Give them extra incentives for becoming a customer with you. By creating the channel you get a basic demographic profile. Give your customers a few bonuses for working with you, like free subscriptions. Encourage people to pass on their experience to others and don't try to limit your outreach. The more you know your customers, the more value you have.
Channels are a giant endorsed mailing list.
I've received many awards online and know that most aren't that meaningful. By applying the Ten Keys to a Profitable Web Site , the traffic to this site has tripled, email inquiries multiplied by literally 10 times, and I got a month's worth of traffic in one day. People spread the word like wildfire. They allow you to order and work more with them, or simply to pass the word around. They even gave me a personal telephone number to discuss any further needs I have.