Online relationships

Creating an online relationship is just like the relationships that you would want to have off-line.
The same way that you cultivate these relationships off-line, you need to be concentrating on them online. Think about your relationships online as if it were part of a Marriage or a partnership. If you're going to make a happy and healthy marriage/partnership, you need to work at it ...daily. Do you work at your your online relationship daily?

I think that we can dissect it, and then put it back together for you so that it is a bit more manageable. Let's try here.

First everybody has needs, (beyond the food safety and shelter), and they may be qualified as follows (from my time with Tony Robbins http://anthonyrobbins.com):
Needs of a human:
1.Certainty
2.Variety
3.Love/Connection
4.Significance

5.Learn and Grow
6.Contribution

So if you can connect and supply the needs of people at their very core level then you may have a connection and a following (let's call them your audience). If you can supply 3 of these 6 needs, you may have your audience addicted to your content, and demanding more!
It is simple to give them the first two—just give them regular and consistent content that comes out when you say that it will come out.
Make the content varied enough that you are catering to their need for variety.
Make sure that you let them talk, and that you listen to them so that they feel significant (because they are) and you will have an avid, engaged audience. Use the mantra of "you ask, and I will answer".
Make them feel all of that and you are going to organically grow the connection/love of your following. They will be able to connect and communicate with each other and that will feed their need for connection.
If you can also help them to learn and grow along the way, and allow them to contribute to a greater goal (or even donate along with you to a charity) then this is an addiction of a relationship, because you are feeding ALL of your audience's needs.
So follow those suggestions and you are fulfilling peoples needs. Now, to make the love affair with your site flourish you now need to think of it as your love. So Let's look at the five love languages by Gary Chapman
Http://5lovelanguages.com (if you have not read this book, I would highly recommend it)
1.Acts of service
2.Receiving Gifts
3.Quality Time
4.Words of affirmation
5.Physical Touch

So for your site to have the flourishing relationship that you want with your following, you need to now start off by "dating" your audience, to find out how they communicate their sense of love with you. You are giving them what they need, but the way that you are doing it will attract some types of people and not others. If you want all types of people then you are going to have to speak in all of the love languages above.
Let's look at the different ways that you can communicate with your audience in each of the languages:
You can create a free give-aways that will attract the acts of service and gift receivers in the crowd. If you do it regularly and consistently you will continue to attract them. You can also do a sweepstakes on your blog, or have it sponsored on another platform (https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php) and that will also appeal to the gifters in your audience.
For your quality time folks, you may have to consistently write a long form blog entry so that they feel the love of quality time. If you do this once a month to start and see how it gets received, you can judge from your tracking how it is doing with your audience.
Remember to tell your audience that you would not be able to help them without their feedback, and that they are needed. Have the attitude of gratitude:)
Finally it may be difficult to connect with the folks that talk in the physical love language, and I am not even going to suggest an option here for that. If you are connected with your audience on the other four languages, and you are meeting their primary needs, then you will be successful!
Try it, and let me know if there is something that I missed.