I really wanted a way to separate different parts of the web site, so by going with two sidebars on the new design, I have a lot of extra spots. The right sidebar always shows links to my other web sites and advertisements. The left sidebar is dynamic and changes depending on what you are viewing in the main content area.

Even though the left sidebar is dynamic, there are a couple of parts that will always show. The little About section, the Search box, and Feeds are always shown. I think these parts are very useful so I decided to show them all of the time.

When viewing the home page, the left sidebar will show the last 15 Quickie posts. This helps to keep the site fresh and changing with new content. When visiting a single post’s page, the left sidebar displays details about the post, has a link to the comment section, Share This, tags for the post, and links to related posts. By pushing all of these pieces off to the side, it keeps them accessible but also gets them out of the way so the content can have its space.

If you visit any other page besides the home page or a single post page, the left sidebar will show links to the 10 most recent posts, recent comments, categories, and a link to the tags page. I decided that if you are viewing any of these other types of pages, you aren’t looking at anything really specific, so I wanted to display links to a wide range of things to get you around the web site.

I still have some other ideas for things to do with the sidebar, but I think the changes I’ve made so far help to make the site more usable, clean, and fresh.