The Jalopy Journal is 15…

It’s December of 1994 and I’m at home for Christmas break. I had taken up HTML and decided to build a hot rod website. I obsessed over the site for weeks, but by January I was ready to “launch.” While sitting in my dorm room at the University of Oklahoma, I hit the “publish button” in my HTML editor and started what would become one of the biggest obsessions and passions of my life.

Amazingly, it’s now 15 years later and The Jalopy Journal is the world’s most read hot rod publication – online or off. In 2008 alone, we hosted over 170 million pageviews. Maybe even more amazing is that I love writing, building and creating this site even more than I did when I first began. Very few people are as lucky as I am – to be able to do what they truly aspire to do in life.

You guys literally pushed me over a cliff of doubt and FORCED me to realize my dream. I can’t really express the amount of gratitude I have… for all of you.

Of course, it’s that same feeling of responsibility to the reader that really created the “business model” of The Jalopy Journal. For years, I’ve heard people in the publishing industry question our lack of dependence on advertising dollars. With so many pageviews and so much traffic, our ad space is incredibly valuable. However, it’s valuable to the advertisers – not to the reader and it’s the latter that we are here to serve.

The H.A.M.B. Alliance proved our notions correct and if it weren’t for the guidance of the late Wally Parks and the persuasiveness of the late Steve Hendrickson, it never would have happened. Those two men meant a lot to me and not a day goes by when I don’t think of at least one quote from each.

“I’d rather do something and fail miserably than not do anything at all and wonder what if…” – Steve Hendrickson, 2005

“Always publish for the passion and not for the business. As soon as you do the latter, you’ll be on an equal playing field with your competitors. Passion keeps you a step ahead.” – Wally Parks, 2002.

A step ahead… That’s where we plan to be in 2009. We are working our asses off (and having a ball doing it) to see that you guys get to experience something that you haven’t before. Stick around a bit – you’ll be glad ya did.

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