4 ms·
I am not familiar with the "long tail" book or the particular internet theory, but I used to work for a company which owned an actual windsurfing website. They
by gt_ 9y ago
I am not familiar with the "long tail" book or the particular internet theory, but I used to work for a company which owned an actual windsurfing website. They only sold advertising to what they called "endemic" advertisers, which means they are of the industry that supports the niche; in this case windsurfing. They dealt directly with the advertisers. The reasoning was that "non-endemic" ads would sour their allegiance with the niche audience they served. I would be interested in some research on this theory.
- rjbwork 9y agoIt may be a reasonable theory. But there are lots of ancillary industries that help support the niche - boat manufacturers, plastics/cloth companies, clothing and misc gear companies that are native to windsurfing (such as brands like Revive, Vans, Sector 9, etc are to skateboarding), and dozens of other related brands. You may also be hurting your income if you are only doing direct buys/run-of-site buys, since you don't really know what the market value of placements on your site are, you only know what the few brands you consider "endemic" value your site for. I could likely come up with a few other reasons given the time, but I think this makes the point decently. EDIT: Also, remember the incentives of the many mainstream high-traffic sites who are pushing this narrative about advertising.