The Journal of David A. Johnson, P.E., page 3

Last Updated on: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 03:16 PM

2004 – 2005 Review -- 2005 was a highly frustrating year for the Johnson household.  Around February of that year, my wife was laid off from her job, south of Denver.  We regretted the loss of her income but my wife appreciated not having to spend the 3 hours in her car commuting to and from work every day.  She shifted gears and is devoting most of her time as webmaster of our 5 websites.  During these slow times, the wife and I automatically switch into our “frugal” mode of living.  Many of the home repairs we had planned to do were put on hold.  I am hanging on to my 11 year old minivan for another year.  My 7 year old laptop will have to serve me for an 8th year.  We will turn down the thermostat, eat less and postpone any plans that involve spending money.  Maybe things will improve.

Toward the end of 2004 I formed a partnership with Penton Media. I regret to say that it has not proven as successful as anticipated.  Penton publishes many trade journals, including “Electronic Design” and “EE Product News”  and was going to help the DC site grow by providing us with some unique material from their “Electronic Design” archives, which we were going to scan and post on the site.  The added material and promotions through the Penton network were going to help us build the amount of internet traffic directed toward the DC site.  Penton, in turn, was given some space on the website to sell their ads. I don't really understand it, but Penton did not sell the number of ads anticipated.  We have made very little money from the Penton ads. 

The relationship with Penton generated much stress and the frustration level that led us to wanting to end the relationship but Penton would not let us go.  Would you think that a website where website traffic has tripled, from 250,000 page impressions per month in early 2004 to over 750,000 by the end of 2004 would be attractive to advertisers?  Apparently not, Penton is still not able to sell many ads.  The way things have been going lately, I better plan on making even less money from the website in 2006.

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