NFTs: Non-fungible token glory could be yours soon… except for all that work you need to do after you mint your NFT. Here’s how to start.
You’ve done it! You’ve turned your creativity into an awesome new NFT. Maybe you’ve got an irresistible artwork, a piece of music, or a video game. You have confidence in your work and know somebody will want to claim the exclusive rights to what you’ve produced. But only the most buzzworthy NFTs are selling to celebrities and art collectors for six figures or more. And even if you’re sure your work will one day be worth that much, monetizing an NFT relies on the same old ratio of inspiration to perspiration as any successful endeavour. With that in mind, let’s discuss some of the ways that you can make your NFTs into a hot commodity.
1. Create a Crypto Wallet
The first and most basic step is one that many NFT creators don’t even think of: Create a cryptocurrency wallet in which to store your digital funds and other assets. Trading NFTs without such a wallet is like being an art dealer without a storage space or even a bank account. Most payments for NFTs are in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Doge, and you want the means to actually receive and store these online funds. Even if your plan is to convert your crypto into fiat money as soon as possible, you still need to collect the crypto you plan to sell. A cryptocurrency wallet is easy to download and install on any compatible device, and will pay for itself many times over in utility, storage capacity, security, and tracking. And you need one if you plan to sell NFTs.
2. Pick a Marketplace
If you need a wallet to hold your Crypto, you also need a marketplace to sell your wares. And that means a single marketplace. Hopping around from hub to hub may be tempting but will ultimately dilute your brand and confuse buyers. Why is this NFT on this market and that NFT on a different one? Why do prices vary between markets? Consumers need a single place where they can follow and buy from their favorite artists. Many don’t mind going to different markets for different creators, but needing multiple accounts on multiple hubs just for one creator feels too much like a scavenger hunt. A smart NFT creator finds the marketplace where they can create at a low cost and sell at the highest markup to maximize profits, and makes that their home.
3. Self-Promote Socially
Whether they sell NFTs or write books, any artist will tell you that self-promotion is the key to a successful brand. If you don’t spread the word about your products yourself, you can pay someone to do it, but there’s no guarantee they’ll do it right. Even if they do, there’s no harm done by representing yourself as well. And there’s no better place to self-promote than on social media. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. provide a great place to both get your brand’s and your own personality across while showing off the NFTs available for sale on your chosen marketplace. The better an NFT creator represents and spreads the word about their brand online, the more interest they will generate in their digital wares.
4. Create Scarcity around your NFTs
As a generated digital resource, NFTs are as plentiful or rare as their creator wants. And everyone knows a scarce item creates more demand. The less common a creator’s NFTs, the more prestigious and thus in-demand they are, especially if that creator has a strong presence on social media.
There are two key ways to create scarcity and drive up an NFT’s value. The first is to simply set a cap on supply. If a certain NFT is only ever made available five times, it’s going to feel a lot more like an elite collector’s item. The second way to create scarcity is through releasing NFTs in rarity tiers, with individual pieces available in different levels of quality and ornamentation, or exclusive works only available at higher tiers. NFT creators have borrowed tier names like “common, rare, elite, epic, and legendary” from video games, but no matter what you name your tiers, dividing your NFTs this way helps create a desire for the upper levels.
5. NFTs – Creating Merch
Unless you sell your copyright along with the NFT itself, a digital work’s creator still owns the copyright to and the right to reproduce said work. This means that the creator retains the right to merchandise the asset represented by the NFT, and that any work of which you are particularly proud or which is popular or buzzworthy can always be used by its original creator on merchandise of all sorts. In the case of artworks, creators can roll out t-shirts, pouches, patches, decals, tattoos, stickers, posters, and more. An NFT can sell for big money, and its creator will still have the right to capitalize on that hype by producing and selling any creative merch that comes to mind.
Like the digital innovations that spawned them, NFTs present creators with new avenues to success. To explore those avenues, creators need to be daring and agile and willing to adapt to emerging ideas. The sooner and more comprehensively an artist can understand how to monetize their NFTs, the sooner they can enjoy the rewards of this thrilling new marketplace.
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