In a post last week, I discussed a certain Internet Marketer’s use of "straw man" arguments to debunk the "myth" of the long tail. Well, we have a bit more clarity this week.Since they apparently didn’t get my emails about this last week, you can imagine my surprise when they thought enough of li’l old me, to fire back with a new video.

Now in this video, while ignoring most of what I said last week (controversy sells!), Nancy is kind enough to clear up what she means when she talks about long tail keyword strategy. The straw man looks pretty much like I thought it did – the strategy that Nancy is debunking goes something like this:

1. Identify thousands of search terms that generate as little targeted traffic as possible
2. Build thousands of web pages to "target" these low-volume search terms

Nancy says that this kind of strategy is really dumb, and a terrible waste of time. Well, once again, I just have to say: "DUH!" Who in the world would tell you to go and do something like that? What kind of crazy "strategy" is that?? I mean, you’d have to be a complete…

Continue reading →

Is The Long Tail A Myth?

I get a lot of email from internet marketers… it’s a job-related hazard. As a result, I get a lot of email "newsletters" that are nothing more than one offer after another. One sales pitch after another. So much hype, so much junk… but every now and then someone sends me something that at least makes me think a bit.

Internet Marketer Mike Long (who I suppose I can’t really call a friend since he doesn’t return my calls any more) sent me a short video clip containing an interview with an acquaintance of ours from Stompernet. In the video, our friend "debunks" the idea of the Long Tail, by embracing some common misconceptions about the whole thing. For example, she refers to Chris Anderson’s book as being about search… which it’s not.

Continue reading →