Blog Envy

I notice other people's blogs have the following:

* Titles that look nicer
* Comments
* Links to other people's blogs in a column on the right or left
* Pictures in-line

I don't know how to do any of these things. Also, I keep seeing stuff about "RSS" (sorry, don't know what it even stands for). I get the feeling that using this elusive "RSS" I can somehow automatically read other people's blogs without going to each and every site.

Why isn't it easy to do this stuff?