Although there are some great themes out there that have built in matching social media icons, most don’t, or the ones that come with your theme may not include ALL of the social media links you want. As a mom blogger, we like an interesting variety and not all of us love to connect at exactly the same places.

So, today I went on a search for some unique fun and interesting places to get social media Icon sets that include Pinterest icons (are you addicted yet?). Most of these can be integrated with various social media plugins, or just setup in a row on your blog. How you use them is up to you, but here’s what I have found.

Each image in the gallery below is linked to the source where you can download it, most are free, but a couple aren’t. Keep in mind that you can find individual Pinterest buttons all over the web, but this list is solely featuring those that are in whole sets!

[Show as slideshow]

Each blogger has their own perspective, so we will be offering some great blogger features here that will be both fun and informative. Want to see your favorite blogger featured? Do you want to be featured here?

Simply send us an email with information on the blog you’d like to see featured here, or questions you’d like to have answered and we’ll setup an interview to feature them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8O26gRoMYE

Those are the three key questions to ask when choosing your topic. There are plenty of family blogs out there that really are  a complete variety of topics that are all over the place and if that’s what you want to do, that’s great! The point though is to go into it with a purpose in mind when you start.

What is your Focus?

The reason I ask this is because what you blog about will largely determine your audience. It doesn’t necessarily determine audience size however, let me make that clear. Your blog is what you make it, some take off like wildfire and others are slow and steady and happy with just reaching a few or require a lot more work to gain their audience.

That’s what I love about blogging, it’s so unique! I know that I’m emphasizing choosing your topic up front, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change it up or add to it down the road. The point is to simply have that focus to direct your writing and approach to blogging.

What will make your blog unique?

If you’re looking to be the next big blog, you need to create something that’s different, stands out and is completely unique. Blogs tend to be a pretty big reflection of the blogger behind them, so don’t fight that, work with it!

What makes YOU unique? Often the answer to this question can be the solution to making your blog stand out too!

Choosing your topic up front will keep your blog uniform and actually make things simpler for you in the end. To know what you’re blogging about can be a huge help when offers come along that don’t jive with what you talk about as it is much simpler to walk away from them since you know they don’t fit.

Keep in mind that there are pros and cons to any choice and that what I say here is solely my personal opinion based on my personal experiences with those two blogging platforms. I recommend you do a little homework and put a little thought into it before choosing for yourself. This by no means is an exhaustive run down of your choices!

Blogger

I started at Blogger and although I outgrew what they have to offer, I still recommend them for beginner bloggers.

Pros

• It’s free!
• If you aren’t wanting to delve into purchasing your own domain name and hosting, and if you plan to keep the blog and theme simple this is definitely a great option.
• They offer a lot of customization options and great addons for you to use to spice up your blog and make it your own.
• There are a lot of designers out there who can create a beautiful blog design for you and even some free background and design options.

Cons

• Purchasing a domain name through them isn’t something I really recommend, if you choose to move your blog down the road the process of moving the DNS information for your domain can be quite complicated and overwhelming to the less technically savvy domain name owner.
• It is easy to outgrow Blogger, typically this means that you get to the point on your blog where you want more options than they actually offer which can be frustrating.

Self-Hosted WordPress

If however, you’re looking for a blog that is a little beefier and offers extreme customization options and growth potential, you might want to look into WordPress. Although not everyone would agree, it can be a little more technically challenging in my opinion, but once you get used to it that shouldn’t be a problem. I personally have been using WordPress for about 5+ years.

Be sure to refer to my WordPress Basics series for more information on using wordpress.

Pros

• There are several hosts that specialize in offering WordPress hosting and will even set it up for you. This process can be a little daunting but once you have your WordPress blog setup (most hosts offer a one click installation process) the possibilities are endless.
• Thousands of plugins and features to optimize and customize your blog.
• Complete design freedom – there are so many WordPress themes and designers this is a subject all of it’s own but in my opinion there are more options for customizing your theme with wordpress.
• Grows with you – should you decide to change your topic or make your blog even bigger or even change it to more of a regular website or storefront, WordPress is totally compatible.

Cons

• As I mentioned, it can be a little more technically challenging and installation/setup isn’t for the faint of heart.
• It can be more of an investment. To have self-hosted wordpress you need to have your own domain name and hosting setup, both have fees.
• Security issues – WordPress blogs are more likely to be “hacked”. Although most bloggers will not run into a problem with this, you will want to do your research to make sure that you are securing your blog as much as possible. I recommend BlueHost but there are other hosts out there with great security too.

Lastly, some of you may be saying, “well what about WordPress.com, Typepad.com or the other blogging platforms out there?” My response is to please definitely do your homework and research those options!!!  Again, this is my own personal opinion, but overall the customization limitations and so on just seem too tight on the other platforms, but that may very well be just fine and dandy with you!

Here we will discuss everything from picking your platform (which is the best place to blog?), picking your subject matter (do you have a main topic for your blog or is it a modge podge?), choosing a name (yes we know it really is all in the name), choosing a theme (how on earth can I affordably make my blog look like THAT?), building your readership (how do I get people to read my blog?), keeping your privacy (to share or not to share) and much much more.

Be sure to subscribe to our feed for updates as soon as they are available.

I have some amazing tips and tutorials that will be up on the site very soon and I look forward to feedback from all of you on what else you’d like to see featured here! Anything to do with blogging, from how to format a post to interviewing your favorite bloggers we will be offering it all!

Stay tuned for all new content and features!