5 Ways to Make Your New Blog Stand Out

Is it too late to start a new blog?

With the prevalence of thousands of blogs out there, I’m sure people have always asked this question of newer bloggers, of which I put myself in the category, well, sort of. I am not new to the world of blogging (I posted my first blog on the MovableType 2.1 platform on May 22, 2002, at 5:02PM. It currently resides on my local Linux box and is of personal nature. It initially had a relatively big readerbase among friends — I didn’t know SEO then or had any intention to make it public — and it since became a very deep personal quest, one that I maintained through the toughest time of my life). Today, I’m on my third day of maintaining this newer, more interesting blog (or so I hope) and I have hopes to continue it as a regular journey.

Am I late? There are so many blog that have 30,000+ readers on FeedBurner … well, maybe only the Google blog. But there are other blogs, at least in the industry of blogs to which I subscribe, that have thousands of readers. I’m not sure I have a reputation to even have 1 subscriber — yet.

I would say that it will take a good amount of time before my blog becomes more mainstream, and that’s a goal I definitely hope to reach within the coming months. So how am I going to do it? Here’s a list of what I hope brings my blog to the next level, and I hope this advice can be used for your own new blog.

1. Write about things you feel passionately about. Write about traveling if that tickles your fancy. Write about food if you like to eat: restaurant reviews (especially those that are localized to your reader base) are sure to help.
2. Got issues with content? This is probably what stopped me from going the next step previously (despite the fact that my older blog took a more personal turn). Read the news: search for something you like and elaborate. Give your opinion. Journalists are supposed to be unbiased. Your blog is your space. Throw some opinion into it.
3. Bring something new to the table. If I knew what those fresh ideas were, I’d be using them myself!
4. Compose lists, losts of lists. Rand of SEOmoz.org and Aaron of SEOBook.com do it often: just check out Aaron’s 101 Ways to Build Links from August 15 and Rand’s 11 Best URL Display Practices. People love lists — unless each item is written up like a thesis.
5. Update your blog regularly. When you get a good readerbase and a bunch of blog subscribers who are looking for more, you need to be there to provide it. Having new content is always good — for the search engines too.

Here I am, starting off small. I’ll tell a few people here and there about my site, and hopefully the word of mouth will get my site a few more viewers and subscribers before I know it. But if you’re a new blogger: be patient. This is going to take some time.

Don’t get discouraged at first. It’s easy to start on a track and deviate, ultimately choosing to give up. Remember, Web 2.0 as we know it is only getting bigger at this point. There’s nothing that should stop you. If you have that great idea, implement it now. If you end up doing it later, you may find out that someone beat you to it.