Blogs require a lot of updates and attention to be truly effective and separate themselves from the pack to get decent traffic. A couple of truly well done blogs are a good entry into anyone's portfolio.
There are ways to fake 'em, spam 'em, etc, but that's a very temporary measure while you play cat and mouse with the SE's and blog directories and also can require a decent amount of work.
Free sites on the other hand are still the patient man's way to a decent little traffic base. Build 'em, link 'em, forget 'em. But do lots of them and let them simmer for months and years. Just make sure you have a way to tend to the ads and keep 'em current as sponsors come and go (hint: phpads or perhaps even remote thumbs). Filtered properly, the traffic can be potent.
Back in the day you could do a little dance when dmoz or yahoo or someone picked up these sites and it would rain quality SE hits. That doesn't happen now for the most part. You need patience. And when there's a big re-index like the one google just did, it's a crap shoot, your traffic can double or be cut in half...overnight.
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