The recent pop business book "The Long Tail" looks as if it's creating a lot of interest. I like pop business books, simple to read suits a guy like me. But I think I believe in the short tail, not the long tail. The long tail is a theory that says that due to the internet, companies can now do better by selling a wider range, and having thousands of items that they don't sell a lot of, but add them all up and it makes a big increase in their sales. Like Amazon. hmmm, sorry Chris. I don't think it's like that. Let me briefly explain my experience based on the large sample size of...drum roll...one company. Headsets.com. We have a narrow range. Less than many or most. And we've had incredible growth. Our focus has been on being better specialists on fewer products than anyone else near our space. We only have a few hundred SKU's. Our business is simple, we're good at it, and in eight years we've grown to dominate the headset market with Customer funded growth, (not VC money). Ok, so one isn't a good sample size, but I designed this strategy based on Al Ries and Jack Trouts teachings about marketing.

Any other cases for the short tail. Someone will clean up on a book with this title. Hey at least give me the credit! :-)