How do you build trust with others? You get to know them and find out what they are all about. While that’s easy face-to-face, it can also be done virtually if you are willing to work at it. But why is it important to build trust with your virtual peers?

Building relationships with your readers is vital to your business. Remember that your goal is to make money and to do that, you need people visiting your site to start with…  But visiting your site is just not enough in and of itself.

Think about it in these terms. Let’s say you launch an incredible new product. You advertise everywhere that you can think of. In the first months of your launch, your unique visitors go up 100% (it’s possible!) AND the sales go through the roof.

In your bliss don’t forget that the journey towards one-time sales is a short trip. If you made six figures in each of those months, it still wouldn’t compensate for the next eight months of basement stats because none of those customers came back. That’s no way to run and grow a successful business enterprise.

Instead, strive for repeat visitors every month of the year. How do you do that? You build a relationship with each one of them. No, you don’t have to know them all by name, but you will want to pay attention and give them what they want to keep them coming back.

Readers are more than just people who come to hear what you have to say, they are looking for something. It could be your product or service, but they won’t stay where they’re not appreciated.

Here are a few reasons why reader relationships are so important to your site:

1.    They have friends. You never know who is visiting and reading your site content. One thing that you do know is that they have a sphere of influence. That sphere can be yours if they are satisfied with their relationship with you.

2.    They have money. What started out as simply a visitor can be converted to a customer who uses your products or services if they trust you. Now you have the potential for repeat business.

3.    They represent a portion of the population. Whatever their connections, they can be useful to you in building a better business. Online business owners can provide organic backlinks for you; bloggers can ask you to guest post for them; avid social bookmarkers can help lift you to expert status by linking to your content.

Readers are not just numbers; they are people who are important in their own right and to your business. Connect with them. Coming up next will be ways to stay out there and build trust.