OK, I’m just going to call it… the blog sidebar is dead. And you should strongly consider just getting rid of it altogether.

I have gone back and forth on this over the years. I have run my blogs both with sidebar and without sidebar. But, recently, I had two observations that just drove the nail in the coffin for me for the sidebar.

Both observations have to do with email opt-in rates. The punchline is… They SUCK. Opt-in rates in the sidebar just… suck.

Surely, others have seen it, too. There’s been an overall trend away from sidebars on blogs. We’re in this weird transition time where it is tradition to have a sidebar, yet you’re seeing more and more leading blogs send it to the trash bin.

I’m no longer in limbo about it. I think the blog sidebar is dead.