Blogs for traffic

Blogs, or web logs, are a fantastic tool for getting your word out. People love to read them. Search engine spiders love to index them. What are the reasons for the popularity of blogs?

The search engine part is fairly easy to figure out: The frequent updates bring the spiders back time and again. Those spiders are curious creatures. They gotta see what's new and exciting out on the Internet.

I think people love blogs for the same reason: their innate morbid curiosity. My first blog was very personal to me, and it was popular when I kept it updated. I was shocked by the response to that blog because I didn't think anybody wanted to read about my trials and tribulations. But apparently they did. Admit it, we all love gossip. I think that, secretly, they wanted to know "the dirt." I truly believe that blogs do better when they are personal. They attract a wider audience by hitting on an emotional part of us. It's the emotional response that hooks you into coming back for more.

So my advice for a content-rich website is to update it frequently for the search engines, and to make it personal for the readers. Can't think of a better formula to drive traffic to a website.