Every significant change comes about because of massive disruption. While there's been a growing interest in good design as a part of good living in this country, the big, disruptive change that has powered a lot of the growth of this interest (as well as a lot of other things) has been the advent of blogging.
An incredibly cheap way to broadcast words and images to an immense audience, blogging has allowed a new generation of voices to be heard and allowed them to experiment with tone of voice, viewpoint and authenticity without the drag and restraint of corporate infrastructure and editing. In other words, you can say what you want to and the final arbiter of whether or not you're worth listening to is the audience itself - no one else.
And, should you think that it's easier to write for the rabble than a few highly trained editors, believe me when I tell you that web audiences are smart, quick and super tough editors. You will get shut down fast if you are full of shit.
In addition, and this is what corporations have been terribly slow to realize, blogging is NOT just about pushing your viewpoint, or putting content OUT. The web is all about community and sharing knowledge. Publishing on the web is no different and is at its best when it's a two way street. What comes back from the audience is just as important (if not more so) than what you publish. The OUT is just as important as the IN.
From very early on in the creation of our blog, my brother and I realized that eventually I would run out of good tips and smart things to say, and that what was going to become infinitely more interesting were the contributions of other voices, particularly of the community. My (and eventually OUR) job wasn't to maintain star status or be the know-it-alls of the design community, instead, my job was to be the world's best host to a conversation that could be bigger than all of us.
That's exactly what happened.
From one person, ME, sitting alone in an empty office in Tribeca in 2004 pushing out a few posts a day to a couple hundred people a month, we now have a full time staff of eighteen people spread out around the country, 175 freelancers all over the world and publish over 150 posts a day, seven days a week. These posts are coming from awesome readers that we've hired to be on our staff (we only hire readers) along with great content from our current audience, which now measures over eight million monthly readers. Of these, most of them come from the following countries: US, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Spain, France and Italy.
While our staff at times seems large to me now, it's tiny compared to most major magazines, and our costs are similarly small compared with running a magazine with monthly print runs.
Our circulation, however, in real terms is bigger than all of the major shelter magazines put together and just as big on the web as a brand like MarthaStewart.com, who combines all of her magazines, television and radio offerings together under one URL.
And we're free.
Oh, did I say we're free?
Like I said earlier, it's more about sharing, than traditional publishing.
While we spend a good deal of time thinking about what to write and researching, an equal amount of time is spent reading comments, responding to reader emails and constantly combing through and harvesting the pulse of the community in order to share it on the front page with all the readers.
So, when you look at OUR front page you are looking at YOURSELF and YOUR friends and how you all live NOW, which, I think, is the most inspiring and interesting thing in the world.
Next:
Chapter 9 - Apartment Therapy is a Community
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
Kitchen Before & After: A Cookbook Author Transforms His 1950s Kitchen
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
You hit the nail on the HEAD! I love this about blogging, and about reading other blogs. It has not only provided a voice for those who may have been passed over for that corporate job because they didn't have a degree (yeah, I'm a little bitter about that haha), but it has offered some very serious competition to those in print media. They know that they are no longer the only option for this vast audience. I love being a blogger and love reading blogs. Such a sense of community :)
I love the human and honest experience that you get from a blog. I love the connections and friendships made with like minded individuals. I write my blog and read other blogs for that connection. And I love to share real-life experiences with others that inspire, encourage and add happiness - while keeping it real.
It's true, blogs changed everything!
(btw, is there a clip from that seminar?)
Love this...so well written!!!
Thank you AT team for this yuppie porn! I do love it so.
Well, Maxwell, it's a noble assertion that "The OUT is as just important than the IN", but only if you walk the talk.
Several times in the past year or so, I have made a suggestion for a simple additional feature that might add interest to House Tours. None of your eighteen employees, let alone any of your 175 freelancers has responded.
I don't imagine that my ideas always are of genius quality, but a good one surely deserves at least minimal response, if you are not merely paying lip service to notions of community and friendship.
Hey, what good is a friend if he doesn't flag your inconsistencies?
Warm wishes, Tim
I think AT is a good site although I would like to see a bit more of the kind of editorial control exercised at magazines, so that you don't have three nearly identical stories in one week on the same topic. Also could use some more editing of copy for the published stuff (NOT the comments, I'm not crazy) to avoid the really egregious stuff like "their/there".
But most especially if you want it to be a truly participatory site I'd like a much fuller user area, so that I can see all my comments going back thru time (not only a few), so that I can interact more directly with other users, so I can follow up comments on my comments, etc. This stuff is pretty standard. That the community is as lively as it is -- well that's a tribute to the people involved and yes, to the large amount of content posted at the site.
do you find that your content has changed over the years? for example, i started blogging strictly about home improvement but over time have included more about life, family, ect. overall i agree with the article
There are blogs, and then there are blogs. Some are superb; others are major time suckers; most are mediocre, at best.
The ones that really irk me are the blogs that act like they invented the wheel or the ones that deal with banal personal minutiae or the ones that just pirate and regurgitate content from other sites.
The world does not need any new blogs, believe me. We need fewer blogs and better ones.
I love you
Let me know if you need any help, contributions, follow-ups, photos, house visits etc, from Melbourne, Australia. I love AT
As much as I enjoy AT, the repetitive nature of much of the content leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps if you had diversity in your editorial staff your site wouldn't being so stale and canned.
I too enjoy AT and agree that the Web is all about community and sharing knowledge. But as a seasoned editor and journalist who balks at the likes of Arianna Huffington, I can't help but wonder if the 175 freelancers writing 150 posts a day are being paid for their hard work or are they writing for "the exposure." Point is writers like plumbers, painters, publicists or personal trainers should be paid for their work not asked to offer it up for free in the guise of community and sharing.
I love blogs, but AT has a special place in my heart. I learned so much from this side, not only from the posts, but also from the comments and the hits and tips from several editors. I remember having a hard time when I was baking a recipe from The Kitchn that didn't turn out like it should be, the editior of the post supported me with her helpfull comments and even overdid ther posting to make some explanations clearer. I really appriciate you work, folks!
AT you are awesome! I love the community and the exposure the little guys (designers/ bloggers) get from time to time.
Some people have very high entertainment expectations - these people will never be happy with what's in front of them. There are thousands more that look for inspirations and design suggestions and ideas here every day ;)
One big suggestion I have is to connect with social media more - such as Facebook and Pintrest.
And please extend your giveaways & awards internationally (or at least to Canada ;)
It's SO true--the blog world is full of wonderful people and inspiration that have taken us so far beyond what a monthly print magazine can do.
It's hard to believe AT readerships has more than doubled since I started reading in 2009! I feel like an old-timer!
Congrats, you guys. I love that AT and other design blogs are changing the way we design.
Sometimes I wish there was more "apartment" in Apartment Therapy. I get envious of people with space over 1,000 sq. feet. But I love your blog and thank you for it.
TIM - sorry that we didn't respond or make use of your suggestions. We do try and, honestly, we have a lot of ideas ourselves that we don't always get around to.
In a way, I see the biggest bottleneck in our whole operation as our editorial team. Aside from comments, readers have to go through us to get any response or to get things done. We're working on changing that.
I am eager to launch fuller, richer community pages in the next year that will allow you to do much more than comment. They will allow you to post, follow, comment, thumbs up and bookmark posts - as well as other things.
In the future, I'm hoping that you won't have to ask our editors if you want to do something - you'll just do it yourself - right into the site.
THEN, the ones who will judge whether it's a really good idea won't be us, but other readers themselves, and you'll get feedback immediately.
Best, M
Dear @michelejm - sorry not to be clear about that. Yes, we pay all of our contributors and always have. They, and our full time editors, write and share their own stories. Our editors also work with reader contributions and a good deal of their time is in responding to and building posts out of those.
I'm not quite such a lover of blogs. Generally, I think you guys have done an amazing job. (And I bitch alot in my comments!)
One thing I really wish you would do, and that traditional print does better, is figure out a way to index/search your archives. Bookmarking every how-to, tour, or recipe that I would want to come back to just isn't feasible. Your current search facility brings up results that often seem only tangentially related to what I was looking for.
Still find you incredibly valuable and enjoyable.
As a near-daily reader since 2006, I want to say thank you for your consistency. I really appreciate the quality and focus of your content - especially in the quickly changing landscape of blogging.