Ryerson student and hotshot blogger Josh Errett is a tough guy to get a hold of.

Josh Errett checks out a Toronto Life article profiling Torontoist.com. The blog celebrates its first anniversary with a jam at the Gladstone Hotel on Nov. 20 (Jered Stuffco / Ryersonian Staff)

When The Ryersonian finally catches up with him late Monday, he sounds a little worn out.

He's just walked out of a show by Toronto chanteuse Feist (“She kept playing these slow songs…I almost fell asleep”) and he's got to be up bright and early the next day to do a class presentation — which he hasn't started yet.

Plus, he's been working on the launch of a new magazine for the National Post, he's got a birthday party to plan (he'll be 25 at the end of the month), and the blog he writes for — the locally-focused torontoist.com — is requiring an ever-increasing chunk of his time.

“I don't really know much about the web,” claims Erret, a second-year graduate journalism student.

“I'm not a blogger — I'm a writer,” he says. “Before I started doing this, I had no interest in blogging.”

Torontoist.com tackles local politics, profiles local music, takes care of quirky stuff like “flyer of the month” and even does the odd celebrity interview — profiling the likes of Can-Hop mainstay Buck 65, former MuchMusic personality Amanda Walsh, and indie queen Amy Milan of Stars.

The approach is paying off. Since debuting on the web a year ago, the site has managed to carve out a comfortable little niche in Toronto's notoriously insular blogging scene.

“Last week, we had 7,000 hits. It's our all-time high,” says Erret, who joined the torontoist team at the behest of his pal Sarah Lazorvic — a former New Yorker who was given the task of starting up a sister site to the Big Apple-based gothamist.com.

Thirteen cities, including Seattle, Chicago and San Fransisco, share a similar “ist” template.

“I'm interested in new ways to get an idea across…it's not stuffy,” says Errett.

“There are a-holes out there in what they call the ‘blogosphere’,” he concedes, pointing to name bloggers like “freelance art-director” Brett Lam, who in Errett's words, “has such a rigid idea of who can blog.”

“When torontoist started, there was a lot of snark,” he says. “People are warming up.”

However, as the web traffic continues to increase at torontoist headquarters, Erret is confronting a new menace: marketing hacks.

Sneaky PR people — always looking for new ways to make “impressions” for their clients — are infiltrating the once virginal world of blogs, hell-bent on hawking new products.

Mo' hits, mo' problems, apparently.

“People are trying to use it for marketing,” Errett says, pointing to recent e-mails he's received from agents masquerading as bloggers. “You've got to be aware.”

While he gets plently of free books, promos and tickets, the site's biggest dividends have been personal ones.

“Having an editor tell you what to do is shit sometimes,” says Errett. “The freedom a blog gives you...it allows for personal growth, because you're writing everyday.”