I started this article as a congratulatory note to David Armano, but I ended up using to do something I’ve been meaning to for a while, which is highlight some great blogs and talk about why I think they have been so successful, particularly over the last year.
Logic+Emotion
David Armano of Logic+Emotion is someone I’ve been having various conversations with over the last year and i’ve seen him go from describing himself as a nobody (on Joseph Jaffe’s Across the Sound Podcast), to getting a 1,300 word article published in Business Week, titled It’s the Conversation Economy, Stupid. His blog Logic+Emotion has gone from strength to strength over the last year, and to some it may seem like overnight success but I would suggest there are three key things David did right:
- Focus – articles on topic, expectations set and fulfilled
- Differentiation – his explanatory graphics have gone a long way to communicate complex topics that everyone else might be talking about, but Armano explained
- Humility – It’s just clear from his writing
Mashable
Pete Cashmore over at mashable.com has done an amazing job over the last year turning his blog into the TechCrunch of social networking. Here’s what I think makes Mashable distinctive
- Focus – Mashable picked there spot, the blog about social networks and went for it, news and articles are always on topic
- Design+Features – Mashable is always innovating it’s design and adding new features, like mashtracker, and myspace widgets/add ons at Mashcodes
- Volume – Mashable maintains a tremendous volume of topical, relevant posts
Read/Write Web
Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web has also done an amazing job over the last year turning his blog into a 2.0 powerhouse. His focus on editorial articles about web applications has made his blog a must read for the 60,000+ that subscribe to his RSS feed.
- Focus – again always on topic, very focused on web 2.0 and web applications
- Differentiation – Read/Write web stands apart from the “news” style blogs and focuses on articles making it the Economist of Web2.0 Blogs
- Writing – Richard does a top quality job of recruiting people to write interesting articles and editorial
Admittedly this is not particularly in depth analysis, but i’m convinced that the common theme of focus is very important, maybe focus and consistency. Love to hear thoughts on what makes a successful blog, especially from those guys 
