Getting lost on the shelf
A friend got some feedback on a new project proposal recently. "It will have trouble standing out on a shelf that's already crowded."
The thing is, every shelf in every store and especially online is crowded. The long tail made the virtual shelves infinitely long, which means that every record, every widget, every job application, every book, every website, every non-profit... all of it... is on a crowded shelf.
And the problem with a crowded shelf is that your odds of getting found and getting picked are slim indeed, slimmer than ever before.
Which is why 'the shelf' can't be your goal. If you need to get picked from the shelf/slush pile/transom catchbasin then you've already lost.