In a world in which you have direct contact with your audience, and you’re not going through the intermediate of a publisher, studio, record label, but you actually have your fans that you’re getting the money directly from… If you could get a certain amount of money from them directly every year, the number that you would need to make a living is in the neighbourhood of thousands.
So a thousand true fans: if you could make $100 from each of your fans a year then that’s a hundred thousand dollars.
…
In a world of a billion – now that we are global and we have a global system – even if there’s only one in a million people who are interested in your idea, you still have a thousand potential people. You just have to find them.
Kevin Kelly – a16z podcast The Truth about 1000 True Fans + Pricing Our Attention
I’m shocked to discover that I haven’t featured Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans on DC.
Read the revised and original essays here.
And check out 1,000 True Fans? Try 100 here…
And this excellent episode of the a16z podcast.
… and you’re done.
Highly recommend.