Here are some pretty simple, easy-to-follow methods to increase your blog readership. They're basic, but many people don't follow this advice. 1. Encourage RSS membership. Always have the "subscribe to feed" button easily accessible, and in the bottom of your posts, encourage people to subscribe to your feed. 2. Post every other day at the very least. People won't continue to visit your site if your content isn't updated regularly. Try to write at least one post every day. 3. Take advantage of plugins. They're there for a reason: to make your life easier and to increase your blog readership and profitability. Add a "buy me a beer" plugin, a social bookmark widget so that people can send your post to others, etc. There are an innumerable number of ways that you can use plugins to increase traffic. 4. Use the internet to your advantage. When you're posting videos, do what John Chow does and display your URL at the beginning of the video. This is really easy to do with Windows Movie Maker. When you register for communities, include your site URL in the username when appropriate. For example, my "Mybloglog" name is "Hannah - The Penny Mine". This game is all about exposure, make sure you use other tools to your advantage 5. Guest blog for others. If your quality is good and on-topic, many blog owners would love to have you write a post for them. It mixes things in their blog up quite a bit, and it exposes you to a brand new readership. 6. Include your Readers. This is one of the things that John Chow does really well, by holding small contests. This encourages people to come to the blog regularly, to see if there's something else that they themselves can do as a result of reading the blog. It doesn't necessarily have to be a contest, just anything that really includes your readers. 7. Encourage Comments with a "Top Commentators" Section. One of the ways to keep your blog from looking dead is by ensuring there are a large number of comments posted on it. Encouraging your readers to comment not only keeps them feeling like an important part of your blog, but makes it look as though your blog is popular to new readers. 8. Refer to your older posts. By linking to your older posts which relate to the topic at hand, you're encouraging readers to go back to your older posts and continue reading. If they derive value from this older post they're more likely to continue reading other older posts and become regular blog readers. 9. Write the occasional off-topic post, just to keep people connected. For example, The Penny Mine covers finances. However, we've just had an enormous blizzard and I plan on writing a short post with a few pictures showing the snow piles which are taller than I am outside. Diversity is the key to keeping people interested. At least 90% of your posts should be on topic, but it's always a good idea to write the odd off-topic post. 10. Post on forums similar, but not 100% related to your blog. While you should be posting on forums of the same topic as your blog, finding a different forum with a similar target market also does well. When I was running a sports forum, I received a large number of memberships from a car forum I was posting on, because the same people were targeted. Make sure you're not advertising your car blog on a pregnancy forum, but something similar does wonders for increasing traffic.