Welcome back... Michael Kay Research Director HBB Research Endless Opportunity: The Emerging Economics of Abundance Giants crush you. Even in fairy tales it's rare to find a nurturing giant – even lady giants are tough critters. And there are lots of giants on the web; all the world's biggest offline companies plus the web's home-grown efforts - Google, Amazon and the like. So how can you, sitting in your fabled pajamas at the kitchen table make money against that lot?  Well, until recently there was no way to really explain what everyone was telling you based on instinct, self-interest or outright ignorance: there is room for everyone on the web. It’s called the ‘long tail: the economics of abundance' and its guru is the editor of Wired Magazine Chris Anderson.  Now don’t let that put you off, this is fascinating stuff!  The summary is simple: regular offline business is ruled by scarcity: scarcity of shelf space being the biggest issue. Take a record store. They have so many feet of shelves and each CD takes up say half an inch. Result, the store can only carry so many CDs. So what do they do? They carry the ones that sell the most – the ‘hits.’  Now take iTunes: there is literally no limit to the inventory iTunes can carry. It sits in digital form and could be every song in every version ever recorded!  The same is true of books: which is why Google is trying to snaffle them all first, and Apple is driving into video.   So what has this to do with you? Well two things: first the big web marketers have discovered that if you offer everything, EVERYTHING SELLS SOMETHING!  Hence the term long tail. Imagine the profile of a mouse standing on her back legs nose pointing in the air!  The body of the mouse is the ‘hits’ with the biggest hit being the nose. The tail of the mouse (infinitely long) is the sales of everything else. The regular record store holds inventory corresponding to the body of the mouse. But, if you hold the inventory for free and it costs nothing to deliver it, then any sale out of the tail is pure profit!  Wow!  That’s the economics of abundance: and it’s only right now being understood.  But, I hear you object, that's records, books, and videos. True, but the same applies to everything where the restrictions of scarcity are removed. What's eBay but a long tail of gazillions of real things?  What is Amazon, the long tail of books and anything else they can get their hands on?  So it continues – the used book business after languishing for decades is booming after the dispersed and happenstance inventories held by individual stores were linked together into a single online database. The books are still in the stores, but the sales are global! Now if you are an Amazon, or a Salesforce.com in software, or any of the other ‘aggregators’ of the ‘long tail’, you have four problems: You need to put together the technology to hold the inventory and disperse it – expensive and technically finnicky, but straightforward You need to create the tools that customers can use to search the long tail – which is VERY long. Search engines, recommendations, reviews all kinds of tools are emerging to provide filters at no cost to the company once they are in place. You need to get your hands on the longest tail you can. Easier now Apple has broken through with the record industry, but really difficult if you want to have a long tail of TV shows – because of the problem of tracing down the music rights. Google may be in a battle, but the stakes in the ancient book long tail are huge hence its determination to scan everything ever published. You need to capture the emerging long tail. These are the products and creative offerings that have not yet been conceived. You do this by giving away the tools of creation. Give away (virtually) the software to create new music and provide a guaranteed market. You need to meet the sales needs of the provider – whether they are trying to make a go of it commercially or doing it for reasons of personal satisfaction. Put your book on Amazon and you can go in and tweak the marketing – and this is just the beginning. So what are the implications for web home-based businesses? It means first you can expect sales no matter if you are 1st or 5,000th on the tail. It means you can find a place on the web through an aggregator for what ever you produce. It means that multiple channels of distribution are opening that can have different roles in your mix. For example, you write a book: well you could sell it yourself, or realize it through Lulu and end up with electronic and soft/hard copy versions yielding a net return. Lulu will submit it to Ingrams the book wholesalers and so it will find its way to the long tails run by Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the rest – for a different, lower return but a much higher exposure and access to the recommendations system. You could also publish it electronically through your own web site and use Google as your search vehicle – getting the maximum margin. Finally, you could sell it through Clickbank – a long tail of Affiliates – and make 50% margin. If you have something to offer, a tail is emerging that you can join. And most important it is in everyone’s interest to keep the tail growing.  On the web, we have invented the ‘nurturing giant’. To me that spells perpetual opportunity! And that’s no fairy story!! Michael Kay If you want to find out more about The Long Tail, go to this audio interview, provided by Ken Evoy of SiteBuildIt. Hear Chris Anderson now! Thoughts to Chew on...   If the economics of abundance describes the digital world accurately, and it seems that it does, the implications for the individual thinking about the web are profound. Here are a couple you might consider: There is likely to be a tail in everything. And they do not all have to be enormous - merely as complete as you can make them.  There could be a tail in every collectible, every academic discipline, all kinds of things. The need of the tail holders to keep their tail up-to-date with emerging materials will mean a boom in tools; tools for creation, tools for marketing, and tools for searching, tools for placing products into the large long tails The key to every tail is the seach mechanism. Go look at Amazon with its internal engine, but also the recommendations, the others buy this etc stuff. If you are going to market through a giant tail you need to understand the tail's filters and tilt them to your advantage. HBB Research's latest report is focused on the emerging world of long-tail web business.   If you want to find out more, you should get hold of The Gold Rush: Realizing your Dreams in the Coming Web Home-based Business Bonanza.  This 260+page book will give you a deep understanding of what it takes to be successful. If you want to find out more about The Gold Rush: Realizing your Dreams in the Coming Web Home-based Business Bonanza click on the text below.  Take me to The Gold Rush.  Warning! If you arrived at this site through a search engine, you need to know where you are. You have landed on a subscriber page for HBB Research's Insights Letter or of the HBB Review. HBB Research is one of the first research programs into web home business linked to a business school. The Insights Letter and the HBB Review are FREE newsletters that provide ideas and insights to mostly new web entrepreneurs Subscribe to "The Insights Letter" Now!! Sign up for HBB Research's FREE "Insights Letter" and receive a long series of FREE insights into the coming boom on web home-based business plus your FREE subscription to HBB Review.  No obligation Enter Your Name: Enter your Email:   Copyright Michael Kay HBB Research 2006

The Gold Rush...To Invest in Your Future Click Here Now! The GoldRush is HBB Research's first Report on its research to date. It is possibly the first overview of web home-business on the web and will form the first generation of HBB Research's research program. At 260 pages of single space it contains the equivalent contentof 5 ebooks. A Unique Approach that Delivers Value on a Continuing Basis... The Gold Rush is a LIVING BOOK. As HBB Research's research is on-going, we decided to offer a year of updates with the book. This means a stream of new materials that will arrive as created - FOR FREE. This is an amazing offer -- it is like getting a regular shot of insight for nothing and no effort. This is just the start of the exciting developments at HBB Research.   A Second Invitation... Participate in HBB Research's Research Program. Ever wondered about the personality traits and behavior it takes to be successful in web home based business and if you have them? Click on the link below and fill in the Personality Questionnaire. Then get the results from those who have responded so far Plus the FREE and unique Your Web Home Business Personality Report: Building Success from The Inside Go to the Personality Questionnaire Latest Headline Articles On Web Business From SubmitYourArticle. These automated feeds are valuable tools for building web site content automatically For more information go to SubmitYourArticle See the SubmitYourArticle "Editor's Pick" of the best article submitted this week.  Editor's Pick Read the articles captured in our continually updated articles section. These Guest Articles are from some of the best minds writing on the web today Guest Articles Marketplace Note:  Sources on Continuing Education... As we said in our last Letter, continuing to learn is a vital function of web home based business.  One of the best sources is to sign up with top product suppliers for their newsletters. Typically they provide a number of good learning points (often right up to the full contents of their ebooks - particularly if they sell software) and you are under no obligation to buy. As you will know optimizing your site for the search engines to find you is one of the absolute foundation skills of web marketing. Here are a couple of suggestions for learning in the area of search engine optimization. First, we suggest you look at Brad Callen's SEO Elite. His email series - you get it through a pop-down sign up - is perhaps the best introduction to search engine optimization on the web. Basically he is selling one of the top rated SEO software packages on the web and to push sales he teaches you about SEO!! Click to text below to go to his sales page: SEO Second, we suggest you look VERY SERIOUSLY at Axandra. This German-based software company produces some of the finest professional SEO tools in existence. They are very widely used by professional webmasters and have won lots of awards for excellence.  Axandra has a newsletter that you can get FREE, which provides insights and ideas on the latest issues in SEO. Unlike Brad Callen's newsletter, Axandra is very much tilted toward what is happening today rather than teaching basic principles. Each, of course, is valuable.  To get the newsletter, click the link below. Axandra SEO Newsletter More on Search Engine Optimization: Another FREE Gift Organized by HBB Research  SEO FREE eBook If you're anything like me, you have to see material explained from a couple of different viewpoints before it really sinks in. Search engine optimization is a BIG subject, with a few core concepts. What makes it difficult is the running battle between the search engines and the web marketing community; as each tries to outwit the other. Marketers have to live inside the rules set by the search engines, but that doesn't stop them looking for "loopholes", where they can pick up some kind of advantage. Whether it is the rules for optimizing keywords or trying to get round the concept of links, you will be bombarded by people who claim to have found a chink in the search engine armor. Sometimes they have and the opportunity lasts for a while. But whatever you are offered, you still need to understand the basics, so I thought I would supplement the suggested SEO email series with an ebook. The Search Engine Primer is one of the best of the viral books out there on the subject of search engine optimization. It will give you a solid overview of the main concepts and it will give you lots of ideas on what you should be doing with your own site. Click Here for your FREE copy of the Search Engine Primer Search Clickbank: Coming Soon... HBB Insights is a FREE info-letter from HBB Research. It provides short articles giving insights into the world of web home based business.  Because of its format it does not deal indepth with specific issues.  "Insights" is by and large none commercial Coming soon...HBB Review. HBB Review will contain longer articles - in the 1500 to 2500 word range - dealing in more depth with practitioner issues and will come out as the articles are ready. In order to pay for its production, HBB Review will be commercial though distributed FREE to subscribers to HBB Insights. The first articles in HBB Review will deal with that really tough subject TRAFFIC! Your copy will arrive soon. Enjoy! Under Construction HBB Research's Web Home-business eBook Store is currently under construction. It will focus on books, tools and Specal Reports for the web home entrepreneur. And Finally... At HBB Research we believe in the value of feedback. Each Letter we will ask you for your thoughts on what you are looking for..Here's the question for this issue "What would you like HBB Research to investigate and write about?" Send your thoughts to insights@hbbresearch.com Thanks in advance for your ideas, they are much appreciated. Prior Letters Letter#1: The Web Business Boom includes Personality Questionnaire and FREE Report. Learn about yourself and your chances of success