You’re up for June 29, and I’ll look forward to it.

Now that you’ve whacked my wife (yes, I’m THAT Jacobsen), perhaps you could schedule a drive-by for my blog – http://blog.g33kart.com – would this be the first family hit in history?

John “the widower” Jacobsen

John Jacobsen’s last blog post..The Rays… are for REAL?!?!?

Thank you for the ride-along. It was fun. Let me know if you ever need me to make another hit.

@ Tara

Thats why i removed my license plates. A little anonymity is good. Good luck with your site.

@ Steph

It’s all about the education.

John Hewitt’s last blog post..Please Welcome My Guest Bloggers

I just wanted to say I really enjoy these drive-by shootings! I find them professional, informative, valuable, and of course fun. I love the creativity. Your whole approach to this kind of advice is refreshing. It’s both forthright and firm yet not at all offensive. I also love that I’m indirectly learning what things I should implement for my own website when the time comes.

steph’s last blog post..Fiction. Episode IV: Return of the Canadians

Again, CSS lets you position the users view wherever you like while putting the actual load at the bottom of the page.

And I need to revisit James contention that “Most Internet users do NOT have the savvy to start playing with coding and make their left sidebar source code appear last”

Most bloggers don’t know ANYTHING about positioning – they rely on their blogging platform to do that. So are you saying that these blogging platforms are really so stupid as to not use CSS for positioning? The blog in question here uses WordPress and the Navigation column we are discussing IS positioned with CSS and DOES load last. So THAT platform certainly isn’t stupid about columns, and I bet most are just as smart.

Tony Lawrence’s last blog post..Page Views Per Visitor – more isn’t always better by Anthony Lawrence

If you think that’s “beyond the capacity” of most people, perhaps so. It’s actually trivial, but most people are deathly afraid of learning anything about technology. Their loss.

“Usability and navigation *are* affected by left versus right. Sorry, but I’ll argue this one firmly until the cows go home.”

That’s conventional wisdom among many bloggers, but it’s incorrect according to the study I quoted.

It’s a bit of a red herring to say that newspapers and magazines are read and perceived differently. We’re talking about the mechanics of reading and noticing – the media work identically in that respect.

I can also tell you from years of A/B testing that a left sidebar increases both average views per visits AND ad income at my site. So no matter how many bloggers say “left is wrong”, I’ll keep mine where it is. Well, that’s not necessarily true: I do A/B testing every few years to make sure I’m still on track. So I’ll amend that: I’ll keep mine where it is unless real facts tell me to move it.

And I’d strongly advise anyone else who is serious about their blog or website NOT to swallow “conventional wisdom” outright. Investigate, do A/B testing (Google Analytics now has some great tools that can show results very visually) and find out what REALLY works best for you. You might find that right works better, you might find the opposite, or you might find (as the studies I referenced indicate) it really doesn’t matter.

Is it more important to you to go with the crowd or to do what works best? I know my answer.

Tony Lawrence’s last blog post..Page Views Per Visitor – more isn’t always better by Anthony Lawrence

The general rule of thumb in site design is to have your most important content on the top left. This is where the eye will naturally go. On a commercial sites, the navigation is generally placed on the top or left, as it is crucial. However, in blogging, the latest post is generally what people want and it therefore should be top-left.

There is also the issue of legacy screens, where the site may exceed screen width. A left sidebar could force a sideways scroll, which is one of the biggest sins in web design.

Grandad’s last blog post..Friends