One of the best features of blogs are RSS feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is critical in the "blogosphere." Why? Because it allows you to alert the world every time you update your blog.

As a blogger, you don't have to know html code to create an RSS feed. Blogging tools automatically create these files for you. By having your content available in RSS, readers have the option to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Then every time you update your site, the feed alerts them that your blog has new content for them to read. When you have new content, they want to visit your blog to find out what you have to say. It's like having a syndicated column online!

Pinging is another way to attract traffic to your blog. Many services such as Ping-o-Matic scan and publish recently updated blogs. And they know your blog has been updated when they receive a PING from you.

A ping is like knocking on the door of another website. This site answers your knock by visiting your site, grabbing the content and posting it on their site. So the more sites you ping, the more references you get. And the more references you get, the more traffic comes your way.

To make use of the blog-and-ping method of generating traffic, set up the sites you want to ping before you make any posts. Your blogging provider should allow you to select all the update services you want to ping every time you post. Once this is done, pinging occurs automatically each time you add a new blog post.

Finally, trackbacks. This is an automatic link to a blog that has commented on your blog. When you activate this feature, you (and your readers) can track who has been talking about you and what they are saying.

Trackbacks are the links that hold blogs together. Through these links, readers can navigate their way through the blogosphere and track everything that's being said in their area of interest.

Keep in mind, though, that RSS feeds, pinging and trackbacks only help you generate traffic if you update your blog often. So start making a habit of posting to your blog on a regular basis.