Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

“I’m good enough, strong enough, and dog gonnit, people like me.” - Stuart Smalley

I don’t know how many times I used to crack up watching Stuart Smalley of SNL. That skit was one that my family would never flip away from. The femmee “Affirmation Guy” as I have heard him called was quite amusing and kept us laughing. But what really are affirmations? Are they just for people with low self esteem who’ve dropped off the deep end? Do they work?

Affirmations are basically sayings or thoughts that reinforce positive thoughts to accomplish goals. It’s kind of like the power of intention-manifestation that Steve Pavlina talks about and is employing in his Million Dollar Experiment. The idea that your mind is used as a powerful tool and can essentially will your body and thus your actions to do whatever it is you set out to do. If you want to become a millionaire, then do it. Keep telling yourself daily that you will make the money and eventually you will see opportunities that you never knew existed. You WILL make the opportunities happen. Steve currently has over 440 people who have made more than $60,000 in his million dollar experiment, and it’s only been a month!

Sure we can all be skeptical and think affirmations are what your parents use to get them through their mid-life crises. But if it can get them through menopause and buying every electronic toy ever made then why can’t it work for you. I am not saying go around and begin to wear sweater vest’s speaking into every mirror you see. Instead think it to yourself when you wake up. Say it to yourself when you shower, and then on your drive to work. Tell yourself when you’re sitting at your desk or stocking the shelves. Whatever your goals are you should always have them in your mind, repeating the positives of accomplishment. Soon your mind will take over and see the solutions it previously couldn’t.

A great example I can think of which is an action most people wouldn’t be quick to relate to affirmations is seeing yourself running a race, or throwing a pass, etc etc. Athletes use different types of intention-manifestation, or affirmations, all the time. When I competed regularly and be I would think about the big game or event coming up. I would envision myself in a clutch situation and what I would do to successfully complete it. Pro athletes are just the same. In countless interviews they discuss how they prepare themselves mentally for a game. Usually it’s relaxing and placing themselves in the positions they think they’d be in when game time arrives. These thoughts are really manifesting how they would react to each situation. They positively manifest themselves to catch the ball or tackle the opposition. Some you may think overindulge in the power of god to help them, but maybe it was the power of something greater working through their positive thoughts.

In en effort to accomplish some of the lofty goals I have set I need to remind myself daily that they are all possible as long as I work hard. Recently I was directed to a site which has given me some idea’s and I hope to continue to use while I am working towards becoming good at the things I try. The site is called bmindful.com. It provides ton’s of affirmations for you to use. You can submit your own, or just stop by to look at others. There are many categories and you can quickly navigate through them to find one that fits your specific needs. The site has grown considerably since it first was launched not too long ago. Could it be that through affirmations and intention-manifestation the author is willing himself to gain more traffic? Who knows, but whatever it is it’s working.

I have set my goals high and look for inspiration everywhere I can to accomplish them. If others can do it I always figure I can too. Why should the guy one cubicle over get the raise and what can I do to get one too? Turn those questions into positive statements and watch the transformations happen in your life.

In my quest to become better at saving money I have started to employ the pay myself first method. This is explained in Rich Dad, Poor Dad as basically paying yourself before you pay your bills. Why should you give your money away before you even get a chance at it? Now I’m not saying skip out on your bills and don’t pay them at all. That would be foolishly throwing money away. I try not to do that. Rather, the act of paying your savings first gives you less money to spend on useless things. Like that $100 bar tab I ran up this weekend?, hmmm?

Before I get to the bulk of my savings discussion I’ll tell you right off how to make $25. INGdirect.com. They offer $25 to any new person that signs up through a referral and starts their account with $250 initial deposit. If you do that your referral will get $10 deposited into their account. So essentially they are giving away $35. Really it’s true and they are offering a 3.75% yield. Now with that said of course I am looking for the $10 so shoot me and email and I will email you the referral. However, if you know someone who has an account and like what you read below, tell them to email you a referral. They’re your friend and I’m just some guy. $25 in your pocket, $10 in theirs. But if not drop me a line.

Now back to why I like the pay yourself first and how INGdirect and other online bank accounts are the way to go.

I would first like to say that I am coming from debt experience. Paying yourself first isn’t just for the rich. I have about $88,000 in student loans (that’s just from undergrad), and about $2,000 in credit card debt. Not to mention house payments, phone bills, heating bills, cable bills, gas, food, electricity, condo fees, you get the idea. I manage to pay off all of this and stash away around $100 every month just in my savings (I also try to get a little into stocks, and some in my 401K.) Some months it’s more some it’s less. You just have to consistently put money away.

As I mentioned above I do all this and some how run up a $100 bar tab on the weekend. Now that’s not every weekend, but what I’m trying to get across is that I do this and also have fun. That’s not to say it doesn’t come with some stress. I am living paycheck to paycheck but now that I started putting away at least $100 a month in a plane Jane savings account I can sleep a little better. I have only been doing this for 5 months and I’m over $500 in savings alone.

You may be saying to yourself, “Yippee, I can put all that money away and earn 0.5% from my bank.” Don’t use your bank. I repeat don’t use your bank. Unless you have $10,000+ to put into an account (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this article) it’s not worth it. I have yet to see a local bank anywhere offering anything to make it worth anything to use their savings program. Sure you may get a free toaster but if you put that money in a savings account yielding 7-8 times that you can buy a toaster easily with the interest. Where can you find a savings rate that is 7-8 times what you get locally? On the internet of course. I know, I know, isn’t it dangerous to keep your money on the internet? I say to that, Don’t you have access to your local checking and savings account online? (If you don’t’ you should probably switch banks, in fact, you SHOULD switch banks.) It also makes banking ten times easier and more convenient to save money. If this stuff wasn’t online there is no way I would be saving the money that I am today.

Getting over the, “But isn’t it dangerous” myth

Let me just reiterate, it’s an online service. If your bank isn’t giving you online access you need to switch. If you are using online services from your bank then I say, what’s the difference. The online banks offer FDIC insurance up to way more than most people will even have in their accounts. (I believe the average is $250,000 per account or maybe its the norm. If you have more than 250K you don’t know what to do with I got some loans I need paying off, let’s talk.) This FDIC insurance is the same as your local bank so there should be no worries at all.

With this insurance most banks now-a-days don’t even think twice about correcting fraudulent purchasing or activity. That’s what they have insurance for. These banks also realize that a lot of people are worried about giving any information online let alone bank information. Therefore they will do whatever it takes to keep you as a customer and tell your friend all about how well they work and how much money they are making. This alone is enough to make it as safe as possible.

Saving Money isn’t easy

This was where I needed to improve my savings techniques. I needed it to be easier to save. My local bank wasn’t offering enough in the savings account. Coupled with that even to make it worth something I needed to transfer the money between a liquid savings account a money market account and/or CDs. Quite cumbersome. Online services have made my life a lot simpler. The current rate I’m getting at my INGdirect account is 3.75% and I never have to walk into a bank.

Using online banking is really easy for me. I just log onto my account at INGdirect and click transfer money, it automatically takes the money out of my linked checking account for me. Safe and easy. Within two days my money is posted to my account. This is the only real drawback is that the money doesn’t leave your checking account for a day or two. But if you treat it as a check there shouldn’t be any problem. You wouldn’t overdraft if you wrote a large check so don’t do it with savings.

How can they offer such low rates?

This is an easy one. The way these companies make money is by having everything online. They get rid of all the rent for buildings, the tellers, the paper processors, all of it. That way they spend more money on you. Presto larger savings return. Who doesn’t want a big ROI?

Why is ING direct so good?

I keep my money at ING direct because they are well known and offer lots of other products. There are some savings accounts out there that offer a 4% or better rate but you have to open the account with a little more money and that’s all you get. They don’t have any other options. You can open an ING account with pennies and they offer other products like home loans, CDs, and investment accounts.

The investment accounts are the accounts that interested me. My plan is to begin by just applying my money to a savings account at INGdirect. After I accumulate some savings I am going to diversify within the same account and invest in several of their mutual fund offerings. The best part of their accounts is that they make it really simple with low risk, medium, and high risk portfolio options that they already set up. This is another thing that could fit into the really easy category. Easy diversification.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that you shouldn’t give up on savings accounts altogether. Just give up on them from your local banks. Until they offer a better toaster why wouldn’t you go with an online service such as INGdirect. Start paying yourself first and watch your savings grow. Don’t touch it, unless there is an emergency. (bar tabs aren’t emergencies, unless she’s really worth it) Just trust me, paying yourself first will be the best first move you can make towards realizing your financial goals.

Teaching to learn

I am a strong believer in the thought that if you teach something to someone you yourself will learn it better. This isn’t to say that you should go around teaching everything you think you know. This will only annoy people when they figure out you read the back of a cereal box to get your knowledge.

No, when you teach something you should want to relay information that you have tried out, researched, or discovered is the truth. Or maybe it is just something that works well for you. Teaching those things to someone else makes you accountable for part of their knowledge. It is that accountability I talked about in the first chapter which makes you better. Most people will not want to let down their peers. Therefore you will in turn learn more to teach better, more people will come to you to so you will teach more, learn more, teach more…. It will compound and grow from there.

Teach your new swing techniques, or running workouts. Teach what you learned programming html. Teach what you just learned about making a million dollars. Just get out there and show someone else how to better accomplish their tasks. Do this and you will become better at the things you try to do.

Here are two key points that will expand on the above and help you start becoming a better teacher.

Know What You Teach

I am not advocating teaching everything you have ever tried to learn just to get better at it. It won’t work. You should want to help others by sharing your knowledge. Having this passion will allow you to enjoy teaching others. Once you enjoy it, it becomes easier and you actually get more out of the teaching.

You should have a strong grasp on the subject no matter what it is. You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to have enough knowledge to thoughtfully approach the questions your student will come at you with. You may not know the answer to his/her questions but now there are two minds to think the problem through. Two minds that will be able to feed off each other allowing you both to learn and grow.

Teach What You Know

Don’t read an article and claim to be an expert. Too many people I run into, and I am guilty of this myself sometimes, read something and feel they are experts. You find this a lot in the political arena. Too many opinions seek in and become fact. I try to stay away from these conversations but often get myself into heated arguments. Over time I have learned how to avoid them, mostly through cracking a joke. I realize I need to find out more about world happenings to have any meaningful input. Sure I can blab my opinions but who needs another opinion? That’s what we have news for these days.

Now it may seem odd to “say teach what you know” and also “teach to get better.” But you must remember the correlation that I have been trying to get across. It is the feeling of accountability that will come with teaching which will then make you better. The more you learn the better you will be able to teach it to someone else, the better you will become, and so on and so forth. This compounding of knowledge will only allow you to grow as a person and become better at the things you do.

If you liked this article and want to learn more try these:

Becoming Accountable
An Introduction at Becoming a Millionaire
Taking on a Business Partner

Update

Week 4 results are in and I must say I am pleased with the progress. Midway through the week I basically stopped writing due to an issue I was having with WordPress. I spent all my time trying to figure out why permalinks made the next and previous links non-working. I got nowhere and a friend of mine fixed it in about 20 minutes. So it was a minor bump and now I am back updating this page once again.

Results from this past week are up partly because I joined a webring like the others I metnioned before called blogexplosion.com. My stats jumped considerably this week due to being involved in three exchange sites. It took me a while to get in with blogexplosion but once I did I noticed a large visitor increase. My Google referrals are also up, I am at about 70 for any given 10 day stretch. I have an average of 8 coming out of MSN while Yahoo and AOL are lower with only about 1 or 2 coming per time period. Netfirms reported that my unique visitors for the week were up to 816 which is a big jump from the 400-500 range that I was at. I am switching to a new counter so my numbers may be shifted slightly from this point on. I will try my best to stay accurate.

Ads or No Ads

Now for the real question, should I put ads, particularly Google ads, on my site? I have been mulling over this question since I started this blog and haven’t come up with a concrete answer. I left it at yes until I read a post by Yaro titled No More AdSense. Once again questions arose after reading this article. He made some valid arguments against having AdSense on his blog. Mainly he discussed the common thought that having AdSense ads all over the place makes your site look to commercially generic. This might deter some potential return readers from the start leaving before getting to the content.

I find this to be the main argument against all the Google ads that have littered sites lately. It may be valid but how can I know for sure? My content is constantly being updated so more and more visitors are likely to see my site with or without ads. A good example of high visitor volume and ad usage is Steve Pavlina’s Blog. Steve Pavlina hasn’t argued one way or the other per say. Rather, he just shows you it works. He has oodles of content and has increased page impressions for his site from 36K in January 2005 to 3.2 million in November 2005. He first went about 3 months without ads building both content and readership I would imagine. He then started placing ads everywhere he could. He has tons of ads on his site and claims to make over $4,000 a month just from advertising on his one blog. If that’s not a strong argument for ads I don’t know what is. But Yaro’s point is a good one and it seems as though Steve practiced this for a while. You must build readership by supplying useful content. I would like to take it a bit further by saying people will return to your site either way once they know you will help them in their endeavors, whatever they may be. But the bottom line is you have to present your content cleanly and have enough to reach a majority of web surfers.

With that said my new plan is to make the ads more discrete and less obtrusive than they currently are. I find Google ads to be helpful at certain times although I don’t tend to click and them often when I am on other blogs. I go for the articles not the click through. My goal with this weblog is to have many return readers who find my insights helpful. Therefore for the next couple of months I will keep the ads to a minimum. I may find that bringing them back is a good idea but only when readers find me helpful to read.

The other thing Yaro says in this particular article is that he hasn’t intended to get many visitors to his blog via Google search results. I am unsure if this is true or not but I am of the notion that getting people to your site comes mostly from search engines. He does mention that he is not looking for the one time visitors. He would rather have repeat regular readers to his site and gives a lot of tips at how to accomplish this. I think this is a great idea, but lets not forget how most of the traffic to sites is generated on the internet, content driven search results.

I will therefore continue to follow my Google referrals and keep it as part of the barometer I am using for how successful this website is. As for the ads I currently agree with Yaro. I won’t go ad free but I will definitely tame down the ads. Instead of having ads in the “prime real-estate” of my pages I will instead have ways to attract repeat visitors. Things like newsletter subscription, del.ic.ous me buttons, bookmark links, and rss feed add links. I will also promote the other categories of my site in a more obvious manner. Doing so can be particularly helpful. If someone visits your site from a search engine you may be able to get them coming back by showing them the other things you write about.

I don’t plan on abandoning advertisement completely but rather develop working methods on my other informative sites. I am currently working on 3 websites that I plan to advertise on as more of a service. The ad driven sites will be sites which I expect people to find mainly through search engines who are generally the click-through visitors. Click-through meaning once they find what they want from my site they will either go back to Google or click through on one of my ads or affiliate links. I may come back to a full onslaught of advertisement on this blog but intend to make it less distracting and offer more of a good read service to my visitors.

This approach also seem to match best with my goals. As I mentioned in my accountability posting I need/want fans to help me accomplish my goals. If you page through my categories you will see some of them are a bit lofty. I am at the point right now where a few extra comments and return visitors are worth a lot more than the pennies a day I average from my ads. I want to increase the readership of my blog at first which requires a decent layout and lots of content. I am not giving up on the advertising just shifting the ad income focus from this site to my other sites in progress.

Thanks to those of you making my page a regular read. Come back often and spread the word. Contact me if you would like to link exchange or if you have any other questions.

If you enjoyed this article you find these helpful as well:

5 ways to successfully increase traffic to your site
Is Microsoft a strong buy?
Taking on a Business Partner

In Paul Wilson’s book Swing Machine Golf you find out that the uncomfortable feeling you may experience when swinging properly can be a good thing.

The proper golf swing starts with the proper take-away. If you begin your swing incorrectly you spend the remainder of it trying to correct the mistakes and making a poor shot. Chances are if you’re like me you start your back swing by rotating your whole body. Hips, shoulders, and legs, all moving to get the club to the top. Within Swing Machine Golf I found out this is completely wrong. You need to resist full body rotation and just use your shoulders to rotate the club around your body. Doing this creates torque within your back that is painful at first but makes a noticeably smoother and longer shot over time.

To practice and perfect the proper takeaway there are only two key points to think about:

Coil from the top

In order to create torque in your back you must think about only using your shoulders to take the club away. Resist any temptation to rotate your hips or legs. At first this will seem really strange and will make you notice how much you previously used your hips to perform this task. By the time you make it to the halfway point your hips will begin to turn even if you try to resist. When this happens, keep resisting. When you are almost to the top of your swing your knees will turn slightly, keep resisting. The whole time you should be thinking about just using your shoulders to take the club back.

During the last half of the back swing you should feel tension building in your lower back. This is a good thing and that tension is the torque which gives power to your shot. The more tension you build the faster your body tries to uncoil and the further your shot goes. The uncoiling is done with your hips and will be talked about in a later post.

Push the club with your left hand (right if you’re a lefty)

Now that you know to resist your hip rotation you can think about taking the club back. When you first start to take the club back use only your left hand. Push the club to 45 degrees off center without turning your shoulders or hips. Continue moving the club back until it is pointing directly back away from your target on a line parallel to your pre-shot target line. During this whole process you should only be moving your arms. Your shoulders will have to rotate slightly in order to allow the club to get to this position. Remember though, you don’t want to start the rotation until your arms and shoulders bring your club to this straight back point. Just think “push the club back with my left hand.”

You can practice this by only using your left hand and bringing the club back to the 45 degree point. Do it while watching TV and it will help build your muscle memory for a proper swing.

Thinking about these two simple things while starting your swing will quickly help you improve your game. You should feel stressed at first which will be a big turnoff to this method. Don’t worry, it took me a few months to really start feeling comfortable with the resistance. Give it time.

I am currently just under 3 and a half years out since my last chemo treatment. On May 9th, 2002 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

I had just finished with my 2nd year of college and my first semester at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I was running regularly to keep in shape for the following years cross country and track season. The next week I was set to begin training for a nursing assistant position to help me gain experience for my planned application to medical school. I went in to the doctor on the Friday after I returned home from school to get a pain I was having in my abdomen checked out.

See, during the second half of sophomore year I began to feel a pain in my abdomen when I worked out. After 3 weeks I finally went to the student med center to get it checked out. “Hernia,” said the doctor. “Great, so can I still workout?” I was just coming off a cross country season where I was running 50-70 miles a week, not working out would have been a crazy thought. “I wouldn’t recommend it, you should get in to the surgeon over spring break to get this taken care.” Excellent I thought to myself. While all my friends were on some beach in Mexico I would be get sliced open and hanging out with my parents back in Wisconsin.

So, I did what was best and went home over break. However, when I had my check up with the surgeon just 2 days before I was scheduled to have laparoscopic hernia surgery I found out it wasn’t a hernia at all. So what was it? After another appointment with my family physician I come to find out it is more than likely an inflammation of the seal around the testicle. Antibiotics will do the trick, 3 weeks.

I went back to Ann Arbor and took my pills everyday fully expecting the pain to subside. Four weeks later, no such luck. At this point I began to get worried and jokingly threw around the statement, “Oh, it’s probably just cancer.” That didn’t win me any sympathy, just slaps on the shoulder from my girlfriend who didn’t think it was very funny. “3 more weeks of antibiotics might do the trick, then we can take a look at you when you get home in another month,” said my family doctor. I contacted him rather than going back to the student med center. I was not about to return to the place where this whack job doc saw me for 2 minutes and said, “Hernia, get surgery.”

The pain came and went but was nothing unbearable. I lifted weights 5 days a week, ran, and played pickup basketball games. I didn’t think too much about it, just a coming and going here and there. I finished out my sophomore year and made it back home. I went in right away to see the doctor who said, “Maybe we should get you in for an ultrasound.” Being in biomedical engineering I realized that some nice nurse was going to be rubbing jelly on my privates and then placing a magic wand on it. Interesting, I guess.

I arrived at the hospital Monday the 6th of May and went through the pre-appointment routine of filling out papers, showing insurance and the waiting. Finally it was my turn. I am on the more open side when it comes to my sexuality so it wasn’t that weird. I even struck up a conversation with the nurse asking her about the ultrasound equipment and the pictures that were appearing on the screen. She said “It looks healthy and normal,” and I said “Great, but I think the one in question is the right one not the left.” So I got to spend a few extra minutes with her. Once on the correct side the images looked quite a bit different. The painful testicle had a lot more red lines shooting up on the screen as compared with the right. I asked, “What are all those red lines in that lump attached to my testicle?” “Hmm. Well the red lines are where blood flow is and there just happens to be more blood flow in this region than in the others, that’s all. You’ll find out more when the doctor takes a look at the results.” Nice political response.

I didn’t think too much about it those last words we spoke together but that’s not to say it wasn’t on my mind. I just chose to focus on other things.

Tuesday went by like any other Tuesday for someone who hadn’t started work yet, just relax. Wednesday came and I was expecting the results from my test. since I hadn’t heard from anyone on Tuesday I figured I was in the clear, they would’ve called right away if something was wrong. So I awoke and was planning to cut the grass early so I could get to the driving range before the end of work rush. I was at the kitchen counter eating breakfast when the phone rang. I can still remember my heart speeding up a little bit. “Hello?” On the other end was my mother, half in tears, “Erik, Dr. — called and said you have testicular cancer.” She could barely get the words out. “BS,” I retorted swiftly, “Gotta be a mistake.” I spent the next two minutes trying to convince my mother it was the wrong results until I couldn’t stand her in tears anymore, and hung up the phone. Besides I had grass to cut.

Outside to mow the lawn I went. Within twenty minutes, my father arrived home from work followed shortly by my mother. I kept cutting. Finally my Dad came out and stopped me from cutting saying, “Erik, we really have to go see the doctor.” I parked the mower, went inside and tried to console my mother the only way I new how, cracking some jokes.

We went to the doctor and didn’t have to wait. Apparently when you have a life threatening disease the waiting rooms really don’t apply to you. We went to his office to find a doctor who was beside himself. A genuinely great guy I think he was beating himself up inside for not catching it the first time I was in his office, back during spring break. “You are going to have to meet with the oncologist Erik. I have an appointment for you right away. You know they have come a long way with treatment and testicular cancer is one of the most treatable cancers in the world.” This all fell on deaf ears as I was in need of a different answer. How about “April Fools, or, Got ya this time didn’t I.” No, I was meeting with the Oncologist in 1 hour to discuss my options…

“I have to get what, removed when.”

My orchiectomy, or in other words testicle removal, was scheduled for the following morning at 8:00 am. We needed to get the tumor out ASAP to see what kind it was. Not even a going away party for the little guy. Gone, just like that.

I never did get to the driving range, or finish the lawn. Instead I went to the bookstore and bought Lance Armstrong’s, It’s Not About The Bike book. Kind of ironic since I spent most of my sophomore year with it in my trunk. A fellow runner of mine had lent it to me and said it’s a great inspirational story for any athlete. I returned it to him after not reading it. This time I had reason to.

Go onto the first surgery

Sorry to those of you who have been regularly following me. I have had some problems with my WordPress software which is helping me create this blog. I have been spending some time figuring that out. With a little help from a friend I am back up running at full speed. Also….

I recently embarked into a partnership with a friend of mine. We are working towards a service involving podcast transcription and have been very excited about the possibilities. The project is evolving as we go along and opening a lot of dialogue between the two of us. We both have great ideas for services and business models and both come into the partnership with different ways of conveying our ideas.

At first I was put off by some of our exchanges. I am not saying I am not open to teamwork. I have played on teams my whole life, worked at team oriented jobs, and started other “projects” which I guess you could call businesses with others. I have of course had team members that I didn’t see eye to eye with, and definitely members that I couldn’t stand working with. But in a team setting with more than two people I was able to turn to the others to help and tune the bad apple out. When you form a partnership, two members, that’s all there is. You can’t turn to the next guy for some sympathy.

This type of situation forces you to adapt and learn. If you don’t your project or business will deteriorate into nothing. Now sometimes the partner you are working with will be just unbearable and you won’t be able to work out a dynamic no matter how hard you try. If you feel you have done all you can don’t be afraid to move on. New opportunities will arise even if you feel this was the one, don’t waste your time. Other times you will come across a business partner that is open to free exchange of dialogue even if you yourself are the difficult one.

This is the case with my current business partner. At first I was not too into the open dialogue thing. I am one of those people who gets really excited about an idea and then just go, go, goes. I figure I’ll work out the details as I go along and mistakes are just minor bumps in the road. My partner on the other hand is someone who thinks through things in a way that sees a lot of the problem areas before they occur. To me it felt like he was shooting down my ideas. This obviously frustrated me a bit. The problem was I was getting too defensive and not seeing the comments for what they were, good ‘ole fashion product development.

Not wanting to give up on the idea we kept talking things out. This is a key step, if both parties are still excited about the venture keep the dialogue going even if it creates more tension. We did this and eventually my issues with the situation were brought onto the table. Really it wasn’t a big deal but it was a huge step in my learning to develop close business partnerships. My friend pointed out that we just didn’t have a good business dynamic yet because we were still learning each others styles. This was spot on. I tended to be overly enthusiastic to the point where I could have made a turd in a box look like a saleable item, whereas my partner was looking at each crazy idea we were developing with an open mind, thinking of both the positives and the negatives.

Once I was able to see that these idea exchange conversations were leading to more concrete and realistic ideas specific to what the market needed I then realized this type of business partnership had great potential. We have since been able to explore several business models related to podcast transcription as well as several general service models within this realm. We are both hopeful for our business. We also feel the same way about using it as a learning experience even if it fails miserably.

Conclusion
What I really want to get across is that with any team or partnership you start, not just businesses, you need to step back and see what each member is contributing to the team. Once you do this you can then see how each person’s styles have the ability to complement yours and those around you. From here idea exchanges will not be tense situations but rather rapid brainstorms which compound to more brainstorms and so on and so forth. Only progress can come from these situations, be it successful or unsuccessful.

Stay tuned for more on the podcast transcription service. We are close to a launch date and will have more information soon.

3 weeks have passed since I started my quest to become good at everything I try and I am still kicking. I can honestly say I have worked towards the 5 major goals I have set for myself and it hasn’t been easy. This past week was by far one of the more involved weeks that I have had. I ran 3 days, not as many as I wanted to but I also played tennis 3 days, surfed one day, and hit balls at the driving range 2 of those days. I was able to get at least one link to my site each day out of the last 3 weeks, increase my traffic from search engines and start on my way to making a million dollars.

500,000 VISITORS A MONTH - In order to increase traffic I have been spending more time reading others blogs and learning successful ways to do this. I increased my referrals from search engines to a total of 35; 29 from Google, 4 from MSN, 1 from AOL, and 1 from yahoo. I have actually had 63 unique visitors from google in the last 10 days so I am not sure if my numbers are correct. I have multiple stat counters on my site to choose the best one. My unique visitors slumped down to 498, but my page impressions increased drastically from 1653 the previous week to 2427. NEED MORE USEFUL CONTENT! I am making a little money but have not broken into the dollar a day range. I hope to do this within the next month.

I am also working on another blog about living in Hawaii that I had started over a year ago as well as a very involved content rich website. I am also working on starting an internet business with Cesar that we hope to launch this week or next.

RUNNING LOG - Still running the 3.2 mile route around the Ala Wai Canal, roughly 7:35 pace.

Monday - 22:42
Tuesday - 23:17
Sunday - 22:27

TENNIS - Kimberly and I played tennis Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I worked on really keeping my shoulders turned when I hit the ball rather than opening up. I also started into some foot work drills that I made up on the fly and may be helpful to you. Playing basketball when I was younger I know a thing or two about athletic stance and the shuffle. In order to get my body in the proper position to hit the tennis ball I have realized I need good quick footwork. We also worked a little more on my serve which I describe in tips on how to serve previously.

BECOMING A SCRATCH GOLFER - I went to the driving range two days this week and hit two buckets of balls both days. My main focus was keeping my forward body tilt and keeping a loose wrist hinge. In order to replicate the iron byron swing you must remain in the same forward body tilt until 3/4 of the way through your follow through. You must also make sure to keep your wrists loose which will allow the club face to return to square at impact and eliminate a slice. I am going to write more about how to practice the loose wrist hinge which has helped me work on removing the slice from my drive.

Overall I would say my week was fairly productive but not as much as I had wanted. I am working towards a lot of goals and need to be able to focus my energy and thought when working on any one of them. If not I will get nothing done and loose focus on becoming good at everything I try. This week has started out fairly decent. I went running and worked more on the websites. I must also mention that I work full time at a biotech company which is going to begin to demand more of my time and possibly overtime. This may cut into my time line but I will just have to re-prioritize my lists. Until next time, best of luck with yours.

For some reason my WordPress install didn’t go quite as well as others. As I mentioned in my how to get permalinks working post, some files were omitted from my admin page and also from my WordPress folder. Well, another few hours spent searching the WordPress support forums and I was able remove the date and headers from my individual pages in my WordPress blog. These are pages like about me, contact me, support, etc. The following is how to quickly and easily remove those items.

What Page Template am I using

First off you should know that each page of your blog has a specific template used for it that can be edited. In the WordPress admin page navigate to the Presentation button on the top of the page. Then click on the Theme Editor button. This will bring you to all the theme templates that you can edit using your admin page. If you see one labeled Page Template on the right hand side then great, you can jump to the next step. If not then you must create one. As mentioned in this wordpress codex, WordPress by default will go to index.php as the template to use for all pages if there isn’t first a page specific template, or a general page.php template. It will follow that order to find one, page specific->page.php->index.php.

Therefore, if you don’t want the date to show up within these pages you must make sure a page.php template is in the themes folder. To do this use your ftp client (such as Filezilla) to get to where your themes folder is. My themes folder was located in the wp-content folder. Once there copy the file named index.php. (Remember it must be the file from the themes folder.) Next, paste it to your desktop and then rename it page with the same file extension php. Therefore it becomes your page.php template. Finally paste it back into your themes folder using your ftp client.

Now, when you go to the Theme Editor in the Presentation tab you should see Page Template as one of your options. Super!

Removing the date from the Page Template

Once you are able to see and edit the Page Template using your WordPress admin page go there and open it up (if you’re following along from the last step you should already be there.) Within the Page Template there is a portion of code that should say <!– S T A R T M A I N C O N T E N T –>. Following that there should be somewhere the following lines of code:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_date(”,’<h2>’,'</h2>’); ?>
<div class=”post”>
<h3 class=”storytitle” id=”post-<?php the_ID(); ?>”><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark”>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</a></h3>
<div class=”meta”>
<?php _e(”Category:”); ?>
<?php the_category(’,') ?> — <?php the_author() ?> @ <?php the_time() ?>
<?php edit_post_link(__(’edit post’)); ?>

The portion you should erase to get rid of just the date is <?php the_date(”,’<h2>’,'</h2>’); ?>. If you want to get rid of the whole header from the top of your individual pages then delete everything that I have showed you above. This will leave just the title of the page and the content. Navigate to some of my individual pages like About Me to see how this looks.

Done! Once you get the hang of whish php calls do what you can delete more of them to further customize your page. Good luck and remember, if things get too screwed up and you can’t remember what you deleted or added you can always just delete the page.php file from your themes folder and start over.

Permalinks won’t work in wordpress? If so and you want permalinks you’ve come to the right place.

What are Permalinks? Permalinks are basically the web address you see in the address bar of your browser when all of the information of that particular URL is spelled out. Since WordPress uses the php programming language it directs people to different pages using addresses such as www.yourdomain.com/?cat=6. What the heck does /?cat=6 tell a user? That’s where permalinks come in. It is thought and makes sense that search engines look at these addresses and include it in your search results ranking. (Search for SEO or search engine optimization in Google for more information on this.) If you have www.yourdomain.com/how-to-use-wordpress that tells the user before even visiting more than /?cat=6 would.

WordPress comes along with an option to change these settings. Sometimes though the trouble can be just finding where the heck the option is and how to change it. I am using WordPress 1.5 with my Netfirms account. I am also using the sharepoint-like theme. When I first went to my admin page and then to options, where permalinks changing is done, I didn’t have the option! Frustration ensued. I was able to find the location of the option but once I got there more problems, links would show up but not direct correctly. Well, after spending a few hours searching the WordPress forums I was able to fix the problem and now have permalinks.

The following are steps that I pieced together to make your life easier to change from all that php code to permalinks using your WordPress account.

WHERE’S MY .htaccess FILE LOCATED?

Your .htaccess file is a file that basically allows programs, and yourself to write different files within your directories. The php files that wordpress uses to simplify life need to know whether they have permission to overwrite things and need to ask .htaccess if it is ok to do so.

First things first. Let’s start out by making sure your .htaccess file is in the correct folder. For me Netfirms setup my wordpress account automatically, great. Except the .htaccess file wasn’t in the correct place. This was the final thing that I needed to change and didn’t find until after a couple hours went by. That’s why I’m telling you first, the rest is cake.

Go to your file manager or use your ftp access software (I use Filezilla). Search for the folder which contains your .htaccess file. In my Netfirms account it was in the main www folder and not the WordPress folder. If you have a lot of directories (folders) on your hosting account you may have to spend some time looking. Once you’ve found it you need to make sure that it is in the same folder as index.php. I just cut and pasted the file into the correct folder but I read a few forum posts that said you may copy and paste it in there as well and have two .htaccess files. If you’re using an ftp client like Filezilla you should also make sure that the chmod is set to 666. Do this by right clicking on the file and navigate to properties, then in the only numeric box make sure its set as 666. You can find more info about this fix here.

Hard part done!

WHERE ARE MY PERMALINKS OPTIONS?

Keeping with my theme here, somehow my permalinks options were missing from my WordPress admin options menu. If you are having the same problem have no fear. You must first go into your file manager within your hosting account. Then navigate to the folder which contains the file labeled options-permalinks.php, mine was in the wp-admin folder. Now open this file (double click, right click, whichever). It will take you to either the WordPress admin log in page where you should log in, or it will take you directly to the options menu-permalinks option in your WordPress admin section.

If you actually have the permalinks option in your options menu of your admin page from the start then go directly there.

CHANGING MY PERMALINKS OPTIONS

All you have to do now is follow the instructions on the page. If you want the quick way just copy and paste this /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ into the section labeled Structure. Note that you may have to add, /index.php/ before /%year/. There are also a lot more tags available at WordPress to customize your permalinks and your individual URLs. Make sure you follow the structure examples that are provided and you shouldn’t have any problems.

There you have it. The main thing that was problematic for me was the location of the .htaccess file. There are of course other things that could be wrong and you can probably find solutions to them within the WordPress support forums. Good luck with SEO (search engine optimization) and I hope this helps.