1000 Fans for 100,000$

Photo Credits: Matthew Field

"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."
-Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly provides a simple concept where if you can create a community of 1000 true fans it is possible to make a decent living. A true fan described by Kevin Kelly would be: "someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce." With that mind and based on simple math if your 1000 fans spend $100 per year it will result in a gross $100,000 per year.

Businesses and Organizations Are All About Creating Communities.

With today's technology it is possible for you to do exactly that. We naturally subscribe and become a part of multiple communities now. Just think of how we use social media. Within Facebook we create our communities through adding friends and join sub-communities through "likes" on pages for products and services. In Twitter we pick individuals and organizations to follow.  If you read blogs then you also subscribe to their RSS or email subscription. Within our daily lives we are all constantly joining and leaving different communities.

Your Opportunities in life come from your community

As human beings we naturally flock together to communities based on hobbies, education, location, profession and etc. Whether you are active in building a community of true fans for yourself or not, you already do have one. Even if your not looking to create true fans to buy or purchase a service you provide, by being active in maintaining connections it will lead to more opportunities. 

After all, research has found that it is through casual acquaintances that most people find their jobs. Therefore the more people you are connected with, the more opportunities come your way.

Here are three tips on how to build your own community.

1) Define Your Community

Before you build a building you need the blueprints, before you build your community you need to know what your community is about. What are the characteristics of it when it comes to core values and beliefs? Who are the people that would want to belong to this type of community ? What are their backgrounds , experiences and what do they hold in common with each other ? After all, relationships are all about how people relate to one another.

2) Social Media + Blogging + Email list

Once you have defined your community you can use technology such as social media, blogging and email marketing to connect with others and grow your community. Social media is a fantastic platform that makes it easy to find like minded individuals as well as engage with them. Blogging is a fantastic platform to engage more with the world more personally for yourself and getting people to subscribe to your email list allows you the ability to reach out to them when you need to.

Creating a community is all about building relationships and those at their most basic level is accomplished through communication and creating value. All these online tools are just methods to make it easier to continue that relationship building process. 

Nurture Your Community with Value.  We gather around those that we feel we understand, relate to and can trust. Continue to provide that with your experience, expertise, and warmth you bring to them. 

3) Create events to meet people in person

Of course it is possible to create a community purely online without ever meeting them. However, we follow those that we know, like and trust and that makes meeting in person invaluable within process. Use websites such as meetup to facilitate meeting in person as well as attract more like minded individuals.


Here is an infographic by Cisco that highlights the importance of in-person meetings.

Info Graphic Source: Cisco 

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By Stevie Vu

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