I tend to write an article like this one about every 10 months. The Solid Signal Blog publishes 100 articles a month give or take, so when you do the math… well you see where I’m getting to. But this article is a little different. This article brings with it a little more weight, and I’m happy to tell you why.
Looking back at 17 years
Yes, 17 years. I go into a bit more detail here, so let’s just hit the high points. The Solid Signal Blog was started in 2007 as a side project by the staff. There was a support forum and a blog component. Both continued on for about 2.5 years and produced about 125 articles in total. Then, as a result of the recession and other factors, the little side project was abandoned. The company had bigger things to worry about, as did we all.
I came on board in 2012 to revive the blog and I have done my best to do so. From 2012 to 2017, The Solid Signal Blog produced about 7,500 articles using the vBulletin CMS platform. As far as I can tell this was the largest vBulletin CMS project ever created. I say that like it’s a good thing, but honestly it wasn’t. vBulletin CMS wasn’t up to the task and so in late 2017, I set out to move the entire operation to WordPress, the most common blogging platform in the world. This was a pretty massive undertaking where articles were moved to the new platform one by one.
Because of the heavy labor toll, I decided to move only those articles which had long-term appeal, meaning about 3,500 articles were left behind. I have backups of them, but most aren’t worth reviving. In 2018, we launched our WordPress platform, which is the one you’re reading now. It’s grown and evolved, and is now robust and secure.
And now, 8k
Article 8,000 is significant because the blog has never had 8,000 articles before. This is the largest the blog has ever been, and that means more great content for you. Not only that, but our editorial standards are stricter than ever. That means every article is more meaningful. That’s why hundreds of thousands of people visit this blog.
This blog has become the leading authority on satellite TV, antennas, cellular technology, and commercial installation. It’s by far the largest tech retailer blog in the world and attracts more viewers than blogs like engadget that have a broader reach. We’ve also branched out to support our friends in the RV and marine community, providing tips and tricks for everyone out there who likes to live large.
Our YouTube channel has grown along with the blog, too. Since 2008 we’ve published about 900 videos with about 4 million views. Yeah, I’m the first one to admit that your average teen sensation gets that many views from one video. But for a niche market, that’s pretty good, at least I think so.
It’s all thanks to you
So, I’d like to thank each and every one of you for reading and for sticking with me all these years. I’m looking forward to article 9,000!
Stuart Sweet, Editor-in-Chief
