The Long Tail

“Your new blog is so boring.”

That’s what N thought about my previous blog (let’s call this Blog No. 2). Which was a fair comment as the one before that (Blog No. 1) was quite racy with posts on the groping of testicles (mine by somebody of the opposite sex) and mummified fornicators amongst other things.

I had a good time with Blog No. 1 which attracted comments which were equally raunchy. However, the bawdy comments distracted me from the real tasks at hand which were demonstrating a keen sense of observation and generating clever discussion. This led me to starting Blog No. 2 which covered heavier issues including politics and religion (though once I did spice it up with a post on Fucking*). I noticed I was attracting the attention of a different readership and was quite happy leading the discussions though they were a bit subdued.

So my answer to N should have been: “Because it’s a blog for intelligent people.” But I didn’t say that as she’s a good friend and I knew where she was coming from.

I felt very unmotivated after that as it seemed that I couldn’t please everybody. That was until I read this fantastic book called “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. By the way, Anderson is listed in the Time 100 (a list of the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world).

What is meant by the “Long Tail” is that in the digital age, there is no need to produce, sell or write something that would please everybody. Now any product will find its market as search engines and digital catalogues allow people to look for products which will serve their specific needs. Why this concept is called the “Long Tail” is if a demand curve is plotted for all the goods that are produced in this world there will be a short vertical tail representing goods produced for the masses but a long horizontal tail representing these niche goods.

As I read the book, I got more excited when Anderson discusses the phenomenon of blogs. He contrasts the demand for blogs to other popular media like newspapers and magazines. He argues that blogs do not have to appeal to a mass audience because bloggers could cover very specific topics like “How to rear chipmunks” and still find an audience. If this is left to the mainstream media, niche topics wouldn’t get covered. To cover their huge outlay, they would have to amass enough readership and only offer topics broad enough for mass consumption. Bloggers do not have this problem because most of us do not hope to make any money from blogging (I don’t anyway) and blogging is practically free. Oh, not to forget, Google’s Blog Search will help your audience to find you, wherever you are.

Now, do I really care if anybody says my blog is boring because I am more focused on writing about law and my life as a lawyer? I probably do, but not so much. Anyway do come back for the next post. Because it’s going to be on “10 things that sizzles your sex life but is actually against the law.”

*A small town in Austria.