I need your help. Part of building your PLATFORM is recognizing you need others to help you along the way. That’s true for you. It’s true for me.
As we’re approaching the launch of my new book, I’ve decided to try something different. I am inviting 100 of my readers to join me in creating a special “Platform Launch Team.” It’s a peer group of people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and help get the word out about the book.
My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, has just started shipping to bookstores. The official publication date is Tuesday, May 22. In a moment, I’ll tell you why you should WAIT until then to buy it.
First, let me tell you a little about the book.
Last week, I spoke at the Catalyst Conference in Irvine, California on the topic of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Thomas Nelson, May 22). As part of my introduction, I shared how my audience has grown since I started blogging in April of 2004.
Note that these numbers reflect my average monthly unique visitors. I simply took the total number of unique visitors for the year and divided by twelve months (or in the case of 2004, eight months). With the exception of the first few years, this data came from my Google Analytics account.
My monthly blog traffic is up 164 percent over the same month last year. Mindy, my advertising director, is pressuring me to raise my rates, to bring them more in line with the market.
I told her that I wanted to wait until May 1st. I want to give you, my faithful reader, an opportunity to get more than double the impressions at the same old price.
Welcome to my new podcast, This Is Your Life. Like my blog, it is dedicated to the theme of intentional leadership. My goal is to help you live with more passion, work with greater focus, and lead with extraordinary influence.
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download | Embed
I plan to talk about the same topics I discuss here on my blog, namely:
Today I was talking with a New York Times bestselling author. He was explaining to me how he had used video to drive his most recent book onto the best sellers list. “Nothing sells like video,” he explained.
Many authors have done this in the past few years, including Brendon Burchard, Gary Vaynerchuck and Chris Brogan.
Whenever I speak on the topic of platform-building, someone always asks, “How can I generate more traffic for my blog?” Most are hoping I have a silver bullet, something that will instantly get them the recognition they deserve.
The bad news is that it’s not quite that simple. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a platform. It takes doing several things right—and doing them over a long period of time.
I rarely meet a Twitter user who doesn’t want more followers. A few argue that the numbers aren’t important. They are only concerned with “quality followers.” I’m not sure it is either/or, but I notice that most of the people making this argument have very few followers.
Why would you want more followers? Three reasons:
I have yet to meet an author who thought his/her publisher did enough marketing or who was satisfied with the royalties received. Most have the fantasy of writing the book, submitting the manuscript, and then sitting in a lawn chair next to the mailbox, waiting on those big checks to show up. The reality of publishing and the source of real income is a quite different picture.
Several years ago Mark Victor Hansen, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, told a small group of us author wannabes something that revolutionized my approach to writing. He said, “Everyone I meet wants to write a book. I tell them, ‘Write your book. Do a great job. Now you’re 10% finished. The remaining 90% consists of marketing, promoting, developing ancillary products, etc.’”
Early in my career, everyone else seemed to be control. I interviewed for a job, then waited for the hiring manager to offer me the position. I worked hard, then waited for my boss to give me a raise. I achieved bottom-line results, then waited for the vice president to approve my promotion.
When I started writing, it also seemed like everyone else was in control. I prepared a book proposal, then waited for a publisher to offer me a contract. I wrote the manuscript, then waited for booksellers to order the book. I published the book, the waited for the media to book me.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This philosophical question doesn’t seem to have an answer. I mean, there is only a sound if someone is there to perceive the sound waves, right?
Your message, your story, your speech, and your book are much the same way. The sound they make is—dare I say it—irrelevant, if there is no one there to watch you, hear you, or read you.
