Yeah, that one’s for you, folks.  Wood Beads and Gomez the Windshield Monkey and Metal Briefcase and all you other guys who regularly comment out here.  It’s both an idea for you to use and one for you.

See, it’s never exactly a bad idea to give an occasional shout-out to your readership.  Keeps people happy, and thus, keeps them engaged.  But you’re also doing something else with this–you’re giving them further engagement by forcing them to think.

If you’re running an advice blog on some general facet of life, like movies or car repair or some kind of handicraft, ask your readers a question some time.  Ask them why they do what they do.  Ask them HOW they do what they do.  If you’ve got a new idea, ask them why they don’t try this, or if they’ve even thought of it.

What you’re going to do here is harness curiosity.  We’ve talked about doing this before with interesting post titles and whatnot, but looking at a crowd of people and asking them “why?” often has an engaging effect.  People start to ask themselves why.  Some even ask, why not?  And anything you can do to get people thinking is something you should do at any opportunity.

Your readership is the most important thing you have, bloggers.  They’re what keep your numbers up, your Adsense revenue going and your bottom line in tact.  So next time you set up a blog, don’t forget to give these folks a little of that metaphorical love.  It’ll come back to you several times over.

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