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1k True Fans (2008)

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Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#121

Post by jmathai »

rafram wrote: post #15
jmathai wrote: post #2

The 1k true fans approach is the most suitable one for most people looking to build a business or income stream. It lets you hyper focus on a niche that may not be well served by more general purpose solutions. But don’t let the 1k number fool you. Getting even 1 true fan is incredibly difficult. But the idea is that if you can get 1, you can find your 2nd, then 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th, 128th, 256th, 512th and fin…

Nitpick: On Elodie’s homepage, “No Propietary Database” should be “No Proprietary Database”.

Fixed. Thanks.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#122

Post by scarface74 »

merek wrote: post #59
brookst wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your vision and commitment, but when I read your comment I think “that’s 10 businesses that will want support and upgrades forever, who will call you in the middle of the night, who will expect the world of you because they depend on you”. It’s a great model and I applaud it, but I would much rather have 1000 (preferably 5000!) consumers paying me $100/ea/year than have 10 businesses paying me $100k/ea/year.

It depends. There can be several benefits of selling to businesses (based on experience): - You may only need to be responsive to customers during business hours. Of course this changes when you sell globally. - User-facing upgrades (new features) are not necessarily expected. They might be perfectly content with the product as is, barring a few (hopefully low-priority) tweaks/bug fixes here and there. - If businesse…

On the other hand, I would never become dependent on a solo developer or a small business for a critical part of my business.

I’ve been on both sides of the issue. I worked for a struggling startup that got one large customer who was 80% of our revenue. They insisted on the code being put in escrow and released to them under certain conditions.

When the company was sold for scraps, they exercised that clause and hired me as a contractor to help them transition.

On the other side, I was the dev lead at a company who was looking at using the software of a solo developer as a critical component to our business. I suggested the same clauses be a stipulation to us signing the contract. We were going to be 80% of his business.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#123

Post by scarface74 »

gnicholas wrote: post #93
omginternets wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re assuming a well-functioning SaaS business, which is decidedly harder to come by than a decent job.

Oh sure, building a SaaS business that generates $100k is harder than getting a job that pays $100k. The key question is: what is the difference in difficulty, and does it justify the incremental benefit of generating a self-sufficient income stream, rather than a one-time payment?

How difficult do you think it is for any developer to get a $100K job in any major city in the US?

My “self sufficient income stream” comes from always being employable and having a strong network.

Back in 2012, the company I worked for was struggling. Guess how much sleep I lost? I saved money and when layoffs happened, I called some recruiters and literally had another offer in less than a week.

That’s close to my experience since 1996 across 8 jobs. Admittedly until the current one, most of them were uninspiring CRUD jobs at companies no one ever heard of

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#124

Post by scarface74 »

pattern_shift wrote: post #77
grepLeigh wrote: post #16

1,000 true fans is an essay about a thousand die-hard fans paying a content creator $100/year, which comes out to 100k before taxes and expenses. I'd argue that if you're smart enough to be reading this website, you're smart enough to create and sell a piece of software to 10 businesses. If you can add 2% of revenue/quarter or save 5-10% of an expense, you can name your price (as long as it's below the amount of reve…

Or better yet, one employer. Go follow Dan Luu's advice and educate/train/practice yourself into the top 10% of software developers, then get a FAANG job. That's the surest path to financial security and a safe, comfy upper middle class lifestyle. But if you don't want to go just be an employee and beholden to one employer, then keep that line of reasoning going and you'll see that 1,000,000 casual listeners > 100,00…

Did I just fall into r/cscareerquestions?

“Grind Leetcode and work for a FAANG”?

You don’t have to be in the top 10% of developers to get hired. You just have to be willing and able to pass DS&A interview. The two skill sets are miles apart.

Before the gatekeeping starts. Yes I work for “a FAANG”. Yes I am (was?) a software developer. No I did not do a single coding interview to get here yet I code everyday.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#125

Post by bookofjoe »

actionablefiber wrote: post #21
ugjka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read their definition of a true fan they sound like borderline insane >A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come t…

Yeah, seems like maybe they will also show up at your house unannounced and uninvited!

This happened to me 10-15 years ago: a fan of my blog stopped by — luckily I wasn't home — and put a gift in my mailbox. Creeped me out BIG-TIME.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#126

Post by scarface74 »

gumboza wrote: post #27
grepLeigh wrote: post #16

1,000 true fans is an essay about a thousand die-hard fans paying a content creator $100/year, which comes out to 100k before taxes and expenses. I'd argue that if you're smart enough to be reading this website, you're smart enough to create and sell a piece of software to 10 businesses. If you can add 2% of revenue/quarter or save 5-10% of an expense, you can name your price (as long as it's below the amount of reve…

Meh. If you're smart enough to read this web site you should find someone else to leverage some equity out of and a good salary and ride it to IPO then retire and do something else.

Yes because if you’re so smart , you should be able to pick the one out of 10 startups that don’t outright fail - something that VCs can’t do - and then join the company early enough to get decent equity (where you statistically have even less of a chance of choosing the right horse) and then choose the company out of the ones that don’t outright fail that have an outsized exit event.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#127

Post by bookofjoe »

conviencefee999 wrote: post #42
essayist wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kelly writes: The truth is that cultivating a thousand true fans is time consuming, sometimes nerve racking, and not for everyone. Done well (and why not do it well?) it can become another full-time job. At best it will be a consuming and challenging part-time task that requires ongoing skills. I'd add now, mostly from unsuccessful experience, what does it take the first fan, and then the next one, and the one after…

The same thing happens in writing. Hundreds of creators creating content for these platforms, want to know the average rating is Five Stars. Want to know the average viewership? ~100, to even get to the stage of generating money you need to create several hundred chapters, and essentially beat the system to even make a hundred dollars. For most of them, they will quit writing after their first series doesn't pick up…

Currently reading "Novelist as a Vocation" (2022; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/547926/novelist-as-...) by Haruki Murakami. He addresses this topic in his inimitable way.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#128

Post by bookofjoe »

grepLeigh wrote: post #16

1,000 true fans is an essay about a thousand die-hard fans paying a content creator $100/year, which comes out to 100k before taxes and expenses. I'd argue that if you're smart enough to be reading this website, you're smart enough to create and sell a piece of software to 10 businesses. If you can add 2% of revenue/quarter or save 5-10% of an expense, you can name your price (as long as it's below the amount of reve…

>I'd argue that if you're smart enough to be reading this website, you're smart enough to create and sell a piece of software to 10 businesses.

Erm, what if you've tried many times to learn basic coding — and failed — like me?

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#129

Post by bookofjoe »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #69
unity1001 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IPO then retire and do something else. Yeah, do what, exactly... Dawdle around dabbling in random stuff, only to eventually get bored and return to tech for making an impact on something and changing the world...

Friends, family, books, movies, games, food, travel, hobbies, more hobbies, coding stuff that's fun instead of merely profitable... Most people only work so they can support those things in their off hours. There's a thousand things I could occupy a happy lifetime with if I didn't have to work.

"Work is what you're doing when you'd rather be doing something else."

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#130

Post by bookofjoe »

Just finished reading every comment on this. Full disclosure: After 18+ years publishing a daily blog I currently have one (1) paying fan. Every month via Ko-fi/Stripe he sends me $2, of which $1.64 is deposited into my bank account. And I'm fine with that.
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