Site Update: October 2009
This site update comes to you live from Portland, Oregon. Welcome to Autumn!
If all goes well, I expect to turn in the manuscript of my first book to the publisher by the end of the month. To make this happen, I’ve curtailed my travel, sadly turned down two offers for free trips (Norway and NYC), slowed down the business expansion, and so on.
Radical exclusion is all about saying no to some (good) things in order to say yes to others. Since I like to say yes to everything, it’s been a challenging process, but also a good one.
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Each month I look back at what’s happened with AONC in the previous month. If you’ve missed some articles, you can catch up here.
Writing
LIFE – I wrote about Being (Not) Fearless, What Happens When We Don’t Achieve an Important Goal, and published two guest articles on 7 Life Lessons My 1-Year-Old Taught Me and Moving to Paris without Quitting My Day Job.
WORK – I wrote about $100 Businesses and How to Conduct an Online Survey.
TRAVEL – I wrote about How to Request an Airline Status Match.
SITE AND STORE UPDATES – I wrote about the end of the discount airfare guide, different kinds of entrepreneurship, and the upcoming Frequent Flyer Master project.
(P.S. Thanks to everyone who has been participating in the comments section on the Monday and Thursday articles. You guys are incredibly smart.)
Travel
This month I stayed close to home, although I did get away to the Oregon coast for a few days on a personal writing retreat.
You can see photos and videos of my trips here. Drop in to take a look if you’re so inclined, and add me as a contact if you’re into the Flickr thing.
Small Business
In between working on the book, I’ve been busy working on Frequent Flyer Master, the next Unconventional Guide. I’m especially excited about this one. The goal is to democratize free travel through the creative use of Frequent Flyer Miles.
Business-wise, I want to “own the space” of creative travel hacking by helping thousands of people travel for free. I expect to launch the project in early November, so stay tuned for a good preview next week where I take everyone behind the scenes of my own mileage accounts.
Interviews
I do several interviews a week, so I can’t link to most of them, but I really liked how Gretchen Rubin structured this one. Her book, The Happiness Project, is available for pre-order here, and I’ve already bought my copy in anticipation of its December release.
What’s Coming Next
Travel
I’ll be in Washington, D.C. for meetings on October 28th-30th and hope to do a joint meetup with a few other friends in the area. If you’re around and would like to hang out on the evening of the 29th, RSVP over here.
I’ll also be in San Diego for other meetings sometime – I just don’t know when yet. Otherwise, I’ll be home for the whole month editing the book manuscript.
(Come November, I have a big trip planned to the Caucuses in Eastern Europe that will serve as my next major journey.)
AONC / Get Rich Slowly Charity Event
No, we’re not raising money for ourselves– J.D. Roth and I are co-hosting a table at a charity benefit for Sisters of the Road, a Portland non-profit that serves the homeless community. If you’d like to join us, here’s the info.
Articles
This month I’ll write about the following topics, among others:
* Geopolitics and the Quest to Visit Every Country in the World
* Profile with a Highly Unconventional (and Successful) Artist
* Safety and Security While Traveling
* 450,000 Frequent Flyer Miles
I hope you enjoy my writing, and I always welcome your feedback.
Audience Participation
You can participate in the development of this project in several ways:
Leave a comment at the bottom of any regular article. Feel free to add to the discussion at any time, and include a link back to your own site if you have one. (Note that the link goes in the “web site” field, not the big text box where you write your comment.)
Join my newsletter announcement list or add me to your RSS reader.
Follow my real-time updates on Twitter. I regularly solicit input on the articles published here, as well as send out links to other people’s great content. A “Daily Ass-Kicking” is included at no additional charge. You can also become a fan of AONC on Facebook.
Send other feedback. Use my contact form here to say hi or check in about something.
Tell your friends, or tell the world by submitting my articles to StumbleUpon or other social networking sites.
I appreciate the time you spend here. Don’t forget to change the world the way you think it needs to be changed.
-CG
Catch up on Previous Updates Here:
August-September 2009 (Bali)
July 2009 (Kuala Lumpur)
June 2009 (Salt Lake City)
April 2009 (Dominican Republic)
April 2009 (Portland)
March 2009 (Portland)
January-February 2009 (Tokyo)
November-December 2008 (Seattle)
October 2008 (Seattle)
September 2008 (Seattle)
August 2008 (Seattle)
July 2008 (Karachi)
June 2008 (Amsterdam)
May 2008 (Vancouver)
April 2008 (Syria)
March 2008 (Los Angeles)
February 2008 (Seattle)
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Image by FoxyPar4
