Considering I launched my blog about 90 days ago... and I have no idea if you'd deem it a success (i've had about 40k uniques in that time -- a runaway success by my standards), my approach was somewhat similar to this. I did install analytics early. I went live very rapidly, and I've begun integrating it into all my profiles. These seem like logical things to do.<p>As far as branding, I went ahead and made it slightly above ugly but recognizable such that repeat visitors might recognize that they've come frequently, and subscribe.<p>My main difference from him is how I actually go about marketing it. That part is much easier, in my estimation. I write about the union of the stuff that I know and the stuff that I find interesting. I then submit it to the appropriate social news sites. Since, for me, that is pretty much covered by hacker news and reddit (proggit), that's all I've done. I haven't been "greedy" and have tried to be really sensitive to the predilections of the respective communities, and so far it's worked out great. If I post it in the place that I'd expect to find it, the people who think and enjoy the same things I do might find it interesting. So far they have.<p>It seems like a pretty simple two step process. Find a niche you like and write some content, then post it in the social news sites that dominate that niche.<p>The only piece of advice of his I haven't done but I'd consider is directly emailing other bloggers who might enjoy reading and/or responding to what I've written. Maybe I'll give that a try.