I think persistence is the key. You have to be willing to get back up and dust yourself off when something you do fails miserably. Even if you've spent a lot of time working on it.

Keep working at coming at topics from different angles. Find a way to approach something someone else hasn't, even if you're talking about the same thing.

And lastly, help other people out. Link to them in your content and at the bottom of you posts. Digg/stumble their posts. Don't be shy to let them know in their comments you've done this as well, they'll be likely to reciprocate.

You're exactly right about staying away from "novel-sized posts with crazy research" - readers will respond much better to a familiar, conversational writing style. That's one of the things I'm working on to improve my blog because my default writing style tends to be a little too academic thanks to all those research papers in college. A good rule of thumb is to "write how you speak". A casual tone will help your readers connect to you in a more personal way and keep them coming back for more!

@Jonathon - Good points on the linking out. I totally forgot that one. That is a great source of building relationships and can also attract attention as bloggers tend to know who is linking to them.

@Kristina - Glad to see you taking the right steps into starting to activate your personal brand. My best advice would be to keep writing. Through your persistence you will start to see your strengths in your writing and a passion for something within your industry. I am a music marketing guy who stumbled onto this whole personal and Gen-Y branding stuff and not it encompasses a great deal of my daily routine (and income).