Apply The 80/20 Rule to Your Blog Content

Let’s take a moment to talk about content planning for your fashion blog.

What we’re going to discuss in this post doesn’t apply to the personal blogs we write to either share with friends and family or use as a diary.  I have a blog like that too. I post mostly random stuff there, because that’s expected by my most loyal readers: my parents. I don’t intend to increase its readership, but if some random souls in the interwebs trip across my personal blog and get amused by this collage of trivial incidents in my life, I don’t mind it either.

However, if you do care about driving significant traffic to your blog, you need to be more deliberate with the content you post.

Back when the cost of content production and distribution was high, everybody read the same magazine, watched the same TV channel.  So each magazine or TV channel had to cover everything: food, music, travel, sports, gardening… Nowadays there are websites, magazines, TV channels for each of these categories and their sub-categories.  You might still find other content, e.g, interior design, travel…etc. in a fashion magazine, but in a very small portion.

Lesson here? Stay focused with your content. Online readers are famously impatient. If they can’t figure out what your blog is about at a glance, they’ll just click away.

For a fashion blog, only one or two of every ten posts should be non-fashion-related. If you want to let your readers know who you are in addition to being a fantastic fashionista, use the one or two posts well. But don’t let it overrun! Your fashion shots, a few words on the styling, a couple mix and match tips, your story of the day…those are great ingredient for a post on a fashion blog.

I especially want to call your attention to the runway shots or product shots from the fashion designers or magazines. If you’re running a self-modeling street-style blog, don’t repost too many runway shots or product shots. The “one-or-two posts of every ten” rule applies here as well. I’ve interviewed dozens of blog readers and they all say, “If I want to see fancy fashion photos, I would just subscribe to fashion magazines.”

For those blogs dedicated to collecting high-fashion photos, stay focused as well! If your readers feel they can always count on you for the latest season collections, or the most comprehensive collections for a specific style, then they’ll love your blog.

(Photo Credit: Atlantic Pacific)

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Posted in: blog content , blogging tips