You need to be dissimilar and set your blog apart from the rest to success. While you had probably started a blog after reading our post “All you need to know about starting a blog”, here’s a list of 10 crucial ways to build a successful blog and stand out from the rest.
1. Choose a memorable blog name
A blog name is where the readers start to know you. It should be catchy and be able to deliver the right blog image to your readers. A memorable blog name is also easier to be promoted via word of mouth.
2. Good blog design and layout
Visual impressions count. Web surfers, blog readers especially, are interested in websites with good layout and design. I understand that not everyone has the artistic touch to create an award-winning blog designs; but you should at least make sure your blog is well designed and user friendly with minimal clutter.
3. Write eye catching headlines
Aside from your blog’s visual design, the headline is always the first thing that gets your readers attention. A catchy headline attracts people to read further. Study shows that 80% of blog readers stop reading after the headline. So if you wish to make your blog stands out from the rest, polish your copy writing skills and write good headlines.
4. Reveal your personality
Revealing more about yourself and getting personal with your readers are always effective to expand your blog readership. When you get personal and let your users know who you are, they get the feeling of communicating with a human rather than their computer screen. They will be more likely to listen to you and react to your posts rather than skim through them, get the info and get out. Your readers are more likely to follow your blog (as well as recommending you to their friends) when they get to know you more in person.
The personal touch goes a long way in helping your blog even if you are a high profile blog with a corporate background. You could always give them a behind the scenes overview of your blog of twitter or communicate about issues related to your blog in the forum. What ever you do, make it personal but not too personal as too loose your readers interest. Get the right balance and you will feel the difference.
5. Be consistent
Think of a blog as you would think of a magazine – will you subscribe to a magazine because it is resourceful for just one month? No! To maintain and accumulate readership, you need to write consistently. When I say consistent, I am not only talking about the no. of articles per month, I also mean the quality of the articles that you publish. You have to keep up and maintain the quality.
6. Get your own domain and hosting
I couldn’t stress enough how important it is to host your blog on its own domain and hosting. It’s difficult to create an outstanding brand image for a blog with subdomain from Blogger.com or WordPress.com. A domain will cost you 9$ a year, thats 0.75$ a month, thats 0.025$ a day, thats 0.001$ an hours, I think you get my point or do I have to go further 
It cost less than $5/month nowadays to own a shared hosting account and I am sure most bloggers can afford it. In case you need advice in term of which web host to go with, read my personal hosting reviews here. The least you can do is get a domain and let it be hosted on wordpress.com
7. Don’t just be about the money
Want your blog to stand out from the crowd? Then think about your readers before money.
Too many blogs are just about the money and little care about the readers. Many bloggers pile up advertisement and dishonest product reviews in their blog before they gain sufficient readership. When you put profits before the readers – you are actually chasing the readers away. So next time when you have a decision to make, ask ‘Will this benefits my readers?’ before asking ‘Will this bring in profit for me?’.
8. Express your opinion (even if it will create fights)
Sometimes, picking up a fight can be a good strategy to stand out from the rest. Understand that it’s o-k-a-y to have a stance against the crowd when you have a different opinion. You might get attacks for being different but controversy gets people talking and that’s a good thing for your blog publicity. It is your opinion and you have every right to express it.
9. Write link baiting blogpost
A link baiting blogpost is the kind of content that attracts attention and links. Link bait can be used as a powerful viral marketing strategy and you increase your blog SEO scores when readers link to you. One simple way to write link baiting blogpost is by compiling multiple resources into condensed, cumulative articles. Think about the articles you read in digg.com front page – 150 tools for…, 56 quick tips for a better…, 89 online resources to help you…, 23 ways to …, these are the best examples of link baiting blogposts.
10. Leverage images to add value to your blog
Graphics and images, when used strategically, are your best partner in pulling readers attention. No, it doesn’t mean that you should hang up 15 flashy gif files on every single blogpost. It means that images (photos, flow charts, comics, and graphs) should be used whenever it’s related to your blog content.
As the wise said: A picture is worth a thousand words – if your idea can be presented better in form of image, why not?
Hope this post help you in your first step in blogging .
