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1k True Fans (2008)

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Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#71

Post by atleta »

And in 2022 you know that it doesn't work because you don't see any examples. Despite quite a few people trying to make a living from their fan base on various social media platforms. (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) While if it did work, we should see a lot of these. But instead of the 1000 fans they need tens or hundreds of thousands usually. And even those don't pay.

Maybe it works on OnlyFans as someone mentioned. But that's a special market for a very a specific type of product/producers...

Oh, and we also have patreon to support fans paying the creators. But it doesn't look like the $100/patron/year model is a thing there. Or that too many people make $100k/year at all. https://graphtreon.com/patreon-creators

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#72

Post by jmathai »

paulpauper wrote: post #35
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…

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 finally your 1k. Things don't always scale like that. It's called the logistic curve. At some it becomes harder to keep growing at the same rate as before.

But don’t let the 1k number fool you. Getting even 1 true fan is incredibly difficult.

That’s what is great about 1k. The degree to which you need to scale is reasonable if you find a large enough niche - and they number of niches where scaling your 1k true fans is large.

Doesn’t make it easy, but doubling the number of people who love what you create is tractable.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#74

Post by barry-cotter »

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…

Are you rich or at least gainfully self employed?

There’s at least one person who recently put in much more effort than you recommend into making money on the internet who has failed miserably. See original discussion below.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34103896

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#75

Post by Sprite_tm »

Am I the only one who thinks the 'true fan' definition is a bit... icky? If I have a person who buys everything I offer, regardless of if it's a duplicate of something I already offered earlier, regardless of quality, that person sounds like they put me on way too much of a pedestal. I'd rather have fans that go 'nah, this ain't worth it, I ain't buying' when I send out something that's dog shit. The 'true fan' definition on offer sounds a bit too stalker-y to me.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#76

Post by justhw »

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…

What genre if you don't mind? I'm curious if we can hear your mix.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#77

Post by pattern_shift »

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 > 100,000 sh*t fans > 10,000 mediocre fans > 1,000 true fans > 100 scary stalker fans > 10 b2b customers > 1 employer/patron.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#78

Post by sboomer »

Sprite_tm wrote: post #75

Am I the only one who thinks the 'true fan' definition is a bit... icky? If I have a person who buys everything I offer, regardless of if it's a duplicate of something I already offered earlier, regardless of quality, that person sounds like they put me on way too much of a pedestal. I'd rather have fans that go 'nah, this ain't worth it, I ain't buying' when I send out something that's dog shit. The 'true fan' defin…

It can bring with it the anxiety of living up to their expectations. This is present for big celebs too, but in this case the pressure is amplified because you are kind of close to these 1000 or so guys, and they pay you.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#79

Post by csa »

amelius wrote: post #28

This can't work, otherwise people would make actual money from publishing e.g. technical books, which we know is not really profitable.

I’m not sure if this falls under your definition of “technical books”, but Michael Hartl’s Rails Tutorial is an incredible example of a 1000 fans-esque type of (light) technical book.

That was started in 2010, and for a long time the online version was free (he made money from videos, pdfs, etc. He has since expanded his library. He has many fans, and makes quite a bit of money from his projects.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#80

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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