Ahhh yes, break out the cheap champagne and the condoms, this glorious day comes only once a year. It’s February 14th and Valentines Day is upon us. Today is the day that Hallmark stores and flower shops live for. Valentines Day is a a great day to buy your spouses gifts and show them some much needed affection.

Although the wife may tell you she wants flowers, chocolates, or jewelry; in reality she probably wants something more practical. I mean flowers, chocolate, and jewelry is so standard. Why not go above and beyond this year and get your wife something she can really use and appreciate. Here are a few ideas gentlemen, you can thank me later.

1. A New Vacuum - I can’t think of a better gift for that special lady in your life. Go all out this valentines day and get her one that’s self propelled. These women work hard for us, and I feel morally obligated to provide them with the tools they need to be successful.

2. A Brand New Ab Roller -If you’re wife is like mine, then you know fitness plays an important role in keeping her happy. As a Two Time Husband of The Year Recipient (2006/2007) I have found that nothing says I love you more on Valentines Day than fitness equipment. This is a way to show your sweetheart that you really care about her health and well being.

3. Maid Cart - With so many supplies, and such a robust assortment of cleaning items to keep our castle’s clean, we have to make sure our wives can stay organized. My wife loves having the flexibility of being able to push the maid cart around from room to room during her daily cleaning. I highly recommend this product for all your wives. When your wife sees how thoughtful you can truly be, it will probably bring tears of joy to her eyes.

4. Kegerator - Most wives realize that men work hard all day and appreciate being served refreshments in the evening. There’s no sense in making this portion their day any more difficult guys. A kegerator will allow your sweetheart to serve you without breaking fingernails or or harming her precious hands. The last thing you want to do is contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome on either of her “cleaning hands”

5. Custom Stripper Pole - Most wives will never admit it, but they do secretly love when we come home from the strip club at 2:00 AM smelling like booze and perfume. Why not bring the romance back this valentines day by including your wife in on the fun? With your new kegerator, perhaps you could even invite your buddies over to watch the show and feed your wife $1 dollar bills. Nothing says I love you better than giving your wife the opportunity to financially contribute to the household.

So there you have it gentlemen. As you can see, the back to back 2006/2007 Husband of The Year Award was not just given to me. I had to work hard for it and prove my thoughtfulness. With gift idea like the ones above, you are sure to have one of the most romantic nights of your life. Enjoy the moment, and share in her tears of joy as she thanks you repeatedly for thinking of her needs this valentines day.

Feel free to share your great valentines day gift ideas in the comments below.

So we launched TextShark.com a few days ago for Beta Testing in the European market. So far everything is going well and we’re seeing new sign-ups on the site each and every day. I love beta testing because you can see what’s working and what is not. Right now the key for us is just getting the system used and working out any initial bugs.

My partner on the project is Brad Reynolds who some of you know. His new blog is really good, so bookmark it and comment the hell out of it.  He also started a site a while back called Mongoose Metrics which I could see being very large. If only I were still in real estate, having multiple phone numbers to track campaigns would have been awesome!

If you’re interested in being a beta tester for us, sign up on the site and shoot me an email. I’ll throw you a freeroll with some cash added or make it worth your while to test it out. Remember though, you must be in a European country.

So, on to the title of this post. I am thinking of doing a few media buys in the sense of purchasing paid posts on a few big blogs. For a product like this, I feel the best way to really get into the market is through the blogosphere…… Well, or by joining a CJ type network. But I wouldn’t even entertain that while beta testing.

I realize buying paid reviews may or may not give me the return I am looking for. However paid reviews are relatively cheap compared to other type media buys. The sites I am initially thinking of testing are the following:

JohnChow.com, Shoemoney.com, and TylerCruz.com

Even though I am not sure what the overall results would be, I do think it would be fun to run these and post a full report on their performance here. If nothing else I can add value to my readers whom all would probably be interested in this info.

If you can think of any other sites you would consider a good idea to buy on, please post in the comments.

For the last couple years I have always had two computers running in my office while I work.  I would have all my communications on the laptop, and then write content, web design, and coding on the desktop.  This always worked well, but it’s nothing compared to a dual 19″ set up like below.

This week I finally got a long overdue, dual monitor set up.   I have only worked on the setup for a couple days and one night now.  But I can tell you that without question I can already tell I am more productive.  Having the ability to do everything on one workspace, and move applications and webpages from one screen to the other is amazing.

Most affiliates I know are huge multi-taskers and have 5-10 skype chats running, email, a few forums, and some web design or content apps.  Looking at a tray filled with all this stuff gets overwhelming and can sometimes give you the same feeling as a cluttered desk.

The first time I walked into the main office at PAP I noticed every single work station was running with dual monitors.  At first I thought maybe that was overkill, but to be honest after working with the set-up, I would highly recommend it to everyone.

It just makes all the day to day tasks easier.  It especially is great if you use skype or some type of messenger all day.  Not having to see that shitty orange box flashing in the tray anymore is great.  You can keep working on one screen and monitor all your conversations without having to minimize.

Having (2) monitors is nothing about being a baller or making your office look cool (although it does).  More so it is a way to greatly increase your productivity and organize your online workspace.

Today I was cleaning out my office and came across some business documents from 2002. The documents were offshore incorporation documents for an online casino I briefly operated. I remember back in those days I was a one man warrior. At this point in my affiliate career I was under the impression I could do or figure out anything on my own.

It didn’t take long to figure out I was wrong. Around 2003 I started reading the industry forums and meeting other webmasters and internet marketers. This is when I actually started making money online versus pissing it away on bad investments. What a crazy ride it’s been since then!

Being a member of several online marketing forums, and founding what is now PAP, I have seen two types of people in our industry; givers and takers.

The givers are the ones who will not hesitate to help a new affiliate out. They are the ones who are not afraid to give an hour of their time to share their knowledge with someone who is need. It’s not just about new affiliates needing help from the experienced affiliates either. Even the guys making the big money still get stuck on occasion or need to pick someone’s brain. A giver will come to an industry forum and often share best practices or experiences. A giver usually has a long term focus on their overall career in the affiliate industry.

A taker is an affiliate who is in the industry for one reason and one reason only; to make as much money as they can in as little time as possible. They are the people you see show up once a month in the forums ONLY to ask for something, or to try to sell something. A taker guards their information close and is really not interested in making any friends along their affiliate journey. A taker laughs at the term player value. The taker has no interest in building lasting relationships with affiliate programs or other affiliates.

The beauty of our industry is that you can easily choose which you want to be. My advice to everyone is to be a giver. This doesn’t mean you have to dedicate hours of your week helping new affiliates. It’s more so your state of mind and how you conduct business. Be generous both in business and in life.

Throughout my tenure in the poker affiliate industry I have looked to others several times for help. Without my good friends and mentors, I would never have been able to leave corporate America and provide my family with such a great life. Whenever I help new webmasters, it makes me feel good to know that I am helping them get to the same level.

Will being a giver put loads more money in your pocket? Maybe, but probably not. I can tell you from personal experience though, nothing makes you feel better than when you can honestly say that you’ve made a difference in someone else’s life. Instead of measuring