Question - How do you convert HN traffic into something more?

We are relatively new to HN and blogging. We have been playing around with various methods to drive and keep traffic to our blog (wordpress). This includes typical social media and a small experiment with Adwords. Traffic has remained low (zero).

Recently we posted a link in this forum and received a large spike in traffic (thanks!). However no one visited any other part of the blog and traffic has dropped off. We are aware this its a common problem. How can it be solved? Why did it happen?

Our own assumptions are that 1 content did not excite, 2 user behaviour (not likely to go past linked page).

How have you built up a following?How did your break through moment happen?