How do you reward your loyal supporters?

I was nominated for an award today and that got me thinking about the ways available to us to show our loyal supporters how much we appreciate them.  I'm not sure my approach to this is the best I can do so I would love to get your ideas on the topic.

Currently, my approach is to acknowledge my supporters in the following ways:

1.    Visiting their blog and leaving a comment (this is visible to everyone who visits which is why I choose this method rather than an email)

2.     Doing showcase/features posts from links submitted to Food on Friday, Books You Loved and Your Favourite.  I try to put a short explanation of why I chose to feature their entry.  I also visit their blog to let them know they have been showcased.

3.    I have 3 featured blog lists – food blogs, book blogs and personal blogs.  I do a new list each month for food and book and each second month for the personal blogs.  Every time I update these I let the newly featured blogs know.

4.    Visit your supporters blogs and click on any ads they have up that you are interested in and/or Google+ their interesting posts and/or Stumble their post.  The ads might generate a bit of income and the Google+ improves their SEO a bit.  Let them know you have done this by commenting.

5.     If you see an interesting post, you might like to link to it from your blog so that more people will see it.  I do this mostly on my Blog Tips blog.

6.     If you participate in linky parties, put the party's button onto your blog.  I have now created a Link Ups page for this.

7.     Do a thank you post to all your followers on important anniversaries and milestones.

8.     As you know I post a daily cryptic crossword clue.  While this is pretty niche, I do like to give a shout out to the first person who solves the clue (and comments).

One thing I haven't been doing is participating in awards or button swaps.  I also haven't run any giveaways.  To be honest I am not sure how to start.  Being in New Zealand I very rarely qualify to enter giveaways and so don't really understand how they work.  If anyone has posted about this I would love to know.