BEFORE YOU DIVE IN…
Make Sure You Have Your Author Platform Set Up
Set Up Your Author Platform
If you haven’t already, you’ll want to set up either a website or at least a Facebook fan page so you have place where you can post your content and link people back to get information about you (this is what we’ll be working on in this workshop).
If you want to set up your platform, here’s a quick tutorial on how to do that…
Set Up Your Website:
Suggested free website software: WordPress.com or Wix.com
Set Up Your Email List:
Suggested free email software: MailChimp.com
>> How to create an email list in MC
How to connect your MC email list to your website:
>> WordPress (sidebar)
>> WordPress (navigation)
Set Up Your Social Media
Choose 1-2 social media sites that you enjoy spending time on and create a presence on there (a page, an account, etc). Suggested sites: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest.
NOTE: If you don’t want to set up your platform now, at the very least, create a Facebook fan page to be used for the work you do in this workshop. You can set that up by going to the left sidebar of your Facebook account, scrolling down to “pages” and choosing “create page.” And then set up an “Artist, Band or Public Figure” page and then choose the category “Author.”
How To Use This Workshop
There are four weeks with five days of short trainings for each week. Use the final two days of the week to catch up before the next week starts.
WEEK 1: THE FOUNDATION
DAY 1: SETTING THE FOUNDATION FOR EVERYTHING
Today we’re setting the FOUNDATION for everything else you’ll do in this workshop. Today’s training is a bit longer than the rest will be, but I wanted to make sure to fully cover it because what I’m talking about in today’s training is super important.
>> You can listen to the training here
Your assignments for today:
1) Decide on a daily mindset practice (listen to the audio for more)
2) Decide what you want your following to look like, feel like and be like
3) Post in the group here and tell us what your daily mindset practice will be and give us the down-low on what you want your following to look like
Questions? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 2: YOUR AUTHOR MESSAGE
Today we’re talking about your Author Message.
The reason we’re covering this is because your message is going to be the core of your author brand and the thread that ties everything together. It’s also a big part of the content you’ll create to grow your following (which we’ll talk more about in Week 2).
For today, I want you to start thinking about what your author message is. You need an author message, regardless of if you write fiction or nonfiction.
>> Listen to the Day 2 audio here
>> Download the Author Message worksheet here
Here are your assignments:
> Complete the Author Message worksheet
> Post in the comments of the Day 2 thread (in the Facebook group) what your author message is
Questions? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 3: YOUR TARGET READER
Today we’re talking about your target reader. On Day 1 I had you start thinking about what you want your following to look like. So now you’re going to actually decide the specifics of who you want to be in that following.
>> Listen to the Day 3 audio here
Your assignments:
> Brainstorm who your target reader is
> Create a target reader profile that focuses on one person (listen to the audio for details on how to do this)
Questions? Leave ’em in the Facebook group.
DAY 4: INVITE YOUR TARGET READER IN
Today your assignment is to write an invitation to your target reader. You’ll be inviting them in to be part of your community.
Introduce them to you, to what you stand for, weave your message in, tell a story, etc. Be sure to give them a Call to Action at the end with a link (join my email list, follow me on FB, etc).
Here’s an example of an “invite your ideal community member in” (which is pretty much the same thing):
WE ARE THE 1% OF WRITERS
This is a call out to the multi-passionate writers; to the super-freaking-creative writers with loads of ideas and stories inside them; to the big dreamers who want a huge catalog of professionally self-published books, the dream writing life and the successful publishing career.
This one’s for you…
While there are writers in the world who choose to go down a different path, we CHOOSE better. We STAND FOR better.
For ourselves and for the writers in our community. We REFUSE to buy into the lack and limited way most writers think. We REFUSE to buy into the BULLSHIT the industry slings.
Because…
We BELIEVE that it is ABSOLUTELY possible to create the writing life you dream of having. The BIG DREAM writing life, with the New York Times Best-Seller, the books-turned-into-movies, walking the red carpet at the movie premiere, the book signings and the raving fans all over the world.
We KNOW we were BORN to be writers and to put books and stories out into the world.
We have WITNESSED the power of the law of attraction and of combining practical, physical actions with energetic, mindset actions, to create MASSIVE success, all on our terms.
We KNOW that professional self-publishing is the BEST way to take control of your writing destiny.
We BELIEVE in the undeniable power of the written word, to shift things, to change lives, to empower, to move.
We ACT FROM the place we want to be, and trust that success is INEVITABLE so long as we just shut up and KEEP GOING.
We INVEST IN and are INVESTED IN ourselves, in our books and in our writing careers.
We are CALLED to write. There is no separation between us and our writing.
We ARE THE 1%. The writers who don’t just talk about writing books, but the ones who actually DO WRITE BOOKS.
P.S. Join my FREE Facebook group for kick-ass emerging 1% authors here: www.facebook.com/groups/emergingauthorincubator
Your Assignment:
> Write your invitation and post it in the Facebook group if you want feedback. Bonus points for sharing it publicly on your blog or social media.
DAY 5: FINDING YOUR TARGET READER ONLINE
When it comes to growing your following and making that following mostly target readers, you have to answer one question: where does my target reader hang out online?
Today’s assignment is to answer that question.
Ask around. Do a Google search. Check out the demographics for the different social media platforms.
If you wanna attract your target reader, you’ve gotta show up and hang out where they do.
When you’ve answered the question, share the answer in the comments.
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
WEEK 2: CREATING CONTENT
DAY 1: CALLING IN YOUR IDEAL READERS WITH CONTENT
This week is all about creating content that calls in your ideal readers.
That’s the only training for the week. The rest of the week will focus on you creating content each day (and I’ll give you a specific assignment each day as well).
After you listen to the training, here’s the Content List for you to download.
Your Assignment:
> Use the “Content List” to start thinking about/brainstorming the different types or kinds of content you want to create–or could create–for your ideal readers
Questions? Need help? Happy to brainstorm ideas with you. Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 2: Create A Piece of Content From Your List
Your assignment for today is to create 1 piece of content from the list you brainstormed yesterday. It can be anything you want that you know your target reader will enjoy.
Example: I just the other night created a free training on how to outline your nonfiction eBook (MP3 + worksheet). I’m releasing that to my community this week.
When you’re finished, share the content with your audience!! Post it on your blog, on your social media, wherever it belongs.
And bonus points if you also share the link in the Facebook group so we can see that you did it 🙂
DAY 3: WRITE A LIST POST
List posts are a great way to attract your ideal readers AND list posts are highly sharable, depending how you do them.
Some examples of what a list post can be:
> 10 Reasons Writers Should Plan First
> 5 Books Every YA Reader Should Own
> 11 Business Gurus Give Their Best Business Advice
The point is to create a list of some kind that would be of interest to your target audience. And if you can add links to other stuff, GREAT!
Here’s an actual example of a post I did back in 2009 that got a ton of comments and shares (note: this was originally on my blog, Procrastinating Writers, so the shares/comments aren’t showing up, but this was one of the most popular posts on my blog that year).
Your Assignment: Write/create a list post for your target audience. You can either write this for your blog or write it for your Facebook page.
Share the link in the Facebook group so we can check your list out!
DAY 4: MAKE A MEME
Memes are pop-culture related pictures with funny statements or sayings on them. A lot of what you find on social media are memes.
Memes are highly shareable and usually get a ton of likes.
You can create memes that your target audience enjoys for free by using a site like:
> memegenerator.net
> memedad.com
Here’s one I made to give you an example:
Your Assignment is to make a meme for your audience and then share it on social media. Oh and feel free to post it in the Facebook group so we know you did it!
DAY 5: MAKE A VIDEO FOR YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Your Assignment is to make a video your target audience would enjoy.
SCARY, I know! But video is a great way to connect with your audience, build your following and grow your Know, Like and Trust factor a whole lot faster.
When people can see you and can hear your voice, you deepen the connection. They’ll feel like they know you.
Create your video about whatever you think your target audience will have an interest in.
The video doesn’t have to be long. Short and sweet is always good.
If you need video examples, check out my YouTube channel here.
Questions? Need to brainstorm? Hit me in the Facebook group.
WEEK 3: STANDING OUT IN THE SEA OF AUTHORS
DAY 1: STANDING OUT IN THE SEA OF AUTHORS WITH CONTENT MARKETING
Content marketing is basically just how you spread the word about your content. It’s finding a way to make the most of one piece of content, rather than forcing yourself into creating tons and tons of content (which you can do if you want, but it also helps to find ways to leverage your best content).
>> Here’s the training for this week
Your Assignment for Today:
> Listen to the training
> Choose 1 piece of content that you created last week and use some of the distribution methods I mentioned in the training to spread the content further
Every day this week I’ll be giving you a specific assignment for how you can leverage and distribute your content.
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 2: MAKE A PHOTO THAT LINKS TO A PIECE OF CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE
A big part of content marketing is finding fun ways to drive people back to your site. Pictures with quotes or a cool image that then links back to a blog post is a great way to do this. Posts with pictures get ranked higher on Facebook and therefore get shown to more people.
There are apps you can use for your smartphone (A Beautiful Mess, for example, or Canva–they finally have a phone app!). Or you can use Canva.com or PicMonkey.com.
You can find free pics to use here:
> Pixabay.com
> Unsplash.com
Your Assignment:
> Create a pic that links back to a piece of content on your website (or Facebook page, etc).
See my pic for an example:
Day 3: Create A Teaser Video
Yes, we’re back to video 🙂
Why? Because videos (and photos) are viewed more on social media than anything else. So creating a short “teaser” video is a great way to drive people to your content.
Your Assignment:
> Create a short teaser video that tells people about a piece of content that you’ve created
To see an example video, go here.
Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 4: CREATE AN AUDIO PROMO
Audios and podcasts have become super popular over the last few years because they make information a lot more accessible for people.
You can use the power of audio to create promos for your blog posts, books, freebies, guest posts, whatever.
Here’s how:
> Find something you’ve created that you want to promote (for example, a book or a blog post)
> Read a snippet from the book/blog post and then expand on it in
> When you’re finished, mention the link or where they can go to read more
To create an audio file you can use an app, like Dropvox (a cool MP3 recorder that uploads directly to Dropbox).
When you’ve finished recording, upload the audio to a site like SoundCloud or just share the link directly from your Dropbox account.
I’m totally using this as the first “podcast” in my Riffs On Writing series. Uploading to SoundCloud now 🙂
Your Assignment:
> Create an MP3 recording that your target audience would enjoy, then upload to SoundCloud and share away
Questions? Need help? Leave it in the Facebook group.
DAY 5: HASHTAGS
By now if you’ve been on social media, you’ve seen hashtags (they look #likethis )
Hashtags are a GREAT way to get your content in front of more people, especially on sites like Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
If you go to any of those sites, you can search to see what the most popular hashtags are. Hashtags should be relevant to your audience, your topics and what people are searching for that relates to what you do.
For example, here are the hashtags I use the most when I’m posting on Twitter or Instagram:
#writing #selfpublished #author #authorpreneur #success #mindset #writer #author #selfpublishedauthor #writersofinstagram #writersofig #amwriting #fictionwriter #mustread #bestseller
Get the idea? You want to choose hashtags that your audience would be using to find you (or people like you).
Your Assignment:
> Start using relevant hashtags in your social media posts (a few on each post is good)
> Research on the social media sites you have a presence on, to see which hashtags people are using (ex: Facebook has a “trending” section which relates to the most popular hashtags people are using)
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
WEEK 4: GUEST POSTING
DAY 1: GUEST POSTING
Guest posting is the #1 way to grow your following, expand your readership, connect with popular blog editors and get people on your email list. Guest posting is the biggest way I’ve grown my following.
But you have to be really strategic about it.
So rather than just give you a short training, I’m giving you access to my Ultimate Guest Posting Kit, which has EVERYTHING you need to research, write, pitch and publish your guest posts.
>> Download your copy of the kit here
Your Assignment:
> Read through the Guest Posting Guide (step 1) so you get an idea of what goes into pitching, writing and publishing a guest post.
Each day this week I’ll be giving you a specific assignment to help you through the guest posting process. If you follow along, you could have your first (or next) guest post pitched by the end of the week.
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 2: CHOOSE YOUR GUEST POST TARGET
Today we’re getting stuck into the guest posting process. If you keep up and do each task, you could be on your way to having your first guest post published by the end of the this week.
Today’s Assignment:
> Pick your target site
> Check to see if they offer guest post guidelines
Either go back to the list of sites you found during Week 1 that have your target audience or choose a site you’re familiar with and would love to write for.
Once you have your target and have read their guest post guidelines (if they offer any), you’re ready to the next step (coming tomorrow).
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.
DAY 3: BRAINSTORM YOUR GUEST POST IDEA
Alright, now that you’ve picked a target site, it’s time to come up with your guest post idea.
I always recommend starting with the headline of the post and then figuring out what to put in the article. The reason is because headlines are what entice someone to read a post (or not). So it’s pretty important to have a really good one.
There are recommendations in your Guest Post Kit for how to brainstorm headlines (see the Guest Posting Guide “Brainstorm” step for more on this).
Your Assignment
> Come up with 3-5 potential guest posts (headlines) for your target site
> Narrow it down to 1
Feel free to share your ideas in the comments if you want some feedback or help choosing one.
Questions? Leave ’em in the Facebook group.
DAY 4: WRITE YOUR PITCH
Now that you know who you’re targeting and what you want to write for them, it’s time to put together your pitch and SEND IT OFF!
See your “Guest Post Kit” for more on how to pitch and see some example pitches.
Your Assignment
> Write your pitch for your guest post
> Send it off
Feel free to post your pitch here first for feedback before you send it off.
Questions? Hit me in the Facebook group! Only one more day to go!
DAY 5: OUTLINE AND WRITE YOUR GUEST POST
So now that you’ve sent off your pitch and are waiting for a reply, you can do one of two things (or you can do both!): 1) Start outlining and then writing your post, that way when you hear back and they say “yes” you can pretty much send it off to them right away, or 2) Wait ’til you get a “yes” to write and send it (it’s fine if you want to do this, but make sure you don’t wait long–get the guest post to them within a few days of getting the “yes” or they may forget about you)–and in the meantime, start pitching another guest post to another site.
I always recommend writing the guest post anyhow, even if you haven’t heard back yet. The reason is two-fold: 1) you’re “acting as if”… pretending you already got a “yes” and are acting from that place (best way to make something happen!), 2) if you don’t get a “yes” you can always use the post for your own blog or pitch it somewhere else. Guest post content is never wasted that way.
Your Assignment
> Outline and write your guest post
> Find another place to write and pitch a guest post to and work on that while you wait for the “yes” from the one you already pitched
Questions? Need help? Hit me in the Facebook group.