First attempt at soldering.

[Red Squirrel]

I find practice is what helps the most, once you get the solder to flow properly it just clicks, and you can almost "feel" that it's a good joint or not.  A temp regulated iron works best, too.

[rsjsouza]

I find practice is what helps the most, once you get the solder to flow properly it just clicks, and you can almost "feel" that it's a good joint or not.  A temp regulated iron works best, too.

+100 to that and the others that suggested practicing on disposable boards/components. Despite a great temperature regulated station helps a lot (although it still requires practice to properly adjust the temperature for each situation), there is nothing wrong with a simple "hot stick" iron if it puts out enough heat. 25W works well for the pads you are trying to solder, while 30 or 35W tends to be better for larger areas.

Something similar to this is what I used for quite some time:
http://www.frys.com/product/1684362

I have been doing hobby electronics for more than 30 years and only four years ago I bought a temperature controlled station (Hakko FX888). It works much better, but especially because I started doing some lead free soldering and the "hot stick" irons brings too much variance to the process.

[CraigHB]

The problem with those soldering sticks is probably more the tip than anything else.  They come with pretty crappy tips.  If you can put a quality tip on one that would make it a much more viable tool.  There's also the fact that even a 25W pencil is too hot for small PCB components.  If you're not quick and accurate the first time components can get damaged pretty easily.  I've been soldering electronics most of my life, but didn't start using a temperature controlled iron until a couple decades ago.  Though back then it was all through hole which is more tolerant to heat.  Even so I did heat stress components a few times soldering with a 25W stick.  Since I've been using a temperature controlled iron, I've never damaged a component in soldering even after removing and replacing the same component.