- David Flowers
Moving Your Dream Forward
You can’t sell books or music or anything else if you can’t get an audience. To get an audience, you have to build a platform. That’s hard to do, but at least now it’s possible with the Internet. If I am going to sell my book, I have to build a platform — increase readership on this website, get my name out there somehow. Here is what I did to build my platform today.
Got up at 4 a.m. and went to work on my blog
Built several new pages, including an About Me page, and a page for my book
Posted a Comments Policy page and a page about my counseling practice
Created a way for all my series’ to be available from a menu
Connected with a friend who writes code and said he’d help me get some technical stuff done
Got super sweet new sharing tools placed at the bottom of each post
Completely reworked the menu header on the site, including sub-menus
Took a new photo of myself and moved my photo and bio off the main page so it’s only seen now when a person wants to see it
Most importantly, I secured an email interview with the former bass player of a Christian band that was huge in the 80’s and early 90’s. This band, in fact, was one of the early pioneers of Christian music. Today this man is now married to another man and living in California. It will be fascinating to see how this guy’s journey progressed, how he was treated by the Christian music scene as people found out he was gay, and what his reflections are now as he looks back on it all. He also still identifies as Christian, so we will explore that as well.
There are three points to this post. First is that if you have a product or service you want to sell, you have to build your platform. (Click on the link above and buy Hyatt’s book and he’ll show you how to do it!) Second is to start right now. Third is that there are many things to do, but you have to make sure you do what is most important. I would still be excited about all I got done on the blog if I hadn’t landed the interview, but what really matters when you are a writer is WRITING! This interview is important and will play a role in helping me continue to broaden my platform.
My friend Holly has been patiently working away for several years building a platform for her home business and it’s exciting to see new opportunities coming her way all the time. This is not luck or coincidence. She is working hard and constantly. She believes in her products and wants to get them into as many hands as possible. Until you are that passionate and committed about whatever you have to offer, you will continue to be one of the crowd. If you need to be inspired, buy Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work. If you are already inspired and need a plan for moving forward, buy Michael Hyatt’s Platform.