I'll always be an advocate of finding and building an engaged online community. The most important thing is to focus your efforts on not just bringing in new readers, but on establishing real, tangible relationships with as many of them as possible.
Having an online community—whether it's a forum on your blog, a Facebook group, email list, Twitter community or otherwise—can do absolute wonders for your blog. And ultimately, they're going to be the ones that help you learn how to make money blogging in a way that's a mutual win-win for both them and you.
Develop real relationships with your readers. Learn about their likes and dislikes, why they read your first article, how they discovered you, and why they keep coming back for more. Connect with them as humans, not anonymous readers on a screen. The investment will be worth taking a few minutes out to chat over email or on the phone every now and then.
In blogging, your community is everything. Build real relationships with your readers and you can't go wrong. When you have a community, you not only have a deep rooted support system, you also have some very important relationships.
It may turn out that one of your readers is an advertiser that wants to promote their products on your blog. It may be a podcaster who wants to feature you on their next episode with 2,000 listeners with a spot for your blog pitch.
When you get a feel for your audience, and get to know them intimately, you can start asking them for support. You'd be surprised what you can get from a strong community of like-minded readers.
For all of my best tactics on bringing in new readers & creating community, check out my guide to driving traffic to your blog.