It's relatively easy to track the conversation of top blogs in your chosen niche and generate topic ideas. It's another thing altogether to have your blog standout amongst all those already in your niche. Joining the conversation does not mean just following trends but contributing something new, with the hopes of building an authority site yourself.

That's a goal that I'm currently working towards on a few of my current projects, and I'm studying various approaches. Cribbed from my notes, here are some tips to consider.

1. Lead, don't follow. Sounds obvious, but after browsing through a hundred posts, it's often easier just to write a list of links to other bloggers' posts. Except everyone does them (myself included). Try to be a unique blogger.

2. Enhance links posts. If you're going to write a links post, make it more valuable. Turn it into a resource list.

3. Enhance summaries. If someone blogs about a particular topic, don't just summarize their conversation and link to them, enhance the conversation. First summarize several related posts to get the gist of the current/recent conversation. Now write an original post and link to all relevant recent posts that you summarized.

4. Have parallel conversations. Don't blog exactly the same thing as everyone else. If a post inspires you, maybe there's a related subtopic that has not been well-addressed in your niche yet. You can launch off from what other blogs are saying. (I believe Darren Rowse talked about this in late 2006 or early 2007, but I can't find it on Problogger.)

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Anyone who has had to read Shakespeare in high school knows that the English language is organic. As such, it changes over the decades and centuries. Many words fall into disuse and many new words are added. Back in the late 1980s, researchers suggested that the average adult in North America knew had a vocabulary of at least 100,000 words. Since that time, many thousands of new terms have come into popular use. But fast forward to today and it seems that grammar is rapidly changing too.

A glance at the writing of some bloggers suggests that we might have collectively regressed, or are heading that way. Grammar is rapidly changing online, and not just from bloggers but also journalists writing at the websites of print publications. It goes beyond misspellings and typos, and includes the lack of proper punctuation, resulting sentences that technically say something very different than what was intended. I see more of this in 2008 than I did in 2005, and I read/browse about the same number of articles daily.

At least, that's my off-the-cuff impression. I'm by no means 100% accurate with my grammar and never will be. My head is filled with the grammars of far too many non-Roman lettered languages, and that perpetual mixes me up when I write in English. But I am only fluent in English, and so I read, write, think and speak mostly in English. The other languages in my head are also-rans, used only infrequently.

As part of my work as a "professional" blogger, I have to consume large quantities of content daily. The music, video, movies and images are easy to consume. But I'm finding it progressively harder to browse online text. Online typography (almost wholly in san serif fonts) is not exactly conducive to speed reading, and persistently poor grammar that makes me stop in my tracks really makes things worse. It doubles my reading time because I have a "what the f**k" reaction, attempt to re-read, then get fed up. Given that I browse/read anywhere from 100-150 blog posts each day, that's a lot of wasted time that sometimes screws up my schedule for several days.

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Being new to the Blog world, it seems to me that Blogs resemble diaries, personal notes to one selves. Based on many comments read here today, blogs have soared into cyberspace as advertisements, clipboards, and a mean of personal attack.
I see how blogs, at least some are used as an advertisement tactic. Writing a human interest story to compel readers to take a liking to you, and then pages or entries later, the blogger discovers a way to heal or correct a problem with this fantastic product.
I prefer the more straightforward means to selling, even through a blog.
Listening, ha. Reading the comments on a few blogs, today made me want to leave the blogging world alone. For me a blog is only a means to vent, but it I don't laugh or critice those individuals who take the blog so serious, or very serious.
In many instances the blog has become an instrument of creativity, illustrations of colors, styles, fonts, images, and some of the writing is truly on a professional level, and deserve publishing, but others just vent.
The suggestion about Confidence in creating a blog made public sense, to a certain extent. I liked his ideas or suggestion for creating an Assertive blog. Aside from Commercial blogs, Educational blogs, and Perhaps News blogs, for me blogs are daily interest items, a means of communicating feelings, angers, anxieties, and likes and dislikes.
Confidence in a ill-directed blog, or a unspecific blog is senseless. These types of blogs are typical of a daily mood, or event, or happening. Unless, the blog is well defined, subjective, educationally subjective, business, economics, technology give the blogger a break. When potential bloggers see an outline for creative expression they may never say it, but it frightens the blogger. I thought I could learn a few how to's perhaps meet someone people with similar interests. I didn't know I had to play follow the leader. Well, no friends for me, but that's kool. Relax, unless, it cost $299.99 a blog, or it brings life, its not the kind of blog that could ever attract my attention. Stop fighting and bickering. You all right well, you all know html, you all can transfer your blogs from here to eternity.