Phil Rodemann has some kind words and a question: How do bloggers do it?
What tools should a committed blogger use? If you are committed to drawing traffic, what helps keep the workload to a manageable level?
I have two tools that make my life easier. One is NewsGator Outlook Edition, which bringsin my favorite RSS feeds automatically. Phil, be sure you sort your feeds into folders. I subscribe to 200+ feeds, but there are only a handful I consider indispensable, and they go into an Essentials folder. When I subscribe to a new feed, it goes into a New Additions folder, where I can monitor it for a while to see if it’s a keeper.
For posting, I use a wonderful little utility called BlogJet. It acts as a universal front end for Movable Type, WordPress, Blogger, and about 20 other bogging packages. (I especially recommend it as an alternative for the horrible Blogger editor.) Its best feature: You can save drafts of posts locally and work on them when you feel like it.
Those two tools make me efficient. I’ve also found that anyone can be more confident and prolific by writing more often. Short posts are fine and useful.
And keep an eye on your referrer logs to see who’s linking to you. You can find someinteresting stuff that way.
Ed Bott 
I’d agree with Ed. A good RSS reader (I use bloglines) and a good blog publisher are essential. I’d also add two more essential tools. Technorati and even more so pubsub. Do a Google search for both and you’ll find them. Technorati and pubsub allow you to track who is linking to you as well as allow you to set up search for subjects to be delivered to your RSS reader.
For instance. I’m interested any time the phrase “thomas hawk” is mentioned in a blog. I’m also interested any time that “media center edition” or “tivo” or “comcast” or “directv” ends up in a blog. You get the idea. By setting up these searches and then adding them to your RSS reader you can best monitor that which you are most interested in.
This helps you discover a lot of new bloggers who might be blogging about something that you are interested in but don’t make your 200 or so RSS feeds.
I agree with Ed also about making a short list of RSS feeds. He labels his “Essentials.” I label mine “Short List” and of course Ed’s excellent blog is in the short list folder.
I’m a FeedDemon nut for RSS feeds, and while BlogJet makes life so much easier, that’s a market no one else has really jumped into with a WYSIWYG editor. Phil asked a good question!