Your Writer Platform

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The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #22)

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The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #22) - Habit | YourWriterPlatform.comThis post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Find Your Motivation, Then Develop a Habit

I often like to use a ‘learning to drive’ analogy when giving authors hope that things will get easier as they embark on their book marketing and platform building journey.

You may have to reach back a bit (as I do), but I think most of you can recall your experience, excitement–and trepidation–when first learning to master the skills necessary to safely handle a 3500 lbs automobile.

At first, the number of things to know and apply is utterly overwhelming, and you wonder how you’ll ever manage to make a left turn in rush hour traffic, or successfully merge onto a freeway before your lane runs out.

Locate the controls.

Adjust your mirrors.

Shoulder check.

Hands at ten and two.

Adjust speed to road conditions.

Try not to kill yourself or the person who recklessly agreed to help you learn to drive… [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #18)

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The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #18) | YourWriterPlatformThis post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Don’t Bamboozle, Cajole, Beg or Bombard Your Potential Readers

Getting the word out to potential readers about your work is a critical aspect to building your writer platform and establishing a successful writing career.

This is typically the role of marketing and promotion: get the right book in front of the right people, and magic happens.

The kicker?

Most writers haven’t got the foggiest idea how to market themselves or their work effectively, and are left scrambling to figure it out on their own.

The default ‘marketing methods’ that many adopt out of desperation are the loud, pushy hard-sell or outright shameless pleading.

The result? Definitely NOT magic.

But there is something that you can do right now that can jumpstart your marketing and give you an edge in all promotional aspects of your writing career: [Read more…]

10 Ways to Defeat Obscurity: Tips for Authors Who Want to Get Noticed (Infographic)

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It’s a bit of a gong show out there.10 Ways to Defeat Obscurity: Tips For Authors Who Want to Get Noticed | YourWriterPlatform.com

Everybody scrambling to get noticed, to be heard.

It’s particularly difficult for some writers, who aren’t known for their smooth social skills and extroverted tendencies.

But there are ways to break through the bustle and noise to find those people who are truly interested in hearing what you have to say.

And it can be done without the dirty feeling of hawking your wares on a crowded street corner.

Below is an infographic of 10 things you can incorporate into your marketing strategy today, to begin to shine a light on your work and expand your career as an author. [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #14)

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Backup your website | The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up | www.YourWriterPlatform.comThis post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Bad Things Can Happen To Good People

Imagine this scenario: you wake up one morning to find that your entire site is gone. Every post, comment, tweak and photo has disappeared into the ether.

Nightmares and cold sweats, right? Can you even wrap your mind around the possibility of starting all over from scratch?

I can’t. In fact, I feel a little nauseous just thinking about it.

So before we dive into the featured articles, here’s a quick ‘how-to’ on website backup, so that we can all sleep easier tonight:

Backup For WordPress (Self-hosted):

There are many options for backing up your self-hosted WordPress site, so I recommend you do a bit of research to ensure you’re getting what works best for you. Here is one free option and one premium option for you to consider:

1. WordPress BackWPup plugin (free) – this plugin allows you to schedule full, automatic backups, as well as decide where you want your backups stored. Go here for a quick tutorial on setup.

2. Backup Buddy is a premium (paid) plugin which is similar to BackWPup, but also provides support and malware scanning. [Read more…]

34 Strategic Ways You Can Use Pinterest to Market Your Book and Your Author Brand

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34 Strategic Ways You Can Use Pinterest to Market Your Book and Author Brand _ YourWriterPlatform.com

Pinterest is exploding!

And with it, so too are the opportunities for authors to expand their reach and increase their book promotion and brand awareness.

Now the third largest social network, Pinterest acts as a virtual pin board that helps you organize and share things you find on the web. As you surf, you can pin images from other sites onto Pinterest where others can re-pin those same images.

People head to Pinterest to find solutions, get ideas and to be inspired. Plus pinners are buyers. 

Hmmm…

So how do we encourage them to be book buyers–your book buyers?

Well, like with all social media, it’s important to avoid the incessant self-promotion. Pinterest is a quieter platform where you express yourself primarily through images. No witty banter required.

Plus, over 80% of pins are re-pins, which means if you are in that 20% of pinners that are sharing original content, you can add real value. If you provide remarkable content, your fellow pinners will happily circulate it for you.

What’s important on Pinterest is to market indirectly by building trust, loyalty and engagement. You want to give people a reason to click through to your site for more.

“Pinterest drives more referral traffic to websites than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.”

~ Mashable

Your goal should be to teach, entertain and inspire your audience on Pinterest. In return, Pinterest will grant you the ability to increase awareness of your author brand, drive more relevant traffic to your website and increase your book sales. [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

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