[simple_series title=”Specific Generic Advice”]
If you’ve been following along with this series so far, you’ll know that there’s no point in building something that works well, looks awesome, and functions perfectly if there’s no substance.
That substance is what drives the success — or failure — of your venture. If you haven’t written the best book possible, or created the most amazing product you can, or whatever it is you do, building an online platform is pointless.
But if you have written the best book you can…
…Then it’s time to talk about the online platform, or what I like to call your online “Home Base.” It was the topic of an entire book I wrote, and it’s the raison d’être of this very website. Let’s dig into what a Home Base is first, and then we’ll go through some tips about building your own.
A Home Base is a place for you to “live” online.
First, a Home Base as a platform tool is where you exist on the Web. It’s the starting point and ending point for your visitors, fans, readers, etc., and it’s where you’ll direct and “capture” business leads. Basically, it’s your house and place of business, all rolled into one.
The analogy works because when you have a friend in real life you’d like to invite over for dinner, you don’t invite them to someone else’s house — you invite them to your own. Duh. Likewise, when you meet with a client in the office, “in the office” means exactly that — you’re inviting them into your place of business, trying to get to know them and strike a deal.
Online, there are plenty of easy ways to build “refuges” that aren’t really “Home Bases.” These refuges aren’t your own — they are the property of whomever set up the site. Think Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, etc. — these are great places to set up a small Internet refuge, but they’re not ideal for your Home Base. We’ll talk about that more later, but the bottom line is that it’s not your Home Base — it’s someone else’s.
A Home Base is your own.
As mentioned earlier, a true Home Base is one that you have full control over. You get to decide what it looks like (how your home is decorated), how it’s marketed (how you invite people over for dinner), and what you talk about while you’re there (dinner conversation).
If you think having a Facebook page, Goodreads author profile, or some combination of well-optimized social media accounts is the equivalent of a Home Base, consider this scenario:
You connect with your fans through Facebook, and share articles, posts, and content with them through their mediums. One day, Facebook decides to change the game and charge for their services, at the same time banning “business”-style pages from their site altogether.
Okay, it’s not a very strong possibility that this would happen — but the point is, it could happen. God knows Facebook “changes the game” at least once a week. If you feel that it’s important to be in full control of what happens in your own home, it’s likewise important to be in full control of what happens on your online Home Base.
Don’t take the risk — spend a little money if you need to and get a shared hosting account, and install WordPress (my default Home Base option), and take control and responsibility of your Home Base. You won’t be sorry!
A Home Base is a business.
Let’s talk about another aspect of building an online platform — the fact that there really aren’t too many altruistic platforms out there. What that means is most people (I’m included, and I’d bet you are too) build an online platform to do one of a handful of things:
- Explain their thoughts/musings/feelings on a subject
- Sell something
- Teach people something
- Build recognition for themselves
- Build awareness for their business/product/service
Guess what? There’s nothing at all wrong with any of these things. Sure, you can do them in a sleazy, crappy way and be labeled as a hack, but you can also do them in a way that people enjoy, share, are inspired by, and more.
Don’t hide behind the truth, though. If you are out to make a buck, be honest about it to yourself. Be specific with your goals, actionable with your follow-through, and above all — don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.
If you truly wrote the book we talked about last time, this should be the easiest thing ever. If you think people will be inspired, helped, taught, or entertained through your work, tell them. We’re okay with paying money for stuff that’s awesome — we’re just leery about paying for stuff that’s scammy or doesn’t seem genuine. Plus, no one wants to be “that guy.”
Implementing (starting) Your Home Base
The question is, how do you get started?
It’s a great question, but one that can only be answered with more questions:
- What is the Home Base for?
- What will you provide readers/visitors?
- What’s in it for them?
- What formats will you offer (writing/video/podcasts/books/etc.)
- What kind of income are you hoping to generate
There are many more questions to ask, but the key to ask them. The answers can change as you go, but it’s far better to change a plan mid-course because you changed your mind on something than to strike out without any plan at all and watching it all fall apart two months in.
After I’ve done some soul-searching and asked the necessary questions (and making sure that book is written well!), I usually:
- Set up a website on a domain I’ve purchased. I don’t use a Facebook page, Twitter account, or something.wordpress.com, for reasons explained above.
- Choose an approachable, simple design (template). You can invest in awesome, gorgeous design, but the important thing is to get something up soon. If you’re using WordPress, WooThemes, Elegant Themes, and Genesis are my favorites.
- Set up the essential plugins and pages. I consider essentials to be a good commenting plugin, some decent sidebar-organization widgets, and a contact form. For pages, consider a “Start Here” page, an “About” page, and of course the “Blog” page.
- Write, write, write. You need to have content on the blog/site before you start sending people to it. This is hands-down the most difficult phase, because it’s a thankless and lonely job writing for no one, but it’s absolutely critical. Get about 10 awesome, “epic shit” posts up and ready for business. I call these Pillar Posts or Pillar Content, and it’ll really jumpstart your efforts.
- Keep writing, but start promoting. Writing is great, but it’s not going to be a “if you build it, they will come” situation (for the vast majority of us, anyway). Start promoting your stuff on Twitter and social media using the 80/20 rule.
At this point, you’ll have been blogging for a few weeks and have some decent content on the site. You’ll want to start monetizing, pushing people toward your books/products, and getting the word out about your company’s awesome widget XYZ.
Don’t.
Instead, focus on building a mailing list — an old-school, email-driven mailing list with actual email addresses and stuff.
Invite people who visit your site to sign up, stick a few signup boxes on your sidebar and About page, and go for the close at every opportunity. If possible, throw in a great incentive as well (historically, a free downloadable ebook has been the “go to” answer. This still works, so do it if you can.).
If you do this right, you’ll start building the foundational core for a very successful blog/business/platform, and it won’t cost a dime. Rather than “cold calling” leads in the future when you’re trying to push your book onto the world, you can start with the people who have opted in to hear from you.
Don’t abuse them, and they’ll stick around. Don’t take advantage of them or spam them, and they’ll probably buy from you or at least support your efforts.
For mailing lists, I use MailChimp and swear by it — check it out. This is an affiliate link, but it’s totally free to use up to 2,000 subscribers/month.
Using these methods really works.
Trust me, it does. I built LiveHacked.com from literally zero subscribers in January 2012, and by April I was on track to have about 500 subscribers. Two months later, I had doubled that again and it hasn’t stopped since.
It may not sound like much, but I get a great response rate from my list and an unbelievable conversion rate as well.
Best of all, I’m in control the entire way — I get to decide what gets posted, when, and what it looks like, and I get to create the business model from scratch on my own. It’s an exhilarating, exciting, and super-rewarding experience, and it’s possible because I started building an online platform!
If you would like to learn more about building online platforms, check out the book Welcome Home: The Author’s Guide to Building A Marketing Home Base. It’s jam-packed full of actionable, useful content, and it’s written in a down-to-earth style that’s easy to understand.
It’s available on Amazon as a Kindle download (you don’t need an actual Kindle to read it, though), or as a paperback.
