bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Right, I just want to start off, I have made a bit of a blunder, after a few phone calls and talking to some colleagues I need to make some changes to the bwagy blogging club.

The approach I took (along with some assistance from others) was to focus on the knowledge driven community side.  However this encompassed a larger cost (as we had to factor in the time cost of managing it).

In fact when we crunched the numbers this was going to be the biggest cost.

Soaking up all the feedback Friday and Monday – this was the least priority on your list. #1 priority is access to the information.

Thus we are going to drop it and dramatically re-engineer how we anticipated running the course.

(Oh the beauty of responding to the market huh?)

Instead we are going to focus on:

• Delivery of content directly through email.
• Online version will be available, as well as pdfs of information

And less focus on the community side of it.

For now the aim is to get the information in your hands in an actionable format.

This means by cutting that component we can deliver it in a much more cost effective fashion AND also deliver to a greater volume of people.  Finally we can also initiate the course on demand.

The revised pricing is as follows:

• $133 nzd/month for 3 months.
• $399 nzd for the 12 week email based course. (17% discount).
• $599 nzd for the course + The Best Ideas are Free + one on one phone consultation.

The course starts November 2nd.

At those prices I think anyone can get value out of it, at the least if you can use blogging to increase your rate by $10/hour, you are paid back in a matter of days.

Thanks for your patience guys, as you know my aim is to help you and in doing that I sometimes miss the boat, but rest assured I’m smart enough to learn when to act. -Ben

(Update: Just to be clear the content has not changed in anyway just the delivery).

I’ve been quoting 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly for some time now, so thought well overdue for the bwagy evolution.

To sum up the post:

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.” Full post over at kk.org. (Make sure you read it).

Any creator probably starts with at least three true fans (aka mum, dad, grandma, grandad, husband/wife, siblings).

How do you take it from that to 1000? Well through hard work; listening, obsessing and growing with your fans.  It’s going to take some time but it is an entirely achievable target – once you have it you can then fully do what you want.

This isn’t my typical post, but it is relevant and follows up on What do I do? And what I’m working on.

Due to demand (and the inability to clone myself) I am opening up the opportunity for people to join a private blog whereby I can use my experience blogging to help you leverage your own efforts. Read on for more….

—

bwagy blogging club

I am offering a fixed price 12 week course to help you truly leverage blogging.

Please read on for what you get, who this is good for, how it will add value and what you need to do next.

You will get:

• Weekly tips and action points on improving your blogging
• How to strategically (and solidly) grow your blog & subscriber base
• How to monetise and improve sales from blogging
• How to measure what matters and what to do with that information
• Learn the 20% that creates 80% of the results, blogging shouldn’t take up your whole day
• Direct feedback loop with Ben, converse in private and with other members
• Learn what software to use and why to use it
• Find out the ways to leverage your efforts to benefit business for the next decade
• Find out WHY readers will spread and share your content for you
• Build a leverage system that will automatically build your traffic base for you.
• How to find and source content ideas
• Fine tuning your blog to build your brand
• How blogging can decrease your online marketing expenditure

The list goes on and on. We will start at the basics and extrapolate from there.

Who is this good for?

• Small businesses who wish to leverage the #1 marketing tool: blogging
• Bloggers who have been frustrated at dismal results
• People who like to learn from (and thus avoid) others mistakes
• Freelancers, Soloentrepreneurs, home businesses whom can benefit from a strong local presence
• Networkers or People who wish to make things happen in their career, blogging can help get your name out there
• Online businesses who need to qualify leads
• Startups (or companies in pre-startup phase) build buzz before you even launch
• Professionals who rely (and want to grow) their personal brand
• Corporates who need to be doing this but don’t know where to (or how to) start

Further you also:

• Get direct access to me
• Can ask questions which you can’t in a public format
• Get access to private (and internal) documents, videos and podcasts
• All members receive a copy of the bwagy blogging strategy, an action list to put your blogging on steroids today. (Valued at $199).  This is the outline of how I have grown my blog from nothing and how you can do the same.
• Access to my networks to help you with the areas you struggle in. We will feature a few specialists to show you additional ways to grow your blog.
• I will also make available technical help should you need it.

How does this put money directly in your own pocket?

• Stop researching. Find out from my experience what you should be doing.
• Avoid costly mistakes, you can spend months or years making basic mistakes.
• Save time.
• We will cover how to use blogging to build your business.
• Increase sales & conversions from your blog.
• Open the door to new opportunities, networks and business development (how can you put a price on that?).
• Increase your charge out rate, by being known as a leader in your market you can charge more.

What are the outcomes?

• Armed with a strategy to march forward with.
• A permission asset for you to grow that attracts and qualifies leads.
• A strategic approach to establish market dominance online.
• An asset which helps build word of mouth AND brand equity.

All you have to do is step back and look at what I have created with this blog to see whether you can or can’t benefit from my experience.  Time is everything and instead of repeating the same mistakes that every blogger makes you can jump the queue (and your competition) by taking the course.

Guarantee
If you complete the course; follow the steps laid out and still don’t feel you have profited from the course email me ben@bwagy.com and I will give you a full refund.

What do you get if you sign up today?

• Immediate access to my Blogging Strategy Document.
• A secured spot.  The course kicks off November 2nd but we will make pre-training materials available beforehand.

There are three options (update: we revised pricing more info here):

1. bwagy blogging club membership (plus blogging strategy) $399 nzd.
2. Legends upgrade.  Bundle the course with a signed copy of my book The Best Ideas are Free and a half hour one to one phone session completed at an agreed time during the course. $599 nzd[Limit 10]. Update:
3. Spread the payment out $133 nzd/month for 3 months.

What to do next?

Sign up here for immediate access to your blogging strategy and prepare for kick off November 2nd.

[Registrations close October 30th]

In summary:

• We are offering an exclusive blog training course starting November 2nd.
• You get weekly content helping you grow your blog (and your business).
• It costs $599 nzd.

Sign up here.

I truly look forward to working with you and helping you leverage your blog.

Thanks

– Ben

ps
Did I mention you get to take away full pdfs of the course so you can carry on in your own time?

pps

Ok time to stop, if you are serious about blogging, reread again and sign up.

Reading a book is an interesting experience, why do you start? Why do you continue? Why do you finish? Why do you tell others about it?

The answers to these surprisingly basic questions will probably yield more than you first realise.

Why do you start?

• The back cover sold you on it
• You heard great things about it
• You had spare time of which you decided to read

Why do you continue, once you read one page why do you keep turning? Page after page?

• Incomplete story, want to know the end
• There is a lead in to the next page (how often do you stop reading at the end of a chapter vs the middle?)
• It is little effort to do so

Why do you finish?

• You wanted to get the full story
• It was easy once you’d started
• Satisfaction gained from finishing

Why do you tell others about it?

• Story aka experience was so good want to share
• They saw you with physical object, easy to share ie can loan my book
• Talking point of which you are confident enough to talk on
• If your friends like it they will think favourably of you (status)

Amazing what you can learn just by second guessing something you already do or most importantly by asking the right questions.

Naturally we shy away from pain.  However there are times when we should push through it and others where we should just quit.

You probably have heard someone say if it’s not coming easy, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it and to back off let it happen naturally. (ie if you ought to be doing it it should be easy).

OR

You are doing something completely new and it’s painful because you haven’t experienced it before – you should push through.

So which is it?

There is no strict answer, you learn through experience.

However in the meantime pick up The Dip and have a read, helps you learn when to stick and when to quit.

Apologies there was no post yesterday – due to no internet access!

Shock, horror, how could that happen? Simple our home wifi router power cut out.  I was also car less yesterday, then to top things off there is a local bus strike so mission to get into office.  Thus I spent the day offline getting stuff done.

Talking with other entrepreneurs looking at starting businesses (anything from a cafe to a saas provider) and how they tell their story there is one thing I have noticed…

That I cannot fathom the idea of a new business that isn’t story telling and engaging.

That is sharing their story and engaging the community to help grow their business.

What is your story? What can you share? How can you build a community?

Even a cafe with a blog or a Petrol Station with live tweets? A doctors blog sharing advice or heads up on common ailments.

No this wouldn’t be relevant to everyone but it would be relevant to those that matter – your community.

If you are looking at starting a business (or launching a new product), look at how you can strategically build a community, engage and build real relationships… even 6 months before you want to start it…

Are you?

Perfectionists hate this but often doing something is more important than the actual substance.

That is the value you get from the action is more than the result.

Writing a blog has a halo effect, that is the actual writing and distribution of content on a daily basis is perceived to be high value, whether or not an observer reads each and every piece of content.

This is why entrepreneurs that focus on getting it 80% right, then evolving their product are so successful, the continual growth creates new opportunities for conversations.

No.  As I’ve said before you’re always wrong.  You just want to be less wrong than your competition.  I may just be slightly more right than you… at least for now.

#20 Get clarity around your model
Decide early on, is this going to be a business I grow? or all about me? (ie this business is only ever going to be me). That reflects your company direction, decisions, operating model… future planning. Note you can change your mind about this, but at least have a direction initially.

#21 Build a board of directors
Build a board of directors, family, friends, clients, those who have an intrinsic interest in your business. Report to them cashflow, sales, metrics. Just having to report to someone will remind you of what you’re doing.

#22 Diversify revenue
Diversify your revenue streams, never have all your eggs in one basket, ebooks, retainers, speaking, courses, hourly work.

Starting without fanfare is a bit daunting and quite scary.

Shouldn’t I be shouting from the rooftops about what I’m doing?

Yes and no.

Shout from the rooftops once you’ve tested your product with paying customers AND they think it’s awesome.

However who starts off like that? Starting without fanfare lets you operate under the radar, quietly refine and build your business.

It also means you have market potential rather than converting a market that is fatigued by your shouting.

A good analogy is the franchise, do you think they rolled out hundreds of McDonalds then figured out how to make a convenient meal?

Have been fatigued with mainstream media for quite some time.

I can’t watch one hour of the news without pointing out an inaccuracy.

The common ones are:

• Distortion of statistics, establishing causation or correlation in statistics where there is no link.  (My #1 gripe). (Does no news network ever have a statistician validate numbers?!?!!)
• Misquoting, taking a 5 second sound bite out of a larger conversation.  Using this you can slur a story anyway you want.
• Hearsay reported as fact.
• Blatant delivering a press release as news (ie human interest story solved by a new product).

Media should be fined for misrepresentation, I am happy for them to say their ‘may’ be a link between these or to say rumour has it.  But be honest, say what it is.  Otherwise you should get fined for it.

And lets be honest they’re never going to report news saying it’s based on hearsay.  As you will realise it’s rubbish – or is that just the definition of mainstream media in the 21st century?

What do you think?

Everyone has an opinion but….BUT it is only as valid as you let it be.

The past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of partaking in the RadioWammo show on KiwiFM.

It’s been a lot of fun and we are going to to continue doing it.  But I just wanted to let you know you can:

• Listen on the radio (if in NZ). Visit KiwiFM for the local frequency.
• You can watch via ustream (available globally).
• You can even listen online (available globally).
• Then afterwards it goes up on YouTube – so here’s a playlist where you can get the latest ones.

Tune in 0910 NZT (watch my twitter Monday mornings).

Once we have the time I will organise a centralised website to collate all the media so you can subscribe in one place – but please listen, love to hear your comments.

I have embedded the past three weeks below:

Ben Young on TEDx & Unconferencing 5-10-09 Radio Wammo Show, Kiwi FM

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07yqgy-fg4w

Ben Young on Tipping Buses drivers & Free Broadband 28-9-09 Radio Wammo Show, Kiwi FM

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dd6eiZ23D4

Ben Young Ideas Primer 21-9-09 Radio Wammo Show, Kiwi FM

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hddMLdgvXk