Every once in a while, as we breathlessly chase higher sales and the Next Big Thing, it’s important to take a breather and think about the fundamentals.
Which is why Jakob Nielsen’s Top 10 Web Design Mistakes of 2005 is a good read.
The other day, C|Net published their list of the top 100 blogs. So what’s missing? Well, aside from a few obvious choices in the political category (Daily Kos, Wonkette, Andrew Sullivan) and a few highlights that can’t be easily categorized (Postsecret, EGR), there’s one major category conspicuous by its absence: Where are the marketing blogs? At the very least, Seth Godin ought to be there; at the most, toss in Tom Peters, B.L. Ochman, Hugh Macleod, AdRants, and a few others.
An oversight? Or another manifestation of the natural friction between the marketing folks and the information technology folks?
If you haven’t already run across the phrase “the long tail,” stay tuned: You will, just as sure as you bump into “permission marketing” and “tipping point” in the course of your business week.
What’s the long tail? It’s all about the countless micromarkets out there — niches that the Internet makes more accessible than ever before, that have made companies like Amazon and Netflix what they are. Here’s a good introduction to what the long tail is all about.
Takeaway for marketers: Sneering at the niches is no longer a viable marketing strategy.
I like BlogAds. Henry Copeland and crew have a good thing going over there: a great service, coupled with great customer service. My only complaint is that there isn’t a much larger selection of blogs to choose from. Nevertheless, they were kind enough to soil their home page the other day by adding my testimonial. Thanks, gang!
“The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it.”
—Thomas Edison
