The theory of The Long Tail, created by Chris Anderson, has recently been challenged by Harvard professor Anita Elberse. Anderson describes the Long Tail theory:

The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

The Long Tail is something that has benefited our SEO clients, many of which are small business owners. Anita Campbell explores the Long Tail and Elberse’s criticism of it from a small business perspective in a recent article that can be found on Small Business Trends. Campbell’s article has great insight, so check out Is It Time to Chuck the Long Tail Theory?