1. Update regularly. Readers are a very fickle lot. If you keep them waiting for days at a time, you will lose your audience.

2. Post your URL in e-mail signatures, or invite people you know to visit, hoping they will spread the word. But don?t spam people with your blog link. Spammers are hated.

3. Exchange links with other bloggers, or use link exchange programs such as Technorati.com and Referer.org.

4. Be interesting. Once you have established a regular readership, keep entries interesting enough that they will keep reading. Blogging about laundry day doesn?t have to be boring.

5. Write well. It doesn?t have to be in English; you can blog in your native language. If you?re that good, people will read you.

6. Don?t write about your company. If it?s a personal blog, avoid discussing details about your work. More than a few bloggers have gotten into trouble for doing this. Most companies will not be happy if you broadcast confidential matters, even if you thought it was too funny not to be shared. This is not the fame you?d want.

7. Run Google Adsense ads. A lot of people have actually earned from it. But keep in mind that this works only if your site is so popular that the probability of people clicking on the ads is high.

If you?re that popular, advertisers will seek you. Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com now lives solely on the advertising she gets on her blog.