Ever since I started blogging in 2004 I have read numerous blogs and here is what I think about the topic of gaining a readership for your blog.
[Assumption: Your content is relevant and interesting ;)]
Keep it short
Long winded blog entries bore people. So, unless you can keep the interest up, try to keep your posts short and sweet.
This doesn’t apply to all genres. If you run a political blog then long blogs are more helpful.
Illustrate/ Use pictures
A picture really does speak a thousand words and if the pictures you use interest people, they are more likely to carry on reading your blog.
Use a visible background
We get it black is a cool color but more often than not dark backgrounds cause eye strain. So use a lighter background. A light background is soothing to the eyes and makes things more visible.
This is what i feel like everytime i visit a blog with a dark background.
Keep it neat and tidy
By tidy I don’t mean you can’t use ad sense. By all means advertise but keep it categorized. Don’t use too many tabs or an ‘ all over the place’ kind of design. Background pictures are nice but don’t let them overwhelm your content. There are blogs that I frequent which have amazing content but have fewer followers than they deserve and I can’t help but think this is due to the layout they have used.
If you want people to visit your blog…
…then visit theirs and leave comments, like posts or follow their blog. It’s a basic reciprocity principle.
Use a funky gravatar
I have noticed that people with funky gravatars are more likely to have their profiles clicked on than people using more mundane ones.
Use catchy headlines not misleading ones
I titled a post ‘Justin Bieber is the father of Mariah Yeater’s child‘ and within half an hour of posting it on twitter i received hundreds of visits. However this was just done as a little marketing experiment and you should refrain from doing this because it’s funny once but do it twice and you will thoroughly piss people off.
Keep it simple
Remember you are writing for human beings not dictionaries and while it’s great to read blogs with good vocabulary, cut down on the usage of bombastic words.
Keep it relevant
I would like to hear your opinion about this too! So leave me a comment letting me know 🙂 Have an awesome weekend!
Ria In The City 
I think you summed up my sentiments exactly short, sweat, neat, and tidy!
what are some of the tips that you would like to give apart from these? Do share! cos you run a pretty awesome blog and you know it 😀
Thanks for this, some wonderful tips.
We have been blogging since early September so this is still fairly new to us and any advice is appreciated on how to expand our audience and keep our content fun and interesting.
Brooke and Mckenzie
You already have awesome content and I love the pics you are using. I could recommend one more site to you for pictures. However I can’t remember the address as of now! but i will surely look for it:)
I would just say keep it original and don’t try too hard! I know of someone who tries too hard to be funny and it ends up being NOT FUNNY! Also I wanted to recommend a blog idea:P Should I email you?
Wonderful web site. Lots of helpful information here. I’m sending it to a few buddies ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thanks for your effort!
Thank you! that’s nice of you:) I am going to visit your site shortly!
Thank you for your encouraging comments!
All of these hints are so wonderful! I wish you could just download them to the brains of some bloggers because they just don’t get it. You also exemplified another tip: it’s okay to to use subheadings and/or lists. Sometimes people ramble on in paragraph form when the content would be best shared in bite-sized bits.
true! I also don’t approve of people creating just for the sake of creating! what do you think?
That’s one smart cookie
I appreciated your advice – will try to take it to heart !
Walt Wayne
Good luck Wayne 🙂 Thanks for visiting my blog!