PM: How are the websites doing now?

BB: Altogether the sites are doing around 400,000 page views per month these days, with Puzz.com itself still in the lead in that regard, alliqtests.com coming in second. I show that we did $319,000 in ad revenue last year, and have been somewhere near that in prior years. The newsletters have grown to nearly 1.2 million fully opt-in subscribers that we mail to 5 days each week. In 1998, my tax return was for an income of $7,800. Things have improved a little ;-)

PM: Sounds like it! So what's the secret to your success?

BB: From late 1998-2003: running an ad network. From 2003-present: building e-mail newsletter subscribers using a number of promotional tools, and understanding the marketing game. I wish that it were more glamorous or puzzle-related than that!

PM: Which of the various revenue methods have you found most profitable?

BB: Freebie and survey stuff. Go through our site afreeb.com and you'll know exactly what I mean. That has always worked for us, although there are rankings within that that I know through years of trial and error, and in seeing what works with our unique subscriber base. I tried popups, lots of banners, etc. etc. years ago, but these days try to keep the sites simple with a minimum of annoying advertising. I guess that's my penance for the more aggressive (and profitable) stuff we do with the newsletters.

I stay away from debt, mortgage, and education (University of Phoenix, ITT Tech, etc.) promotions, which you can find anywhere. What we do is CPA - Cost Per Action advertising, with the exception of the Google ads on our sites, which pay per click. Never really been burned. We had some companies not (or try not to) pay us, and we've had some affiliates try to defraud us (and our advertisers) when we ran a network, but that's about it. No real complaints.

PM: Most puzzle websites that I've seen have no advertising at all on them. I believe some people consider it "impure" to commercialize what start out as labors of love; even PuzzleMonster.com has been criticized in the past for having too many ads. Have you experienced similar criticism? What do you make of it?

BB: We don't do popups, and those who subscribe to our newsletters never have and never will have their e-mail addresses or any other information given or sold to anyone for any reason. I can't say that about most sites, and I can't even say that about a few "pure" not-for-profits we deal with who have sold our information to every Tom, Dick and Harry it seems... I could never have paid for something like alliqtests.com unless it were commercial, same with the rights to the books, tests, dungeons, programming costs, etc. etc.

I have heard this, but if you dig through Puzz.com, freedungeons.com and alliqtests.com and see only commercialism and no love, you've missed it. Most of my money (90%+) doesn't come from those places, but you'll see hours and hours of work, if you really look.

I have a great deal of respect for those who build their sites without financial rewards. But they go to work at a job they may or may not like every morning, 5 (or more) days each week, and I haven't done that in nearly 10 years and counting. Last summer we took our (then) 4 year old son to Disney World AND Disney Land, and are doing much the same this summer. I could never have done that financially years ago, let alone gotten the time off from my previous employer. I prefer my way.

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