Many websites that I’ve visited have so much stuff on them, such as long drawn out information, ads over lapping each other, glitter, stories and so on, that I find it easier to just move on to a much cleaner and easier to read site rather than spend hours sifting through the junk just to get to the article.
New widgets are coming into the market every day, however, this does not mean that you need to put every single one on your site! Remember the “shiny object syndrome”, you don’t need every new application that comes out. This only creates more junk and frustration for your readers.
I understand that most sites rely very much on ads for their profits and traffic, but you don’t have to cater to every company that wants to advertise with you. Learn how to say “NO”. Too many ads in one small space means a huge headache for the people trying to read your posts.
We’re big fans of WordPress here at Men with Pens, but every WordPress default installation comes with a few widgets that you can definitely do without. Those extra widgets may seem handy at first, but in general, they’re useful to you, not to your readers.