I woke up before 6am on Tuesday morning, eager for a big day. A product launch is always filled with lots of emotions, especially in the first few critical hours.

What would happen? Dun dun dun…

At 7:30 there was a knock on my door. It’s Nicky Hajal! Our genius developer (AKA “kid wonder”) had arrived from New York the previous day. Nicky was in town along with Wes and Tera, our media team, for a tour of venues for this year’s World Domination Summit.

More on that process later—for now, Nicky was also here to help out with Tuesday’s launch of the Unconventional Guide to Publishing, our first commercial guide in more than a year. Since he was staying about a mile from my house, we decided he would just come over in the morning so we could do the launch live from World Domination HQ.

The previous night, Nicky had dropped off a monitor he “borrowed” for a few days while he was here. (Thanks, Office Max!) The monitor was now on our living room table, and on our kitchen counter was what he called his mobile workstation. Take a look at this:

Kitchen-Aid mixer not included

The setup looked suitably impressive to me, someone who has no technical skills and also no physical skills of any kind. (An unwritten post from last weekend: “Why Chris Guillebeau Is Not the Friend You Want to Help Assemble IKEA Furniture”).

As awesome as this workstation was, there was one small problem. Nicky connected a bunch of wires and antennas around the living room, and attempted to connect to the “liberator” WiFi network we use. After a few minutes, a furrowed brow was raised, and I heard lots of clicking.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

Nicky was silent for a few minutes. Finally, he announced the small problem… the awesome setup wasn’t WiFi-friendly.

Womp-womp.

No internet? This act of aggression would not stand—Nicky spends about 15 hours a day looking at code on a huge screen (thus the Office Max monitor) and needs to be online to do it.

Meanwhile, the launch was coming up in about 45 minutes… with at least 30 more minutes of things we needed to do beforehand. I was mildly stressed about getting everything done on time with an optimal setup, but now we really had a problem.

Side note: there’s a GREAT book coming out in May called The $100 Startup. I just happened to be proof-reading the final edits last week, and noticed an entire chapter all about product launches. Whoa! If only I had such wisdom before Tuesday. More news about this AMAZING book later. Now back to the story…

Don’t you have a laptop? I asked Nicky.

“Yeah… it’s back at the place.”

Don’t you have an ethernet cable? He asked me.

“Yeah… at my old apartment.”

Nicky hopped on my bike and rode back to his place to grab the laptop, and then to the grocery store to get an ethernet cable. (Yeah, it turns out grocery stores carry those… we were surprised too.)

Long story short, we kicked things off about 20 minutes later than planned. I wrote to our affiliates and apologized for the delay. It wasn’t terribly long, of course, and it’s always better to make sure things are going well before opening the doors to the masses, but nevertheless I still felt bad about the delay. To be safe, I delayed my own post here on the site an extra hour so that the affiliates who were rushing to get their posts up could do so first.

After getting underway, we still had a few problems. We’re moving everything over to our own in-house e-commerce system, which will be great… when it’s done. For now it’s still in beta, and most of the time it works well, but not always. A few users had problems with using Google’s Chrome browser. Others had issues making payment, logging in to a new account, or downloading files.

Computer-in-a-box with biscuit-in-a-box

Thanks to Nicky’s real-time tech support, most of the issues subsidized within an hour or so. We got on a roll with lots of orders coming in, and began receiving good initial comments from customers who were accessing the materials.

Meanwhile, other members of our team were working from various locations. David was sitting in Southern California, patiently entrusting the outcome of this process to my hands. (No pressure, Chris.) Sean, our newly titled “Chuck Norris” Affiliate Wrangler, had just flown in from Denver and was managing email communication with various partners. Reese, our superstar designer, was doing site reviews of other projects in a coffee shop somewhere.

As they say, it was truly a team effort! Thanks, team.

Continuous Improvement and Why Book Proposals Matter

On Wednesday, I cleared as many of my emails as possible, then sat down to review the order process. We still had a few challenges—some users had difficulty accessing their files, and others received payment errors when trying to check out. I knew that Nicky was working on that, and my skills are fairly limited, so I took a closer look at other things.

One thing I’ve learned with launches is that you can always improve results by making a few careful improvements, even after you’ve begun the process. In our case, the check-out page wasn’t as clear as it could have been. I revised it to clarify exactly what people would receive when they finished the transaction. If you’ve already purchased and something didn’t work as it should, check again—and don’t hesitate to let me know if you’re still having difficulty.

Another mistake I made in sharing the launch communication was in failing to explain why we had included several sample book proposals with the guide. When I was first learning to write a book proposal, I really struggled. I had written lots of different applications, proposals, and academic essays—but I learned that a book proposal is a very different thing. There’s a specific way you have to do it, and few good examples out there.

I totally forgot to highlight this fact about the launch, and David sent me a note about it:

In 20 years of doing this job I’ve always found that readers love it when I offer to send them an example of a proposal that has actually sold to a big house. And it’s extremely uncommon to get to see one that has sold for six figures. If you look at most of the books on proposal writing out there, they’re full of low-end, $10k titles and just aren’t very impressive.

Because David is the master negotiator, he was able to get us five complete proposals from books that sold for good amounts to leading publishers. Several of them sold for at least $100,000 and then became international bestsellers.

In addition to the 45,000 word guide and all the proposals, we also included a number of interviews with the guide. There are some surprising disclosures in these interviews, including long discussions on average selling prices for books, what captures an editor’s attention, and several good examples of marketing campaigns that helped new authors stand out in a crowded field.

All files, including these proposals and interviews, are available immediately upon purchase. All updates are FREE for the life of the guide.

Motivations, Thanks, and a Reminder

I work on a lot of different projects, and the motivations vary. In some cases, I want to create sustainability in my business. For some, I may be looking for a significant payday that will allow me to do other things that cost money. In others, like a webinar, I just want to do something fun and useful.

In this case, I was conscious of the fact that David put in a TON of work on this guide. We also had a ton of affiliates lined up to promote the guide, so for both their sakes—David and the affiliates—I wanted it to do well, not just during the launch period but on a long-term basis.

I really appreciate everyone who has supported this project by picking up the guide or spreading the word along. As mentioned earlier in the week, at least 80% of people say that they want to write a book sometime in their life, but only a small minority actually do it. Our goal is to help more of the 80% move into the minority.

Also, one final reminder: the special pricing for the Hemingway version of the guide expires tomorrow night (Friday) at midnight. David will also be hosting a special Q&A call for buyers at all levels who purchase before the deadline. After that, the guide will be in the shop on a long-term bonus, but without the bonuses.

Here’s the link if you’re interested.

Otherwise, thanks for being a part of AONC. Much more is on the way!

Question for those who are still reading: What’s the one thing you wish you knew more about?

You can share with others in the comments.

###

Image: Will

Greetings from World Domination HQ in Portland, Oregon.

Today is the launch of our long-awaited Unconventional Guide to Publishing, a comprehensive resource to help those who want to write, sell, and publish a book.

Here’s the link for those who are interested:

–>Monster publishing guide—get it now, rah-rah, etc.

***

Since this is the first launch we’ve done in a long time, I’d like to explain how things work over here. First, there’s no pressure to buy this or any other business project of mine. I do most of my work for free, right here on the blog and elsewhere.

Next, do you need this guide to write and publish a book? Of course not. All information is free, one way or another, and you can certainly get started on your own. If you want to be a writer, the best advice is to write.

What this guide does instead is give you a shortcut to learning and a detailed introduction to the world of publishing. This world is confusing from the outside, and even once you make it in… it’s still confusing. I’ve spent three years annoying my publishers in an attempt to understand what works and what doesn’t—and I’m still figuring it out.

That’s why I’ve teamed up with David Fugate, the literary agent who represents me and many other authors. David has been in the industry for twenty years, selling more than a thousand books and helping his authors earn tens of millions of dollars. (I’m still waiting on my tens of millions, but David assures me the check is in the mail.)

As mentioned yesterday, David went all-out in creating the world’s greatest resource for those who want to publish a book. The finished version of the Unconventional Guide to Publishing contains a 45,000 word manual, numerous audio interviews (with transcripts), and additional notes. We talked with editors, book marketers, consultants, and booksellers to understand more about how writers can sell books, even in the age of self-publishing.

The main questions answered in the guide include:

• So you want to write a book… what’s next?
• How can you attract interest in your book idea?
• How do you write a compelling book proposal? (And do you even need a proposal?)
• How do you find an agent?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of different kinds of publishing? (Why not just self-publish?)
• What three questions should I ask about any book contract?
• How does the growth of online publishing affect print books?

***

There is also a ton of material on contracts and proposals—two critical components of book deals that aren’t covered nearly enough in most other resources.

You’ll learn how to craft a proposal that agents and editors will get excited about. When you get an offer, you’ll learn how to make sure your contract is favorable. Most importantly, if you’ve ever wanted to write a book, you’ll learn exactly how the process works and what you need to do.

Launch Bonus: 3 Reasons To Pick This Up Now

I always try to make things fun, and this is our first guide launch in more than 16 months (i.e., forever). We’re doing three different things to kick things up a notch:

1. Price discount. For the first three days, the Hemingway version will be available for 25% off. What what! Indeed, it’s true. No discount code needed, but regular pricing kicks in at midnight on Friday, no exceptions.

2. Phone call with David Fugate. In a no-holds-barred conference call to be scheduled next month, David will answer questions about the proposal process from everyone who gets the guide during our three-day launch period. (Note: this bonus may be limited in number due to the conference call service we use. I’ll update the post here if it is no longer available.)

3. Extra “platform-building” tips from me. Two versions of the guide include a long conversation with David and me about community building, focusing on how I’ve built AONC and how that process has helped my publishing career. In this conversation, I tried to be very clear on what’s gone well and where I made real mistakes. For those who purchase the guide during this special launch, I’ll be happy to take a quick look at your project sometime in the next 60 days and offer some input by email.

Note: Neither David nor I sell any consulting services. This is a special offer only for the launch of the guide.

***

I’m thrilled that people read my blog for free, and you never need to buy any resource out of obligation or support. If you’re interested in writing a book, however, I’m proud to have this in the shop and I think it will serve you well.

If it might help someone else you know, I’d appreciate you spreading the word. Otherwise, no worries and we’ll resume the normal publishing schedule again next week.

Here’s the link again:

–>Monster publishing guide—get it now, rah-rah, etc.

P.S. As you think about creating something, whether a book or anything else, remember to start with something to say.

###

Friends and readers,

Greetings from Johannesburg airport, where I’ve just arrived from a week of gorilla trekking in East Africa. Life is good.

By popular request, you’re invited to join me for a one-hour online class on the basics of travel hacking: how to see the world on a budget. We’ll discuss at least 8 ways to earn a free plane ticket in the next 60 days.

Update: the class is now sold-out. Here is the original signup page (no longer available).

***

Over the past five years, I’ve earned nearly one million Frequent Flyer Miles every year, and I regularly cash them in for high-value trips all over the world. You can read about this here, here, here, and here.

This online class focuses on GETTING STARTED—simple steps you can take to earn miles and redeem them for the flights you want, without a ton of time and without becoming a mileage maniac like me. (No need to sleep on the airport floor, unless you want to…)

Canadians, Europeans, and other international friends—you won’t be left out. I’ll also include a few tips and tricks that I’ve never shared publicly.

Our time together will include:

• What travel hacking is all about and what to do first
• Your 5-step plan to free travel
• When is the best time to buy plane tickets?
• Family travel (Can your kids have mileage accounts? Yes they can.)
• How to earn miles without credit cards
• Low-cost, non-hostel lodging in 100+ countries
• What to do when the airline tells you no award seats are available (80% of the time, you can overcome this problem)
• The best way to plan a Round-the-World trip
• Answers to 40+ frequently asked questions (I talk fast)

***

Update: the class is now sold-out.

Until it sells out, the price is just $29 and you’ll get a recording afterwards if you can’t make the live version. Join us?

P.S. The service I use to host the class limits the number of attendees. Once we reach the cap, I’ll update this post and the offer will no longer be available. My apologies in advance if we can’t fit you in!

###

Image: Funkyeah

Earlier this year, we launched the Travel Hacking Cartel, the world’s leading service for aspiring adventurers.

The service was recently featured in a major story on NPR, Forbes, and the Yahoo home page—all on the same day! It was exciting, but also stressful, since I was working from Madagascar and had no idea that so much coverage would hit.

Having slept through most of the North American day, I woke up in the morning (Africa time) to find 800+ new members had joined the Cartel, and we also had no shortage of problems as part of the server had gone down from all the traffic.

Thankfully, Nicky the genius developer came to the rescue and got everyone sorted, with new login links and other support. All’s well now.

Speaking of the Cartel, I haven’t said much about it here on AONC since the launch. This is by design, as my business goal is for it to grow largely on its own, without a lot of pimping here. Nevertheless, once in a while I’ll post an update, and getting all the press last week gives me a good excuse.

While I’m packing up for a long trek back from Africa (TNR-JNB-DXB-LHR-SEA-PDX), here’s a short, much-abridged list of everything we’ve some of the deals we’ve shared with our members since the launch a few months ago. Not every deal works for everyone, of course, but our goal is to send members 2-4 actionable items every week that will collectively add up to big rewards.

Partial, Abridged, Shortened List

• The Massive 100,000 Mile British Airways Visa Card Offer (hundreds of our group successfully applied)
• The Monster 110,000 Capital One Miles Offer (another big deal)
• 15% Discount on all Virgin America Flights
• Free Marriott Rewards Gold Status for 90 Days
• 35% Off 2-Night Stays at All Radisson Hotels
• 10% Off Hotels.com Reservations
• 250 Hawaiian Airlines Miles
• 20% Off EasyJet Flights throughout Europe
• $30 Amazon Gift Certificate
• $50 Voucher on All Lufthansa Flights, Valid Worldwide
• 2,000 U.S. Airways Miles for One Phone Call
• Free Silver Elite Status with BMI (Star Alliance)
• Free Status Matching from Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• 5,000 Point Priority Club Bonus for 3 Nights
• $100 Off Southwest Airlines Vacations
• 1,000 Extra Hilton Points for Every Stay through June
• Spend $35, Get a $75 Expedia Gift Card
• 2,500 Hilton Points for One Phone Call
• 5,000 Free Spirit Airlines Miles
• U.S. Airways 75% Bonus on Sharing Miles
• 2,000 Easy AA Miles for Completing a Form
• 2,000 Malaysia Airlines Miles
• $75 Gift Card for 2-Night InterContinental Stay
• AmEx Canada Offer for 50,000 Aeroplan Miles
• A Way to Join Air New Zealand’s $50 Airpoints Program for Free
• 40% Bonus on AmEx Transfers to Delta
• Free Hertz Weekend Rental
• 500 Priority Club Points
• Free Hilton Silver Status (+Gold after 4 Stays)
• 250 Alaska Air Miles for One Survey
• 500 Amtrak Points
• Up to 25,000 Marriott Points for Referring Friends
• Free Priority Club Platinum Status for 90 Days
• 500 Delta SkyMiles for Car Insurance Quote

***

The list goes on and on—that’s less than half of it.

More important than the list is how the service actually helps our users. Here are a couple of quick stories that illustrate this well:

“As of December 28, 2010, the combined total for my frequent flier accounts was 8,485 miles. By the end of June 2011, that number will reach 207,555. My wife and I haven’t even flown in the last four months!

We’ve already booked awards flights to Hawaii in September, and if we’d paid for them, we would have spent over $1,400. So, yes, I’d say the tiny investments in the Frequent Flyer Master eBook and Travel Hacking cartel were worth it. Keep rocking the universe!”
-Austin Church

***

“I want to tell you that even if I didn’t go the way of the Master Hacker… my wife and I should have at least six domestic Round-Trip tickets by the end of the summer.

I’ve always wanted to travel, not just domestically, but abroad, and I believe continuing to work the system will make that opportunity easier and come sooner. Well worth my investment! Keep it coming.” -Derek Epperson

***

“I joined the THC because I had been reading your blog since last summer and wanted to see what it was all about. I was a bit skeptical because I can’t get any credit cards at the moment so I thought it might not be worth my time or money. However, in less than one month, one tip from you saved me 30% off a Virgin American flight that I was taking in a few months. I also now have 10,000 Hilton Honors points from another THC tip. There isn’t any way I would be able to do this on my own. Needless to say, I am keeping my membership in the Cartel! Thank you.” -Gayle Thompson

If you haven’t checked out the Cartel yet, you can do so here.

This isn’t a sales pitch… if you have the time and dedication, you can also conduct your own travel hacking without the service. The value-add of the Cartel is to give it to you directly without all the research, and tell you what you need to know in order to see the world on a budget. So far, so good.

***

In my own travel news, I’m beginning the long, slow journey back home after two weeks in Africa. The trip takes me back through Johannesburg, up and over to Dubai, over to London, and then way over to Seattle before hopping on down to PDX. Oh, and to get there I have to start off in Antananarivo, Madagascar… as I said, it takes a while.

I hope all is well with you wherever you are in the world. (Feel free to tell me where that is on this Google+ post.)

###

Image: Travel Hacking Meetup at WDS 2011

Greetings from Singapore, where I’m in transit and decided to write the first Sunday Store Update in a while.

If you’re new to AONC, I use this space some weekends to write about the business side of our community. Regular articles appear (without fail) every Monday and Thursday.

Two months ago, I launched the Travel Hacking Cartel, my first business project of 2011. I wanted to make a video showing everyone how the Cartel works, as well as the behind-the-scenes features that bring everything together.

If you don’t care about travel hacking or business development, you can safely skip this update. Otherwise, check out the video to learn more, including the “insiders only” member site we’ve built –

How It Works

The main service of the Cartel is to keep our users informed of the latest in travel hacking. You can do some of this on your own, of course, but we track more than 170 blogs, websites, forums, and newsletters to make sure we only publish the best offers. At a cost of $15-39 a month depending on which level you want (First Class, Business Class, or Economy), our users find this a good value.

Our commitment is to provide at least 3-5 good Deal Alerts each month, but so far we’ve published much more. Some of the highlights have included:

• Free elite status with Marriott, Priority Club, and Air France/KLM
• $100 discounts on Southwest Airlines Vacations
• $50 discounts on almost any Lufthansa flight
• Up to 25,000 Marriott Rewards points just for referring new members
• Offers specifically for Canadians and Europeans

Not every offer works for everyone, of course, but as members monitor the deals and take action on the ones that look good to them, they’re rapidly earning lots of miles, gaining free elite status, and picking up tips as they go along.

Business-wise, we created a custom solution for almost everything associated with the project. By “we” I mostly mean Reese and Nicky, my superstar designer and genius developer. Nicky built a custom affiliate program and referral program that pays our users 500 miles per referral. Reese created a nice design and layout for both the public site and the member site, which you can see in the video. The billing and payment processing is also custom, as is the whole member site and the new Cartel Community where members can create profiles and earn badges.

Most importantly, we’ve tried to make it very easy for new travel hackers to get oriented and start earning tons of miles. With the world’s greatest guarantee of four plane tickets a year, we’re backing up our claim of successful travel hacking for members all over the world.

Launch + Post-launch

The initial response was great—thousands of people signed on for the 14-day trial, with more joining every day. Retention is always a big issue with any recurring billing offer, and I’m pleased that we’ve kept more than 70% of members thus far. Since some people will always join an offer to see what it’s like and then immediately opt-out, 70%+ is pretty good.

As mentioned right after the launch, my goal for this project is that it will continue to grow on its own, without my direct intervention all the time—that’s why I haven’t said much about it on AONC. Once in a while I’ll post an update here on some of the deals our members are taking advantage of, but the long-term growth will come mostly through word-of-mouth.

So far, so good. If you didn’t join at the launch, the 14-day, $1 trial is still available. Check it out below if you’d like to learn how to be a travel hacker.

–>Travel Hacking Cartel $1 trial offer

Otherwise, thanks for reading AONC. This week I’ve been in East Timor, my first new country of March and also the world’s newest country. I’ll be headed home shortly for an extended time of book-writing and preparing for the World Domination Summit.

Wherever you are, I hope all is well in your part of the world.

###

I was all set to go on national TV Friday morning to discuss travel hacking, but then I got a frantic message from the producer: “Have you been to Egypt?”

Why yes, I said, I have—not checking the news, since I was thinking ahead to the segment for which they were interviewing me. The next message came three minutes later, saying they were dropping travel hacking in favor of Egyptian riots.

Since bringing democracy to a country that has lived with a dictator for three decades is probably more important than earning a free plane ticket, I decided that decision was fair. I went back inside and changed into a t-shirt.

***

This is the Sunday Store Update. Before the all-consuming book tour, I used this weekend space on AONC to write about the business development side of our project. The notes in these updates aren’t designed to sell you on anything, so if you’re new here, feel free to take off your skeptic hat and just read along. (And if you don’t care about the inner workings of a business, you can safely skip these updates.)

This week I launched the Travel Hacking Cartel, my first business project in six months. There were two important elements to the project’s development:

a) The world of travel hacking is fun but overwhelming.

Most people really don’t know how to earn lots of Frequent Flyer miles without flying and redeem them for big awards, so I wanted to break it down very simply and provide a step-by-step plan. (This is also backed up by the “World’s Greatest Guarantee” of four plane tickets a year.)

For those who have unlimited time to spend, there are plenty of resources where you can spend countless hours learning everything about the inner workings of the travel world. But for those who just want to know what to do in order to take advantage of major opportunities without getting overwhelmed, there was no well-developed option… until now.

b) I wanted to create something “shareable” that people would pass on to their friends.

Creating something shareable isn’t just about putting a Facebook button on a page; you have to ensure your service is truly valuable and noteworthy. It’s good if your service is fun, but above all, it must be useful.

With the Cartel, I have a big goal to do something I’ve never done before: I want the project to grow on its own, without a lot of push from me. Other entrepreneurs out there will recognize the significance of this challenge; normally a product launch is the main source of growth, and the activity afterwards quickly falls off. It normally works like this:

Launch = Huge day! Fireworks! Everything is amazing!
Post-launch = Everything calms down and dwindles out over time

I’m fortunate that UnconventionalGuides.com is somewhat insulated thanks to the hundreds of reviews and affiliate links that are continuously published online. But nevertheless, even with our relative success we still have a big rush of sales come through during a launch, then much fewer as time goes by.

Conversely, my goal for the Travel Hacking Cartel is that most of the ongoing growth will come through word-of-mouth and the internal referral program we’ve set up. I’m happy to do media and other work behind the scenes, but I don’t want to promote the project all the time from AONC.

Will the project succeed under this model? I hope so, but time will tell. Ultimately the Cartel will be judged by the success of our members in travel hacking. As they are able to earn lots of miles and redeem them for high-value trips, I expect the results will speak for themselves.

I’ll do a “behind the scenes” of the Cartel update in another month or so, and from time to time I’ll mention deals that Cartel members have taken advantage of, but overall we’re going to see what we can do without using AONC as the main platform. Fingers crossed!

You can check out the Cartel over here if you’re interested. We had a few technical glitches during the initial launch day (as always happens), but everyone is settling in nicely now and we have a lot of fun things coming up. Over here on AONC, this week we’ll be back to regularly-scheduled updates with no further business promotion for a while.

###

Greetings, friends and readers. As promised, today is the initial launch of my new Travel Hacking Cartel.

The goal of the project is to democratize free and low-cost travel for thousands of our members all over the world.

–>You can learn more or sign up here for the special preboarding phase here

***

How It Works

We’re welcoming an initial 1,000 members during the preboarding phase. In addition to being extra-special, these inaugural members will get access to a live webinar I’ll produce next month on “8 Ways to Travel for Free in 2011.”

Cartel membership is global; some things are easier in the U.S., but you can still earn miles and redeem them for great awards wherever you live. Travel hacking does not require you to get a lot of credit cards. There are three tiers to membership, and all of them include a 14-day $1 trial.

After the first 1,000 people join the cartel, the next group won’t get the live webinar, but we’ll give them access to the webinar recording afterwards as long as they join before February 1st. We’ll also be supporting our members in helping them make referrals to their own circle of friends. (All cartel members will be able to earn 500 Frequent Flyer Miles for referring aspiring travel hackers.)

A Few Notes on the Launch

Travel hacking isn’t for everyone. We’ve produced what we call the “World’s Greatest Guarantee,” where all our members can earn enough miles for one plane ticket every quarter, regardless of where they live.

This requires a bit of work on our members’ part—not a lot, but at least 30 minutes a month. If you’re not up for that, no worries, but this project won’t help you. Also, if you prefer to pay full price when traveling, don’t bother with the cartel. We focus exclusively on giving the advantage to the traveler instead of the travel companies.

In addition to signing up directly, you can also support one of our 45 (carefully-selected) affiliate partners who are promoting this offer today. To do that, just click on one of their links from various reviews and endorsements all over the internet, and follow the process from there.

Finally, we’ve been building this project for months, and everything for the site is completely custom. We’re expecting a massive wave of travel hackers joining up for the preboarding phase today—so if the site is down when you click, or if something doesn’t work the way it should, try again in a couple of hours.

I greatly appreciate Reese, Nicky, and Sean helping to get this up and running after months of development. And I also appreciate you for reading AONC, whether you care about travel hacking or not.

Happy cartel preboarding day! I’ll be manning the fort from World Domination HQ in Portland. It’s a good thing I have a very large french press of Stumptown coffee…

–>Aspiring travel hackers, head over here

Update: we reached the first 1,000 signups. Everyone else who joins up before February 1 will still have access to the webinar recording, just not the live one.

###

Next week we’re finally going to launch the preboarding phase of my first major business project in nearly a year, the Travel Hacking Cartel.

On Monday I’ll tell you more about it, and on Tuesday we’ll offer a $1, 14-day trial to the first 1,000 people who manage to sign up. (After the preboarding phase, it will be available on a referral basis from existing members.)

But first! Let’s have some fun and give away a free trip.

I get a lot of questions about travel hacking, and many of them come from people who aren’t sure if it’s worth it. “Are miles really that valuable anymore? What if I don’t want to get a bunch of credit cards? If I don’t live in the U.S., can I still benefit?” Those are some of the questions that come up, over and over.

Last year I earned more than one million Frequent Flyer Miles, and I actually stopped pursuing most travel hacking opportunities while on my 53-city U.S. book tour.

Here’s an infamous screenshot of my April 2010 mileage balances from 10 accounts (I have a few others I haven’t linked in yet). Most of these miles were earned on the ground, without flying, and more than two-thirds were earned without credit card bonuses.

My Trips

Earning the miles is fun, but using them is even better. Last year I redeemed 400,000 miles for my big trips to Kazakhstan, Belarus, Cameroon, Thailand, the Maldives, and multiple repositioning flights between Europe and the U.S.

Next month I’m flying to the Mideast to begin a Round-the-World trip. I used AA miles to book my Business Class flights on British Airways and Royal Jordanian. Cash price: $4,500. Price with miles: $84 in taxes. On the way I’ll layover in Heathrow at the Sheraton airport hotel. Cash price: $220. Price with Starwood points: free.

You can also see the proof in dozens (probably hundreds now) of stories of our readers who have similar reports of success. Use Google, use Twitter, go and ask them yourself.

The cartel will be helping lots of people take plenty of free trips on a regular basis. But before we open the doors to the masses next week, I wanted to help someone from our broader community get a free plane ticket to their choice of destinations.

This weekend I’ll be giving away 25,000 miles—enough for a free round-trip ticket on most airlines—to one of our readers who can use it for a good cause. (And going on an adventure, visiting friends, or just traveling to a new city is a good enough cause for me.)

‘Free Trip to Anywhere’ Giveaway! Here’s How It Works

The 25,000 miles will be redeemed for a round-trip Economy ticket in the winner’s name, valid anywhere within North America, anywhere within Europe, anywhere within Asia, or anywhere within Australia/New Zealand. I’ll select the airline depending on the winner’s preferred itinerary, and it will be a major worldwide carrier (no budget airlines or Southwest tickets here).

The winner needs to:

a) Work with me to make the reservation with my miles (very easy; I’ll explain exactly what to do and it won’t take long)

b) Go on the trip within the next six months (because miles should be used, not hoarded)

c) Take pictures and report back to us with a blog post or video update when he or she gets back

That’s it. If you win, I’m giving you 25,000 miles, I’ll make the reservation for you, and I’ll even pay the taxes. (You’re on your own if you need to pay to check bags, or pay for anything else that comes up on the actual trip.)

Post a Comment to Enter

Please post a short comment on this post saying where you’d like to go and why. By entering the contest, you agree that you really will go on this trip if your entry is the winner.

Our usual biased judges, including my furry assistant Libby (and other more helpful friends), will select one person for a free trip. As the comments are posted, you can also “vote” for another entry if you’d like—but as with any benevolent dictatorship, the judges will have the final say.

That’s it! See you next week with more on the Travel Hacking Cartel… and good luck. The deadline for comments is Friday at 17:00 PST.

If the biased judges choose your entry, where will you use your free trip?

UPDATE: Thanks, everyone! We’ll announce the winner on Monday.

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Image: Robert

Dear Friends,

I got up at 5am in Anchorage last Monday to publish this post, all about a business offer I was partnering with to donate my proceeds to our Ethiopia project.

At the moment I pressed the publish button, I knew it was a good promotion and I trusted Karol and Adam—but I wasn’t entirely sure how readers would respond. We had no pre-launch to let people know this was coming, it was a busy time of the year, and I was just wrapping up our own only-once-a-year sale at UnconventionalGuides.com.

I was also a little tired and distracted by book tour, so after I published the post, I went back to bed. I woke up 90 minutes later when Adam sent me a text message that said we had already accrued $5,000 in donations.

Wow! That was a pretty good start.

Throughout the rest of the day and the following two days, the sales kept coming in. Many people began spreading the AONC affiliate link on Twitter so the sales would go toward our project. By the end of the first day we were well over $10,000 in donations, not counting the additional 5% donation that Adam and Karol were throwing in.

We finished the 72-hour sale with a total of $24,213 (and fourteen cents!) in accrued donations from AONC readers. Thank you so much! Together with the additional donation from the overall sales, Karol and Adam will be writing checks for more than $33,000 to our friends at Charity: Water.

A Note on Business Lessons

As mentioned in the original post, Karol and Adam did a great job with this project by a) creating a compelling offer and b) using leverage to gather a lot of support from a wide range of authorities. I’ve scheduled an interview with them to discuss some more in-depth lessons for our Empire Building Kit owners—if you’re in the group, you can expect that to go up by the end of the year.

The other thing I liked about this project is that it wasn’t strictly a charity drive. Instead of just soliciting funds, we created a win-win situation where buyers received $1,000 of resources for just $97, and then the bulk of the $97 went to our Ethiopia project. No one loses in that situation—everyone wins.

I know some people don’t like the line between non-profit and commercial work to be blurred, but I actually think it’s better and more interesting that way. It also ties in well with the overall message of AONC: you don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to, and you can do good things for yourself and for others at the same time.

A Note on Responsibility

After the sale was over, I reflected on the experiencing of writing a blog post that creates $24,000 in value in a short time. Of course, I realize it’s not so much the writing of the post but the action that readers take that create the success—but nevertheless, the results also filled me with a sense of responsibility.

Many times in my life I have thought of the expression, “Where much is given, much is required.” If you prefer, the secular version comes from Spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility. The point is that it’s fantastic to have such a responsive community out there—you guys are great and I’m thrilled to be able to do this every day.

The sale is over, but you can always make a contribution over here if you’re so inclined. 100% of the funds go directly to the field, and I’ll be taking a (very small) group to Ethiopia in late 2011 to document what’s been done so far.

As always, thanks so much for reading AONC, and have a great week wherever you are.

Yours in World Domination,

P.S. I’m headed out tomorrow to begin the big West Coast finale of the entire U.S. tour. 44 stops down, only nine to go—San Fran, Reno, L.A., Phoenix, Albuquerque, Seattle, and Portland. The schedule is here and I’d love to meet you if you’re around. Bring friends and cupcakes!

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Image: Charity: Water

Greetings, friends and readers. Today I’m in Anchorage, Alaska for the 43rd stop of the Unconventional Book Tour.

I’ll be at the University of Alaska at noon, and Metro Music and Books at 7pm tonight. (We’ll be moving to a beer-and-pizza place afterwards, which I’m told is mandatory when in Alaska.)

Today I have a couple of notes on commercial projects. First, it’s the last day of the only-once-a-year sale at UnconventionalGuides.com. Until midnight tonight, you can use the discount code “PUMPKIN” to save 15% on any purchase, and an additional 15% will go to our Ethiopia water project. More details are over here.

The Win-Win, “Ultimate Cyber Monday” Project (Spend $97, Get $1,000, $80+ goes to Ethiopia)

Second, a couple of friends are launching something this week that I think is very interesting. I’ll tell you about it below and include an affiliate link if you’re interested too—but pay close attention to the details.

Here’s the link:

?Big project, super affiliate link, click here

Karol Gadja and Adam Baker (both of them have joined me for various tour stops this fall) have been putting together a monster sale of 23 different business resources. All together, the resources cost $1,000 on their own, but for 72-hours only, they are sold together for just $97.

If you’re an entrepreneur, the very-important-lessons here are a) create a compelling offer, and b) leverage influence from a broad range of people. Karol and Adam did an excellent job with both of these strategies.

Next, Karol and Adam worked with a number of people to promote the project, in most cases giving them 80% affiliate commission. I don’t usually promote affiliate products because I have friends who are launching things every week, and the purpose of AONC isn’t to sell things all the time. Instead, I try to help people out wherever I can with Twitter, behind-the-scenes advice, or whatever. In this case, I decided to join their affiliate program… but if you purchase through my “big project, super affiliate” link, the money won’t go to me.

I’ve had a good year and don’t need any more money. I’m extremely fortunate, grateful, and even blessed to be able to write for a living and tour the world meeting fun people. Even though I’m an entrepreneur myself and don’t think there’s anything wrong with making money, I always try to be conscious of how much money I need and how much is just extra.

So in this case, the overall project already includes a donation on every sale to our Water for Ethiopia project, and I’ll go further to donate my 80% commission as well. In short: if you pick this up, I don’t get paid a single dollar, and each $97 sale will result in an $80+ donation to the project.

I’d like us to raise at least $15,000 with this campaign, and if we do more than that, so much the better. It’s a win-win, because I’m the one making the donation—you invest $97 to receive resources worth more than $1,000, Adam and Karol get paid a small amount, and we donate the bulk of the funds to our important project.

Fun and valuable? I think so—but check it out at the link below and decide for yourself. You have until midnight on Wednesday to jump on the train.

?Big project, super affiliate link, click here

Of course, if you aren’t interested, no problem at all. I don’t have any other business projects planned until January, and I’ll be focused on finishing the U.S. part of my book tour and going on a much-needed vacation.

Also, a number of other people are promoting this project around the interwebs this week. Just to be clear, I don’t think it’s bad that they are keeping their share of the money—I just don’t feel like I need to do that myself this time.

And now, off to the University of Alaska. Wednesday night I’ll be in Honolulu, Hawaii (big change of scenery there), and then I’ll be getting ready for the big West Coast finale over the next two weeks.

Thanks so much for reading AONC. Have an amazing week, wherever you are!

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Image: Wonderlane