Whilst thinking about how to make money through my art and creative endeavours I realised that I’ve had a crack at everything you can think of to try and make a buck.
Now I’ve just started exploring and experimenting with non-fungible tokens (NFT) and I have to say, I’m excited about their potential.
As a photographer and illustrator I’m always looking for ways to boost my income or generate another passive income lead. You name it, I’ve tried it! Some of my creative endeavours come to nothing and some have been really fruitful. It looks as if my NFT foray is going to be the latter.
When looking for inspiration for which of my photos I could turn into NFTs I trawled through my sales reports of images and illustrations that had sold multiple times to newspapers and publications in the last 10 years which gave me a few hints and ideas and has led to a few cheeky sales already.
I’m not going to reveal too much of my operation here, for fear of copycats, but I will say that the popular street artist Banksy has featured heavily in my creations.
For those of you worried that I don’t own the copyright to this work, I’m not selling his work exactly but I am selling my photos of his work, much of which is buffed, tagged or destroyed very quickly after it’s creation. If you’re a follower of Banksy’s work you’ll know that he has had problems copyrighting his previous works so I’m comfortable working this way.
Fortunately my street art radar was pretty good when I lived in London and had some time on my hands so I managed to capture many photos with my trusty Canon before they were wrecked, meaning I have quite an extensive library of Banksy’s work ready to hit the market.
Since starting my new NFT venture I’ve decided to take expert advice and have employed a NFT marketing agency to help give me some advice and guidance to head me in the right direction.
One useful tip I picked up from a Crypto-crazy friend was to ensure that if you’re researching marketing agencies for NFTs and Crypto then you should really focus on a partnership that is outcome driven and remuneration is based upon the increase in pre agreed goals rather than the number of blog posts or influencer posts which can be of limited value.
Much like the SEO industry, you often get what you pay for and if you’re paying peanuts, you’re gonna’ get monkeys! No offence to any monkeys reading this.
For those of you who are new to NFTs, we answer some of the more commonly asked questions:
How much does it cost to create an NFT?
There isn’t a straight forward answer to this, but we’ll break it down a little for you:
The main costs include:
• Gas Fees – a fee for making a transaction on the blockchain
• Account Fees – these are charged by whichever NFT marketplace you choose to use
• Listing Fee – Some platforms allow you to mint your NFT but might charge a fee for listing it for sale
It’s worth doing your research with the charges associated with each marketplace and fees range in value from between $1 and $500, but due to the volatility of many Cryptocurrencies this can change dramatically and can be hard to predict.
OpenSea and Rarible seem to be the most popular options amongst my social circle.
Ethereum seems to still be the most popular place for creating an NFT on blockchain.
If you’re new to NFTs and the world of Crypto, you might like to explore Lazy Minting which is the process where artists can display their work for purchase and the registering of the NFT on the blockchain doesn’t actually occur until after the purchase has been completed.
Which are the most popular sites to mint NFTs?
In no particular order, the most popular NFT minting services are:
• Binance Smart Chain
• Enjin
• Forje
• Rarible
• OpenSea
• Proton Mint – although we haven’t tried this service yet, we hear that minting is free!
Can I buy an NFT without crypto?
Yes, but most people use crypto.
Cryptopayment infrastructure firm MoonPay now allows customers to purchase NFTs using fiat currency and then converting it into tokens to complete the transaction.
Mastercard and Coinbase are also in talks to launch a similar service.
With the ability to pay in both fiat or cryptocurrency, the NFT market is bound to become a more accessible market to more buyers and increase it’s popularity for collectors of digital art.
While I’m still in the early stages of my NFT career, the sales have been promising so far and I’m looking forward to taking things up a notch with the rest of the Banksy photo stash I have on my hard drives. I’ll pop back with an update soon!
