Hiding in the Long Tail

TFB — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:14:00 +0000

I wanted to get the new book Free by Chris Anderson, but there’s a long wait at my public library. So I got his previous book The Long Tail.

[Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links. Amazon will pay me 4% to 6.5% of the purchase price if you make a purchase within 24 hours.]

Anderson says with the lower cost of inventory and distribution, businesses can successfully sell a large number of niche products in small quantity and still make a good profit, because the small quantities across so many items add up to a huge volume collectively.

Come to think of it, my blog is a member of the long tail. If we see financial media as the market, Wall Street Journal, New York Times Business section, CNNMoney, and various mainstream media are in the head. This blog is way out there in the tail.

Even if we narrow down to personal finance blogs, there are much more popular blogs such as Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar and the like in the head, with my little blog still on the far right in the long tail.

That’s perfectly OK with me. The spirit of a long tail supplier is not to be everything to everyone. For this reason, I want to thank all of you who decide to read my blog. Among so many choices, you chose to read my blog. You must have seen value in what I write. Thank you for your encouragement.

Lately I noticed some mainstream media blogs listed my blog in their blogroll together with some much more popular destinations.

NY Times Bucks blog:

Money Magazine’s More Money blog:

To be listed in these blogrolls is quite something. I would say every other blog in the lists is at least ten times more popular than mine. Consider The Consumerist. It’s published by a subsidiary of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. It has a team of no less than six editors. My small blog is not in the same league. Yet the NY Times and Money magazine blog editors plucked me out of the long tail and placed my blog next to The Consumerist.

Both Bucks and More Money are pretty good. I say this not because they link to me. I have been reading both of them before I noticed their link to me. Journalists are professional writers. They write really well. They also have sources they can lean on. When the constraint of fitting into newspaper word count and publishing schedule is removed, I think they produce a much better product.

To make sure that I continue to serve my constituents well, I do my third annual reader satisfaction survey. There are only eight questions. Please kindly give me two minutes of your time and let me know how I’m doing and what I can do better. Readers gave me good feedback in my two previous surveys. I incorporated their feedback into my blog. This time, I’m giving out one $25 iTunes gift card to the reader who gives me the most helpful suggestions.

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Software picked, likely related articles at The Finance Buff:

2008 Reader Survey Results

TFB — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:37:04 +0000

I asked for feedback about this blog in a reader survey last December. A big Thank You for all of you who took the time to give me your opinion and suggestions. I realize there’s a great deal of selection bias in the survey responses because people who like the blog are more likely to fill out the survey. Nonetheless the survey results are very encouraging to me. For the most part, the respondents said they liked the blog. The breadth and depth of the posts were just about right. About one third of the responses rated this blog as one of the best compared with other personal finance related blogs or news media. I’m flattered. Thank you for your praises. Now I just have to keep up with that high expectation.

Several responses said they wished I post more frequently. I’d like to, but I also have a full time job and family commitments. I’m not a journalist or a full time blogger. I blog because I want to document my own thoughts and share my experience with the rest of the world. Therefore I want to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high. I don’t want to push stuff out just to fill a quota or write bland stuff you get from everywhere else. Please bear with me for my infrequent posts. I hope the quality will win over the quantity.

I duplicated the survey for 2009. If you haven’t had the chance to do the 2008 survey, you can still give me your opinion at any time during the year. Just click on the survey link in the About Me section on the upper right of every page on the blog or in the footer of the RSS feed. You can also send me an e-mail using the contact form.

Here are the detailed results of the 2008 survey.

How often do you read the blog?

Regular readers and subscribers	74%
Occasional readers	13%
New readers	13%

How do you like the blog?

	40% – 60%	60% – 80%	> 80%
Topics chosen are interesting	16%	42%	42%
Posts are informative	10%	32%	58%

How do you like the breadth of the topics?

Too wide	3%
Just about right	84%
No opinion	13%

How do you like the depth of the posts?

Too basic	6%
Just about right	91%
Too hard	3%

How does the quality of content on this blog compare with other personal finance related blogs or news media you read?

It’s one of the best	32%
It’s above average	65%
It’s below average	3%

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Software picked, likely related articles at The Finance Buff:

The Finance Buff » survey

Hiding in the Long Tail

2008 Reader Survey Results