The Concept of 1,000 True Fans

In the creator economy of today, over two million small business creators make more than six figures in yearly income. This number is growing: creators who earned a living wage (greater than $69K/year) increased 41% in the last year alone.

Creators succeed with various business models, across infinite niches. Every creator knows that building a following is essential. But how many followers are truly needed?

In 2008, Kevin Kelly introduced the concept of 1,000 True Fans, which reframed what it meant to be a successful creative entrepreneur. Now, the updated version stands as a framework for helping creators realize that success is more achievable than entrepreneurs may think.

Put simply, Kevin argues that a creator only needs 1,000 people willing to provide $100 each year of profit in order to generate $100,000 of annual income.

Creators don’t need a million fans. To achieve financial stability with a creative business, it’s not necessary to win the ‘viral’ lottery or appeal to the masses.

For the millions of people whose goal it is to become a successful creator, this framework shows the value of having a hyper-engaged audience and building relationships based on trust.

In fact, writer Li Jin argues that creators really only need 100 true fans to make a living (we’ll get into that later). Not everyone agrees though. Over the years, marketers have pointed out the flaws in assuming it only takes 1,000 (or 100) people to keep a business running — with some going so far as to call it a myth.

So which is it? What model is the most realistic? We’ll explore the concept in its entirety, review potential hiccups, discuss Li Jin’s model for creators of today, and answer how to cultivate true fans in your business.

What is a True Fan? & Why Do I Need 1,000?

Not every fan or follower will become a “true fan,” and they don’t need to be.

In his essay, Kelly defines a true fan as someone who will buy anything a creator makes. These are the fans that will drive 200 miles to see a performance, buy every version of the book, and purchase new products on loyalty and trust alone.

The math is simple: $100 profit X 1,000 true fans = $100,000 income.

Of course, there are a few other factors necessary to make the framework viable:

The first point, importantly, highlights that this model doesn’t factor in expenses, which is important to consider when determining pricing and estimating profit from selling digital products.

The second point highlights the old-world model, wherein publishers and studios determined whose creative work was successful. The concept of 1,000 true fans requires creators to bypass these gatekeepers and develop personal relationships with the audience that wants their work.

Furthermore, Kelly argues that these gatekeepers — in the form of corporations, intermediaries, and commercial producers — are ill-equipped to connect with audiences across niches. This provides a huge opportunity for creators to produce content for a specific audience and cultivate diehard fans for their business.

Is 1,000 Fans a Myth?

The framework of 1,000 true fans is sound but not without its challenges. From conversion rates to customer churn, there are plenty of valid reasons why this simple concept doesn’t make for easy or guaranteed success.

Popular marketer and blogger, Mark Schaefer says that the idea is helpful for motivation but ultimately a myth. Based on his own experiences as a successful creator, he shared the numbers from his social media followers, blog subscribers, and podcast listeners.

Schaefer’s conclusions hold valuable wisdom: he discusses the importance of promotion and building momentum. But the “weak relational links” of his social media following highlight the importance of cultivating and maintaining relationships when attracting 1,000 true fans.

Instead of dismissing the idea as myth, it is important to be informed of the caveats. Within this framework of achievable success, what challenges do creative entrepreneurs need to be aware of? Let’s discuss.

Conversion Rates

Conversion rate is the number of people who complete a task, divided by the number of people that were asked to complete the task.

A conversion rate of less than 10% is normal for sales conversions, with 2-5% generally considered good.

Sales conversion rates will vary based on many factors, including user experience and industry. An audience that is not familiar with a creator’s work will convert at a much lower rate than the audience that a creator has developed trust and authority with.

Linda sends out a newsletter with a call-to-action to buy her new book. Of the 2,000 people on her list, 1,300 open the email. 700 people click on the link and view the book on her website. Of those 700 that click, 25 buy the book. Of the 1,300 people Linda was able to reach, 25 completed the task. Therefore, Linda’s sales conversion rate for this email was just under 2% (25 / 1,300 = 0.019). Based on this information, Linda has learned a couple things: It would be beneficial to increase her open rates. She might implement A/B testing on email headlines to see if there is an improvement.

The example above fails to consider the work Linda has already done to have 2,000 emails on her list that she can send a promotion.

While a creator (using this model) only needs 1,000 true fans to buy their products, they will need to attract a larger and more general audience, some of whom will become true fans.

In the context of the example above, it’s likely that Linda reached upwards of 200,000 people to acquire the 2,000 emails on her list. Generating leads for a business has a measly 1-3% conversion rate.

Additionally, this doesn’t take into account the number of times someone needs to interact with a creator’s content before converting (the average being seven times).

Profits, Revenue & Income

In his essay, Kelly highlights the amount of profit creators need to generate from each true fan. He also notes the importance of creating direct relationships with fans, so that all of the profit can be kept by the creator.

But even small online businesses have expenses.

Therefore, it is important for creators to determine their business expenses and adjust accordingly.

Furthermore, it is wise for businesses to reinvest 20-30% of profits back into the business. When creators are paying themselves, they should consider if and how much of their profit they want to save for future business expenses and unforeseen challenges.

Consider the 50-30-20 rule, which suggests that business owners pay themselves 50% of the profit, reinvest 30%, and save 20% for taxes. While this model does not work for all businesses, it provides a framework to adjust as needed.

Shakera generated $120,000 in revenue with her business last year. She pays $300 a month for her tech stack and spent $5,000 on marketing. Therefore, Shakera’s business profit from the year was $111,400. Shakera is planning on getting married the following year and wants to ensure she has plenty of time to spend on planning. Knowing she will spend less time in her business, she intentionally sets aside 30% ($33,420) of her profits for savings and reinvestment, as well as 20% ($22,280) for taxes. Therefore, Shakera pays herself $55,700 for the year.

A small business may decide it does not need to reserve 30% of profits for reinvestment or savings, but doing so provides security for unforeseen events and capital for increasing brand awareness and revenue.

Customer Churn

Within the concept of 1,000 true fans, there is no discussion of customer churn. When a customer who once interacted with or purchased from a business no longer does, this is considered churn. Customers leaving is an inevitable part of any business. Therefore, businesses need to consistently attract new customers, who may become true fans.

In other words, a creator’s marketing efforts are not done once they have acquired 1,000 true fans. The process of building and maintaining relationships is on-going. It is important to measure and increase customer retention. Understanding why customers leave has the potential to improve your bottom line and customer experience overall.

A New Model for Creators: 100 True Fans

One of the ways to get around needing 1,000 true fans is to sell digital products that cost significantly more. A course that costs $1,000 only needs 100 buyers to generate that same $100,000 of revenue.

For many creators, it doesn’t make sense to sell something that expensive. However, almost all creators have an audience that is engaged at varying levels. From the superfan to the new follower, creators of today can offer something for everyone.

Writer Li Jin recognized this and proposed a new model for creators, “100 True Fans”.

Jin states that creators of today can have a general audience who pays less while convincing a small group of true fans to pay more.

Tiraj has a significant following on social media. They market all of their offerings across channels. Tiraj has a website where they sell their artwork. Tiraj also has a Patreon page, wherein they offer perks for being a monthly patron. Patrons can pay anywhere from $5 a month to $25 a month. Finally, Tiraj offers a twice yearly course centered around expressionist painting. They sell the course for $600. Since Tiraj has something for both their supportive followers and superfans, they are able to generate income from a larger audience overall.

Jin goes on to explain that a key aspect of the 100 true fans model is the ability to offer a product that solves pain points: Users are willing to pay more for something they perceive to be highly beneficial to themselves.

Lower cost offerings allow an audience to show their support, either through tips, donations or purchases. Meanwhile, higher-cost purchases are generally motivated by self-interest.

With this model in mind, creators of today can develop tiered offerings. This allows creators to sell their work at a mass-market price, while offering valuable, often educational, content at a higher price to a more exclusive audience.

How to Cultivate True Fans in Your Business

According to Li Jin’s theory of 100 true fans, creatorpreneurs already have access to the tools they need to engage their audience. But, let’s take a step back. When starting from scratch, how can a creator begin to cultivate true fans in their business?

1. Know Your Ideal Avatar

Superfans are those who connect with and buy from a business, artist, or creator the most. Often, it is the product, their personal connection, and a sense of community that turns someone from a passive follower into a true fan.

Therefore, entrepreneurs need to understand the ideal avatar for their products and offerings. By understanding who the perfect customer is, it’s easier to position messaging and develop new ideas with those people in mind.

Tim Ferris offers poignant advice on this matter: “your goal is to define the people that absolutely LOVE what you create.” But who are those people?

Creators should conduct research, speak with their current audience, and gain clarity on who these people truly are.

It’s best to avoid relying on demographics and caricatures. Instead, seek to understand why these people find the products and offerings valuable. The better a creator understands this, the easier it will be to continue creating highly valuable products for their ideal customer.

Fitness coach, Nagina Abdullah detailed how she built a six-figure coaching business utilizing this framework. Just six months after launching her website, she was able to generate $10,000 from an email list with only 500 subscribers. Her personalized coaching packages cost around $5,000 — drastically reducing the number of true fans (only 20) required to breach $100,000. She cites her free “Breakthrough Sessions” that help people connect with her and get clear on their goals as a big part of this early success, which she has since built upon.

2. Focus Content Creation Around Superfans

Cultivate true fans by creating a content plan focused around superfan needs and wants. Knowing the audience that loves what they create, entrepreneurs can reverse engineer their content plan to attract similar audiences.

Blog writing is a great example of this: writers generally review high-volume keywords, formulate topic ideas, and create content to fulfill these findings. However, a blog writer that centers their superfans will first learn about pain points, then generates topic ideas, and do keyword research last to optimize for search engines.

Both approaches produce SEO-friendly content. However, the latter approach is likely to generate far greater conversion rates. This is because the articles themselves are designed to solve pain points for the reader, which allows the writer to build trust.

While not all content requires keyword research, this approach can be applied to topic ideation for social media, newsletters, landing pages, and more.

Musician Kinna Grannis did this naturally when she pivoted away from record labels and decided to make music directly for fans. With Patreon as her platform, Kinna created her own record label under the name KG Records. She has built a community of over 1,300 patrons who donate $5, $10, or $50 a month in exchange for various perks. This has allowed her to avoid burnout, learn music production, and release songs she’s excited to share while making a full-time income directly from her fans.

3. Become a True Fan & Build Community

Creators know that putting content out into the world is only half of the equation. Especially when on social media, building community is often best achieved by becoming a fan of what others create.

Therefore, spend time sincerely engaging with the content others produce within relevant niches and the broader community. Become mutual fans with other creators and share their work.

This creates opportunities to form genuine connections, allowing entrepreneurs to truly learn about their audience’s pain points and how to best solve them. This also allows creators to step away from analytics and appreciate each relationship being built.

Yaro Starak grew his business by helping others. Yaro is a heart surgeon who blogs about personal growth and making money online. “That alone may or may not qualify as remarkable,” Yaro admits. What does, however, is the fact that Yaro uses the money his website generates to sponsor life-saving surgeries for children from under-privileged families who cannot afford it on their own. He states that this is an act of following his heart. But doing so landed him a feature in Seth Godin’s marketing book Purple Cow. It also led to an interview in Fast Company magazine, as well as several features across newsletters and blogs. This, Yaro says, is how he was able to gain the all-important 1,000 true fans that have continued to support him.

4. Talk to Your Audience & Ask for Feedback

Another benefit of forming strong relationships with an audience is the ability to easily ask for their input or feedback. Creators are often worried about investing time into a product that fails. One way to avoid this potential trap is for creators to speak directly with their audience and ask them what offerings they are interested in and why.

Once a product has been released, creators can solicit feedback. The stronger the relationships, the more likely they are to be honest about what did and didn’t work for them. This feedback is priceless, as it allows the creator to adjust their offerings and create greater satisfaction for customers.

Not only does this level of engagement improve the entrepreneur's products, it makes users feel valued. It lets them know the creator is interested in more than just a fiscal exchange. Nothing will create a superfan faster than changing a product based on their feedback. This is exactly what Kevin Kelly meant when he said that the concept of 1,000 true fans requires direct relationships.

Sometimes those direct relationships are formed before a business is even built. With a history of working in tech, Ben Thompson writes a blog for people who want to understand its impact on society. Through unbiased analytical observations, Ben has attracted a wide range of readers, including tech executives from large tech companies, founders of the latest startups, venture capitalists, and investors. An avid follower of the 1,000 true fan formula, he offers membership to exclusive content for $12 a month or $120 a year. This has allowed him to make a living from his blog while living in Taiwan.

5. Create New Products for Existing Customers

Existing customers are the most likely to buy new products. They are also the most likely to become true fans, if they aren’t already. By creating new products for this audience, creators are able to offer value to the audience that’s already shown its willingness to buy.

The key is to find ways to add more value to their life.

When customer’s trust products to solve pain points or catalyze joy, convincing them to purchase requires very little effort. That means it’s important to ensure old products are generating the promised results, while creating new products that deliver even more value.

By continuing to create value for this audience, creators nurture the relationships that produce the most profit in their business as well. This also aligns with the 80/20 rule of business, which suggests that 80 percent of revenue will be generated by 20 percent of an audience.

Being able to continually sell new products to the best customers creates opportunities for reliably successful product launches. This segment of an audience is also the most likely to promote new products to their audience, thereby spreading the word.

Ramit Sethi is a majorly successful entrepreneur who transparently shared the revenue generated by his 1,000 true fans. The results firmly validate the importance of creating new products that your superfans will love: Ramit’s top 1,000 customers spent an average of $8,600 on his products — having generally purchased 6 of the 18 products he’s offered. Potentially more staggering, Ramit shared numbers from a previous launch and compared the number of repeat customers to new leads. From 170,000 prospects, Ramit made 619 sales. Yet from 10,000 past students, Ramit made 649 sales. This suggests that Ramit has successfully solved pain points for his superfans, creating trust and a loyal customer base.

1,000 Attainable Paths to Success

Many aspiring creators and entrepreneurs become overwhelmed by the amount of information there is to learn and the various details that require their attention along the way. The concept of 1,000 true fans was, and continues to be, a manifesto of, “you can do it; it’s possible to succeed.”

As creatures of negative bias, it’s all-too-easy to decide something is impossible. When what is truly needed is brave and consistent action toward a goal, however messy or imperfect progress may be.

This framework is meant to inspire and motivate creators (like you) to put their work out into the world and try — with the knowledge that success is far closer than they may think.

Conner Carey