Hey, all. Sorry I've been sparse around the forums. Quite busy. I've blocked out most of Sunday for working on GRS stuff, though, including part three of the IRA post.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a plan to kill the Text Link Ads on the front page, as well as the "advertise here" bit. For a long time, I've been wanting to widen the sidebar, so finally this morning I did it. It only took about an hour. You can see the results in the sandbox. I'd appreciate feedback.

The sidebar is now 72px wider than before, alllowing me to bring in a 250x250 Google ad in a prominent location, which, I hope, will obviate the need for Text Link Ads. Also, though it makes me a little uncomfortable, I'm going to introduce a "donate" button. There have been a half dozen requests for this in the past month, so as soon as I can figure it out, I'll put it up.

Right now, I'm mainly looking for feedback on the stretched layout. I just photoshopped my images 72px wider. I want to make sure they don't look too goofy. I also want to be sure the layout isn't broken. I suspect things are fine, but I'd appreciate feedback.

Thanks!

Looked fine to me. I probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it, but the sidebar does look like a wider percentage of the window. Doesn't bother me, since it doesn't appear intrusive to the content. I didn't test links or anything.

(Stats: PC- XP Pro, IE7- no plugins, 1280x1024@32bit- browser not fullscreen)

Looks fine to me with this layout also. It doesn't seem intrusive or distract from your posts.

Looks good to me. However, the F-pattern suggests you'll make more from ads if you put them on the right. Of course, the way things have gone for me in the past 15 days, I'm not sure you should listen.

Okay, I've made a few more changes to the layout. The new proposed layout can be seen in the sandbox:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/sandbox/

As usual, I welcome your feedback. Now I need to write some content!

General site design comments:

The "50 highest rated" is pointless to me. It might be interesting to click on one of these, but I wouldn't expect it on the front page. Perhaps just a link to a page with the highest-rated posts would be better? Same goes for the "25 most rated".

It would be nice to see a (compact) date and time on the popular/most recent posts/most recent comments.

Could the most recent comments be grouped by article?

You could put the categories in two columns rather than one, with the wider sidebar.

How about a gimmicky widget to show random facts to motivate people to cut spending, save more, or invest? I'm imagining little graphics with phrases:
- "$10 invested monthly since 2000 would be worth $2100 today and $35,000 in 35 years. (Take 10 minutes to set up your IRA now, from getrichslowly.org" with a link to an older your IRA how-to posting
- "One meal less at restaurants each week could pay off $2000 debt in two years. (What spending can you cut easily? Find out on getrichslowly.org)" with a link to an older frugality posting
- I can't give up my latte! (Big cuts count more than small ones, and might be easier than you think. Run the numbers on getrichslowly.com) with a link to the cost

These could also serve as little ads or link-shares for your site.

Thanks in any case, because I love the site.

What's funny is that I added the long list of "greatest hits" thinking it would increase pageviews. It hasn't. I was at 1.8pv/visit before, I'm at 1.8pv/visit now. HA!

I love the random fact widget concept. I'll look into that. Awesome idea.