Alex made the observation in his comment that a key to site stickiness is monitoring your blog’s stats to see when spikes of traffic are occurring. This is right on the money. A spike in traffic coming in from another blog or social media site can come and go in hours and unless you’re aware it is happening you’re not able to optimize the post and capture some of the traffic. Some of the general principles of good design, invitations to subscribe will capture some of it but you’ll not be able to tailor the post.

While you can’t be awake 24/7 it can be worthwhile to check in to your blog’s metrics quickly throughout the day to see if there’s any unusual activity.

A number of readers (like Claudine) suggested using video as a technique to keep people on your blog for longer (and thereby increase their engagement with your site. This is very true.