I have a reputation for keeping a cluttered, unorganized desk. It drives everyone else crazy, but I can find whatever I want when I need it. One of my former co-workers used to remind me how “a cluttered desk means a cluttered mind.” (I often wanted to ask her about her empty desk, but I held my tongue). Now and then I see a cluttered blog and remember that phrase. You see, a cluttered desk doesn’t bother me, but a cluttered blog does.
Just the essentials
When I first began blogging, I proudly displayed every widget and award I could get my hands on. It wasn’t long before my visitors became confused. I had lots of fun bells and whistles. Polls, quizzes, awards and the like, but no one could find my blogroll, archives and especially ads.
I started researching some very successful blogs and here’s what I found:
- Ads that blend in rather than stand out.
- Few, if any, widgets.
- Easy to locate blogroll, archives and contact information.
- Blogs loaded quickly and easily.
The redesign
I decided to take my meager earnings and invest in a redesign for Freelance Writing Jobs. The results were amazing and immediate. Not only did my traffic soar, but on the first day my revenue tripled. What I really liked was my blog’s clean new design. There are still some tweaks here and there and we’re working on it, but I’m very pleased with the results so far.
My readers are also pleased with the re-design. They can find everything they need at a glance. I’m not receiving emails asking how to find my archives or telling me my blog is too slow to load because of all the fun stuff in the sidebar. One of my regulars wrote that the new design is “less stressful”. The clean design is “calmer.”
Does a cluttered blog mean a cluttered mind? I suppose that’s in the eye of the beholder. I can tell you this, for me, an uncluttered mind made a big difference.
I must say I love the redesign, although I'm kinda missing the banner.
You can generally earn more from an uncluttered site too, especially if you're using a program such as Adsense or Chitika that pays for clicks. With lots of widgets, links, images, etc. on blogs and sites, visitors either get distracted or tune it all out. They're less likely to notice your ads and click on them. Simple sites, on the other hand, naturally get a higher click-through-ratio since there's less to distract the visitor.