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My story: I had 500 true fans for RailsApps at one point in 2014. They paid $20/month for my Rails tutorials, which supported my open source project. It was won
by DanielKehoe 6y ago
My story: I had 500 true fans for RailsApps at one point in 2014. They paid $20/month for my Rails tutorials, which supported my open source project. It was wonderful to discover that if you are passionate and deliver your best, often without a thought to monetization, you'll have fans. "100 True Fans" makes a case for capitalizing on that kind of popularity. But fans can be fickle and creators can lose their passion. Establishing a relationship between fans and a creator isn't the same as establishing a sustainable business.
- dstick 6y agoThis story feels incomplete. How does it end? :)
- DanielKehoe 6y agoThe story hasn't really ended. I've traveled for six years in Europe, Africa, and Asia and met fans of RailsApps and my 'Learn Ruby on Rails' book everywhere. The tutorials and the book are all online and available for free (but long overdue for updates). There are now over 10K fans but I'm not attempting to monetize the interest. Now I'd like to build a more sustainable business that reaches more people. I still like Rails (and the wonderful Ruby community) but I'm diving into new passions that could have more impact.