Stop Wasting Your Time with a Blog – The Rule of Three

Treating Your Blog Like a Business

Treat your blog as if it’s your business. That’s the advice that numerous successful and professional bloggers give those just getting started. Robb Sutton explains that if you want your blog to generate revenue someday its fundamental that you treat your blog like a business. From planning to branding; he outlines various tactics that businesses and blogs can use alike.

Mike Cliffe-Jones manages and blogs at MikesLife.org. He explains what “treating your blog like a business” really means. He then explains that treating your blog like a business means setting budgets, producing reports and even investing in training.

After combining both what Mike and Robb said about blogging, it’s clear that a blog can be taken as serious as a Fortune 500 business. Think I’m exaggerating about the business behind the blog? Well take a look at some of the most innovative blogging business models and let me know if you still think I’m kidding. Blogging has gone from being a popular hobby to a way of making a passive income. As of right now there are more than 120,000,000 blogs online.

Blogging Tactics meet Business Theory

As discussed above, the concept bloggers should treat their blog like a business is a hot topic. Bloggers all over the world are looking at blogs as an opportunity to generate income and a way to build their reputation. However, when discussing solutions to different problems and the business of blogging we often talk strategy and tactics. One element that usually gets left out of the equation is theory.

Seeing that people believe that business tactics and strategies can be applied to blogging; we will be adding theory to the mix. The Princeton dictionary describes a theory as,

A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena.

The Rule of Three – A Business Perspective

The theory that we have applied to the “Blogging like a Business” mentality is the Rule of Three. This theory was developed by Professors Jagdish Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia in October 2002. Their final report was published by the Ivey Business Journal and has been studied in management courses across the world.

According to the “Rule of Three”, in competitive, mature markets, there is only room for three big shots, failures and a bunch of little guys picking up niche markets. The big shots are what the authors refer to as Full-Line generalists and the little guys are what the author refers to as product/market specialists. Together the three big shots typically control, in varying proportions between 70 – 90 percent of the market.

The companies in the middle of the full line generalists and product/market specialists are considered to be in the ditch. The ditch represents death. Okay maybe not that drastic but being in the ditch is far from anything to be proud of. Combined the companies in this position have generally between 5-10% market share and are the weakest in terms of financial performance. An example of the Rule of three can be seen with Colas, #1 Coca-Cola, #2 Pepsi and #3 Diet Coca-Cola.

The Rule of Three – A Blogging Perspective

When applying this theory to the blogging there would only be three blogs that truly thrive in each market. That would mean, 70-90% of the total traffic to a specific niche is attributed to three different blogs. The theory also states that typically, the market shares of the three blogs hover around 40, 20 and 10 per cent, respectively. This would leave 5-10% for the ditch and the rest to be spread up between product/market specialists.

One factor that must be remembered when applying this theory is that the topic must be matured and very competitive. So if we were to pick any matured and competitive topic online – Mommy bloggers, Frugal Blogging, Personal Branding, Social Media, etc… We should expect to find three blogs holding the majority of the traffic related to these topics. We should also expect the successful blogs to be product/market specialists and everyone else to be in the ditch.

Take a look at the numbers for Social Media blogs,

Ditch Dwellers

Those bloggers currently in the ditch can emerge as the top bloggers by merging with one another. To do this effectively there cannot be a viable third-ranked blogger to block them. An example of bloggers getting together to collaborate to become a leader on a topic is the Gen Y blog: The Untemplater.

If you’re a bit anti-social and are hoping to keep your own blog alive another strategy is to seek a deal with a successful full-line generalist. While in the business world this would be a partnership or merger – In the blogging world this could translate into being a guest blogger or columnist on certain blogs.

Finally, don’t think that you will become a specialist if you keep on doing what you’re doing. The majority of your work has been very similar to a full-line generalist and is ultimately not attracting anyone. The only possible way for a ditch dweller to become a specialist is to identify a solid niche and own it.

So Should You Quit?

More than likely you’re a ditch dweller. If you’re in a market that is already matured and very competitive it may be time for you to find a new topic. However, after doing some research I didn’t come across any topic that had a clear top 3. The majority of the topics seem to be applying a rule of two which leads me to conclude that there is still time for people to reach out and be a part of the top three.

The Rule of Three seems to be applicable to blogging similar to the way it can be applied to business. Because blogging for business is still an emerging trend, the rule of three has yet to come into full swing. There are several bloggers who have already found themselves as full-line generalists, product/market specialists and even ditch dwellers. The only thing missing in most industries seems to be the final Full-Line generalist.

So do you quit or are you going to strive to fill that third spot? Are you going to keep wasting your time as a Ditch Dweller or move on up in the grand scheme of things? The choice is yours…

I leave you with 3 Quotes from Seth Godin’s best seller The Dip…

“I’ve never met anyone – anyone – who needed to settle for being average.”

“If you’re not going to be #1 (the best), you might as well quit now.”

“The way you become the best in the world is by quitting the stuff where you can’t be the best.”

Tagged as: Blog, Blogging 101, Business, Competitive Advantages, Ivey, Management, Niche Markets, personal brand, Ross Simmonds, Seth Godin, Social Media, The Rule of Three, Theory