bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

As many of you may have heard (and seen the occasional spy shot) my first book The Best Ideas are Free is due out soon.

I sat down last year after 6 months of blogging, printed out every post and spent an afternoon selecting the 63 best ideas.

Since then they have been put together into a book – 63 easily digestible ideas to chew on.

It will soon be available to the general public (I expect to ship July 6th but that may move up if time allows) but I will be opening pre-orders exclusively to you guys.  This is to thank you for all your support, comments (good or bad), readership and to celebrate my 1 year anniversary of blogging!

Now I will be the first to admit that yes you can browse through the blog and read the ideas for free (go for it I encourage you) but hey how much cooler is it having a book?

The book is designed to be such that you can open it up on any page, read an idea within 30 seconds, pick it up and run with it.  The first time you read it you won’t get them all but reread it three months from now another one may be relevant.

If you enjoy the blog you’ll love the book.  Like the blog it is colloquial format – as if I am having a conversation with you.  DO NOT expect a typical book – expect my blog in phsyical form (and yes with all my quirks!).  This truly is a book the way I would want a book to be..

For the 130 pages of goodness you will be given the opportunity to pre-order 1 of 63 limited edition signed copies.

To snag one enter your email below and I will be in touch (first in first served).

(Update 3rd Aug 09: The book is now out, you can click the book cover to the left in the sidebar to get a copy off Amazon or visit www.thebestideasarefree.com thanks – Ben).

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Today I celebrate a year of blogging! Woo hoo!

I started off initially 1 post a week, then ramped up to three posts a week (a huge step).  Then in September decided to try and do one a business day.  Since then I have been set.  

I have explored doing more than 1 post a day but tend to avoid it.  By limiting my output I enhance the value of the posts that do make it.  Often I find myself deleting posts that are great but not great enough.

Some of the cool stuff that has happened as a direct (or indirect) result of my blogging:

• Written my first book The Best Ideas are Free*
• Succesfully got my ChangeThis proposal voted in (yet to be released).  Thanks to all that voted.
• Had the chance to interview Tom Peters (video here) 
• Priceless friendships & networks that typically require years to build
• Had the blog republished on GetFrank
• Also earlier this year after recommendations from readers of the blog it is now republished once a week on the NZHerald, one of New Zealands biggest media sites.  Consequently it is the #1 Business Blog on the herald (in traffic & comments).
• Built up my twitter network, meeting many many great people.
• Got invited to speak on Gen C & Entrepreneurship (video link) at the Digital Summit earlier this year
• Prepared several manifestos & ebooks Blogging Strategy, Blogging Strategy: Extras for Experts edition, bwagy marketing manifesto, Business Stripped Bare
• Generated of hours attention and thousands of visitors
• Established bwagy brand
• Forced me to explain myself, challenge myself, am much much smarter this year than last. (Reasons on why to start a blog today & video)
• By my calculations processed about 16,200 emails!… (compared to 2000 the year before).
• 214 posts – 353 comments…untold spam haha

The list goes on, it has been a wonderful year & I look forward to many more… so keep watching & participating, glad to have you here.

I just want to thank you all for reading – keep an eye on the blog for a follow up special* announcement later in the day 🙂 -Ben.

Keep sowing.

Keep meeting new people, keep blogging, keep the conversations going.

The return will come.

New Marketing isn’t about create x get x.

It’s not a strict formula.

You need to keep investing, and the rewards will come and like your investment they will compound.

This week, as a result of conversations have around my brand some neat things have happend:

• A referral to become a Mobile Content provider (no work on my behalf)
• I have heard of another project I have secured (before the official word)
• Been offered a speaking gig

Blogging is a marathon.

There are hills, dips, long stretches.

The context weather changes…

Keep your eyes on the end goal and keep

Taking step after step.

Momentum is valuable, maintain it, if you lose it, it’s like starting running after you’ve stopped (painful).

Just keep taking those steps, even if they’re baby steps, do it!

Work in a startup? Different context.  Same application.

(and for those that haven’t yet read, look at my Blogging Strategy, takes 30 seconds to read)