All you need are 1,000 true fans

Followup: <a href="http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_reality_of.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_reality_o...</a><p>Some nagging details: <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/03/12/the-nagging-details-about-1000-true-fans/" rel="nofollow">http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/03/12/the-nagging-details-ab...</a>

Robert Rich wrote a long reply to this: <a href="http://robertrich.com/1000-true-fans-an-answer/" rel="nofollow">http://robertrich.com/1000-true-fans-an-answer/</a><p>It's been 2 years since I read it but if I recall correctly it was worth it.

Not remotely news. I appreciate the sentiment, but this is a two year old article from someone who has been heavily linked to on HN. I've been seeing a lot of this sort of thing lately and it's really starting to get on my wick - this isn't nearly as egregious as links to 30+ year old hacker folklore, but I still find it irksome.

"...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 [..] It's a much saner destination to hope for."

The message I got from this was: find a niche and deliver a great product for it.