The Truth about 1000 True Fans + Pricing Our Attention

Key takeaways

The concept of '1,000 true fans' argues that having a dedicated base of true supporters is key to a creator's financial success.
Reversing the attention economy could empower consumers by allowing them to monetize their attention rather than giving it away for free.
Connecting fans with creators through new monetization strategies enhances engagement and can help build larger audiences.
Innovative business models, like paying readers to engage with content, are being proposed to optimize the relationship between creators and their audiences.

Summary

Understanding the Concept of '1,000 True Fans'

Sonal Chokshi and Kevin Kelly dive deep into the idea of '1,000 true fans,' a concept introduced by Kelly in 2008. They discuss how a creator doesn’t need millions of followers to succeed but rather just a core group of dedicated fans who are willing to support their work financially. For example, if a creator can obtain $100 from each fan annually, accumulating 1,000 fans results in $100,000 in income. The discussion emphasizes the importance of cultivating direct relationships with fans and utilizing the internet to reach niche audiences effectively.

Reversing the Attention Economy

Kelly presents a thought-provoking idea about the attention economy, suggesting a shift where instead of companies paying for consumers' attention, consumers should be compensated for it. He illustrates this by proposing that companies could pay individuals to view ads or emails, which would radically alter the current model where attention is seen as something to sell rather than something to be valued. This section examines how such a shift could integrate with emerging technologies like blockchain, supporting the emergence of decentralized advertising models that favor consumers and incentivize creators.

Connecting True Fans With Attention Monetization

The discussion connects the dots between '1,000 true fans' and the emerging concept of monetizing attention. Kelly and Chokshi consider how a creator economy that encourages direct transactions between creators and fans can evolve. The ability for true fans to market for the creator effectively expands the audience, allowing for a more sustainable and engaged community. This ties back to leveraging technology to create fairer and more efficient models for compensation, leading to the empowerment of both creators and their supporters.

Practical Examples of the New Economy

Towards the end of the conversation, Kelly shares a novel business model idea where creators could pay people to read their books, incentivizing completion and engagement. This illustrates a more flexible approach to content consumption, enabling creators to monetize their ideas directly. The discussion reinforces the potential of technology to revise traditional models of content creation and consumption, advocating for a future where both creators and audiences are rewarded fairly.

Show notes

The idea of "1000 true fans" -- first proposed by Kevin Kelly in 2008 and later updated for Tools of Titans -- argued that to be a successful creator, you don’t need millions of customers or clients, but need only thousands of true fans. Such a true, diehard fan "will buy anything you produce", and as such, creators can make a living from them as long as they: (1) create enough each year to earn profit from each fan, plus it's easier and better to give existing fans more; (2) have a direct relationship with those fans, which the internet (and long tail) now make possible.

But patronage models have been around forever; what's new there? How has the web evolved; and how are media, and audiences/voices finding and subscribing to each other changing as a result? If the 1000-true-fans concept is also more broadly "useful to anyone making things, or making things happen" -- then what nuances do people often miss about it? For instance: That there are also regular fans in the next concentric circle around true fans, and that the most obscure node is only one click away from the most popular node.

Finally -- when you combine this big idea with another idea Kelly proposed in his most recent book The Inevitable (covered previously on this episode) on inverting attention economies so audiences monetize their attention vs. the other way around, how do we connect the dots between them and some novel thought experiments? In this hallway-style episode of the a16z Podcast, which Sonal Chokshi recorded with Kevin in our pop-up podcast booth at our most recent a16z Summit, we discuss all this and more. Because on average, we all currently surrender our attention (whether to TV, books, or whatever) for about $3 an hour. Whoa?!

image: whatleydude/Flickr

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