Building Reader Base

This is an excerpt from an email I sent a friend about building his blog's reader base.

"My thinking revolves around creating connections. You write because you have thoughts and ideas to express. Readers read because they connect and feel a part of something. For instance, I read it because I am your friend.

Two thoughts on how to build the connection are to reply to the feedback that is posted on the blog entries and to build blog entries based on the feedback. I think the second can be more powerful because you will start out with, 'John put some thoughts in my head when he left a reply on one of my entries.' John feels good because you are using his entry. As well, the other readers note that you read the feedback and mull them over."