Jill Gordon is my guest blogger today. This is a foundational article that is great for baby boomer beginners but should be revisited by even seasoned bloggers.

Most of us aren’t experts on art, but we know a good painting when we see one. The same goes for blogs. You may not be a social media wizard but you know what you like and what is well done and what just, well, isn’t. While each blog is unique there are some big things that the top blogs have in common that you can take and use as lessons for your blog –even if you only have a few followers—which can make your site of a higher quality and much more fulfilling to write. Here are a few to consider:

1. Good design.

Even the most well-written blog out there will be hard to stomach if it looks like a design disaster zone. Spend some time making sure that things are laid out well and that you’re not trying to cram every single widget and add-on available into your one poor little blog. Keep things looking streamlined and organized instead so readers can easily navigate. If you don’t know a thing about design, look at others blogs for inspiration.

2. Quality content.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing about your road trip to the Grand Canyon or health care reforms, if you’re not writing well (including proofreading) you’re doing yourself a real disservice in terms of the overall quality of your blog.

3. A clear voice.

When you’re doing pretty much any kind of writing on the web you want to have a distinct voice—a reason why someone would read your site over any of the other millions of blogs out there. For some people that might be adding humor while others might have a pretty unique viewpoint. Whatever your angle is, put it to good use.

4. Focused topics.

The best and most popular blogs out there tend to focus on one particular topic, whether that is celebrity gossip or global affairs doesn’t matter. Similarly, if you want to create a really great blog you need to pick a focus and stick to it. That may mean creating more than one blog if you really love two totally different topics.

5. Passion.

Is what you’re blogging about something that you’re truly interested in, love doing or want to know more about? When bloggers focus on topics like these, whether it’s for business or personal use, it makes for a much better, richer and all-around greater experience than a topic that is just a passing interest.

This post was contributed by Jill Gordon who writes for the blog onlinecolleges.net.  She welcomes your feedback at Jill.Gordon25 @yahoo.com.