Successful Blogs

The best way to learn how to have a successful blog is to review other blogs that are proven success stories. To do this I recommend that you visit a site called Bloglines.com

Link: http://www.bloglines.com/dir

Do a search to find blogs that are similar to your blog and review each to see what they are doing. It's easy to tell if a blog is doing well by how often they are updating and how many comments each blog post receives.
Blog Links
Take another trip back to Bloglines.com/dir and do a search again for blogs within a similar genre as your blog but not necessarily identical. Start replying to some of the blog posts made, giving your thoughts about the post or topic. Do this a few times with various blogs, then once you've done it on a regular occasion end your post with a signature link that goes to your site. Take note do *NOT* do this in the initial stages or with your first post. You must first acquire a relationship with the blogs, first by posting comments and leaving positive feedback. After gaining trust you can simply place a link with your next post comment. I recommend replying at least 5 to 10 times before attempting to place a link.
Blog Commenting
When you've first started your blog as I mentioned prior, comments help your blog look more active. Initially you may find that users may not post comments to your blog. It's going to be up to you to get things going. Have your friends or family members start leaving comments on your blog as it can make your blog seem more active. People like to see activity; if your blog seems dead you'll likely get no responses. If you would rather not have your family even know about your blog, then you can post comments yourself but as a "Guest" or as registered user instead of admin. Respond to your own posts initially to create activity, then you'll start to see other real users placing comments as well.
What usually works best is to leave a controversial comment. Start making comments that are guaranteed to elicit a response. I've created "characters" before that post controversial statements on my blog to really get user interest going. This "character" may disagree with a blog posting I made, creating a sequence of posts that increase the activity comments of my post. Once you see that users have taken interest in your blog you can now rely on their posts rather than creating fake ones of your own.
Remember if you are going to do fake comment posts, to space the timing between posts. For example never post two minutes after you've posted as admin, as it's too obvious that you're the same person. Allow some time to pass by before making your "fake user comments post".
If you would rather not do the "fake posts" yourself, some bloggers have actually paid users to reply to posts on their blog. If you go to popular webmaster forums, you'll find that users get paid for making posts on forums. The usual rate is about .10 cents per post or something within that range. The same theory applies for blog comments. You can hire a set of 10 to 20 people to comment on your posts and pay them a small fee, this way you generate some interest in your blog.
If you post a project on the sites I mentioned previously such as Scriptlance.com or Getafreelancer.com for "Blog Posters", you can find people who can get your blog active, by making comments and paying them a small fee. You can do this until you get users posting on your site in reply to the posters you have paid. Within a few weeks your blog should be very active. This benefits you in the long run as the search engines will be visiting your site often due to the constant updates.
Blogging Directories
A great way to promote your blog is to have it indexed in the blogging directories. I've listed below the most popular directories that you can submit your new blog to.
Blogarama
Link: http://www.blogarama.com
Blogdigger
Link: http://www.blogdigger.com
Blog Catalog
Link: http://www.blogcatalog.com
Blog Hub
Link: http://www.bloghub.com
Blog Rankings
Link: http://www.blogrankings.com
Blog Street
Link: http://www.blogstreet.com
Blog Search Engine
Link: http://www.blogsearchengine.com
Blog Wise
Link: http://www.blogwise.com
Blogz
Link: http://www.sarthak.net/blogz/
Blog Lines
Link: http://www.bloglines.com
Bloogz
Link: http://www.bloogz.com
Blog Pulse
Link: http://www.blogpulse.com
Blog Universe
Link: http://www.bloguniverse.com
Blog Tree
Link: http://www.blogtree.com
Contents Matter
Link: http://www.contentsmatter.com
Feed 24
Link: http://www.feed24.com
Feeders
Link: http://blogs.feedster.com
Findory
Link: http://www.findory.com
Get Blogs
Link: http://www.getblogs.com
Globe Of Blogs
Link: http://www.globeofblogs.com
LsBlogs
Link: http://www.lsblogs.com
Postami
Link: http://www.postami.com
Plazoo
Link: http://www.plazoo.com
Read A Blog
Link: http://www.readablog.com
Technorati
Link: http://www.technorati.com
Your Web Log Here
Link: http://www.yourwebloghere.com
My Yahoo
A quick way to get your blog indexed is to add it to My Yahoo. If you do not have a My Yahoo account, I would recommend that you register one right now.
Link: http://my.yahoo.com
Assuming that you have now registered, be sure to add your feed to Yahoo's RSS Directory, you can do this in your My Yahoo user area. This method is considered one of the fastest ways to get your blog indexed by Yahoo