Some people would rather gnaw their own leg off than stand up in front of a group of people and speak. However, if you can pull it off, getting out and speaking can be a great way to raise your profile, build your audience, network with peers, and build your customer base.

Before you consider doing any really serious speaking, however, you have to hone your skills. I'd done short talks through the Girl Scouts when I was younger. I took a speech class in university as well. Even so, speaking in front of a group wasn't something I was jumping around with excitement to do. Then I was approached to teach a half-day workshop on preparing for the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam at a technical conference. Given that I was working on a certification book, that seemed like a great opportunity.

Luckily I had a year to prepare. I didn't want to freeze up in front of people who were paying to be there, so I started by looking for groups I could speak to about, well, anything. I spoke at my local Society for Technical Communication chapter about writing computer books. Then I spoke to a more general writers' organization about technical writing. I also spoke a bit to a local Linux User Group. Each time I was crazily nervous but I made my notes and I got up there and did it, and it did start to get easier.

By the time I got to the conference, I was pretty relaxed about it. This was a great thing, since I had a muscle injury and had to do the workshop while on prescription strength muscle relaxants and painkillers. Since I put all of my energy into making sure my students got their best value, I didn't quite get to enjoy the fact that I was in Vegas flown there on someone else's dime, staying on the conference's dime at the Paris hotel, and had full access to the show, but I did get to wander out toward the end and buy a bottle of water out in the middle of the desert, to find it was from my home province of British Columbia, Canada.

Along the way I learned a few things. For one, preparation really is key. Because I'd taken the time to be sure I was comfortable, I was able to do my job and make sure that the students got what they came for. I learned that it was fun to be able to go somewhere I hadn't been without having to pay for myself as a freelancer, and that attending conferences is a huge bang for the buck kind of way to network with peers--as long as they're the right conferences.

Now, I won't claim that I make a ton of money speaking. In fact, at many conferences, not only are the speakers not paid, but often the travel, hotel, and other expenses aren't paid either. Sometimes part of it might be covered if they really want you. Sometimes there's a small honorarium (they don't call it a real payment because no one would pay that little for you to speak!) Just as when I was talking about travel and making things pay, the key is in making speaking engagements work for you.

Aside from getting yourself comfortable with public speaking, the first thing you need to do is actually reach out to get a gig. Most conferences release a "Call for Papers" months before the conference itself. This call is essentially a request for people to contact them with a talk proposal. Don't let the "Papers" reference scare you, there may not actually be any papers involved unless you're dealing with a highly academic conference where you'd be presenting your paper.

Be careful to read read the call for papers and see what they're looking for, what format it should be in, and by when. Make note of the dates for the conference (if you can't go, there's no point in applying), and maybe even look back over a few previous years to see what kinds of talks were done. You also need to determine if you can afford to go if you have to cover everything yourself.

If you decide this conference makes sense for you for whatever reason, brainstorm and see what talk ideas you can come up with. Sometimes this is easier said than done. I've done so many talks on Linux that sometimes I can just pull one out of my hat, and sometimes I'm so bored with the ones I usually do that I wrack my brain trying to come up with something more original and interesting.

And keep in mind that conference presentations are not usually a good time for serious self-promotion. The presentation itself is promotion. Any overt on top of that has to be very subtle, like your URL as a footer under your slides. You need to focus the presentation on what you're offering the attendees, not on what they can do to grow your business.

Write up your talk proposal to whatever length and detail they request. And then give serious thought to the bio you're going to send along with it. Remember that this is the bio they'll probably put in the conference program to lure people to your talk. It really needs to convince the conference board and the attendee that they absolutely must come to hear you speak. 

Once you send it off (and feel free to send more than one proposal to the same conference), look for the next one. If you can get yourself up in front of enough people, you'll find that you'll get invitations to speak elsewhere, or will get offers of other work. And if you happen to land one of those really lucrative gigs, hey, let me know how it goes.

Have you done any speaking? How did you get the gig? How did it go? Did it lead to something more?