Life moves fast, and this week, I think I’m about to feel how fast it actually moves. What’s my plan, you ask? Grab the reigns and hold on for dear life.

Here’s what’s going down: My 5-year-old son starts kindergarten on Wednesday. I’ve had 5 years to prepare for this moment, but for some reason I’m not ready. I mean, what’s next, First Grade?! Actually, it is… Then 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Next thing you know, he’ll be in highschool…  I’ll be almost 40, and I’ll still be updating this blog with stuff that no one actually reads…

I hope that I’ve done enough in his life so far to set him in motion to be the best that he can possibly be. I hope the time I spent playing video games with him wasn’t time that could have been better spent memorizing the encyclopedia or something. But hey, live by the sword….

My 3-year-old starts preschool soon too. Yes, my little tiny baby starts preschool. Yes, the guy who is afraid of Veggietales and eats his weight in strawberries daily.. That one… He’s going to start making new friends, and next thing you know, I won’t be his best friend anymore. But hey, kids need parents, not best friends (tell yourself that when your 3-year-old tells you that you’re his best friend). I only have a couple days left to coddle him.

My wife is hitting the professional business world. She got a new job selling medical procedures. She starts work tomorrow after her long hiatus of working from home and raising our boys. I won’t go into details about her job, but it is a really cool job that a lot of girls would probably kill for. It’s a full time job. This is new to us. We haven’t been a dual income family, well, ever.

I really hope it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining. I’m not. I love my life, and all of the changes that come with it. I’m a creature of habit and routine, so this type of change doesn’t happen too often. I’m stoked that we are going to have another income. I’m stoked that my wife gets to work away from home again. I’m stoked that my boys are getting older. It’s just crazy that all of these changes are literally happening overnight.

The Death of “Sponsored Post” Disclosures?

Do you remember the days when Pay Per Post blogging was the best way to make money on a relatively low traffic blog? I sure do, and I also remember when Google started penalizing publishers who participated in these PPP programs, rendering them almost useless as a legit money-making resource. I turned to affiliate networks like Pepperjam, Linkshare, Commission Junction, and ClickBank.  The affiliate networks work out great, but managing links (ie. masking links, tracking clicks, passing variables, etc…) gets to be pretty bothersome after a while, and that’s where VigLink comes into the picture.

VigLink makes it easy for anyone to get involved with affiliate marketing. They take the hassle out of dealing with affiliate networks, and managing those relationships that you have with the networks. What’s even better is that you don’t have to have ugly affiliate links, their javascript automatically adds everything needed to track clicks and get credit for your referalls and sales.

Direct Linking, FTW

Here’s an example of how VigLink works:

I write a lot of posts about Artisteer, you’ll probably notice that I either mask the links to http://nicknorris.net/artisteer2, and that automatically redirects people to the site http://artisteer.com. That’s simple enough, right? Well it has worked for a long time, but I think it would be easier for me if I could just direct people straight over to http://artisteer.com. VigLink allows me to do that.

From the Horse’s Mouth

The Universal Affiliate Program (from VigLink’s Website):

There are more than 12,500 sites that pay commissions for your traffic!

• They each have a signup form.
• They each have different ways to link with codes that go stale quickly.
• They each have minimums that you need to reach or you’ll never get paid.

One quick and easy install from VigLink and all those problems are solved! Automatically participate in every program. Stay up to date when merchants change their link codes. Enjoy one global minimum across every program. You’ll never have to register for an affiliate program again!

The fact that VigLink shaves a small percentage of your sales off the top of your rev, shouldn’t really matter, because they are providing an amazing service for bloggers. They make life a little bit easier.

What Others are Saying About VigLink

I read a great article about VigLink on SEObook. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Google has been really quick to penalize paid links and sponsored blog posts, so the following snippet should make a lot of bloggers very happy.

So basically Viglink is suggesting controlling who you link to based on whatever makes you the most money, and not providing any disclosure of the financial relationship.

AKA: paid links.

Presumably these VigLinks will still pass PageRank, but the affiliate stuff will be layered on top of the regular links using JavaScript. Pay affiliates using VigLink a bit of a higher percent for the exposure and you bought a ton of valuable inbound links for pennies on the Dollar.

Here is where it really gets screwed up: Google is an investor in VigLink.

Given the fact that your links appear to be clean links to a site means that you don’t have to make the “sponsored post” disclosure anymore, and I like that! I can actually write normal blog posts, and link out naturally to the pages that I want to link to, and if I get some kick-back, that’s a huge WIN! But on a possible downside, since Google has money invested in VigLink, they are probably going to have more link data, as well as some back-end data about earnings from my blog, so the risk of penalty is still there, just in a smaller way.

So, to my blogger buddies, you should try this out. It’s free, and it really simplifies monetization.

VigLink Official Website

This is probably not going to be the best option for large scale affiliates. VigLink is intended for bloggers, and people just looking to monetize their websites.

I have been having the creepiest recurring dream lately. It’s so vivid, that even thinking about it gives me the chills. Before I go into the details of my dreams, I’ll try to set the stage for you.

This post is not what I normally write about, but it has been on my mind for the past couple weeks, and I had to write about it. I promise you that this dream is 100% true, and I did not exaggerate any of it. I actually left out a lot of stupid stuff, because I got sick of spending too much time on this post. Plus there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense.

Read the rest of this entry

The Situation (A Burning House, not the Chizzled Doosh): I get awakened by someone frantically pounding on my front door screaming “CALL 911, my house is on fire!” I run downstairs in my underware, half asleep, wondering if I will find a flaming bag of Moose poop on my front step. I open the front door, and there’s a woman standing there with a useless cordless phone. I look next door, the house is on fire. What would I REALLY do? 

Possibly This: I will run down the street while asking important (and heroic) questions. Who is in the house? When did you notice the fire? Do you have any small children? I kick in the front door in (barefoot). With my hand over my mouth, I am in full rescue mode, while burning tinder hits me in the face. I hear the voice of a small child, run toward the voice, and grab the child and run for the nearest exit. Carry the child out safely, just in time to be interviewed as a hero on 3TV.  I would crawl back to bed before my wife ever knew I was gone.

Probably this: Tell her that I will call 911, creep upstairs to get some clothes on. Go outside realizing that I forgot my cell phone inside and I also forgot to call 911. (I would explain to the lady that anything inside of her house is most likely dead already, so there would be no use going in there to risk the life of another person). When I see fire, it hypnotizes me, so I would also likely stare at the fire for a while, completely forgetting that people are likely hurt inside. 3tv would roll up and ask me what I knew about the fire, and I would blow em off because I wasn’t really paying attention, too busy thinking about what Hiro Nakamura would do (would he freeze time and save everything, or would he travel back in time to prevent the fire altogether). Needless to say, people will die.

So, does this necessarily make me a bad person? You don’t have to answer that…