I share with all of you some tips for getting a lot of traffic to your blogs:

Tip 1: Make a good content
This point is very important

Tip 2: Make a brand around your blog
This point is very important because your visitors return to your blog in the future.

Tip 3: Get high quality backlinks
This point is very important because Google is a major search engine.

Tip 4: Promote your site on social websites like facebook, myspace and news aggregators like Digg.

Tip 5: Post frequently

Tip 6: Be patient
This is the most important tip because only with years of hard work you see a good results.

@Cahterine - Yes, it's give, give, give, not take, take, take! The truth of life is in its paradoxes: give and you will receive. Take and you get nothing.

Thank you for saying you like the picture, I really like it, too. As soon as I saw it I thought it would be perfect.

@Heather - I'm so glad to hear that! Finding a great forum in your niche is one of the best things you can do. Take it easy and think "long run". Build up your relationship capital slowly and steadily. Great job!

Karen's comments are very pertinent for me, as I am in the same position still struggling for readers. However, your third point is my driver Michael, and from the comments I get it seems to be working. I found a great forum in my niche - there are some folks there with over 5000 posts so it was I've been tiptoeing to start with, rather than jumping in with 'expert' status, and that ploy is working. Traffic from the forum now makes up the bulk of my blog visitors and they are all 'real readers'.

Hi Michael - this is sound advice. So many thing get the networking thing wrong and just take, take, take and it does not work.

I love that picture by the way - it's so eyecatching.

@Karen - Commenting frequently on high-traffic blogs like ProBlogger and Freelance Switch will get you a little referral traffic. Joining and participating in forums which are used by people in your niche is also a good idea.

Believe it or not, blogging for other bloggers is actually more difficult, because it's a very crowded space. What you're doing has a lot of cross-over appeal with other related fields like general illustration, animation, advertising, and writing.

Good timing for this post. Weird because just today I used the term 'planting the seed' to a friend about one of my posts.

I've been trying not to get discouraged about lack of readership at this early stage. But the few people I am attracting (to a narrow niche) are quality people who are getting value from my content. I think that will matter more in the long run.

I'm not blogging for other bloggers so it's a bit harder.

I even sent out a free template (not available on my site yet) to the three people who have commented regularly on my blog...as a little thank you. After reading your posts I feel like I'm doing quite a few things right at least. And hope it pays off in the long run.

Thanks for the confirmation!

My focus is on the last concept. I am becoming ever more impressed how the Blog community really is about people meeting people -- rather than SEO, links, etc.

Aaron
QuietMindCafe.com

Short and sweet. Just what I was looking for before I wrapped it up for the night.