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Business, Blogging, and Broken Windows

This is the follow-up to last week's article on Product Launches. The series deals with the business side of blogging and social media – a topic that some will be interested in and others won't.

This article will look at site comments, scheduling, organizational structure, and taking control over where your paycheck comes from. My goal is not to provide a comprehensive overview of everything related to business and blogging, but rather a close look at a few specific topics.

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Product Launch 101

This is the story of what happens in a typical product launch. Fellow entrepreneurs and people interested in the business side of what I do will be interested; others probably won't.

I'm going to outline a few of the things I've learned in doing product launches over the years. With AONC I've done six of them so far (including the two non-commercial manifestos), but before that, I worked on dozens of others in my first decade of self-employment.

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Visit to Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA Program

I returned to Portland late last night after a great visit to the great New York City.

I've needed to go to New York for a few months now - I wanted to meet my book editor and a few other people, but I kept putting it off. Since I travel so much internationally, I try to keep my domestic trips to a minimum.

However, when I received an invitation a couple of weeks ago to visit with Seth Godin and his remarkable Alternative MBA students, I knew it was time to break out the calendar and book a ticket.

The lesson is, when you get an opportunity like this, don't hesitate. Do whatever you need to do to get wherever you need to be.

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Art and Money Feedback, Q&A, Lessons Learned

Greetings once again from my corner of the world, also known as the hipster zip code of 97214. For everyone who's NOT an artist, thanks for your patience during the launch week for my new product. We'll be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

We launched up Art and Money on Thursday morning to a great response, including several people who were chatting about it before it was even released. Check out this partial selection of feedback and buzz from the first few hours. I was really glad to see that people are excited about it.

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The Unconventional Guide to Art and Money

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My new product, the Unconventional Guide to Art and Money, attempts to break down the difference between successful and unsuccessful art marketing.

It's for artists of all kinds who want to support themselves with their art through new media.

It's not for non-artists (obviously), anyone who doesn't know how to use the internet, or anyone looking for the quick fix.

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Coming Tomorrow: The Secret Connection* Between Art and Money

Let's be clear: there's no real secret. I subscribe to the 10,000 hours theory. When I wrote about it six months before Outliers came out, I called it the 14,600 hours to virtuosity.

Then Gladwell's great book arrived, everyone started talking about 10k hours, and I thought, “Awesome. Now we can all save 4,600 hours!”

Anyway, the secret connection between art and money involves working hard on the same thing for a long time.

There you go! Get to work. By the time evening rolls around, only 9,992 hours will remain.

HOWEVER...

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Building Influence to Gain Widespread Authority

This is a more advanced look at how I've been able to build the AONC site into a diverse community over the past year.

I've already written 79 pages about this subject, so this follow-up is mostly for the 50,000 people who have read that report so far. What I want to do in this article is focus on using multiple spheres of influence to create widespread, perceived authority.

One of the most important parts of developing a following is answering the “reason why” question and proving yourself to be an authority on at least one thing other people care passionately about.

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Video Update: Motivations and $32,000

Thanks so much to everyone who is downloading, reading, and sharing feedback about my new manifesto, 279 Days to Overnight Success.

Here's a new video update where I discuss the motivations behind the document. Why did I publish this now? Why do we do anything?

In my case, I want to a) help people create their own overnight success, and b) expand the network of people who are involved with AONC.

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Video Update: Do All Real Jobs Suck?

Hey guys,

I've joined the Mac world, and just as soon as I learn how to right-click, I'll be ready to get back to World Domination. It's amazing what a connection with Steve Jobs and $1,300 can get you at the Apple Store.

Here's the summary of the video: Not all real jobs suck, but many of them do -- so many, in fact, that I hear every day from people who are doing everything they can to escape.

As mentioned in the video, I get a LOT of email. I'll use the video updates to respond and answer questions. Remember, though: there are no experts. I'm calling it as I see it, and you should do the same.

What do you think? If you're working at a real job, do you love it or do you want out as fast as possible?

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Unconventional Business Ideas

lemonade-stand-unconventional-business-ideas The AONC readership has expanded quite a bit recently, and I know that not everyone here cares about business. Even though I’ve made my living as an entrepreneur for more than 10 years, I’d like to let you in on a secret:

I don’t much care for business either… at least, not in the traditional sense.

What I care about instead is business that a) doesn’t feel like work and b) is centered around building real relationships.

Here are a few unconventional business ideas that reflect this philosophy. None of these ideas are truly original (most ideas aren’t), but I’ve tried to gather them together here before writing about them in more detail for future articles.

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