There are millions of songs on iTunes that have sold zero copies. Millions of blog posts that get zero visitors each day.

The long tail is real… given the ability, people create more variety. Given the choice, people seek out what's just right for them to consume. But, and there's a big but, there's no guarantee that the ends of the long tail start producing revenue or traffic. And a million times zero is still zero.

Sometimes, the best strategy isn't to to head farther and farther out on the tail. No, you don't have to make average stuff for average people. But it also doesn't pay to brainwash yourself into believing that super-extreme is the same as profitable.