10 Questions with Tom of Push Standards

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Push Standards is my place to blog about my ‘online side’. That is to say that I write about my experiences in the fields of blogging, web design and entrepreneurship, not my personal life. I would really like to run a personal blog but don’t really have the time currently, plus I’m not sure who would be bothered to read it!

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Bloggers are the Friendliest People in the World

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I make a point of being totally public about my blog’s progress. I write a weekly ‘Blogging Diary’ where I expose every success and failure of my blog, and explain exactly what I did each day in terms of promotion, content and networking. I also like to hope that I have a personal voice and don’t just sound like every other writer out there.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
Well I’ve known about blogging for a long time, but only launched my first ‘official’ blog a few weeks ago. I’ve run a blog as a subpage on previous websites but never owned a website entirely devoted to blogging.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
People are generally very uneducated when it comes to blogging. I include myself in this, if I look back even a couple of weeks I’ll regret certain blogging decisions. I just think that there are far too many resources ramming useless information down blogger’s throats. Probably less than 1% of information out there is worth reading, and this doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Everybody wants a quick fix, and not many people seem to have a real passion for blogging.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I know that everyone is saying this but my stats service is just incredibly useful! I use statcounter.com, it’s very easy to manage yet provides you with detailed stats of all your visitors. The only downside is that it’s worse than Facebook in terms of distracting you. Nothing will sidetrack you more than watching people from all over the world reading through different parts of your blog, all in real time, all right in front of you.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Plato - now THAT would be a deep post!

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Despite only blogging for a short space of time I’ve learnt some valuable lessons. I realized that I’m not as money driven as a lot of people, and that’s fine. I’m just loving helping people and meeting fellow bloggers. Also blogging is a real test of will power, we all get those days where we just don’t feel like writing…

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Care about your readers not yourself. Stop trying to make a quick buck and focus on providing the best content that you are capable of. This means treating your blog like a subject to learn. Put your all into it, research and better yourself. This is the only true way to last in the blogging game, all the ‘make-money’ types will eventually get bored - either that or become very rich :P.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
I promise that I’m not sucking up here, but Blogging Gal haha. It takes quite a lot for me to stick around and read a blog, and it’s Tish’s personable writing style that has made me a returning reader. With all the duplicate content floating around on the internet it’s hard to be original. Tish’s writing style makes you feel like you’re reading a real person that’s passionate about blogging.

Categories: Art & Music, Blogging, Ten Questions