Close to none!!!
In comparison, links to SPECIFIC video content get LOTS of clicks!!!
The icons on the side bar do not attract attention at all!!!
Why? A few reasons:
- They are too vague (dating for women)
- They are positioned on the right side bar which gets less eye focus
- They are icons.
What does it say?
For the dating for women topic:
That the main dating page for women gets 200 clicks/month
The combined main navigation(gateway) pages (videos, e-books, audios, etc) get: 60 + 150 + 200 clicks/month
that's in the 400 clicks range...
In the meantime, the videos pages get 1500 views in the same period
The SEO pages get 400 + 1000 views in the same period again.
So, theese gateway pages are not the clicking triggers!!!
They are in every page and they are the top navigation + they have lots of icon links.
But... They get only a small fraction of the traffic even though, women should in theory get back to these main pages to access the video or audios list, they actually do it only a bit.
Instead they click directly in the central content that is directly offered to them.
These navigation patterns are in a way VERY logical.
They makes sense and must remain the key guiding elements when designing an attractive page.