If you build it... err... BLOG IT... they will come?

I've wanted to get serious about blogging for a while and every so often I'll start blogging with frequency. But I quickly get frustrated and bored. There doesn't seem to be much point in blogging when I'm the only person reading it. I know my thoughts, I don't need to write them down for me. :P

I had a very active blog on MySpace once upon a time. It had a lot of readers but better than that, it had a lot of people who participated in the discussions. I loved hearing so many different points of view. But it was also mostly political which is not the kind of blog I'm still interested in having.

I still want to have the discussions, sometimes maybe even on controversial subjects (ie: sex in YA books, violence in video games, etc), but not of a political nature. I want thoughtful discussions where people exchange ideas not heated debates. I still want to hear the opinions of a variety of people, I'd just rather it be on ideas and concepts (fairness, peace, love, bullying, intolerance, etc) rather than political issues. I'd like it to be on things that inspire people to think about something in a different way or open their mind to another perspective rather than divide as politics often does.

So I guess the question is how do you get people interested? How do you get people to visit and contribute to the discussions? And the contributing part is very important to me. I don't just want my opinions and thoughts to be read, I want to hear what other people think as well.

I've heard people say that if you just start blogging on a regular basis you will get readers but is that true? Is it really just a matter of building it and they will come? Isn't there more to it than that?

So if you have any ideas, tips, or tricks to get readers and contributors to visit, please pass them along. I'd love to hear them. I really would love to turn this blog into a place where ideas, thoughts, and inspiration flows. I'm just not sure how to go about it.