Blogging is a great way to draw links. If you write interesting and unique content about your favourite subject and share it on social networks you're sure to draw some of them to specific posts. But this is usually a long, slow process.

Most bloggers take this approach. Unknown to the general public, they keep chipping away writing their thoughts on the subjects they love. So there's a lot of competition between them, particularly in popular niches. Even with backlinks accumulating fairly regularly it's hard for any one blogger to rise above the pack.

But there's one way to really get your blog firing in both social media and the search engines, and quickly. That's to blog about a particular subject that lots of people are interested in, and to be a primary source of information about it.

A perfect example of this is Michael Smith News. This is about something not only specific but topical: the AWU scandal involving Australia's PM Julia Gillard.

This blog was only commenced a few months ago but it has already attracted eye-boggling traffic numbers. One day recently, for example, it received 90000 hits. A basic backlink check reveals numerous links, particularly from other blogs.

Sure, the guy behind it was quite well known already, being a former broadcaster who lost his job with Fairfax as a result of his interest in the scandal. That high profile would have helped a lot ...

But the main reason so many people link to his blog is because it regularly includes previously unknown documents, as well as podcasts of interviews with protagonists such as self-confessed fraudster and bagman Ralph Blewitt. It is therefore primary source material. And Michael Smith is not just reporting on developments, but actually driving them as well. (For example it was his complaint to police that has prompted them to reopen the case, causing a lot of grief for the PM.)

Needless to say, very few bloggers would have the time, commitment or contacts to keep breaking news in the way Smith has been. But the success of his blog is something for all bloggers to keep in mind, no matter what field they're in.

Of course the appearance of a website is important. It's desirable to have one that looks appealing and unique. But I think that a lot of people confuse aesthetic appeal with quality. They assume that if a website is custom-made and looks fantastic then it will automatically get more traffic.

Sure, people may return to a website -- and even be more likely to buy from it -- because it looks beautiful. And visual attractiveness probably has some SEO benefit in the long run. If people are visually impressed by a website they're probably a bit more likely to link to it, after all.

Still, you've got to get them to look at it in the first place! And Google isn't ranking sites on their visual attractiveness. It has to judge by the actual content on the pages, which other sites link to it, social media activity, etc.

That's why I think that if you have a new site you shouldn't worry too much about making it look absolutely stunning. You should put most of your time and effort into writing the content, building some links to it and putting it in front of other webmasters and bloggers. A PPC campaign is a good idea too. Otherwise you'll feel very disheartened when you realize that your expensive visual masterpiece isn't getting any visitors at all. You can always get a top notch customization done when you've got some traffic happening.

A good illustration of the relative importance of content versus appearance comes from the Aussie blogosphere. One of the more popular local blogs is written by the mysterious Professor Bunyip. If you have a look you'll see it's just a basic Blogspot blog. It looks pretty awful, let's face it. But it gets a lot of views and comments. That's because he consistently comes up with unique and interesting content that's very well written, resulting in a lot of social media shares and voluntary one way backlinks.