Optimizing a blog is a bit different than your standard website search engine optimization (SEO), particularly because most blogs run off standard blog platforms, or worse, run as a hosted blog on someone else’s domain name. And there are design issues that can be unique to blogs which can impact your rankings

• Dump The Default Template – Looks Count!

• Just Say No To Bad Color Schemes

• RSS Me!

• Offer RSS & Feed Subscription Buttons

• Offer Posts Via Email

• Decide On Full Or Partial Feeds

• Write Compelling Snippets/Descriptions

• Pay Attention to How You Write

• Spelling Counts

• Fontography Counts

• Don’t Forget Navigation

• How Fast is Your Host?

• Avoid Widget Overload!

• Have Descriptive Titles

• Look at your Cascading Style Sheets

• Post Often

• Spread the Link Love

• Be Aware of Your Anchor Text

• Create Unique Stories

• Use a Related Posts Plugin

• Ping Other Sites

• Buy Your Own Domain Name

• Manage Your Trackback & Comment Spam

• Use a Good URL Structure

• Use Great Categories

 25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Readers & Search Engines

25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic – The Ultimate Guide 

Other good references: 

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 | SEO Book

101 Web Marketing Ideas and Tips | SEOpedia

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic | SEOMoz

8 Reasons Why Lists Are Good for Getting Traffic to Your Blog | Problogger

Ways to Get to the Top of the del.ico.us Popular Page | Problogger

3 Ways to Immediately Increase Search Engine Traffic | Performancing

How to Get Traffic For Your Blog | Seth Godin

The Art of Linkbaiting | Performancing

The Art of Blog | SEO Black Hat

What is Linkbaiting? | Modern Life is Rubbish

SEO Advice: Linkbait and Linkbaiting | Matt Cutts of Google

Problogger Link Baiting Series | Problogger

Secrets to Beating the Sandbox 2.0 Revealed | Link Building Blog

What Makes a Site Link-Worthy? | Eric Ward

Using Digg to Attract Hits | Slate

Using Digg and Netscape to Get Traffic | Pronet Advertising

Social Bookmarking for Traffic | SiteProNews

The Sandbox and Delicious | Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Unleashing the IdeaVirus | Seth Godin

Viral Copy | Copyblogger

Building Traffic to Build Your Fan Club | Copyblogger

Trust Rank and Your Domain | Link Building Blog

Generating Buzz With Link Baiting and Viral Campaigns | Search Engine Watch

Linkbaiting for Fun & Profit | Search Engine Journal

Link Building Guide | Jim Westergren

Link Baiting & Effective Link Building | Search Engine Journal

Link Baiting and Viral Search Success | Search Engine Roundtable

How Much is Link Bait Worth? | Cartoon Barry

Link Baiting | Stuntdubl

Link Baiting Case Study from Search Engine Journal | Search Engine Journal

Link Bait | SEO Book

The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do | Seth Godin at Squidoo

Building Traffic With Article Marketing | Copyblogger

Link Building Blog | Text Link Ads

Link Building Wiki | Text Link Brokers

Advanced Link Building Tactics | SEOMoz

Link Building for Blogs | TopRankBlog

10 Creative Traffic Building Ideas | TopRankBlog

5 facts on link building  | SeoPedia
Press Release Quick and Easy Guide | IncreaSEO

An Indepth Look Into Free Press Release Site | IncreaSEO

How to Get 105,934 Unique Visitors | BrianKim

Ten Ways To Write A Killer Blog | maryamie

Link Building Resources | WebGeek