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1k True Fans (2008)

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Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#131

Post by pattern_shift »

scarface74 wrote: post #124
pattern_shift wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't say any of that, in fact I referred to Dan Luu here so that people would get the shorthand (Luu family has written that DS&A coding and whiteboard interviews are not predictive). The only reason you're picking this apart is that you're confusing necessary and sufficient conditions as well as confusing sufficing and optimizing. Either way you're not responding to the substantive point: that if you're optimizing for an expectation of regular high income rather than creative freedom, employment (being dependent on one entity) is the path. But if you want creative freedom, a large number of people that like your work a little is better than being beholden to ten business or 1000 devoted big spender fans.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#132

Post by codazoda »

bookofjoe wrote: post #130

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.

I’ve never been a consisted blogger (i.e. weekly) and I haven’t setup a way to collect donations, but I get a lot of nice emails. Some of them even say I saved the user hundreds or thousands of dollars with my technical instructions.

Yeah, it’s hard to find your fans. But, it’s also on us to do so in some organized way. They aren’t going to donate if I don’t have a donate button.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#133

Post by pattern_shift »

astrange wrote: post #109
pattern_shift wrote: post #70

This essay has it all around backwards. 1k true fans is a recipe for destroying your own creative life and devoting most of your time to sales funnel building, fomo emails and clickbait offers and bribes for mailing list signups, running ads, etc. The true fan who spends $100/year wants you to be their therapist and to belong to your tribe, will stalk you, will send you unsolicited emails offering advice, etc. Don't…

Judging from how much people spend on streamers/entertainers/gambling I think you can get a lot more than $100/yr out of people before they think they own you. That’s the price of getting one YouTube superchat read in a popular channel, though the way it’s publicly visible changes things. It does mean you tend to produce content that gets you the superchats rather than what you want to do. And that’s probably not wri…

Yes, it produces content that baits your audience into keeping you top of mind and showing up to hang out with you when the email comes through, feeling FOMO if they don't join the hype train, etc. (a large share of which just goes to twitch). And yes, it follows the old 'get them drunk then put pressure on them to part them with their money' gambling and adult entertainment venue path. Is that a fulfilling creative life? Compared to consistently making the highest quality things you want to make that some small percent of the population likes, then earning passive income through royalties on it indefinitely?

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#134

Post by grecy »

RHSman2 wrote: post #106
grecy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I gave up a Software Engineering career to become a content creator (Instagram/Blog/YouTube/magazine articles/photography/speaking/books), so I can offer my first hand experience. What you say is, more or less, on the money. I would absolutely be earning more cash if I stuck at my software…

Whatisyourchannel? I like your manifesto

The Road Chose Me

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#135

Post by grecy »

jannw wrote: post #104

I wrote a phd, in part, on this (actually on crowdfunding for creatives, but this essay bookended the thesis). Writing in 2008 KK essentially predicted D2F crowdfunding built on e-mailing lists and facebook. He gets a lot right, and it stands up well - but, make no mistake, he describes a full-time job, and the "admin" involved is more than 50% of the effort. It's not for everyone, but it can work, and does for many.…

I’d love to read it, but none of the login options apply to me. Am I out of luck?

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#137

Post by bookofjoe »

codazoda wrote: post #132
bookofjoe wrote: post #130

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.

I’ve never been a consisted blogger (i.e. weekly) and I haven’t setup a way to collect donations, but I get a lot of nice emails. Some of them even say I saved the user hundreds or thousands of dollars with my technical instructions. Yeah, it’s hard to find your fans. But, it’s also on us to do so in some organized way. They aren’t going to donate if I don’t have a donate button.

Boy, you lasered right in on the crux of it: Long ago, back in August of 2004 when I started my blog, the guy who set it up for me asked if I wanted him to include a DONATE button. I said no way because it seemed — and still does — to me to be akin to begging, like people do who really need help.

Now, if I could've had a sort of line graph that said "Help me make my first million" where the endpoint was $1m and each little amount — even a penny — added would show up a là Million Dollar Homepage [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage], I'd have mos def done that.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#138

Post by coldtea »

dceddia wrote: post #85
coldtea wrote: post #11

This idea reminds me of something I've read on some old blog post about enterpreneurship. So, the guys starting the company were excited, because they said "We know the odds are small, but we don't need much, if just 1 in 1000 buys our product we're rich, as that's like 350K people in the US. And how difficult would be to get 1 in 1000 to buy our stuff with a little marketing? It's a great product anyway! Heck, if ju…

The blog post might’ve been this one from Derek Sivers: https://sive.rs/1pct

Yeah, that would be exactly it! It changed into my memory into a product-related (as opposed to CD-related) blog post, but I recognized it immediately (and used to read Derek's blog back in the day)

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#139

Post by ttjjtt »

boredemployee wrote: post #4
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…

Yep. To get one real fan, other than your mom and your girlfriend is super hard. I worked as a professional music producer and dj for 10 years in a good niche, paid my bills and raised my kid for that long, and while many other djs and producers played my music productions/compositions and threated me as one of the best in my country, my career never took off. Today I do it as a hobby in my free time and no one reall…

can you see yourself making and releasing music again at some point?

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#140

Post by gnicholas »

scarface74 wrote: post #123
gnicholas wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

The point is that an employee only gets paid as long as he clocks in. Once he turns in his badge, the paychecks cease. You have a self-sufficient way to remain employed (and in a high-paying field — this is great!), but that is not the same thing as generating passive income, which is what SaaS businesses aim to do.

One is not always better than the other, since it is harder to build a business than to just remain employed. But given the choice, most people would choose ongoing passive income to ongoing active employment.

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