Who’s Sitting In Your WordPress Sidecar? 5 Tips for Creatively Using Custom Sidebars

When the For Bloggers By Bloggers blog made the switch back to Headway, it reminded me of what attracted me to this theme in the first place.

One of the major benefits was that I was finally able to customize my sidebars.

Since then, other themes have done the same and there is now even a plugin or two that allow it, although they have not always been dependable and some don’t work with every widget you use.

So, you may be asking, what the heck is Bob talking about?

I touched on this in my last post about widgets, but I’m expanding a little more on it.

As you may have experienced with some themes out there, when you set up your sidebar, often you must have the same content on every page and post. So your readers’ eyes are always landing on the same stuff.

Is that good?

In some instances, yes. But let’s put on our marketing hats and think about some of the drawbacks of a static sidebar.

Ask yourself these questions:

Are the widgets in your sidebar distracting readers from the content of a particular page?

Do the widgets supplement and leverage the page content?

Are there other strategies that will make the sidebar more useful?

5 tips for creatively using custom sidebars on your blog

1. Avoid redundant sidebar content.

Take your blogger bio and photo. With many themes, if you place it on your home page sidebar, it automatically appears on every other page’s sidebar. But with the right theme, you can assign that widget to appear only on certain pages (the contact page, for example). So it’s on the page or pages where it logically would appear.

2. Choose affiliate ad placement carefully.

Be sure those ads aren’t competing for your readers’ attention and distracting them from your content. Some bloggers choose to put affiliate ads only on certain pages. For instance, on the Products I Love page or another page that directly complements the product or service.

3. Consider multiple custom sidebar options if you are creating a membership site. 

This is the perfect option for a membership site with several levels. Imagine, if you will, password-protected pages, where on the sidebar for each level you give them specific links to pages only available to their membership.

4. Make your about page sidebar pop with the right tools and widgets. 

When someone goes to your about page, they are interested in you. They want to learn more about what makes you tick. Wouldn’t it be cool to have that sidebar more specific to social media connections and other platforms where they can connect with you?

5. Consider customizing sidebars to specific posts when it makes sense. 

This is where some themes offer incredible flexibility. You can create a custom sidebar for a category, or even better, a specific post. That allows you to focus that sidebar on what you are talking about in a specific post. So it could be affiliate product links, links to specific books or resources, or something else. The list is endless. This enables some focused up-selling without cluttering your actual post with it.

These are just 5 ways of creatively using custom sidebars. Do you have other ideas to share?

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