I’ve done it again – I’ve cleaned out my bookmarks bar.
In case you don’t know, bookmarks – or bookmarked sites – are sites that you visit a lot, like once a day or several times a day.
These are the sites that have quality content, your favorite too. It’s niche stuff, but it’s your niche.
Sometimes, however, things get cluttered. Other times your focus changes.
That’s what happened with me recently – my focus changed.
I decided that I wanted to focus more on business topics and less on political BS.
There are many reasons for this, but the fact that I’ve got two marketing books coming out at the end of the year is a big factor.
Regardless, it was time to reorient myself. The best way to do that was to change-up the things I see each day. Those are my bookmarked sites.
I’ve written about this before, in a
In each of those posts I talked about sites that had lost value for me. I also pointed out new sites that were giving me value.
That’s what bookmarks are about – value. If those old sites that you once liked aren’t giving it to you anymore, don’t feel bad, just take them off your bookmark bar.
I did that recently and I’d like to point out what that looks like.
In case you don’t know, bookmarks – or bookmarked sites – are sites that you visit a lot, like once a day or several times a day.
These are the sites that have quality content, your favorite too. It’s niche stuff, but it’s your niche.
Sometimes, however, things get cluttered. Other times your focus changes.
That’s what happened with me recently – my focus changed.
I decided that I wanted to focus more on business topics and less on political BS.
There are many reasons for this, but the fact that I’ve got two marketing books coming out at the end of the year is a big factor.
Regardless, it was time to reorient myself. The best way to do that was to change-up the things I see each day. Those are my bookmarked sites.
I’ve written about this before, in a
- Taking Back Your Internet Bookmarks (December 2013)
- Pruning the Internet Bookmark Bar (April 2015)
In each of those posts I talked about sites that had lost value for me. I also pointed out new sites that were giving me value.
That’s what bookmarks are about – value. If those old sites that you once liked aren’t giving it to you anymore, don’t feel bad, just take them off your bookmark bar.
I did that recently and I’d like to point out what that looks like.
What I really did was to shorten many of the titles on those bookmarks. Often I went with two-letter acronyms. I think at this point we’re fine with just the icons.
That freed up a lot of space and allowed me to have more options. One thing I did was move Google AdSense onto that bar, as I access this site a lot.
Hey, I’ve made more than $400 from my website advertising this year, compared to $0 last year.
All of my eBook retailer sites have also been moved up, not just Amazon. I check these often. What has moved away are local news sources, though I still have the national papers up.
Conclusion
Is your bookmark bar working?
Maybe it was at some point, but chances are good you haven’t updated it in months or maybe a year or more.
I added about 15 new marketing sites to my bookmark bar. My daily outlook has changed as a result.
Are you ready for something similar? Take these ideas and use them to make your life better, and more efficient.
Maybe it was at some point, but chances are good you haven’t updated it in months or maybe a year or more.
- Is it time?
- Are the current sites you visit starting to bore you?
- Are some of them making you angry, either because the advice is rubbish or because you’ve moved past it?
I added about 15 new marketing sites to my bookmark bar. My daily outlook has changed as a result.
Are you ready for something similar? Take these ideas and use them to make your life better, and more efficient.
So as you can see, I’ve got two types of bookmarks – the top, horizontal bookmark bar and the left-hand drop-down bookmark bar.
Far and away, the prime real estate is the bookmark bar at the top. These are your main sites.
I went ahead and reduced the title size on those by rewriting and using acronyms on many.
The Old Bookmarks Bar: Is it Working?
Old bar
When I think of my bookmark bar I think of the long, diagonal bar that pops out on my Google Chrome browser.
You can see my old bar to the right. Some of the sites I had on there were barely visited. Others were just doing their job.
Now, let’s not forget the prime bookmark bar real estate, the horizontal bar that’s always present under your search query text box. Here’s what mine looked like:
You can see my old bar to the right. Some of the sites I had on there were barely visited. Others were just doing their job.
- The Book Designer: This is a site for authors, but more and more the tips don’t apply to me. It’s for beginning authors, and that was great in 2013, but today it’s irrelevant.
- MT Cowgirl: I got rid of this site for two reasons. First, it makes me angry. Second, if I’m interested in something new there it’ll be on Twitter.
- Google Books: I never access this anymore from my bookmark bar. Instead I just type the topic into Google followed by a comma and “google books.” Works every time and cuts out a needless step.
- Smashwords: I have two books on this site, both free. I access it maybe once a quarter. Yep, it can go.
- Podomatic: I don’t do political podcasts anymore so this can go.
- LinkedIn: I just don’t use this network.
- WikiArt: Boy, I liked the idea of expanding my mind with a daily dose of art, but it turned into a monthy dose, at best.
Now, let’s not forget the prime bookmark bar real estate, the horizontal bar that’s always present under your search query text box. Here’s what mine looked like:
Another thing I did as you can see from the image at the side, was to take out many of the old sites that I wasn’t interested in anymore.
The result was this bar at your right. Here’s what I did:
Besides that, I really reworked my horizontal bookmark bar, that prime real estate we talked about. Here it is:
The result was this bar at your right. Here’s what I did:
- Marketing: As you can see, I really moved a lot of new marketing and social media sites onto the bookmark bar. There are now 14 new sites, for a total of 17, whereas before there were just 3 sites.
- Moved Up: Things have moved up. Before Moz started 11-down on the bookmark bar and now it starts 6-down. Clearly I’m placing more importance on these subjects.
- Moved Down: Local news and Montana politics have moved way down on the bookmark bar.
Besides that, I really reworked my horizontal bookmark bar, that prime real estate we talked about. Here it is:
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