Small Audiences Mean Loyalty

Category: Creative

Published: 09/21/2009 04:32 p.m.

In some ways having a small audience is great, because likely they are dedicated not because of what you are saying, but because you are writing it. It's like reading some crappy James Patterson novel because he wrote it. It's not about quality at that point; it is more about loyalty.

And perhaps a loyal audience is more valuable than one that claims to know good content. Or maybe a loyal audience is just one that agrees with you about what 'good' is. Certainly it is better than a big flock of diggers or similar who are gone as quick as they came. The real challenge becomes continuing to be you. This sounds easy, but it can get lost quickly when trying to grow your audience.

I am loyal to Merlin Mann, Apple, and XKCD to name a few. I am loyal to them because I think the things they make are fantastic and unique and of a very high quality. And from listening to them, I think they wouldn't necessarily agree, but that is OK.

From reading Merlin's stuff, he seems to think that he still produces some crap, but he wants to make stuff he is proud of. I can relate to this. I love the feeling of having a vision of something and then making it. I did this recently with my shared page, and it turned out just as I imagined it.

I use lots of Apple products because I think they are great. I believe that many of them are made because someone at Apple wanted to use something that wasn't invented yet. I'm sure the do market analysis and such, but I think they made the iPhone because they wanted a better mobile device.

And I love XKCD. The cartoons are hilarious. I am sure that Randall makes them because he thinks they are hilarious too. Hugh at Gapingvoid is a less sciency equivalent. Great cartoons because he thinks they are great.

From my perspective, I only see the things that these groups actually publish. There may be hundreds more cartoons or ipod prototypes or hilarious improv podcasts that I don't see because they aren't published. And that is because these people likely found them to be so crappy that they didn't want their name associated with it.

Merlin Mann and John Gruber had a talk at SXSW about writing things for individuals, and not for a lump of people called an audience. They said that creating something with particular people in mind helps you focus and thus create better stuff.

I think right now I have only a couple of people I want to like my stuff. Honing the focus and vision of a project or piece of that project is very important to accomplish this. I think that drafts + a handful of targeted people + a vision and goal could help to produce some outstanding stuff. (More to come on vision)

The blog is titled "Driven to Change the Lives of Many". This is mostly because it is written on my skin, but also because it is a mantra I firmly believe in. I am learning that the trick to changing the lives of many is to change them one at a time.