Amazing Hidden Secret To Blogging Success

In the past few weeks I've jumped feet first into blogging. As much time as I've put into blogging, the most time has been spent reading other blogs, and learning how to be a better blogger. Time and time again, I've read articles claiming to have some great secrets to how to make your blog a super great success. Most of these articles have covered the same information time and time again.
Reading through it all I've discovered the one secret that none of them contain. Here it is. There is no secret. Success comes down to two things; great content and letting people know about that content. These two topics have been covered extremely well by bloggers with years of experience. I can't possibly add any new insight but maybe these ideas or new to someone reading this.
First, before anything else, you need great content. Without anything to write about your blog has no purpose. If you have something you are passionate about, usually the content will take care of itself.
Presentation of the content is also very import. People won't read your blog if it is too much work to do so. Grammar and spelling are very important. So is the visual presentation. You don't want a garish presentation or text that is hard to read. This is something I'm still trying to improve upon but it goes a long way. You don't want someone to find your page and then click away without ever reading it.
But how do you get people to read your wonderfully well laid out content? You have to let them know about it. That means getting the word out. One great thing about the internet is that it is very viral. If you let one person know about your blog and they like it, they will tell another, then another, and so on. In time your readership will grow exponentially if you get the word out.
The first thing you can do is tell your friends and family that you have started a blog. They are a built in audiece. They are already interested in you. Out of pure friendship they will check out your blog. Don't just stop there. Ask them to advertise for you. If they have a blog, ask them to put a link to your blog on their blog.
Link building is one of the most important things you can do. The more links that point to your site the more access points your blog has. Submit to directories. Ask people who blog about similar topics to you to link to you. Search engines love sites with many incoming links.
Ah search engines. So much is talked about search engine optimization. SEO is about getting your page to rank high in search engines. Search engines bring in traffic from people who are looking for what you are writing about. They want your information. I won't write much about SEO because there is so much out there. The key is figuring out what you are talking about, identifying those keywords, and using them frequently. If you would like to know more just do a search for search engine optimization and you will find a plethora of information.
Another way to get your blog noticed is commenting on other blogs. The best part of scouring the net for blogs to comment on is you get to see what is working for other people. The most important thing about commenting is to keep it on topic. Nobody likes receiving spam. If you keep the comment on topic, and offer valuable insight, people will come back to your blog to see what else the brilliant author has to say.
After you have quality articles you can join socail bookmarking sites such as the ones you see in the scroll down list below this post. They can bring a ton of traffic just make sure your server is up to the task and you have something to add. Sometimes they can be a little cliquish, and shun the outsider, but eventually you will break through with your quality content. For me, I have had the most success with reddit. Use several and see what works for you.
In summary, the secret to blogging success is that their is no secret. Be wary of any site offering some unkown secret. In the long term, hard work is what pays off. Write quality content, let others know about it, and eventually you will find your audience. Be prepared to be in it for the long haul and continue blogging. Success will be yours.