The Long Tail

Why It Is Important For Small Businesses

An Interview With Chris Anderson

"The long tail" is a phrase that has been buzzed into our consciousness by Chris Anderson, executive editor of WIRED magazine. His book, The Long Tail, is an "impact book" -- the most important book in years. Read it.

If you understand The Long Tail (and you must -- this is why The Long Tail is the only "must-read" recommendation I have ever made), you understand the future of small business, how you fit in, and how to capitalize upon it.

So... understand it. Profoundly. If you skip this book, you do yourself and your small business a disservice. The capsule summary...

Site Build It! In the physical world, there isn't enough shelf space "to carry everything for everyone." As a result, the industrial business era has been mostly about a small number of mass-produced-and-sold products, the "head of the long tail" (red part of the graph).

The digital era turns the tables on traditional thinking about supply and demand. We are moving into the (yellow) long tail of the curve. That is the world of infinite niches.

As a small business person, it is your world. You both live in it and you market to it. The Long Tail describes the "three driving forces" that you must understand to master it...

http://longtail.sitesell.com/ivaldo.html

Gold & Silver - The Fuse Is Lit!

Much discussion has taken place in recent weeks, regarding the possibility that gold and silver might continue to sink to lower levels, as the summer doldrums set in.

Investors soon become shell-shocked with negative market analysis that looks at a half-full glass of water and refers to is as ‘half empty’.

They read about a member of the Federal Reserve Board who is quoted as saying that he is worried about inflation, and they interpret this to mean that the dollar is going to rise, and gold might fall, just because of that single comment. If the man was serious about his worry, he and his pals would be raising rates, not lowering them! Of course we know that their hands are tied, as the Fed cannot raise rates until the economy, especially the housing market, can handle higher rates.

The fact of the matter is that gold and silver are becoming more of a bargain on a daily basis. The reason is very simple: Every day, the central bank money spigots are spewing out at least ten times as much money, as miners are able to produce gold and silver!

Until this situation is reversed, the fundamentals will support higher prices.

Pull-backs or corrections usually swing too far in the opposite direction to the main trend, thereby providing opportunities for us to ‘buy the bargains’. This is the situation today.

For some examples of price increases:

* Platinum has gone from 400.00 to 2,000.00, an increase of 400%

* Copper from 0.75 to 4.00, an increase of 470%

* Uranium from 0.63 to 63.00, an increase of 530%

* Crude oil from 12.00 to 124.00, an increase of 900%

* Molybdenum from 2.50 to 32.50, an increase of 1300%

* Rhodium from 400.00 to 9,400.00, an increase of 2200%

Many of these commodities are trading at all-time high prices!

By comparison, gold has crawled, from 260.00 to 880.00, for an increase of 338%. Gold is currently trading at 1/3 rd of its inflation adjusted previous high price.

Silver from 4.00 – 18.00 has increased by 350%

Silver is currently trading at 1/8th of its inflation adjusted previous high price. That’s right, silver has to increase by a factor of 8 times to reach 135.00, which is its 1980 price, when adjusted for inflation. And that’s if you use the official CPI numbers. By using actual inflation data, the number is even higher.

Gold and silver are still bargains!

To quote Richard Russell: “He who buys the dips, and rides the waves, wins in the end.”

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/degraaf050808pv.html