Tristan Louis has been looking at the "A-List" of bloggers: those people with blogs who get the largest readerships, in order to determine what made them so. In analyzing some of the most popular blogs -- BoingBoing, Instapundit, Engadget and Daily Kos -- and one thing that many of them have in common is that they post short entries several times a day.

Posting often works because there's a strong correlation between frequent posting and repeat visits. The short-entry format works well for blogs that are "linkers": blogs that consistently point out interesting things online and link to them before most people have even heard of them. These blogs tend to function as news services for people who like to keep up with interesting developments. If you're new to blogging and are looking to build your readership, the short-format/post-often approach is the easiest way to do so.

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Keep in mind that there are a number of equally popular bloggers who prefer "single long form entry per day or couple of days" entries: Heather "Dooce" Armstrong, James "The Daily Bleat" Lileks and Wil "Formerly Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation" Wheaton. These blogs take a different tack than "linkers": rather than link to interesting content elsewhere, they produce interesting content. Heather Armstrong tells hilarious stories about her life, James Lileks writes editorials that are interesting and engaging, even if you don't agree with his views, and Wil Wheaton has a unique view of the world, speaking as someone who's gone from the most hated Star Trek character to the series' most beloved alumnus.

Each approach has its own strengths and trade-offs. The best approach for you should be determined by your writing style, the sort of topics you'd like to cover in your blog and the amount of time you want to devote to blogging.