Interview with Paul Andrew, founder of web design blog Speckyboy.com | Heart Internet Blog – Focusing on all aspects of the web

Paul Andrew is the founder speckyboy.com, one of the most popular web design blogs around today. Paul has been kind enough to take time out and answer some questions about how the site became so popular, how he uses social media and his plans for 2011.

Could you provide a bit of information about yourself and speckyboy.com?

I began my career the hard way. Leaving school at 16, feeling like I could anything, was the worst mistake of my life. I tried a number of vocations before eventually stumbling into web design in my early twenties and everything snowballed from then on. My love affair with design began.

Originally speckyboy.com was designed to be my personal portfolio site and blog. I posted a few of my favourite design resources and people seemed to like them, I posted a few more and the site started to build in popularity. And that is how it all began, a fortunate accident.

Its now been online for 4 years and as our official description says “Speckyboy Design Magazine offers insightful tutorials, time-saving techniques, fresh and useful resources and inspirational art, covering web & Mobile design and development, graphic design, advertising and even the occasional Lego post”. That description sums it all perfectly.

Is there one moment you can look back on and say that’s when the site really kicked on in popularity?

In those first few years I never really took speckyboy that seriously – I posted sporadically and never ever published strategically. I was actually very, very slow in realising its potential.

Then, about 2 years in, with a few advertisers knocking on the door, the realisation that there can be a profit in blogging and writing (I had also just started writing for some very popular design sites). I then took the initiative by redesigning the site giving it more of a magazine feel, I then analysed the analytics to find out exactly what my readers liked and to focus on the resources that they really needed. So no, there was no actual popularity moment, it was all just a gradual growth.

You use WordPress as your CMS, how scalable have you found the software for such a busy website? What plug-ins have you installed to help with load times and security?

In the early days of WordPress there were some reports that it could not handle a vast volume of traffic, I think that was just a myth though. I have actually never had any problems whatsoever with WP, I personally know it is a marvellous platform for any site of any size.

You do have to keep on top of everything (updates, comments, revisions…) as bad management could give you problems further down the line.

If you have a good and reputable host you should not have many security problems, and if you are unfortunate enough to be hacked (speckyboy has been hacked twice) then your host should be there to fix and eradicate.

I use the W3 Total Cache plugin along with MAXCDN to speed up the site and use WordPress Auto Database Backup plugin for daily backup downloads.

Why have you chosen to sell your advertising through BuySellAds.com? What have your experiences of the platform been so far?

To be honest, I am not a business man, go-getter and definetly not a negotiator. That is why BuySellAds Is perfect for me. They excel in automating the monetization process, which allows me to concentrate on managing, editing and writing for speckyboy. They are also marvellous to work with, and offer support and advise like no other company that I know of. I would recommend them to anybody.

You have a lot of followers on Twitter, Facebook and Digg. Has this been planned or has it grown organically?

They are all organic. Social media growth works in conjunction with your blogs popularity and vice versa. There are some services and techniques for improving your social media status, but I prefer the organic road. I do like the thought that all of our followers do follow us because of what we do.

I’m starting to see some of the large web design blogs develop more added value services such as member areas, adding elements of social networks to their sites (e.g. badges) and exclusive discounts. Do you have any plans along these lines for 2011?

No, we have no plans to offer premium services. Speckyboy is all about free resources and that is the focus I will be maintaining in the future. Having said that I do have some ideas for the site towards the tail end of this year – maybe a forum or offer development Q&A, and perhaps even an inspirational showcase were our readers can upload there designs. These are all just ideas at the moment, so I’ll wait and see what happens.

You have been running the site for 3 years now which is a long time in this field, how do you keep motivated to produce so much content so regularly?

With all of the exciting advancements, new technologies and trend changes that occur within the design community, it is almost impossible to not be inspired and motivated.

Having said that, I have suffered from writers block a couple of times…

Are there any other web design related websites you read regularly or resources you would recommend?

I currently follow almost 50 sites via RSS, mostly all within the design community, but for daily reading, just like almost everybody else it seems, I love Smashing Magazine, it can’t be beaten. I also regularly read SixRevisions, SpyreStudios, Noupe and Webdesigner Depot, all guaranteed to have excellent articles and quality resources. Dribble, WebCreme , Deviantart and DesignFridge are also amazing for some daily inspiration.

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