How is Endless Choice Still Creating Unlimited Demand?

1. Useful elements of ‘The Long Tail’ that still resonate. How is the endless choice still creating unlimited demand?

2. The tools are available. Apps, content production tools, open-source software, and devices are now available to a large proportion of the planet. People are moving from pure consumers to producers.

3. Professionals produced and amateurs consumed. This is now a two-way street, with people crossing from one side of the road to another and back again.

4. In a digital world, a product is a database entry. (Read that again!)

5. The ultimate cost reduction is eliminating atoms. In theory, it is easier to deal in bits than physical goods. Not always practical, but an exciting thought that promotes a near-limitless on-demand marketplace.

6. Music, TV, Film, and much more content are simply a click away. Subscriptions rule, or you watch the ads.

7. All kneel before the algorithm gods. While the long tail, in theory, produces a world without physical limitations, the algorithms currently rule supreme. Being found amongst all the noise is the name of the game. Some pay to be heard; others organically chip away!

8. Once size does not fit all. People like niches. Find your niche; they come in all shapes and sizes.

9. You will build a community faster if you add value, produce quality content, inspire, help, and motivate. There is so much out there. However, not such an ample supply of value. Google ‘Sturgeon’s law.’

10. Remember that building an audience and building a community is not the same thing.

11. Give people a good reason to buy from you.

12. A long tail is not cut off by bottlenecks in distribution.

13. Human attention is more expandable than money. The long tail shifts our taste toward niches. If we are more satisfied with what we are finding, we may consume more of it. It helps understand the question, does a long tail increase the demand or move it?

14. Subcultures thrive in big cities.

15. Physical shelves have a disadvantage; geography restricts them, which is also their ace. (Convenience.)

16. The mass migration from broadcast to the internet. The lesson is more evident than ever. Give people what they want. (When they want it.) When people shift online, the challenge is that you have much more fragmentation.

17. The competition for online attention is fierce, and the game rules constantly change.

18. With a somewhat lack of web authority, people check various sources to either make up their minds or find an answer that fits their way of thinking.

19. You now have Hollywood at home and a front-row HD seat to the sports game of your choice.

20. How do you make the long tail work for you? Number one: Make it readily available, and Number two: Help me find it!

21. In the areas of entertainment and information, we have thrown off the capacity constraints.

22. When everything is available on demand, the better question is, what do you want?

23. Distribution, marketing, and manufacturing efficiencies are changed fundamentally. Consumer demand, culture, and trends are constantly moving.

24. Services are delivered on fibre connections or through the air. Physical goods are delivered; some people print goods or parts at home or on a space station. Everything is possible.

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