There are some blog directories that you can submit to. Then there are soem sites that give you traffic for visiting others blog. blogexplosion.com
I've followed the instructions on this list when I first started my blog: http://www.studiocappello.it/wm/motoridiricerca/rss.html And it has brought me tremendous traffic from different blog directories, news feed resources, etc. good luck.
I would also find blogs with related subject matters. Read some of their articles and make good comments on them. People read comments and if they like what you write, they will follow your link. You can also join forums with related subject matters and add your blog to your signature. If you know about your blog's subject matters and show it at the right places, people will come to you and then spread the word as well.
Here's another potentiall useful list of blog promotion resources, focused on using the ping function: http://www.platinax.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2217
They way I add through MSN is through feedburner. Here's an example for one of my blogs: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BurritoBlog Feedburner lets you track readership, and consolidate your buttons. It's pretty cool.
my new forum will be all about promoting blogs once I get done with this http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=16389&goto=newpost
BlogExplosion is OK but I don't really feel like its QUALITY traffic. Occasionally I'll get a visitor who likes my blog and then blogs about it. 90% of my traffic comes from Google search results which I'm very happy about. SEO going very well, and I'm getting lots of Madagascar movie hits right now. I am number 1 in the Google results for madagascarthemovie right now, which is quite astonishing considering the URL of the official movie site....
Linking to similar blogs is usually a good idea. Chances are that some of those blogs will notice and link back.
Reciprical linking is a great source of traffic for a new user with great content email established sites to exchange links. I've had great success from this and it increases your google PR.