One of the most required and important visual aspects of a web design project are the icon sets. If you can manage to create your very own icon sets you are on the right track, but forr all of us who don’t we need to rely on the great work and talent of others. And because of that talent I recommend 35+ free icon sets for your next web development project.

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In my opinion having a successful blog is all about connecting with others and establishing great reader relationships. We got Twitter, Facebook, Digg and so many other networking systems that we can use and share our stories. Many of successful bloggers try and connect their blog visitors to their social account trough widgets on their blog. My question is how do the best “Connect to me” WordPress widgets look like. Here is a list of successful social widgets people have on their blog.

John O’Nolan

A very elegant blog widget illustrating where you can connect with John O’Nolan. He got about 5500 Twitter followers so I think it is performing very good.

Chris Wallace

A very intelligent widget at the bottom of every Chris`s blog posts. Very intuitive and discreet. Also you can follow Chris on Twitter @chriswallace.

Line25

A very nice custom icon widget. Well made to fit the blog`s design and style. I would recommend following line25 on Twitter @line25blog.

Webdesignbooth

Simple widget yet efficient, with a beautiful hover effect. You should check webdesignbooth out and follow on twitter @webdesignboot.

1stwebdesigner

Very nice icon pack used. I personally like the RSS chair. Even so follow 1stwebdesigner on twitter @1stwebdesigner.

Inspired Mag

Simple, efficient, 17k twitter users. Follow them on twitter @inspiredmag.

WordPress Guerilla

Nice and simple wordpress widget. Great and clean icon pack featured by the guys @wpguerilla.

2expertsdesign

Nice icon pack with an intelligen layout. Follow the experts @2experts.

Conclusions

As you can see, the minimalistic, clean widget design wins the day. But to have followers, readers and social friends you need to write interesting stuff. So focus on that before you change your widget.

A reader who visited one of my posts asked me this question. I tought it would make an interesting article to write about. The answer is fairly simple, yes you can get noticed on digg with a new WordPress blog, as a follow up I will post some of the best features to get noticed with a blog post on digg.

Planning your post and strategy

As most of you know, the best and only way to successful way of getting on the popular section of the site (regarding of the category) is to have a quality post/image/video posted. This is the first step, learn how to write effectively and originally. Do not treat Digg as a machine, treat it like a bunch of people that are reading a newspaper.

Here you can find how to Write Sharp and Snappy Blog Posts by Darren Rowse

Set up friend relationships with Digg publishers (not competitors) in your niche

Articles get promoted faster when you are 2-4-8 in the same space, mutual diggs on each others stories can have a great impact. First you need to identify them, then add them as a friend, afterwards ask them politely if they would want to be mutual friends with you. You can do this by sending them a private message trough the Digg interface.

Tweet the digg story

If you want Digg exposure on your post, one of the tricks is to Tweet the digg page of your story. This enables the twitter user to Digg your post directly.

Run a blog campaign or a small Adwords campaign

Run a Digg campaign on your blog for a interesting Dugged story, you can set up text, images, videos basically everything that comes in your mind. I try and make a campaign at the end of every popular post I have on my blog. Link that campaign to the Digg page.

You can try and set up a low budget Adwords campaign if you know what you are doing and receive relevant diggs for your post.

Everytime I use these tips my blog posts get dugged, it`s best to use them effectively and with your best published posts, and not with all your posts.

NOTE: DO NOT! And I mean DO NOT! under any circumstances ask for diggs on twitter because it is not nice and spammy and you could get your article buried.

Everyone knows that a successful blog is all about visitor interaction and communication. Calling to action, encouragement and being a helpful person can make the difference between a well read blog and a unsuccessful one. Here are a few tips on how to get more followers and feed readers using the safe and easy way.

#1 Teach your readers and followers that they can retweet

A very important aspect of twitter is the fact that users can retweet. Encourage and teach your followers the importance of retweeting your links. Retweeting pushes your username (@user) into other social categories, thus having more retweets means more clicks on your profile and finally more followers.

#2 Update and retouch your key pages and Bio

One of the most greatest mistakes people make is neglecting their key blog pages like the About page and their Twitter Bio information. If you have a faulty Bio information, users tend not to follow you, because they don’t know much about you. The same rule applies to your blog pages, if a user visits your page they will not likely become a regular blog reader.

#3 Link everything up, everywhere you can

It is very important to have your profiles linked everywhere, like Facebook, Youtube, forum signatures and even in blog commenting. Everywhere you can link in your online life. The result are more readers, followers and better blog exposure.

#4 Hash #tag things when you tweet

Hash tagging means you can tag a specific word in your tweet to make it more available. Finding interesting tweets is more easy with hash tagging. You can learn more about hash tagging here.

#5 Make shure that the user SEE the fact that he can follow you

Having a small and not visible Follow Me or Subscribe link can result in less readers and followers. Make shure you can stand out with your Follow and Subscribe links, and preferably ask a subscription at the bottom of every post.

#6 Launch a contest, offer something for a cause

Offer something in return for following you on Twitter, a iPhone, iPod or something. As Kevin wrote, someone offered a MackBook if he reached nr. 1 followed person on Twitter. That never happened but the person got thousands of followers.

#7 Again, offer something to get more RSS readers

This time offer something that the user can get (Ebook, icons, templates) onlu trough RSS, you can use the free Feedvertising plugin, and when you offer a link to something only the subscribed users can view it.

#8 Reply, get involved and start talking in your niche

Reply to things on Twitter, get involved in the conversations and give helpful comments. Try and become a valuable user by offering help to others. The results are more trusted followers.

#9 Use a landing page to your RSS

Be creative, use something to attract users to subscribe, in this case, a well defined landing page with nothing but your RSS subscription. Drive traffic to it from your blog, guest blogging or even Adwords.

So there you have it, with one additional word of caution.

These are good facts, only when you are producing the best content in your niche. If you are not writing your best, perhaps you should start there. But eventually using the tips form above you can definitely Get More Followers and Feed Readers.

Today we review TweetDeck, the desktop solution for the everyday tweet. With multi account support, tab management like All friends, Mentions, Messages and Search, TweetDeck have it all.

With TweetDeck you can check everything from Tweeter and Facebook and the most important thing is that it integrates everything in one place so it`s easy to stay up to date and organized.

Another great feature is sync-ing your Deck columns with another PC around the world and with any iPhone. Manage multiple Twitter accounts easily and share, upload and view everything from news to photos and even videos.

You can download TwitterDeck from the official website and stay sync with your social networking accounts.