This is my first blog entry about NFT’s, written from the perspective of advice that I would send to myself if I could go back to when I first learned about NFT’s two months ago. Hopefully it can help someone to not make the mistakes that I did!
1. Community First, Then Your Artwork
When I first heard of NFT’s, I thought that I just needed to get my work out there on the right platform, and once people saw it up there, I wouldn’t have to do any more marketing. In hindsight this was foolish, but as an artist who has had some measure of success in the real world (painted over 500 and sold most of them), I think this is an important misconception to address for someone who is just entering the field. After a couple weeks of my NFT’s just sitting there, while absorbing as much as I could about the field in the meantime, I came to the important realization that statistically speaking, there is no chance that anyone will see your work on these platforms unless you market it yourself.
And marketing for NFT’s is a totally different game than any other marketing I’ve done (as a musician, artist, clinic manager, etc). The two networks I was most familiar with leveraging, Facebook and Instagram, were almost useless, whereas the most useful channels were ones that I had never used before: Twitter, Clubhouse, Discord. I never got the hang of Discord, but started putting all my effort into Clubhouse and Twitter, spending hours a day, and slowly started making progress and building connections, including to a burgeoning Korean NFT community to which I owe all of my small beginning successes.
One thing I quickly realized is that people markettheir dropsbefore they happen, not after, and the most successful artists in the space, with some exceptions, were also the most successful networkers. After realizing I did everything in the wrong order, I discreetly “burned” (permanently deleted) the few NFT’s I had minted and listed without any fanfare, and started from scratch with the networking aspect. Suffice it to say, if I had to start all over again, I would start by interacting with people on Twitter and learning from people in Clubhouse daily, getting to know people and finding artists and collectors that I admire, for at least 30 days straight before even marketing my own work.
Perhaps two perfect examples of people doing marketing in exactly the right order are: Art-Jedi and NFTipi. Both people have not done drops yet (as far as I know, I could be wrong), and yet they are vital figures in the Clubhouse NFT scene, both participating in rooms of other people, but more importantly, facilitating many rooms themselves, bringing together countless community members, and helping to elevate the global NFT scene in general. At the mere mention of an upcoming drop, both figures, beloved in the community, are met with adulation and essentially a guarantee that their drops will be successful. I myself have personally benefited from both, and would do everything in my power to support them- and this is a testament to the fact that they did things right. If you want to market your art, put aside your ego and put your community first!
2. Your NFT site is not your portfolio
I remember being puzzled seeing people’s Foundation profiles, sometimes which had 1-2 pieces, and wondering why in the world they wouldn’t put up at least 8-10 so that people could get a clear picture of their work. The first answer came when I first starting minting and listing my own pieces; at the time, the cost for minting and listing came to a total of ~$150 per piece, and I realized that putting up 8-10 without any guarantee of sales would be quite the risky investment. Still, I reasoned, it could be worth it so that collectors could get a full idea of my work rather than relying on one or two pieces to represent the entirety of my vocabulary.
This was a costly mistake, as I described earlier, and after I saw my pieces sitting on the site with no action for a couple weeks, I realized that I had made a mistake not only in the order of marketing, but in thinking of my Foundation page as my portfolio. Your portfolio is your portfolio, and the next closest thing that collectors will see to get a sense of the breadth of your work is your Instagram. If a given artist has more than 20-30% unsold on their NFT site, it can look downright unappealing to a collector’s eyes- and I’m saying this as a collector myself (one unexpected turn from all of this is that I have collected more than I have created!). Following the example of successful artists that I observed, I resolved to mint and list only one new piece at a time, and to not list a new piece if it meant that the majority of listed pieces are unsold.
3. Mint less, not more
Related to this is the idea of “scarcity” of the NFT in the eye of the collector- whether it be real or imagined. A collector is much more likely to be interested in collecting an NFT of an artist who creates 10 masterpieces over a year rather than 100 similar pieces over 10 days. One somewhat extreme event that brought forth this idea into the spotlight was artist John Park, who decided that he had sold too many NFT’s, thereby devaluing the total collection (especially in consideration of the early collectors), and went on a shopping spree to buy back his own pieces, often at a markup, only to burn them to reduce the total supply. This was a controversial move and seemed to polarize the community, and while I personally think that it might have been a bit extreme, I do appreciate the principle behind his gesture- the idea of upholding scarcity in order to preserve value.
John’s expensive exercise in scarcity serves as a good reminder for the rest of us; to slow down and go for quality rather than quantity. While everyone has their own style and minting frequency, it seems that the most successful artists in the space do not mint more than once a week, and typically closer to once a month (but when they do, it is jaw-dropping, like in the case of our hero Mr. Misang). Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule and I don’t want to suggest this pace for everyone, but since this article is about advice I would give to myself, and since I have the tendency to rush into things, this would be an important principle to keep in mind.
4. Foundation is not the holy grail
Another misconception when I first learned about the various NFT marketplaces was that the curated platforms are the golden ticket, and since there was a low chance I would be accepted into the elite ones such as Super Rare and Nifty Gateway (and yes, I did apply and never heard back), the next best thing would be the exclusive Foundation platform, which was invite only. After receiving a generous invite from an artist I admire, the great photographer Noe Alonzo, I started minting on the platform, but realized certain things that I assumed were not true: there was no particular advantage of the platform in terms of marketing or getting eyes on the work- at least before an auction gets bid on. So far, here are the pros and cons that I have experienced:
Pros:
-Pleasing layout, has a premium feel and slightly easier to view the artwork from both mobile and computer compared to other marketplaces.
-When a piece gets bid on, it will automatically show on the front page, which shows auctions that are ending soon. This is the one time that the platform will serve to increase the artist’s visibility.
Cons:
-Expensive, especially compared to Opensea, and especially compared to newer platforms like Hicetnunc, Cargo, etc.
-Collectors can be hesitant about the auction format compared to the fixed price in most other platforms.
-No search function; difficult or impossible for a collector to find your work based off of keywords
Needless to say, the idea that a single marketplace can do the marketing for you and get eyes on your work without you having to lift a finger is simply false. And, other platforms have manifold benefits that some curated platforms do not. Guru Allen Hena has compiled a guide that compares and contrasts the features of various platforms- although keep in mind that these are Ethereum-based platforms, and there are a few more Tezos-based platforms that are coming into vogue in the NFT communities such as Kalamint and Hicetnunc, the two biggest benefits of which include nearly free minting fees and low to no environmental impact.
5. Never message collectorsto shill your work
Just don’t do it. There is the correct way to approach collectors, and there is the incorrect way, which is precisely to DM them with spam about your work. I regret making this mistake several times early on when I discovered accounts of collectors that I thought would enjoy my work based on their collections, and understandably never heard back. If you absolutely feel compelled to reach out, just reach out as a human, ask them about their collection, keep it short and polite, and don’t send a link to your work on the first message. Of course, this is debatable and plenty of people have success by shilling their work in DM’s, and some collectors have even said that they have no problem with this. But from what I can tell, it is far more common that people with high profiles in the NFT world get countless (sometimes hundreds per day) of shill messages and if they see this type of message, just reflexively disregard it and move on.
6. Shill threads on Twitter are useless and a waste of energy
This is a small one, and perhaps obvious to others, but definitely one that I totally fell for at first. There are tons of fake NFT collectors on Twitter that follow a cookie cutter formula in order to bring attention to their accounts. This generally contains the elements:
-I have XX ETH to spend
-Retweet and comment for maximum exposure
-Share your work and I might buy it!
After a couple of weeks, it became obvious what these threads were: preying on the desperation of new artists to simply gain exposure for their profiles, with no intention of buying any artwork. A general rule of thumb is that if a collector is real, then you will be able to find their collection relatively easily- either via links in their profile, or just by scrolling down their page and seeing when someone mentions their name in a sale. Although from time to time there is an actual collector who makes a real shill thread, in general, it is an exercise in futility and rejection to constantly participate in these threads.
7. Conclusion: Plan and play the long game
The idea of making hundreds or thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars from NFT’s automatically puts new artists into a “get rich quick” mindset, focusing on the short term rather than making a long term strategy. However, this is exactly the opposite mindset that we need to be taking. Our artistry suffers from such a short-term, impatient mindset, and even from a cold money-making perspective, the artists that are most successful in the space are the ones that have coherent collections that are released in strategic, patient timing. Thus, from whatever perspective we look at it, playing the long game is always to our benefit. If you really believe in NFT’s and the opportunity that they bring, you will know that they are here to stay in one form or another for a long, long time. So take your time, plan things out, and always play the long game!
7 Things I Wish I Knew About NFT’s Before I Started Making Them
This is my first blog entry about NFT’s, written from the perspective of advice that I would send to myself if I could go back to when I first learned about NFT’s two months ago. Hopefully it can help someone to not make the mistakes that I did!
1. Community First, Then Your Artwork
When I first heard of NFT’s, I thought that I just needed to get my work out there on the right platform, and once people saw it up there, I wouldn’t have to do any more marketing. In hindsight this was foolish, but as an artist who has had some measure of success in the real world (painted over 500 and sold most of them), I think this is an important misconception to address for someone who is just entering the field. After a couple weeks of my NFT’s just sitting there, while absorbing as much as I could about the field in the meantime, I came to the important realization that statistically speaking, there is no chance that anyone will see your work on these platforms unless you market it yourself.
And marketing for NFT’s is a totally different game than any other marketing I’ve done (as a musician, artist, clinic manager, etc). The two networks I was most familiar with leveraging, Facebook and Instagram, were almost useless, whereas the most useful channels were ones that I had never used before: Twitter, Clubhouse, Discord. I never got the hang of Discord, but started putting all my effort into Clubhouse and Twitter, spending hours a day, and slowly started making progress and building connections, including to a burgeoning Korean NFT community to which I owe all of my small beginning successes.
One thing I quickly realized is that people market their drops before they happen, not after, and the most successful artists in the space, with some exceptions, were also the most successful networkers. After realizing I did everything in the wrong order, I discreetly “burned” (permanently deleted) the few NFT’s I had minted and listed without any fanfare, and started from scratch with the networking aspect. Suffice it to say, if I had to start all over again, I would start by interacting with people on Twitter and learning from people in Clubhouse daily, getting to know people and finding artists and collectors that I admire, for at least 30 days straight before even marketing my own work.
Perhaps two perfect examples of people doing marketing in exactly the right order are: Art-Jedi and NFTipi. Both people have not done drops yet (as far as I know, I could be wrong), and yet they are vital figures in the Clubhouse NFT scene, both participating in rooms of other people, but more importantly, facilitating many rooms themselves, bringing together countless community members, and helping to elevate the global NFT scene in general. At the mere mention of an upcoming drop, both figures, beloved in the community, are met with adulation and essentially a guarantee that their drops will be successful. I myself have personally benefited from both, and would do everything in my power to support them- and this is a testament to the fact that they did things right. If you want to market your art, put aside your ego and put your community first!
2. Your NFT site is not your portfolio
I remember being puzzled seeing people’s Foundation profiles, sometimes which had 1-2 pieces, and wondering why in the world they wouldn’t put up at least 8-10 so that people could get a clear picture of their work. The first answer came when I first starting minting and listing my own pieces; at the time, the cost for minting and listing came to a total of ~$150 per piece, and I realized that putting up 8-10 without any guarantee of sales would be quite the risky investment. Still, I reasoned, it could be worth it so that collectors could get a full idea of my work rather than relying on one or two pieces to represent the entirety of my vocabulary.
This was a costly mistake, as I described earlier, and after I saw my pieces sitting on the site with no action for a couple weeks, I realized that I had made a mistake not only in the order of marketing, but in thinking of my Foundation page as my portfolio. Your portfolio is your portfolio, and the next closest thing that collectors will see to get a sense of the breadth of your work is your Instagram. If a given artist has more than 20-30% unsold on their NFT site, it can look downright unappealing to a collector’s eyes- and I’m saying this as a collector myself (one unexpected turn from all of this is that I have collected more than I have created!). Following the example of successful artists that I observed, I resolved to mint and list only one new piece at a time, and to not list a new piece if it meant that the majority of listed pieces are unsold.
3. Mint less, not more
Related to this is the idea of “scarcity” of the NFT in the eye of the collector- whether it be real or imagined. A collector is much more likely to be interested in collecting an NFT of an artist who creates 10 masterpieces over a year rather than 100 similar pieces over 10 days. One somewhat extreme event that brought forth this idea into the spotlight was artist John Park, who decided that he had sold too many NFT’s, thereby devaluing the total collection (especially in consideration of the early collectors), and went on a shopping spree to buy back his own pieces, often at a markup, only to burn them to reduce the total supply. This was a controversial move and seemed to polarize the community, and while I personally think that it might have been a bit extreme, I do appreciate the principle behind his gesture- the idea of upholding scarcity in order to preserve value.
John’s expensive exercise in scarcity serves as a good reminder for the rest of us; to slow down and go for quality rather than quantity. While everyone has their own style and minting frequency, it seems that the most successful artists in the space do not mint more than once a week, and typically closer to once a month (but when they do, it is jaw-dropping, like in the case of our hero Mr. Misang). Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule and I don’t want to suggest this pace for everyone, but since this article is about advice I would give to myself, and since I have the tendency to rush into things, this would be an important principle to keep in mind.
4. Foundation is not the holy grail
Another misconception when I first learned about the various NFT marketplaces was that the curated platforms are the golden ticket, and since there was a low chance I would be accepted into the elite ones such as Super Rare and Nifty Gateway (and yes, I did apply and never heard back), the next best thing would be the exclusive Foundation platform, which was invite only. After receiving a generous invite from an artist I admire, the great photographer Noe Alonzo, I started minting on the platform, but realized certain things that I assumed were not true: there was no particular advantage of the platform in terms of marketing or getting eyes on the work- at least before an auction gets bid on. So far, here are the pros and cons that I have experienced:
Pros:
-Pleasing layout, has a premium feel and slightly easier to view the artwork from both mobile and computer compared to other marketplaces.
-When a piece gets bid on, it will automatically show on the front page, which shows auctions that are ending soon. This is the one time that the platform will serve to increase the artist’s visibility.
Cons:
-Expensive, especially compared to Opensea, and especially compared to newer platforms like Hicetnunc, Cargo, etc.
-Collectors can be hesitant about the auction format compared to the fixed price in most other platforms.
-No search function; difficult or impossible for a collector to find your work based off of keywords
Needless to say, the idea that a single marketplace can do the marketing for you and get eyes on your work without you having to lift a finger is simply false. And, other platforms have manifold benefits that some curated platforms do not. Guru Allen Hena has compiled a guide that compares and contrasts the features of various platforms- although keep in mind that these are Ethereum-based platforms, and there are a few more Tezos-based platforms that are coming into vogue in the NFT communities such as Kalamint and Hicetnunc, the two biggest benefits of which include nearly free minting fees and low to no environmental impact.
5. Never message collectors to shill your work
Just don’t do it. There is the correct way to approach collectors, and there is the incorrect way, which is precisely to DM them with spam about your work. I regret making this mistake several times early on when I discovered accounts of collectors that I thought would enjoy my work based on their collections, and understandably never heard back. If you absolutely feel compelled to reach out, just reach out as a human, ask them about their collection, keep it short and polite, and don’t send a link to your work on the first message. Of course, this is debatable and plenty of people have success by shilling their work in DM’s, and some collectors have even said that they have no problem with this. But from what I can tell, it is far more common that people with high profiles in the NFT world get countless (sometimes hundreds per day) of shill messages and if they see this type of message, just reflexively disregard it and move on.
6. Shill threads on Twitter are useless and a waste of energy
This is a small one, and perhaps obvious to others, but definitely one that I totally fell for at first. There are tons of fake NFT collectors on Twitter that follow a cookie cutter formula in order to bring attention to their accounts. This generally contains the elements:
-I have XX ETH to spend
-Retweet and comment for maximum exposure
-Share your work and I might buy it!
After a couple of weeks, it became obvious what these threads were: preying on the desperation of new artists to simply gain exposure for their profiles, with no intention of buying any artwork. A general rule of thumb is that if a collector is real, then you will be able to find their collection relatively easily- either via links in their profile, or just by scrolling down their page and seeing when someone mentions their name in a sale. Although from time to time there is an actual collector who makes a real shill thread, in general, it is an exercise in futility and rejection to constantly participate in these threads.
7. Conclusion: Plan and play the long game
The idea of making hundreds or thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars from NFT’s automatically puts new artists into a “get rich quick” mindset, focusing on the short term rather than making a long term strategy. However, this is exactly the opposite mindset that we need to be taking. Our artistry suffers from such a short-term, impatient mindset, and even from a cold money-making perspective, the artists that are most successful in the space are the ones that have coherent collections that are released in strategic, patient timing. Thus, from whatever perspective we look at it, playing the long game is always to our benefit. If you really believe in NFT’s and the opportunity that they bring, you will know that they are here to stay in one form or another for a long, long time. So take your time, plan things out, and always play the long game!
One reply to “7 Things I Wish I Knew About NFT’s Before I Started Making Them”
Timothy Nelson
Awesome synopsis. I learned a hundred things, not just seven. Thank you!