So ignoring the complexities of blogging, the technical aspects which rarely have any bearing on the success or failure of a blog, what is the key to blogging?  Well, it’s quite simple really.  just follow these Three Golden Rules of Blogging.

Be First

One of the easiest ways to make a name for yourself in the blogosphere, the place we call home, is by being the first to do something.  In the world of blogging, this can mean a number of different things.  It could mean you cover a breaking story first, or you do an expose that’s never been done before, expose a rumor or become of the source of news yourself.

One of the great advantages of being first is that you’re seen as being an authority on the subject.  If no one else could come up with this content until you came along, you must be an expert, right?  Right!?!  This will generate a lot of discussion on your site and discussion about your site elsewhere.  If it’s a major story, you may end up getting some links from major sources, such as Mashable, TechCrunch or a major publication, such as the New York Times.  These sites usually only link to the sources of stories, and rarely to the subsequent discussion that takes place.  Hence, these links are highly valuable.

Be Best

If someone else has beaten you to the hot news story of the day, and let’s face it, we can’t compete with fully resourced 24 hour blogs, hope is not all lost.  There are other ways to stand out from the crowd.  One such way is to be The Best.

Unfortunately, being The Best is hard to quantify.  Typically, being The Best involves providing the most benefit to your readers.  Or at least perceived benefit. For an example of a blog that does this better than most, take a look at shawnblanc.net.   His series of Mac Software reviews treaded ground that has been stomped on. Yet, by taking some extra time with the content, and giving a feeling, a perception, of completeness, his reviews became very popular.  They are well written, well researched and subsequently feel like the definitive reviews.

Another site that does completeness really well is one of my favorite sites of the moment, PSD Tuts, a PhotoShop Tutorials blog.  There are literally thousands of PhotoShop tutorials out there, but PSD Tuts just seem to do them a whole lot better than anyone else.  This is partly down to the feeling of completeness and comprehensiveness, but it’s also the style.  Looking at the end result of some of the tutorials, you really believe that the work has been completed by a PhotoShop artist at the top of their game. While a feeling of completeness is important for a review or tutorial, it may not be for other types of posts.  You need to look at your audience, experiment.  You need to figure out what sort of content style gives your audience the most perceived benefit.  You might be described that simply providing a few well sourced images, or quotes, in each post make all the difference.

Be Unique

The third rule, the third way to make your blog stand out from the rest, is to be unique.  If you’re not the fastest, and haven’t got the time to make your content the best, you’ve got to give people another reason to visit.  The Unique Selling Point.  This could be the content itself, the way you present the content or anything else a reader can latch on to.

A great example of two blogs that can coexist, very successfully, because of the slightly different approach they take to the same subject is Gizmodo and Engadget.  Engadget seem to have the completeness and timing down.  It would very difficult, if not impossible, to match them on these criteria.  Gizmodo, that also covers technology news, has managed to carve out a nice niche for itself by covering more off-the-wall stories.  Less news, more points of interest.  The sort of content that tends to get picked up by the social networks.  For example, Engadget currently has Intel Plans Quad “Core Notebook Processors” as its lead story while Gizmodo has “Global Drunk Dialing Competition Starts Tonight”.  The two styles aren’t mutually exclusive, and it would be unfair, and inaccurate, to say that Gizmodo doesn’t cover news and Engadget doesn’t do fun, they do.  But on balance, you’ll find there is a distinct style to each blog.

The more observant amongst you will no doubt be thinking to yourself, “this is a blog, published as a magazine”, and you’d be right.  That is the Unique Selling Point of this blog.  The hope is that because of the batch release of articles, we can spend some more time writing, editing and proofing them.  Possibly moving us closer to being The Best.  However, it’s also obvious that by taking this approach we sacrifice speed.

Putting It Into Practice

It’s all very well saying you need to be the fastest, or the best, it’s pretty much just stating the obvious.  In reality you need to discover what works well for the area you are involved in.  If you cover news, for example, then speed becomes important.  This is also true for commentary, but not as important.  If you’re writing a guide on how to do something, being the first to do so can be important, but being the best, the most complete, is far more important for the longevity of the piece.  In reality, you have to find the sweet spot for you, and your niche.