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Work

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How to Conduct an Online Survey

As I mentioned in last week's survey invitation, when you’re trying to build a business, blog, non-profit, or pretty much any venture, regularly checking in with your peeps is an important way to make sure you know who they are and what they want.

This is especially important when it comes to a) transition points in the growth of your community, or b) product development at any time. Surveys allow you to take the pulse of a large group of people in a short period of time -- and because of how sampling works, you don't actually need to hear from all of them to know what most of them are thinking.

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Et Cetera

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Happy Labor Day / New AONC Survey

Happy Labor Day to everyone in the U.S., and Happy Labour Day to my friends further north. Everyone else in the world, Labor/Labour Day is a U.S. and Canadian holiday when the internet slows down.

Being self-employed, most minor holidays aren't much different from other Mondays for me. The only difference is I get less email because so many other people are away.

Because much of North America is taking the day off, I decided this would be a good time for a new AONC survey.

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Work

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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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Travel

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Photos from Bhutan, Kathmandu Taxi Rides, and a Brief Store Update

Greetings once again from the South Asian kingdom of Bhutan. It’s been a great trip to a fairly remote place.

There aren’t really any “undiscovered” places in the world anymore, but when you look at lesser-known destinations, Bhutan definitely tops the list. Today I’m getting on a plane and headed back to Kathmandu, but I’m glad I stayed as long as I did. If you have $200 a day to invest in a unique travel experience that is sustainable and adventuresome, you can’t go wrong with Bhutan.

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Work

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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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Life

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Authenticity: You Has It

At any given time, most of us have no shortage of challenges we’re trying to work through or overcome.

Entrepreneurs must create something out of nothing — a process that is both fun and tiring. Ambitious people who work in organizations have to work with colleagues in pursuit of collective goals. Sometimes the colleagues aren’t as ambitious or have other ideas.

Those of us who go it alone have plenty of issues, too. If someone ever implies it’s easy out there, put your skeptic hat on.

Thankfully, there is one challenge that is entirely optional. This challenge is the question of how to be yourself, otherwise known as authenticity.

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