How do you make your blog higher in the search engines?

I don't want to lose what I started blogging for, but I need to make it pay for my time, too. So I am doing paid advertising. In order for the ads to be worth my time I need to have a higher ranking blog. I have searched and searched on what I need to do in order to get the higher paying opportunities. (which means having to post less often!)
There are two major ranking systems and one new one on the scene. Alexa is the major system for getting the really high paying jobs, but it is not a fair ranking system. They only measure the traffic to your blog by people who have the Alexa toolbar installed. And that is a majority of technology people. Well, I do some technology posts, but mostly not. I don't have a large webmaster and tech audience. But I need the ranking!
The other major ranking is page ranking from Google. I have no problems with Google. Their system can be simple or complicated. But there is a lot of press going around about Google "slapping" people for getting paid outside of Google ways. People with high ratings were being dropped low with no apparent reasoning. And silence from Google. I have not been slapped and I do PPP. I wonder if it has more to do with the "no follow" that I don't understand at all.
Then there is PPP's new ranking system called Real Rank. That one seems like it would be better on some levels, like it won't slap you for offending them, and it records all traffic on your site. However, you have to have tools installed in order to be ranked yourself.
For some reason it is believed that you should have your own domain name to get better ranking. I'm not sure why the "blogspot" confuses the system, but I'm going to switch. There are advertisers who will not even let you to look at their opportunity if you don't have your own domain name.
I don't want to start over on a new name because I will lose the ranking I've already worked hard to get.
I found a way to keep this blog and host it on my own domain name, so that is what I am going to be doing. Then I keep my old links which will redirect to my new site. And soon the new site will have its own traffic recordings and I can turn my ppp blog over to the new address and get better opportunities. At least I am hoping it will work!