Ok, this isn’t a post about dieting, it’s about psychology.  You see, there are a zillion weight loss programs out there and guess what? They all work.  All of ‘em. Every single one.  Go pick one that sounds good and follow it to the letter.  I’m sure you’ll like the results.

The problem isn’t whether or not dieting works, it’s how we approach it that determines our success or failure.  Some people start strong, lose a bunch of weight and end up gaining it back within a year.  Others struggle from the get go and give up in the first week or two.  Like all changes in lifestyle, the factor that has the largest effect on making a lasting change is motivation.  Motivation is what fuels follow-through, but how does one stay motivated through something as uncomfortable as eating healthy?  In a word; Results.  It’s more than just objective quantification of results, though.  We need to see these results presented in a way that stokes our fire.

I’m borrowing the idea from personal finance expert Dave Ramsey.  Most people come to Dave looking for help with a mountain of debt.  Any good economist or mathematician will tell you that the best way out of debt is to pay off the balances with the highest interest rate first.  Makes sense, right?  Get rid of the debts that cost the most first and you’ll save money in the long run.  The problem is that if paying off debt was simply about math, we’d all be millionaires.  The fact is that paying down debt is much more about psychology.  We need to be rewarded for our efforts or we lose interest in the struggle.  Without small victories, without milestones, without accomplishment, the task seems endless and insurmountable.  Dave’s solution is the Debt Snowball.

The Debt Snowball ignore interest rates completely and focuses on debts with the smallest balance first.  Once the smallest debt is paid off, its monthly payment is then rolled into the monthly payment of the next smallest debt.  When that one is paid off, you roll what you were paying into the payment of the next.  The reason this method is effective is that small debts are eliminated quickly, building a sense of accomplishment early on in the process.  That accomplishment carries you to next debt and the next as the payment you can make to each gets bigger and bigger.

So what the hell does all this have to do with fat loss?  Everything.  If there is a better proxy for fat loss than debt, I can’t think of it.

To stick with a diet, people need to see results quickly, which is why many diets include a two-week induction phase that promises to cut your weight by 10 pounds or more.  The problem is that this initial weight loss is water weight, not the more stubborn fat, so weight loss slows to 1-2 pounds per week after this initial phase.  Experts have agreed for some time that 1-2 pounds per week is a healthy rate of weight loss, and now that water retention has been reduced those pounds will be mostly fat.

Losing 1-2 pounds per week isn’t quite as exciting as losing a pound a day, so what can one do to stay motivated in this less exciting time.  As I mentioned earlier, we need to view our results in a way that stokes our fire.  Many diet books will tell you to invest in a scale that measures body fat percentage, not just weight.  The thinking is that if you’re exercising as well as dieting that you will be building new muscle which adds to your overall weight.  By focusing on body fat percentage, you can assess your overall body composition.

Here’s the problem with this approach: If you’re 300 lbs and 50% body fat, losing 2 lbs in a week only reduces your body fat by 0.2%.  I don’t know about you, but 0.2% isn’t a number that gets me excited.  If I’m seeing this number I’m supposed to be focusing on creeping down from 50% to 49.8% to 49.3% over the course of two weeks, I’m going to lose interest- this is going to take forever!

The solution is simple. Rather than looking at the percentage, find a scale that also tells you your body fat weight.  Now instead of counting down in fractions, you’re counting down in whole numbers.  You see the scale go from 150 to 148 to 146 over the same time period as the example above.  Even though the results are exactly the same the point is that the numbers we’re using are larger, and that makes it feel different.   This is the same psychology as the debt snowball- you might be paying the same amount of money each month as you would if you went after the highest interest rate first, but by seeing those smaller debts drop off early, you stay motivated to follow through.

The next time you’re faced with a seemly insurmountable task, try changing the scale by which you measure results to one that delivers more impressive numbers while maintaining the same pace.  You’ll feel like you’re making real progress towards long-term goals.

What other areas could this approach apply to?  Leave your ideas in the comments.

You just got служил!

It doesn’t get much better than spending a long weekend in the Poconos. The beauty is stunning and the relaxation is deep.

This is what summer looks like!

Carl Sagan auto-tuned. Turn on, tune in and geek out.

Wow, I already did one post today (my first in quite some time) and now I’m going for a record setting TWO posts?!?  I just turned the blogging world UPSIDE-DOWN.

Anyhow, the Consumerist wrote last week about a for-real-real version of a Tracy Jordan Meat Machine Sandwich.  It appears to involve bacon, cheese, a creamy dressing and FRIED-FUCKING-CHICKEN FOR BREAD.

Now I’m not claiming to be Professor Health Food here, I love me some fried food just as much as any other gravy-blooded American, but there has to be a point at which we say “This far, no further!” Is an inside-out, breadless, fried chicken sandwich really what America is craving?

Of course it is!  After all, it’s Atkins friendly.

I’m an Apple fanboy, I admit it.  Once a staunch PC guy and open critic of Apple products, I have completely converted to the dark.  So it should come as no surprise that I am totally oggling the iPad the like a hungry castaway oggles his fellow shipwreckees.  Beautiful design, intuitive interface, shiny, what’s not to love?

So while poking around for ways to win an iPad (who wants to pay $500 for Gen 1?) I came across the latest from the Will It Blend gang.  It was only a matter of time, and yes it’s a little painful/hilarious to watch.

My shiny new Thesis install is done, but I’m still playing with all the bells and whistles.  So far though, it’s pretty sweet.  I’m sure the look will be continuously changing for a while, but I’m very pleased so far.

Anyway, here’s a little holiday cheer- Boston Style

Last week I received an email from my hosting company, NetProHosting, that they were closing their doors. It’s a shame, they were super cheap and I never had any trouble with them.

The sadder news is that I’ve spent a week migrating everything to my other host, hence the crappy default WP theme you see now.

I’ll be upgrading to the Thesis theme this week and tweaking the look fr a while after that. Until then, enjoy the amateur look and feel of the blog.

Chris and Kelly - just married

So yeah, I got married.

I’m serious!  We exchanged rings and everything.

Elvis was there.

Hail to the King, Baby

You have your keywords, you’re tracking conversions and you’re adjusting your bids accordingly… or are you?

Are any of your keywords on broad or phrase match?  Are you simply adjusting your bids based on the performance of the keyword on which you’re bidding?  Then you’re potentially throwing away a lot of money.  Efficiency in PPC is all about analysing data, so if you’re only looking at surface level data, you’re missing the big picture.

Here’s what I mean: with broad and phrase match, several search queries are being matched against the term you’re bidding on.  If your keyword is something like “shoes” and is being broad matched, just think of all the search engine queries that could potentitally contain the word shoes!  It’s a rather severe example, but I’m trying to make a point.

Say you’re bidding on Keyword X, and Queries Y and Z and both being matched to it.  You’ve spent $110, received 120 clicks and made 6 conversions worth $30 each.  You’ve spent $110, made $180 and might feel pretty good about that.  Let’s dig a little deeper and see what’s actually happening:

Keyword X

• Query Y: 100 clicks, $100 in spend, 1 conversion
• Query Z: 20 clicks, $10 in spend, 5 conversions

So while you’re bidding on Keyword X, it’s actually Query Z that’s making all the money while Query Y is losing it.  You think you’re bidding on a single term, but in reality you are placing a bid based on the aggregate performance of all the queries being matched to it!

The solution of course is to gain this kind of insight into the actual search queries your keywords are getting and their performance.  Then it’s simply a matter of adding those queries as exact match keywords so that you can bid them appropriately.  In the above example, Query Y converts and is probably worth holding onto at a much lower bid.  It will convert far less often, but will at least turn a profit.

So how do we go about gaining this insight?  If you use Google’s conversion tracking, you can simply run a Search Query Performance report in the report center.  This will show you some of the search queries triggering your ads along with some performance metrics like CTR and conversions.

If you’re running ads as an affiliate or are not using Google’s conversion tracking, you might want to look into a product like Xtreme Conversions.  This program tracks each individual search query and matches a TID based on the query, engine, referring domain (great for “search partners”) and the bid keyword.  You can then match the TIDs from your conversions and see which search query and bid keyword produced it.

This info should be plenty to take your keyword targeting to the next level and improve your PPC efficiency dramatically.