What is your 'standard bet' in NL Hold'em?

[CurryLover]

My 'standard bet' is usually around the size of the pot. Obviously, depending on the situation it may be bigger or smaller - but I do often make pot-sized bets. My background is Pot-Limit cash games rather than NL and maybe this has got me into the habit of 'betting the pot' a little more often than I should. However, I had always thought that many NL players start from the premise that a 'normal bet' is somewhere around the size of the pot and then adjust according to the situation.

Then today I was reading something by Mike Caro that got me thinking about this. He was saying that the practice of having your 'standard bet' being around the size of the pot is not necessarily the right way to play NL Hold'em. He discusses this a bit and then suggests that your standard bet should be between half the pot and slightly less than the pot. I know Caro is not known as a top-notch NL Hold'em player, but what he said got me thinking and it would be interesting to hear others' thoughts on this.

A few questions for discussion:

1. Do you have a 'standard bet', or is every bet based entirely on the situation.

2. If the answer to question 1 is 'yes', then what is your standard bet?

3. How often do you estimate you make your standard bet compared to how often you will bet less or more?

4. What factors do you consider when deciding how much to bet?

5. Is there a difference between your betting patterns in cash games/tourneys?

Any thoughts on this would be great.