I didn’t want to wait until after my exams to update the blog, as I figured that many of you would have given up checking back by that point. I was also feeling guilty about not updating for a week, proof that university is pretty damn time-consuming! With final exams fast approaching I’ve been forced into ‘work-mode’ which typically involves hardly any work, but seeming to have no time due to procrastinating and feeling guilty about it.

I’ll just give a quick update on my online projects, and won’t bore you with exams and things…

DiscoverUnsigned.com is going really well! We’ve got 7 out of 10 tracks that we’ll definitely be using for our debut album, and interest is growing in the site. We’re getting several hundred visitors each day, and have been approached by several record/promo companies, endless bands (some good, some not so good), and many fellow students who like what we’re doing. One of the most annoying things is that we’re both really busy with University, so we want to be doing a lot more than we physically can. I’ve poured a lot into promoting the site, but feel that things are really going to take off when my summer vacation starts and the first album launches. Our content may help to set us apart from the hundreds of other indie band blogs out there, but the album concept is far more unique, and should get us some good local publicity at very least. If anyone felt very kind we’d really appreciate a blog post about the site to help get the word out!

I’ve been thinking a lot about psdfan.com and have high hopes for this site. I won’t reveal everything that I’ve got planned but it will be a lot more than your average tutorial site. I’ll be showing some how of the best designers in the world design, offering REALLY helpful freebies for designers and of course posting regular tutorials for my readers. Not to sound over-confident, but I feel certain that I can achieve 250,000 uniques per month within my first year of launching. If the site flops come back to this post and laugh in my face, but if it takes off then remember you heard about it first!

My other big project for the summer must unfortunately remain nameless, but I’ll hopefully post logos/design screenshots here soon.

I have a couple of other cool site ideas in the pipeline, but feel like I want to get these ideas live before I put even more on my plate!

Exams are over in exactly 2 weeks, and whilst I’m scared, summer is so close I can taste it! Wish me luck, and I’ll try and update again before they’re all over :).

I won’t say too much about this launch except that I’m incredibly excited about it! I’ve had people messaging me and contacting me in the hours since launch and it’s fantastic to be involved with something that has more of a mass appeal (as opposed to my previous design centered niche projects). It would seem that everyone is a fan of music and knows somebody in a band, so I’m really trying to push the viral marketing thing right now. Stats look encouraging so far, and the site looks ready to receive around 500-1000 uniques in its very first day!

I’ll post more updates soon with how things progress, but for now I recommend that you go and have a look yourself, and if you’re in a band get yourself some great free promotion!

Discover Unsigned

A couple of very quick updates for you,

DiscoverUnsigned has suffered the inevitable delays of the development process I’m afraid. I thought that things would go perfectly, and whilst they’ve gone very well it looks like we’ll be launching tomorrow (I hope!). Not much to say on this front except to look out for the project launch announcement!

A slightly cooler update is that I’ve been featured by Michael Dunlop over at Retireat21 as part of his list of the ‘Top 30 Bloggers Under 21′. I already knew some of the guys in the list, but I’m in the process of going through all their blogs and meeting some new faces :). Anyway, thanks Michael, it’s an honor! I strongly encourage everyone to go and check out the article and Digg/Stumble it to your hearts content!

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.