The Long Tail

One of the few business books out there that actually makes some sense to read in my view. Frankly, most 'Marketing' or 'Business' books are no more than a rehash of old strategies and maxims.

"Let's see how we can say - segment your customers! customer focus! give them what they want - if it makes sense!" and so on and so forth. Blah, blah, blah. Go and read any bleeding 1st year marketing book and you'd get the same thing, if not so explicitly spelled out.

I guess you do need it for the simplistic thinkers out there, but if you consider it, most of the books out there aren't that good.

So that leaves two types of books worth reading - the basic strategy guides (like the Art of War and general marketing management books) and tactical books (like Jakob Nielsen's Usability) which deal with specific tactics you can take. Anything that shoots for new 'strategy' is often rubbish.

Except... in this case the Long Tail actually makes sense. As it discusses a trend in the industry due to a technological change, it provides actual useful information. To sum it up - companies need to consider making money over a period of time (the long tail) from a specific product or products (multiple products, again instead of concentrating on one).

A good example would be TV shows - from just first run to syndication to DVDs to now IPODs, etc. And by creating multiple content (like Apple's iPOD downloads for videos) but making it available for multiple shows. The point is, since it barely costs anything for the products, even a few hundred downloads means money. And profits.

This is obvious in terms of new technology, but with the addition of the Internet as a highly viable distribution channel, it is also possible for retail and other organisations. Consider how E-bay sellers can as easily work as drop-shippers with thousands of products listed, making only marginal profits from each but a huge amount in the end.

Huge margin products are still possible, but the fact is, with globalisation and the pace of change in the modern world, to continue to have high margin products, you need to constantly change.

If you haven't heard - fraud reporting

Wow.

Google has finally allowed you to do fraud reporting. However, instead of making it part of the dashboard you have to end up running a report for it. Still, even for an unimportant and lowly bid keyword, they are registering a 5% fraud rate.

That is bleeding high when you consider that means 1 in 20 clicks are not 'true'. Now, the question is, where are all those clicks coming from? For the keywords I'm looking at, there just isn't enough competition to make it viable as a business I would have thought.

So where does it come from? Just people double-clicking? Or robots? Or worst, people with nothing better to do?

Ah well, that is life I guess. Still, single digits is what I would have expected for my keyword. I wonder what it is like for more competitive keywords? 20%? 30%? I certainly wouldn't be surprised to find those results.

Convergence and cyborg men

What is convergence? A simple explanation is that it is the addition of all media, technology and tools into one area. If you're still scratching your head, think about the latest PDA's out there. You have everything from Word documents to e-mail to web browsing to camera to music to videos to radio to...

So why is it so important? Because it's just a oart if a trend to make things a) easier for people and b) more connected than ever before.

Here's an example of how it'll fundamentally change our world. You wake up in the morning from 'Jesse' whispering motivational themes. You stumble out to grab the already brewed cup of coffee (synchronised thorugh 'Jesse') and quaff it down before stumbling into the running shower. 10 minutes later, your reading the latest news about your company and checking your e-mails over business. You realise you'll need to stop off at a customer's location, add that to your timetable and walk over to your car, getting in while still answering e-mails. Your car, beamed the new GPS information, heads off driving down the road to your customer's location while you work. At the location, you realise that there's something really wrong with the shipment, so you take a photograph through Jesse, mail it out to the logistics personnel and call them. After shouting a bit, you hold up Jesse to show them exactly what you are talking about and they download the new invoice and delivery date, etc. And then off you go...

Pure science fiction? Not really. All of that technology (yes, even the self-driving car) is out there in the world. The big question is how to get them to work together seamlessly without the user having to go through a dozen hoops.

You don't WANT to have to hit buttons each time to get new GPS data. You don't WANT to set your alarm, configure your coffee machine and shower if you need it. You don't WANT to search for information about the local news, figure out what it means for your work, etc.

The biggest trend right now is to make Technology Simpler. To get it to work together, faster, smoother and easier. Convergence of media, tools and information all into one little thing that become a lifeline.

Get on that bandwagon because it's happening.

Web 2.0 and the hype

Yippee! The new verison of the web is here, and it'll change the way we see the world! It'll destroy everything we know about marketing and make it irrelevant. Look out, get on the bandwagon or you will be crushed.

Anyone remember the '90's? Sound very familiar? There are a lot of trends, and certainly, the increase use of technology to connect people and for them to create their own content (ala MySpace and YouTube) are part of them. But trends are things that are built up over time, and what is touted as Web 2.0 is really just more toys for the individuals to do what they've been doing before.

What the web has always done, is make it possible for individuals to publish their own information and connect with a larger audience. In the beginning, places like Geocities allowed users to create their own personal websites. Since that time, things have gotten easier with more tools - blogs, podcasts, videocasts, etc. But the base of it is still there - the desire to shout out, to create a connection. Before the Internet, pen pals used to be a huge thing.

As for content creation and choice - it's always happened. People used to create mix tapes for themselves and before that, wrote and created stories for others and themselves (can we say folk lore?). As for choice - it's always been a choice, of say reading or talking to family or working or turning off the TV.

Trends. What the real difference we see here is the issue of Scope more than a revolution. For the first time, it's easier than ever for people to do all the above, and for the first time, the effects of the choices are easily seen. But really, it's just a matter of scope.

Now, if you want to look at a trend that's frighteningly scary and fast approaching (fastish), let's talk about Convergence.

Site updates

Have not been done in a while. Mostly because I completely forgot about the site entirely. Which is not always a good thing.

I'm still in the Marketing business and all, though with the current job I have little to do with Internet marketing. Or at least, as much as I would want to.

My little blogging attempt thus far has not gotten very far. Mostly because I'm not going around and spanning the site to other blogs or other areas. Interesting enough, there are quite a few spam ots that have hit this and the other sites up. Even for a nearly dead site, it's gotten smacked up for the PR. Which is still zero.

Next topic - Web 2.0 and why it's still hype.