The mistake that too many people have, is thinking that your blog has to appeal to the masses. Unless it goes 'viral' and attracts millions of views they think it is a failure.

Instead, focus on topics that might only be 'not boring' to a small subset of the population. HN tends to attract people with very particular interests. I often browse through a hundred or more posts before finding one that truly interests me.

My own blog is dedicated to those who are passionate about data management. This is a small group indeed, but who cares if less than 1000 people read my posts. All it takes is a few to learn something meaningful from it to make it worthwhile.