First of all, I want to use this opportunity to wish you a happy new month. January is gone and February is finally here. I hope you’re getting closer to your 2014 goals if not, you need to get to work right now because you’ve got no time at all. Stepping into today’s topic.
You see, the days of “create it and they will come” are over and if you’re still harbouring such mindset, you need to rethink and ask yourself some questions.
The competition out there today is very huge and if your contents must be noticed then, it has to be better than others and, you must also promote the heck out of it.
Now, you might be wondering and asking!
What’s The 80/20 Rule of Blogging All About?
Well, I’m sure you might have heard about that before but in case it’s still new to you, give me some time so I can lead you into the picture.
The 80/20 rule of building a blog audience implies that, you should always spend 20% of your time creating contents for your blog and then, spend the remaining 80% promoting the content. Sounds strange? I guess so :).
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I don’t really know your own take on this statement but I agree with that. I’m sure a lot of people might have advised you to always flood your blog with contents but, In my own opinion, the secrets to creating a good audience and a loyal fan base that will always like what you do is not all about the number of contents on your blog, the main thing to create good contents and your ability to get those contents to more people across the web.
Why I agree with the 80/20 Rule of Blogging
I will like to ask you a question if I’m permitted. What use will it make if you create that interesting article and only a few people sees it whereas there are more and more people out there that can also benefit from it? It will really be a total waste of time and efforts.
So, is it not better to try and get those awesome contents you’ve already created to more people? This will eventually get you more potential fans in the long run and, I’m sure we all want new people to be discovering our contents because, if they finds it interesting too, they might also want to subscribe to our mailing list which will also be great.
I bet you that if you start looking at all the articles you’ve written on your blog before, you’ll certainly find out that there are some superb ones that didn’t get the attention they deserved and, this is because you didn’t promote it well so, why don’t you start spreading the news about them now instead of writing another one that will still get to nowhere?
Good Content Is Still and Will Always be The King!
Yes, you heard me well. Before you start thinking that I’m asking you to stop writing and start promoting, that’s not what I’m saying.
What I’m saying is that you should always spend more time promoting your posts because if not, you will only be killing their potential. But, in as much as blog posts promotion is important, no one will also notice you you exists if you don’t write good contents.
To sum it all, forget about the advice that you should flood your blog with contents because if you believe in that, you’ll only be creating mediocre contents that will get you nowhere, your blog will be filled with crappy articles that will only succeed in tarnishing your image.
However, it’s better to always research and write a “top notch” article once in a while and then, use more of your time to promote the heck out of it. Writing 4 blog posts everyday when no one will read them is of no use therefore, stop killing the potentials of those good articles and start getting them the attention they deserve.
I also have some articles I wrote before that only got little or no attention so, I will also start promoting them so as to unleash their full potential.
There are many ways to promote your contents too but, just focus on the ones that are working for you first before experimenting with other ones.
I rest my case.
I know that some of you will agree with me on this while others will likely disagree so, I will love to hear your own thoughts via the comment section and please, help me and share this post with your friends if you enjoyed it.
Emmanuel says
As you arrest your case, let me let you know that I totally second you. What you’ve said is 100% percent correct. Promoting your post is what is supreme. I always value my audience than contents. Therefore to me, my audience is the kingmaker whiles the content is king.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks Emmanuel,
I’m glad you agree with me
mvenkatk says
yes right now every blogger seeing about traffic, they have not quality content, but they want huge traffic, why , if give the best quality we are no see about 80/20 traffic
Theodore Nwangene says
You’re right man
Dean Martin says
You’re right about it being 80/20. I started my blog last year in January. I never posted anything until June. I spent the whole time writing content and making sure it was good before I would post. I think I had wrote 10 different post last year and when June rolled around, of those 10 post, I only used 2. lol. So I spent the whole summer and part of the fall writing my ass off and making sure the content was solid. I wrote 36 different pieces and and in about 2 months I had roughly over 5,000 views on my profile. I hit that number in 3 months, I think it’s a good number. You have to constantly promote is one thing you can’t stop doing. I usually lose steam with promoting sometimes because you can go months in with promoting before someone finally says anything; and sometimes what I end up reading is, “Don’t not spam our page”. I think writing a few sentence about your post, or maybe writing something that can lead to a segue helps a lot when I’m promoting..
Theodore Nwangene says
You’re very right Martin,
It’s always good to promote our posts even more than we write but, it’s not advisable to be aiming for perfection every time especially when you’re just starting.
Thanks for coming.
Naveen says
When it comes to 20-80 rules, I remember Neil Patel on his blog and being a busy schedule, he never failed to reply any comments on his blog.
As we know he reply almost every comment, no matter how busy he is.
In order to grow with thriving audience, we should keep some rules for the benefits.
I agree what you’ve described here.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks Naveen,
I’m happy you agree with me. Neil Petal is indeed a great blogger and, I love everything he is doing.
Thanks for stopping by.
Kaloyan Banev says
Exactly, this is the best way to achieve success online. Not just for blogs, but for any kind of website. Content have to be high quality, but should be promoted even harder.
Theodore Nwangene says
I agree with you Karoyan,
If you don’t promote your contents very well, it will just die without achieving its potentials. Thanks a lot for the visit.
Sunday says
Your case is well rested Theodore and I agree with you to a large extent on this piece. Creating content is not enough for blogging, it is promoting the content that would give relevance to it.
The 80/20 rule can be interpreted in many ways, but I guess with this post, it is more time for promotion and less time for content creation?
Its an interesting concept (i.e. the 80/20 rule) and should be leveraged to make good contents get the attention they deserved.
I have left this same comment in kingged.com where this post was shared and bookmarked for Internet marketers.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/why-you-should-always-focus-on-the-8020-rule-of-building-a-blog-audience-in-2014/
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for all your kind supports Sunday,
You’re indeed a friend. Yea, it’s always better to try as much as possible to be promoting our posts even more than we writes. This will help to get the post to many more eyes.
Thanks for the visit.
Jeevan Jacob John says
Writing itself – that depends upon us and our time (I know a few people who post 3-4 articles everyday and have success with it)….I also know a few others who post 1 or twice a month and get awesome results with that.
It depends upon our time, our mindset and our goals ๐ But, I do agree with your point about 80/20 rule…I like to think that marketing is more important than the content itself (marketing which includes presentation – the way we present the content, design and networking – these three points are more important than the message itself…and it tells us why some blog posts are more popular than others, even though they are very similar in content).
I am trying to focus my efforts on networking – I need all the growth I can get ๐ I can’t focus on traffic generation every month ๐
Anyways, thank you for the tips, Theodore ๐ Appreciate it!
Theodore Nwangene says
You’re welcome Jeevan,
How na? Hope you’re doing awesome. Marketing is really important as far as blogging is concerned even in every other business. I also agree with your points that it all depends on our times and schedules but all in all, it’s good to be marketing very well.
And also, networking is very important and we should all pay more attention to that too.
Thanks a lot for the visit and keep on having fun ๐
Harleena Singh says
Hi Theodore,
Sorry for being late this time, just catching up with a family wedding, and am back now ๐
I couldn’t agree more about all that you mentioned, and yes, if you write a post and don’t promote it enough, it’s never going to reach the masses. However, I wonder to what limit should one promote because there is SO much to do where blog promotion is concerned, that it can take you hours and days to promote a single post. I face that problem myself when I try and promote my posts, which makes me sit back and think that when should I reply to the comments, make my return visits, and write the next post! It’s truly a very time consuming job, yet there is no two-ways about it – you need to promote your posts if you want to be visible.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead ๐
Theodore Nwangene says
Welcome back Harleena :),
I hope you enjoyed yourself during the celebration now, its time to get back to work :).
Yea, blogging is a time consuming job but as you said, we don’t have any other option than to stick fully to it. Blog promotion is very important and i think its good to always focus on the methods that gives you the most result.
Thanks a lot for coming Harleena.
Amiti says
Hi Theodore,
As usual great post! I hope your first month of ’14 was successful. I definitely agree with the 80/20 rule. I am new to the blogosphere and only opened Twitter account a few weeks ago, but I am sure that doing this will lead to great results.
Theodore Nwangene says
Welcome to the blogosphere Amiti,
I’m sure you will do pretty well here. Just chose the people you takes advice from and, you will soon become a great blogger.
Thanks for coming.
Mary Stephenson says
Hi Theodore
When I seen the title I was thinking of something else that you were writing about. But I absolutely agree that if you don’t promote yourself some way all the great content will go to waste. For the first 2 years of my blog writing pretty much went unnoticed. Sad for sure, but at least now my content does get read. Less articles but greater content and interactions with responses is highly important. I have cut down on visiting some sites as they don’t take the time to recognize my well thought out comment. I take the time to read what they have wrote, yet they would rather pump out posts, than appreciate their visitors.
Have a super day..
Mary
Theodore Nwangene says
Hello Mary,
Happy new year. it’s been a long time and I’m very happy to have you here again. Hope you’re doing good? Coming to the post, its need very necessary to promote our posts more than we writes.
I also had the same experience, most of the awesome posts i wrote when i started were not read at all and like you, it also got me annoyed but thank God we know how to go about it now.
I also don’t always visit blogs that doesn’t appreciate their visitors and even if i visit them, i don’t comment.
Thanks a lot for coming Mary and I’m sorry for the late reply.
DWJL says
I spend 80% of the time promoting it. No sense creating amazing content, then have it sit on the shelf. The problem is that I also spend 80% of the time creating the content. Which leaves me … uh… well, not much time for other stuff.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for sharing your wonderful opinion with us man,
I’m so happy you like the post.
Shoukot says
Hi Theodore,
I agree with you to some extents on 80/20 rule. Only creating content is not enough for blogging.
But good content and better SEO can bring lots of traffics.
Thanks for sharing the rule with us.
Theodore Nwangene says
You’re very right Shoukot,
And i agree with your opinion. Thanks for coming.
Nikhil says
Yes Bro, I am totally write with you 80/20 rule. I am doing blogging since last 2 years but in last few months competition increases rapidly. Therefore We want to create one of quality blog post. Then we need to spend our time to promoting and doing SEO.
Perfect use of social media and link building strategy will put your blog on top of search engine.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks Nikhil,
For sharing your awesome opinion with us and, I’m happy you’re already following this strategy.
Deepak says
The competition has really become stern in the last year or so.Writing post is really exhausting and what’s the use if you can’t reach enough audience.I agree with your 80/20 rule.It is better to send time in promoting your post.
Theodore Nwangene says
Hello Deepak,
Promotion is the main thing. Its of no use to write all the posts in the world but people will not see it. Thanks for the wonderful comment
Samir says
Wonderful post as ever, I guess you shared absolute points for building blog audience. And I guess I’m also on list of people who agree with you.
Thanks
Theodore Nwangene says
Well said Samir,
Thanks for coming
Akshat Verma says
Never heard this type of rule before but i believe the thing you are saying that promotion is also or more important than content creation
Jayashree says
Hello Theo – You have correctly said on 80/20 rule.How we promote our content plays a major role to reach wider audience and we should be more focused on using various strategies in promoting our content on various platforms.
Sam Adeyinka says
Hi Theo, it’s good to finally be back here and to see a new design of TBC. What a work! ๐
80/20 rule. This is actually one thing have neglected and that I’ve come to realize is hurting my blog’s growth in recent weeks.
On my previous blog – I had just 26 posts, over 6k comments and I can’t count the likes and shares.
Now that I have over 400 published articles on my new blog, I don’t even have up to that at all. My comments just reach 150 or so. That’s purely bad, right?
Thanks for the reminder here sir! ๐
Sam
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sam,
It really meant a lot to me.