I think $BTC is getting stable above 70k and I believe that it's a good thing for Altcoin. If BTC remains stable then Altcoin will start to pump one by one. There can also be another scenario: the breaking of the ATH of BTC. Which one you are expecting?
#btc #market #update #guress #crypto
ohhhh yeah :D for sure. I am on my 7th or maybe 8th of the day.. not sure. But just wrote the blog about the coffee shop (on peakd) now it is time to copy and paste and publish with inleo instead (shiu, it's a secret LOL)
Which communities of Hive you know that are not very known among other users? 🤔 I just saw the community Road Trips exits, never saw it before, so Which communities you know?
It would be awesome if you make a thread talking about each of them and use the tag #knowyourcommunities
My community! Worldbuilding! It's for writers, and at least right now, primarily is full of cool writing prompts that @alonicus and I make. We get the odd short story too (thanks mostly to @alonicus and @killerwot and @wakeupkitty)
Oh! can it be used for like roleplaying? I have a whole forum to rol with a friend of mine, we two have like 50 characters each lol.
I've seen some fantasy writer that would love this community, I'm seeing the rules. Would you like it to be part of July's monthly prompts? it would depend on how open the community is to people that might mess up the instructions lol, we have a hard time with people following the prompts according to the community rules sometimes 😅 but we'll get there.
Our "rules" are more like "suggestions" at the best of times, so absolutely feel free to jump in! And sure - what would joining the July prompts mean on my side?
Just 2 prompts that I can add to the calendar. And once the calendar is out you can create a post too announcing those 2 dates. People have to share the links on the respective days on the thread leogrowth publishes, that's it
I imagine it like building a world on the post and then the comments are the role-play. Or even using the threads section of the community to play fantasy stories... (I used to do role-play on facebook lol...)
Yeah! it is really funny, to write a story live with the other users.
On threads @magnacarta has "The GHAWG Diaries" which is a very different version, individual, but kinda on the same idea of creating a story step by step.
It can be done by everyone just adding to the story or everyone having a character haha. As an event (even on a threadcast) this can be soooo fun! haha.
You know which kind of users could be a target for this? anime fans. pretty sure 80% have role-played
haha absolutely! We used to do events in the r/worldbuilding discord now and then were there was a general 'banquet' style scene, and any user could pull in a character from a story/world/setting they've built and RP as them in it. I'm no longer part of that team/community, but it was fun!
On June 6, 1933, eager motorists park their automobiles on the grounds of Camden Drive-In, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
I actually went to a drive in theater here I Florida with the last 8 years or so I think Tampa. Gotta ask my wife. Video Arcade actually not too long ago here in Orlando. Of course never what you or I experienced I’m sure @taskmaster4450le
We broke some traffic laws during the day and the police almost reprimanded us, lol! And the radio was off. The father-in-law had great conversation with my puppy 😅
Beware of fake work-from-home jobs, it’s a ploy to steal your crypto
The FBI is warning job seekers not to fall for the too-good-to-be-true “work-from-home” job scams.
Sus cuatro abridores están lanzando para efectividad menor a 3.00 carreras por cada nueve innings lanzados, encabezando de modo espectacular el pitcheo colectivo de todas las Grandes Ligas, por lo que mantienen a los Filis...
Pero no solo ha sido el pitcheo colectivo. La ofensiva se ha mantenido bateando tal como lo hicieron el año pasado y consolidan al equipo para jugar la postemporada, sin tener que jugar la ronda de comodines..!
The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.
But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist’s works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.
Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?
One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:
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.
To raise your sales out of the flatline of the long tail you need to connect with your True Fans directly. Another way to state this is, you need to convert a thousand Lesser Fans into a thousand True Fans.
Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.
One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.
The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.
The technologies of connection and small-time manufacturing make this circle possible. Blogs and RSS feeds trickle out news, and upcoming appearances or new works. Web sites host galleries of your past work, archives of biographical information, and catalogs of paraphernalia. Diskmakers, Blurb, rapid prototyping shops, Myspace, Facebook, and the entire digital domain all conspire to make duplication and dissemination in small quantities fast, cheap and easy. You don’t need a million fans to justify producing something new. A mere one thousand is sufficient.
This small circle of diehard fans, which can provide you with a living, is surrounded by concentric circles of Lesser Fans. These folks will not purchase everything you do, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce. The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans. As you acquire new True Fans, you can also add many more Lesser Fans. If you keep going, you may indeed end up with millions of fans and reach a hit. I don’t know of any creator who is not interested in having a million fans.
But the point of this strategy is to say that you don’t need a hit to survive. You don’t need to aim for the short head of best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. There is a place in the middle, that is not very far away from the tail, where you can at least make a living. That mid-way haven is called 1,000 True Fans. It is an alternate destination for an artist to aim for.
Young artists starting out in this digitally mediated world have another path other than stardom, a path made possible by the very technology that creates the long tail. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, they can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It’s a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.
A few caveats. This formula – one thousand direct True Fans — is crafted for one person, the solo artist. What happens in a duet, or quartet, or movie crew? Obviously, you’ll need more fans. But the additional fans you’ll need are in direct geometric proportion to the increase of your creative group. In other words, if you increase your group size by 33%, you need add only 33% more fans. This linear growth is in contrast to the exponential growth by which many things in the digital domain inflate. I would not be surprised to find that the value of your True Fans network follows the standard network effects rule, and increases as the square of the number of Fans. As your True Fans connect with each other, they will more readily increase their average spending on your works. So while increasing the numbers of artists involved in creation increases the number of True Fans needed, the increase does not explode, but rises gently and in proportion.
A more important caution: Not every artist is cut out, or willing, to be a nurturer of fans. Many musicians just want to play music, or photographers just want to shoot, or painters paint, and they temperamentally don’t want to deal with fans, especially True Fans. For these creatives, they need a mediator, a manager, a handler, an agent, a galleryist — someone to manage their fans. Nonetheless, they can still aim for the same middle destination of 1,000 True Fans. They are just working in a duet.
Third distinction. Direct fans are best. The number of True Fans needed to make a living indirectly inflates fast, but not infinitely. Take blogging as an example. Because fan support for a blogger routes through advertising clicks (except in the occasional tip-jar), more fans are needed for a blogger to make a living. But while this moves the destination towards the left on the long tail curve, it is still far short of blockbuster territory. Same is true in book publishing. When you have corporations involved in taking the majority of the revenue for your work, then it takes many times more True Fans to support you. To the degree an author cultivates direct contact with his/her fans, the smaller the number needed.
Lastly, the actual number may vary depending on the media. Maybe it is 500 True Fans for a painter and 5,000 True Fans for a videomaker. The numbers must surely vary around the world. But in fact the actual number is not critical, because it cannot be determined except by attempting it. Once you are in that mode, the actual number will become evident. That will be the True Fan number that works for you. My formula may be off by an order of magnitude, but even so, its far less than a million.
I’ve been scouring the literature for any references to the True Fan number. Suck.com co-founder Carl Steadman had theory about microcelebrities. By his count, a microcelebrity was someone famous to 1,500 people. So those fifteen hundred would rave about you. As quoted by Danny O’Brien, “One person in every town in Britain likes your dumb online comic. That’s enough to keep you in beers (or T-shirt sales) all year.”
Others call this microcelebrity support micro-patronage, or distributed patronage.
In 1999 John Kelsey and Bruce Schneier published a model for this in First Monday, an online journal. They called it the Street Performer Protocol.
Using the logic of a street performer, the author goes directly to the readers before the book is published; perhaps even before the book is written. The author bypasses the publisher and makes a public statement on the order of: “When I get $100,000 in donations, I will release the next novel in this series.”
Readers can go to the author’s Web site, see how much money has already been donated, and donate money to the cause of getting his novel out. Note that the author doesn’t care who pays to get the next chapter out; nor does he care how many people read the book that didn’t pay for it. He just cares that his $100,000 pot gets filled. When it does, he publishes the next book. In this case “publish” simply means “make available,” not “bind and distribute through bookstores.” The book is made available, free of charge, to everyone: those who paid for it and those who did not.
In 2004 author Lawrence Watt-Evans used this model to publish his newest novel. He asked his True Fans to collectively pay $100 per month. When he got $100 he posted the next chapter of the novel. The entire book was published online for his True Fans, and then later in paper for all his fans. He is now writing a second novel this way. He gets by on an estimated 200 True Fans because he also publishes in the traditional manner — with advances from a publisher supported by thousands of Lesser Fans. Other authors who use fans to directly support their work are Diane Duane, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and Don Sakers. Game designer Greg Stolze employed a similar True Fan model to launch two pre-financed games. Fifty of his True Fans contributed seed money for his development costs.
The genius of the True Fan model is that the fans are able to move an artist away from the edges of the long tail to a degree larger than their numbers indicate. They can do this in three ways: by purchasing more per person, by spending directly so the creator keeps more per sale, and by enabling new models of support.
New models of support include micro-patronage. Another model is pre-financing the startup costs. Digital technology enables this fan support to take many shapes. Fundable is a web-based enterprise which allows anyone to raise a fixed amount of money for a project, while reassuring the backers the project will happen. Fundable withholds the money until the full amount is collected. They return the money if the minimum is not reached.
Amelia, a twenty-year-old classical soprano singer, pre-sold her first CD before entering a recording studio. “If I get $400 in pre-orders, I will be able to afford the rest [of the studio costs],” she told potential contributors. Fundable’s all-or-nothing model ensured that none of her customers would lose money if she fell short of her goal. Amelia sold over $940 in albums.
A thousand dollars won’t keep even a starving artist alive long, but with serious attention, a dedicated artist can do better with their True Fans. Jill Sobule, a musician who has nurtured a sizable following over many years of touring and recording, is doing well relying on her True Fans. Recently she decided to go to her fans to finance the $75,000 professional recording fees she needed for her next album. She has raised close to $50,000 so far. By directly supporting her via their patronage, the fans gain intimacy with their artist. According to the Associated Press:
Contributors can choose a level of pledges ranging from the $10 “unpolished rock,” which earns them a free digital download of her disc when it’s made, to the $10,000 “weapons-grade plutonium level,” where she promises “you get to come and sing on my CD. Don’t worry if you can’t sing – we can fix that on our end.” For a $5,000 contribution, Sobule said she’ll perform a concert in the donor’s house. The lower levels are more popular, where donors can earn things like an advanced copy of the CD, a mention in the liner notes and a T-shirt identifying them as a “junior executive producer” of the CD.
The usual alternative to making a living based on True Fans is poverty. A study as recently as 1995 showed that the accepted price of being an artist was large. Sociologist Ruth Towse surveyed artists in Britian and determined that on average they earned below poverty subsistence levels.
I am suggesting there is a home for creatives in between poverty and stardom. Somewhere lower than stratospheric bestsellerdom, but higher than the obscurity of the long tail. I don’t know the actual true number, but I think a dedicated artist could cultivate 1,000 True Fans, and by their direct support using new technology, make an honest living. I’d love to hear from anyone who might have settled on such a path.
You already can - sort of. Post the video clip to 3speak, then embed it in a thread. You need to have Premium of course. Some are already posting videos like this under the tags #3speak and #leoshorts
2/ 🧵 I had a similar feeling which led my mother, a cautious and experienced driver, to insist that I wait until I turned 20 before I start my driving lessons. Though I was sad and felt overprotected
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." - Coach Carter 🏀🌟 We often hold ourselves back due to fear of our own potential. #gm, #moviesonleo
Best gif I ever made...
The only happy ending with Gensler is for him to resign.
Nah, prison is better
Haha, definitely a great one.
Especially that person! 🤣
#freecompliments
1/ 🧵
Today, my birthday 🥳, I want to tell you about hive
#outreach #threadstorm
Happy birthday.
🥰😉 thank you
2 / 🧵
The good things I see in hive summarized in a few points
3 / 🧵
As I could not copy inleo's link I share this one
https://peakd.com/hive-189306/@soyunasantacruz/the-good-things-i-see-in-hive-lo-bueno-que-veo-en-hive-initiativa-65d
#freecompliments
happy
Hoy pude asistir a la clase sobre Hive en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas
Excelente amiga, esa es una gran oportunidad de aprender y disfrutar de todo ese amplio conocimiento que brinda hive
Si amigo gracias! Realmente estoy aprovechando esta gran oportunidad
I think $BTC is getting stable above 70k and I believe that it's a good thing for Altcoin. If BTC remains stable then Altcoin will start to pump one by one. There can also be another scenario: the breaking of the ATH of BTC. Which one you are expecting?
#btc #market #update #guress #crypto
Speaking about tits, I'm sure this dude would love to see some either ;)
#joke #jokesonleo
And the last for now. It's not a #joke though - that's a drone shot of a giraffe.
#photography
The giraffe is doing the same thing @bradleyarrow does when he sees a camera....gets up close and personal.
Yep, and they are both nude while doing so.
Bradley hangs out with Nifty too much.
And when they hang out, everything is hanging :/
That is true. The concern doesnt start until they start rubbing off on each other.
#nsfw
I've been buying some $RUNE here at the current price but I think a massive opportunity to buy under $6 is coming soon
We'll see if my thesis plays out. Either way:
I haven't done any analysis about $RUNE. Many people are talking about it. It seems I need to analyze RUNE as fast as possible.
#analysis #crypto
Keep calm and #thread on. 🚀
In spite of the issue. Persevere.
Wise words! 💯
#freecompliments
New coffee place, so get ready. There will be a longer post wIth more photos and some info :) #photography #coffee #lifestyle
Coffee...the breakfast of champions.
ohhhh yeah :D for sure. I am on my 7th or maybe 8th of the day.. not sure. But just wrote the blog about the coffee shop (on peakd) now it is time to copy and paste and publish with inleo instead (shiu, it's a secret LOL)
LOL I dont count...they all just run together.
If you’re seeing errors - it’s because we’re running on the backup cache right now
We’re migrating our key infrastructure to larger servers. Stay patient, we’ll be much more scalable after we’re done with the upgrades 🦁
Thanks for the info. Noted and we'll be patient :)
Ok friend, thanks for letting us know and always giving the best to this great interface. 🙌
50K threads per day minimum required.
Fingers crossed! 😎
1/3
More vintage slides scans from circa 1970.
#slides #vintage #photos #Italy
2/3
All of the photos in this set were processed in August 1970 sand were taken in Italy.
3/3
Check out the original post for more info and more photos from this set: https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-goodwill-lot-1-d6f23ab815ac9
Keep the lighthouse, they said!
#joke #jokesonleo
damn that 4th part, a psycho killer in disguise of a tower operator, scary XD
Which communities of Hive you know that are not very known among other users? 🤔 I just saw the community Road Trips exits, never saw it before, so Which communities you know?
It would be awesome if you make a thread talking about each of them and use the tag #knowyourcommunities
My community! Worldbuilding! It's for writers, and at least right now, primarily is full of cool writing prompts that @alonicus and I make. We get the odd short story too (thanks mostly to @alonicus and @killerwot and @wakeupkitty)
https://peakd.com/c/hive-191038/created
Oh! can it be used for like roleplaying? I have a whole forum to rol with a friend of mine, we two have like 50 characters each lol.
I've seen some fantasy writer that would love this community, I'm seeing the rules. Would you like it to be part of July's monthly prompts? it would depend on how open the community is to people that might mess up the instructions lol, we have a hard time with people following the prompts according to the community rules sometimes 😅 but we'll get there.
Our "rules" are more like "suggestions" at the best of times, so absolutely feel free to jump in! And sure - what would joining the July prompts mean on my side?
Just 2 prompts that I can add to the calendar. And once the calendar is out you can create a post too announcing those 2 dates. People have to share the links on the respective days on the thread leogrowth publishes, that's it
Cool, yeah I could do that! Sounds good to me.
I imagine it like building a world on the post and then the comments are the role-play. Or even using the threads section of the community to play fantasy stories... (I used to do role-play on facebook lol...)
That would definitely be fine! Not something we've done before, but absolutely a cool community event and idea!
Yeah! it is really funny, to write a story live with the other users.
On threads @magnacarta has "The GHAWG Diaries" which is a very different version, individual, but kinda on the same idea of creating a story step by step.
It can be done by everyone just adding to the story or everyone having a character haha. As an event (even on a threadcast) this can be soooo fun! haha.
You know which kind of users could be a target for this? anime fans. pretty sure 80% have role-played
haha absolutely! We used to do events in the r/worldbuilding discord now and then were there was a general 'banquet' style scene, and any user could pull in a character from a story/world/setting they've built and RP as them in it. I'm no longer part of that team/community, but it was fun!
Be better if the people in those communities joined threads.
But we know that isnt likely to happen until we have some things to promote.
Today in #historyonleo
On June 6, 1933, eager motorists park their automobiles on the grounds of Camden Drive-In, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
#film
A day long gone.
Indeed @taskmaster4450le - do you remember the last time you went to a drive in?
Never. They were pretty much done before I came of age. Still a few around but it was a rarity.
How about a video arcade? When was the last time you visited one of them?
I actually went to a drive in theater here I Florida with the last 8 years or so I think Tampa. Gotta ask my wife. Video Arcade actually not too long ago here in Orlando. Of course never what you or I experienced I’m sure @taskmaster4450le
Back in the early 1980s, they were the thing. Arcades in the mall were the rage.
If the waffle house shuts down you know its bad
Waffle house will be one of the few institutions remaining after any cataclysmic event I'm pretty sure. Their staff has seen it all.
#threadstorm
Earlier today, we drove to another town for important errands and were met by interesting works of art along the walls of the narrow village roads.
#streetart #murals #outreach #photography
1🧵
What did you drive? Were all traffic laws obeyed? Was there stimulating conversation?
Radio on or off?
We broke some traffic laws during the day and the police almost reprimanded us, lol! And the radio was off. The father-in-law had great conversation with my puppy 😅
Did the puppy talk back?
If so, it might be time for F-i-L to go into one of those homes. It is already to talk to a dog but when the dog talks back, some marbles are missing.
Nope, he stared at him with that "I don't want to talk to you" look, haha!
We don't have those homes in town, and very few in the country (stats say only 33).
They excel at that look.
By the way, did you come across @l337m45732 running around town naked?
We are trying to break him of that habit but he has been doing it a long time.
Last time I was roaming the town naked, the cops didn't like it
That is my experience too.
I guess they are anti-nature. They must shower with their uniforms on.
noobs
Thankfully, we didn't meet him, he would have been photographed if we did, lol!
That is okay. I hear he isnt camera shy.
He is big into body acceptance.
oh yeah
If you have it, flaunt it.
We didn't know who the artists were but they did a great job adding beauty, colors, and history to the streets.
2🧵
I shared more photographs of street arts and murals in today's post: 👇
https://inleo.io/@ifarmgirl/murals-along-narrow-roads-in-the-next-town-ba
3🧵
1/2
#newsonleo
2/2
Source
Amazing how people fall so easily for scams.
The fear oof the unknown will keep you unknown.
Uf ! Los Filis de Filadelfia hacen recordar rotación de los Bravos en los años 90' en MLB...
1/5 🧵
#outreach #threadstorm #mlb #baseball #fulldeportes
Sus cuatro abridores están lanzando para efectividad menor a 3.00 carreras por cada nueve innings lanzados, encabezando de modo espectacular el pitcheo colectivo de todas las Grandes Ligas, por lo que mantienen a los Filis...
2/5 🧵
...en el primer lugar de la división este de la liga Nacional, por ocho juegos de ventaja de su más cercano perseguidor, los Bravos de Atlanta..!
3/5 🧵
Pero no solo ha sido el pitcheo colectivo. La ofensiva se ha mantenido bateando tal como lo hicieron el año pasado y consolidan al equipo para jugar la postemporada, sin tener que jugar la ronda de comodines..!
4/5 🧵
¿Quieren saber más? Pues no olviden leer la crónica en #Inleo, escrita para @fulldeportes dentro de la blockchain de #Hive, en el enlace más abajo
5/5 🧵 👇
https://inleo.io/@fermionico/sorpresivos-filis-de-filadelfia-espeng-opinion-czz
Finally!
#Inleo is live again!
Did you miss chatting here during the downtime ?
Very frustrating my friend, as you are well aware.
Last night saw The Acolyte E02, was better than the first but still not that exciting, I hope it keeps ramping up 🚀
#tvonleo, #theacolyte2024
looks like an old kung fu movie 😀
yeah that is the approach they took for this series, very matrix style
Can't click on the upvote button. using chrome
#feedback
hi everyone
Good day. Hope all is well.
Hello!
I hope you're having a good day!
#freecompliments
Sooooo frustrating
Indeed.
Good day all. Hope everyone is doing well. Time to fill this database up.
Morning my friend.
Ciao
“There are two equalizers in life: the Internet and education.”--John T. Chambers
#freecompliments #quotesonleo
Daily Thread Prompt:
Turbo Thursday 🚀
📚 Share a song name (include an embedded link if you want) + tell us why it makes you go Turbo!
🏷️ Tag it #turbothursday.
🤝 Engage with Lions using the hashtag.
💸 Earn $LEO + $HIVE Upvotes for your participation!
Check the comments below for inspiration and examples!
Here is my thread for Turbo Thursday
https://inleo.io/threads/view/winanda/re-leothreads-2mqfxegb2
A random blue door in a tiny mountain village #photography #crete
And now imagine how many viewers could OnlyLeo get!
#joke #jokesonleo
#sexonleo eh. Sounds good.
Well, that depends on your preferences :)) And what are you used to, I guess :)
Surely it would bring a lot of traffic
The Lions Den - #nsfw edition!
DjangoTask unchained.Or, perhaps, chained. He may like it wild.
Kevin Kelly : 1,000 True Fans (Original)
The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.
But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist’s works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.
Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?
One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:
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.
To raise your sales out of the flatline of the long tail you need to connect with your True Fans directly. Another way to state this is, you need to convert a thousand Lesser Fans into a thousand True Fans.
Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.
One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.
The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.
The technologies of connection and small-time manufacturing make this circle possible. Blogs and RSS feeds trickle out news, and upcoming appearances or new works. Web sites host galleries of your past work, archives of biographical information, and catalogs of paraphernalia. Diskmakers, Blurb, rapid prototyping shops, Myspace, Facebook, and the entire digital domain all conspire to make duplication and dissemination in small quantities fast, cheap and easy. You don’t need a million fans to justify producing something new. A mere one thousand is sufficient.
This small circle of diehard fans, which can provide you with a living, is surrounded by concentric circles of Lesser Fans. These folks will not purchase everything you do, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce. The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans. As you acquire new True Fans, you can also add many more Lesser Fans. If you keep going, you may indeed end up with millions of fans and reach a hit. I don’t know of any creator who is not interested in having a million fans.
But the point of this strategy is to say that you don’t need a hit to survive. You don’t need to aim for the short head of best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. There is a place in the middle, that is not very far away from the tail, where you can at least make a living. That mid-way haven is called 1,000 True Fans. It is an alternate destination for an artist to aim for.
Young artists starting out in this digitally mediated world have another path other than stardom, a path made possible by the very technology that creates the long tail. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, they can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It’s a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.
A few caveats. This formula – one thousand direct True Fans — is crafted for one person, the solo artist. What happens in a duet, or quartet, or movie crew? Obviously, you’ll need more fans. But the additional fans you’ll need are in direct geometric proportion to the increase of your creative group. In other words, if you increase your group size by 33%, you need add only 33% more fans. This linear growth is in contrast to the exponential growth by which many things in the digital domain inflate. I would not be surprised to find that the value of your True Fans network follows the standard network effects rule, and increases as the square of the number of Fans. As your True Fans connect with each other, they will more readily increase their average spending on your works. So while increasing the numbers of artists involved in creation increases the number of True Fans needed, the increase does not explode, but rises gently and in proportion.
A more important caution: Not every artist is cut out, or willing, to be a nurturer of fans. Many musicians just want to play music, or photographers just want to shoot, or painters paint, and they temperamentally don’t want to deal with fans, especially True Fans. For these creatives, they need a mediator, a manager, a handler, an agent, a galleryist — someone to manage their fans. Nonetheless, they can still aim for the same middle destination of 1,000 True Fans. They are just working in a duet.
Third distinction. Direct fans are best. The number of True Fans needed to make a living indirectly inflates fast, but not infinitely. Take blogging as an example. Because fan support for a blogger routes through advertising clicks (except in the occasional tip-jar), more fans are needed for a blogger to make a living. But while this moves the destination towards the left on the long tail curve, it is still far short of blockbuster territory. Same is true in book publishing. When you have corporations involved in taking the majority of the revenue for your work, then it takes many times more True Fans to support you. To the degree an author cultivates direct contact with his/her fans, the smaller the number needed.
Lastly, the actual number may vary depending on the media. Maybe it is 500 True Fans for a painter and 5,000 True Fans for a videomaker. The numbers must surely vary around the world. But in fact the actual number is not critical, because it cannot be determined except by attempting it. Once you are in that mode, the actual number will become evident. That will be the True Fan number that works for you. My formula may be off by an order of magnitude, but even so, its far less than a million.
I’ve been scouring the literature for any references to the True Fan number. Suck.com co-founder Carl Steadman had theory about microcelebrities. By his count, a microcelebrity was someone famous to 1,500 people. So those fifteen hundred would rave about you. As quoted by Danny O’Brien, “One person in every town in Britain likes your dumb online comic. That’s enough to keep you in beers (or T-shirt sales) all year.”
Others call this microcelebrity support micro-patronage, or distributed patronage.
In 1999 John Kelsey and Bruce Schneier published a model for this in First Monday, an online journal. They called it the Street Performer Protocol.
In 2004 author Lawrence Watt-Evans used this model to publish his newest novel. He asked his True Fans to collectively pay $100 per month. When he got $100 he posted the next chapter of the novel. The entire book was published online for his True Fans, and then later in paper for all his fans. He is now writing a second novel this way. He gets by on an estimated 200 True Fans because he also publishes in the traditional manner — with advances from a publisher supported by thousands of Lesser Fans. Other authors who use fans to directly support their work are Diane Duane, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and Don Sakers. Game designer Greg Stolze employed a similar True Fan model to launch two pre-financed games. Fifty of his True Fans contributed seed money for his development costs.
The genius of the True Fan model is that the fans are able to move an artist away from the edges of the long tail to a degree larger than their numbers indicate. They can do this in three ways: by purchasing more per person, by spending directly so the creator keeps more per sale, and by enabling new models of support.
New models of support include micro-patronage. Another model is pre-financing the startup costs. Digital technology enables this fan support to take many shapes. Fundable is a web-based enterprise which allows anyone to raise a fixed amount of money for a project, while reassuring the backers the project will happen. Fundable withholds the money until the full amount is collected. They return the money if the minimum is not reached.
Here’s an example from Fundable’s site;
A thousand dollars won’t keep even a starving artist alive long, but with serious attention, a dedicated artist can do better with their True Fans. Jill Sobule, a musician who has nurtured a sizable following over many years of touring and recording, is doing well relying on her True Fans. Recently she decided to go to her fans to finance the $75,000 professional recording fees she needed for her next album. She has raised close to $50,000 so far. By directly supporting her via their patronage, the fans gain intimacy with their artist. According to the Associated Press:
The usual alternative to making a living based on True Fans is poverty. A study as recently as 1995 showed that the accepted price of being an artist was large. Sociologist Ruth Towse surveyed artists in Britian and determined that on average they earned below poverty subsistence levels.
I am suggesting there is a home for creatives in between poverty and stardom. Somewhere lower than stratospheric bestsellerdom, but higher than the obscurity of the long tail. I don’t know the actual true number, but I think a dedicated artist could cultivate 1,000 True Fans, and by their direct support using new technology, make an honest living. I’d love to hear from anyone who might have settled on such a path.
Here is the updated version for a number of years later:
https://inleo.io/threads/view/taskmaster4450le/re-leothreads-2xz3ms1wh
Henlo fren and thank you
source #memesonleo #meme #pepe #boobs #ladiesofhive #alive #cent #bbh #freecompliments
That certainly looks like video enhancement to me.
Certainly enhancement to me.
Extension comes to mind.
Ex tension can be relieving if not releasing as well.
Will Buy Your Unwanted Steam Trading Cards for HIVE. Price 1 HIVE for 20 Cards. Negotiable! #hivegaming #freecompliments
Gud idea! May tink bout doin same. While offering moar cards with soon to be frog battle card game. !BBH
How about adding a new feature on threads, where we can post short clips, like 30 seconds videos 📸 🤔
What do you think?
#askonleo
You already can - sort of. Post the video clip to 3speak, then embed it in a thread. You need to have Premium of course. Some are already posting videos like this under the tags #3speak and #leoshorts
breakfast of champions.
Cottage cheese
Blueberries
Peanut butter.
or Wheaties. You can pick.
2 Fast 2 Furious, RIP Brian, was release 21 years ago today🍿 the R34 was cool
#moviesonleo, #racing
Love the movies until part 6 or so, then it starts getting out of hand for a bit. :D Nvm, still a classy one. 🍿
me too, first ones were cool movies to watch ✌️
Damn ... I am feeling so old now 😂 .!!
Watching! #spaceX #IFT4 #starship
One engine off!
Crazy! Good shutdown...
Fricking nuts!
1/🧵 One of the pleasurable skills teenagers are curious to learn is driving. Some see it as a way of gaining freedom #juneinleo #threadstorm #outreach
2/ 🧵 I had a similar feeling which led my mother, a cautious and experienced driver, to insist that I wait until I turned 20 before I start my driving lessons. Though I was sad and felt overprotected
3/🧵 I now got to understand it was made out of love and concern for my safety. #gosh
https://inleo.io/@johnuko/the-lessons-learned-from-my-first-driving-experience-6et
Good morning fam, its Thursday and just a day to go to the weekend. #gmfrens
Happy Thursday!
GM to you & thank you for using the #gmfrens tag on Threads. Listen to the most recent Hive Community Town Hall!
GM tokens are now on Hive Engine! To OPT OUT of comments visit @gmfrens.
Thread Day #85
Quinta-feira e a dúvida de hoje é se vamos interagir por aqui...
#threadcast
Vamos animar a festa pessoal.
Cheguei do trampo com a preguiça do boi bumba.
Boa noite para todos, aconteceu algo? 12h de thread e apenas 1 comentário.
salve galera
meio zuado hj... acho que comi alguma parada ontem que não desceu legal
Vixi, melhoras fera.
Good morning Lions, How's your day going ? 🦁
#gmfrens
GM to you & thank you for using the #gmfrens tag on Threads. Listen to the most recent Hive Community Town Hall!
GM tokens are now on Hive Engine! To OPT OUT of comments visit @gmfrens.
#gmfrens
👋
GM to you & thank you for using the #gmfrens tag on Threads. Listen to the most recent Hive Community Town Hall!
GM tokens are now on Hive Engine! To OPT OUT of comments visit @gmfrens.
Good morning. Have a great one!
Good morning to you. Here we are enjoying evening time.
Gud mornin' Fren !BBH
Can you see my threads? I think threads are not getting indexed.
1/🧵 The Value of Compliments: Lessons "Learned from Both Praise and Criticism"
#outreach #threadstro
m
2/🧵 Hоnеstly, any kind of compliment can be used in the process of either change for the better or change for the worse.
3/🧵 there is negative feedback, or as many would term it negative encouragement, they are just as valuable, if not more than praise.
4/🧵 one can point to the fact that both kinds of receipt of constructive criticism undoubtedly occupy a great role in the process of self-development
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." - Coach Carter 🏀🌟 We often hold ourselves back due to fear of our own potential. #gm, #moviesonleo
#wordofthedayonleo - moxie
What It Means
Moxie can refer to courage and determination (aka nerve), energy and pep (aka verve), or know-how (as, say, reflected in one’s oeuvre).
//They showed a lot of moxie in questioning their company’s policy.
//She clearly doesn’t need coffee to start her day full of moxie.
//The lead actor’s musical moxie inspired the addition of a serenade at the close of the play’s first act.
#gmfrens
GM to you & thank you for using the #gmfrens tag on Threads. Listen to the most recent Hive Community Town Hall!
GM tokens are now on Hive Engine! To OPT OUT of comments visit @gmfrens.
It's that old saying: every day a smart person and a sucker leave their houses. When they meet, a deal is made.
How do you keep paying for premium to use a tool that doesn't even deliver the basics (which is to work at least somewhat smoothly)?
Did the summer come and go, and I haven't even noticed? 🤔 #photography #selfie