The long tail is an economic concept that says the collective demand for less-popular items can exceed all the most popular added together. Online music stores are a perfect example because they can carry large collections of music just as easily as just a small selection. The product is digital and there are no inventory issues.

Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK must give a small number of websites free traffic in order to keep their users coming back. This is known as natural or “organic” search, and it is the best deal in marketing. The problem is knowing which terms to target, and that’s where HitTail can help.

HitTail reveals in real-time the least utilized, most promising keywords hidden in the long tail of your natural search results. They present these terms as writing suggestions that, when used as the topic of new site content or blog posts, can boost the natural search results of your site.

This list of 77 ways to help you learn “faster, deeper, and better” doesn’t have anything to do directly with web design and development, but it’s good stuff, so we wanted to share it.

We’ve spent many an afternoon admiring the beautiful and fantastic work of others here and here.

Proceed with caution because these sites can be highly addictive.

Really.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

There are as many philosophies about web development as there are developers. There are few that are actually successful. “Getting Real” is one of them. The fine folks at 37signals packaged their development methodologies into a snappy book that any entrepreneur, small business owner, or even seasoned CEO should read — and embrace — to get their projects done, on time and under budget.

Here’s a link to a free version, but if you like it, do grab a paid copy for your library.