In my last post, I wrote that one of the key services internet publishers have to develop over time in order to stay relevant is “access to eyeballs” (i.e., internet distribution). I’ve come across a couple of articles that discuss the issue of internet distribution, but in the context of blogs. An article from New York Magazine titled Blogs to Riches discusses the dividing line between the haves and have nots in the blogging community. Clay Shirky wrote a great article called Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality where he draws several interesting conclusions. From Clay’s article:

Though there are more new bloggers and more new readers every day, most of the new readers are adding to the traffic of the top few blogs, while most new blogs are getting below average traffic, a gap that will grow as the weblog world does. It’s not impossible to launch a good new blog and become widely read, but it’s harder than it was last year, and it will be harder still next year.

The same issues apply to authors of technical content. It will become harder and harder for new entrants in the internet publishing industry to make it as the popular publishers secure the internet eyeshare. Tim O’Reilly provides his perspective on both articles and refers to an essay he wrote back in 1995 called Publishing Models for Internet Commerce (more on this in a future post). A couple excerpts from his essay caught my eye:

Everyone’s initial thought is that the net does away with the need for a distribution layer….You may get some visits from passers-by, and because distance is no object, you can easily invite in your existing customers, but the rest of the world may never know you exist. Companies try to get “word of mouth” by creating more and more innovative or controversial come-ons, but that will only go so far. As the market matures, you’ll see a topography emerge in which certain sites stabilize as the focus or starting point for a certain type of user.

Obviously, Tim’s prediction was right on. As the number of sites on the internet increase and the amount of content grows, it becomes more difficult to find stuff and for content providers to differentiate themselves. While the internet makes it easy to publish content, unless you have access to eyeballs, you won’t have the reach you want or subsequently the revenue to stay in business.

I stumble upon new sites on a daily basis that have interesting content to offer. How would I have found these sites unless I just happened to follow the sequence of links that led me to them? With traditional publishing, the game was so much easier. Want to find the universe of information on a particular topic? Just go to the local bookstore or library. In the physical world, distribution is all about talking booksellers into stocking your books. Now it is about getting content indexed in search engines, establishing partnerships with other websites, and getting noticed in the blogosphere. Unlike what everyone hoped in the early days of the internet, having good content is not nearly enough to survive.