THROWBACK THURSDAY: Solid Signal makes the Inc. 500

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It’s always nice to be recognized. Solid Signal made Inc. magazine’s list of top growing companies back in 2007, and it was just the first of many industry accolades and certifications. It’s just one way that we know that we’re doing a great job serving our customers and it’s something we’re very proud of. You can read our original blog post (recently restored and updated with links that work thanks to archive.org) here.

Since 2007, we’ve grown exponentially and we’re still working hard to make your experience better and bring you the coolest stuff!

Yes this blog was around back in 2007

Blogging was a very different thing in 2007. Back then, the idea of a company having a blog was new and exciting. Everyone wanted to have a company blog. The standard for design was a little different, though. A few years ago I recreated what I believed The Solid Signal Blog probably looked like in 2007.

Yeah, it’s a little barren.

The blog has gone through several iterations since then, and I’ve been its custodian now for over 11 years. I’m proud to see that it gets so many views every month, and I think that’s due to more than good looks. I hope it’s because you’re finding the content you like.

The rise and fall of the company blog

Yes, a blog was considered the cool thing to have in the late ’00s. I personally was never fond of the word “blog,” to be honest. It sounds like a particularly gross result of having eaten some bad peppers. But, it’s the best word to describe this thing we’ve got, whatever it is, so that’s what it’s still called.

Company blogging didn’t have much of a heyday in the world, and certainly not at Solid Signal. Most companies designated one person to maintain the company blog as part of their already busy schedules. If you look at most company blogs today, they’re largely forgotten, updated once a year or so. It’s been that way since “The Great Recession” meant a lot of belt-tightening for companies of all sizes.

Still, in 2012 we started an experiment at Solid Signal that’s still going on. We wanted to create a blog that our customers would read and make it something that the entire home theater industry could enjoy. As far as I’ve been able to tell, The Solid Signal Blog, with close to 9,000 articles, is now the largest and most read company blog on the planet. I’m pretty proud of that.

Substack?

About once a week someone asks me if I’ve ever considered moving this blog to Substack, or at least syndicating the content there. Yes, I’ve considered it. No, I haven’t done it and I’m not likely to do it. At least not for a while, anyway. I think Substack is a great platform but it doesn’t really support the kind of mixed media that WordPress does. It’s mostly for words and nothing else.

I will point out that thanks to the robust backend tools available in WordPress, this blog looks and works very well on your phone. You can subscribe via e-mail by using the link on every page of this blog, and be notified when new articles come out. I don’t use a plugin that asks you to subscribe whenever you read an article. There’s a good reason for that: I don’t like them, I think they’re annoying.

Solid Signal Blog in 2039?

This is year 17 for The Solid Signal Blog. If you project that forward, it’s very possible that we’ll be here in 17 more years. Given how quickly things change, it’s impossible to guess what we’ll be talking about, or if I’ll personally be involved. But it gives my heart a little boost thinking about us still being around then. Here’s to hoping.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.