My favorite Amish impersonator and all around smart person, Kevin Kelly posted this:
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.
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.
He’s absolutely right.
The rub comes in how do you get those fans? My general experience (and I’ve confirmed with my online brethren) is this:
- For every 100 people that watch your stuff, 10 will buy something from you.
- Of those 10 that will buy from you, 1 will buy a lot from you, or become a “true fan”.
That’s about 1% of your total fanbase.
So to reach Kevin’s 1000 true fan/creator ratio you need a consistent audience of 100,000/creator. Not tremendously difficult, but not exactly easy either.
And all of this doesn’t even account for advertising.
His post was touched off by the report that NIN sold 2500 $300 ultradeluxe packages for its freely available new release.
When I heard about the pricing strategy, I initially balked at the $75 package, that was until I heard there was the insanely priced $300 edition. That sort of pricing structure fits in perfectly within Predictably Irrational. The $300 package, makes the $75 one look reasonable in comparison. It gives people permission to buy the $75 package.
Anyways, exciting times. See you all in Austin.
5 Comments
March 6, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Kent: Woo hoo! Look forward to seeing you here too. Safe travels.
March 6, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Interesting and I believe, accurate. Hey, I bought your book on Amazon today with my “one click” setting… and I did not even realize I have to wait until August 5th!
Maybe you guys should introduce a special hardbound edition for $75…..
March 7, 2008 at 2:47 am
If there was a Ask a Ninja limited edition computer case - autographed with hand silked screened graphics, like what Zalman did for gamer FATAL1TY - I’d buy it. Circuit sells those FATAL1TY computer cases for $300+
So with a $300 Ask a Ninja computer case, a $75 box set of Ninja DVDs would look “reasonable”.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2v2mge
March 7, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Care to talk more about “Predictably Irrational”? It reminds me (and probably for good reason) of a book a friend of mine was talking about the other day by an economist, the name of which is escaping me.
March 10, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I’ve pretty much figured the same thing ever since seeing a video on Youtube… actually, let me go find it… Eye To Eye: Cam’ron (CBS News) He says he has “a fanbase of 500,000 people” that will buy his CD when it’s released. I don’t know if that number is accurate, but the point he made was clear. It’s all about the fans.
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