Building Your Platform

As a writer, there is “more than one way to skin a cat”, as in most cases.  So the path you take to freelancing stardom may be different from the path I take, or the path Stephen King took, or Terri McMillan, etc.  But, many of the elements are the same.  One of those elements is “platform building”, or building your audience.

In my case,  since returning from my hiatus I have decided to backtrack and start with my audience.  I returned to my Twitter account, and began tweeting consistently, reaching out to existing followers, and looking for new people to follow.  As a result, the number of followers I have has gone up by 200+ in less than a month, and even with no new blog posts, this blog has seen some pretty decent activity.  If you’re still unsure about Twitter (as was I in the beginning), tak  look at this list of how Twitter helps writers.

By doing a Google search you can find several resources on how to effectively use Twitter in your career.  I have been reading Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm.  A favorite online Twitter resource for writers can be found here.  That @inkyelbows really knows her stuff.

Of course, Twitter isn’t the only way to build and connect with your audience.  It’s just where I chose to start.  My favorite book about platform building is Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz.  This book has been instrumental in helping me understand how and why I need to build my platform.  And guess what.  I’m giving a copy away!

To celebrate the re-launch of this blog I am hosting my first giveaway.

Carol from Everything Home…Wth Carol has won this this giveaway.  Congratulations Carol, and thank you for participating!

I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!  And just in case you didn’t know, another great way to build you audience is by guest posting on other people’s blogs.  If you’d be interested in being featured here as a guest blogger, just let me know!