You're right in that design is one of the most undervalued aspects of not only blogging, but also any Internet-related venture. It's not easy to crank out amazing content or to create a valuable service for others, but if the design isn't captivating/unique/user-friendly/(insert design-related adjective here), then potential engagement is lost.

Keep up the good work–looking forward to part 3!

This is great advice, simply laid out, and totally do-able for someone wanting to start blogging. I love your advice of, "Don't be boring"! Chris Guillebeau said once "You can break most of the rules, but not all of them at the same time" (in 279 Days to an Overnight Success, I think). I love that advice for life, and especially blogging.

I have learned so much just from checking out other people's blogs- from the most successful, to the person next door. I totally agree that design is super important as well… most people are visually attracted to a site, before they even give the content a chance to pull them in.

Keep up the good advice!

Karen

I should have also mentioned that any of these rules can and have been broken. For example, Chris Guillebeau's Art of Non-Conformity is chrisguillebeau.com. Guillebeau is unusual and difficult to spell if you are just telling people, and yet he has one of the top blogs on the internet. Its like the saying goes… you have to know the rules to break them. This post defines them, but they definitely aren't the only way to go about things.

And I agree, it's hard to find a premium theme that's anywhere close to what you want, let alone a free one. Some people just have better luck (or at least feel safer) buying from a company who can support them later on.