Adding RSS feed button to your blog

When your visit a blog, you must have noticed those orange buttons on display, especially if they are big and shiny like the one on the left. Those are RSS feed buttons. You know what they’re used for right? (If not, please refer to What is RSS? ). But you might wonder how do you put one of those in your blog?

Well, okay okay I’ll tell you how;

  1. Go find one in the net, just search for RSS buttons, make sure it’s free for use before you download them.
  2. Upload it into image host (e.g. Photobucket, Imageshack, Flickr etc.).
  3. Copy the direct link to the button.
  4. Decide where you want to put the button in your blog. I would suggest in the upper right side sidebar. By the way there are two RSS feeds come out from your blog. One is posts feed and the other one is comments feed. Its up to you whether you want to use separate buttons or use the same button twice or…..you decide.
  5. That was easy, now come the slightly difficult part, writing the code. Here is an example:

    <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/BloggerSentral" title="Click to subscribe"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPu0udeOcue_U8r65MQryZfYUAjFzE6kBzGNcM1lQKfER0WzRm-tuIJdDbkKRn-s3z0naRbp9HbVBhVFj9H3p_ud3BSk3kw5O942jqrru1FahJTiIuoqDECE7U_5i5tyCXyOQIzFnNO8wU/s1600/rss.png" style="border:0"/>Subscribe to my feed</a>

  6. To put the button in the sidebar, go to Dashboard > Layout > Add a Gadget and pick a HTML/JavaScript gadget. Copy the code above and paste it in the gadget.
  7. Now you need to edit the code. The yellow part specifies your feed url, in the example is Blogger Sentral’s Feedburner feed url. If you do not use external service, your blog posts rss url will be
    http://yourblogurl/posts/feeds/posts/default
    and the comments feed is
    http://yourblogurl/posts/feeds/comments/ default
    Just replace my url with yours. “Subscribe to my feed” text will appear next to the button. The title ”Click to subscribe” is a tooltip message which appears when you hover the button with the mouse. Both texts can be replaced with your own.
  8. The green portion specifies your button location on the web. Just copy and paste the link in step 3 to replace the url in the example.
  9. Now you code is complete. Click save.
  10. Go ahead view your blog.

Enjoy!

19 comments to "Adding RSS feed button to your blog"

Josh Darr July 12, 2009 at 12:27 PM    

Im not sure why the rss button does not appear. I uploaded to flickr copied link..this is what html says, < img=src= "http://www.flickr.com/photos/21646452@N00/3711301995/"/>subscribe to my feed< /a >

how can I fix it? Thanks

Greenlava July 12, 2009 at 1:03 PM    

You use the wrong link. The proper link should be http://farm4.static.flickr.com...... and it ends with your image file format such as jpg or gif.

Josh Darr July 13, 2009 at 6:30 AM    

thanks, and what am i doing wrong with the top half?

< a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DrawingFromMusicl" title="Click to subscribe" >

Greenlava July 13, 2009 at 8:50 AM    

You have an L at the end of DrawingFromMusic.

Yahoo store developer February 23, 2010 at 10:59 AM    

worked like a charm. you explained it perfectly. thanks

Surya Kasturi July 8, 2010 at 12:31 PM    

i want to put it at the top of my blog where i don't have option to keep widget.
so where to edit the html code

Greenlava July 9, 2010 at 8:12 PM    

@surya
Where might that be?
You have to create a section (widget container) first.
If it is beside the header, read Add banner, Adsense or search box in header.

Glenny August 30, 2010 at 1:05 AM    

Hey, this is really useful! Thank you. I've added this to my blog

Greenlava August 30, 2010 at 1:33 AM    

@Glenny
You're welcome. Click the Post Index tab for more tutorials.

Alyssa June 30, 2011 at 12:50 PM    

Thanks for the info! Very helpful and easy to follow! :) Was a cinch! :)

Anupal August 7, 2011 at 1:58 PM    

cool nice thank you

ashik April 23, 2012 at 3:50 AM    

Hi, i have a template with 5 blogs attached to it. And i was a single RSS button for that. Is it possible? Can someone help me and guide me please?!!!!

Unknown September 6, 2012 at 9:34 PM    

Thanks man it working......
:)

Sophia March 6, 2013 at 3:59 AM    

Hi

I know that this is an old post but it has been the clearest so far. Only I appear to have missed something as I am missing the RSS icon on my blog, could you please let me know where I am going wrong.

http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

much appreciated

Greenlava March 6, 2013 at 1:24 PM    

@Sophia
I've updated the code, so please recopy.
You feed url is fine.

Sophia March 7, 2013 at 10:36 AM    

Hi Me again!

I know that it should be as easy as copy and paste, however this time it does not recognise the URL, have I copied too much?

I'll be honest it all looks like a foreign language to me.

Please advice, thanks in advance for your patience. I've tried....

http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.png" style="border:0"/>Subscribe to my feed</a>
http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rsstitle="Click to subscribe"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VehMnvwSdUM/Ts-3Wfe05QI/AAAAAAAACFU/ROHi3UE6laY/s1600/rss.png" style="border:0"/>Subscribe to my feed</a>

Much appreciated


Greenlava March 7, 2013 at 3:59 PM    

@Sophia
Copy and use this code:
<a href="http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" title="Click to subscribe"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VehMnvwSdUM/Ts-3Wfe05QI/AAAAAAAACFU/ROHi3UE6laY/s1600/rss.png" style="border:0"/>Subscribe to my feed</a>

Greenlava March 7, 2013 at 4:04 PM    

@Sophia
Or if you just want the button without the text, use this code:
<a href="http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" title="Click to subscribe"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VehMnvwSdUM/Ts-3Wfe05QI/AAAAAAAACFU/ROHi3UE6laY/s1600/rss.png" style="border:0"/></a>

Sophia March 7, 2013 at 9:38 PM    

@Greenlava,

Thank you for your efforts and I give you A* for your prompt responses, you made it super easy for me so I can't go wrong. However on my end the Configure Feed box does not like either URL's telling me they are invalid, and I have even attempted to apply them under the "add your own" URL but it does not like the characters.

Then I thought let me go back to our first exchange and I followed your posts original instructions, rather than my interpretation and I put my original URL feed in again, which you said was fine!
http://glitterbug-giftboxes.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss .......updated it and it's there, just as you described, haha brilliant! And thank you for your assistance.

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