Coffee Break Blogging

Much of what bloggers do these days they do because they see everybody else doing it. It is a big game of "follow the leader"... or in this case, "follow the guru". But, sometimes when everybody else is zigging, it is a good time to zag. And in this episode of The Blog Program, I ask the question... Is the blog sidebar dead? My readers have probably noticed that in the last few months, I have gone to a no-sidebar layout here on BMA. It started out with just my feature posts - all of which were published in full width. Then, toward the end of 2013, I went ahead and flipped the switch to ditch the sidebar throughout the entire site. I did bring back a mini floating sidebar just to make a few shortcut links more easily accessible, but the traditional sidebar definitely doesn't exist here at the Academy. In episode 16, I talk about why exactly I made this switch. I talk about: What people usually put into the blog sidebar... and could it go anywhere else? Why I believe the sidebar might actually get in the way o