@Roger

More customers for your music or more music for your customers

– great way of putting it

@George – “cater to a very specific group” – yes and absolutely love them to bits

@Mark – great article, nice one

@J.D – Yup it is worth sacrificing some readers if it strengthens your relationship with the core

@George – I agree, it isn’t worth the risk unless you can come through with your promises, provide value and stay authentic

@Steve –

“To the world, you may be just one person; but to one person, you may be the world”

– Excellent

@Marc – h

@Julie – Thanks Make sure you subscribe!

@Kara-Leah – Exactly

@Rajesh – Yes, choose an audience you can completely own and focus focus focus

Always interesting to read your posts.

Rajesh Shakya

Because after all – why do we do whatever it is that we do?

To make ourselves feel great because we’re fantastic?

Or to look after our customers/readers/listeners/watchers and make THEM feel fantastic?

My most popular posts are the ones which focus on what I can offer my readers…

Cheers!
KL

Chris

Although this doesn’t directly apply to blogs it can in that your voice will resonate with a certain group of people. And that group should stay with you longer because your voice is not diluted trying to cover all bases and make everyone happy. I know I’m trying to do that now with my writing.

Of course I am a total newby at this so it is just my humble opinion….

Preselling can be good, but it can also be dangerous. I bought a book once before it was supposed to be released. It wound up releasing almost a year later than expected. I never bought another book from them, even though it was a pretty good book.

Eventually it occurs to me that I’ve been a dope, and I make a shift to return to my natural voice. This alienates some readers, but I think it makes strengthens the bonds with those who read me regularly.

Great post.

Plus, of course, the pre-selling idea is a genius one. I think there are lots of reasons for it, but not the least of which is when you pre-sell something, you establish a relationship with the people who have bought it.

I think that keeps our hearts and minds focused on the people who are going to use it/listen to it- and we’re more likely to be loyal to that relationship, and create something that they love and we love. Otherwise, it’s too easy to float off into one’s own dreamworld and try and ‘create something’ that people will hopefully like- but the creation process is disconnected.

I had written this article:
Why you should sell something before it exists
http://heartofbusiness.com/articles/2006/May17.htm

Which I had originally learned from Sean D’Souza at psychotactics.com. It’s made a world of difference in my cash flow, and in the quality of what I’ve produced, and in the ongoing connection to my clients and customers.

Another good’un.

Fortunately, the two projects I just started working on both cater to a very specific group of people. I might have finally learned this lesson. Time will tell…

Great advice as always.

The difficult thing to do is to figure out which is the best course to take. Most people think that doing both at the same time is the right idea. Inmost cases they are wrong. The resources needed to build on one or the other usually require focus and money. If the company tries to go both ways, neither usually works.

It looks like Marillion decided that more music for their customers is the right way to go. If you please your customers they will bring others in. It may take awhile but the new customers will be solid.
If you change the music to go after more customers you run the risk of losing the ones you have. Granted, you could hit a chord and win big but the exceptions are rare. To properly go after “more customers” requires market research, product development, testing, and promotion to just get started. Educating a new audience is expensive and takes time.

Great post Chris – I’m always impressed.

Of course, oppinions may vary here, but after all, we are all humans, superstars or modest 9 to 5 employees and we all have a need of a stable future.

As another famous guy said, a John Lennon fellow: “Life is something that happens while you are busy doing something else”, or something similar.

Planning things in advance and amortizing efforts for lifetime results not only seems sound, but also fullfills a superstar lifestyle statement.

On the end, most former boy/girl bands seem to spend further life running after other 15 minutes of fame.