I recently read an article in the New York Times that asked the question, “Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage?” The author, Duncan Watts, states that cumulative advantage occurs “if one object happens to be slightly more popular than another at just the right point, it will tend to become more popular still.” He says that if in fact people do not make decisions independently, but are rather socially influenced, then predicting hits is impossible no matter how much you know about individual tastes.

Duncan writes, “As a result, even tiny, random fluctuations can blow up, generating potentially enormous long-run differences among even indistinguishable competitors.”

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Everyday there is a breaking news story, celebrity drama, or an amazing sports play. As an internet marketer or blogger, it is not only important to follow current events in the media, but know how to capitalize on the buzz created by the story as it relates to your internet properties.

If you own a celebrity gossip blog, you need to know each and every time Britney Spears checks into rehab or gets into a physical altercation with her mother and capitalize on the traffic.

However, it is not only the direct connections to the story that are important, but the indirect connections. Perhaps you sell flood insurance and the Mississippi river floods St. Louis. How do you capitalize on the media buzz?

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