Hi readers,

This is quite a big announcement about the blog, but it feels like the right time to make it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of PushStandards lately, and have decided that I can’t carry on like I have been doing. I’ve become one of those bloggers who are in the ‘give up’ mentality. But hold on! I’m not giving up, so don’t push the back button yet. I’m merely changing the focus of the site. Firstly, let me go into a little detail about why I’m taking the decision.

The simple as answer is that I believe people blog for two reasons: cash, and the joy of teaching others (99% of people opt for that first option). There is also a third long-term reason of enjoying popularity, but this must follow one of the first two reasons. The reason why I’m not getting either of the first reasons to a good enough extent is the market. Sounds like a lame excuse doesn’t it? But the truth is, that even when I feel that I’ve written something truly insightful and original I’ll find 3 articles like it a week later. There is simply nothing new to write about in the blogging/make-money niches. Of course new trends develop, but there are thousands of people ready to jump on every band-wagon that comes along. The lack of cash follows from this. Quite honestly I don’t have the energy or lack of ethics to monetize a site that I don’t feel passionate about writing for. Sure, I get good traffic, but to really earn making blogging about what thousands of others are spewing out I’d have to get paid a hell of a lot more, and then probably still wouldn’t enjoy it. I actually think that I could become one of the top blogs in these niches. That sounds very pretentious, but I COULD post every day, I COULD promote a hell of a lot, I COULD further my connections with fellow bloggers etc etc… But when I weigh up the effort of doing all of these things to the end reward and ultimately lack of satisfaction it doesn’t weigh up at all.

I’m not unhappy that I started off on this path, as I’ve learnt a LOT (I mean a real lot), but it’s time for a change. With my limited time, and real passion (not a temporary passion) for starting websites and online ventures I figured, why not blog about that? Sure, this is a niche also, but it’s far more genuine. The reason why most people are ripping each others content and blogging about OTHER PEOPLE’S websites is that they don’t have the skill/passion to do something original themselves. Besides, any blogger who blogs about their personal ventures will be doing so in a completely honest, unique way, as everything that they discuss is regarding a NEW venture. In my previous posts on this blog I always enjoyed using real-life examples, and my readers seemed to appreciate this too. The reason is pretty simple, I was showing what I was learning, not just feeding them tips they had heard a million times before. I should make the point that I never ripped anyone else’s ideas or content, at least not intentionally - it’s just the nature of this niche…

I realize that the online venture posts for this blog haven’t been all that exciting yet, pretty much just saying ‘coming soon’. However, if it’s any conciliation besides the bubbling anticipation I’m as bored with the pre-launch stage as you are! When things should get more interesting is when the first of these projects launches, and then several more follow over the summer. Sure, if you’re a complete newbie to blogging you can go and read the basic tips found everywhere, but if you’re a webmaster who is serious about developing real life ventures, and trying new things then why not follow me as I document my successes (and failures) and blog about them every step of the way.

I won’t be giving up posts about promotion and marketing, but just making them a lot less general. How much better is ‘today we used (this cheap company) to produce 1000 flyers for our new website today, and got a fantastic traffic boost. Here are some other ways that we used offline marketing to boost our traffic by 200%!’ than ‘get links on other highly ranked blogs’. I’ve become a bit of a cynic when reading all the make-money blogs around today. They all just sound so impersonal and shallow. Even in writing this I’m joining a wave of ‘awakened’ bloggers who are moving past the make-money trend, and already my uniqueness is fading. However, enough cynicism…

I will be launching my Discover Unsigned website tomorrow (I know I said today, but I figured 1 days development delay is pretty acceptable), and I’m SO excited about it. I’m also still designing a lot for clients and loving that. My advice in closing would be to do what you really love. Never do anything focusing on the future goals and ignoring how you feel in the present. If you love earning $1 per day on Adsense then sure, go ahead and launch your make-money blog and join a million others. However, if you’re out to make millions and see the point up to this outcome as inconvenient or ‘just a big effort’ then don’t bother. I’m turning 20 soon, and perhaps this is a 1/4-life crisis, but life really is too short to sit around doing something that you don’t truly enjoy.

Enough of the rant, just look out for the Discover Unsigned launch tomorrow and check back soon to follow it’s progress, as well as all the efforts that I’m planning to pour into it.

- Tom.

The reason why I’ve been neglecting updating the blog a little lately is because I’ve been really involved in yet another website venture. However, unlike the ‘to be launched in summer’ sites that I’ve been talking about recently, this one is going live THIS WEEKEND. I can hardly believe how quick the development stage has been, but everything is on track for a very speedy launch. Only 4 days ago I was in a lecture sketching down some layout ideas, and now we’re almost ready to go live!

Some information about the site might be useful I’m sure. Basically the site started as a coursework project for my friend at music college. However, he wanted to get me involved with the online side of things and after a few nights brainstorming DiscoverUnsigned.com was born! We figured that there is a HUGE market of both unsigned bands, and people interested in discovering said bands. Whilst there are a few options to cater for this market (namely Myspace.com) people seem to be growing very tired of them. Bands seem to pour endless hours into improving their Myspace page, yet it doesn’t seem to get them any more listens, and their play count remains depressingly low. Similarly those people looking for bands generally have to go through pages of CRAP before they find anything worth listening to. The main concept behind DiscoverUnsigned is to promote the BEST unsigned bands. This takes all of the effort out of both parties. Bands get free promotion to thousands, and they don’t have to do a thing. Music lovers get only the very best bands recommended to them, and don’t have to deal with all the rubbish out there.

Now, the really cool part of this project is that conceptually it has grown far beyond being a simple blog. We have plans for backstage videos (think Blogotheque), band interviews, and the coolest thing of all - MAKING OUR OWN ALBUMS. That’s right, we’ll be hand selecting the 10 best tracks at the end of each month and making them into a DiscoverUnsigned Album! The artists will of course receive generous royalties to help them pursue fame (or just afford more beers down the pub!). It will be really great to help out so many bands and we’re hoping that on top of our detailed marketing plans the site will spread virally.

I’ll post the next update when we go live, so look out for all the excitement this weekend! For now, here is a screenshot of the sites design (it looks a lot sexier full size):

Great news! Things are finally moving forward with the development of my 3 coming websites. I can’t really publish details about the main project yet as we want to really take the market with storm when we launch, but my photoshop site is a different story! After a lot of domain name brainstorming I finally settled for PSDFan.com. I actually really love the name - it’s short, sweet and very memorable. I tried typing it into my browser a few times last night and it just felt right. So anyway, that’s the first step taken, and now I’m in the process of starting a design for the site. I’m not sure if this will get done until after exams to be honest, as I want to be updating nearly daily after launching, so exam time wouldn’t be the best time for this.

I’ll be posting news on the site as it develops, as well as my music site that might get launched BEFORE exams! Here is a sneak preview of the psdfan logo concept I’m working on:

Time for another update!

I know that I keep talking about upcoming projects, yet none have launched yet… Typically I’ve put quite a lot on my plate and am trying to complete several projects for launch asap. One of these ventures is moving into the photoshop tutorials field in a more serious way. I’ve found that my tutorials at Push Standards have received great success and drawn a lot of traffic, and I really feel that there is a great market potential for high quality Photoshop tutorials. There is also a lot of traffic to be drawn from very little effort.

My aim is to stop posting my tutorials on this site and create a separate site purely for Photoshop tutorials. This way I will be able to target my audience more specifically rather than diluting my tutorials with other content. I can’t say exactly when this site will be launching but I’m estimating the start of June (merely because I have exams fast approaching to conclude this year at University).

However, that isn’t to say that in the mean time I’ll stop writing tutorials! I’ve actually been hired by Michael Dunlop of Retireat21 to write Photoshop tutorials for his new website WebDesignDev. Both sites are excellent, and I highly recommend them. It’s very exciting to be involved over at WebDesignDev, and I feel privileged that Michael was interested in my services. He’s already getting a lot of traffic to the site and has some big names in the Photoshop industry involved.

He published my first tutorial today, a lesson on how to create a travel blog design from scratch. Don’t worry about the author being ‘Michael Dunlop’ currently, I’ll be receiving my own author account soon. You can see the finished result below, so please click the image to be linked to the full tutorial!

Check back soon for more updates. I’m currently developing my BIG project for the summer with my partner, and am also planning the marketing campaign for the music website that I mentioned a couple of posts ago.