Blog Bling - How much is too much?

You know about Blog Bling - it's all the stuff on the page that isn't an actual post. It's in the sidebar areas, maybe even on both sides. It could be blinking or flashing. It prompts you to click to vote, tag, digg or fuel something. It shows page rank, counts visitors, begs for comments, announces some web award or another, and in extreme cases completely overshadows the content of the page.

In designing My Thermos, I tried to choose a style that was clean and fresh looking, with a lot of visible open white space. In the sidebar I chose to include some personalization, my favorite Zappa quote, a player preloaded with some tunes that I enjoy, some jyte claims which I hope tell you more about me, and some carefully chosen others.

The bling is there to make your visit more pleasant - to help you learn a little about me and perhaps give you a reason to stop back every once in a while.

To me it is about balance. I experimented with some last.fm widgets but found them a bit too overbearing, and distracting. I joined some affiliate programs but I just can't see hawking stuff indiscriminately, barraging my guests with products and services that they likely have no use for. And while I want it to be easy for you to subscribe or share if you choose to, I don't feel I need to hit you over the head or overwhelm you with these options.

I am looking at a page now (which I won't divulge) with no less than 24 various banners including a counter which hasn't been updated since December 2006. I look at this and say it is too much.

What do you say? How much is too much? And how did I do with My Thermos?

SB