CHAPTER 7
In this chapter, we’ll go through, step‐by‐step, how to sell the non‐fungible tokens (NFTs) that you created. Since you made your NFTs on OpenSea, you’ll be selling your NFTs there. To list your NFTs for sale on OpenSea, you’re going to need some Ethereum to cover the gas fees. So, we’re also going to walk you through how to open an account with a cryptocurrency exchange, how to fund that account, how to purchase ETH, and how to transfer the ETH to your MetaMask wallet. If you’ve never dealt with cryptocurrency before, don’t worry. Soon it will be second nature.
Your Exchange Account
Listing your NFTs for sale on OpenSea requires some gas fees, which means that you’ll need some Ethereum in your MetaMask wallet to cover the fees. Some exchanges require that you pay gas fees when you mint your NFTs. Even if you don’t plan to create any NFTs, you’ll generally need Ethereum (or some other cryptocurrency) if you plan to buy any NFTs.
NFTs are blockchain assets, and as such, they’re mainly bought and sold with cryptocurrency. So, how do you get Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies? You do this on a cryptocurrency exchange. There are several reputable exchanges that you can use: Coinbase, Binance, Crypto.com, and Voyager, among others. Of these, we recommend Coinbase, especially if you’re in the United States. So, we’ll be using it as the example exchange in this chapter. But feel free to use another exchange if you like. You can find links to all of our recommended exchanges on the book’s Resources page: TheNFThandbook.com/Resources.
So, let’s get started. The first step is to create a Coinbase account.
Creating a Coinbase Account
Coinbase is an exchange where you can purchase some of the popular cryptocurrencies with dollars. You can also sell these cryptocurrencies for dollars, which you can then send to your bank.
In this section, we’ll walk you through how to create a Coinbase account. If you already have a Coinbase account or an account on another exchange, you can skip this section. Note that you must be at least 18 years old to open a Coinbase account.
Before you create an account, make sure that you have all of the following:
· A government‐issued photo ID
· A phone number connected to your smartphone (you’ll receive SMS text messages)
· The latest version of your browser (Chrome is recommended).
Let’s get started.
1. Go to Coinbase.com and click the Get Started button. In the popup, shown in Figure 7.1, enter your information, including a password. As discussed in the previous chapter, do not keep the password in a text file on your computer (unless it’s on an encrypted drive). Write it down and store it in a secure place.
Make sure to read the user agreement and privacy policy, and check the box certifying your agreement and that you are at least 18 years of age. Then click the Create account button. Coinbase will then send you a verification email.
FIGURE 7.1 Coinbase “Create account” pop‐up
2. In the email that you receive from Coinbase, click Verify Email Address. You’ll be taken back to Coinbase, where you’ll be asked to sign in.
3. Coinbase will prompt you to add a phone number. Select your country and enter your mobile phone number. Then click Send Code. Coinbase will text you a seven‐digit code. Enter that code and click the Submit button.
4. On the next page, you’ll need to enter your date of birth and address. You’ll also have to answer a few questions and enter the last four digits of your Social Security number. Click the Continue button.
5. To buy, sell, send, and receive cryptocurrency, you’ll need to verify your account. First, select the ID type that you would like to use. Then select an upload method and follow the instructions.
Verification usually takes a few minutes, but Coinbase may require time to conduct additional verification. Coinbase will email you when verification is complete.
Securing Your Coinbase Account
We highly recommend setting up a strong two‐factor authentication (2FA) method to secure your account. When you signed up to Coinbase, you added text messaging as a 2FA method. Unfortunately, this method is only moderately secure. The reason is because of a scam called SIM swapping.
SIM swapping is where a scammer calls your mobile carrier, convinces them they are you, tells them that you got a new phone, and gets the carrier to port your number to their phone. In that case, the scammer will receive your text messages, among other things. If the scammer has your Coinbase password, they can now get into your Coinbase account and transfer out (steal) all of your cryptocurrency.
SIM swapping can cause severe damage. Just ask Michael Terpin, a renowned cryptocurrency enthusiast who sued AT&T over a SIM swap that resulted in a theft of nearly $24 million in cryptocurrency.
If you have a security key, you should use that for 2FA. Otherwise, we recommend Google Authenticator, which is easy and convenient while providing good security. Someone would need your actual physical phone (and your password, of course) to gain access to your Coinbase account.
1. If you don’t already have the Google Authenticator app, download and install it on your smartphone from the App Store or Google Play store.
2. In Coinbase, click your name in the upper‐right corner of the page, and then click Settings in the drop‐down menu. On the Settings page, click Security. Click the Select button in the Authenticator area of the page.
In the “Confirm settings change” pop‐up, enter the code you receive via text message, and click the Confirm button. There will be a QR code on the “Enable Authenticator Support” pop‐up.
3. Go to the Google Authenticator app on your phone. Tap the + sign and select Scan a QR code. Point your phone to your computer screen so that the Coinbase QR code fits within the green square. You should now see Coinbase listed in the Google Authenticator app, with six digits underneath. These six digits are your 2FA code.
Note that the digits change every 30 seconds, which enhances the security. Enter the six digits onto the “Enable Authenticator Support” pop‐up before time runs out. If time does run out, just enter the new digits that appear. Then click the Enable button.
Now in the future, when you log into Coinbase, you’ll be using the Google Authenticator app for 2FA.
Connecting Your Bank
To buy Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, you’re going to need to add a payment method. We recommend adding a bank account. The reason why we recommend this is so that you can later withdraw funds from Coinbase to your bank account after you sell cryptocurrency. If you’re not comfortable connecting your bank account, you can purchase Ethereum with a credit card.
1. On Coinbase, go to the Settings page. From there, click Payment Methods. From there, click the Add a payment method button. In the “Add a payment method” pop‐up, click Bank Account (or one of the other methods: PayPal, debit card, or wire transfer).
2. In the following pop‐up, it should say that Coinbase uses Plaid (a third‐party service) to link your bank. Click the Continue button.
Select your bank from the list or search to find your bank.
3. Enter your user ID and password for your bank login. Don’t worry. It’s secure. Click the Submit button.
You’ll be asked how you want to verify your identity. Make a selection and click the Continue button.
4. Enter the code that you receive and click the Submit button.
Select which bank account you would like to connect to Coinbase and click the Continue button. It should take about 30 seconds for Coinbase to verify and add your bank account.
Congratulations! Now you can buy cryptocurrency.
Buying Cryptocurrency
Now that you’ve connected your bank, you can buy some cryptocurrency. The first cryptocurrency you should buy is some Ethereum (ETH) to cover the necessary gas fees for listing your NFTs on OpenSea.
The first step is to figure out how much ETH to buy. On Coinbase, the purchases you make are in dollar amounts. In other words, you choose how many dollars’ worth of ETH you want to buy. How much money you should spend on ETH depends on four factors:
· How much ETH you need
· The current gas prices
· The current price of ETH
· A comfortable buffer
Let’s take each factor one at a time. First, listing on OpenSea requires two one‐time gas fees; that is, one for each of the following transactions:
· To initialize your account for making sell orders, which needs to be done only once for your account
· To allow OpenSea to access your item (or all items in the collection, if the collection supports it) when a sale occurs
There’s also a gas fee when you transfer the ETH from Coinbase to your MetaMask wallet. So, you’re looking at three gas fees. But the gas fees aren’t equal. Different types of transactions require different amounts of gas.
Regarding the gas fees for listing on OpenSea, depending on network congestion, we’ve seen it as low as $35 and as high as $812, which is quite a range. Note that that’s the total for the two gas fees required by OpenSea. The gas fee for a simple ETH transaction, such as from Coinbase to your MetaMask wallet, is usually about 1/20 of that total, but it could be a little higher.
To get an estimate of the current gas fees, go to etherscan.io/gastracker. There you’ll see the current gas prices and average transaction times for each price. Gas prices are listed in gwei, which is 0.000000001 ETH (see Figure 7.2).
The dollar value of the gas price shown is equal to the amount of gwei multiplied by the current value of Ethereum (which is the third factor listed earlier). The actual average gas price in Figure 7.2 for an ERC 20 token transfer will be between $2.98 (the amount stated in the Average box) and $9.21 (the amount listed in the Estimated Cost of Transfers & Interactions chart).
As a rule of thumb, to get a rough estimate of how much gas you’ll need, take the former amount ($2.98 in this example) and multiply it by 20 to calculate how much ETH you’ll need for OpenSea gas. Add the latter amount ($9.21 in this example) for the gas required to transfer the ETH from Coinbase to your MetaMask wallet. So, in this example, you would need approximately $2.98 × 20 + $9.21 = $68.81 worth of ETH to cover the gas fees.
FIGURE 7.2 Gas prices on Etherscan’s Ethereum Gas Tracker
To obtain a more accurate amount of how much gas you’ll need to list on OpenSea, we suggest going through the listing process, which is described in detail later in this chapter. During the listing process, you will be shown exactly how much gas is needed. Then return to this section on purchasing your Ethereum.
Finally, gas prices fluctuate and can spike up suddenly. On top of that, it may take a while to get the ETH to your MetaMask wallet. First, the transfer of funds from your bank could take a few days. Second, it’s likely that your first transfer from Coinbase could take a few days because Coinbase usually puts a hold on initial transfers for security reasons to ensure that it’s you making the transaction. Yes, these delays are hassles. But we put up with them because Coinbase is the most trusted and secure exchange.
The bottom line is that gas prices can be vastly different from when you went through the listing process and the time you received the funds in your MetaMask wallet. So, we recommend that you purchase at least twice the estimated amount, with a minimum of $250 of ETH. And even that amount could seriously fall short. Or, you could purchase $100 (or less) of ETH and just wait for gas prices to ease down before listing your NFTs.
If you’re also going to be buying NFTs, then we suggest that you purchase a decent amount of ETH, as that will not only cover the necessary gas fees, but it will also enable you to buy some NFTs as well.
On your Coinbase dashboard, click the Buy/Sell button at the top. In the pop‐up (see Figure 7.3), first select the cryptocurrency that you want to buy. Make sure to select Ethereum.
Then select a dollar amount or click the Custom box to enter a specific amount. If you entered a custom amount, click the Preview Buy button.
Review the amounts and make sure that you’re buying ETH. Coinbase does charge a small fee, which will slightly reduce the amount of ETH you’ll receive. Note that the fees don’t scale proportionately. This means that the fees are a greater percentage of a smaller purchase and a much smaller percentage of a larger purchase. So keep in mind that fees‐wise, it’s always better to make a larger purchase. In any case, we don’t recommend purchasing less than $50 worth.
FIGURE 7.3 Coinbase “Buy” pop‐up
If all looks good, click the Buy now button. It could take a few minutes for the transaction to complete.
Congratulations! You’re now officially in the crypto space.
Funding Your MetaMask Wallet
Now that you’ve bought some Ethereum, it’s time to transfer it to your MetaMask wallet. Please pay close attention to this section. If you make a mistake when moving cryptocurrency, it could be costly. You could potentially lose the amount that you sent. But don’t worry. As long as you pay close attention, you should be fine. And soon, transferring cryptocurrency will be second nature.
1. Log in to Coinbase.
2. Open your MetaMask wallet, and click the wallet address at the top, right under the wallet’s account name. (Please refer to Figure 6.6 in Chapter 6, “Creating and Minting NFTs.”) Your ETH address should now be copied to your computer’s clipboard.
Open TextEdit, Notepad, or any other text editing software, and paste your address there. Ensure that the beginning and end of your address exactly match what’s shown in your MetaMask wallet.
3. Go back to Coinbase. From the home page, click the Send/Receive button in the upper‐right corner. The Send pop‐up will appear (see Figure 7.4).
FIGURE 7.4 Coinbase “Send” pop‐up
First, notice the Pay with section of the pop‐up. If Ethereum is not indicated there, click in the Pay with section and select Ethereum.
4. Paste your address in the To section of the Send pop‐up. Make sure that it matches the address that you pasted into your text editor exactly.
Next, enter the dollar amount of ETH that you want to send. Note that your account’s ETH balance is shown at the bottom of the pop‐up. When ready, click the Continue button.
5. Review all the following information carefully:
o The amount you’re sending
o The address you’re sending to
o The currency you’re sending
Note that the amount stated here may not be exactly what you entered. This is because the price of ETH has changed since you entered the amount.
If, and only if, everything looks good, click the Send now button.
6. Enter the 2FA code, and then click the Confirm button.
If this is your first time sending cryptocurrency from Coinbase, they may put an initial delay on the transaction. Otherwise, the ETH will usually appear in your MetaMask wallet within 10 minutes.
Selling Your NFTs
Now that you’ve got everything set up and have your MetaMask wallet funded, it’s time to test the market and sell your NFTs.
Ways to Sell Your NFT
On OpenSea, there are three ways that you can sell an NFT.
· Leave it open for offers
· Set a price
· Start an auction
You can also group NFTs and sell them as a bundle. There’s no best way to sell your NFTs; it’s really up to how you would like to do it.
Leaving an NFT Open for Offers.
Many NFT creators who aren’t sure how to price their NFTs and aren’t ready to do an auction will simply leave their NFTs open for offers. This means that anyone can make an offer on any of their NFTs. The NFT creator (or the current owner) can choose to accept the offer or not.
This is an excellent way to test the market by seeing how the market values the NFTs. But don’t just sit back and expect offers to come rolling in. That’s not going to happen if no one knows about your NFTs. You still have to market your NFTs if you want to make some sales. (See the section “Marketing Your NFTs” later in this chapter.)
Note that offers on OpenSea usually expire after 10 days and can be canceled anytime by the person who made the offer. So, if you like the offer, don’t delay. You should receive an email from OpenSea every time someone makes an offer on an NFT you own.
Once you mint an NFT, it is automatically on the market since, after all, OpenSea is a marketplace. So, you don’t have to do anything to allow others to make offers on your NFTs.
Setting a Price.
Rather than passively waiting for offers, if you have a price in mind for your NFT, you can list it for that price. Anyone can purchase the NFT by paying the price you set. Note that people can make offers for less than the price, and you are free to accept any such offer.
What’s a reasonable price to set? It’s hard to say because NFTs are unique, which is one reason for their soaring popularity. For example, when selling a house, the price is often determined by recent sales of comparable homes (similar size, same neighborhood, and so forth). If your NFT is part of a series of NFTs, such as a CryptoKitty, you could then use recent sales of other similar CryptoKitties to help determine a reasonable price to set for your NFT.
But if you have a unique piece of art, then finding comparables becomes more abstract. In this case, price, as in most markets, is based upon supply and demand. Is the NFT a “1 of 1,” or are there multiple editions? A “1 of 1” would be more valuable.
Next, you’ll have to gauge the potential demand for your NFT. How big is your following? How excited can you get them about your NFTs? What kind of marketing and promotion will you be doing? (See the section “Marketing Your NFTs” later in this chapter.)
Also, consider the value of any perks or unlockable content that you included with the NFT.
As you can see, pricing is more of an art than a science, particularly when you’re starting out. Just make your best estimate based upon the previously mentioned factors. We do recommend that you start on the higher side rather than lower. First, you never know; someone may grab it at a higher price. Second, like a bottle of wine, a low price conveys low value. Third, you can always reduce the price at any time (and that won’t cost you any gas on OpenSea).
Starting an Auction.
There are two types of auctions that you can conduct on OpenSea: a regular English auction and a Dutch auction.
English Auction
An English auction is a typical auction where bids start low and then increase, with the NFT being awarded to the person who made the highest offer when the auction ends. You’ll need to set a minimum starting bid amount, and you’ll also need to set a reserve price for the auction, which is a minimum price you’re willing to accept for the NFT. If no one made a bid at least as high as the reserve price when the auction ends, the NFT will not be sold.
Note that on OpenSea, if a bid is made within the last 10 minutes of the auction, the remaining time will be increased by 10 minutes. This is to prevent people from sniping an NFT at the last second so that all potential buyers have an opportunity to bid.
Generally, bidding doesn’t heat up until near the very end of the auction, as potential buyers don’t want to show their hand too early. So, if the auction starts out slow, don’t get discouraged.
If the auction ends without a buyer, don’t worry. You can always start another auction for the NFT anytime, list the NFT for a set price, or just leave it open for offers.
Dutch Auction
A Dutch auction is where the price of the NFT starts out high and then slowly decreases over time. The first person to accept the price wins, so there’s not a series of bids like in an English auction. The advantage of a Dutch auction is fear of missing out (FOMO). Participants fear that if they wait too long, someone else will grab the item. And there’s no second chance for bidders. Once someone grabs the NFT, the auction is over.
We recommend setting a starting price significantly higher than what you think the NFT may be worth. You never know; someone might grab it early.
On OpenSea, you’ll get to choose the starting price, ending price, and duration. OpenSea will automatically lower the price in proportional increments until the end date.
Create a Bundle.
Another way that you can sell your NFTs is in a bundle. A bundle is a group of NFTs sold as one package. You can group any NFTs you own together. The advantage of a bundle is where you have a whole set of certain NFTs. For example, people are selling bundles of four Rob Gronkowski NFTs, one of each championship NFT.
Note that when selling a bundle on OpenSea, you can do it only with a set price.
Listing Your NFT for Sale
In this section, we’ll walk you through, step‐by‐step, how to list your NFT for sale. Before following along, we recommend reviewing your collection settings. The way your collection looks and its description are part of how your NFT is presented. Most importantly, check that the ongoing royalty percentage is set how you want it and that your payout address is correct. See Chapter 6, “Creating and Minting NFTs.”
On OpenSea, go to the page of the NFT that you would like to sell. Click the Sell button in the upper‐right corner of the page, and you’ll arrive at the listing page (see Figure 7.5).
The first thing that you should do is to check that your ongoing royalty rate is correct. It should appear toward the bottom of the right column, in the Fees area, under the percent to OpenSea. If you don’t see your collection’s name and the rate you set, or the rate is incorrect, go back and edit your collection settings before proceeding.
FIGURE 7.5 OpenSea listing page
Type of Listing.
If your ongoing royalty looks good, the next step is to choose the type of listing. Select Set Price, Highest Bid (start an English auction), or Bundle. If you would like to start a Dutch auction, select Set Price.
Set Price
Use Figure 7.5 as a guide. The default currency in which to set your price is ETH, which is indicated by the three horizontal lines icon, as shown in Figure 7.6.
FIGURE 7.6 Ethereum icon
This icon is used throughout OpenSea to indicate ETH. Click the icon to select a different currency in which to set your price. Currently, the only other currencies available are DAI and USDC. Both of these are stablecoins, which means that they’re designed to be pegged to the U.S. dollar. So, the value of 1 DAI or 1 USDC equals $1 (or a value extremely close to $1). We recommend setting the price in ETH, as that’s the commonly used currency on OpenSea.
If you want to do a Dutch auction, turn the Include ending price toggle on. Then set the Ending price and the Expiration date, including the time on that date that the Dutch auction will end. If you don’t want to do a Dutch auction, just leave the Include ending price toggle off.
If you want your listing to start in the future, turn the Schedule for a future time toggle on. Select the date and time at which you would like the listing to start.
If you would like to sell the NFT privately (to a specific person), turn the Privacy toggle on. Then enter the buyer’s ETH address. The listing will not be public, and only the person connected to the address that you entered will be able to purchase the NFT.
Highest Bid
Select Highest Bid to start a regular English auction. Use Figure 7.7 as a guide.
First, you should set the Minimum bid. As with Set Price, you can select the currency. We recommend setting a low minimum bid, such as .01 ETH . You can even leave it at 0 too. If you want to convey a high value, you can set a higher minimum bid, but be aware that it may hamper getting that initial bid.
Next, you need to set a Reserve price. A reserve price is required on OpenSea, and it must be at least 1 ETH. As mentioned, if the highest bid at the end of the auction is not at least as high as the reserve price, then the auction will end without a sale. So, don’t make the reserve price too high.
FIGURE 7.7 OpenSea Highest Bid setup
You can accept any bid before or after the auction ends on OpenSea.
Finally, you’ll need to set the Expiration Date of the auction, including the time on that date that the auction will end. It’s good to give yourself enough time to spread the word about the auction. On the other hand, it’s advantageous to create a sense of urgency, which would favor a shorter auction duration. We suggest five days, but three and seven are fine too. Note that you cannot currently set the auction to start at a future date on OpenSea.
Bundle
Select Bundle to sell two or more NFTs as a bundle. You will be taken to your account page to select which NFTs to include in the bundle. Simply click an NFT to select it. When done, click the Sell Bundle of button at the bottom of the page (the number of NFTs that you selected will be indicated on the button). You’ll be taken back to the listing page, as shown in Figure 7.8.
The first thing to do is to give your bundle a name. We suggest having a descriptive name, so potential buyers won’t have to guess or be confused about what’s in the bundle, for example, GRONK Super Bowl Championship Bundle. However, feel free to get creative as well.
The remaining options are identical to the Set Price options discussed earlier. Please refer to that section.
Posting Your Listing.
Now that you’ve set all the parameters for your listing, make sure that everything looks good in the summary area on the right side of the listing page. See Figure 7.5 earlier in this chapter.
If everything looks good, click the Post Your Listing button. If this is the first time listing an NFT for your account, your MetaMask wallet should pop open, showing the required gas fee that you need to pay. If your MetaMask wallet didn’t automatically pop open, then open it manually. Note that the total fee is the same as the gas fee.
FIGURE 7.8 OpenSea Bundle setup
If gas fees are currently high or your balance is too low to cover the gas fees, you can reject the transaction and try listing the NFT later. If you need to add ETH to your MetaMask wallet, follow the procedures laid out earlier in this chapter.
If everything looks good, click the Confirm button in your MetaMask wallet. Your transaction may take a few minutes to be confirmed by the Ethereum network. It may take a little longer if network congestion is high, so please be patient. After the transaction is confirmed, you may also have to confirm a small transaction to approve WETH spending. See Chapter 8 regarding WETH. After that is complete, your NFT should be listed. Congratulations! You’ve got an NFT for sale.
The next time that you list an NFT (and all future times as well) in your account, you won’t have to pay any fees. When you click Post Your Listing, your MetaMask wallet will pop open. This time, all you’ll have to do is click the Sign button. Note that if you create a new OpenSea account, you’ll need to pay gas fees for your first listing in the new account.
Now that you’ve got an NFT for sale, it’s time to get some potential buyers interested and excited. For that, we turn to marketing your NFT.
Marketing Your NFTs
One of the biggest fallacies of accomplished businesses, entertainers, and celebrities is the idea of “overnight success.” We crave these stories because it makes anything attainable to anyone by the mere stroke of luck. The NFT space is flush with dreams of overnight successes. Because this space is new to many onlookers, perhaps like yourself, it can be easy to look at successful NFT sales as overnight successes. Whether or not they were established artists with an audience prior to their foray into NFTs, we assume that they dropped an NFT, people magically found it, and then decided to spend money on it. We routinely overlook the backend grunt work to find buyers and market the NFT, skipping straight to the end result.
If you create and mint an NFT today, post about it on social media tomorrow, and drop it on a marketplace the following day, you likely won’t get a single bite. Why?
First, there’s competition. There are more than enough NFTs out there to go around. And if you don’t communicate why yours is valuable, people simply won’t care. There are alternatives. And just because it makes sense in your mind, if you don’t establish a rapport with collectors, then they’ll never see this same value.
Second, your existing reputation doesn’t automatically translate to an NFT reputation. We have seen countless celebrities with 10 million or more followers who cannot get a single bid on their NFTs. We have seen artists with a strong history of physical art sales transition to the digital landscape and flop. We won’t divulge who these examples are, as there’s nothing to be gained by dragging them through the mud. Realistically, all we can learn is that selling NFTs is complex and not to be taken lightly, no matter who you are.
Third, there’s no NFT algorithm that will promote and grow your NFT collector base. This isn’t Twitter or Instagram, where you’re always a couple of hashtags and an Explore page or Trending page away from going viral. We’ve become accustomed to growing algorithmically and creating content that appeals to what the algorithm will deliver to people. But there’s no algorithm on any NFT marketplaces. You have to send the buyers to your NFT. Nobody else will do it for you. Even if you convince the curators at OpenSea to put you on the home page, it doesn’t guarantee sales. We browse their curated selections all the time and often see the same NFTs for a week on the featured home page with no sales.
This shouldn’t scare you, though. “You have to realize that behind the $69 million sales…there’s very modest prices that are supporting a lot of legitimate artists,” NFT artist Matt Kane said in a CNBC interview.
Not every NFT is going to knock it out of the park and command six‐figure prices. And your goal shouldn’t be to make a couple of NFTs that will instantly provide you with enough money to retire on Easy Street. It’s just not likely to happen. However, with the right marketing strategy, you can create a collector base that wants to support your work long‐term. You can carve out a slice of this growing market and build a supplemental revenue stream that’s meaningful to you.
How? Well, NFT sales are all about community.
Building a Community
Marketing an NFT today is more similar to marketing a podcast than anything else. You can record a podcast and drop it on Spotify and Apple Music, but no one is going to find it unless you have a creative way to promote it. There’s no algorithm. You have to build your following. You have to decide who your audience will be and what angle your podcast is going to take. How are you reaching this audience? What are you doing to entice them to listen for the first time? Within the podcast’s content, what value are you providing to listeners that will make them want to come back? Finally, are you creating something that your core listeners want to share with their friends, thus giving you an additional growth opportunity?
With regard to NFTs, you need to think about the same questions when building a community of collectors. Your existing fans have followed you for a plethora of other reasons over the years, and you’re introducing them to something entirely new in NFTs, which they may or may not care about. Your existing audience may not even be the people who come to collect your NFTs. That’s something to think about as well.
We often see podcasts fall trap to the copy‐cat philosophy. A podcast gets so good at growing its community of listeners that others copy them nearly identically. Look at what Serial did for the True Crime genre of podcasts. It’s become the most prominent style of podcast production, creating countless spin‐offs with a slight twist.
This applies to NFTs too. Specifically, a complete copying of art aesthetics. There are thousands of NFTs that use the Pokémon card format to encapsulate their artwork. The success of the 8‐bit CryptoPunks project spurred an entire revolution of computer‐generated 8‐bit NFT projects.
It works for some, but ultimately by copying others, you create a ceiling on the size of your community of collectors simply because you’ll never surpass the original creator.
In this vein, there’s no template or quick hack to follow for building your community of collectors. It’s going to be different for everyone. What worked for Qu’s NFT won’t work for Matt’s NFT, and so on and so forth.
The bottom line is that everyone’s NFT marketing strategy should revolve around building a community of collectors. This can be 3 people or 3,000 people. But the end goal here is to create superfans of your digitized assets — people who will take pride in saying that they were an early collector of your work. Your NFT collectors might come from you educating and converting your existing fans. They might represent an entirely new audience. By focusing on building your community of collectors, you create a long‐term growth strategy that will carry you for years, not for one NFT release.
The tactics and tricks that worked once won’t necessarily work again. But the principles behind what you should do are sound.
Know Your Audience.
When Blake Jamieson started making art professionally in 2016, he leaned into the connections that he had from his previous career in marketing to determine the direction of his art. In his interview with CNBC, he intelligently relayed what all great marketers know, “Who are you serving, and what problem are you solving?” Having a big backlog of tech clients for whom he provided services as a marketer, there was one thing that stood out to him about these high‐growth tech startups: Their offices lacked color. So, his tagline became “I make art for offices.” His career took off, creating all types of artwork for office spaces.
As his following grew, he made the sound move of talking with his audience. One of those audience members was former NFL wide receiver Jarred Fayson. Fayson loved Blake’s work and knew his style could go far with other athletes. So, Fayson asked Jamieson to create three works free of charge for a few of his athlete friends on the basis that they’d promote his work, and naturally, other athletes would come inbound. Jamieson trusted Fayson and went with his plan, which worked wonderfully. Jamieson began getting DMs from athletes who saw his work in their teammates’ lockers. Jamieson changed his tagline to “I make art for athletes” almost immediately thereafter. Ultimately, his work within the athletic space would get him recognized by Topps, the sports cards creator, and Jamieson was employed for the insanely successful Topps Project 2020 — a project that brought artists from all disciplines to reimagine 20 iconic baseball cards in their own style.
That same year, Jamieson began his foray into NFTs. Armed with the knowledge of who his audience is, Jamieson has leaned into the Pop Art meets Athlete Portraits and has had great success thus far selling his NFTs. But this is the case only because he spent time learning about his audience and pivoting to create art that satisfies both himself and what his audience desires.
How do you get to know your audience?
Talk to your fans. Plain and simple. It sounds straightforward because it is. But so many people don’t do it. Many of us forget that there are actual people behind the accounts that follow us. And they’re there for a reason. Find out why and build from there.
What does your audience expect from you? Why do they follow you? Is it your art they rock with, or is it you that they rock with? There’s a difference.
Once you know your audience, you can begin the process of education—both educating them on NFT collecting and also why you’re getting into NFTs.
Content Marketing and Education.
How do you market your Instagram account? Through content, of course. The same applies to NFTs. If the content doesn’t resonate with people, you’ll never sell an NFT. Sharing your work is where NFT sales start.
There’s a great book by Austin Kleon called Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Workman Publishing Company, 2014), which describes the importance of, you guessed it, showing your work as you’re creating it. He outlines 10 principles of getting your work noticed:
1. You don’t have to be a genius.
2. Think process, not product.
3. Share something small every day.
4. Open up your cabinet of curiosities.
5. Tell good stories.
6. Teach what you know.
7. Don’t turn into human spam.
8. Learn to take a punch.
9. Sell out.
10.Stick around.
The principles apply to artists, designers, web developers, and comedians—you name it. And the same can be said for NFT creators.
If this is your first day studying NFTs, then don’t be afraid to showcase the process of you learning about NFTs. Make a video of you researching, asking questions of NFT experts, and learning about NFTs. Hop on FaceTime with an NFT artist and make a video of your discussion. Show the process of creating your NFTs and the thought that’s going into why you’re making this or that NFT.
You have to warm people up to your eventual NFT drop because NFTs are new to 99 percent of people. Many people make the mistake of waiting until the day before, the day of, or the day after their NFT release to tell their fans about their NFT. Ultimately, they find that many of their fans aren’t even prepared to buy an NFT. They don’t have a digital wallet. They don’t have any cryptocurrency. They don’t understand why there’s value in buying and collecting digital assets.
You have to create hype and demand for your NFT, and that means showing your work to them in stages. Wherever your audience is (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, an email list, and so on), continue communicating with them there. You don’t need to create an entirely new channel for your NFT voyage.
In this process of talking about your foray into NFTs, you might find that there are people in your audience who know about NFTs. They may give you some guidance. They may even tell you what they want to collect from you and become one of your first buyers.
Pplpleasr (pronounced “people pleaser”) is an excellent example of an NFT artist who shows her work. Even though she’s “made it” as an NFT artist by many people’s standards, she continues to update her following on what she’s thinking about next. Recently, she put herself out there by publishing criticisms of the centralized nature of NFT marketplaces. It’s a courageous move to expose oneself like this, but she’s sharing her process of learning. And she’s not afraid to ask questions, have theories, and foster discussions.
One of the NFT artists that QuHarrison is collecting avidly is the Kingdom of Assassin’s manga, created by Elmer Damaso and Erik Mackenzie. The NFTs they’re releasing are nothing more than pictures of the sketches they made for the manga series. Even though the manga comic books have been out for years, Qu is drawn to the ability of owning the work that predated the finals. He’s collecting their process of showing their work.
Content marketing your NFT serves many purposes, from educating your audience about NFTs to gauging their interest in owning them to creating new audience members who find you through this content. The more time that you spend sharing and creating content about NFTs, the more time you give yourself to find collectors.
Converse with Collectors.
It’s not hard to find NFT collectors. You can go straight to Foundation or OpenSea and find the owner of any NFT. Some of these accounts have their Twitter handle on their profile. It doesn’t hurt to reach out to them.
There are people behind these wallets and NFT transactions. Many of them are delighted to talk with newbies in the NFT space and share their insights.
Ask them why they bought certain pieces in their collection. Was it for investment, speculation, the aesthetic of the piece, supporting the artist, to create a revenue stream from owning that artwork, or some other reason that you cannot fathom? Ask them which NFT artists are designing their NFT drops well. Be curious and ask them what you want to know.
Every great marketer talks to their customer. They learn from them and come to know them front to back. Then they design things that appeal to them and provide them value.
Not to get your hopes up, but we’ve even heard stories from “NFT whales”—accounts known for buying a lot of NFTs—getting a DM from an NFT artist politely asking them to check out their NFTs, which they do and go on to purchase.
You never know what direction these conversations with existing NFT collectors will take. Regardless, they’ve been in the NFT space longer than you and have a wealth of knowledge to share. Not to mention that they’ve been convinced in some way or another to spend their money on digital assets. That alone is interest enough around which to start a conversation.
Market Making
The heavy lifting of marketing your NFT is all the work you do finding collectors up until dropping your NFTs. But once you know who your collectors are and have prepared them for your NFTs, now you have to create the market for your NFTs. You have to get your collectors aligned and ready for your drop.
In the stock world, pre‐IPO companies go on these trips called roadshows. Before their IPO, a company will go around to investment banks and convince them why they’re the hottest new stock in the game. The bankers review the financials, set the price, get their pre‐IPO deals, and then take it to the public market. Because of this work on market‐making, companies now have several bankers who’ve bought into the company’s vision, also acting as marketing vessels on their behalf. They’re writing press releases, going on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, and just generally spreading the gospel of the stock.
Market‐making for NFTs is similar. You need to do your own “IPO roadshow,” preparing people for your drop. This means speaking with your interested collectors around pricing, the number of editions, perks they might think would be enticing, and so forth. Ideally, in this process, you get some commitments from your potential collectors to start the bidding on drop day.
Editions, Perks, and Price.
The purpose of market‐making is to create demand among many collectors. If there’s only one customer for a product, then it’s not a market. A market consists of many buyers. Therefore, the number of editions that you release, the price of each edition, and the NFT’s perks should all align to maximize the number of collectors in your market.
The number of editions that you drop is your supply. If we think back to rudimentary economics, where your supply and demand meet is the optimal price. Too much supply, and people will think your price is overvalued, and thus demand decreases. Too little supply, and you leave money on the table by not fulfilling demand. We recommend erring on the side of lesser supply, given that you can still collect a royalty on resales. However, this is where your grunt work of finding collectors will come in handy. Do you want everyone who desires your NFTs to have one? Then drop many editions of the same piece. Would you prefer that your NFTs are more exclusive and something to be sought after? Then go lower on the number of editions.
A great example of this is DJ Skee’s collaboration with Topps on the Project70 sports cards. He’s played around with market‐making dynamics by allowing the market demand to determine the supply of each card. He sells each card for only three days. The number of people who buy is how many editions they create. It will be interesting to see how his collectibles fare on the resale market, since you could make the argument that initially lower‐demand cards become more exclusive in the long run.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways of determining your NFT supply.
Another point to consider when market‐making is the perks that you offer to NFT buyers. Physical perks open up the demand for your NFTs to more people, given that you can tie your NFT to a physical experience that may have more value in the eyes of collectors.
Famous hip‐hop artist A$AP Rocky dropped seven different NFTs in April 2021. The main attraction of the NFTs was a “1 of 1” NFT containing an unreleased A$AP Rocky song snippet titled $ANDMAN. While the unreleased music itself was enticing, he added to the appeal by including an in‐person recording studio session with him. This opened up the demand base from just A$AP fans to other musical artists who might want to get in the studio with him, as well as others who might just want to see what it’s like for A$AP to make the magic happen. Ultimately, the piece sold for more than $50,000.
What can you provide as perks to add to the initial demand for your NFTs? In the conversations you’ve had with collectors, what did they say they would love to have or do with you?
From a longevity perspective, it can be a big trap to lean too heavily on the perks to drive the price of your NFT. Whatever you can do to cultivate your community of collectors is advised. However, don’t get trapped in the mindset that these physical experiences are the NFT because they’re not. These are marketing tactics at their core. And once perks are redeemed, they no longer add value to owning that NFT.
And then we get to the price. The main advice that we can provide is to align your price with your goal. This depends entirely on your collectors and what they’re willing to spend. Set it at what you think is fair to them, and don’t overthink it. Nobody truly knows what an NFT is worth. It’s entirely what someone is willing to pay. Once again, it’s usually better to start low and build an avid collectorship than it is to shoot for the moon out of the gate.
This brings us to one of the better market‐making tactics out there today: free NFTs.
Free NFTs.
A great way to get people excited about your work is simply to give it away to people for free. It sounds counterintuitive that something you give away for free would ever have value in the future. However, a lot of hit NFT projects today started out free. Whether it’s CryptoPunks, which gave away all 10,000 Punks from the start, or Beeple, who made all of his work open in the Creative Commons for more than a decade, they provided value to people first and benefited monetarily later.
Your goal in market‐making is to build momentum and interest in your NFTs. The more people who you can get collecting your pieces, the greater their appeal because now they become items to desire.
Jessica Ragzy, for example, is a LEGO Masters Finalist. She’s a big deal in the world of LEGOs. And she sells her LEGO‐inspired NFTs at a meager price to get collectors involved. Every day she drops a new piece that is as low as $50 or so to buy. Could she demand a higher price? Most likely. However, she’s building a collector base.
If it cost people $500+ to buy a pack of baseball cards from Topps, the number of collectors out there would be a fraction of what it is today. But for a few dollars, you can get into their universe and start collecting.
There’s something to be said about foregoing monetary gain initially, whether through free NFTs or low‐priced NFTs, so that everyone can get involved. Not only do you grow your collector base through this process, but you also allow your early collectors to benefit later from resales. And if you can create an NFT that helps someone else make a little money in the future, then they’re going to keep coming back for more and will happily tell the world about how great your NFTs are.
Put in the Work
The same way that we started this section on NFT marketing is how we’ll close it. There are no overnight successes in NFTs. Show us a successful NFT sale, and we’ll tell you about the work they put into marketing their NFT beforehand.
Some people have an easier time marketing and selling their NFTs than others. Some people may have used a marketing process that seems like a formula. But there are no formulas for marketing your NFT—just hard work, lots of sharing, conversing with people, and finding a way to cut through the noise.