Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained huge traction over the last few months due to sensational headlines about prices and content. At the centre of the buzz lies digital art, which makes up a good portion of currently available NFTs.
And so, anyone who’s inspired to become an NFT creator will usually try their hands at creating digital works. This is with the hopes of either making one good enough to sell independently or convincing other people that their NFTs do indeed have value.
The question of how to sell NFT art is commonly overlooked before the purchase of an NFT. Nevertheless, there are technical and methodical steps to follow before and after the acquisition/creation of any NFT art piece.
Overview On How to Sell NFT Art
- Can I Sell NFTs Right Away?
- Digitizing Your Career as an NFT Creator
- Fabricating a Demand (also as an NFT Creator)
Can I sell NFT art?
Actually… yes! You can sell ANY kind of digital asset as an NFT creator. Be it a wonderful piece of satirical imagery or some random effortless scribbles. So long as you are officially registered on an NFT marketplace platform and own a crypto wallet, you are allowed to upload in any form you wish.
Of course, the trick is to masterfully convince your target customer base that your NFT is worth the amount you are asking for it. This is where the fork in the road comes into view. Initially, you could go with more traditional or expected paths, such as consolidating your career as a digital artist. Alternatively (or eventually), you could simply focus on anything that would provide a net profit, so long as it is directly related to NFT art.
So how to sell NFT art basically boils down to either skill (career) or strategy (marketing), with the additional basic requirement of learning and adapting to the digital landscape of where you are selling them.
4 Things to consider when you want to create and sell NFT art
If you already have a career in digital art design, it may be worth extending your reach towards the blockchain. Create a crypto wallet and choose any of the popular NFT marketplaces we discussed before.
NFT art sold over can vary greatly in theme and composition. However, we can still observe a few patterns that may help you decide how to create your art style:
1 – (Almost) nothing classical
NFT art is intentionally designed to be optimized for the digital medium. As such, there is no strict requirement to be good at perspective or any other classical techniques. Sure, freshly made Jackson Pollock-style scribbles are going to be a hard sell, but it is not impossible with the right theme or message.
2 – The dreamier, the better… but maintain a theme
Modern art tends to forego physical accuracies and take whatever visual aesthetic could deliver the intended emotion and tone. The same applies to NFT art, although you need to remember to maintain its theme (in other words, keep it obvious enough).
3 – Make it directly usable or provided some utility (on other things)
Make your NFT art into a literal graphical asset. If you have a 3D model of some unique object that you have fabricated, it can be sold as an NFT to someone that might be interested in using it somewhere… interactive.
4 – Sell your brand outside
you shouldn’t just keep your NFTs on a marketplace and expect them to become as expensive as a Beeple art. Reach beyond your blockchain network. Maybe open a Twitter account, and start posting samples of your work. Create a website that details the finer workings of your revolutionary style. Do anything (legal) that will get the attention of the masses.
Don’t expect to be instantly big off the art alone
As we hinted earlier, simply focusing on your career as a digital artist will not guarantee you will profit from them. First, you need time to attract a large enough audience. Second, you have to initially sell stuff at (much) lower costs. Lastly, you need to apply the rest of the stuff we are about to discuss below.
Create a Demand for your NFT
But how to sell NFT art when you don’t have any artistic aptitude (for modern styles) or are starting from scratch? You can alternatively create a demand for something that will only soon come into existence.
Suppose we loosen our definition of NFT art further to include just about anything visual with style and variation. In that case, you could enter the realm of smaller digital assets, things that can’t exactly be hung up a wall but can be a good part of a page collection or can be used as a “keychain” of sorts for whoever ends up owning the NFT.
For this method, it might be better to present these two cases instead:
Case 01: Lionel Messi’s Determined Drive for an NFT Legacy
One of the greatest legends in football, Lionel Messi and his production partner BossLogic, have launched a collection of NFT art solely based on himself. These are mostly visual works that highlight the football superstar’s career or simpler illustrations that depict him in any theme that his production partner would envision.
Because specific sports player-based visual NFTs were not yet a thing, Messi effectively created an artificial desire for a product simply by bringing them into existence. Granted, this example mostly shows how popular influence can instantly get the ball rolling for your NFT art business, but the point of fabricating a previously non-existent demand still stands.
Case 02: Benjamin Ahmed’s Weird World of NFT Whales
Extending the hype and reporting sensationalism of NFTs further, many popular media outlets have begun reporting on the deeds of Benjamin Ahmed. He’s no professional digital artist and is not even a dedicated NFT entrepreneur.
This 12-year-old NFT creator likes to draw whales for his collection, and his 8-bit deep-sea wonders had already amassed around $400,000 in equivalent ETH value by the time mainstream news sites started putting him in the spotlight.
This example is even more bizarre when it is immediately obvious that the demand for his NFT whales only took shape after his NFT collection finally took off. No crazy modern visuals. Not a hint of satirical themes.
Artistically, this isn’t even hard to make. But because of the ingenuity(?) of the fabricated demand, he’s now sensationalized as one of the youngest big-time earners within the NFT sphere.
Just Buy and Sell
Lastly, let us not dismiss traditional buying and selling, which is the simplest and most straightforward method of how to sell NFT art with the intention of sustained profitability. Again, you need to create your own crypto wallet. But this time, you’ll be spending to invest in NFT art that can be worth a potential profit.
How exactly will you know if a particular NFT art will be worth anything? Based on some of the most successful NFT transactions, the least troublesome method is to purchase directly from burgeoning artists themselves. Once officially owned, you can assess the time required to contact collector groups that would most likely have the buyer you are looking for.
Much like a budding NFT creator path, it is much safer to start out low (especially if the artist didn’t gain the level of public traction you have previously calculated). Though, of course, you can always go as crazy as you possibly can if you are confident enough.
