Is Read/Write Web’s Alex Iskold Questioning the American Dream?

November 28th, 2007

8 comments

Posted in: Industry Pulse

Alex Iskold’s argument in the article,“There’s No Money in the Long Tail of the Blogosphere”, questions the very principle of the American Dream.

The American Dream ratifies that each and every individual within an ecosystem will benefit from a universal power structure: This ideology parallels the long tail sales model that Iskold attacks.

In associating the long tail sales model within the dynamic of the American Dream, I will start by outline the similarities of being a citizen of the US and being an individual operating within a long tail sales model. As a citizen of the US enjoys the rights and opportunities outlined by the American Dream ideology, a long tail individual enjoys the benefits of being part of this greater economical marketplace. Each long tail player, independent of their self-determined economic success within, shares the privilege of making more money being in the long tail than if they were not.

I agree with some overlying elements of Iskold’s argument, including the statement that, “the future of business is to sell less of more,” (Iskold, 2007) and also his remark that an increasingly number of people are blogging to make money. However, I feel Alex overlooks the irrefutable benefits of this dynamic long tail sales model in terms of its importance in setting an equal playing field, or marketplace, in which commerce engages.

Herbert Spencer in his 1864 study Principles of Biology manifests his theory ’survival of the fittest’; describing an innate quality in human nature to succeed, or “struggle for life,” (Herbert Spencer). Spencer’s widely accepted principle can be applied to Iskold’s account of individuals in the collective long tail sales model. Iskold argues, “money is to be made by leveraging the collective long tail, however, making money while being part of the long tail is very difficult,” (Iskold, 2007). I refute that while making money in the long tail may be cited by Iskold as difficult, it is human nature for these long tail individuals to exert self-determination to rise to the top. In terms of business, the long tail cultivates a marketplace on which these individual players have equal opportunity to succeed, and as Iskold emphasizes, make money through self-motivated enterprise.

Expanding on my argument that individuals within the long tail have a natural ambition to rise to the top of the marketplace, I introduce the idea that the long tail itself emulates the principles of the American Dream. American Dream is commonly defined as being, “the opportunity and freedom for all citizens to achieve their goals and become wealthy and renowned if only they work hard enough,” (American Dream). Throughout the history of the US, this American Dream enticed immigrants from other countries and economic systems to jump into the melting-pot, not because it promised prosperity but because it allowed a chance for prosperity.

This image of the American Dream, along with the theory of a melting pot of immigrants in the US, advertises equal opportunity in terms of political, social, and economical rights unto all citizens; therefore encouraging a valiant fight for one’s own prosperity in terms of hard work, independent of a rigid class structure. Importantly, and in keeping with the melting pot paradigm, prosperity is fluid; the balance of money in any marketplace is always changing hands. In response to Iskold’s 80/20 Rule, I contend that the “power law” is common wisdom, but as the rich strive to get richer, the poor are also striving to get richer; the ratio of rich to poor is ever-changing and evolving. Such is the basis of human nature.

The long tail sales model empowers a vibrant marketplace, similar to the age-old notion of the American Dream, where this fluid power struggle can justly operate. Iskold offers the example of Amazon.com, “a substantial subset of the book sales for the largest online retailer comes from obscure books,” obtained through a collection from numerous online partners (Iskold, 2007). I question; Would these online partners have the ability or success in selling books, no matter what the bulk may be, if it was not for long tail platform that Amazon.com establishes? The Amazon.com sales long tail enables an equal marketplace, giving these “obscure books” a chance to sell where under non-tail circumstances they would not.

In referencing the blogosphere as being a long tail sales model, Iskold describes a “Traffic Problem,” stating the obvious fact that in order for bloggers to make money, “they’ll need more than good, original content—they need traffic,” (Iskold, 2007). Similar to the Amazon.com example, the blogosphere enables a marketplace in which bloggers are given an equal platform in which they may execute self-determination to create content that attracts traffic and thereby earn revenue. Iskold further attacks the facility of the blogosphere in his remark, “the long tail of the blogosphere is huge so any individual blog is not easily discovered,” (Iskold, 2007). I contend that the prosperity, or economic balance, achieved in the blogosphere is fluid and ever-changing, in keeping with a rags-to-riches model within the American Dream ideology; the power to make money lies within the self-determination of the blogger.

Examples of bloggers who have successfully risen to the top of the power structure within the blogosphere invalidate Iskold’s “traffic problem”. Artist Lilly Allen used MySpace.com as leverage to promote her music; Allen went from an unknown artist to becoming a major recording artist, selling millions of albums across the globe. Allen made a name for herself entirely through self-promotion on the blogosphere.

Another example would be the blog site, www.unwiredview.com which went from scoring an Alexa rank of over 700,000, meaning very low traffic to the site, to scoring 48,565, a high traffic number, in under one year. Our Sr. Account Manager, Ryan Travis describes his client UnwiredView.com’s success, explaining it now has a, “kick-ass rank”.

Sorry Iskold, but there is money in the long tail sales model, but just like everything else in society, you have to fight to achieve power in this economical balance.

By Tessa Rudd -Account Executive - Advertising Media Division, Chitika Inc.

8 Responses to “Is Read/Write Web’s Alex Iskold Questioning the American Dream?”

1. Ryan Travis Says:
   November 28th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

   I see where Alex is coming from in his point about being a niche blogger - without traffic, it is unlikely you will make much money.

   However, like Tessa (the author), I completely disagree with Alex’s point that the Top 2% (who control 80% of the Blogosphere’s revenue) are all the “old dogs” who have been in the game since the beginning, and that this group is static and unchanging.

   This is simply untrue - and in fact, many of you bloggers out there can attest to this.

   I have personally seen numerous sites start from scratch with zero traffic, then by making smart moves, push themselves up the chain to sit in the upper echelons of the blogosphere (see the example of http://www.unwiredview.com above).

2. Ewdison Then Says:
   November 28th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

   The Blog business is very dynamic and certain schemas in the real world just wont cut it; One thing that is true to the end is that hardwork and smart way of operation pay off in the long run. I personally believe niche blog will be able to generate revenue, however it wont be an easy walk.

   I started a blog last year and actually quit my day time job as a developer to run this blog; today the blog managed to self sustain itself financially with five staffs on the payroll.

   We are still the small guys, but we have good growth rates every quarter due to dedication and hardwork. However, I do believe revenue stream will always change in any kind of business, we just need to do adjustment when that happend to stay in this extremly dynamic and fast changing pace blog market.

3. Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Blog Says:
   November 28th, 2007 at 11:46 pm

   Tessa, what makes your college-style dissertation more palatable than most I read is that, despite its mechanistic view of the world, it is well-presented.

   “Survival of the fittest” is so easy to fall back on but tying it into “The Amexican Dream” is like a slap in the face of all sentient beings.

   With greenies preventing further oil drilling; immigrants illegally crashing the borders by the millions to overwhelm education, health, welfare and prison facilities; jobs being outsourced to china and india; and corporations moving to Dubai and wherever else they can get a tax break, your blog article is, AT BEST, cute.

   Anyone who wants to make it online not only has to be VERY creative but also must bring a handful of others up with him or her.

   There’s too many “followers” mechanically chasing unenlightened people who just happened to be the first fish to launch themselves onto the beach.

   The rest are just getting devoured and a very small handful actually make it to the tall grass.

   What you said about certain people striving to come out on top of the longtail scene is true and makes for a fine little scientific documentary. But the difference between animals and humans is that humans can, if they know how, engage a part of themselves that thinks creatively rather than competitively.

   Let me know if you have any questions - difficult ones only please.

   Sam

4. Stasys Bielinis Says:
   November 29th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

   Wow, I’ve become an example of money making blogger. How cool is dat :) Thank’s Tessa, Ryan.

   On a more serious note, while I don’t think it’s about American Dream, I agree that RWW article completely misses the point.

   In the comments on BubbleGeneration.com Alex Iskold himself neatly summarizes his article:

   1) A lot of bloggers in the long tail think they can make money it. Its not true because there is no traffic.
   2) If long tail collapses then advertising that makes money on it collapses too.

   And that’s completely bull.

   Please, please, please don’t tell me that small commercial blogosphere will collapse because it’s too late now to get on board, only “rich get richer”, there’s no traffic and nobody can make any money from it. IT WILL NOT COLLAPSE. Because all all these things are not true.

   Are too many people trying to make money from blogs now? Sure.

   Most of them have no idea how to do that, are not up to it, don’t have the knowledge, willpower and persistence to make it? Agreed. In fact, I think that at least 90% of them will fail at blogging for money and will move on to another, even more promising “get rich quick on the Net” fad.

   So what. It happens always and everywhere where a new interesting opportunity arises. Others will take their place. And it’s all about the other 10% who will actually make it.

   Some will make it big and will go to inspire the next generation of bloggers. Like John Chow, who rose to prominence in the fall of 2006, when it was already too late start blogging for money, especially on the “make money from blogs” topic.

   Some will make it smaller, but still enough to to leave a regular day job and become a full time blogger pursuing things they really care about.

   And some will keep blogging for passion/hobby and having a nice supplemental income stream.

   Traffic? Not everyone needs hundreds of thousands daily visitors to make it. And it’s not that difficult to get several hundred or several thousand readers to your blog each day.

   This amount of traffic can bring in from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month in a lot of niches. And that’s enough to keep quite a few of people in blogging&earning field.

   Also as the big blogs like RWW, TechCrunch and GigaOM become more impersonal and big media outlet like, there always be a room for new passionate entrants to displace them.

   And the argument that it’s a risk having a business that is helping monetize smaller blogs (you know like Chitika) … Duh… All business is about risk. And if the commercial blogosphere isn’t going anywhere, the argument is moot anyway.

5. Enrique Says:
   November 29th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

   I make a living teaching how to use a graphics software on the web. I guess that I qualify as an inhabitant of the Long Tail land.
   After I finished reading the original article by Alex Iskold I was wondering why the two most important concepts, Passion and Ambition, were not mentioned at all.
   The web provides us with an incredible amount of tools and an extremely easy way to reach millions of people around the world. We must agree that we have a lot of potential there.
   You have lots of way to monetize a blog or site. Banner ads, text ads, link ads, related products text ads, tag clouds ads, PPC shops, rich media ads, popunders, popups, intersticials, paid reviews, site sponsoring, ads embeded on videos, ads embeded on images, you name it. As an example, Chitika quite grasped the sense of it by offering an array of very different tools to ease the hard work of monetizing a web site.
   And regarding traffic, you can’t deny that it has become much easier to launch a site now than it was before: PPC ads, forums, tutorials and news sharing, social bookmarking, professional networks, article publishing, and many other free and paid ways of driving traffic to your blog.
   If you have millions of potential readers/customers, many ways to direct them to your blog, lots of monetizing solutions and easy to use publishing platforms, what else do you need? Passion for something you love and ambition to make it a reality.
   Alex Iskold said “…Now it’s your turn. Please tell us what you think about the long tail of the blogosphere. Is it solid? Or is it in danger of falling apart…”
   Here’s my modest reply: You can only be aware of the Long Tail when you are on it and not inside it. There is no notion of the Long Tail when you run a niche business. It is like a capsule. The Long Tail is a concept for those who can embrace it and, luckily, earn fortunes probably at the cost of high expenses and higher risks.
   I’m just a happy long tailer native, unaware of it, making a good living from my small niche and enjoying my family and the good things in everyday life. Is that the American dream? Don’t ask me, I live in Argentina ;-)

6. Tomaz Mencinger Says:
   November 29th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

   One point that Alex never explained and no one else mentioned is what is “good money” to be made.

   I checked a short bio from Alex and he is obviously an expert in his field and the Alexa ranking of readwriteweb.com of 4,801 tells me that this site has massive traffic.

   Combine massive traffic with the reputation of readwriteweb.com, Alex’s expertise and jobs that he runs, and you can immediately see that perhaps earning $500 or even $1000 per month from blogging would be insignificat to his interpretation of “good money” to be made.

   On the other hand, there are tens of thousands of people jumping from joy when they receive their sub-$1000 check from Google or Chitika.

   My point is, that Alex lives in a different world that most small bloggers and the perspectives and opinions of what is “earning good money” are vastly different.

   Conclusion?

   Alex is right from his point of view and everyone else is right from their point of view.

7. Cristi Scara Says:
   December 2nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm

   Hello i just signup to chitika,and maybe somebody can teach me how to increase my earnings and visitors to my website.Thanks

8. Chitika Says:
   December 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm

   Hey Cristi,

   You can head on over to Chitika’s forum: http://chitika.com/forum/index.php?board=24.0
   Where our experts can help you get started.

   Here we offer free expert optimizations tips on ad placement & we also accept reviews of websites from non-Chitika users so we can tell you if Chitika would work well on your site :) Good Luck!

   -The Chitika Team