HOW THE PARETO PRINCIPLE CAN ACTUALLY SAVE YOUR BUSINESS.
January 17, 2012 
0 Comments
The Pareto principle, which is also called the 80-20 rule, states that for many events and things in life, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
For example, an Italian economist once observed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. His name was Vilfredo Pareto, and that is where the principle got its name from.
Another famous example: Microsoft once found that by eliminating 20% of the largest bugs in its operating system 80% of the crashes would stop.
Another one: most businesses find that 80% of their revenues come from just 20% of the customers.
So how can the pareto principle save your business? Well, it is clear: by identifying and focusing your work on the 20% of the tasks that will generate 80% of the results you’ll become much more efficient and profitable.
Here is one practical example of the Pareto Principle
Suppose you have a blog and that you are trying to make it popular (e.g., to increase its traffic). There are many things you could do to achieve that, including:
-write quality content
-promote that content
-use social media (e.g., Twitter and Facebook)
-use social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg and Reddit)
-tweak your design
-track your stats
-chat with readers
-create Youtube videos
-article marketing
-submit your blog to directories
-search engine optimization
That is a lot of things right? And many bloggers actually do all of them. But what does the pareto principle tell us about this? It’s simple: 20% of these activities are going to produce 80% of the traffic gain.
In fact I place these activities right on top for that reason. They are: writing quality content and promoting that content. If you do these two things you’ll get new readers, new subscribers, backlinks from other sites, your search rankings will increase, and ultimately your traffic will increase.
Sure, the other activities can help, but 80% of the results will come from writing quality content and promoting it.
Guess where you should spend most of your time?
And remember that the pareto principle works on almost any situation, so apply it for your own business or website, and focus on the 20% of things that will bring you 80% of the results.
About the Author (the Pareto principle)
Helio Tavares
http://www.heliotavares.info/mysurfbiz
http://www.heliotavares.info/join-sfi-here
