Traditionally, the way we humans earned our keep was to make something (clothes, beer, etc) or provide a useful service, like running an Inn. Physical world stuff like that. It was pretty easy to think of a business, because you just looked around for a need that went unfulfilled in your village and you went about doing so.
A blogger is hoping to earn income not by the sweat of their brow, but by sitting in front of a computer and writing. The end result isn't a barrel of beer to sell, but is another page of text. Text that hopefully enough people will read so that the blogger can earn enough from people clicking on ads.
Earning a living from running advertising depends on having enough traffic - it's a numbers game. Approximately 2% of blog visitors click on ads, and you earn a few cents per click, so to earn the $150/day or whatever it is that's required to live these days means a heck of a lot of visitors.
The result of chasing that dream is that bloggers feel driven to write, not for the purity of their message, but because it will bring in more traffic. But chasing traffic to chase advertising dollars means the purity of the message ends up being sacrificed (usually) to whatever will bring in traffic.
I got into this game (blogging) to make a positive impact on the world. I've tried a number of approaches to blogging, and have come to the conclusion that the primary goal has to be writing high quality content that comes from your real self.
Most of the advice says to "Blog Your Passion" and it took me quite a while to realize this meant "high quality content that comes from your real self."
It means traffic gaming gimmicks are a secondary tool to a blogger. If the idea is to develop an Audience that's interested in your Message, it has to be a real Message that is attractive to your Audience. Most Audience members are astute enough to smell a gamestering trickster.
There are millions of other people out there working to fill the Internet with Content, just like me, and just like you. The image boggles my mind, really, all these people who have made it their job to fill the Internet with Content. Putting aside the question of whether that's a valuable use of each of our lives - the question the blogger has to consider is, how to fill THEIR blog with content that is worthy of an Audience.
What's going to stand out from the babel of all the others filling their blogs with their content?
Let me suggest that - high quality content, that comes from your real self, will be attractive the kind of Audience that is valuable.