You could use Q-Tips, but I recommend another method. You could buy this thing called a Giottos Rocket Blower. It's mostly used for cleaning dSLR's but it can also be used to clean laptops and etc. I actually own one and to tell you the truth, the air that it outputs is pretty strong. You can google it if you want to. Now what you can do with the Rocket Blower (it's powered manual meaning that you have to squeeze the body of the Rocket Blower)is that you can use it to blow the air into the ports. I have tried this before and it removed about 90-95% of the time. Hope this helps.
Answer to: Dirty Ports?