Social icons are important for both encouraging users to share your content and promoting your presence on social networks. So here is a large selection of social icons in different colors to fit the color scheme or your website or blog:

They are available in 20×20, 40×40, and 60×60. Right click and save each icon individually, or click on an icon to download the entire icon pack (.zip file). If you have any color or size requests, leave a comment and I will add them as soon as I can.

If you use one of these images, donations or links back to this site are much appreciated! Read the rest of this entry

Obtaining a high page rank isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. You may have read advice that tells you to comment on other relevant blogs, build relationships with dofollow bloggers, participate in forums, and guest blog. And while that’s all good advice (great advice, actually), some of us don’t have as much time as others. And these things are very time consuming. Read the rest of this entry

Disqus is a commenting system and moderation tool for your site or blog. It’s pretty amazing; I use it here at U Stand Out. It’s super easy to use and is packed with neat features including social network integration, powerful moderation/spam filter tools, and connection to an entire discussion community. Disqus V3 is being launched today, and now offers a management system for the commenters themselves. Read the rest of this entry

Branding can make or break your website, whether it’s a business or a blog. Your readers should connect with the theme of your site with they see your logo elsewhere. One way to increase your brand’s visibility is by creating a FavIcon. FavIcon is short for “favorite icon,” and is the small icon that appears in the URL browser bar. They’ve been around for a long time now, and it surprises me how many popular blogs and sites out there still don’t have a favicon.

FavIcons also appear on certain browser’s navigation tabs and on a reader’s bookmark list if he has bookmarked your site, so having a unique FavIcon can help readers easily remember your site. Try to use your site’s logo, initials of your website, or some prominent image that appears on your homepage. Having a FavIcon will also make your site look more professional; all the big sites are doing it. Read the rest of this entry

If you’re not familiar, LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals. You display your professional experience, connect with current and past coworkers, and even meet new connections. It’s a great online networking opportunity. If you’re a professional blogger and want to boost your credibility as an expert in your field, you should consider putting your blog on your LinkedIn profile.

In the spirit of research, I put U Stand Out on my Wordpress page, which you can see on my LinkedIn profile page. Here’s how to do it: Read the rest of this entry

This article was originally written as a guest post on The Internet Marketing Blog for Today. Thanks to the blog owner Erwin Tan for hosting!

Starting a niche blog is both exciting and overwhelming. Once you post a few articles, that “if you build it, they will come” mentality sets in, and you start checking your stats every 5 minutes. And then you realize that maybe “if you build it AND promote it, they will come.” So you spend hours submitting your articles to social media sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, BlogCatalog, commenting on blogs, replying in forums, and so on. Now you’re checking your stats every 30 seconds.

There are some bloggers out there screaming, “This is how I did it! Just follow these steps, and you’ll get a thousand visitors a day!” But for most bloggers, this is not how it works. It takes dedication, passion, and time. But most of all, it takes content that’s going to get people’s attention enough for them to stick around, bookmark it, and tell a few people about it. Here are some tips to creating quality content worthy of social media marketing. Read the rest of this entry

Why is it so important to encourage commenting? This problogger article discussed a study revealing that 90% of people online are lurkers (read or observe content without contributing), 9% of people contributing a “little,” and only 1% of people actively participate online. This is referred to as the 1% rule, and it’s your job to figure out how to break that rule on your blog.

There are so many Wordpress plugins for comments, and sifting through them to find the best ones can be overwhelming. So here are four simple Wordpress plugins I recommend to encourage readers to comment on your blog.

Read the rest of this entry

Bloggers often think that posting daily is the key to getting regular traffic. They scramble to fill their blog with content every day, even multiple times a day. If you’re a full-time blogger or have a ton of free time on your hands, you might be able to post quality content every day and be successful.

But if your time is limited, posting just to fill the space isn’t as effective as posting high quality content every few days. So if you have a full-time job or other obligations that keep you from being a full-time blogger, here are some reasons why it might not be best to publish every day:

Read the rest of this entry