1000 True Fans is a concept popularised by Kevin Kelly in The Technium: 1,000 True Fans. Kelly also talked about it when he visited Tim Ferriss’ podcast.
The idea is that in today’s era of global reach of the Internet, if you can find
- 1000 people who are your true fans
- something to sell for $100/year/fan
you’ll reach $100K revenue which is plenty enough for living a good life.
10/mo (with an annual discount). A newsletter or course or an access to an app you’re building could be worth that.
These three numbers (amount of fans, revenue per fan, financial goal) can all be adjusted but changing one requires changes to either one of the others.
If you need to make 100/year/fan or 1000 fans at 75/year/fan, you either need more fans or adjust your goals lower.
A True Fan is defined as someone who’s gonna buy all the things you put out there:
A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.
It sounds easier than it actually is. 1000 sounds like such a small number and it’s easy to ignore the “True Fan” definition which is what makes this so hard. I guess that’s why it has also caught on so much interest.
Regardless, it’s the most enticing approach when I think about how I’d like to work on my income in the future. I still need to figure out 1) what I could sell and 2) how to gain any fans but other than those two things, I’m good to go.
One thing that makes it interesting is that you can build towards it on a steady pace. You don’t need a viral hit (although they can help) but rather good products and maintaining a good relationship with your fans. As a community builder, I think I’m good at the second one. And you can (and should) start building that following early on, before you have something to sell. Don’t build your castle in other people’s kingdom by Chris Zukowski has good thoughts on how to do that effectively.
As quoted by Danny O’Brien, “One person in every town in Britain likes your dumb online comic. That’s enough to keep you in beers (or T-shirt sales) all year.”