What grabs my attention?

I was scanning my surfing history this morning to try and find a site I stumbled across a week or so ago and realised I visit 50-100 sites a day but only ever tag or follow 1-2 a week. This made me think, what makes me stop, read and follow a particular site/blog from the crowd I visit?

1. Clear design and navigation. I must be able to find my way around a site and the design must be at least appealing with no horrible pop-ups or flashing ads to try and distract me from the content.

2. Useful and/or challenging content. If I’m learning from what the site author is saying or if they make me want to learn more, I’m hooked. If the content is regurgitated or uninteresting, I’m out of there.

3. Links to other great resources. I’m not talking about affiliate links, I’m talking useful links to sites of similar quality and content.

In the spirit of point 3, here’s a link to three sites I subscribe to and read regularly.
Six pixels of separation
Seth Godin
Paris Daily Photo

What grabs your attention and keeps you hooked to a site?