A new favorite, the YouTube Subscribe Button
YouTube recently released the Subscribe Button that can be used on websites directly. If you are like me and have a website for your YouTube channel you can benefit from enabling people to subscribe to your channel without ever leaving your website.
How does it work?
Two lines of code are used to generate this button:
The First one is the javascript plusone.js include being called from Google’s servers. Since most websites now days are using social sharing links you may want to check the of your site to see if you are already including plusone.js from Google. If not you can include it in the of your site.
The second line of code describes how the button will be rendered, I’ll go over this below.
The Subscribe Button
Google makes it easy with the help of their YouTube Subscribe Button page.
On this page you can create three different buttons in two different colors
Default Layout, Default Color:
<div class="g-ytsubscribe" data-channel="WPwatercooler" data-layout="default"></div>
Default Layout, Dark Color:
<div class="g-ytsubscribe" data-channel="WPwatercooler" data-layout="default" data-theme="dark"></div>
Full Layout, Default Color:
<div class="g-ytsubscribe" data-channel="WPwatercooler" data-layout="full"></div>
Full Layout, Dark Color:
<div class="g-ytsubscribe" data-channel="WPwatercooler" data-layout="full" data-theme="dark"></div>
Rules and limitations of use
YouTube states the following rules regarding using this button on your website.
- You may not offer or promote prizes or rewards of any kind in exchange for clicking on a YouTube Subscribe button.
- Buttons must be fully and clearly visible.
- You may not use a Subscribe Button to track any data about a user related to the user’s actions or browsing activity, including without limitation whether or not a user clicks on a YouTube Subscribe button. This prohibition includes but is not limited to using pixels, cookies, or other methods of recognizing when a user clicks on a YouTube button.
