With the recent blog explosion, I’ve noticed a proliferation of extra-large RSS icons.
I certainly understand people’s desire to attract subscribers. I have my own RSS icons on my blog. See them over there on the right, near the top of the page? Nice little buttons with the familiar — even standard — little curvy line design. Nice, right? You know what they’re for, and you can use them if you want to.
I got them from feedicons.com, if you’re interested.
But what’s with the ginormous feed icons? They remind me of Flavor Flav‘s huge wall clock necklace pendant. Does it have to be so big? Does it tell time better than a normal wristwatch?
Now, it may be that the over-large RSS icon is being used as a design element, which is fine. But as far as function, I think these R.I.O.U.S.s (RSS Icons Of Unusual Size) are a bit excessive. Kind of like an unnecessary and too-long acronym. 
I doubt there is a correlation between the size of an RSS icon and the number of subscribers it attracts. Also, there is probably no relationship between the size of the icon and anything else useful. Of course, people can do what they like with their own sites and icons. But isn’t there a size at which the RSS button becomes too big to do its job, and becomes an eyesore, a distraction, or even a deterrent, to would-be subscribers? How about the “World’s Biggest RSS Button“, which is so big, it leaves no room for anything else on the page?
I think the RSS icon should be big enough to be found easily by users who are looking for it, but small enough to be ignored by those who aren’t. That’s just my opinion.
Firefox gives you one in the address bar, automagically. And there’s a Greasemonkey script to put one in the corner of the screen. So peeps don’t really need to add them at all. Unless it’s for reasons of bling, at which point they can be as big as blingiquette requires.
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Well if you look it at from a publishers point of view bigger is not better. It takes up too much valuable ad space.
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I’ve noticed the trend as well and read an article several weeks ago by someone who decided to do an experiment on his blog to see if size truly made a difference. I can’t recall which blog it was however.
Anyway, he increased the size of his button and his subscribers jumped dramatically. As I recall the button wasn’t huge. It was a nice reasonable size, not obtrusive and fairly easy on the eye.
I’ve been switching my blogs over to an icon that is about 74 pixels wide an noticed my subscriber rate did jump when I did. I do try to correlate the design with the website so it doesn’t look out of place. In fact, I custom designed one to go with my newest art blog (http://art.aneducationaljourney.com) that really coordinated because it used art in the design. The blog was brand new so I can’t really say if the switch to a larger, but ever more subtle design hurt or helped.
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Very good points. Leisa, I’m especially curious about whether the larger button actually does make a difference, or whether it’s just the passage of time and increased age/quality of a blog that increases subscriptions. hmmm.
Thanks for sharing!
I personally think it looks tacky.
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When I moved my blogger blog to wordpress, I specifically requested a big subscribe button because I wanted to test whether size matters in this regard.
Since being on wordpress for a little over a month now, my subscriber numbers have tripled. Although I don’t know if it’s due to the big button or if people are simply enjoying what I write, I have found the big button to be helpful.
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It is all about the hope that someone will click on it accidentally I think. ;o)
Ok, so I made mine bigger, I admit, but I did this for a 2 fold reason.
1. To see if it’ll actually make a difference and
2. Used it as a background for the actual RSS links
Take a look and tell me if this is truly obnoxious or not, lol
Mommie
http://www.mommieshome.net
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I use a fairly sized rss icon in my site but the one on your post is just plain overkill. I think it doesn’t matter what size of rss button you use in your site as long as it complements the site itself and not become a hindrance to the user. Besides, if the reader wants to subscribe to your feeds, he/she will take time to find your rss button no matter how small.
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Well Mommie, it is pretty big, but at least you’ve put something on it. That’s better than just a big button without anything else. I don’t think yours is too distracting. And the color blends with your theme, so it’s not just big and loud for the sake of being big and loud. I’m really curious to know how the change affects your subscriptions! Maybe you’ll convince me to go big, too!
Ok…I had to cackle over your Flavor Flav comment…you are absolutely right about that! And now every time I see a big honkin’ feed button, I’ll thank about him! lol!! Gee thanks!
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Huh. My problem is usually not being about to find the RSS buttons on a blog OR seeing that HUGE list of every RSS feed aggregator in the world and saying ” ‘eh, nevermind”
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