HOW TO GET ATTENTION ON DEVIANTART
Below are some ways to get attention on deviantART. Popularity is a contest, a game, if you will, and if you want to play it, you might well want to know what you're doing. These are in no particular order.

1. Have good art
This may be common sense, but all too often people go under the guise that "People with art worse than mine have more pageviews than me, I don't understand." This is because they're doing other things right, not because your work is that good. You need to realize what your strengths are, and play on them. If you aren't exactly the best (be honest, very rarely do people get tons and tons of pageviews and the like on sheer art), you'll need to improve.

2. Upload often and periodically
If you have a lot of deviations, people who visit your page will have more to look at. The more art they like, the more they will comment on, and the greater chance they will deviantWATCH your gallery.

Also, pay attention to how often you upload your deviations. While it may be easier to batch upload on the weekend or something, if you spread it out to upload one deviation per day (not every day, just one a day when you do upload), then your art will appear on the front page through a longer stretch of time. It also allows your watchers to look at your new art in a calm and smooth environment. If someone goes in to their messages and sees you have 30 new deviations at once, they may well not give every deviation the time it deserves.

3. Visit the forums
Go and play in the forums. The trick to getting noticed is not to look like you want to be noticed. Just go in and post on stuff, be insightful, helpful, intelligent. While there is a forum specifically for sharing your work, more often than not threads in this forum will be under the guise of 'comment and I'll comment on yours'. If this is what you're looking for, go for it (and scroll down to #6), but it's a lot of work.

Basically, just go out and have fun, make friends, and talk. :)

4. Visit dAmn
dAmn stands for deviantART messaging network. It's essentially the chat system of deviantART. It's a whole lot of fun, and there's something for everyone. Follow the same rules as you would the forums; get familiar with the lingo, the rules, and make friends.

I would, however, advocate going to #thumbshare. The format of #thumbshare and the thumbshare forum are entirely different, and since #thumbshare is the most active chatroom around the clock, you're more likely to reach a broader audience.

5. Comment comment comment
Do unto others as they would do unto you. Search around deviantART for some tips on leaving good comments, and you'll figure out what people want to hear. While you can just spam "This is good" to every new deviation, you might just annoy a few people. Put some thought into it.

When commenting, remember that artists are people to. Ask them how they did such and such, maybe ask them if that kitten in their picture is from a real cat or not, that sort of thing.

Click on your messages inbox, then go to Community Messages. On the side, there is a link to 'Random Deviation'. Use this liberally to find deviations to comment on. You may also wait on the front page, and refresh it as new deviations come in. If you comment on these, you'll know people are getting your comments quickly and promptly, as the deviant likely hasn't logged off from submitting yet.

6. Favorite with class
Favorite people you like, they'll appreciate it. However, don't just favorite wantonly. Favorite in concert with a small comment, a "This is great" if you're particularly lazy. People won't always reciprocate an empty favorite.

As a particularly underhanded tactic, you can spam favorite and unfavorite all sorts of deviations. Since they'll only see that you've favorited, not that you've un-favorited, you will get looked into by the people who you "favorite". I don't nessecarily condone this tactic myself, but it's there.

7. Use the Thumbshare forum
Now, I'm treating #3 as seperate from #6, as they are formatted seperately. Spend some time in there and you'll soon find out how things are run. Spending time in there will get you plenty of comments and pageviews, but it's a bit of a chore to do. None-the-less, it's very effective.

As just a note, pay attention to the poster of threads. If someone asks you to post 3 deviations, don't spam the thread with a big standard copy and paste

8. Clubs
Join clubs. There are clubs out there for every purpose, whether it be writing, gay pride, family guy, photomanipulations. There are clubs for old people, clubs for kids, clubs for popular and unpopular deviants. Clubs offer you a way to get your name out there, and sometimes art if they allow it.

With some experience you may also wish to start a club, but it's no small undertaking. Being the founder or an admin of a club will get you more popular than just being a member, as your name is plastered pretty much everywhere, and you've got the "Gee, I wonder what the founder is like?" factor of it.

9. Contests
There are contests for all sorts of art, whether officially supported or unofficially supported. There's no harm in trying, even if you lose, and if you win, not only do you get prizes (usually subscriptions), but you get recognition as well.

Holding contests is also a rather good idea. You won't get many comments or favorites, but you may well get a watcher or two, and you'll definitely get pageviews.

10. Be an eyecatcher
Whether it's a unique signature or deviant name, or a flashy avatar, you're going to want to have something that says "Ohhh, I wonder what that person's about." This will guide you to their page.

11. Community action
Whether it's creating tutorials about deviantART, or offering some sort of community service, like making avatars, you'll definitely get noticed.

12. Trick people
Yes, some people get pageviews by tricking people. If someone asks how many pageviews you have, say "I don't know, I can't get to my page." They'll check, and before they notice you fooled 'em, bam, you're one pageview richer. Hoo-rah. Silly, no?  Or, nonchalently mention you might be female...

Please do this in good fun, and don't outright lie (like promise something without giving) or malignantly trick people into giving you a subscription, their passwords, or anything of that sort.

13. Give it time
You're not going to become an over-night success. Somedays you're going to get 100+ pageviews; if that only happens once every two months, don't complain about it. Don't whine to people that you've only been here for three months and you've been doing everything perfectly but you're still not there yet. You'll get there in time.

14. Keep it clean
Don't spam. While this may get you a few hits, it's mostly just going to be people there to complain about you. Eventually you'll get banned, and there's really no purpose for working so hard to get popular and stay popular, if you're going to throw it away.

15. Greet people
On the front page, there is a tab for 'today'. Click it, and on the sidebar you'll see a list of new deviants. Write yourself a little blurb for new deviants, a welcome message, and some helpful information and FAQ entries. New deviants will appreciate this help, and will instinctively come and check you out.

Do note, however, that just spamming "Welcome to deviantART, visit my gallery," to every new deviant you see will get you banned. You must be helpful.

16. Return to Sender
Some people subscribe to the theory that you should reply to every comment you get. While I do not personally agree with this (as I don't like to respond to comments like 'this is great' with just a :) or something), it does show your viewers that you are reading and you care, and will keep them coming back for more.

17. Make people laugh
Life's gotta be fun sometimes, it's wise to occasionally have a deviation that makes people chuckle or giggle. This also applies to forum posting and chatting. People want to laugh, and if you routinely make them laugh, they're going to love you.

18. SHARE THE WEALTH
What's the point of being popular if you can't share the wealth of your popularity?

18a. Stamp collect
If you're a subscriber, you have access to a myriad of new functions in your journal, one being the ability to have stamps. Put stamps up on your page for things you support, and while this will not directly help you in any way, it will help the rest of your community and friends.

18b. Feature people
Use your journal to feature some less fortunate deviants or clubs, or just people you like. Eventually word will spread, and you'll get watchers who watch you just to see who you're going to feature. This particularly works best if you have good taste.

18c. Recommend people
If you see a person doing an art in a certain style, and you've got a friend with a similar style, why not drop an appreciative comment and give them a nudge to check out your friend?

18d. Play for the team
If you often win contests, or do commissions, or sell prints, why not give some of that back to the community? Sponsor someone's contest, give random subscriptions, free prints, deviantDOLLARs, et cetera.

19. Shout it out - (Thanks to *reality-pfft for the suggestion)
A feature tucked in the right of the chat page, and often times within subscribers' (particularly more popular ones) pages, is the shoutbox. This is pretty much the lovechild of a forum and a chatroom, and is available for discussion. Occasional self-promotion is tolerated, but excessive spamming is prohibited.

Posting an occasional "Hi guys!" or a "How are you doing?" may yield a few pageviews here and there; once you've got them to your page, wow them with your art, and that one pageview turned into one watcher, which yields more pageviews, and favorites, and comments.

And lastly, folks, if you're out to play the game, don't deny it. This isn't really a tip for getting pageviews or the like, just something for ettiquite. No one likes someone who's obviously plotting for hits, and denies it.