Google Blog Ranking... is it true?

In the past I've used ranking technics for web sites. I've used procedures that could take the ranking very high, very quickly. But that was like playing with fire because after the initial burst, the site's ranking was always slowly going down, no matter what I was doing. Google improved its ranking methods and I think that there's no way fooling web spiders, now.
Just a few years ago, I started not to take shortcuts, and I decided to improve my coding (for example I used dynamic meta keywords), I started using Google Webmaster Central, I tried to understand the basics around sitemaps, I played with RSS feeds and so on. And that was really rewarding!
Now the public web sites I created are well ranked (let me say that they are ranking good in reference to keyword searches) and I don't really need to start from scratch. I do believe that if I will ever need to do it again I will succeed in good ranking, using the same technics.
But what about a blog? And - even more - what about Blogger?

As usual, I started to google around the web, searching for information, and... BANG!... About 6,220,000 results! (search "google blogger ranking" in Google)... hmm... and "blog ranking"? About 30,200,000 results! "BP oil spill" gave me about 29,500,000 results and that's the news of the month!

It's clear to me now that blog ranking is a very well covered topic. So I started reading blog posts, articles, suggestions, tips, tricks, magic formulas and everything else. What can I say? Every suggestion is a good one, every article gives good advices but in the end is it really all of it? Unfortunately yes.

To get to the bottom of it, everybody suggest to write brilliant posts, to link to other blogs and web sites, to post often and regularly, to use good quality keywords, to use meaningful post titles and stuff like that.
I profoundly believe in all those suggestions! And I humbly try to use them in my blog (the one you're reading if you're not paying much attention!), but the results are really low and not encouraging.

All of the articles I've read and all the suggestions given refer to a situation where your blog is already ranked. So it's all about improving ranking. What about starting from scratch? Is it just a matter of patience? keep posting and you'll be rewarded. That's the secret, isn't it?

Well, I believe that's the magic formula: good quality, regular and brilliant posts.
However, why do I have the feeling to talk to the wind?
... to be continued ...