The following is a reply I sent to blog reader and friend Seb Payne after receiving an email from him regarding boosting his blog readership. Thought it might be helpful for a few others, hence posting it here.

Consider why exactly you are after traffic? For bragging rights, to feel good, to make more ad money, or, in my case, for others to discover quality content. Think about what kind of visitors you want, and ultimately this will help you find where to pick them up.

If a quick burst of traffic is all you’re after then start off with an article you think will hit it off on Digg, this is the perfect way to create some exposure for your site first up. Prior to getting dugg, make sure that you have a truckload of quality articles in your archive, ensuring Digg users have lots to explore when they hit your site.

Personally, I wouldn’t normally recommend trying to get content on Digg too regularly because chances are it isn’t the kind of traffic you want. I try to attract a centric group of traffic - I value quality over quantity. My personal goal is to have a smaller, educated audience who really enjoy my content, rather than a huge readership who really don’t care what I write about. To achieve this, I write on a regular basis and I write more than reports and general reviews, I attempt to put a personal twist on everything I publish.

It all comes down to the same fundamental point, focus on creating quality content for the readers you currently have, and it’ll slowly spread one by one to more people. Value your traffic, and receive it for a reason.