Blogs and white space: never the twain shall meet?

I’ve recently been considering re-doing my blog skin, and wondering about all the pieces, chunks, and components of a modern, integrated blog.

There’s a ton, at least on my site. At least 13:

  • header with “station identification:” name and so on
  • introduction to the site and author
  • list of categories
  • list of recent posts
  • RSS paraphernalia
  • archives
  • list of my recent del.icio.us bookmarks
  • credits
  • links, blogroll
  • Feedblitz email subscription
  • a footer link to previous posts
  • Google AdWords
  • Chitika Minimall

Oh, and by the way, there’s a bunch of posts, too. (Kind of the main reason for the site, huh?)

I’m looking at this and wondering: why have I added so much stuff? Isn’t this the opposite of simple? What are really the essential components?

Flickr blog
And somewhere today I saw a link to the Flickr blog. Whoa – whitespace galore.

The Flickr blog has about 4 elements:

  • – header and “station identification”
  • – intro to the Flickr blog
  • – RSS
  • – Archives
  • – some info about Flickr itself

That it. Nothing more. Not a footer. Not a recent articles listing. No ads. No links. No categories. Clean. Simple. Refreshing.

Now comes the hard part: what am I willing to part with?

. . .
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(Note: My posts themselves also have a ton more information (clutter) than the Flickr blog. How much is neccessary? How much is worthwhile? How much could I increase the signal-to-noise ratio by simplifying? Tough questions!)