Understand the concept of 1000 true fans so you can learn how to make $100,000 as an artist. Cultivate your true fans and develop a micro-patronage plan.
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This week, I’m going to share the best way for an artist to make $100,000. I’m John Paul Fischbach, the CEO and Chief Alchemist here at the Auspicious Arts Incubator. Now, it’s a concept called 1,000 True Fans. It’s been around since about 2008. It was started by a guy named Kevin Kelly, the editor of Wired Magazine. Now, if you haven’t heard of this concept, Google it, 1,000 True Fans. To make a living as an artist, any kind of artist, you need only 1,000 true fans. Now, a true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce and everything you produce. If you have roughly 1,000 of these true fans, you can make a living. It’s just a mathematical formula.
Look, if you can make a $100 per year from 1,000 true fans, you have $100,000, right? $100 times 1,000, $100,000, right? So, play with this math, because maybe you don’t want to earn $100,000, maybe you want to earn $50,000. Maybe you don’t want 1,000 true fans. Maybe you want 500 true fans. Play with the mathematical formula and set yourself a financial goal. Now that you have the financial goal, you need to meet two criteria. First, you have to actually make enough art each year that you can earn on average $100 profit from each true fan. Second, you must have a direct relationship with that fan. Now, building your list and finding your true fans is the most important thing you can do as an artist, for your business. True fans become your direct source of income, but also your chief marketing force for your ordinary fans.
Now the truth is, that cultivating 1,000 true fans is time-consuming, it’s sometimes nerve-wracking, and it’s not for everyone. The fact that very few artists sustain themselves from their true fans may be because it’s a job that few of them want to do for very long. The trick is to find those fans or, I guess, more accurately, to have them find you. So here’s three keys. Be remarkable, put it out there, and get their contact details. Then, just build a relationship with those fans. Now this concept is, kind of, developed into what’s now called micro-patronage. Now, internet sites like Kickstarter and Patreon make this possible because of the power of the web. It makes it easier to find the right passionate micro-patron, keep connected to them, serve them up some creative product, get payment from them directly, and then nurture their interest and their love.
So, Google 1,000 true fans. Start reading some articles. Begin to understand this and start getting some micro-patrons and true fans. Now, we teach you the whole thing about how to do this in a new course that we have that’s called the art of selling art online. So, get in touch with us if you want to take this further and be taught how to do this. All right, like always, if this was helpful, please share it with a fellow artist. Ciao.
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