Fredreka Schouten of USA Today helps affirm the importance of the Long Tail strategy in today's article, "Small donors can be big deal for candidates."

Democrat John Edwards and Republican Fred Thompson are political opposites, but their presidential campaigns share at least one trait: About $1 out of every $3 they have each raised for the primaries came from donors who contributed in small amounts.

Among the top fundraisers, Edwards and Thompson have raised the biggest share of money from donors who gave $200 or less, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.

Lesser-known candidates — such as Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Dennis Kucinich — have relied even more heavily on these small donations to fuel their campaigns. For example, Paul has raised about $4.1 million in small contributions, about $1 million more than Rudy Giuliani, who leads national polls for the Republican nomination.

Overall, 21% of the money raised by the presidential candidates came from small donors, according to the center's analysis. That's up from 18% to presidential candidates four years earlier.

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