That article is riddled with errors... Pareto's Principle is a proverb?! and "famouse(sp) rule of mathematics, known as power law"... huh?
It seems that the "power law" has something to do with becoming more powerful?
They're wrong. I made ridiculous amounts of money from the long tail of the blogosphere. It's all about establishing credibility and then creative monetization.
Care to share how, or do I have to buy your book?
Became a popular poker blogger (which in that tiny niche means 1k-2k readers a day) and established two related startups to monetize it, using the credibility I'd earned. And the book did OK, but less overall than I make in a good month off of my two website.
Judging by the popularity of sites like partypoker and pokerstars and ESPN's constant coverage of WSOP, I don't think poker is that niche or long tail anymore. You picked a rapidly growing market that was fast moving up the "tail".
Poker blogs are a tiny niche in the overall blogosphere. Poker itself may not be one, but blogs about it (where a very highly trafficked one might get 1.5k uniques a day) definitely reside in the long tail.