My best possible guesses (note, not really based on any research into it but just theories). - The ones that I have noticed do this, also tend to have a lot of

My best possible guesses (note, not really based on any research into it but just theories). - The ones that I have noticed do this, also tend to have a lot of ads. So maybe to both be able to show more ads (there is a limit of how many ads you can show if you just have a simple recipe, but add a book above it and you can show many more). Maybe also the ability to add referral links to talked about products? - It seems like some of them are trying to build a community. They do the whole "tell me about your experience" thing that only generates more page views and "interaction". So maybe there are people that actually follow these blogs and feel like all of that story is personal? - I am sure there is some SEO stuff going on here like others have said.