Instead of dreaming about having millions of fans, nurture one thousand ‘true fans’. That’s the advice for creative individuals from guru Kevin Kelly.
He writes:
“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”
True fans are the people who will buy whatever you produce or drive out of their way to see you perform.It’s a feasible target and these people become the core of your customer base. You can then build up from there in partnership with a publisher, distributor or agent.
The article has lots of examples of creative people using cool business methods to build a customer base and generate income streams at the same time.
The full article is online at Kevin Kelly’s Technium website/blog.