What makes a great blog great?

Lately I've been looking at about a bezillion posts out there about what you have to do to make your blog successful; looking for the few really good things worth bringing to your attention.

I came across one of the better ones today - "27 Tips for Building a Kick-Ass Blog" by Ahmed Bilal. It covered all the basics and then some: position your blog, make your blog sticky, linkbait, etc.

Good tips, worth reading, but they didn't really move me; they seemed to be missing something. These were all good techniques, important techniques, but that's as far as they go. I wanted more.

So I went digging around at my favorite blogging advice site, problogger.net, and found a true gem of a post that goes beyond mere techniques to get to what really makes a blog great: "The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog" by Tony Hung.

Here's the highlights of the points Tony makes; definitely see the post for the full story:

• Transparency: Great blogs are blogs that leave no question of their motives, who their parters and affiliates are, and who their authorship is."
• Authenticity: Great blogs are ones which are startlingly “real”.
• Integrity: Great blogs know what they stand for, and what values are meaningful to them.
• Passion: Great blogs are written with an incredible passion for the topics at hand, and much like great sex, it can’t be faked.
• Engagement: Great blogs live in an ecosystem of thoughts, opinions, ideas and personalities, and are active participants in those relationships.

As I like to say, there's nothing more useful than a good theory, and Tony has one very good theory about what makes a great blog great.

Comments

[Ian]

Great post! I'd add one to this: Persistence.

There are so many blogs out there now, all shouting and vying for attention. Even the greatest blog may not get any attention for a long time. You have to stick with it...

[Bob Walsh]

Extremely good point Ian! Thanks for adding it.

[--Deb]

Committment and Persistance go along with that, too. The Passion is a must!

[daniel]

As a newbie blogger, and very excited about it all too, this is a great article for me. I want to find out all I can as quick as I can. This article is very helpful. Good content I think is the great issue here.
Thank you!

[Shweta]

Hey,

I`m a final year student of journalism and i am doing a research on Bloggers and the Blogging Revolution.

As you are a blog writer, i would like you to fill up a questionnaire for me which would help me in my project work.

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and submit your answers therein.

Thanks,
Shweta