In a recent blogpost I touched on the 80:20 rule. For those of you who aren’t aware of what the 80:20 rule is, its basically the rule that which successful bloggers live by in order to grow and expand their blog. I discovered this rule a little while back but kind of ignored it and decided that I would just do me. And while that was all well and good, I was enjoying blogging and sharing content, but it resulted in a plateau on my sites. Don’t get me wrong, I DO NOT blog for the numbers. I feel like if thats the only reason why I did it I would have given up a long time ago. But it can be really disheartening when you are putting in a lot of effort for it not to have any reward. So I started investing properly into the 80:20 rule and I have seen such an increase in the people I have reached. In all honesty, I haven’t noticed a difference in that follow number, but I have in fact seen a huge increase in engagement. And I would chose a comment and like over a follow any day!
For those who are really confused and aren’t really sure what I am going on about. Basically the 80:20 rule is the concept that you focus only 20% of your energy into actual blog writing. But Ellie, surely thats silly and the majority of my time should be spent writing my posts? Well, actually, no. You should spend a small amount of your time writing blogposts. However the other 80% should be promoting your platform and increasing engagement. When I say that, I don’t mean that you should tweet out your blog link 10 times a day. I mean that you should put a lot more energy into other platforms.
There are so many different forms of social media out there that there are thousands of ways to be found online. So why aren’t you making use of them? Especially places like instagram or pinterest. They are HUGE at promoting photography and can be serious platforms at increasing traffic to your blog. Instagram is my FAVOURITE social media platform and I am sure that you will notice that the vast majority of my time is dedicated to them. I am also trying to make more use of twitter. I have found that scheduling tweets is such a useful way to stay active.
As well as other platforms, part of the 80% should be focused on other parts of your blog. Such as the layout, design or links. I have a shop page on my blog, which constantly needs to be updated (especially the sale rail) so I spend a lot of my day catering to that. This takes quite a bit of work as I have to sort out my affiliate links as well as getting pictures and even just going through websites to find good deals for you or find exactly the top I wore in that instagram post last week. It can be tricky and takes a lot of time!
EMAILS!! You have no idea how important it is to keep on top of your emails. If you are working with brands or collaborating, its so key to be able to communicate quickly and easily with them. There is nothing worse than a blogger who takes weeks to reply to a brand. It will put them off you and will decrease your appeal. I use gmail as it pops up on my phone during the day, ensuring that I always know when I have an email and I can get on top of it as soon as I can.
Another section of your 80% should be spent engaging with other bloggers. I have recently started being much more engaged with other bloggers and I have noticed such a huge impact on the engagement on my blog. It seems that when I chat to blogger on their blog, they want to chat with me on mine! Its insane how much my traffic has increased as a reflection of how active I have been on other’s blogs. I really enjoy reading other’s blogs and just chatting on there- leave your link below if you have a blog, I would love to check it out!
So, lets summarise. The way that the 80:20 rule works is that you split your time to increase the exposure to your blog.
20%-spent taking photos and writing posts
80%-spent on other platforms, emails, PR, links, blog design and enjoying other blogs
And there you have it! The 80:20 rule. To be honest, once you get into the habit of it, its not a ‘rule’ as such but just a way of life. I have been really enjoying doing it this way and have seen such an effect! Heres to more of where that came from!