Writers and authors-to-be often talk about building a “platform.” Your platform refers to the combination of articles you’ve had published, the amount of public speaking you do, and all the other reputation-building activities you engage in that make you “famous” within your niche.

Building your platform takes courage, patience, and a lot of hard work. At the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference (March 26-30, 2010, near Santa Cruz, CA), I’ll be teaching an 8-hour interactive course on this topic. The course is geared for people who are in the beginning stages of building (or re-building) a platform, and will focus on low-cost, do-it-yourself Internet marketing strategies.

Below is an outline of the course — I teach individual workshops or the entire course at corporate venues as well as writers’ conferences — please contact me if you’re interested in booking me to teach at your event.

Download a PDF of the complete course outline here:  Build A Sturdy Platform on the Internet

Condensed course description:

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Build a Sturdy Platform… on the Internet

Your best friend snaps a photo of you wearing a t-shirt with a picture of your book cover on it. You e-mail the photo to five friends, who blog and tweet about it, and post your photo on their Facebook pages. You’ve just experienced viral marketing – a powerful force that’s infecting everyone from solopreneurs to mega-corporations. During this hands-on course, you’ll shape a social media strategy that reflects your divine design; create an Internet profile with pizzazz, and practice writing search engine-friendly content. Bring your laptop and learn firsthand how online relationship-building will boost your visibility and credibility.

Session 1: Discovering Your Divine Design

You are divinely designed, with unique talents. During this session, you’ll identify your uniqueness and CRAFT a Consistent, Relevant, Attractive, Frequent, Targeted brand message you can use to market yourself.

Session 2: Making a Lasting First Impression

Hi! I’m a freelance writer!

Does a humdrum profile plague your Web site or blog? During this session, you’ll learn why an attention-grabbing profile is critically important to your brand, and you’ll write a profile with pizzazz that you can tweak for your Web site, social media accounts, and other marketing materials.

Session 3: Shaping Your Social Media Strategy

Blogs. Nings. Forums. LinkedIn. Facebook. Twitter. So many social media options; so little time! During this session, you’ll learn how to choose – and use – the online tools that best reflect your divine design, and you’ll begin developing an integrated social media strategy.

Session 4: Generating WII-FM Content

What’s In It For Me?  WII-FM content is the hallmark of successful social media marketing. During this session, you’ll practice building a WII-FM promotional campaign that showcases your area of expertise.

Session 5: Optimizing Your Content

Nearly 90 percent of the people who visit your social media sites find you via a Google search. If you want to draw people in – and keep them coming back – you need to know a few simple tricks that attract the attention of search engine spiders. During this session, you’ll learn how to package your content for optimum readability and “share-ability.”

Session 6: Promoting Yourself Powerfully

Now that you’ve built a sturdy Internet platform, you’re ready to dive in to other opportunities, including radio and TV interviews, speaking engagements, book signing events – even new career paths. During this session, you’ll learn how to use your social media presence to attract new clients, mainstream media attention, and bookings.