Break out the Cristal and expensive cigars, it’s time to celebrate. 2007 is almost over and the yearly slate is wiped clean. Personally I think that New Years Resolutions are quite cliche. I mean, everybody makes them and nobody ever keeps them. Does anyone even remember what their New Years Resolution from last year was?

With that said, I will be posting my resolutions tomorrow, and on the topic of cliche, they will include buying a $1200 gym membership and changing my diet!

Anyhow, the beauty of January 1st is that we are all at the start of something, a new year. This is the one time each year that you can declare change, and people actually accept it. No matter what mistakes or failures you had over the past 12 months, you now have the opportunity to erase them from your mind and completely start fresh!

The past is the past and there is nothing you will ever do to change it. Whether you made bad business decisions, or questionable personal decisions, FORGET ABOUT THEM. It’s time to look into 2008 and get energized.

Personally I have embarked on a new chapter of my life. Some people may agree, and some may disagree with recent decisions I have made. Many also think that I just got some sort of huge windfall or massive payday. Let me correct these people, NO. If anything I just gave up an enormous amount of cash/equity to acquire the affiliate forums back. In dollars and cents, my monthly income will also see an initial downswing by no longer being compensated on the PAW Network.

Long term though, I know the decisions I made moving into 2008 are the right ones. Of course there was, and still is a massive risk involved with the major industry shift I created. But here is one reason why I am not worried. I believe in myself, and I believe that the decisions I have made are the right ones for myself, my family, and the overall industry. If I didn’t have this level of confidence or positive attitude, I don’t think I could achieve what I am going to in the next 12 months.

I know that what I do in the next 12 months will essentially shape the rest of my career in the poker affiliate industry. I might be a bit crazy because I love risk and challenge so much. I suppose it’s a risk vs. reward thing. I thrive however on knowing that I am in control of my destiny, and that I make the decisions on where I will be professionally and personally in the years to come.

This is YOUR opportunity as well to take on a new attitude or confidence level. If you have had a negative attitude, low confidence, or not believed in what you were doing last year, then change it RIGHT NOW. <——Click there and listen to this song while reading the next two paragraphs.

The new year gives each of us the opportunity to declare new goals and forget about anything negative from 2007. How you mentally prepare your mind in the next 48 hours for the coming year can have a significant impact on the entire 365 days. Write your goals down and put them somewhere visible. Hang them in your office, make it your screen saver. Remember, this is the time to do it. If you believe in yourself and make the commitment to a fresh start, you and you alone can guide your entire 2008 to be the one of the best years of your life.

Without the proper mindset moving into the new year, it is impossible to have a fresh start. Nobody controls your destiny over the next 12 months but you! If you have been putting things off for days, months, or even years, right now is the time to stop fu**** around and make something big happen in your life.

Take ownership and take control over your own destiny. Make like Nike and Just Do It!

Be Safe and Have A Great New Years Eve! See you all on the flip side.

By now anyone reading this knows that I have purchased the PAW forums back and partnered with PAP. What a wild couple months it has been getting this acquisition done. To think I started this entire journey writing an Ebook back in 2004 still baffles my mind. At the time I was still working in corporate America, and just starting to see some nice checks from poker affiliate programs.

Prior to writing PartyRiches, I already had a very nice affiliate business going. I really just wanted to start an affiliate forum to correspond with other people promoting online poker. At the time, I would have been happy with a simple EZboards forum.

Sometimes in business and in life, you are in the right place at the right time. One of my favorite quotes is “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. I believe this to be true. Over the past 5 years I have busted my ass, and worked more hours in a few years than most will in a lifetime. However I still think I decided to start a poker affiliate forum at the exact right time.

For those of you that have not known me very long, allow me to take you back a minute. Here are some of the foundations of where I began in the whole organization of a poker affiliate forum.

Original Party Riches Site

Beginning Of The Largest Poker Affiliate Forum In The World

Party Riches Video - How Can You Forget This!

And last but not least, I hate to put this here, but Pink Bunny.

So here I sit starting 2008 with a new journey in front of me. Lucky for me, I love change and I love adventure. The acquisition of PAW and partnering with PAP should be all of that. One of the reasons I have joined PAP is because I now have the opportunity to oversee several new online poker initiatives. Of course the forums will always be one of my most important projects. But now I also get to work on rolling out a payment processing solution to the industry (affiliate speedpay), plan a PAP poker convention, open up an exclusive poker skin, and grow the ASOP, as well as several other things.

But most importantly, I get to work with a progressive organization that will add tremendous value to the overall poker affiliate industry.

What a crazy ride it’s been as a poker affiliate up to this point. Although I have seen a fair amount of success in this business, the friendships I have made with people all around the world is worth more than anything else to me. In any other lifetime I would not have the opportunity to become friends with so many unique people that are thousands of miles apart.

Not many people can say they “love what they do”. I am very fortunate that I am one of the few that can.

It is with great excitement that I get to make this post……finally. Many of you may have heard the rumors or wondered why we have been working so closely with PAP. The following press release should explain it all. In a nutshell however, I have been involved in an acquisition to buy the PAW forums back.

I have also partnered with my good friends Warren and Greg, and will be physically moving just the forums to a PAP url. Don’t worry, all the 301’s are in place so it will be seamless. I have the utmost respect for the guys at PokerNews and will still be helping them grow the network. PokerAffiliateWorld.com is being re-designed and will focus 100% on running a kick ass network.

Long term, this is a GREAT thing for the overall poker affiliate industry. There is actually quite a bit more to this deal that I’m sure I’ll write about later. For now though, here is the official release:

PokerAffiliatePrograms.com Announces Acquisition of PokerAffiliateWorld.com Forums and Network Partnership with PokerNews Ltd.

Poker webmasters and online poker operators are already familiar with the two most popular online poker affiliate resources. Today both companies are excited to announce the acquisition of the PokerAffiliateWorld.com forums by PokerAffiliatePrograms.com.

Two of the leading poker affiliate companies have made an exciting announcement today that will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the entire poker affiliate industry for years to come. On January 1^st, the world’s largest poker affiliate forum will be moving to a new home.

PAW forums have been acquired by PAP, and will be re-directed and hosted at www.pokeraffiliateprograms.com/forums. Nothing within the forums themselves will change — all of the forums, categories, members, moderators, and posts will all remain in-tact and provide for an easy transition.

PokerNews Ltd. has retained the domain name PokerAffiliateWorld.com and will continue growing the network in both poker and other verticals on a brand new domain, which will soon be announced. Over the past year PokerNews Ltd. has built the largest and most successful poker affiliate network in history. They will focus on continuing to grow the network and offer more products/verticals for affiliates to profit from.

PokerAffiliatePrograms.com has also entered into a marketing partnership to help this network grow through its powerful brands both in the gaming and non-gaming sector that span online and offline.

Founder of the PAW forums, Jeremy Enke stated “This is an amazing opportunity for the entire poker affiliate industry and a win/win for both PAW and PAP. Each organization specializes in different areas of the market. This acquisition and partnership will allow the forums to thrive and become an even greater resource in the poker affiliate industry through newly-planned mediums. In turn, it will also allow the PAW Network to focus 100% on bringing the best value, deals, and payouts to its poker affiliates.”

The transition of the forums is expected to be a seamless process taking place on December 29th with the existing PAW forum URL’s and tabs simply being redirected to the new location. As of this date, Jeremy Enke will also be joining the parent company of PAP as General Manager of its Online Poker division. Greg Powell will remain onboard and has been named as the Marketing Director behind PAP. The poker affiliate forums will continue to be managed by Jeremy.

Together, this powerhouse team will continue to educate and represent poker affiliates world-wide. The management of the PAW Network will be taken over and managed by Mitchell Nunis of PokerNews Ltd. Any queries regarding this release should be directed to Jeremy Enke via telephone: (714) 421-8957.

Hopefully everyone had an awesome Christmas and enjoyed some time off with your families. I’m sure many of you are wondering what is going on with all the PAW/PAP/CAP cross promotion lately. I hate leading people on, and building a ton of suspense up to something dismal. So I will share that there is indeed a business deal going on in the poker affiliate industry between myself, Warren (CAP CEO), and PokerNews.

What will be announced in the coming days is extremely exciting and a positive move forward for the entire poker affiliate industry. Every person/company involved in this deal has unique strengths and leverage within our industry. If you sit back and think about it, you can probably think of these strengths yourself.

When thinking about the overall poker affiliate industry, I like to see the big picture. I also like to look at how we as an industry can actually shape the future successes of OUR own market. It’s easy to be reactive and just sit back and watch things transpire in the poker affiliate industry. Likewise it’s easy to stay within your “comfort zone” and not embrace change. However both myself, Warren, and Pokernews prefer to be proactive, and that is why the deal is coming together in the first place.

More to come on all this in the coming days. However onto other exciting things. As you have read on the forums, we are doing a co-promotion where one lucky affiliate is going to win a free all inclusive trip to CAP Euro. Now that Christmas is over, the entries are starting to come in at an even greater pace. If you would like to win a free trip to what WILL be the biggest gaming affiliate convention ever, you can see all the official rules here:

PAP V.I.P. Challenge

Just email me a link to your entry and we will get it posted and shipped to the judges ASAP. This truly is a kick ass promotion and I am looking forward to partying with the winner at CAP Euro. Here are the current entries:

Jonathan Holloway(anonymous nomination)

Jonathan Holloway (himself)

Ryan Tomlinson

Kaus (Cheryle) nominated (cannot attend)

Mark Holland

Jason Deiboldt

LadyHoldem’s Entries

Lorne Fade

Ryan Carter

John Goldie