Firsthand Platform-Building Tips

This month I’m using my newsletter to talk to you all about a few new developments at Warner Coaching Inc.

So often in my coaching practice I’m working with writers around the various things they need to be doing to raise their author platforms, and it often occurs to me that I don’t always practice what I preach, or take my own advice!

This year I hired a wonderful coach who has helped me follow through on a few goals of my own. I want to give Karla a shout-out here for all she’s done to keep me accountable to what I say I want. Thank you, Karla!

This month I’m sharing some of the things I’ve been working on, and some of the things I’m committing to moving forward. I encourage you to steal my ideas!!

First and foremost I’m proud to announce that I’ve finally (after two years of saying I wanted and needed to do this) had my website redesigned—and it launched last week. This site is on Wordpess. I’m always telling clients to start on WordPress if they don’t have a website/blog already, or to migrate their existing site to WordPress if and when they can. One exciting new feature of the new site I urge you all to use whenever you want is “Ask Brooke.” Here you can submit a writing- or publishing-related question at any time and I will post the response on my site. I encourage you all to do this if you ever want to corroborate something you’ve heard, or if you have questions or concerns when you’re running up against conflicting advice out there in the world of publishing.

Second, I’m pushing myself to use different social media tools to promote my upcoming classes, and to get more exposure and visibility. I’m also always talking to my authors about putting themselves out there. I invite you to check out—and copy—some of the things I’m doing this month.

Free audio recording

I gave a free half-hour talk on September 5 about the three paths to getting published (big houses, small houses, and self-publishing). Thirteen minutes of that talk is now available for you to listen to on my site. Publishing free audio content is a good way to introduce people to who you are, and it showcases your expertise in a way that’s easy and accessible. I used All Free Conference to record the call, and Audacity to edit it down to thirteen minutes. I used divshare to get the audio content on my website so you can listen to it on my site.

Mightybell experience

Mightybell is a brand-new site that’s all about launching step-by-step “experiences.” It gives you the opportunity to, again, showcase what you know, and invite people to participate in an interactive experience. Give it a try by joining my experience, which is all about building your platform!! There are six fun steps that you can get going on today.

Talking on Blog Talk Radio

This month I will be talking on She Writes Radio, which is a free station on Blog Talk Radio. Anyone can get a free radio show on Blog Talk Radio, and I encourage you to give it a try. Being on the radio is a major platform-builder, and even if you start out with just a couple listeners, you can repurpose your content by creating free audio clips or podcasts, or using what you talk about to write an article that you can publish as a blog post or as an article on sites like ezinearticles.com.

Please join me on October’s call. It’s Wednesday, Oct 5, at 10 PT/1 ET. The call-in number is (347) 884-9779 and here’s what the show is about:

Here’s the write-up: Every writer faces hurdles on the road to getting published. Sometimes these are our inner saboteurs that keep us stuck with their messages: No one cares; why bother? Another hurdle is time—how can anyone find the time to write and publish a book with all the things pulling at our attention every day? And finally there are strategic challenges: Am I ready to shop my proposal? How do I build my platform? How do I get noticed?

Moving forward

Other goals I’m setting for myself as we move into fall and 2012 include writing a “free report,” which will be available to download on my homepage in the coming months. I’m also committing to writing my own book in 2012. Yep, time for the book coach to write and publish her own book. I’m stating it here and now, making myself accountable to all of you, my readers. And now I’m going to go post my intention on Mightybell.

Thanks for reading everyone, and happy platform-building! Please share you own goals for the sake of accountability if you’re so inclined!

Brooke

 

 

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