THEME:

• It’s always more tempting to follow a blog that has a nice theme with an attractive colour scheme and banner. So take the trouble to look for a nice theme and customize it a bit. Click here for a list of places you can find some great themes!
• When your background’s a GIF, it’s usually very harsh on the eyes and puts off the person who’s viewing your blog. So avoid flashing backgrounds, especially glittery ones.
• Try to go for a theme with infinite scroll aka endless scrolling, or at least one that lets you put up to 15 posts per page. People are usually not interested in clicking the “next page” button every 5 posts, and get put off by blogs that make them do this.

URL:

• Using just your name as your URL is a big no-no — not that there’s anything wrong with your name, it’s just boring and unoriginal to use it as your URL.
• People are way more likely to see your blog if you have an original, catchy URL. So take the time and effort to think of one.
• Try to not make it too long and complicated. If it is, people will have a hard time remembering it and are more likely to make a mistake while typing it in, and that takes away from your viewership. So try not to use a URL like c0c0nuttyvanillababe$un$hinew4ter (lol).
• Try to make your URL connected to the type of things you post. For example if you are a minimalist blog that has a URL like babes-n-beaches, another minimalist blogger who sees your URL is not very likely to go to your blog since it sounds more like a summer blog than a minimalist one, right?

POSTS:

• Of course, blogging is about posting what you want to. But if you want to attract more followers, try to stick to one style. For example, a fashion blog is way likelier to follow you if you post models, runways and editorials rather than if you post models one moment and typographies the next.
• If you’re a photo blog (which attracts way more followers, just saying), make sure there are as few text posts as possible. They clutter up your blog and make it look untidy, and you’re less likely to gain a follower if your blog’s all messy. If you want to post text posts, try to space them out.
• Keep your queue topped up at all times. I recommend that you adjust your queue settings so that your queue posts itself at hours when you’re never online. This helps people from other time zones notice your blog — people who might never notice it for the simple reason that it’s always nighttime for them when it’s daytime for you!

PROMOTIONS:

• Keep an eye out for promo posts that you can reblog. Try to reblog small ones that promote up to 10-15 people in one list. The smaller the list, the higher your chance of getting noticed.
• If the promo says you must follow the person, then check out their blog and follow them (if you like their blog). I cannot describe how incredibly annoying it is to post a promo and check that people who reblogged it are not following me. Oh, and do not unfollow people right after they promote you. It is ungrateful, rude, shameless and a downright horrible thing to do because you basically just used someone. Everyone on Tumblr HATES people who do that.
• Once you get about 1000 or so followers, start doing your own promos. Start out small. Don’t immediately make posts saying “first 50 to reblog”, because chances are that not more than 5-10 people will reblog it. Start out small, with first 5-10 promos, then as you gain more followers, start moving up to 20, 50, etc.
• If you do your own promo games, try to bold your favourites and promote people in smaller lists if you have the time, as this attracts more rebloggers and ultimately more followers.

GET NOTICED:

• Follow blogs similar to your own. Some people follow back when they notice on their dashboard that you’ve started following them.
• If you like & follow someone’s blog, send them a message saying something like “Hey, I like your blog! Check mine out? :)” This makes you look like a nice person and also gets you noticed. If you just sit pretty and wait for people to notice your blog, trust me — it’s gonna be a long wait.
• Interact with your followers. Do blog rates. If you notice a good blog following you, check it out and follow them back, and maybe send them a message saying something along the lines of “Hey, thanks for following :) Followed back because you have a gorgeous blog too!” This again makes you seem nice, and if the person publishes the message, it gets the attention of their followers too!
• Participate in BOTW/BOTM contests. If you win one, chances are you’ll end up gaining LOADS of followers, so it’s always worth a try!
• Make your own BOTW/BOTM contests. People might notice it when they come to your blog to vote for one of your contestants!

DO NOT DO THESE THINGS:

• Self promote
  1) write things in the caption of pictures you reblog, like “like this picture? follow me to see more like it!”
  2) send people anonymous messages asking if they follow your blog.
  Self promotion has the opposite effect of a regular promo — it puts people off and makes you seem desperate, and you’re less likely to gain followers this way so it’s a waste of effort anyway.
• Be unnecessarily mean/sarcastic/nasty. This puts everyone off, makes you seem like a bitch, and might just get you a few unfollows. 
• Send hate. This is just downright pathetic.