First up, Happy Easter to all! I hope you’ve had a good weekend with people you love.

***

This is a short weekend update before the regular programming of the week. In 41 days, awesome people from all over the world will arrive in Portland for our inaugural World Domination Summit. We’ve been working every day on the many logistical issues to ensure we exceed everyone’s high expectations for the weekend.

My garage is crammed with boxes of t-shirts in all sizes, stacks of city maps, water bottles, and empty badges that will soon contain the names of attendees. Our team has been confirming food carts, gift bags, airport welcomes, and more. Libby the cat has dropped her schedule of sleeping 20 hours a day to merely 18, and spends the extra hours running up and down the stairs in excitement.

In other words, it’s all hands on deck here in Southeast Portland.

Sold Out Means… Sold Out

Unfortunately, we sold out the 490-seat event more than five months in advance, with just ten seats opening up since then. Since then I’ve heard from more than a few cynical people, who think I have a secret plan to cash in and suddenly announce the availability of more tickets.

Alas, there is no such plan. Bringing more than 500 people (including volunteers and speakers) to town in one weekend is a big enough project for us at this point. Rest assured that we’re carefully looking into options for next year, but first things first… we’re proceeding as planned with this event.

For those who are coming, you should already have your flights and hotel room booked. If not, please do so soon—flights to PDX are not getting any cheaper, and June 3-5 also happens to be the same weekend as the Rose Festival, another big event (although not nearly as exciting) that happens every year. We sold out of all WDS-block hotel rooms in one day, but as long as you stay anywhere downtown within walking distance to the streetcar, you’ll be fine.

***

In other news, my thanks to our resident genius Nicky Hajal for rescuing us this week from a tragic server crash caused by our (now former) hosting company. The downtime was frustrating, but it looks like we’re rolling again strong.

Aside from some short working trips (Chicago for SOBCon, NYC for The 99% Conference), I’m in town until after June, preparing for the summit and writing a book manuscript.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’re doing well.

###

Image: EG

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 from Durham, North Carolina, near the Duke campus where we did last night’s Unconventional Book Tour stop.

One week ago, I ran ten miles in non-stop pouring rain. The only thing that made it easier was thinking about everyone else running the Portland Marathon on the other side of town. Ten miles in the rain gave me blisters, but at least it wasn’t 26.2 miles. I escaped to the indoors, went to Chipotle, and now all is well.

***

If you’re new to AONC, I usually use the weekend space for short updates about my business, UnconventionalGuides.com. Since I’m on the road meeting readers in all 50 states this fall, I’ve been writing about that instead.

Previous updates here:

Notes from the Road, Volume IV
Notes from the Road, Volume III
Notes from the Road, Volume II
Notes from AA Flight 847
Notes from the Road, Volume I

***

Minneapolis

After driving through the midwest and Great Lakes last week, I finally made it to Minneapolis, where we had the almost-perfect gig thanks to a great location, a great host, and even a fun folk duo that came out to play. The only thing that made it 9.9 stars out of 10 was when someone bumped into me and I spilled red wine all over my nice blue shirt.

Note to self: drink white wine before speaking next time. Thankfully I had a t-shirt under the dress shirt, so I was able to give my talk and do what I call “Questions and Attempted Answers” from the microphone without looking any more silly than usual.

Fargo + Sioux Falls

My two stops in the Dakotas were both hosted at Zandbroz, a bookstore with locations in each city. After driving through the Midwest and Great Lakes (a loooong drive, starting in Iowa and ending in Minneapolis, the long way around) I returned the rental car and took a quick commuter flight to Fargo. From there I rented another car and drove to Sioux Falls where I met with another small but fun group of unconventional people.

Ending in Sioux Falls brought the second major leg of the tour to a close, completing 23 out of 63 stops. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s going well and has definitely been worth it.

Beltway Blitz: Maryland, D.C., Virginia

After a few days at home in Portland (where I ran the 10 miles in the rain), I flew to Maryland, where I was a guest at a media class at the University of Baltimore on Tuesday night. Wednesday night was at Barnes & Noble in Washington D.C. Thursday was in Alexandria, Virginia at Motley Fool HQ. After the Beltway stops, I headed out to Charleston, West Virginia, and Durham, North Carolina.

I’ll write more about those cities in the next update, and all details for the next 36 stops are listed here.

Nashville Bonus Stop! (Because 63 cities wasn’t enough)

Due to popular request, I’ve added an additional stop in Franklin, Tennessee (near Nashville) this Wednesday night (the 20th, at 7pm). This event will be hosted by Dan Miller of 48 Days fame in his barn. It’s short notice, but if you know someone in Nashville, tell them to come! RSVP here to get on the list.

Everyone is welcome to come out to any stop on the tour, and everyone is welcome to bring someone. (Tell them it won’t be boring, and if it is, at least it will be short.)

Meanwhile, the World Domination Summit

The WDS continues to fill up with attendees, although thankfully it’s slowed down a little since I don’t actually want it to sell out right away. If you haven’t signed up to join us next June in Portland, you can do so here.

I also still run my business, UnconventionalGuides.com, from wherever I am. I don’t have time for any active business development these days, but thankfully the project is fairly self-sustaining and continues to attract new customers even without active promotion.

This week I wrote to the Frequent Flyer Master owners’ list about the U.S. Airways Grand Slam promo. Long story short, this promo is an easy way to earn at least 20,000 Star Alliance miles, and if you can put more time into it, you can earn 50,000 or more. Even with limited time during the week for travel hacking, I’ve already got my new bonus up to 30,000 free miles, so I hope many of our community will do the same.

***

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring, and tell your Tennessee friends about the bonus stop in Nashville on Wednesday night at 7pm. I’ll see you again from the road this week.

###

Awesome Potato Head Art: Jason K

Hi from St. Louis, Missouri, where I’m back on the road for a big swing through the Midwest and Great Lakes region. Between the World Domination Summit launch and getting back on the tour, it’s been a big week over here.

If you’re new to AONC, regular articles are posted on Mondays and Thursdays. I often use Sundays for a weekend update about my business, UnconventionalGuides.com. For the rest of 2010 I’m not doing much business work, so I’ll use this space more often for updates from the book tour.

First, the WDS Launch

From a random motel in Des Moines, Iowa, I got up early on Friday and worked virtually with Reese and Nicky to virtually to launch the World Domination Summit site. This project has been in the planning stages for a long time, and now it’s finally moving to the action stage. Next year we’re bringing at least 400 people to Portland, Oregon for a weekend gathering, which is no small project.

I wanted to keep the launch day fairly low-key, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. That goal was the only part of the day that was unsuccessful… it was definitely not low-key!

The first server crash came right after the first Tweet, when everyone jumped on the site at the same time, and we had several other crashes during the day. Nicky kept busy moving the site between servers (twice) and trying to keep up. Someone on Twitter said when they went to the site and saw ‘Database Error’ they thought it was a sign that World Domination has been successful. Ha! But no, the site was just down, and now it’s back.

We did a special Pioneer Registration for the first 150 attendees, and within the first 20 minutes, 35 people signed up. Throughout the day more and more people registered, despite the server problems and slow-going of the site. Less than 24 hours later, the 150 spots were taken and we moved on to regular registration.

Design Props: Reese and Nicky really did a fantastic job with this project. Even if you’re not interested in the summit, you should check out the site to see the genius work that they did. You can see the Worldwide Dispatch of what attendees are saying about the event, and individual profile pages for each attendee. Finally, on the home page there is a big Google Map with photos of everyone who has created a profile (many more on the way).

Since I’m clueless on my own, I’m fortunate to work with smart and energetic people on big projects like the summit. Reese and Nicky will both be at the event, so if you come, I’ll be sure to introduce them to everyone.

Anyway, sorry if you couldn’t get in the first 150, but registration is now open for 275 more attendees. I don’t think it will sell out immediately, but it will sell out sooner or later—so if you’re interested, don’t wait too long. So far we have attendees from seven countries on four continents, and I hope to increase those numbers during the regular registration.

***

Next, here’s where I’ve been so far this week:

Des Moines, Iowa

In Iowa, a monsoon poured down from the heavens right until the meetup. People say it rains all the time in my hometown of Portland, but it’s a much different rain than Iowa. In Portland you can still go on with your life when it’s raining. In Iowa, I thought I was going to drown on the short walk from the rental car to the bookstore.

With all the rain, I wondered if people would show up. But show up they did, including several people who drove an hour or more from surrounding cities. We did this meetup informally, with a group discussion about non-conformity, entrepreneurship, and how to thrive as a college student in the face of pressure to conform and avoid risks.

Omaha, Nebraska

The next night in Omaha, my co-host Robyn Devine really went all out. Robyn is a “minimalist knitter” who is hand-crafting 10,000 things for charity. Her project came about in part by reading AONC, and it was fun to meet her and hear her speak to the group at the meetup.

We did this event at CAMPomaha, a fun co-working space run by the hard-working Princess Lasertron, also known as Megan the nocturnal dress designer. I tell everyone on the book tour city lists that people are welcome to bring cupcakes, take photos, or just show up. The funny thing about the cupcakes is that we either have a ton of them or almost none at all. So in Des Moines, there weren’t any cupcakes, but in Omaha, we had so many that Robyn took a big batch over to the local homeless shelter after the gig. I guess Nebraska likes cupcakes better than Iowa, or maybe Robyn is just awesome.

Lawrence, Kansas

After a night in Omaha, I got back on the road for the next stop in Lawrence. Glen Stansberry and his wife Lynn hosted me in “the progressive capital of Kansas.” We went to a local brewery before the gig, where I got to sample the famous cheddar ale soup. Cheese and beer together, turned into soup—it’s a winner!

We got a nice feature in the local paper that day, thanks to Glen and Sarah Henning, a journalist who asked smart questions instead of asking me to list my favorite countries like most reporters do. This experience reminded me of something: people often ask how they can help with the tour. I don’t always know what to tell them, because with 63 events, it’s a lot of plates in the air—but one thing that helps is exactly what Glen did by connecting me with Sarah for the newspaper feature. I have been doing 2-3 media interviews every day recently, and I’m happy to fit them in whenever possible.

Anyway, the gig in Lawrence was great, with a larger-than-expected turnout, the bookstore completely selling out of books, and a guy who brought AONC cupcakes (see main photo) after being inspired by last week’s picture of the AONC cake.

***

I’m now in St. Louis on the longest leg of the tour, publishing this update from a coffee shop outside Left Bank Books where we did the most recent event. I have seven more gigs coming up this week: Louisville, Bloomington, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis. It’s a long week—but it’s a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to meeting many more readers over the next few days.

I hope all is well in your part of the planet. I’ll look forward to our paths crossing sometime, whether on the road this fall, at the World Domination Summit next year, or elsewhere.

P.S. In order to not overload your Inbox, I don’t send every tour or event update by email. Two updates from the past week that weren’t sent out are below:

Notes from the Road, Volume II
Notes from AA Flight 847

###

Image: Vicki Hill

Greetings from Providence, Rhode Island. This week we launched the AONC book and began the Unconventional Book Tour, with six stops in six days.

If you’re new to AONC, regular articles are posted on Mondays and Thursdays. I often use Sundays for a weekend update about my business, UnconventionalGuides.com. For the rest of 2010 I’m not doing much business work, so I’ll use this space more often for updates from the tour.

So… how did the launch go?

Last Sunday, I went to NYC and holed up in a midtown hotel for the launch on Tuesday. The book was around 2,000-3,000 on the Amazon sales ranking the night before, which was good. Then right after it came out, we shot up to #100 thanks to Seth Godin, my LifeRemix friends, and many of you who ordered the book.

After #100 it kept climbing… on to #33, #18, and even #10. We finally made it to #8 on Amazon and held steady most of the day, beating out Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and even the Twilight series. (Alas, I wasn’t able to topple the Dragon Tattoo guy—but it was fun to see my book at #8 and Tony Blair’s book at #9 all day.)

In the “good news and bad news” department, the book was selling so well that it actually sold a few too many. Less than 36 hours after launch, we sold out of the first print run thanks to the Amazon frenzy and a large order from Barnes & Noble, where it’s also in the Top 100.

NYC Launch Event

At Borders Columbus Circle that night, we had a packed house for the first stop of the 63-city tour. I asked my good friend Jonathan Fields to introduce me. Sherry Ott from Meet Plan Go (fun project!) gave a short overview of her upcoming event, and Jodi Ettenberg took photos. My editor and publicist from Penguin came out, along with many old friends, new friends, and readers from the city.

That night we sold and signed every copy in the store and went to a fun afterparty at a place down the street. It was a great start to the adventure of visiting readers in all 50 states (and later every province in Canada).

You can see lots of great photos from the launch event here, courtesy of Jodi.

New Jersey

A few days before the tour started, Tom from Mendham Books offered to host our group. After taking the train out from NYC, I met Tom and toured the shop. Tom had emailed the night before and asked “If it would be OK” to have wine or beer available during the talk and signing. My response was: “Yes, that would be great… and can you make it mandatory?”

(The night before in Manhattan, Borders had unsuccessfully tried to impose a cupcake embargo on our meetup, finally giving up and putting them out on the tables as dozens of people lined up to get their book signed.)

Mendham is a fairly quiet place, but we still had a good-sized group come out. I got a chance to meet Alex Rinehart, long-time reader and ringleader of a World Domination chiropractic group (long story), who also volunteered his services as chauffeur so I could get back to Newark before going on to Philly the next day.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Near the “brotherly love” city, our meetup was hosted by my friends at Aweber. Their place is a long ways out of the city, so I was worried that no one would come. Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about and we had a good-sized group. The Conversation Agent introduced me and co-facilitated the Q&A with me.

Afterward, we went to a bar that seemed exactly like the one in the U.S. version of The Office, which was appropriate since Scranton, PA isn’t that far away. Thankfully, most of us escaped just as the karaoke was beginning. (Alas, there will be no non-conformist karaoke on this tour, at least not from me.)

Wilmington, Delaware

Three days before the Delaware stop, I had no real plan. I was just going to Starbucks it, meaning “show up at Starbucks and see if anyone was around,” because I don’t know much about Delaware and didn’t have a lot of people on the DE list.

Then Whitney Hoffman came along and rescued me, explaining that in fact there was more than one Starbucks in Delaware, and she knew a better place anyway. (Thanks Whitney!) We ended up at the Brew Ha Ha, a coffee shop that Joe Biden hangs out at when he’s in town. Joe didn’t make it out this time, but a fun group of readers joined up with a fun group of Delaware social media people to make for a nice afternoon.

I actually prefer smaller groups because it gives us much more of a chance to talk together instead of me just talking to people, so the Wilmington stop was fun and relaxing.

New Haven, Connecticut

After taking the train to the first four events, I rented a car in Delaware and drove up to the next stop in New Haven. This event was held offsite with support from the Yale Bookstore, which was kind enough to bring copies of the book out even with all the “Yalies” (Yale University students) moving in and starting up classes this week.

My thanks to friend and co-conspirator Brooke Thomas for co-hosting this event with me. Brooke went all out and spent the day baking cupcakes (no embargo this time) and getting ready for the event, leaving me to hang out at Blue State Coffee, where I sat down under a sign advertising the event and wrote much of this update.

Providence, Rhode Island

That’s where I was a few hours ago today. Books on the Square hosted an afternoon event, and I enjoyed meeting another good-sized New England group of readers and new friends. Once again we were able to have a group discussion instead of a lecture, which is always my preferred option but not as easy to facilitate with a bigger crowd.

Since this event was at 2pm, I jumped in a rental car afterward and drove to Cambridge, Massachusetts—where I’m posting this update from, and where I’ll be tomorrow night at the Harvard Coop.

***

How to Support the Book

As mentioned a while back, the book launch and 63-city tour is kind of an all-consuming thing for a while. If you don’t care about it, you can always unsubscribe from AONC for a few months, or unsubscribe forever if it just isn’t your thing. I won’t be writing about it all the time, but since I’m doing an event almost every single day, it will definitely be on my mind a fair amount.

This week’s highlights are Boston/Cambridge (tomorrow night at the Harvard Coop), Portland, Maine (Tuesday night at Longfellow’s Books), Manchester, New Hampshire (Wednesday night at Barnes & Noble), and Burlington, Vermont (Thursday at U. of Vermont Bookstore). All events are 7pm except for Vermont, which is 12pm.

If you’d like to help, start by asking your bookseller about the book. You can find an independent bookstore by searching on IndieBound. After the reorders are shipped, it should also be available in Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Chapters. Most stores are only stocking a couple of copies each at this point, so if you drop by, ask them about the book and gently nudge them to stock more.

By the way, no less than 50 people have emailed me to ask why the book is available on Kindle for international customers but not U.S. customers. I have no idea! I’m sorry about that and my publisher is busy pestering Amazon to fix that. It should be ready very soon, but then again, it should have been ready last week…. so we’ll see.

The good news for digital book fans (or at least, iPad owners) in the meantime is that it is available on the iBooks store, and even featured on the landing page there.

The second thing you can do (after you’ve read the book) is write a review and spread the word. During my talk on the tour, I mention how I get paid in nice emails and trackbacks. If you enjoy the book, please help other people learn about it in whatever way makes sense to you.

I’m donating 100% of my author royalties for every reader I meet to our Charity: Water project in Ethiopia, and it looks like we’re on track to meet a lot of people. If you come out to a meetup or discussion, be sure to sign the notebook I have with me on the table. That way we can credit your name with the donation.

Most Important: Thanks so much!

This is a lot of fun and I’m extremely grateful. Remember: we regret the things we don’t do much more than the things we do. If you’re on the fence about something, “go for it and take action” is almost always better advice than “think about it without doing anything.”

A few months ago I still wasn’t sure about this tour, but I decided to make the leap. It’s still early, of course, but so far, so good.

See you next from Boston and beyond.

###

Jolie and I went down to the Portland Art Museum for a meeting with the Events Planner last week.

We looked around at rooms that seated 350+ people. We talked about projectors and coat rooms and WiFi and catering—and everything else you could think of related to holding a major event.

“Look,” I said as we walked past a wide corridor. “That looks like a nice place for the bloggers’ lounge.” The corridor in question also contained a large statue of a naked man, but hey, it’s an art museum.

“We don’t allow red wine in this room,” the planner told me as we walked by another room with 500-year-old paintings. “But white wine? As much as you want!”

Normally I’d be taking notes on all these things—we looked at ten different rooms, all with different seating capacities and red wine vs. white wine specifications. But I didn’t take any notes at all, because I was simultaneously thrilled and terrified, caught up in the Big Idea of what this was all about.

“What do you think?” the cheery Events Planner asked as she walked us out.

I looked up at the impressive building, pictured above and over here. “I’ll take it,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

And thus began the planning…

The Unconventional Book Tour kicks off in just eight days, with my goal of meeting every person who reads AONC in the U.S. and Canada. But as much fun as it will be going from Kansas to Nebraska to meet with 63 small groups, I also thought:

What if we could also bring everyone together in one place? That would be even more epic than me going around from city to city.

So that’s what this is about, and I knew that the “one place” had to be Portland (PDX), World Domination HQ and my hometown of choice. We’ve been scouting event spaces for weeks, trying to find the best location to host an amazing group of people. A place like the Marriott isn’t the right fit, but the smaller hotels were, well, too small.

So I made a big financial commitment to rent the Portland Art Museum, and everything that goes with it—A/V, permits from the city, insurance to make sure no one breaks the naked man statue, and so on. As I suspected, renting out the Portland Art Museum for an entire weekend isn’t cheap. I’m taking a big risk in committing ten months in advance, but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

So, friends: here’s the proposal.

Next June, I propose we take over Portland, Oregon with our first annual World Domination Summit, and I’d love for you to be a part of it.

The summit will be a gathering of remarkable people from all over the world. Other authors, bloggers, and interesting people will be speaking from the main stage, a 376-seat theater where we’ll meet for about a third of the time.

The second part of our time will be in small groups, where we talk about travel hacking, microbusinesses, how to do what you love while changing the world, and all kinds of other important topics. (You’ll sign up for the groups you want, and there will also be a voting system to nominate your own group.)

The final third of the time will be all about community. We’re working with the Mayor’s Office to put together tours of Portland. You can visit the city’s famous food carts, check out the vegan tattoo parlor, head back to the theater for a special Charity: Water screening we’re putting together, or whatever you want.

And mostly, you can hang out with people who see the world in the same way. It will be insanely epic, and I’d love for you to be there.

So here’s the second part of the deal.

The summit will have a cost associated with it, but I’m spending my time thinking about how it can be amazing instead of how it can make money. (“Not many people can guarantee awesomeness, but we’re stepping up” as I say in the Unconventional Guides business.)

It will probably cost about $300 a person or so for the whole thing—much cheaper than SXSW, BlogWorld, or any other major conference that doesn’t have a ton of advertisers. We’re also working with hotels to offer a discounted group rate, talking to both hostels in town to completely book them out, and planning to coordinate some kind of couchsurfing option for people who prefer that.

I’m not 100% sure how everything will work yet, but I have a team of advisers here in Portland helping me to make this much more awesome than I could do on my own. And if you come, you’ll be a big part of making it even more awesome.

The goal is to publish the registration site in mid-September—live from the road as I’m touring America. But before then, I wanted you to be the first to know.

Will you save the date, and set aside June 3-5th 2011? I hope you can make it.

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This week in the “wow, really?” department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belarus has provided detailed comments on my recent experience attempting to get a visa for their country. You can read the official government response here in Russian, or over here in a fun translation provided by The Google.

(My favorite line in this translation is “Chris Guillebeau is fundamental no luck” – followed by “a blogger does not have the right to be boring.”)

Among other things, the ministry spokesman says that because “five or six people a day” use the airport ATM with success, there must be something wrong with the debit card I use elsewhere, all over the world. That sounds like a line I could have used in the original post. No kidding, five or six people a day! What an astounding usage rate.

Unfortunately for entertainment’s sake, there’s no real feud—as mentioned, I had fun in Minsk and I wish them well. Also, as mentioned countless times on the blog, I’m a private citizen and have no affiliation with the U.S. State Department. I am well aware that the U.S. often makes it difficult for foreigners to visit our country. So sorry, but I can’t do much about that other than criticize the policy, which I’ve done plenty of times.

No one in Belarus needs to feel bad about the silliness of their government’s bureaucracy, because it’s not their fault. Likewise, there’s no need to vilify travelers from the U.S. just because they are from the U.S. Can’t we all just get along?

Please send any additional complaints about the U.S. visa process to:

Hillary Rodham Clinton
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
USA

See you all soon, and have a great week wherever you are.

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Last week I headed out for the Sunday morning long run, and my legs decided not to cooperate. After four miles, it was time to pack it in. Bummer—so I tried again a few days ago.

The same thing happened… almost. At mile four I was ready to quit. Through an act of God and the new Josh Ritter album, I managed to pull it out and keep going. At mile six I was feeling great, and as I headed home, I was glad I didn’t quit. Eleven miles for the win!

***

This post is for the entrepreneurs and business-minded ninjas of our community. It’s all about conducting your own business audit—which basically means “looking closely at stuff and making improvements.”

As I transition from active business development to book tour mode, I’ve been taking a close look at how the Unconventional Guides business operates on its own. I want to make sure the store continues to operate well, even without a bunch of big launches and promotions.

I should say first that I’m pretty bad at most optimization or efficiency efforts. I’m just not motivated to revisit things once they’re done. For better or worse, I almost never go back to something I’ve done before. I also believe that it’s better to focus on the future than the past—better to move on and do something new.

This philosophy works… most of the time. But it’s also true that a good business needs nurturing and continuous improvement. I do this for life in general towards the end of the year in the Annual Review series. Now I’m doing a smaller version for my business this summer.

An audit has a few different meanings. In this context, I think of it as: “a thorough review of information.” In my case, I’ve been looking at the following questions in some detail. You may want to answer these yourself, and—even better—take action to create the improvements you identify.

“Where do you make money?”

In any given business, it’s very easy to get trapped into all kinds of things that have nothing to do with making money. The solution to this is simple: focus on the money. True, money isn’t everything, but in a business, the money is pretty important.

In the audit, you’ll want to look at where the money comes from and determine what you can do to keep it coming. Sometimes new opportunities present themselves; sometimes there’s an easy fix you can make to turn on another tap.

Here’s a big hint: if you have a range of projects, products, or activities, it’s almost always better to devote your efforts to the strong performers than to try and pull up the weak ones. Most people do the opposite. If your goal is for everything to be average, that’s the best you’ll ever get.

“How good is your messaging?”

If you do any kind of online marketing, go back to where you started and read the copy (text) carefully. Review each page of the sales material slowly, and then read it out loud. Does it still present the message that you want?

When I started looking through all of my active sales pages and reference material, I found plenty of mistakes. Typos that were missed a year ago were still there on the page. A date I referenced six months ago is now four months in the past. Oh noes!

Then I checked out the multimedia. When I first started making videos, I was terrible at them. One time someone suggested I “do another take” to improve. Little did they know that the published one was Take #11! It really is an acquired skill. I just kept going and putting them out, which is the right approach, but now that I’m better at it, the old ones need to be replaced. I’ve fixed two of them and will redo another couple of them this weekend.

“Are your prices what they should be?”

When was the last time you raised your prices? You can have a sale or give out discount codes from time to time, but like all businesses, you should also plan on raising your prices on a regular basis as well.

The other day on Twitter someone suggested that prices should be “fair to everyone.” Sorry man, but trying to price for everyone is a business death trap. Don’t do it! I aim solidly for the middle of the market by design—no $10 ebooks, but no $2,000 courses either. It works well. Other businesses are set up to compete on either end of the range, and if it works for them, that’s great.

Since entrepreneurs live by the free market system, the way you answer the question of whether your pricing is fair or not is by asking another question: are people buying what you sell? If yes, you’re probably on the right track. If no, you probably have a problem.

“How are you marketing to existing customers?”

One of the best things you can do is reach out to existing customers and find a way to meet more of their needs. Yet despite the fact that most of my customers buy more than one product, I do very little active marketing to them after the sale. Bad move, Chris! I’m fixing it, with improved follow-up messages in my autoresponder campaign and a postcard mailing drive for a third of the customer list.

As part of this examination, you should also carefully check your post-purchase process. What happens after someone buys? Do they get sent to the right place; does everything arrive in their Inbox or physical mailbox as it should? If you sell consulting, do clients know exactly how to set up a time in your schedule? The easier you can make all of these things, the better.

“Are you tracking, monitoring, or testing enough?”

Until recently, I didn’t even have any analytics software installed on UnconventionalGuides.com. Oops—I’ve fixed that. I’m also starting to do some limited advertising, so the tracking will be critical in resolving the age-old advertiser’s dilemma: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Now I’ll know.

The thing about testing is that you just don’t know what’s going to happen until you do it. That’s why you test! A while back I installed an upsell offer where customers could get a $50 gift certificate for only $25 after making a purchase. I thought it was a killer offer, but my customers didn’t think so—it was accepted only one out of twenty times (5%). A good upsell can convert much better than that, so out went the gift certificates offer.

“Where are the big, missing opportunities?”

Earlier this year I recruited a number of affiliate partners for a major Empire Building launch. I remember looking at the sales figures afterward and seeing a few surprises. A couple of people did very well, even with smaller online profiles. When I noticed this, I thought, “It’s a good thing I recruited them!” But then in the ensuing weeks as I processed my daily mail, comments, and Twitter messages, I noticed a number of people that I hadn’t thought of before. If I had asked them to get involved, the launch could have been even better.

Just because you have a big opportunity doesn’t mean you should pursue it. I pass up a lot of things because they aren’t a good fit for my overall strategy. However, it’s good to know what you’re missing, even if you’re deliberately missing it. In my case, I made a list of opportunities I could pursue in my business. Here’s a short version of the list:

• Add a conference call or webinar series on a specific topic every month
• Create “side products” consisting of smaller versions of the main products
• Create an iTunes app with mini-versions of my products
• Schedule another $100 Business Forum with Pam Slim
• Arrange more joint ventures to promote the guides
• Recruit more “high-end” affiliates
• Create a physical version of the EBK
• Carefully introduce the regular sale of products on eBay
• Conduct a “Pay-what-you-will” event for one of the guides
• Conduct a Silent Auction (or a public auction)
• Improve the social media identity of the biz
• Hire a call center to take orders by phone
• Produce a TV commercial for $100 or less (here’s how)

***

As I said, this is a short version of the list. As to how I evaluate which ideas to pursue at any given time, well, that’s a whole other discussion. In general, though, I follow the “maximalist” approach of trying out a bunch of things all at once and seeing what works the best.

A friend of mine told me recently, “If you love something, you have to protect it.” You could say all kinds of things about that brilliant advice—but in this context, it means that I’ve spent a couple of years constructing a business that supports a good way of life, and I need to take the right steps to protect it. That’s why an audit like this helps.

The Unconventional Guides business won’t ever be huge, but it’s grown much more than I expected when I first sold the first “Discount Airfare Guide” two years ago. I regularly take steps like these to protect it, and to ensure it can thrive even as I travel overseas next week or visit all 50 states this fall. I still have a long way to go in making the project everything I’d like it to be, but I think I’m headed in the right direction.

How about you—will you conduct your own audit? What can you improve?

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Image: Robert

I made it home to Portland after walking around Almaty, Kazakhstan for several days. For some reason I didn’t have high hopes for Kazakhstan, but I actually enjoyed it… and no one really acts like Borat.

***

This is the Sunday Store Update, where I share some brief news about the business side of AONC.

One hundred days ago, we launched the Empire Building Kit for the first time. I was on a train with J.D. Roth in North Dakota, headed towards Portland from Chicago on an epic adventure that began with a stop in Cape Verde. Insane! But so much fun.

A month later we did a major partner launch, also for a limited 24-hour period, and a month later I put it in the shop on a long-term basis.

The “killer app” for EBK came in the promise it offered: how to build a business in one year, by doing one thing every day. Part of this process involves a daily email that is sent to everyone in the program. In the early stages of development, I wasn’t actually sure how to construct a series of mailings that would continue one a day for an entire year—I just started writing, and after the first 20-30 were ready in first draft, things clicked into place.

Well, the first group of emperors recently completed the first 100 days of the series. During that time, we’ve covered topics such as:

• Adventures in Taking a Big Leap
• Keys to Managing Energy, Not Time
• “Good” vs. “Bad” Businesses
• What You Can Do Right Now to Get Paid
• How to Know in Advance if People Will Buy Your Product
• The Power of a Strong Mailing List

Plus a lot more… 94 more, to be precise. I finally got smart midway through and realized that the group itself would have a lot to share, so I invited them to do so. Now we have a “Small Biz Disaster” series and an “Emperor Spotlight” series that kicks in after the 30-day point, produced in part by the customers who are building their own empires.

A number of people have said that the 365-day email series is their favorite part of the whole kit… which is interesting, since I initially planned it as a value-add that would clarify things in the numerous interviews. At some point I’ll update the reviews page with some of the notes I’ve been getting, but for now I’m busy planning a book tour (below) and writing the rest of the series.

–>If you’re interested, you can get your own set of 365 daily emperor lessons here.

Speaking of Epic Adventures

Thanks to everyone who has signed up for this fall’s Unconventional Book Tour. I’ve made a few changes based on your feedback. Trenton is now Montclair. Tulsa is now Oklahoma City. Bozeman is now Missoula. Anchorage is, well, still Anchorage.

I’m confirming venues for the major markets this month, hopefully for everywhere else in the States next month, and followed by the ten Canadian stops after that. We’ll be at the flagship Borders in New York City (Columbus Circle) for the launch on September 7th, then at the flagship Powell’s in Portland (downtown location) for the final U.S. event on December 16th. In between, of course, I’ll be at 51 other stops throughout the country.

A bunch of people have asked how I’m sorting out the logistics for this adventure. My response: I have no idea! Really. Well, OK – I have some idea, but I’m honestly making most of it up as I go. Jeffrey helped out a lot with flight and Amtrak schedules. Reese and Nicky did a great job with the registration site.

It’s a collective effort and will be even more of one once I finally get out on the road. I’m simultaneously scared and excited, which I figure is a good thing.

For now, I’m back at the home base, and sticking around for two weeks. I hope all is well in your part of the world.

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Image: iTroy