- ArtistshouseMusic -

1,000 True Fans to Make a Living

tessa — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:00:26 -0700

1,000 True Fans to Make a Living

When Seth Godin calls something the "best riff of the year," people notice. And lots have.

I'm talking about Kevin Kelly's blog post titled "1,000 True Fans," which has struck a powerful nerve online. He puts his own spin on what I and many others have been saying for years about succeeding in the arts in this modern era.

This concept of attracting what Kelly calls True Fans (a diehard subset of a larger group of Lesser Fans) is very intriguing and deserves some serious consideration. Here's an excerpt:

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

Again, this all dovetails with the indie message I've been hammering home for years. You don't have to be a household name to be successful. Thousands of musicians, authors, artists, photographers, filmmakers, bloggers and more make a nice living serving their unique slice of the population. I proudly count myself among their ranks.

These self-empowered creatives work outside the traditional structure and usually make smart use of the Internet to bypass middleman roadblocks and take their craft directly to the end user: the fan. Reach enough fans in this manner and serve them well ... and you will eventually have a solid list of True Fans -- people who will reward you often with their time, attention and money.

Read Kelly's entire blog post and the reaction to it around the Net. Then get busy building your fan base ... and serving them well!

Bob Baker, who developed and facilitates Berkleemusic's "Music Marketing 101" online course, and is well known for his "Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook," will present Indie Buzz Bootcamp, a new music career development weekend workshop to be held June 20-22 2008 in St. Louis, MO. Speakers will include CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, NYC music publicist Ariel Hyatt, Nashville singer-songwriter Nancy Moran, indie musician John Taglieri, and of course, Bob himself. There is room for only 150 paid attendees, so seating is limited. Reserve your spot now!

Artist Manager Dean Baylor Discusses What He Learned from Road Managing

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:20:26 -0700

Artist Manager Dean Baylor Discusses What He Learned from Road ManagingDean Baylor, an artist manager who specializes in Contemporary Christian artists, discusses his entry into the music career as a road manager, and what he learned about managing people and partnering with vendors from those experiences.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Overcoming Obstacles

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:21:55 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Overcoming Obstacles In this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker helps the audience identify, and learn to overcome, those obstacles that they believe stand between them and success in their creative endeavors. Aside from simple psychological methods to build confidence and help in decision-making, he provides a set of structured thought processes that you can use to organize your bright ideas and turn them into a plan for action.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – The Reasons People Create

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:23:57 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – The Reasons People CreateIn this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker walks the audience through some of the forces that motivate people to engage in creative activities, and discusses how to constructively channel these forces in ways that will help develop our career.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Marketing is Sharing

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:25:46 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Marketing is SharingIn this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker presents marketing as two-way street, a means of sharing desirable things between makers of art and consumers of art – and why if you think of marketing as "sharing," it's not as scary.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Serve Your Population

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:27:42 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Serve Your PopulationIn this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker discusses how to focus your marketing efforts on your core audience – the people who your art was made to connect with – so as to maximize your impact and sales.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Branding

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:29:33 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Branding In this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker discusses how to brand yourself so as to make your work appealing to that slice of the population who are your core audience, and why good branding sometimes mean making yourself less appealing to most people.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Building Your Mailing List

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:31:06 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – Building Your Mailing ListIn this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker discusses how to be proactive and creative about building your fan base and keeping in contact with that group of people who are most inclined to like (and buy) the art you make.

Self-Publishing Your Own Book

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:32:58 -0700

Self-Publishing Your Own BookIn this segment of a seminar called "The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker answers an audience question about how and why to self-publish your own book.

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – The 3 Steps of Marketing

Luke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:34:46 -0700

SEA Conference Lecture: The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream – The 3 Steps of MarketingIn this segment of a seminar called " The Empowered Artist: How to Promote Yourself, Make Money & Live Your Dream," presenter Bob Baker discusses the three main aspects of marketing your work: creating awareness; making connections; and asking for the sale, and what it means to actually take action on these steps.