The St. Bernard Project was started in 2006 with the goal of helping Hurricane Katrina survivors return to their homes, their communities, and their New Orleans, through the project’s volunteer-based rebuilding programs, as well as The Center for Wellness and Mental Health.

With the intent of helping rebuild the home of a family in need, the Mudbug team donned sanding blocks, spackling troughs, and drywalling accoutrements, helping to pave the way for a family to return home before 2011 to ring in the New Year with a fresh start and some fresh paint. Hopefully, the champagne cork will be diverted away from the “Wet Paint” signs.

Since it’s inception, St. Bernard Project’s Rebuilding Program has completed 333 homes in St. Bernard and Orleans Parish, with help from more than 29,000 volunteers and 2,500 donors. SBP currently has 50 homes under construction with the average rebuild effort taking volunteers 12 weeks to complete and $12,000.

Mudbug’s talents were assigned to a house in Lakeview, which was in need of some drywall. A group of us spent the day mudding (you see the irony here …. mudding Mudbugs?!), while others used their upper body strength to hang drywall in another room. I was impressed by the skill, ease, and unbridled confidence with which the St. Bernard Project project manager set me to work and provided insight on how to mud. After all, I know graphic design; I’m not inherently equipped to mud. By the end of the day, we were covered in mud and dust, and considered ourselves expert mudders/drywallers (although actual professionals may argue to the contrary.) I left the project with mud on my jeans, the ‘giving spirit’ fresh in my mind, and the satisfaction of knowing I helped another New Orleanian family. Now, as an accomplished mudder, I’m ready for Good Deed #10.

(More photos of the day’s events are available at our Flickr photostream)

The rest of the products spread out into infinity away from the spiked cluster of big-ticket items as popularity decreases, creating what we call a Long Tail. The Long Tail is really a retailing concept that abandons the traditional merchandising methods in favor of the equalizing power of the Internet.

What is really exciting about the Long Tail is the size of it.  The potential market for a product may be twice as big as it appears to be, if only we can get over the limits of the traditional marketplace.

Sounds Good

When I first heard of the Long Tail it was in reference to the music industry. Everyone’s music taste departs from the mainstream somewhere, and the more we explore alternatives, the more we’re drawn to them; hence, Napster and now iTunes and Amazon.   A hit and an obscure song are now equal, both just entries in a database retrieved on demand, both equally worthy of being carried by the store. A song is an entry in a database that anyone can do.  Popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability.

A Global Marketplace

With online distribution and media, we are living in a world of abundance and the differences between products are vast.  What matters is not where customers are, or even how many of them are seeking a particular product. What matters is that they exist somewhere in the world, and that they can find your virtual storefront.

The communities of the Web – close constituents sharing ideas, social networks, and user-generated content – direct these users to offbeat content and experiences. People can share and discover content from anywhere on the web.

Anything Can Work

StuffOnMyCat.com is an example of a business that found its obscure niche and created something for that niche to rally around.  Cat lovers!  The website is a celebration of cats and everything in the world you can put on a cat to make it look cute.  Users are able to post pictures as well as purchase products with their favorite StuffOnMyCat pictures.  A lonely cat lover decided to express the hilarity and cuteness that can come from taking pictures of your cat in various poses with different objects.  This niche has always been there but now people from around the world can gather in an online community.  There is even a social network for cats, catster.com.

The funny thing is that I am not really even into cats and I don’t have any pets.  But not only have I found these niche products online, I could easily stock up on t-shirts and tote bags from the site.

Scary Scarcity

Traditional media has limited resources, creating a world of scarcity.  Chris Anderson, a writer at Wired Magazine and maven associated to the popularization of the concept of the “Long Tail,” will tell you that “big hits” of yesteryear are created by limited resources and are based on estimates of demand.  Anderson argues in his book “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More,” that “hits” are hardwired into human psychology, the combinatorial effect of conformity and word of mouth.

Check out his blog.

With the Internet, an otherwise offbeat or obscure product can be a best seller when it is a focal point of a niche that found one another because the physical limitations of shelf space are no longer an issue.  By overcoming the limitations of geography and scale, any business can discover new markets and expand existing ones.

Embrace Niches

The companies Anderson singles out in his article and book about the Long Tail are Netflix, Amazon, eBay, and Google.  Each can offer you your quirky movie, book or vintage radio as well as the Top 40 hits in pop culture. Combine enough obscure products on the Long Tail and you’ve got a market bigger than the “hits.”

Embrace niches – with your product available to the world you can capture that piece of the Long Tail and leverage these sizable niches that are being underserved.  Keeping your ear to the ground, better yet wires, you will always know what your customer wants and be able to give it to them.

Be Available

The Internet is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere in the world.  If your website is not easily found on the Internet, how do you expect your niche to find you?  To drive traffic to your website, a straightforward optimization strategy that incorporates structural improvements, carefully crafted content, and link-building efforts, is needed.

The easiest way to increase link-building efforts is to involve your business in social media and connect with the consumers who are true evangelists – those who will spread the word about your product and help grow your business exponentially. Engage with your customers with relevant topics centered around your business.  Make your business available to your community and your niche – let the Long Tail effect grow your business organically.

All politics aside, anyone who has ever known and loved New Orleans knows how heartbreaking it was to watch hours turn into days and days into weeks as we waited for much needed help and supplies to arrive in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

We also know how unbelievably great the global response to our own natural disaster was and how much every little effort helped.

Now, as Haitians the world over do their best to help the impoverished country get through this tragedy, we can pitch in to lend a helping hand.  If you would like to donate to the relief effort, Google has a great crisis response page that can link you to a number of relief agencies.

You can also find out how to donate via text message, which a number of us here at Mudbug Media have already done.

While our hearts go out to Haitians everywhere, the Mudbug Media family also has a direct connection to the island nation.  Annick Mégie worked as a graphic designer at Mudbug Media last year after coming over from an internship with our friends at Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald.

A truly gifted designer, Annick also brought a shining personality and unfailing kindness and generosity to our team.  Annick made the tough decision in mid-December to return to Haiti to be with her family.  While we were sad to see her go, we have kept in close contact with Annick.

The most important e-mail of the week arrived yesterday letting us know that Annick and her family survived the quake and are doing well despite the conditions.

Millions more are in desperate need of our help and support right now.

Please take some time out of your day to donate to the ongoing relief effort.

Every dollar helps.