The business world is all abuzz with Chris Anderson's best seller, The Long Tail, but after a read I found myself thinking...


that the book's primary premise was one of those treatises that sounded good on paper, but would never really mean much to the real world business. The usual suspects, such as Amazon, were rounded up and held out as examples of the long tail.
Now, how realistic is Amazon for the typical business?
The reason I bring any of this up is that while this book may sell well, the danger is that it gives business owners another reason to chase the new, new thing, when they should stay at work and refine a proven business strategy that works in their reality -- and then try to make it work a little better.
I'm not opposed to new thinking. I just find that much of the new thinking comes from a desire to call the same thinking by a new name.
Wall Street Journal columnist Lee Gomes went even further, knocking Anderson's assumptions by using the actual examples cited in the book to demonstrate just the opposite of what is proposed.
"So maybe Mr Anderson really has unlocked the sort of new business rules the cover promises. I say we wait before ripping up any business plans," Anderson argued.
What do you think?
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Most Long Tails Get Slammed in the Door

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of John Jantsch

John Jantsch
Duct Tape Marketing

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award-winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson, due out in the fall of 2006.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system.

His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site.

He is a popular presenter of marketing workshops for organizations all across America.

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