One of my newest readers, Julia of “Aesthetic Vibrations,” recently left this comment:

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you get so many readers to visit your blog?

I don’t mind admitting that it’s a question that I’ve often asked myself! I try to be informative, or entertaining, or amusing, or interesting, or a combination of any of these. Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I fall on my face.

As much as I’d like to pretend that I don’t, I know better. Believe me.

One of the things I find amusing about the blogosphere is that despite the fact that I have a fairly respectable audience, I am more than aware that in “real life,” if many of those readers were to meet me in person, they’d undoubtedly find me one of the most boring people they’d ever encounter. I’m not a party animal, I’m not a model, and I’m not a social butterfly. I have opinions, many of which are admittedly old-fashioned, and I am what is known as an “old soul.”

These are not the typical qualities that popular people tend to have. So I’m really not sure why people come back after that first visit. I’m just glad they do.

Of course, none of that really helps explain how I attracted an audience. So let me try to answer it a little better.

When I started this blog, it was on AOL. AOL calls its blogs “journals.” And the group of people who have journals there have been known as “J-land.” It was a very supportive community for a long time; in some ways, it still very much is. But a change in policy there about six months ago caused many of its more prolific bloggers to leave that service, so many of us have scattered to services like Blogger, Movable Type or LiveJournal.

Having a blog there, during the first two years of J-land certainly helped. That’s where I built most of my audience, in fact. I’m grateful that many of those same people who read “Patrick’s Place” when it was an AOL blog still are regular visitors here.

During my blog’s first year, I introduced a meme called the “Saturday Six.” As the name implies, it’s a set of six random questions posted every Saturday. I had two main reasons for starting it was to add an interactive feel to the blog and to encourage folks to leave links to their blogs. As it grew, more and more people participated and I was able to find some very interesting journals to read. The “Saturday Six” and its sister meme, the “Sunday Seven” are now over at “Patrick’s Weekender,” which is also hosted here at Blogger.

Leaving those links brings me to another way to add readers: when you visit other people’s blogs, if you read something that inspires you to comment, be sure to end the comment with a link to your blog. It’s a quick and easy way to encourage the writer (and his readers) to visit your blog. If they like what they see, they’ll be back.

As more people visit and leave comments in your blog, return the favor. That reciprocation can work wonders: we all want to have comments. The challenge is to try to leave at least as many comments elsewhere as you receive in your own blog. I’m the first to admit that I don’t always succeed there. I’m working on that. Really.

There are lots of posts online about how to build an audience. Here are 10 steps I’d suggest. If you have ideas you’d like to add to the list (or if you’ve done posts on the subject yourself), please leave links in the comments!

1. Post Frequently (or at least Regularly) Everyone says this. Few people want to go out on a limb to say how “frequently” you should post or how regularly you should update. Some bloggers have a respectable audience that checks back from time to time despite the fact that they may only post once or twice a month. Others post several different entries per day. There’s no real rule here; the best advice is to figure out where your comfort zone is and then post as close to that as you can. You will eventually find that if you set some sort of normal frequency and you break it without warning, you’ll have readers leaving comments wondering if everything is okay!

2. Set Boundaries
Take a look at your blog’s capabilities. What kind of design capabilities does it have? How do you want your blog to look, and does that look complement the subject matter you plan to include? Does it allow you to turn off comments? Do you really want to? What if someone visits your blog just to cause trouble: will you delete those comments, start a “flame war,” or leave them up and ignore them?

Are there some topics that you aren’t willing to discuss? Figure out where your comfort zone is when it comes to what you’re willing to share and what you’re not. Don’t be ashamed to hold back some aspects of your life. It’s what we all do, and in today’s world of internet predators, it’s extremely wise.

3. Know Your Audience
Everyone likes to say this, too, and the fact is, it’s an extremely hard thing to know. I work in marketing, and I have the benefit of expensive survey information that tells me who’s watching my television station: I know all kinds of demographic information and specifics about where my viewers are located within my market.

If only blogging was that easy!

Utilities like StatCounter can not only keep counts on how many page visits you get, but they can also tabulate which individual post pages get the most attention. Some can tell you roughly where your visitors are located. You can also attempt polls or surveys on your blog. The results might give you at least a little insight into who’s already reading.

Posting on certain “controversial” topics can also give you an idea of who’s reading, particularly if you go out on a limb and reveal which side of the issue you’re on. (This is where that question about what to do with rude or mean-spirited comments could come in!)

It doesn’t always have to be hot button topics that get you comments, either. A post about a problem you’re having or a pet’s funny antics can get a lot of attention.

The more feedback you get, the easier it will be to gauge what interests those who visit. But keep in mind one important point: most of the people who visit will not comment. You can see this for yourself when you add a counter to your blog: you’ll see your page views go up despite the fact that comments don’t seem to appear. Don’t let yourself get discouraged: this happens to all of us.

4. Respect Your Audience
Once you know your audience, or at least once you feel you begin to know a little about what your audience is interested in, respect them. Be honest. Be who you are as much as you can or feel comfortable being. Don’t make up things just to attract attention. Don’t lie about who you are or try to play on readers’ sympathy with sob stories that are false. It’s been done and it ends badly.

5. Participate in Memes or Quizzes Not to repeat myself, but it really can generate visits. There are plenty of them out there. (I’m not trying to get you to play mine, although you’re more than welcome to if you like.) When you see someone post one, if you like the topic, post your own results at your blog, then go back to the blog where you saw the quiz and leave a comment stating that you’ve played at your blog. Leave that link so that others can visit and compare their results with yours. It’s one of the easiest ways to get people to stop by.

6. Make It Easy On Your Readers
The easier it is for them to find you and your posts, the more likely it is that they’ll visit. Sites like FeedBlitz give you the chance to offer your readers free email updates. Every time you post a new entry, they’ll get an email notifying them that there’s something new to read. Sites like Bloglines can supply you with buttons that readers can click to automatically add your blog to their subscription list, so that when you post something new, it will automatically appear on their reader service. (These days, with so many blogs, many people only read blogs through an aggregate reader rather than visiting individual blogs. This is another reason why you don’t always get comments.)

7. Graphics and Images Don’t Hurt
Take a look at your local newspaper. What do you see? Lots of print or a nice mix of images and photos and graphic elements? I’d wager it’s the latter. Post a photo or an image that somehow supports the post you’re making. Or include memes that include images with results. It breaks up the “gray matter” text and gives the eye a break. It can also make your blog more visually appealing for people who stumble upon it for the first time.

8. Sweat the Details
Yes, here’s where the writer in me comes out. I accept, begrudgingly, that not everyone writes completely grammatical sentences. There are good reasons not to from time to time. Sometimes, complete sentences aren’t even necessary. But the more spelling errors, typos, and butchered English you use, the harder it becomes to read your posts. The harder you make it, the smaller your audience will be. Why do that to yourself?

Proofread. Have a second look before you click that “submit” button

9. Think Before You Post
We’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another. You read something that hits a nerve and your fingers can’t peck out a response fast enough. You post what you’ve just gotten off your chest and your blood pressure drops as a wave of satisfaction washes over you. Then you realize that you’ve been a jerk and stepped on someone’s toes or hurt someone’s feelings.

Face it: it’ll happen to you sooner or later. The best you can do is to guard against it. If you’re writing something that has struck an emotional chord, it’s better to write the post, then walk away for a while before actually publishing it. Come back after you’ve cooled off. Re-read. Edit. Tone down. Be honest, but not hurtful.

Otherwise, you’re making yourself look as bad as you hoped to make your adversary look.

10. Have a Good Time
As soon as your blog becomes a “task” rather than a hobby, you’re in trouble. You should blog because you want to, not because you feel you have to; otherwise, the quality of what you write will almost certainly drop.

Those are my ten. What are yours?