Great tips, thank you! I'm personally having trouble to attract an audience, my posts have usually zero or one upvote but I keep doing them because it's really fun. I get more or less one new follower a day so I think people who are finding the posts are liking it (I hope so) and that makes me want to continue :)
I think you have to have patience and make an effort to make the best content you can (After all it will be here forever!)
The things I'd focus on if you're only getting one new follower per day are contests and commenting. Those are the two biggies for newbies. Good luck!
What are these contests you talk about?
I replied to tenhanger above with some, one still in progress.