Pop Out Effect Candy Social Icons For Blogger And Wordpress

Today we have another great set of social icons to link to your social profiles with an awesome effect created with pure CSS.The icons have a delicious candy design that will grab the attention of your readers and are so easy to add to your blog.The icons can be added to your blog sidebar to let readers quickly follow you on your favorite social networks and we have icons for your Rss Feed, Email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube and Skype.

I have two seperate tutorials for Wordpress and Blogger users with instructions to add your links and remove the icons you don't want.I have added the no-follow tag to the icons as there is no need to pass link juice to social profiles and also set the target for the links to open in a new window.

The instructions are below but first let's see the demo's.

Here is a working example, hover over each icon to see the pop out effect :
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My Experiences And Tips From Setting Up A New Blog

Guest Post - Our host is Matthew Barby, Matt has some tips for setting up a new blog from content to SEO.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

I took a little time out recently to recharge my batteries and explore a bit of the world by venturing across to East Asia. During my time out there I thought it would be a great idea for me (and a few friends) to set up a travel blog that would share some of our travel experiences and offer a useful resource for fellow travellers.

Due to the fact that this project was purely focused around pleasure, I didn’t put too much work in at the start but I soon realised that there was a good potential to make a bit of cash that could supplement my travel costs. With this in mind I decided to use my background in SEO to bring in some good levels of traffic to the website. Six months on and my blog traffic is growing exponentially month-on-month – I decided that it would only be fair to share some of my strategies with the community so that they can also benefit from this.

The content Strategy

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Best Places To Go To Hone Your Creativity As A Creative Professional

Guest Post - Our host is Jake Fisher, Jake lists his favorite places to get your creative juices flowing.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

No matter if you're a writer, an artist, an actor, or any other type of creative professional, finding inspiration for your work is crucial to growing in your field. However, running into a creative block can become common if you simply sit at your desk all day.

Lindsey Leesmann, a communication specialist at Grantham University, says that one of the best ways to overcome writer's block, or any creative block for that matter, is to get away from your desk and change the scenery. Expand your creativity and find inspiration at one of the following locations.

1. The Library

Image via Flickr by Tulane Publications
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7 Reasons For Starting A Travel Or Expat Blog

Guest Post - Our host is Olga Mecking, Olga shares her experiences as an expat blogger.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

There are many reasons why you should start a blog. Your hobbies or interests, such as cooking or crafting or technology, are perfect blog topics. Changes in life can inspire you to start blogging as well. One of these changes is when you leave your home country and move somewhere else. I hadn’t even considered starting a blog before I moved from Poland to the Netherlands because I considered my life boring. Then I met my husband, became an expat and had children. Suddenly, my life became exciting and chaotic. Having an expat blog turned out to be fun and exciting, but soon became more than that. Here are all the reasons why you should consider starting a travel or expat blog if you haven’t done it already.
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Discover New And Exciting Techniques Of Creating Blog Content

Guest Post - Our host is Anna Robeson, Anna is looking at some different types of content bloggers can use and readers will love.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

The days of simply writing content and posting it online are long gone. I've heard the phrase „content is king” time and time again, and while I do not disagree with it, hell, I've actually written an article on the subject myself, I have to say that content is not only written. Images, videos info-graphics are also content, visual content, but still, content. The problem with today's internet is the fact that it is over-saturated with information.

Let's be honest, how many of you read articles from start to finish? I don't. Even if I find something that interests me, I usually skim through the text, and bookmark it for later. Many writers are faced with a major problem: people do not read their blog. Moreover, in most cases, it is the first few seconds that attract a user. You can be sure that a block of text isn't as attractive as a post rich in images or videos. Written content is without a doubt the most popular content creation technique, and it is also one of the most poorly done. Any respected agency will tell you that high-quality content is one of the most powerful business promoters. That being said, let us discover alternative content techniques.
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How To Select The Right Narrative Style For Your Blog

Guest Post - Our host is Jessica Davis, Jessica is taking an interesting look at Narrative writing styles you can use on your blog.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” -- Maya Angelou. Before you can get your story out and write it down, you need to decide which narrative style you are going to use. You may have vivid memories, amazing plot lines and great ideas but they will not have the desired effect if your narrative style or type is flawed. When you sit down to write a novel, having a clear narrative style can help you keep track of the story and prevent your from straying too much.

There is no hard and fast rule that you have to stick to one narrative style throughout the novel or short story. Many legendary authors like Margaret Atwood have often used third and first person narrative styles in the same book to great effect. This is done when more than one character presents the story. There may be numerous ways to write your story but there are only a few ways to narrate it.

Third person narrative style

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How Teachers Are Using Blogs to Enhance Their Lessons

Guest Post - Our host is Cara Aley, Cara takes an interesting look at using blogs in the classroom.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

The technology tools at the fingertips of a modern-day teacher are better than ever. Many teachers are leveraging blogs in the classroom in order to supplement their lessons. Whether it be by creating their own classroom blogs, incorporating teaching ideas from the blogs of other teachers, or incorporating data from topic-specific blogs into a lesson plan, there are multiple ways to leverage blogs in the classroom.

Here, we’ll review some of these in further detail.

Teachers no longer have to rely exclusively on offline tools for their lessons.

Help students to communicate with one another in the written form - By creating a blog for a class to utilize together, a teacher creates a platform by which students can communicate around things like written assignments, poetry, or personal feelings (akin to a journal entry).
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