So I’ve been thinking a bit about some of the more popular social sites and applications, especially in regards to incorporating pieces of them into your blog. Certainly for each person a list such as this is different, but there seem to be some clear winners. Here are some of my top web applications and sites that not only help personalize your blog or website but also provide some useful functionality for promoting and spreading your name.

1. Feedburner - My blog is built on Wordpress which builds RSS functionality right in, yet one of the first things I did was switch to having Feedburner manage my feeds. Why? For me it’s a combination of being easy to implement and providing a lot of useful statistical information. Knowing not only how many subscribers you have but also what they’re reading, what they’re clicking, and how popular individual posts are can help you orient your blog to gain more subscribers and ultimately refine your content.
2. Flickr - Although I don’t take a lot of pictures I have seen many blogs incorporate their Flickr feed into their blog. The benefit is giving your users a glimpse of your personal life with less words and more photos. If you don’t plan on uploading a lot of photos you can probably manage with their free account (100mb/mo cap), but a subscription is only $25/yr and provides unlimited photo uploads and more features.
3. Technorati - Keeping a pulse on all things Technorati I always run there and claim a blog I’ve created. Although Technorati will track your blog and index the posts, incoming links, and comments, I still recommend you sign up to benefit from the ability see more statistical information about the popularity of your blog and its individual posts.
4. del.icio.us - Many blogs keep a list of quick links, funny sites you may have seen recently or something worthy of linking too, but perhaps not important enough to warrant a full-blown post. Wordpress does well with posts and pages, but doesn’t really have the infrastructure out of the box to handle this type of thing. For this purpose I like to set up a delicious account and integrate that feed into the blog as a Quick Links section. Add a link in del.icio.us and it automatically shows up on your website. You benefit from adding more content and keeping your site alive and active without having to publish long articles or spend time editing pages.
5. Google Adsense - Perhaps you’re blogging as a hobby but more than likely you wouldn’t mind making a dime or two off the posts you’ve spent hours refining to perfection (unlike yours truly who spits them out with complete disregard). Google Adsense is one of the most popular ad platforms for blogs because of the unintrusive nature of their text ads and the contextual relevance given to them. Unlike paid ads that could be showing off an iPod when you talk about the Zune, Adsense ads scan the text of your blog posts and submit relevant links. Clickthroughs earn you money regardless of whether a sale is made or not. They’re easy to use and might just earn you enough to make this whole blogging thing worthwhile.

So that’s my short list of must-haves when it comes to setting up a blog that’s connected to the social web. Got any more suggestions? Leave them in the comments!