Because opening the dialogue for bloggers is essential to a successful weblog, polls can encourage even your most shy readers to participate in blog discussions.  And, because you can continue the discussion in your weblog while a poll runs in your sidebar, they don’t unnecessarily distract your uninterested readers from the meat of your blog.

Darren at Problogger is discussing polls at the moment.  He often uses polls in his sidebar and they get a great deal of response and are usually very helpful to his readership.  He’s got a list of 9 Techniques for Using Polls Effectively on a Blog that you might enjoy.  Here’s #7:

Keep in mind that any poll will help you diversify your content, (ie graphical, textual, etc.) and will more than likely add interest to your blog, along with the added conversation.  The hope is that your blog readers will add their voices to your poll several times and then eventually will be bold enough to answer you in comments.

Of course, any connection you create with a blog reader may end up with an RSS subscription.