Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

“OK Great,” says my fiance. But what foods can I eat then? “Vegetables and fruits,” I reply.

After explaining about the new volumetrics “diet” that I’m trying to stick with to feel full with less calories, my fiance wanted to know about what foods she could eat and was it just going to be lettuce and apples (both of which she’s not too fond of.) Googling around I couldn’t really find a good source of what foods we could eat so I thought I would make ya’ll a list.

This list is just starting and what I’m trying to do is show there is a variety of foods out there you can eat. All below an energy density of 2. Remeber:

Energy Density = Calories / Weight in Grams per serving

OK, after the last PR update and this blog didn’t even budge off it’s PR4 I’m on the hunt for quality link exchanges from others like me. People who are jumping into this internet web money making wonderness and want to get their blog’s PR up and spread the link love.

If you’d like to exchange links with me in your blogroll, just send over a comment and I’ll be happy to exchange links with you. I’m looking mainly for similar type personal blogs but will consider just about anything.

On a happy Google PR note Blogtown Press did see most of it’s blogs reach PR4 which is great! Now I just gotta get this one back up there again……

OK, so I admit, I’ve started to rock a little bit of a tire around the mid section. Nothing big, but noticeable none-the-less.

To try and get in shape in time for my wedding (which is in Hawaii, friends coming out, and I should really look like I actually play out here rather than work on my computer all day long) I’ve decided to cut calories and increase activity. The only problem is, I get way too hungry.

I’m trying and trying, but once 9 pm rolls around, I’m starving! I snack a little, not excessively, as a I used to but I’m still not cutting out as many calories as I’ve wanted to.

That’s when someone in my office, who noticed my disgruntledness (good word) at the candy jar, handed me over this great article from Newsweek titled Filling up with Less. It’s about a little known “diet” called volumetrics.

Volumetrics is essentially watching the amount of calories you take while still remaining full (or as they call it many times in the article, satiated. You eat foods that are not necessarily lower in calories but have higher densities usually as a result from more water in the food. This is called their energy density.

Energy Density = Calories Per Serving / Grams Per Serving

You want to eat foods that have an energy density of less than 1. Foods with energy densities between 1 and 2 are OK but should be limited and over 2, forget about it.

OK, so here we go, time to start eating many more fruits and veggies and get rid of that extra ring around the belly.

For those of you not aware I have been paying several bloggers to blog for my blog network Blogtown Press over the past 5 months to see where it can take blogs. The writers have been doing great, building content, and building a readership at each blog.

Out of the 5 blogs I have writers writing for only one of those blogs has been able to sustain itself and pay for the writer. We even had a few months where that one blog went over straight pay and into percentage partner. With that said, I am sad to report that I have had to discontinue contracts for three of the blogs and keep one of the writers as a single post by post contract blogger.

I feel this is in no way a reflection on their writing but more a reflection on how well I have run Blogtown Press. From a hobby standpoint. I still make money off it, and without having those writers on those three blogs, yes I will make more. But calling myself an entrepreneur I have to realize when I’m just foolishly spending money without a plan, which this was doing. More as an experiment.

Although I still think of the content they’ve produced as an investment, that content is unique and will always be there, it wasn’t building to anything. I didn’t have a plan.

My number one problem was:
1. I was spread too thin from the beginning. None of the blogs had a cohesive tie to one another and no one blog was focused on as the pillar blog of the network. Therefore, we didn’t have a large audience to launch new blogs to and we didn’t have a reason for readers to come back.

Also:
2. I wasn’t spending nearly enough time promoting and getting links. I had writers but wasn’t spreading the word about what they were producing.

Now don’t get me wrong, traffic and revenue have both risen, but not on the blogs that I was paying people to blog on. (Except One) Just building articles, PR, and SE presence allows me to gain more advertisers and gain more readers, and thus, gain more money. But I wasn’t building a business system.

So I’ve cut back on spending and I’m regaining a focus on a new venture that has 10 times more promise, 10 times more focus, and 10 times more people involved! (You knew I was going somewhere with this, more to come in the near future, but be prepared.)

Moral of the story, cut your losses so you can refocus and build back up. Oh yeah, and don’t get defeated.