31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 22: Let Me In

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

Getting Personal

Today we’re getting personal.

The author platform task is: Create a short-ish blog or FB post sharing a personal story.

There are tons of experts that say getting personal makes you more likable and draws readers/followers in. (They also caution against sharing too much.) You’ve been spending all this time with your readers and followers, let’s allow them in a little more. Lots of ways to do that without posting your grocery list. Share insight into why you are a writer (is it in your heart?), what makes you want to write (thinking about the reader?), what makes your day as an author (fan mail!), or even what you hate about being an author (“oh you write children’s books, how cute”).

Maybe it’s a mom moment you’d like to share, frustrating or fun, like:

In that one, I had the chance to tack on another tweet and ask moms if they felt my pain, but didn’t think of it at the time. Look for chances to ask followers why they in turn do in that scenario. Ask them to reply. Engage with them (every one of them) when they do.

Use this task as an opp to break out of the mold and do something different today. At a minimum, use the tweet to add additional commentary as you post the link to the blog you just wrote.

It doesn’t have to be book related! Shed some insight into who you are so people feel like they now you (there’s plenty of stuff you can recycle from your bio page, right?). Suggestions:

A story about your kids or your own childhood
A funny anecdote (like when I wore my pants and yes shirt inside out)
A thought-provoking observation (“Have you noticed…”)
A personal goal you’re working towards
A challenge that you’re facing
A milestone reached
A lesson learned
A small thing you’re grateful for, like cold pizza for breakfast (maybe that’s just me)

Recap: Share a personal story. End with request to hear followers’ stories. Converse with them (all) when they reply.

[Oh, and before I forget, have you followed 10 new people yet?]

13May2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 24: TIL Video

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

“TIL” Today I Learned

Maybe it’s a hack on scrambling eggs, or a shortcut in folding laundry, but odds are you learned something recently. Today, Day 24 of the 31 Day Author Platform Challenge, you are going to share that learning. Via video! (You need to get more comfortable in video. It’s the future!) And “TIL” is all the rage right now, so let’s hop on board.

My recent key learning is a time saver called a “macro” which lets you type in a few letters and have your pc fill in the rest. It’s called a macro. It’s hugely helpful for long words and phrases you use over and over.

You don’t have to be on camera in your TIL vid if you don’t want. I’m not in mine!

Impress your friends (or at least your kids) by creating a custom macro!

What this shows is going to your Mac, clicking the Apple logo very top left, then System Settings, scrolling down to Keyboard in left column, then Keyboard Shortcuts Text replacements… isn’t it so much easier in video?

Now, anytime I type letters “apc” in a row it automatically types ’31-Day Author Platform Challenge’ for me. Try it for yourself creating any shortcut you want–your home address, email address, whatever you find tedious. Impress your kids by telling them you “created a macro”!

If you don’t know how to record your computer screen (I didn’t until this video!) I can help you there too. This link from PC Mag has step-by-step instructions for both Mac and pc.

Create your own TIL with literally anything. Maybe it’s that you learned where your keys are hiding.

Refreshers on creating great video content are on Day 16 and Day 19.

Have some fun.

Tag #31DayAuthorPlatformChallenge so we can see it!

[Aaaand..have you followed 10 new people yet?]

12May2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 25: SEO

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

Over 5 and a half BILLION searches are processed a day just by Google alone. We need to find ways for our site and our books to get noticed!

I let you skate for a while with easy tasks. Today, Day 25, have a seat. We’re going back to your website and looking into “SEO” or “search engine optimization” which is a fancy way of saying “making sure your website has the right words for search engines to notice, so it pops up early in search results.”

A good overview that explains how search engines work and what they look for (along with tips specific to WordPress but likely work on other sites) is here: https://aioseo.com/ultimate-wordpress-seo-guide/

Wouldn’t it be great if when someone typed in “children’s book author” and your name popped up in the top ten? One way of course is to have a website that has a million hits, which means you have a best-selling title or five. But there are ways to pad your website to up the chances a little bit.

The bad news is, I can’t tell you exactly what to do because we all have different sites and different focuses and reasons and audiences. But here are general guidelines the experts say to bear in mind:

Images and videos are better than simple text. It not only makes people stay at your website longer, it can up your name on image and video search queries. Caption your images!
Pick a scalable template or see if your web host will optimize your site for mobile devices.
Keep your website up to date. Regularly adding new content keeps readers coming back for more. It also improves SEO by showing search engines that your website is active and relevant.
Add internal links and make sure they’re current.
Use keywords repeatedly, such as in headers and in summaries (I have heard this doesn’t work as well as it used to though).
Simplify language and URLs if you can, so search engines know how to find you.

The best advice I can give you is to go back to your website host and check their FAQ for SEO. They are bound to offer specific steps you can take. Wish I had a plug-and-play answer for you (and myself)!

[Oh, and have you followed 10 new people yet?]

11May2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 26: Baby Pix

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

Write, write, baby

[Before we start, you sweet thing, have you followed 10 new people yet?]

To cleanse our frazzled brains from yesterday, for Day 26 we are taking a step back in time.

What age range are you writing for? Pull up some old files or photo albums (remember them?) and find some old baby pix of yourself at that age. Take a good look.

How cute are you?

What was going on then? Do you remember your mindset? Did you really understand as much as you thought you understood? At that age, what did you want more than anything? What did you need? Place yourself there for a moment.

This picture, this person, will remind you who you’re speaking to in your manuscripts and works-in-progress.

If it’s not too personal, I’d like you to post the pic, and tell followers about this person you are writing to.

For me, I’m writing to this little girl who was grossly unsupervised, the youngest of five kids in five years that got lost in the shuffle growing up being raised by a widowed dad that worked full time and tried (I think). When this little girl discovered Clifford the Big Red Dog after Aunt Carolyn sent her a book for her birthday, things changed. Sure, the main character being a young blonde girl that dressed in bright colors and shared the name Elizabeth helped draw me in because I “got” her.

But those fantastical adventures with a safe, caring guardian sent me to a world where I didn’t have to worry about my clothes being dirty or ill fitting, my shoes being worn out, my hair not being washed. I didn’t think about being hungry or not having money for gymnastics like everyone else. Nope.

With those books in my hand, I got to hang out with my friends Clifford and Mary Elizabeth for as long as I wanted to.

See that girl?

I write for her.

Tell me, and your followers, who you write for.

4May2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 30: Checklist Check

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

Grab that notebook again. Look over what still needs to be done. Create new list of things that need to be done, in priority order. If you’re super organized you can put diff tasks in diff colors…website in green ink, twitter in yellow, etc.

As we near the end of our 31 days, let’s take Day 29 to look over the notes we’ve been taking.

Grab that handy notebook of yours. Give it a long look, page by page.

Time to review what you’ve checked off your To Do list so far, and give yourself a pat on the back for work well done!

What’s left? Probably a lot, and that’s OK! In fact, that’s great! That means you’ve been taking notes and keeping track.

The To Do list is probably a bit of a mess.

Today, make one clean (re)list of all the things still to be done.

Mull them over for a minute.

Re-list the list!

Then, on a new page, re-list the To Do list again, in priority order. (Writing things down repeatedly helps your brain remember things so it’s not a waste of time!)

Now, if you’re super organized, group the tasks under headings such as Website, Rework, Decisions, To Schedule/Email, Ask for Help, etc. Super-duper organized people can use different colored pens for each heading.

To really motivate yourself, give a deadline or goal completion date for each (remember SMART goals; specific measurable achievable relevant timebound?).

Whenever you’re on hold, or on public transit, in the waiting room, etc, scroll this revised list and work on things as soon as, and as best as you can.

Recap: Review To Do list and (re)prioritize what needs to happen first. Bonus points to giving yourself deadlines on each.

You’re doing a great job!

[You’re doing such a great job, I bet you already followed 10 new people today!]

3May2023

31 Day Author Platform Challenge Day 31: We Made It!

Posted in 31 day author platform challenge, Writer's Platform by bitsykemper

Time to tidy up loose ends

woman in long sleeve shirt holding a vacuum cleaner — Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

[Last reminder to follow 10 new people. It’s amazing how well this has worked, isn’t it?!]

This is our last day together on this 31 Day Author Platform Challenge journey. It’s been quite a ride.

Day 31 is when we check our progress!

Since that notebook is probably still out from yesterday, grab it and open to the front pages where you took your original assessments on Day 1.

Number check

Let’s compare numbers! Go page by page and compare where you started with where you are now.

For each social media outlet you were tracking, fill in:

How many followers did you have May 1st? How many do you have today?
What was your goal, did you meet it?
If you didn’t meet your goal, do you feel better about the engagement?

Feeling check

How do you feel overall about the challenge? Did you rise to the occasion?

If real life got in the way, don’t beat yourself up. It happens! The good news is this challenge can be redone over and over again! Start back next month where you left off. Or recommit yourself in the fall.

Goal check

Did you meet your overall goal?

I worked my tail off creating this challenge, and admittedly it got in the way of my own implementation. But I still improved my numbers by *still doing the math*

I’m impressed by all the work I got done and I hope you are too. Please drop some comments on your progress made, so we can let each other know how proud we are of ourselves, as a collective group of hard-working authors-with-increased-platforms!

My new goal in the fall will be to do this challenge again, with the social media platforms I’ve been ignoring. I’ll see if I like any of them better. I’ll assess whether I want to abandon ship on what I have going on now and replace it with a new outlet. Heck, maybe by them there will be a slew of even newer outlets to try. Maybe you’ll join me then, too?

But hey. Congrats, man. It’s Day 31. You did it!