If you have been doing any reading at all about marketing, you must have come across this term in marketing articles and even books – long tail marketing.
After Chris Andersen’s The Long Tail was published in 2004, many people believed that this was a “gold mine” that had been left untapped. Well, I believe Alex Iskold of ReadWriteWeb has hit it dead center when he pointed out the difference between being IN the long tail and LEVERAGING OFF the long tail.
Actually, if you thought about it, this is no different from any other “get rich” or “make money” ideas. The ideas themselves are good. But putting them into practice is the challenge. And usually, there is a linchpin which many miss. Either they over-look it or the ones sharing the secret failed to highlight it. In this case, this long-tail golden goose can be missed or caught on the back of a preposition.
I would suggest that most of us, like it or not, live in the long-tail. We are the 80 in the 80-20 rule. But what is crumbs for the elite could work out to be a nice little nest-egg for us. After all, if you are looking to bolster your main income with a little long-tail stuff, then, a couple of hundreds a month is not too bad. But if you were looking for your fortune, then maybe you have to start looking for the big head and aim for the heart.
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