How to NFT, 1.5 years of lessons on 1 page:
The NFT documents: Excerpts from my conversations on NFTs and the Crypto space in general
Future organization: NFTs for artists and creators, NFTs for collectors and investors, crypto basics, NFT and crypto security
This is the crash course, if you make it through all this (good luck lol) and want the advanced stuff and specific artists/collectors to watch let me know and I'll compile it for you, just make a fortune with this info and buy me a 2005 BMW m3 and we'll call it even :D Seriously, they are only about $8k which is a shockingly small fraction of what these NFTs are selling for! If you have any questions just ask me! Better to ask then make an expensive mistake, I'm honestly happy to help.
Fundamentally NFTs are a way to have a easily verifiable "original" (or limited series) of digital art or music. Its a subtle but revolutionary thing for art, especially digital art. It also allows people to buy, sell and trade art all over the world, instantly, day or night. This is all done on the "blockchain" more on that later. This also enables people to "flex" online where no one can see their fancy cars or houses or clothes.
So as I mentioned Twitter is the nervous system of the crypto/NFT world, I'd suggest start by following me there:
https://twitter.com/pjoart , look through my posts they are all extraordinarily talented people who I think also have the key elements for making it big in the next year.
The companion to twitter is Discord, its a online chat/social hub where anyone can set up their own little community and chat, share photos, videos, anything and its all live and real time. Most projects and almsot all large projects have their own Discord set up. Its strange at first but you get used to it quickly. Theres just too much information to miss on discord servers.
Both of these are perfect for NFTs because they disseminate information so quickly.
One of the most powerful things about minting artwork on the blockchain is it creates a permanent record that is more secure than any bank and even if half the world dissapears the info on the blockchain is safe and secure. No one can take it away from you, not even all the hackers in the world or the full force of a government... as long as you follow proper safetly practices.
The main sites are http://opensea.io for ethereum and http://objkt.com for Tezos. I highly recommend starting on tezos as it has the most potential for growth, the most active community of artists and transaction fees are pennies instead of ethereum which, if you do it at the wrong time, can cost over $400 to buy ANY nft, even a $5 one... so I advise friends and family to get their experience on a chain like tezos before investing in ethereum NFTs. (currently its much much cheaper since the economy took a dive)
Quick tip on ethereum the gas fees fluctuate depending on activity so if you wait until for example saturday/sunday night the gas fee (transaction fee) can be as low as $6 which compares nicely against the same transaction costing you $500 like it can midweek when the market is hot and active! Most people dont realize this and lose a fortune in gas fees/transaction costs. You can check fees many places, here is one:
https://etherscan.io/gastracker in particular look at the transaction cost section in the middle.
Top projects to research on ethereum would be BAYC (boreD ape yacht club, yes really), cryptopunks, doodles, and so on, they sell for hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, many were purchased for around $100 or less just a year or two ago... some just a few months ago! Obviously these are too expensive but you'll get an idea of what to look for in the future.
Which brings up the point that there are two main classes of NFTs right now. The first is art from individual artists, and the second is more of a collectible market where a team of people get together and procedurally (use computers to) generate thousands of unique collectible pieces of "art" with varying/random rarity. This is a huge caveat that most people dont realize... so many projects that you see their items selling for $250,000 ... well there are 5 pieces in the collection of 10,000 worth that much, the rest are worth substantially less. There are MANY exceptions like I think the floor price (the lowest priced item in that collection) for cryptopunks is $750,000.
You'll need a wallet for ethereum I recommend metamask, it can also handle lots of other cryptos used for NFTs like Polygon/Matic and others:
https://metamask.io
And for tezos I like:
https://templewallet.com
Then go over to opensea for viewing, buying and minting ethereum NFTs:
https://opensea.io
And for tezos http://Objkt.com is a great starting point:
https://objkt.com
Here is my personal collection over on Objkt, these are mostly speculative, some are gifts from other artists, some of them well known. I have put everything I have into this collection. There are MANY in there that I got for several dollars that I believe will be worth thousands if not tens of thousands in the next 1-4 years:
https://objkt.com/profile/pjoart/owned
And my creations on Tezos:
https://objkt.com/@pjoart
And my opensea account:
https://opensea.io/Pjo
and my work on rarible:
https://rarible.com/pjo
AND my work on Foundation, which is a (formerly) invite only platform for artists but anyone can buy there... and where MANY big players buy/sell:
https://foundation.app/@pjo
One aspect we didnt get a chance to cover is that while there is a chance that someone will randomly find and buy your NFT for an exorbinant price (it happens daily), generally you have to show your art to collectors on twitter and build a following. There is a giant and very supportive community but there are also communities within that cater to specific blockchains (Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, ect) or to specific styles or types of art (generated by code, painted by hand, painted digitally, 3d, ect).
This process can be fast-tracked by having someone (like me :D) introduce you and tell you where to go, and who to show your work to but its not an instant thing. Thats not to say it cant happen quickly, projects "moon" (wildly successful) on a regular basis and make a couple hundred thousand dollars in a couple days but thats the exception not the rule.
Its all about reaching a critical mass of interest and exposure, once you get past that it comes alive and starts to grow almost by itself. Your connections and clients probably already have this covered but some special detail will help since NFTs are so new most people dont know how to buy them yet.
Everything you guys produce could (and should!) end up as an NFT. Most NFTs are either images (some animated as GIFs), or music or videos. We talked about the Irons tribute and that was a prime example, could be done so many ways!
The market is down right now and everyone that been through these dips (bear markets) knows that this is the time to make connections, build your project or work on your art collection. The people that are still in are the ones that are not only usually more influential but they are the one that will be at the top when everyone else comes back. This has happened several times now.
Minting is writing your work to the blockchain, this is usually done on massive sites like opensea.io or foundation.app but you can write your own custom contracts too. Opensea has millions of pieces of art on it and Foundation is more curated. Having a distinctive look/style or memorable reccuring subjects or characters will help your work stand out. So will having a dedicated following or friends with lots of followers to share and retweet your work.
Go after big fish. One of the great things about the NFT space is you can engage just about anyone no matter how famous they are. It might take some gentle persistance but you can reach just about anyone. Just try to offer helpful insights or humor and share and retweet their posts as you would want someone to do for yours.
Here are two great strategies to get you started. The first is find art you like, and follow the artists that made it, and see who THEY follow. Also see who collected their work and follow them as well. The next is look for who the biggest collectors are on twitter and on the NFT sites (they will usually have a top buyers/sellers section) and see who they are buying from. Look for art or projects that resonate with you.
One of my top strategies is to look for big name Ethereum artists who also have work on smaller/cheaper chains like Tezos and purchase their work there. It wont be long before prices equalize. For example I have one particular artist whos work I bought on tezos for about $30 while his ethereum NFTs are selling for around $10k each for similar art. However be warned its unlikely but possible that tezos (or other smaller chains) will be gone in a year or two, this is all new technology, each chain will find its niche but some wont make it.
Research the artists background, how long have they been active, will they be around to promote their work in the future, are they kind, do they have a lot of followers on other social medias that will bolster their NFT demand, are they distinctive, are they pushing the envelope or breaking new ground, do they employ cheap tricks for attention or do they carry themselves with grace and engage meaningfully...
Other chains to watch out for are Solana/SOL, Matic/Polygon, Binanace/BNB, ASH, WAX, Chainlink, Cardano
Here is an excerpt thats kind of inside info I recently gave to a new artist:
In some cases these days it seems like the art quality is almost secondary. I'll give you a few tips that have worked for me, firstly when I made the most progress I was focusing on accumulating followers by showing my work as much as possible (without being annoying) and engaging with people as much as possible, helping whenever I could. I did the best when I was posting a lot for example in October I made 1016 tweets and gained 539 followers. Its directly correlated to the amount I was tweeting. I'd say thats the goal, 1k tweets a month. It sounds like a lot but if you do it every day its really not that much. As for your work you have some insight and more skill than many, but if you look at the most successful NFT artists their work is DISTINCTIVE, there is no mistaking it for anyone elses work except those that copy them. Also they often have repeating elements or subjects. I spent my life studying anatomy and technique and while it gives me great joy its not what sells. So my advice would be to stay true to yourself but develop your style to be a sort of highly developed/concentrated version. This is something I'm workin on myself. The other thing is to post and post often but make it meaningful, I think this is actually the most important element currently. Be helpful, be kind, be generous, put in the time, and you will succeed. Good luck!
Some of my favorite crypto news and info sources on youtube:
crypto tips (the couple in portugal, hes a big wave surfer)
https://youtube.com/channel/UCavTvSwEoRABvnPtLg0e6LQ
Guy from coin bureau, hes great
https://youtube.com/channel/UCqK_GSMbpiV8spgD3ZGloSw
Benjamin cowen hes pretty hardcore data driven crypto
https://youtube.com/channel/UCRvqjQPSeaWn-uEx-w0XOIg
Mark moss, precious metals crypto n finance
https://youtube.com/channel/UC9ZM3N0ybRtp44-WLqsW3iQ
Alex Becker This guy is hilarious and great motivation, check out his business videos but hes new to crypto
https://youtube.com/channel/UCKQvGU-qtjEthINeViNbn6A
Well for most people the rush is to get onto invite only sites like http://foundation.app, superrare, knownorigin, nifty gateway because thats where a lot of the big sales come from. I had the same experience, I recently sold my first big piece on foundation for .5 eth which is how I got the invite to pass on. I think the barrier to entry makes collectors feel more secure spending that kind of money. I've seen people selling invites and doing shady stuff but I dont roll that way, thats why I made art contests for the first couple I gave away, plus its good exposure for me since I'm relatively new to the art world in general, I used to be a website programmer haha.
Things are changing and changing quickly! If I had gotten into all this 2 months earlier I might have been able to retire by now lol. Everyday I see people selling out their PFPs (profile picture projects) and cashing in their NFTs for houses... honestly its inspiring and a little demoralizing at the same time! I see "stuff", to put it kindly, selling for $200,000 and legitimate art from people who will (or at least should) probably go down in history sell for a hundred dollars... it will all balance out though. Then again everyone is a collector now so anything goes, and I actually think thats a good thing as I've never seen so many people take an intertest in art in general.
To help speed up the process I'd say post often, I was posting around 700 tweets a month and getting 500+ followers each month. It sounds like a lot but if you just talk to people and offer advice or help and ask questions you get there in no time and you learn SO much and meet so many great people. The other thing is posting to "shill" threads but focus on either artists threads or people big in the community not the "i have 800 eth to spend today" thats usually bullshit. Look for threads where you tag other artists, those did really well for me, tag people you like and they will start tagging you. Thats how I got my big sale too. Another big one is participate in events, like objkt4objkt and hen500k and so on. I'll start tagging you in artist threads too. Another big thing is help out the new people, they usually get ignored but they will become your friends and some will do well and maybe be able to buy your work :D it seems like 1500-2000 followers is the magic number where the big sales start getting consistent and thats also the range when people seem to sell their PFP project with some success. It can happen much sooner especially if you have a following in other places, you can leverage that as well. The first 100-500 followers was a nightmare for me, took forever, I had almost no social media presence.
Oh also watch out for scammers, they will try to get you to send them eth or tez 1000 different ways, or try to get access to your wallet, always read the detail in the wallet popups. Also some great tezos sites are http://hic.af , http://objkt.com , http://henext.xyz , and NFTbikers tools are amazing over at https://nftbiker.xyz and for eth in addition to the ones I mentioned check out http://rarible.com , http://opensea.io and makerplace, they are the biggest by volume and anyone can join, no invite needed but theres a TON of "stuff" on those two sites so its easy to get lost in the mess. Oh yea be aware of the additional fees some platforms have, like foundation takes a cut but again a lot of big sales happen on those type of sites so its usually a worthwhile tradeoff.
Almost forgot I noticed you were almost at 1k followers (NICE job btw, that was fast!) and its great to do a giveaway contest or high edition/low cost special piece to celebrate milestones like that. For example : "To celebrate 1k I'm giving away art, to enter follow me and tag 2 of your friends in the comments" type of thing.
I was never into social media but now I'm realizing it could have changed my life! Everything felt foreign and I was worried about messing something up lol. Just experiment with responding and quoting and quote tweets are really useful too. If you want you can practice on my account/posts to see how they work out and delete anything that goes wrong. Those artist threads I tag you in, just click on them and scroll up the top to see what the original thread is about, some want links but many dont now, just pictures of your art, its great exposure and people see your name and click on it. The ones I tag you in are usually people who are very active, helpful and influential. Mistakes are common so dont worry about anything like that, everyone is just various degrees of new in this space haha.
My address is pjoart.tez and pjoart.eth but if your using a wallet that needs a full address its tz1SttNDfdAmxKwNz5Yqb2PjUhueZJT7kQ7D if you're using temple wallet you go to "collectibles" then scroll down or search it, click on it, then scroll down again to "send" and fill in the info. Send me your address too, I have a gift for you, I've been saving these skull paintings that I love just to give to my friends who are artists and I'd like to send you one.
One side tip tho I'd sell your full paintings on Foundation for significantly more. I see the price gap equalizing but tezos NFTs still sell for less overall thats why I tend to sell my sketches and explorations on tezos and my full paintings on foundation or other Eth based sites... BUT I think tezos is also better for building a following from the ground up and generally much cheaper and more pleasant to use...Also dont worry most of my favorite artists made some sort of mistake on their first auction or big drop, its expected, its all so new, no one knows what they're doing yet, its part of the fun :D
As for minting work you made in the past, no one cares, in fact I've seen many collectors turn DOWN the originals even when they were free with the NFT! Blows my mind. I'd want the material the artist interacted with physically every time... anyway I've seen lots of people successfully offer NFTs of older work, Serge Marshennikov is a good example hes NFTing work from years ago. I say go for it. I think most think of NFTs as totally separate things. I also know some artists who are NFTing their works JUST to preserve them since the blockchains will likely outlast any physical materials! ... I was going to play devils advocate and say the collectors with the originals or prints might not want new "editions" made but honestly it would just increase the value of their prints and originals so everyone should be happy. The biggest no-no I've seen so far was a guy tried to move a NFT from tezos over to ethereum and sell it for 10x the price WITHOUT the artists approval and without carrying over the artist % portion of the NFT contract, all his social medias got so bombarded they locked up and he reversed it and apologized profusely lol. I think its only a matter of time before that becomes common though, moving between chains.
If your on the tezos chain these tools are indispensable for me: https://nftbiker.xyz and https://hicetnunc.tools let me know when you get bored of those there are more :D
Just wanted to get in touch becuase until recently I didnt feel comfortable investing others money but with the market so far down its an excellent time to start becuase I feel it really cant get much lower. Its at the level now of its most fundamental utility and use so this should be a very stable base. So the market is down in some cases 90% but to me this means we have a minimum of 90% growth from here and we were no where near the potential of where crypto can go. I cant say how high things will get or promise a specific return but I was seeing in some cases 20x and up to 60x on some crypto investments. Those are high risk, I'd reccomend a balance between a majority invested in exstablished cryptos that have good fundamental technologies and bring something unique to the table, then add in the high risk/high reward long shots that offer disruptive gound breaking features and get those ridiculous multipliers that get sensationalized.
I'm not a day trader, everything I've seen points to good long term (relatively) investments based on solid fundamentals and let the fact that the blockchains are going to change our lives, and replace established institutions, be the vehicle that provides the uniquely lucrative returns.