Attract Readers to Your Blog

You spent days (or weeks! Months!) setting up your blog, perfecting your design, and writing quality content…but you have no readers! Before you can even begin to worry about developing a following, you first need to let the world know your blog exists. But how do you get your name out there?
I've been asked by a number of people how I network my blog to attract readers. To answer that question, I’ve written a series of Blogging Tips and Tricks posts. In each post in the series I will outline a few methods for attracting new readers to your blog. I am NOT an expert and these tips are based on my own observations and experiences.

One of the fastest ways to get people to look at your blog is to offer them a chance to get something for free. Giveaways are great for exposure.
You have a couple of choices when you do this. You can:
Make following a requirement
Not make following a requirement
Require/give extra entries for spreading the word
Obviously having following as a requirement will make your follower numbers skyrocket. All I have to do is follow you with no intention of ever reading your blog and I could win something? Score! Lots of people will follow you (though probably not me. I feel like I'm lying if I do that).
The downside? Many of these people are not "true" followers in the sense that they'll keep coming back.
Personally, I'm a statistics junky, so I don't like muddying my follower stats with these types of followers (they're also the most likely to un-follow you, which always makes me sad).
Also, not everyone who reads your blog is going to be a blogger, so making following a requirement may alienate your most devoted readers! I started reading blogs long before I had an account with Blogger and I'm not the type of person to subscribe through email, but that didn't make me any less of a follower.
Because of all of this, I will never ask you to follow my blog in order to enter a giveaway. BUT, my follower numbers are also a lot lower as a result.
So there are pros and cons. This is a personal choice and only you can determine what is right for you and your blog.
Giving extra entries is a great way to help spread the word about your blog. Basically, you're getting the people who enter your giveaway to do a little leg work for you and, as a result, your blog will be exposed to lots of untapped readers.
The only reason I don't normally do this is because I'm too lazy to add up extra entries (it was CRAZY the one time I did this, though I did have "unconventional" extra entries). But, there again, my blog's exposure is probably taking a hit.
I hear Rafflecopter is great if you want to use extra entries (I will probably never use Rafflecopter because I don't like it. But that's a whole 'nother conversation).
Making extra entries a requirement may turn some people off, too (not everyone uses Twitter and Facebook! Like, um, me...).

Hosting an event is a great way to expose yourself to new readers. Just look at Busting the Newbie Blues for an example! I also recently co-hosted the Historical Fantasy Jubilee.
I saw an increase in followers as a result of both events, but even more importantly those events have been great networking opportunities. Almost every blog that signed up for Busting the Newbie Blues last year are blogs I still read now, and I've found many more to add to my feed reader this year.
What did I do to spread the word about Busting the Newbie Blues?
I emailed bloggers who I thought might be interested and asked if they would join
I made a button for people to add to their blogs
My event includes interaction where bloggers make a post on their own blogs
What did we do to spread the word about the Historical Fantasy Jubilee?
Ruby and I sent out email invitations to select bloggers and encouraged them to invite their friends
Ruby and I made event and game buttons for people to add to their blogs
Ruby tweeted links to our event
Some of our giveaways offered extra entries for tweeting
We added our giveaways to linkups like Candace's Saturday Situation (and others)
The authors who participated in the event spread the word through their own social networks
What you should keep in mind:
Hosting an event takes A LOT of time and effort, so plan your time accordingly
The more involved you are, the more involved others will be
Method 3: Host a Challenge
Hosting a challenge is not something I have done yet, but I imagine it would be a good way to attract readers to your blog. Not only that, but it is a great way to get readers to keep coming back to your blog.