Seth Godin’s blog post this morning introduced me to Kevin Kelly and his post about 1,000 true fans: . It’s provocative reading for indie artists of all varieties, but then follow this link to musician Robert Rich’s thoughtful expansions on the reality of depending upon 1000 true fans:
Every artist needs to be prepared to work consistently at connecting with the people who will truly “get” his/her work… people who will be enthusiastic enough to not only support it with purchases, but also to recommend it to others. The central thesis presented in the links above is that a core base of 1000 true fans may well be sufficient to generate an ongoing income stream sufficient for you to maintain a minimal lifestyle creating art.
What interests me more than the proposition that 1000 core fans might equal financial stability, is the question of how exactly do each of us go about reaching that first 1000 people for whom our work is meaningful enough that they’ll recommend us to others?
At a minimum, we’ll need:
1. A website with compelling content—much of which is free to sample, and
2. Some kind of ongoing marketing campaign (including coattail marketing, blogging, personal appearances/performances, & media exposure) to bring people to our websites (along with any other points of purchase).
What’s missing for most of us are an abundance of reasonable (or maybe not so reasonable) first, second and third steps toward building that viable, on-going marketing effort that not only attracts our first 1000 true fans, but also allows us to keep doing “our work.”
Here’s my short list—good just for this morning:
1. Local is global; global is local. Start wherever you happen to be. That article you got in the local paper is most likely also up on the internet, so there’s no calculating where it will go or who will eventually see it.
2. Build on top of whatever exposure or success you manage to get. Any media exposure you’ve gotten will only add credibility with the new venues you approach. If someone purchases your work, write that person a thank you note and ask for suggestions and referrals.
3. Try just about anything. There’s no hard and fast formula for successful marketing. There’s only what works, so it’s better to experiment and discover what works for you. Then do more of that.
4. Don’t let your beliefs about marketing keep you from seeing what’s happening. Study the results; resist any temptation to rationalize them away with beliefs. If you don’t know why something is happening, don’t know. Keep asking questions until a new working hypothesis occurs to you to test.
5. Quit if you can. And instead find something that you can’t. (For more, see yesterday’s post on Jon Bon Jovi.)