How Apartment Therapy and Sister Site Kitchn Conquered the Early Days of Blogging to Come Out on Top

The advent of social media certainly helped

Maxwell Ryan, a former design-focused teacher, started Apartment Therapy in 2001 as a New York-based consulting service, hoping to share advice on how to redecorate homes.

Over the past 16 years, Apartment Therapy (and eventually, its sister site Kitchn) would experience the common ups and downs that come with running a blog. The two sites now reach 30 million people a month, but only after overcoming many obstacles.

Apartment Therapy weathered through the housing market crash thanks to attentions shifting from disappearing print publications to the growing world of blogs; the new generation’s passion for sharing details of their lives over social media certainly helped, too.

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