For a while now, I've been beating the drums about concentrating on the long tail. Of course, 70 million others have done so as well. If you still haven't listened to me or any of those other folks, maybe you should stop for a minute and reconsider embracing the concept.
Matt Cutts had a blog post recently that I consider to be one of his best. If you don't feel like taking the time to read it, I'll summarize the key points here (or at least the ones that I'm concerned with for this particular post).
Find your niche. Discover something that is difficult to find on the web, and write about it. Become the authority for that small niche, and then build out to the larger niches over time.
Use word variations and long tail phrases in your title and url, as well as throughout your content.
One of the things I'm fond of saying is "It's all about the niche". I should really expand on that to be "It's all about the niche and the long tail". For those of you who already subscribe to this philosophy, good for you. For those of you who still haven't embraced it, please consider it. You will not only become energized as you discover new content that you can add to your site, but you will be surprised at the results, as the visitors start streaming in.
For anyone who still thinks it's all just hogwash, or a waste of your time, I challenge you just to try it. Let me know the results. Convince me I'm wrong. I'm willing to listen to an opposing viewpoint.