PB022: Pay Special Attention to a Reader [Day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog]

How to Pay Special Attention to a Reader Today's episode is about how to deepen engagement and interaction with your readers by making at least one reader feel a little bit special and loved. Paying readers a bit of extra attention is a great way to grow your community. Hands in heart shape framing sun by Elena Elisseeva on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Three powerful benefits paying special attention to a reader can bring to your readers, your blog, and to you personally Real-life examples of how other bloggers are doing this well Nine different ways you could pay special attention to a reader and make them feel famous Further Resources on How to Pay Special Attention to a Reader I mention Jadah Sellner in today's episode, who says "Choose love over metrics". This is the link to her World Domination Summit talk. Make Your Readers Famous The Power of Making Your Readers Famous 10 Blogging Tips to Surprise and Delight your Readers: Lifestyle Fifty The Philosophy of Great Customer Service: Derek Sivers 6 Creative Ways to Surprise and Delight your Customers: Shopify How to Crowdsource Awesome Facebook Posts from Your Fans: PostPlanner Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view It's day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and the 22nd episode of the ProBlogger Podcast. Welcome. My name is Darren Rowse. Today, we are going to spend a little bit of time paying some special attention to one or maybe a few of your readers. We're going to give them some love. This is a great day of building engagement and community on your blog. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/22 where you also have the opportunity to share with us your reaction to today's podcast episode. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today is all about your reader and paying them a little bit of extra attention. In the early days of ProBlogger, I used to give two pieces of advice quite regularly. In fact, I probably gave them too much, but they were catchphrases for me. One of them was to make your readers famous. The other one was love your readers to death. Both of these really were about the same thing, about deepening engagement and interaction with your readers in some way or another. Today, your challenge is to do just that or (at the very least) make one of your readers feel a little bit special, a little bit loved. On day five of our 31-day challenge, we did this by emailing a reader. Today, I want you to take it a step further and publicly pay attention to one of your readers. Day five is all about shooting them a private note, something that was in private completely just between you and them. Today, I want to challenge you to pay attention to one of your readers in a public way. This has three main benefits. Firstly, it has an impact upon your reader by taking a little bit of time today to step out of your busy routine and show that one reader that you value them could have a real impact upon that one person. That may sound like a little action, but if you do this on a regular basis, it adds up. You never quite know who that person is and how your action today might have an impact on them and has on-going benefits. I actually did this with one of my readers back in 2005 and that reader became a business partner, just because I paid them a bit of attention. The second benefit of doing this is that it has an impact on your other readers as well. When you publicly value one reader in front of everyone else, it shows that you have a genuine interest in your readers. It's infectious. It goes to help create a positive and inclusive culture on your ...