SS_9 beautiful yearsBy Gini Dietrich

Last week, we let the ninth birthday of Spin Sucks quietly pass by for three reasons: 1) I was crazy to launch a blog on the day America changed forever; 2) It was a crazy, hectic travel week and I wanted to be here to chat with all of you; and 3) We were one week away from our free webinar with Michael Smart so we followed our normal schedule.

And so, nine years ago—on September 11—we launched a little blog called Spin Sucks.

Our goal? To figure out what this blogging thing was and see if it had any merit for clients.

We had no idea what we were doing.

I mean, we really had no idea what we were doing.

We didn’t have an editorial mission or vision. We didn’t understand writing for the web. We had no clue about SEO. And we were afraid to take a stance on anything.

Little did we know this whole blogging thing would take off and we’d be in for the ride of our lives.

The History of Spin Sucks

At the time, 18 of us and it was the job of everyone to write content…from the interns all the way up to me, and everyone in between.

There wasn’t a consistent voice. There wasn’t a consistent message. Heck, there wasn’t even a consistent publishing schedule.

But we all wrote.

We wrote about the government’s ban of video news releases.

We wrote about PR flacks.

We wrote about PR in 2006 (which, actually, would make a fun blog post to see how much—or if—it’s changed).

And we wrote content from conferences.

There aren’t any categories or tags or images or author or optimization or more than 200 words or, well, anything besides some words on a page.

This walk down memory lane always makes me crazy…perfectionist and all.

The Very First Blog Post

The very first blog post was an introduction to the blog.

Back then we called it FADS—The Fight Against Destructive Spin.

Here it is, in all its glory.

First Blog Post

Screen Shot 2014-09-10 at 5.34.19 PM

We didn’t link to that quote by Rosario and I have no clue who the Ray is mentioned in parenthesis.

It was published at 11:35 p.m. and no one read it.

In fact, there are no documented visitors until July 23, 2008…nearly two years after launch (we had eight visitors that day!).

Today there are 18 linkbacks on that first post, which people have used throughout the years as an example of what not to do when launching a blog.

Yes, what not to do.

I mean, really. Read that first blog post. It’s horrendous.

Today’s Stats

We’ve certainly come a long way.

Today we have:

  • 3,269 published blog posts
  • 149,441 comments
  • Nearly 40,000 fans
  • A page authority of 63
  • A domain authority of 69
  • 74,753 links coming into the site

We have been named a top 10 PR blog by Forbes, the number three PR blog in the world by Cision, and the number two PR blog in the world by Inky Bee.

We won the Reader’s Choice award three years running…until it was retired.

It afforded me the ability to write a book of the same name.

And we still have one of the most engaged communities in the blogosphere today.

It certainly has come a long way from not having any clue what we were doing.

Thank You!

I lovingly refer to the community here as the Crazies.

You not only read and share (and share and share and share), you take the time to write blog posts within the comments, lovingly point out my typos, professionally debate the merits on the topic of the day, push each other’s buttons, and make fun of one another (or combine forces to make fun of me).

Some of you have flown across countries to meet one another. Others of you have sprung dating relationships after meeting in the comments here…we even have a Spin Sucks wedding forthcoming! And yet others of you have built lifelong friendships.

All from hanging out on this little blog that published its first post at 11:35 p.m. on September 11, 2006.

Thank you.

Thank you to each and every one of you.

Thank you to those of you who spend a little part of your day in the comments here.

Thank you to those of you who read and email me privately.

Thank you to those of you who share with your own networks.

Thank you to those of you who have contributed content throughout the years.

Thank you to those of you who subscribe and read every, single day.

Thank you to those of you who send me blog post ideas, videos for Gin and Topics, ask me smart questions, or get me riled up and on my soapbox.

Thank you to my team who has supported my every whim… “I just finished a bike ride and I was thinking…” (they love that phrase).

Thank you for the last nine years.

Happy Birthday, Spin Sucks!

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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