Thank you all for your support over the last sixteen years.
We remain independent. We don’t charge distillers for reviews. We don’t accept promotional content or guest posts from brands/marketers.
Please, I need your help!
AI results from Google and ChatGPT are making it harder for independent sites (like this) to survive. If you value non-sponsored, independent gin reviews—
I need your support. Every contribution, big or small, is my lifeline to keep The GIN is IN going, so a big thank you!
In the past I’ve tried to pay for hosting costs with ads— at one point I was paying for hosting for nearly 1M visitors out of pocket. I turned to Google Ads. It seemed the easiest way to defray some of the costs. It worked… for a bit.
However, I am not happy with how they’ve hurt the experience of this site. I’m trying something new. I’m asking you— the reader— if you’ve found my work valuable to help the site out.
And there’s a second thing that happened. ChatGPT and Google AI summaries happened. In May 2024 I was excited about this development. However, I didn’t realize what it would do to me as an independent writer.
With all of my content public— a user asking for a “Roku Gin Review” was given the answer, without ever visiting my site.
As you might expect— traffic has plummeted. I still rank highly on Google in terms of impressions for my work, but clearly, once you get the answer (an elaborate on at that), you’re likely not looking for more.
For some reviews I see even my exact words shared back (at least now Google and Chat GPT are sharing attributions); however, that doesn’t change the reality. AI summaries are becoming the search.
I know every one under the sun is inviting to your join their substacks. I thought about it, however the core of this site are gin reviews— and when a distiller sends me a gin I didn’t feel right about hiding their product behind a paywall and sharing it with a few hundred devoted gin followers.
I wanted to remain committed to being a public service for any person to read about. So, for now, I want to stay visible.
In short, it’s a privilege to write about gin. I’ve been fortunate to occasionally make this my full time job and I’m humbled by how many of you have invited me into your bars and liquor cabinets over the years. I enjoy doing this— but I’m also asking for your support.
You can join up for a small subscription on Patreon. Or you can toss me a tip on Venmo or Ko-Fi.
Thank you for reading, supporting and I hope to continue writing about gin and sharing reviews with you in the coming years.
—Aaron Knoll (a.k.a. The GIN is IN)