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?
. . .
. . .
(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!)