A couple of years ago, journalist Chris Anderson caused a buzz with an article called “The Long Tail” that he wrote for Wired magazine.

He turned the article into a book, and the book is now available everywhere now. You can read Chris Anderson’s blog about the book here. The book’s receiving excellent reviews.

The main thrust of Anderson’s Long Tail theory is that big companies only serve 50 per cent of the market. Guy Kawasaki puts it this way:

Essentially the book explains how the market for lots of items that sell a few units is often as large as the market for a few items that sell a lot of units. Furthermore, the profitably of selling a few units of a lot of items may exceed the profitability of selling a lot of units of a few items. All this is possible because the Internet and other modern technologies have driven down the costs of production and distribution.

Like the 80/ 20 rule and the “top five per cent” rule, the Long Tail idea has many applications. It’s been applied to Search Engine Optimization, for example. If you know about the Long Tail theory, you won’t optimize your site for insanely competitive keywords. Instead you’ll go for “long tail” keywords which are much less competitive.

How will you use the Long Tail to do more business and to improve your business?

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