Prometheus 6 just wrote an article about increasing blog traffic. He gives some good general tips and also tells how certain events gained him incremental increases in readership. Because I've been asked about the topic a few times, I'll post what I've been telling people through email.
As P6 pointed out, linking is incredibly important. I think I've seen it said as 'links are the currency of the blogosphere'. Recently I've seen more than a few blogs that are written as if they're hardcopy as opposed to an online, HTML document. For example why write 'take a look at Technorati.com' when you can write 'take a look at Technorati.com'. (edit to add: I just pulled that example out of thin air, and now, minutes later I see that exact example at Kinja, who should know better!) That's an extremely obvious example, but I see plenty of others daily. I'm not saying that everything that possibly could be a link should be, just that you should create links for things that may be useful to your readers. Those links will also get you noticed by the sites at those links' destinations. That may very well get you some links back from those sites.
Be sure to make it easy for people to know that you've updated your blog. Ping one or more of the weblog notification services (weblogs.com, blo.gs, Technorati, BlogRolling, etc. ) If your blogging software doesn't allow you to ping all of these services you could just use something like ping-o-matic. Providing a way for people to syndicate your blog via RSS and/or Atom is essential. That way people, and especially non-bloggers, can add you to their newreaders.
That covers some of the obvious and basic tips. For some other great material I highly suggest you check out what Dave Pollard has written on the topic. Specifically see the following articles:
As a new blogger I have to admit that this little post is the most concise and efficient blogger initiation i've found up till now.. thanks alot...
Thanks Patrick. I pride myself on being concise. :-)
And welcome to the blogosphere!
GREAT post Mike! These suggestions and links are very helpful and informative!!
Thanks Dave.