is it fast and easy?
As far as I know there is not much you can do about the position in the TLA inventory except get loads of traffic