I was reading the Diva Marketing Blog last night and found a couple excellent, excellent posts.

Toby Bloomberg has a much more traditional business consulting background that I've seen in many of the blogs I've read so far.  Her business philosophies provide an excellent structure to consider when building your blog. 

In The Diva Marketing Blog Approach To Blog Strategy, the typical reasons that people blog, including building relationships and enhancing search engine placement are included. The Diva outlines an excellent strategy for defining your audience, your voice, your objectives, and your results.  Answering these types of questions for your business will save you a tremendous amount of time, and help clarify what and why you are blogging.

However, what I really resonated with was the concept called The Trinity of Blogs, comprised of honesty, transparency, and passion. If you stop and think about it, the blogs that seem to rise above the rest, really do encompass all of these aspects, and in fact, are the emotional reasons that readers keep coming back for more.

The second article, Blog Report Card, has an excellent set of questions to grade your blog that range from strategy (what's the purpose?) to structure and style (is it easy to read?) to credibility (would you recommend it?).  It's a helpful tool for evaluating your blog and keeping it on track.