COMMENTS
As always, valuable checkpoints from HubSpot. What are your feelings on blogrolls, or "Blogs we like"? I like the idea of sharing the love, as well as the confidence portrayed by such activity.
The idea of embedding a specific call to action in the side bar is a great one. Good way to bring specific focus to a current area of interest. Hadn't thought to do this before.
All good recommendations. I agree with Lee that the call to action is a great idea - something that usually doesn't get to the top of the priority list. I use Sharebar for social media connections and like it a lot.
What about an "editor's choice" bar. These may not be the most popular, but relevant to the business for people to read. Any thoughts?
I always look to HubSpot for great information and this post fits that bill. Though I have on my website MOST of what is described here, there were some other thoughts that reminded me about the work I still have to do. Thanks!
Charlie Seymour Jr
http://PersonalSuccessMarketing.com
Another great recommendation from the good folks at Hubspot!! We are in the process of adding some of these items to our blog
Blogs certainly allow more flexibility in sharing current information compared with corporate websites.
Nice suggestions, I often see blogs putting all sort of stuff on their sidebars without any real clue on how to make it effective for your goals. Your list is sure a welcome help towards the right direction.
Great Post. Since we run our blog on Hubspot, I would like to ask the following questions:
1) How do we get a search bar in our sidebar? Is this available with Hubspot?
2) I notice on the hubspot main blog page, each of the articles has a blurb with read more link at the bottom. We would like to be able to do this on our blog as well. What do we need to do to configure this? Thanks for the great content!!!
I love HubSpot's info! It is always helpful.
For me there is not so much a #8 in mind, but rather a way to motivate users to take action with your CTAs, subscriptions, etc.
Incorporating incentives for users to take action within your sidebar is key. Just like HubSpot sending me a great whitepaper on using Facebook for business when I signed up for their newsletter.
Thanks, guys, for the great work!
Number One is really important, especially the part about the email signup. I still find tons of readers who are baffled by RSS. BUT, they still read blogs and know what an email and email newsletter is. Thanks again guys for another great post!
Not sure it's necessary for both recent and popular posts; I include a few as excerpts under each post itself. Agree with Eric on the blogroll, recognizing other blogs and sites.
As part of the Option to Subscribe and Social Media connections, I'll add: contact info, esp. if you don't have all the SM links. FWIW.
Great list -- I agree that number one is the most important. You should always have an option to subscribe by email. Its one of the easiest options a reader can take to convert.
Great list! I always look for the most recent post list on other blogs, but just realized I didn't have it on mine... Glad I read this :)
Good Recommendations. I do not believe in adding a social media connect button on all the sidebars. I only put them on my contact page. Do you think its mandatory and its gonna make a big difference.
We would add
1) Related Topics
2) Popular Tags
3) Helpful Links (other than your own)
I have to agree with all but one of the items: the search box. In the number of sites that I've created (when looked through the Google Analytics overlay) the search box his hardly used, if at all.
Great post. I am going to try to put a search box on my blog.
Great info..I'll be coming back for more...
great help, thanks, our's have 6 of them. :)
How does this CTA or Call to Action work?
Thanks for the useful list - am also wondering how to get the search box on our Hubspot-hosted blog. We've been looking to implement that since day one.
8. Have a 'Creative Commons' license for your blog content, so it can be excerpted and republished with proper attribution. It's the right thing to do, and encourages link love.
NOTE: I think usability may decline after putting more than say 5 elements -- some of which are going to be quite long -- in a narrow sidebar. At the least, 95% of this stuff will be waaaaay below the fold. So which element is first (at the top) could make all the difference.
Another great post from the gang at hubspot. These are all legitamate points and worthy of our attention. Keep up the good work.
I would say these 7 are great point The 8th imp thing is dont have the 8th item. I will make things look cluttered
What a great suggestion for a call to action in the blog side bar. It ties the blog back to what my site is all about. Thanks will implement!
Yes, sometimes we forge about this basic things for our blog. Thanks for remind us ;)
Proper use of the side bar is highly recommended for a blog to survive for long. It would be interesting to see what happens if some posts or comments that receive great public attention are kept for long duration.