Blog 6. 10/30/2011

This week in class we talked about long tails. There are two different parts of a long tail. The theory of the long tail says to, "forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream." One part is the head, which is where the mainstream and the highest volume things are located. The other part is the tail, which is the bottom part and usually low volume items. We also talked about that now with the online distribution and retail that we are now in a world of abundance. We also learned that the secret to a thriving long tail business is to make everything available and to help people find it. There are nine rules to successful long tail aggregators. 1. Move inventory way in or way out. 2. Let customers do the work. 3. One distribution method doesn't fit all. 4. One product doesn't fit all. 5. One price doesn't fit all. 6. Share information. 7. Think "and," not "or." 8. Trust the market to do your job. 9. Understand the power of free.