Dogs & The Long Tail

I recently saw this post on PaidContent about Dogster, Inc., the company behind Dogster and Catster, raising $1 million in funding. Dogster and Catster are social networks for dog and cat owners/lovers who create profiles for their pets, complete with photos, facts, stories, diaries, etc.. In the last two years, they have grown to join the top 5 pet desinations on the web and make a good deal of their revenue from pet-related advertising. I think they are a perfect example of The Long Tail in action. Furthermore, they show that there are plenty of opportunities out there for Long Tail and niche markets on the web, particularly when it comes to social networking.

I remember something Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs, Inc., said at a conference I attended last year about The Long Tail and his company (alongside The Long Tail author Chris Anderson on the panel). He talked about how Weblogs owns over 50 blogs ranging over a variety of topics from general electronics & gadgets on Engadget to more specific topics such as HD on HD Beat. He explained that despite the fact that the long tail blogs such as HD Beat may not make any money for the company, they feed content up to the head of the tail, popular blogs such as Engadget, and in that sense add great value for the company. Whereas HD Beat will feature many articles on HD exclusively, Engadget may only feature one or two, but that they will be sourced from HD Beat.

On that note, allow me to present to you Day of the Longtail. This is my favorite video on The Long Tail.. actually it's the only video I've ever seen about The Long Tail.