Want a sure way to gain weight? Start a new blog. Starting a new blog, writing weekly posts, learning SEO, and then optimizing for good search engine placement has occupied so much of my time for the past several months. I have gained 10 plus pounds!

My wife hired me (that means free!) instead of a web design and marketing company to throw something out on the web about her real estate agents business. I had a little experience creating websites a few yeas ago for friends and organizations so I was excited about giving it a try again. I read blogs and articles to find out what is hot in the industry and decided to make the leap into blogging. I read blogging is a much better way to get noticed compared to the older static website approach. What I didn't realize is I have to write posts weekly to keep the blog alive.

I should say to be fair to fellow bloggers a huge amount of time spent in my project isn't just writing posts. I have spent more time reading and learning about current search engine optimization to make your head spin and of course working on building back links. My early morning exercise program was put on the back burner while I blogged and learned and did SEO (search engine optimization) stuff.

Wait! The SEO stuff now includes joining social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Active Rain to name a very small few. Now I had to spend more time learning about social networking sites and building new profiles. And you mean I need to post and re-post on other blogs, article submission sites like Ezine, and bookmarking sites? Ops there went my evenings. I knew I was in trouble when my kids thought I was spending more time on the computer than they do.

After a couple months I noticed my pants were feeling snug. My wife bought me new shorts for the summer and I had to go up a pant size. I just hated to even think about getting on the scale. Boy, adding 10 pounds was easy. So I ignored the weight gain warning signs and decided to work on my next 10 added pounds.

Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed the learning process so far. I am still a novice in the world of blogging and SEO. But I have come along way after making several startup mistakes and I am sure I am still making many today. Next I need to learn how to write!

For those of you concerned, I did start exercising again. I am leaning how to balance my time.

So if someone sued McDonald's for making them gain too much weight, who do you sue because blogging makes you gain weight? Look in the mirror!