Common Mistakes when setting up your sidebars:

1. Adding to many widgets. When it comes to widgets, less is definitely better than more. Before you add a widget, ask your self what purpose it serves.
2. Cluttered sidebar. My wife hates clutter. When I leave stuff laying around the house, the hammer comes down. Treat your sidebars the same way. Eliminate the clutter. Put a border around widgets with a similar purpose to better organize your widgets.
3. Leaving default widgets in place. The meta widget serves no useful purpose and makes you look like an amateur. Recent Comments and Recent Posts are usually redundant. Drag default widgets you don’t need into the “Inactive widgets” section.
4. Failing to prioritize widgets. If you want people to see an important widget, put it above the fold.
5. Not having an Email Subscription Option. Set up you opt-in list when you set up your website. The purpose of your website is to make contact with your visitors. Make sure they are able to to leave you their email and give them a reason to do so.
6. Filling your sidebar with Google Ads or Affiliate links. Think about how you view a website. If a side bar is full of ads you are going to ignore it and you will probably ignore the site. Its better to group all your ads in one text widget.
7. Adding external links that take visitors away from your website. If you have posted a link to an external site on your blog, link to that post rather than to the external site. That will give people the information and still keep them on your site.
8. Including a mile-long blogroll. Providing a list of other bloggers who have similar content may seem to provide users more information but it also takes them to your competition. Instead create a page listing “resources worth reading.”