Feedster, My Yahoo, AOL, Bloglines, Pluck, Rojo, Google. It’s slowly happening. The RSS button options on the side of blogs is slowly growing larger and larger. Like the Blob, it’s taking over entire blogs, sites, and possibly the world! Okay, maybe an exaggeration, but I think you get my point. There are just so many different ways to sign up and read RSS feeds that for blog owners it’s getting near impossible to accommodate everyone with an easy one-click solution.

Today I spent 3 hours setting up my RSS page. (Edit: I have since done away with the RSS page in exchange for the simplicity of a few buttons on the right hand column.) I decided not to clutter up every page of my blog with funky buttons for every RSS service under the sun, so I have dedicated an separate page for it. As you can see, the list is quite extensive and always growing larger. Since I am using FeedBurner I will be able to track which RSS readers are most popular with my subscribers and will eventually only accommodate the 10 most popular.

There is a great tool that I have been using to create these buttons over at TwisterMC. Yet, even on his page there are over 20 different RSS buttons you can use and 8 different ways to bookmark a page.

So what do I suggest? Well, I first off recommend using FeedBurner as it will allow you to track what the most popular RSS readers your subscribers are using. Then, either set up a dedicated page like I have done for several RSS buttons, or only offer the top 5 or so on the side of your blog. In my opinion having too many is a waste of space, tacky, and bad for the overall design of most blogs.

Here are a few other websites related to this topic…

• Free RSS Button Graphic Tool
• Why Are RSS Feed Buttons Orange?
• Great article on placement of your RSS Feed Buttons.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay updated on future posts by subscribing to my RSS Feed.

One Comment on “How many RSS Buttons are too many?”

1. 
   Comment by James Bowskill - January 15, 2006 @ 7:51 pm

   Thanks for linking to my entry, Miles. One thing I’ve come across recently on the subject is this project aiming for a universal feed icon - a sound idea: http://www.feedicons.com

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