If your camera has manual controls for setting aperture, adjust it to about F3.5 or below. This creates a shallow depth of field which causes blur background while keeping the subject sharp. Your viewer's attention would also be drawn straight to the subject. If your camera has no such functions, try scrolling through the scene modes available — chances are there will be a portrait mode and this optimises settings for taking pictures of people.
2. It's all about the communication
If your subject is too tense, the picture will probably reflect it. Unless that is the effect you want, you'll have to talk to the person in front of your lens and loosen them up. Crack a joke or talk about the weather. If you know the person well, chat about things that interest him/her. They will start to relax and that's the moment you start snapping.
3. Level it
Get to the eye level of your subject. For children, squat down to take pictures of them. If your adult subject is sitting down, then you should get to his/her eye level, too. This makes them more relaxed as they don't have to raise or lower their head to look at you, which may cause some unnecessary discomfort.
4. It's in your eyes
They say the window to a person's soul is through the eyes, and this is especially true for portraiture. Try to fix your camera's focus on the subjects' eyes as this creates a more appealing picture than focusing on their nose or ears. If your point-and-shoot has only one focus point, frame the eyes within the focusing box, half-press the shutter to focus (don't remove your finger yet) and then reframe your shot before pressing the shutter button down fully.
5. Environment
If your subject lives in an interesting environment, use wide-angle lens to capture the surroundings in your shot. This will let your viewers have a better understanding of the subject and create a more visually attractive picture, too. But note that you shouldn't cram every item available into the shot — this may mess up the image and your viewer may be left wondering what you're trying to portray.
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