Updated July 27, 2020
Want to Add the WordPress Follow Button to Your Self-hosted WordPress Blog?
Well, you’re in the right place and it’s super easy to do!
If you’re an ex-wordpress.com user you probably had the little blue rectangle WordPress follow button on your blog.
Follow Blogger2WP on WordPress.com
This made it easy for any other WordPress user to follow your blog, growing your follower base all the while, and bumping up your traffic.
Of course, the WordPress follow button is something unique to wordpress.com and not self-hosted WordPress (aka wordpress.org). But you can still add theWordPress follow button to your self-hosted WordPress blog, and it’s super easy too.
First off, you need to have the Jetpack plugin installed and have it connected to a wordpress.com account. If you’ve never done this don’t worry, it’s pretty straight forward. I’ll have another tutorial to cover this shortly, just in case you’re having trouble getting it set-up and working.
Because the Jetpack plugin is made by the same folks that run wordpress.com, it aims to bring a lot of the same functionality to your self-hosted WordPress blog that’s not native to theWordPress software. Things like automatic social sharing, follow be email widget, comment likes, etc.
Anyways, straight to it.
Check Your Jetpack Settings so the WordPress Follow Button Will Work
First you need to make sure Subscriptions are activated in the Jetpack plugin. From your WordPress Dashboard Go to Jetpack > Settings > Discussion.
Scroll down to Subscriptions, and make sure it’s switch on.
You’ll also need to make sure the JSON API module is activated. To do this simply go to Jetpack > Modules from your WordPress dashboard.
If you don’t see the Modules menu item, there’s another way to get to it.
Scroll to the bottom of the Jetpack dashboard page and click on Debug to go to the Jetpack Debugging Center page.
On the Jetpack Debugging Center page look for the “Access the full list of Jetpack modules available on your site.” link near the bottom and click on it.
You’ll now be on the Modules page. Scroll down and look for JSON API and make sure it’s highlighted, this means it’s activated.
If it’s not already activated, just hover your mouse over the row and you will see an Activate link, click on it.
How to Embed the WordPress Follow Button on Your Self-hosted WordPress Blog
Now that Jetpack is up and running, the Subscriptions module is working, and you’ve made sure the JSON API module is activated, you can head over to the follow button generator on the wordpress.com developer site.
Once there, scroll down to the Button Options section and start filling in your details.
Fill in your domain name, choose whether to show your follower count and blog name, choose your language then click the Generate button.
It will work for a bit and then show you your button preview and there’ll be some code in the text box you’ll need to copy. This is the WordPress follow button code you’ll need to embed in your self-hosted WordPress blog to be able to show the follow button.
If you don’t see a preview or the code after you click the Generate button, and get the message “Please check you’ve entered the address of a WordPress.com or Jetpack-powered site and try again.” , and you’re sure your Jetpack is connected to a wordpress.com account, and the modules are turned on, then try this. Try adding (or removing – depending on how you typed in your domain name) the www. in front of your domain name. Still not working? Try the full URL, like https://blogger2wp.com.
It should never come to this, so hopefully it works.
Where to add the WordPress Follow Button Code on Your Self-hosted Blog
Now that you’ve copied the code, I will show you how to add it to your blog. You can add it anywhere really, even in blog posts or pages (like I did at the beginning of this post), but I find the most effective location is in a sidebar widget.
Go to Appearance > Widgets
Drag over a Custom HTML Widget to the widget area in a location you choose, it will pop open. Now paste the WordPress follow button code and click Save. See the animation below to see it in action.
That’s it!
Now go check out your new wordpress.com follow button working on your self-hosted WordPress blog.
I hope this was helpful.
Hello. While I’m able to get the code when putting my website into the generator, the preview button doesn’t appear. I tried typing out my website all three ways (www, http, neither), but the button still didn’t appear. I’ve added the code to the custom html widget at the very top of my sidebar, but a button doesn’t appear on my site. There’s a line above my search bar, which tells me my site recognizes that a widget is on top of it. The button itself just doesn’t show. I wondered if you had any more advice on what to try.
Hi Erika, it took a while to load initially but I can see the follow button on your site just fine now. So it’s working. Maybe try from a different browser or clear your cache.
This was so helpful! Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Yes this was very helpful! Thanks a lot! Is it possible to get that tiny +follow button(the one you can click on when you scroll up on a normal wordpress site) that moves with you?
Glad it helped! Unfortunately that floating Follow button that’s near the bottom right of the site is exclusive to WordPress.com sites and at the moment not something you can add to a self-hosted WordPress site. Fingers crossed they add it to Jetpack someday though, I think it’ll be a good thing to have.
Hi, I have tried adding the follow button on my self hosted wordpress blog. For some reason, it just doesn’t work.
If you could please help me I’d really appreciate it.
Thank you
Hi Sarah,
Where were you having issues? Were you able to generate the code? I tried to generate the code for your site and it seems to work if you add the “www” to your domain name. As in this screen shot:
https://cld.wthms.co/iChelZ
If it’s still not working and you’re sure you’ve followed all the steps, let me know where you’re getting stuck and I’ll try to help some more.
I also have the same issue. I followed exactly the steps but the follow button won’t appear when I visited my site.
What’s your website? I can try to have a look for you.
I’m struggling with adding the domain in. It says it’s not a WordPress.com registered site, but I thought the point was I could add the button even if it wasn’t?
I had a quick look at your site and it looks like you got this to work. You’re right, the point of the button is so that non-WordPress.com sites can use the button. If you are still having issues, please let me know.
Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver. 🙂
Thank you so much for creating this post. It helped me. The only problem I’m having is the follow button isn’t working. I clicked on it and nothing happens. 🙁 I sent a support ticket to Jetpack about it, so hopefully they’ll answer me back.
Thanks again. I appreciate the information you shared with everyone. 🙂
Hi Rebekkah, glad it helped you. Hopefully the Jetpack folks can help out. I had a quick look at your site using the Chrome Developer console tools and I can see a number of scripts are blocked or not functioning. You might want to also check with your host to see if they’re blocking any of these as well. Good luck!
Excellent!!! Very helpful, with detailed images and accurate descriptions.
Thank you!!!
Hi! I’ve tried several times to do this and it seems to have worked for a couple of hours but now I am being told that my button is not working. I followed all of the steps so cannot understand why it doesn’t work. I’d be grateful for any help.
Hey there, it looks like it’s working now, so maybe it’s a caching issue with the browser. I can see it here:
https://cld.wthms.co/baPRvp
Hi there, I created a follower button yesterday and it workes for my redirected WordPress site Literaturreich.de, incl. follower counting. Today the button has disappeared, Fowwolwer count turned to 0. What has happened, how can I resolve this problem? It would be great to find an answer. Thanks, Petra
Hi Petra, it looks like the button is working correctly, so that’s good. In terms of the follower count, keep in mind if you’ve moved from WordPress.com you’ve now connected your new self-hosted site to WordPress.com through Jetpack, which is considered a new blog ID in the WordPress.com system. You would need to migrate your followers from your old WordPress.com site to the new Jetpack connected site. You can follow these steps here: https://jetpack.com/support/subscription-migration-tool/
After you migrate your subscribers, your follower count should return.
Super helpful and easy to install… but I do have a question. Does this button/code provide a link for non-wordpress users to follow your blog?
Glad to hear it worked for you! The follow button is specific for WordPress.com users, so an account is required. It’s no different than having to have a Facebook account to like, follow, and comment on Facebook posts. Having said that, you can also use the Blog Subscription widget included with Jetpack to add a follow by email signup form. This is the same way it’s done on WordPress.com sites so your site visitors can follow your blog and get post updates without having to have a WordPress.com account. I hope that helps.
Been struggling to do this for some time, this was the most clear and well put together! Thank you, it worked a treat. Now to hope people actually click on it!!
Exactly what I was looking for…thank you!
This sucks. The tutorial is so easy to follow and I’m sure I did everything right. The generated the button but my website somehow only show a link text of my homepage name. When I click on it sends me straight to “page not found” 😭
Hey there, sorry to hear you couldn’t get this working. There’s a few reasons this could happen, but difficult to know for sure without seeing it in action on your site. I had a look at your site and I’m not seeing the button, so most likely you’ve removed it. I could have a look for you if you want. Add the button code back and let me know here you’ve done that and I’ll take a look.
This is the best step by step I’ve found in two months of looking. Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much for the detailed easy to follow instructions 🙂 much appreciated!
This was amazing, thank you so much! 🙂
You’re welcome!
Hi Nick! I loved your guide, it was super helpful. However, it still isn’t working for me.
I have everything activated, my blog is self-hosted but connected to WordPress.com and I tried every variation of the URL – but I still get the “please check you’ve entered the address of a WordPress.com or Jetpack-powered site and try again” message.
Do you think it’s a theme issue?
Thanks! This looks like it’s related to your Jetpack connection. I can see the Jetpack connection seems to link to a previous domain, which redirects to your new site. If I enter your domain into the Jetpack debugger – https://jetpack.com/support/debug/ – it shows your domain/site has no connection.
The first step to try is to disconnect your site from Jetpack, then reconnect it to your WordPress.com account. If that still doesn’t work, try contacting Jetpack support, they should be able to fix the connection for you.
Thanks so much for your help! 🙂
Thanks for posting this guide, it’s been super helpful. I’m having an issue with the button, though. It generated the code just fine, it’s on my site just fine, but when you click on the button, it opens and then immediately closes a pop-up window. On mobile, it seems to take people to the comment section. Any thoughts?
I tested it on your site and didn’t notice that happening, but maybe you got it resolved already. It worked for me on Chrome desktop, and in Safari on my iPhone. Hopefully you managed to get it resolved.
Hrm. When I (or others) try it, they’re either asked to log in (which does not complete the follow, it just takes them to their main WordPress page), or if they’re already logged in the window pops up and immediately closes. The only way to follow seems to go to WordPress and search for the blog itself. Are you able to complete the follow process?
Hi there,
Sorry to hear you’re still having issues with this. I just visited your blog and was able to follow without any issues. I was logged into my WordPress.com account, clicked on the follow button and the button changed to “following..”, so it worked.
I would expect that if a user was not logged into their account and tried to follow, they would be directed to log into their WordPress.com account.
For the window that opens and closes immediately, that is unusual. Do you know if that happens on specific devices and/or browsers only?
Yeah it appears the open-then-immediately-close window issue occurs when you are logged out of WordPress.com. It brings up the pop-up to log in, and when you go back and click the follow button, it pops up and closes. If I am already logged in to WordPress.com, it allows me to follow right away. I’ve tried it in both Safari and Chrome on MacOS. On iOS, I cannot follow regardless of whether I’m logged in or not on Safari, but I can on Chrome.
Strange with windows popping, that is unusual, but again I’m not seeing that on my end.
In terms of Safari, yeah that’s been an issue. Safari tends to be buggy with WordPress.com. Sometimes turning off the “Prevent Cross Site Tracking” option in the Safari settings does help, but unfortunately it is on by default on most iOS devices, so your users (if using Safari) most likely won’t know that.