Most users suffer from right column avoidance syndrome. They simply have an aversion to the right rail content on websites. They avoid it like the plague. They deny its very existence. Their peripheral vision ends where the right column begins. How often have we all glazed over the right most content on a website? Why is this you might ask?! In fact, we all know the reason. It’s right column fatigue. We have trained users to expect nothing short of gimmicky marketing and sales pitches in that area of web pages. Even if your site hasn’t fallen victim to this, it has become standard convention for this real estate to be relegated to this purpose. It has become a mostly noisy and free-for-all area especially on B2C sites. This rule transgresses all sites including B2B ones as well. A site is a site is a site - all weaved from the same web. So, as long as we accept this - much like users avoid the right channel - as site creators we, too, should equally avoid the right channel when it comes to placing anything there other than non-critical content. For content your users will be seeking and will need to be successful with their task at hand, avoid placing it in the right channel as it is likely to be overlooked.

The other side of this is that the propensity of the right channel content to be overlooked is also related to how ads-y it appears. So, if your right channel content appears more like real content versus marketing, chances are it might get noticed.