The Long Tail of the Web

Let’s face it: there’s a very strong possibility that people we don’t agree with or even like are going to be running this country shortly. Our fellow citizens are going to put them there. This is the annoying thing about democracy: politics.

Citizens of countries run by dictators get to avoid all of that, but their alternative – which generally includes dungeons and bearded maniacs – is definitely worse.

So, what to do. The election is set for January 23, which is 41 days away. Seems like a long time, but the holiday boozing will quicken the campaign the same way it makes family functions fly by. There’s less than a month-and-a-half to go before an election. And this is a blog, not campaign headquarters.

In fact, is there any point in trying to make a difference this election with a blog at all?

Well, unless you’re an insomniac and the gentle patter of my writing helps you get to sleep, I presume that some of what you read here sinks into your brain. (If not, please don’t tell me.) But I watch my traffic counters and I know where I fit in the blog pecking order. This site is in the “long tail” of the web, a reference to (here we go, you’re thinking) probability statistics.

Give me one quick second, since it’s a simple concept. It means there are a few sites that get tons of traffic, and millions of sites (the long tail) that get just a little bit. The power of the long tail is that those millions of sites all add up.

And so the point is not just to occasionally influence an individual, but also to join the chorus – or cacaphony – of voices seeking change.

Then again, the community-based aspect of blogs, allowing links and discussion, means that it is easy to make yourself heard on the heavy-weight blogs that aren’t in the long tail at all, but lead the pack. In Canada, there are a number of remarkably popular conservative blogs that fit this description.

There’s a huge audience of Canadians who are reading these blogs but are still persuadable (after all, I read them, and I’m no conservative – I read them because of the old saying, “Know thine enemy”.) In fact, the clout of alternative media is growing, and the newspapers and television stations know it. If there was ever a time to fight an election online, now is it.

One such blog is Angry in the Great White North. I generally disagree with Angry, but I have to hand his blog two points: first, it’s entertaining, second, it’s generally free of degenerate name-calling and flaming. It sticks to the issues, by-and-large.

I also have to hand it to him for garnering a huge amount of media attention for his petition site kidsnotbeer.com, a stroke of pure genius. Created to attack the Liberals for Scott Reid’s statement that the Conservative’s $100 a month for child care would be spent on beer and popcorn, this website has landed him numerous television and radio interviews.

Discussing the popularity of the petition site, he points out that “Technorati is listing literally page after page of blog posts with “beer and popcorn” as the topic”, a concrete example of the long tail of the web. (Depending on how Technorati indexes this post, this could get added to the already long list too.)

Back to what this means for the election. Blogs like Angry’s are the perfect place to get a message out. They’re frequented by people who are frustrated by the current government and are looking for something different. Angry hopes that something will be the Conservatives. But it’s anybody’s game.

So my strategy for the next few weeks is simple:

First, to vigorously attack the Conservatives in the first half of the campaign (until late December/early January), focusing on increasing awareness of their history, their ideology, and their more unpopular policies. The goal is to undercut their support among undecided voters and make them think twice about voting for them.

Second, to support alternatives to the Conservatives in the second half of the campaign, in January, such as the NDP. The goal is to make undecided voters feel they have a genuine choice in front of them, and to encourage people who may not vote to do so.

You can join the party by posting elsewhere and if you don’t have a site of your own, you can leave your website URL (most sites, including this one, allow you to enter one when posting) as:

Election 2006

I’m continuing to compile information on the election there and the more eyes we get on it, the more people might think twice about voting Liberal OR Conservative.

Stay tuned as I jerk a few chains.