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Things that make blogs appealing for me, personally are...
Nice Clean Design. I like the blogs that I follow to have nice neat designs, because it makes it easier for me to navigate through it, and easily reviews and various posts without having to take forever.
De-Cluttered Sidebars. I like it when the sidebars are de-cluttered and don't have a lot of widgets and other things taking up a lot of space and causing the loading time to take forever. That's kind of a turn off for me.
Discussion Posts. I love a really good discussion post, with a lot of comments that are hitting on points and bringing the topic home. It's a lot of fun to participate in these and sometimes you meet and get to know other bloggers as well, through them.
NO CAPTCHA. Please turn this off, because it's a pain in the tookus.
Minimal Use of GIF's. I don't mind it when blogger's use GIF's in some of their posts, but it can get out of hand when there's more GIF's than the review, for instance. So, I would rather see a more minimal use of them, than over-excessive.
Originality. I love it when the blogger has originality in the way they blog, the type of posts they put up, and just in general. It helps to spice up the blog and it makes it more interesting to read, instead of just reading blog after blog with the same thing, but variations on it.
Regular Features. I love it when blogs have regular features that are unique to the blogger behind the post/feature. Kind of like how Rachel has her Book Watch post that highlights all of the upcoming books for the week and her Reading Pile posts, because these kinds of awesome posts can update you on things that are coming out and books that you might not have known about, but could potentially be interested in.
Personality. I really enjoy it, when I find a blog that tells me a lot more about the person behind it, other than what kinds of books that they love to read. I love seeing the more personal posts showing through and getting to discover their little quirks and whatnot.
Detailed Reviews. I love a good review that is detailed enough to tell me all about the book, the characters, and whether or not the synopsis worked or didn't without giving away any spoilers. This is definitely important to me, because these are usually the things that help me decide on whether or not I want to take a chance on the book.
Honesty. I love it when bloggers are honest in their reviews of books, discussion posts, and whatnot, because it shows that they aren't afraid to really say what they think. I also enjoy how it's well thought out and now just slapped together all dodgey and whatnot.
Social Media. I like when blogs are super organized and have easy accessible ways to follow them, via Facebook, Twitter, GFC, email, or however else, without you having to hunt through their blog for them for ages.
Regular Updates. It's nice to come across a blog, where the person who is maintaining it takes enough to care to update on a regular basis, even if it's only two or three times a week - you can always count on them to always post at least that much. It makes me a little crazy, when it tends to be super sporadic side of things.
Less Meme's/Cover Reveals and More Other Posts. I like blogs that don't just rely on meme's, cover reveals, and filler posts to keep their bog updated. I would love to see more other types of posts, like book watches, discussion posts, guest posts (author or other blogger's), etc. I mean, I don't mind the occasional meme/cover reveal/blitz posts, but not all of the time to sustain the blog itself.
Review Archives. These are good things to have, even though I'm absolute rubbish at keeping mine up-to-date, because these tell me the kinds of books that you like to read and it also tells me what you think about them. Who knows, it might also help me decide if I want to read the book or not.
Variety. This is a good thing to have, especially with a book blog.
So, what are some of the things that appeal to you on blogs? Tell me in the comments below, because I'm curious to know. :)
