I started a new blog a couple weeks ago that focuses mainly on Programming but also has some content on Startups, Food and Drinks.<p>I've been doing a numerous things to get traffic to the site like commenting on similar blogs, submitting articles I think are interesting to here, reddit and other sites and spreading through Twitter and Facebook and while this brings in a little traffic every time I do these things I'm finding none of this traffic is staying (drops off if I don't promote for a day).<p>My question is what are some good ways to get traffic that sticks to a new blog?
Sounds like you're doing all the right things; now it's about content. Submitting to HN will always give you a little spike, but if it's something interesting that sparks debate you'll stay on the front page, get people tweeting about it, etc. and maintain that increase for a much longer period.
So you can either buy your audience or earn your audience.<p>If you want to earn your audience, you're doing the right thing. Additionally, consider guest blogging on other blogs in your space.<p>For buying your audience, I have found Facebook ads targeted at your page can be very effective. I've paid ~$.60/US per fan, who then come to your site when you post new things, etc. I bet you could get the CPF (cost per fan) lower if you played with the optimization for a while. (I targeted the ads at people who liked sites and interests similiar to mine.)