Welcome to Wordslinger: Platform Building For Writers Using The Web

So What's This All About?

This website is about building a platform by C.A.R.E.-ing, a.k.a.

The Fine Art Of Giving A Shit.

It's about becoming a household name among a community of like-minded friends, followers, and fans.

It's about building trust and credibility, about truly empathizing with the members of your tribe, and about telling your story and engaging people in a deep and meaningful way.

It's about balancing your art with the business of making a living, while still having enough left over to share the best of who you are with family and friends, and to enjoy the fruits of your accomplishments⁴.

Why?

Warning:

I believe that our purpose in life is to help the Universe fully experience itself.^{5 6}

So, if there's any truth in this perspective, and I think there is, WHO BETTER than a writer / painter / artist to play a signficant role in our collective quest for meaning and significance? Who better than a storyteller to create and share value? to purposefully distort reality in order to illuminate a deeper truth?

That's my "Why?" at any rate.

Whether or not you'll drink my Kool-Aid, I do believe, passionately, that you have a story to tell...a message to deliver, and that by building a platform and making your story / art / music / manifesto available to as many people as possible, you'll be fulfilling at least one of your obligations as a human being. I want to help you do that.

What To Expect

First a little background. As a natural consequence of my day-job as a web developer and designer, I've been experimenting with ways to build a platform by leveraging the web for a long time now.

Embarrassingly enough, however—and in spite of the fact I've been teaching web strategy to writers for over two years now, and helping others implement their platform building efforts online much longer—I've yet to build (much of) a platform of my own yet. Not that I haven't wanted to, of course, but...

Important Aside:

OK. Here's something I just realized the other day after teaching a workshop at The Southern California Writers' Conference in San Diego, and reading over the questions I solicited from attendees:

My current lack of a massive, world-beating platform is actually a very good opportunity. Because now we can build one together. Pretty much from scratch.

You'll notice, that as of this writing, this website has almost no traffic, no subscribers, and doesn't rank in the search engines for anything other than my name. And in terms of design and functionality, it's about as minimal and barebones as you can get. What's more, as you begin to digest the principles, tools, and action steps in the C.A.R.E. Process for building a platform using the web, you'll know that the efficacy of what I'm sharing has nothing to do with the success of a pre-existing brand or any name recognition on my part.⁷

Too often, success stories told in hindsight distort their "lessons learned" to fit a more compelling after-the-fact and edited narrative that serves to perpetuate the myth of the author, more so than it does to divulge truly useful teachings.

Alrighty. This is how we're going to proceed here on Wordslinger:

Weekly Features

• Once a week, on Mondays, I'm going to post a "Featured Article" type of submission, which covers, in a detailed and comprehensive way, an important concept in one of the four spheres of the C.A.R.E. Platform Building Process: (C)reate Value, foster (A)wareness, form & nurture new (R)elationships, and promote mutually beneficial (E)xchanges among a community of like-minded friends / fans / followers / fanatics.
• Since the C.A.R.E. Process is iterative rather than linear in nature, I'll focus on a different sphere in subsequent weeks, cycling through each in the natural order dictated by the C.A.R.E. acronym in an upward spiral of sophistication and impact--informed, I might add--by measurable results along the way, as well as your questions and feedback.
• We'll start with the most basic principles, tips, tactics, tools, and resources relevant to someone just getting started in their platform building endeavors, and progress over the coming weeks and months to tackle more advanced material.

(Almost) Daily Interaction

• My intent is for the Monday featured articles to set the tone for follow-up questions and related content I'll share on the site and through social networks throughout the remainder of the week.
• I'll expand on this at length later on, but I plan (and encourage you to as well) to segment my content into distinct channels, based on: A) prevailing attention spans among the individuals in the community, B) levels of intimacy / engagement, and C) temporal aspects inherent to a particular medium. For example, Twitter is a wonderful tool for delivering value to people with a short attention span, at a relatively low level of intimacy, and in real-time.
• Why almost daily interaction? Because platform building is a lot of work, and I don't want to burn out. I've learned the hard way that I'm much better off working in hyper-focused bursts of productivity, than I am trying to devote the maximum number of hours per day to a project.⁸

A Peek Behind The Scenes

Finally, I want to provide an insider's perspective on why I do what I do, both here on the site, and on the social networks I'm a part of.

For example, as I implement the strategies I'll be sharing with you here, I'll also constantly be tweaking design elements, editing previously published content for better clarity, and experimenting with new tools. I'd like to make available the valuable information and tactical insights that will result from these "meta-level" activities, ideally in a format that doesn't distract or detract from the core C.A.R.E. message itself (which is useful enough on its own).

The best way to do this, I believe, is to circulate my findings in a free email newsletter to folks who want it. For that purpose, I've created a subscription form in the sidebar. Content I share in the newsletter will be unique to the newsletter, and only availble to those who subscribe.

I will also archive the subscriber-only material here on the Wordslinger website, but you'll need to login to view it. This is completely optional, of course, and the only goodies you'll be missing out on if you don't signup for the newsletter are the "reasons why" behind my platform building execution, and the analyses of what worked and what didn't for me specifically.

What To Do Next

1. One of the first action steps you can take (which will be covered in detail in future C.A.R.E. articles) is to create profiles on each of the major social networking platforms. Although there are hundreds, to get started, I recommend signing up for at least two right now if you haven't already: 1) Facebook, and 2) Twitter.
2. Next, find my profiles on these two platforms, and "friend" / "follow" me. I will, of course, reciprocate, and once we're connected, you'll have multiple ways to get in touch, ask questions, and learn by example as I implement the strategies I'll be sharing in the C.A.R.E. Process.
3. Also, BEFORE you leave this site, take a moment to subscribe to my RSS feed, which you can do by clicking the orange icon above my headshot in the sidebar. If you don't know what an RSS feed is right now, that's OK. I'll be covering this awesome timesaving technology very soon. If you know what Google Reader is, and you have an account with google / gmail (which I strongly encourage you obtain), then subscribe to the feed with google reader unless you have a different feed reader you prefer using.
4. I want to hear from you! Your questions, your feedback, and all about your existing platform. Just post your responses in the comments below, or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

Until next time, kick ass, take names, and chew bubble gum until your Post-It notes run out.