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Pay special attention to one of your readers

When I was in grade school, one of my favorite teachers, Miss Hanke, had an awesome weekly activity.  She would choose a student of the week and call them to the front of the class, where she would praise them and have them tell a little about themselves.  Oh, the excitement of having your name called!  I remember standing before my classmates, proud that I was the one Miss Hanke noticed that week.  Not only did I feel special, but the rest of the class felt the warm fuzzies, too, because she showed that she really cared about her students.

And that is the gist of today’s 31 dbbb lesson—highlighting a reader in some way that makes our readers feel valued.  Sure, the person we spotlight feels special, but everyone gets the message that our readers are important to us.

Let’s make a reader famous! 

Are you wondering what you could possibly do for your readers?  According to Darren Rowse, paying attention to a reader is only limited by your imagination.  Fortunately, for those of us with spotty imaginations, Darren gives us some great tips:

  • Promote a comment to a post. Did a reader make a really great point in a comment, or touch you in some way?  Why not highlight it in a follow-up post?
  • Write a post about the reader’s blog.  When you visit your commenters’ blogs, is there one that strikes your fancy?  (You are visiting and commenting on your commenters’ blogs, right?)  Write a blog review and tell your readers all about your blog crush.
  • Send your readers to comment on another blog.  Read something that resonated with you?  Tell your readers why and ask them to join you in commenting on that post.
  • Give readers an opportunity to promote themselves. Posts that ask people to leave a comment about their own blog always seem to generate a lot of traffic.  Let’s face it, we bloggers want to plug ourselves…give us a free opportunity and we are there!
  • Reader of the week.  Be like Miss Hanke and highlight one of your readers in a weekly post.  Everyone will be dropping by to see who the lucky pick is that week.
  • Projects, memes and competitions.  A bit more work, but worth it for spreading the love.  I have really enjoyed running contests on my blog and have visited many blogs that use memes and competitions…all great ways to involve your readers.
  • Run a reader poll and display the results in a post.  Make sure to highlight some of the best poll comments in the follow-up post.
  • Invite guest posts.  Guest posts not only widen both your audience and the audience of your guest, but they allow readers a prominent position on your blog.

In the end, it all goes back to community.  As you build others up, it only helps to build your own blog.  As long as you are genuine, your readers will know that you appreciate them, and in turn will appreciate you.

Please share your plans for today’s activities in comments.

This is a guest post from Kianwi.

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