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Yup, my web logs also bear this out for retail comics at
http://www.nostalgiazone.com/ 100 to one referrals. About two years ago it was
2 to one. But MS search has dropped even farther!

Back issue comic store and
a couple others do the "Long tail" of the online retail business in comics. Most online
comic stores have a teeny back issue stock, there are only 3 that I know (including
nostalgiazone.com) that have a substantial stock online. We rarely sell more than
a couple of the same back issue in a month, a huge inventory of everything ever
published is needed to survive.

- Micropayments do not
work and we stay away from Ebay and especially PayPal, too much fraud, hassle,
  and too big a cut. Credit cards are the currency of people that do survive and
continue in the business, they take a big enough cut as it is. Micropayments are the
"perpetual motion machine", some sort of faith based economics that no one will do.
Who is going to fill out a whole bunch of bank information to look at a three cent
web comic, then find it sucks. It is an invite to fraud with the customer on the
hook, not the bank. Phishing with a capital PH.

- Google ads are almost worthless. We do a couple for fun, but not profit. Yahoo ads we
do not even bother with.

- A good back issue comic search what we use for people to buy the comics, if
they can't find it in your inventory, you can't sell the item.

- And we sell 'em cheap, piles of comics for a buck or less each.

Nostalgia Zone Comic Store is the "LONG TAIL"
in operation. All back issues in the online store. Some other
comic stores do the "long tail" back issue market, but there are only 3 that do it well.

Over the years the actual information imparted by Jakob Nielsen's articles is dropping.

Now it is a bunch of links to pay $$hundreds for articles with
"136 usability deally-bobs" and only one point of information or opinion like,
"call RSS a newsfeed". This I find increasingly annoying, like the NYTimes website
article links to unrelated commercial crap in the news stories.

But I still read his articles and use the ever smaller bits of information to improve
my sites like Nostalgia Zone comics. Notice how
annoying the commercial plug is? And how inane my comment is on only one teeny point?
How much longer can I blather on about the smaller and smaller usefulness of Jakob's alert boxes...

8991 "http:www.google.com
1986 "http:www.nostalgiazone.com
1329 "-"
913 "http:www.google.ca
847 "http:search.yahoo.com
813 "http:www.google.co.uk
301 "http:www.google.com.au
221 "http:www.google.de
186 "http:www.google.es
163 "http:www.google.fr
137 "http:www.google.it
112 "http:www.ask.com
110 "http:www.google.com.mx
97 "http:www.google.pl
92 "http:www.google.com.br
86 "http:www.google.nl
83 "http:search.msn.com

The web logs of Nostalgiazone Comics
show references from MSN Search have dropped spectacularily this year. Last year
they were 3rd or 4th in references, this year 15th, after google.ca, aol, google.uk, google.au, ask jeeves, google.de, ... We get 1000 to 2000 search references per day.

Well maybe something else changed at MSN and we just do not make their search criteria for comic books. Who knows? But I think that the world dropped MSN search and the dinosaur that is Bill Gates just figured that out and is reacting. Too late, he is already dead, just don't know it yet.

http://www.nostalgiazone.com/doc/zine/05_Q2/pixie. html Comics!

Read the Nostalgia Zine About Comics

An analysis of circulation figures, the state of mind of collectors and the Defacing of Comic Cover Art. Written by people with decades of experience in the business.