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Even though the initial hype has died down and people are no longer tagging "e-" onto the front of everyday words, there's no question the Internet continues to impact the way we perform everyday tasks and transactions.

Thanks to the widespread availability of broadband, endless amounts of information are now readily accessible and people can communicate more quickly and easily than ever before.

We've come to take for granted this medium's ability to deliver anything and everything we want at a moment's notice. It's no longer "e-commerce"; it's just shopping. It's no longer "online banking"; it's just paying the bills.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the retail sector. User-friendly search engines such as Google and Yahoo! have made it possible for even the most novice shoppers to seek out virtually any product imaginable.

On the seller side, retailers are no longer bound by factors such as physical inventory or shelf placement. As such, they're free to carry products that cater to consumers' increasingly sophisticated demands.

More and more businesses are taking advantage of this emerging model, one which Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, has dubbed "the Long Tail."

In the offline world, popularity typically dictates which products do (or do not) earn that valuable space on store shelves. A CD has to sell a certain number of copies in order for a music store to consider it worth carrying, a film has to draw a minimum number of ticket holders in order to keep its spot on the marquee, and so on.

In a Long Tail economy, such a “race for space” does not exist.

The Long Tail dictates that products low in demand, when aggregated, make up a market share that exceeds the relatively small number of current best sellers.

The business impact of the Long Tail is big. Not convinced? Just ask firms like eBay, Amazon, and NetFlix, all of which built their success on this type of approach.

Viewed in the context of search engine marketing, the Long Tail can be thought of as a series of non-traditional search practices that tap into this new paradigm of retail behavior. The end result is a more targeted, cost-effective search advertising campaign.

From a tactical standpoint, these practices can be broken out into two categories: keywords and their associated messaging, and search engine selection.

Keywords form the backbone of any online marketing campaign and the keyword list is often the most overlooked element of search success. The traditional approach prescribes that marketers bid on the most popular keywords as indicated by traffic without regard to conversion or potential return on investment. The Long Tail approach to keywords advocates the use of "tail terms" - relatively low volume, low-cost phrases composed of two or more keywords. For example, in a search campaign where the term "sheets" may be too broad and expensive to compete effectively, tail terms such as "linen sheets" and "Egyptian cotton sheets" may yield a better performance.

Why? Because tail terms contain more information about the query, and thus are more apt to directly meet the needs of the user. When matched with highly relevant creative messaging and landing pages that provide a direct path to conversion, the result is an ad experience completely customized to the user. This equals more conversions and better brand stickiness.

Tail terms also help advertisers speak to their audience in a market void of competitive pressures. Such terms cost less than more popular keywords subject to bid inflation and though typically low in volume, their stronger conversion rates mean more value for your marketing dollar.

Just as some keywords are more popular than others, so too, are some search engines. Together, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN comprise what's more informally referred to as "The Big Three" of search, accounting for approximately 80 percent of all consumer searches.

Such market saturation is impressive, but can lead to problems when it comes to effectively marketing your products. Highly competitive verticals, such as travel and real estate, tend to become exceedingly cluttered with ads, causing click prices to go up and messaging to lose its impact.

The art of Long Tail Marketing can also be applied to search engine selection. To do so requires marketers to look beyond “The Big Three” to secondary search engines. Such engines fall into three major categories:

1. "Tier II" Engines such as FindWhat, Looksmart, and Kanoodle

2. Vertical-oriented engines such as Business.com and TravelZoo

3. Shopping engines such as Froogle and PriceGrabber

The benefits of using secondary engines are many and include:

* More volume, particularly on words too broad for “Big Three” engines.

* Lower minimum cost-per-clicks - as low as $0.01 compared to $0.10 at other engines.

* Less competition; many advertisers fail to include secondary engines in their ad spend, traditionally focusing on “The Big Three”.

* More hands-on customer service; secondary engines typically have a smaller customer base and will work harder to keep customers happy.

In the increasingly competitive world of search advertising, the race will not go to the marketer who can cough up the highest cost per click. It will go to those who have mastered the art of tapping into nascent audiences, one consumer at a time, while casting a net broad enough to lure the big sellers.

Though as a marketing concept it may be new to some, the basic premise behind the Long Tail is ages old: It's about knowing where the buying opportunity is happening and making sure your business is there.

Peter Hershberg is a managing partner at Reprise Media, a New York-based SEM firm.