Courtesy of the talented Lorelle, there are a few things that are worth noting about exceptional blogs(i.e. those that lift and separate themselves out of the pack):

Looks: The body copy, the font, the background, the navigation, the gestalt of the overall impression that it leaves on your viewer.

“Looks count in everything. Don’t try to tell me that they don’t. If look don’t count, then the entertainment, fashion, clothing, hair, makeup, nails, spas, exercise clubs, and health products markets would collapse. In fact, they are a huge multi-billion dollar industry, so looks must count.”

Content: Lorelle says :

There are two theories in successful blog content. One is to stay highly focused upon a specialty or two, gaining an audience because they know “you” are the source for that information. The other theory is to write about anything and everything so anyone searching for anything and everything will find you, and they will be so impressed they will look around, check things out, and come back for more.

I don’t know … personally, I’ve found that the most successful blogs are focused blogs.

If you want to talk about your cat, and what your dog ate for breakfast, that’s totally inappropriate unless you’ve specified that your blog is going to be an account of your everyday life. As it is, people might be subscribing to dozens or hundreds of feeds; who wants to give anyone a reason to think you’re wasting anyone’s time?

Traffic:

I’ve heard over and over that a blog that stands out from the crowd is one that is popular and gets a lot of traffic. I only have two words to say about this: B.S. Traffic is something that matters to the blog owner. It has nothing to do with the blog reader. I don’t visit blogs because they are at the top of some list. I don’t seek out the most popular and high traffic sites just because they are popular and high traffic. Do you?

I would like to think that I’m blind to how popular a blog already is, but that would be lie. Its true that blogs can be excellent without any traffic (which is tragic, as far as I’m concerned) which is appealing in and of itself (wow, I found something no one else found) — blogs that are popular with great content are appealing in a different way. Sort of a — wait, how could I be missing this great stuff?

I agree that a high degree of traffic site is either necessary or sufficient for blogging greatness; however, if there is a lot of traffic, there might be something about the blog which DOES make it great without you necessarily being aware of it right off the bat. For example, Dooce is a site which gets bongo traffic.

At first glance, I’m not sure what qualifies it for the amount of attention it gets. Blogging about your daughter and your dog on a regular basis doesn’t usually get mortgage-sustaining traffic, right? So, once you plumb into the author, you realize a few things — she started her blog long before blogs are important; was the first person to earn a living blogging; and her nickname “Dooce” (real name Heather Armstrong) entered into blogging lexicon when she was fired because of her blog a year after she started.

So, you could argue Dooce’s blog is historically important; it doesn’t have a lot of interest for me personally, but it does put a different perspective on things, rather than dismiss it out of hand.

Bottom line is that traffic is not sufficient for greatness, but it could be an indicator that something else is going on that you might not be able to appreciate at first glance.

The Checklist: Interesting and worth remembering …

1. Is it readable?
2. Is it easy to read?
3. Is it easy to navigate, leading the reader to other content from every page?
4. Does it offer content categories, helping direct readers to related subjects on your site or blog?
5. Does the design match the content?
6. Is the content consistent with a specific topic, theme, or subject?
7. Does the content showcase you as an expert, hobbyist, or vague curiosity seeker?
8. Is the content well written, spell and grammar checked, and encourage readers to read?
9. Does your blog’s design and content give people a reason to return?
10. How convenient is your site or blog to use?
11. Does it offer feeds?
12. Does it offer comments?
13. Does it offer trackbacks?