Sellsius real estate marketing blog

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson was published yesterday. Anderson coined the term “Long Tail” in 2004. In recognition of the book’s release, let’s talk tail. (All links to works cited below.)

Let’s start with Clay Shirky. In his influential essay, Power Laws, Weblogs & Inequality, (February 2003) Shirky wrote of the long recognized law of statistical distribution, the 80/20 Rule. According to this “predictable imbalance”, 80% of the world’s wealth is held by 20% of the population. This statistical result had been known as “Pareto’s Distribution“.

Shirky, acknowledging the website studies of guru Jakob Nielsen, wrote that the blogosphere is also subject to the predictable imbalance. A small number of bloggers had most of the inbound links but millions more had a few links. Shirky hypothesized the reason for the tail and concluded that diversity plus freedom of choice creates inequality. The greater the diversity, the greater the inequality. He went on to graph the distribution of links. He drew the long tail.

Now enter Chris Anderson who reads Shirky, acknowledges his influence, and noticing the long tail, names it such. He then illustrates the long tail effect in the context of online businesses. He concludes the “future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream“. The more choices available on the internet, fostered by seach engines, means that appeal is very broad & consumption is therefore spread across the shallow and long tail.

So, what does that long and shallow tail weigh? If you hold to the “predictable imbalance” of Pareto’s Principle, its weight is only 20% of the gross, the other 80% of the weight is in the head and body.

The Long Tail, is therefore, merely long.

Nonetheless, 20% is still a lot of money, GNP-wise. So, although it would be great to be one of the few multi-billionaires, you can’t complain about being a mere multi-millionaire.

The Long Tail shows the importance of lowered costs when you sell what others sell & there are few barriers to entry in the market. His advice:

1. Make everything available–cover every inch of the tail.
2. Cut the price in half, then lower it If you sell what everyone else sells, price is often the determing factor to a sale.
3. Help people find everything. Suggest & offer related products.

The Long Tail, Chris Anderson (Wired October 2004)

Power Laws, Weblogs & Inequality, Clay Shirky (February 2003)

Diversity is Power for Specilaized Sites, Jakob Neilsen (June 2003)

Weblogs & power laws , Jay Kottke (February 2003). He published at the same time (literally) as Shirky

Skypecast with Chris Anderson on July 24, 2006 {thanks Richard Nacht, RealtyBlogging}

Compare Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start video.