In looking for running blogs I discovered The Complete Running Network blog. Ignore the fact that its about running. This post isn't about that.
I wanted to mention this site because it is really nothing more than a multi-author blog, but uses effective presentation techniques to stand out among similar blogs in the genre.
For one thing, Complete Running uses a lot of stock photos that give the perception that its posts are professionally written and authoritative. There are many good photo resources like iStockPhoto where you can get professional looking photos on the cheap, and is definitely an option to give a blog a more polished look.
I also like the Complete Running Network blog because it publishes posts in established site feature areas like "Featured Website", "Photo of the Week", "The Running Coach", and so forth. Most of our blogs are about a set collection of topics to which this Feature approach could easily apply. It also provides a familiar variety of content for our readers.
One other stand-out aspect of the site which can be transferred to anyone's blog is that Complete Running has a unique information resource that no one else has: a huge list of running blogs called the Running Blog Family Directory. It is well maintained and I would suspect draws a lot of traffic to the site.
The site's not perfect. A lot of useful real estate is sacrificed for advertising, I hate the narrow column used for the blog content, and to adhere to a more professional presentation all author names should be fully listed, but those are minor issues.