Thank you for the link Eric! I am encouraged that this is generating so much discussion around the blogosphere.

While the results are geared more towards bloggers rather than blog-readers, Michelle has done a fantastic job with the project.

I'll be looking forward to reading your thoughts on her data.

"how Christian bloggers can break out of their "exclusionary bubble."

If by "exclusionary bubble" she means "preaching to the choir," breaking out is easy to do. Attracting readers to a blog is not a matter of religion, it's a matter of content. Having a great blog is, in theory, very simple.

Have something original to say about an interesting topic and then do so intelligently. A blog reflects the intellectual strengths and shortcomings of its author. That may sound a tad harsh, but "I have written what I have written" (John 19: 22). It's true, though.

Personally, I think a constantly updated gallery featuring an amazingly cute pet is essential, too.

No, I'm not joking, either. Some of us don't have pets (for a variety of different reasons) and an on-line gallery of a cute pooch (like Abbye) is as close as some of us will come to a pet's warmth and companionship.

A friend of mine visits somebody's live journal strictly because the writer regularly posts photos of her cat.

If by "exclusionary bubble" she means "preaching to the choir,"

It actually goes well beyond that, and is related to the concepts of "Relational and Incarnational Ministry." This is fertile ground for discussion, getting to heart of questions like "why do people blog?"; "why do people read blogs?"; "can blogging be a ministry, and if so, how?"

In a very general sense, your observation that the quality of the content is the prime driver in the popularity of a blog is accurate. But there is another dynamic at work...one related to the idea of "community"...that, for a specific group of people anyway, is more important than content.