Platform Pick-Up: Wrap-up

We made it. After an entire month of elbow grease, you should have a pretty clean platform. That's the good news. The bad news is just like a house with small children, nothing stays clean forever.

If you want to keep your platform running at optimal efficiency, you'll need some regular maintenance.

Create a schedule
Ideally, you should run a clean up of your platform at least twice a year. I would also recommend doing a quick check any time you have a new book release. Try to pick two months in the year that are less hectic for you and pencil in these clean-ups right now. Maybe add them to your calendar or make a reminder in your phone. Whatever you need to do to remember.

It's easy to tell yourself you'll keep your platform organized, but just as easy to let life get in the way and forget. By staying on a regular schedule, you'll find that the process isn't as difficult since many of the steps will just be a confirmation that everything looks good rather than needing to make more changes.

Make a check-list
Of course, you can always refer back to this blog series, but that can be time consuming and decrease the chances you'll actually complete the project. As much as I love it when you join me here, I think you'll be more successful if you keep a separate document that reminds you of all the places you need to check your platform.

In addition to a check list, it's a great idea to keep a change log. Picture this as something like the restroom cleaning logs at truck stops. If you do make a change during one of your clean-ups, or at any time during the year, mark it down. Add a new bio, mark down the date. Change your photo, mark down the date. Add a new social media account, mark down the date. You get the idea. This will be a great way to keep track of the changes you are making. 

Bonus
I mentioned a few days ago that subscribers to my newsletter will be getting another free download this month. So, now's a good time to tell you that this month's free download will be a PDF checklist of all the steps we covered during this month's Platform pick-up. In addition, I'll include a change log for tracking all your updates. The newsletter will go out Saturday afternoon, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter now so you can get these extra resources free!

What's next?
So that's it for the Platform Pick-Up series. I hope you found it helpful. I really enjoy running these series on the blog and want them to be useful to all of you. If you have ideas for other blog series or anything else you'd like to see here, please let me know. These can be anything regarding writing, publishing, marketing or any other topic you'd like to see covered. I open to all ideas, so please let me know in the comments or shoot me an email at SarahNegovetich(at)Gmail.com. And don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the next Q&A Hey, Sarah video.