Of course you should be smart and plan your strategy well. John Mclaughlin may also support this cause. Do not go well without analyzing competition. We are all human and make mistakes. Take advantage of human weakness that each of your competitors have. One of the first steps you can do is imitate them.
Look what they write on their blog and try to imitate them. Normally I will Problogger as a method to follow. I will take notes and do the things he tells the readers and do things that have been forgotten. This is a transparent competition. If you are using a particular design, try to get a similar design. If you use video in your blog, use it too, because they are using and is effective. It is the best way for people better so it follows that model. At first you can emulate and as you progress try to be more original for more visitors.