Have you ever thought what is it that differentiates a top blog from the million mediocre ones? Have you ever thought what is it that helps some blogs to achieve fame and fortune while others just keep struggling to snatch a handful of subscribers?

If you are one of those struggling bloggers, I am sure you are desperately trying to find out the answers to these questions. You are constantly trying to search the key that unlocks the door that is veiling success and fortune.

Okay. You can put me in any of the two categories because I don’t know where I belong. I have just discovered the answer to these questions. And as usual, I will do whatever I can to help people and make them better every minute, with every blog.

So, here are 3 most significant components of a successful blogs. Nothing else can beat this combination.

1. Awesome Content:
   The top ranking blogs have article that are easy to read and comprehend with simple language, great content, precise and concise information, proper grammar, and entertainment.
2. Awesome Design:
   A top ranking blog site has pages that can be easily navigated, and is eye pleasing, professionally built, effortlessly navigated, distinct looks, and is quite attention grabbing. The site cannot afford to have any flaws.
3. Awesome Personality of Bloggers:
   A top ranking blog may have one or more bloggers. However, all of them are generally quite connecting, courteous, possess leadership qualities, easy to approach, hard-working, and disciplined. Readers are the most important people of their life. They treat readers as family.

The Outcome Calculation

Each of the above component has equal importance and has equal effect on the blog. Here is what you can do to assess your blog. Rate your website’s all 3 components out of ten and multiply them.

For Instance, if you rate your content 7, design 5, and influence 3, then the total outcome is 7 x 5 x 3 = 105.

You can do numerous things to get your blog on the top in all search engines through various SEO techniques. However, the answer to the question whether it will stay on the top for a longer time depends on the outcome these 3 components. You can give one component greater importance than the other. All are equal and important.

The maximum you could reach is 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000.

Now here is an exercise for everyone of us. Which area do you think that really needs an improvement? What is your outcome? Are you among the top ones? Be honest.

Blogging is essentially an art, as mentioned by many great writes, which is developed, enhanced, and mastered with years of practice.

So, it isn’t perfection you, the beginners, must target in your first blog. My suggestion is keep writing and keep learning new techniques through your journey toward the apex. If you need to learn pottery, you have to get you hands dirty.

When I wrote my first blog, I knew absolutely nothing about blogging. It was just a simple article. However, the curiosity to learn flamed the beacon and grew with every diminutive success.

So what am I pointing at? The world is highly competitive especially blogging. There are millions of blogs on the web today. This area is a place where only committed, passionate, and distinct people survive. So, nobody will extract the exact piece of information you need to succeed as a blogger, absolutely nobody except me. Here are the concise points that will help to be a good blogger:

1. Instead of money, blog about something that you are passionate about.
   
2. Never write without extensive research.
3. Keep learning. Always.
4. Write with confidence.
5. Understand your niche area
6. Kill your competition. Don’t be afraid of them.
7. Humans make mistakes, and so will your competitor. Exploit them to get an advantage.
8. Remember, never copy content. Be original, be different.
9. Always work with targets. Don’t let your career waver.
10. Be dedicated.
11. Be courteous and respectful. There is a difference between writing with command and writing rudely.
12. Perseverance is the key.
13. Never procrastinate. Do your work regularly.
14. Try to grasp that each one of us is unique and different from the other.
15. Be calm. People will disagree many times.
16. Understand that criticism isn’t personal. Use it to make you a better blogger.
17. Internet may not always be pleasant.
18. Some people will be envious. Just ignore them.
19. You are human and bound to commit mistakes. It’s better you accept it whenever you do.
    
20. Appreciate suggestion. They will improve you.
21. Don’t get upset if you are stuck. Wait, relax. Don’t be hasty.
22. If you don’t have the relevant information, remember you have Google.
23. Rome was not built in a day.
24. Never take things for granted.
25. Never ever think of giving up. Never!
26. Search for it and you will definitely get it.
27. Be focused. Concentrate on your work.
28. Make it a rule to write daily. Write less on bad days and do additional work on good days.
29. Respect other’s opinion, even if you don’t like it.
30. Don’t ever mention myths in your blogs except when you are negating them.
31. Focus on facts.
    
32. Know about your target audience.
33. To know more about them, use Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.
34. Be friends with everyone.
35. Try to help everyone for free. Don’t frown, you got it right.
36. Money is good, but don’t be too greedy. It isn’t everything.

Conclusion

Don’t forget to apply “Kaizen”, a Japanese term which means continuous improvement, in every stage of blogging and also life. The time you stop learning, you start deteriorating.

Don’t underestimate yourself. Anyone, absolutely anyone can be a successful blogger, but with commitment.

Hopefully, you use these rules and become a better blogger, everyday.

We have talked enormously about how to set up an online business (selling service or products) and improve it consistently in the past years. However, many of our customers and readers are advanced – technologically, mentally, psychologically, commercially, and in many other ways that are impossible to gauge.

There are countless websites, blogs, and online businesses today on the web. However, if we don’t ensure that we are at par with the 2010 standards, it quite useless to expect something great of our business. This advanced world demands advanced methods to survive the competition and ever-changing trends.

Here is a comprehensive list of things you need to ensure your website has, if you intend to boost your business, in 2010 –

1. Make regular use of Videos

   I admit I haven’t used this tool till date. Frankly because I wasn’t aware about the power it holds in augmenting a business today. Say, you have a travel blog and instead of explaining every minute detail about a place, you can supplement it with a video of that place. It’s perfectly okay if you don’t have your own video. Find it on any of the search engines and I am sure you will get video for about everything on earth.

   Not only travel or health blogs, this goes for every kind of online business. If you aren’t using this tool, you aren’t utilizing much of the facilities internet has to offer. Make your own videos with tools like Windows Movie Maker or any other software and start uploading frequently. People love video. More importantly, Google loves videos. Be prepared to receive double traffic, if you website has helpful videos.

2. Be Unique; stand out from the crowd

   This point have been discussed over and over again by every blogging expert and it will remain a priority even in 2050 or 2500. Yet we see boring blogs and tedious affiliate marketing sites everywhere. It’s simple. Why would people be attracted to your website, if there are 50,000 other sites offering same service or product in a similar way?

   Make the offer tempting and irresistible in a unique, original way. If you are writing a blog, develop a Unique Selling Point (USP). Have a unique name, unique logo, unique punch line; make everything unique. Check out the top performing websites and list down what’s good and what’s not. Now start thinking how you can beat those sites. Yes, you have to do this. The competition is tougher, tougher than ever.

3. Increased use of Social Media Tools

   

   The year 2009 witnessed astonishing blend of internet and social media tools. Anything and everything is being linked with the social media. So, it’s obvious and commonsensical that the dependency and usage of social media tools will increase rapidly in 2010. Here’s the bottom line: if you aren’t making much use of these tools, either wind up your business or start using it today.

   Use tools like facebook, twitter, dig, etc to expand the availability of your business. Constantly update your facebook page; answer all the questions on linkedin, create your communities; establish yourself on twitter and tweet frequently about new products, news, information, etc. If you have decided to run a business, become an expert in it.

4. Your readers and customers is your priority

   Every business on earth thrives on customer service and customer relation. You’re your readers/customers are happy, they are the most effective source of advertisement available today. However, for this to happen, you need to take little pains. Have a very close and personal relation with every customer. For those who don’t have time for this, forget about success.

   Try to find how you ca improve your service or product with their comments, suggestions, and feedback. Have good email etiquette and reply to all queries, appreciations, suggestions, etc. use Google alerts to know customer views about your business. Retain existing customers and attract huge new traffic by only one tool: extremely excellent customer service. Ask yourself: Don’t you like buy from a store where every sales person knows your name and shopping habits? Everyone loves it. Treat them like KINGS.

5. Let everyone know about you and your business

   

   If you are involved into something, do it wholeheartedly or simply quit. What’s the use of having a site that known to only few of readers, most of them being your friends and relatives?

   Promote! Advertise! Endorse! Let the world know about your website. Make sure to use every possible tool on internet to promote your business. Have your presence everywhere on the internet, yellow pages, directories, guides, indexes, and search engines. Be a part of forum discussions, press releases, write classified ads, targeted lists, and every other source. If you are wealthy enough to afford offline advertisements involve in sending mails, posters, business cards, etc.

6. Wiki it

   Millions of internet users use wikipedia to avail information about everything on earth because they consider it as a reliable source of information. Here is how you can use it to promote your business. Write a short description about your product, service or business or hire some professional writer to draft it and post it in wikipedia. Search engines especially Google love wikipedia. This source can help you spread your business quicker than wild fire because it has excellent page rank. Remember, there are over 685 million wiki visitors. Do you know any market bigger than this to promote your site?

7. Stay alert with media, stay ahead of your competition

   Be alert. Know everything about your business, industry, competitors, and target audience. Sing up for Google alerts, read news articles, explore details and be well-informed. Read news articles regularly, trace them and contact the mead reporters who are always searching stories for their next article. Similarly, get connected with the fellow bloggers and promote your business.

   If you are successful finding a reporter, send out press releases every month. However, make sure make sure it has something useful and you have drafted it properly. These press releases form an amazing source of promotion and trustworthiness among readers.

8. Target, Monetize and Improve

   Target the right market, monetize your website effectively, and improve to generate more value. This isn’t 2010 specific. If your business lasts till 2100, it will still be a significant and constructive point. It’s important to get traffic to your website. However, it worthless if the type of traffic attracted isn’t what you are looking for. Get the right kind of audience and you are sure to succeed, even if you don’t have a great product or service to offer. That’s monetizing your site.

   Lastly, all the stuffs mention here is nothing but an improvement. Your focus should always be how you can improve the service quality, provide better and variety of products, improve overall designs. If you look at your website, even today, you will find every corner needs an improvement, in order to achieve perfection.

Irrespective of the year or century you are in, things are changing everyday, every hour, and every minute. This world, especially internet has developed into a place that needs constant modification, value addition, and commitment to survive and be on the top. Have you done the necessary changes? Are you advanced than the others?

I read your post and not surprisingly, I get bored. However, it wasn’t any other boring article. It was awfully unexciting and it gave me a long lasting headache, OUCH! I would prefer hanging out with someone like Tom Hank’s character from the movie Castaway or even talking to Wilson (the volleyball) rather than reading your post.

After going though your post, I went down the street and bought a pack of Tylenol, but it didn’t help. So, I held my head tightly, went near a corner of my house and faced the wall for some minutes. Wow, that was so better than your article. I started recovering and as soon as I came out of the trauma, I sat down and started writing this article to let you know how boring you are.

Many bloggers think that their post is uber cool and electrifying. The fact is it’s nothing more than boring and a major headache trigger.

Nobody thinks your blog is super cool except you.

Really. It’s better you face the fact and wipe out this misconception. You need to get out of your usual perspective and learn what others think about your post. You should have done this much earlier. However, it’s never too late. Avoid

paralyzing people. Avoid punishing them. Here are few things that could possibly spice up your article and make it a bit readable:

1. Add humor:
   Do you remember the last time you added a little sarcasm in your post? Do you ever think of quoting a humorous line or a funny statement? Did you ever realize that making fun can be used as an interest-grabbing tool? No? I did it today.
2. Add Excitement:
   After your draft your post, don’t directly post it. Add some adjectives that could give meaning and support your content. Make sure you add some powerful words that’s boosts the strength of your article.
3. Add stories:
   Real or fake, I don’t care. Just add some interesting stories that grabs the attention of your readers. Tell them how you got slapped by a women or how you bumped you car. However, make sure you are in sync with the title; otherwise it might just trigger another headache.
4. Add yourself:
   By this, I don’t mean your photos, you might scare somebody. Let your personality glitter through your post. Instead of introducing yourself to others, let your readers know about you are through your writing. Share your ideas, share yourself.

These would really help you improve your blog content and yes, it would also keep many readers away from a serious headache.

Okay. Let’s get serious here. The post doesn’t intend to offend anyone. My sole intention of writing such a post is: I want you to know the significance of entertainment in your post. It’s very important. People want something interesting. Look at it from the reader’s point of view, PLEASE!

Enough of me teaching you about blog posts. Now, it’s your time. Tell me what are the other things that can spice up a post? What are the other elements of an interesting post? Just remember, I ain’t talking about the amount or quality of information in your article. I have written many articles on quality.