Sick of Subscription Buttons?
Author: Mitch Keeler
I think that subscription buttons, you know the “Add to Google” or “Add to Yahoo!” buttons that you see on various blogs and Web sites out there have their place – but sometimes get overused. If you have over twenty of them in your web site’s sidebar that might just be a few too many.
Many said that the standardization of the rounded orange buttons was suppose to get rid of this issue – but it doesn’t.
Now if you like seeing the buttons there and you think they are handy – good for you. For the rest of us though I have a solution. Do your best to include the orange RSS icon as it is pretty much a standard that people understand. They know when they click that it means they can subscribe to the feed at hand.
Now when it comes to the other buttons – I say add a few for the most popular options and then push the others to another web page. I’ve done that with the Lunartics blog right here. Have a better solution to share? I’d love to hear it and I know a few other million people who might be interested as well.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Subscription page is a nice idea for those who are patient for an extra click or two. When your blog targets readers who are not bloggers, the key in my mind is to simplify. Rows of chicklets and social bookmarks (like the ones on this page) only mystify that target reader. Heck…I don’t know what half of the social bookmark icons mean. For my personal wp.com blog, I use the addthis.com chicklet to reduce clutter. Anyone who can find that blog probably knows about social bookmarks anyway.
For me, simplification means a button to my feedburner feed and that’s it for my lp hosted blog at http://nymisoa.com/blog/.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I use AddThis.com so I can use only one button and still accomodate almost all services visitors might prefer.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:41 am
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June 19th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I agree all those buttons are confusing. I agree one simple orange icon to subscribe to the rss feed is the best
July 10th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Very confusing buttons..
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