OK, OneArt. How Do I Earn on NFTs?
The NFT lucrative market draws artists, investors, and average users like a moth to a flame. The Jefferies bank predicts its market cap to soar to over $35 billion this year and to reach more than $80 billion by 2025.
More and more big brands and celebrities leverage these opportunities to generate income. Prada, Adidas, Bella Hadid, Visa, and Louis Vuitton are just a few to mention. Even Kanye West who earlier seemed to be skeptical about the non-fungible token’s launch has filed trademark applications for YEEZUS mentioning NFTs.
NFTs are worth jumping on. OneArt has some tips for you if you want to play in this space but don’t know how to start.
What do artists say?
The NFT market provides:
- New experience.
Tokyoflesh loves the idea of his work integrated into the blockchain, he says in an interview to NFTCulture.“In early 2021, I felt like a pioneer in a world where I can be recognized for my work.”
- New audiences.
Anna Levytska appreciates the opportunity to communicate with collectors in a new way — “and not with old-fashioned galleries, but real people” (an interview to NFTCulture).
- New sources of income + royalty paybacks (the latter are usually set at 5% or 10%).
“NFTs allow us a new stream of income, which is fantastic. You can be anywhere in the world, and you can sell an NFT to anywhere else in the world,” Blake Jamieson explains to CNBC. Learn more about how he started to sell art.
- Provable authenticity and scarcity.
Can an average person make money on NFTs?
Yes. Anyone can break into the market. You don’t need specific skills, such as programming, drawing, or design. Even kids manage to crank out profits from NFTs.
Here’re several stories of success to inspire you. See for yourself.
Brittany Pierre: $109,000
Brittany Pierre, a Chicago self-taught photographer, and filmmaker, has earned $109,000+ selling her NFTs. Before a friend gave her this idea, a 36-year-old Brittany was barely making ends meet. With her earnings, she could hardly afford to pay rent and bus fare and buy groceries, she told CNBC Make It.
The community helped her raise funds for gas fees to mint a few items. Her first $200 and $300 sales made a difference. Brittany began to make more than her physical photo sessions could make. For Brittany, NFT is a momentous technology that literally helped her survive — buy food, pay rent, etc. Now she’s also investing in other creators’ tokens.
Alex Lugo: enough to support his family, quit truck driving, and look for a bigger house
Alex Lugo from Lindenhurst, NY used to drive to earn his living, he told The New York Times. $25 per hour was scarcely anything for a family with two kids.
Then he tapped into crypto trading, followed by NFTs. Alex flips them for $2,000 to $10,000 (see below the details on flipping). He also owns the metaverse realty next to the Adidas headquarters so as to get paid a fortune when the company decides to expand.
Benyamin Ahmed: $1 million
A 12-year-old Benyamin Ahmed from London is not an artist, but he managed to sell his Weird Whales for $248,000. Currently, the collection’s market cap surpasses $2,5 million. Benyamin also gets a 2.5% commission when his items are resold. Now he is a millionaire.
He learned to draw by watching YouTube videos, grabbed an idea of minting, and tweeted about the process. The tweets went viral, and the collection was sold out in just nine hours. The boy teamed up with designers with Disney and Marvel projects on their portfolios to create other collections, as per New York Post.
Abigail: $1+ million
A 14-year-old Abigail, aka @peachsundayYT, sold 8,000 NFTs for more than $1 million. They were sold out in 10 hours, with one of the NFTs purchased for $10,000.
The young artist thinks it’s charity that drives people to her tokens. The images are cute, but for Abigail, it’s all about their utility. The Belugies raised funds for Alaskan belugas conservation. The girl also donated to an organization helping kids fight cancer. Later the team helped support children in Uganda and raise money for Ukraine.
Some drawbacks to keep in mind
- The NFT market’s whopping growth results in the hype, speculation, security issues, and scam. Remember a collector having paid $300,000+ in ETH for a fake Banksy token? Well, that time the scammer was so bad about it that decided to give the money back. But this case is rather an exception.
- It’s a highly volatile market: you can gain everything and lose everything as well.
- A question of ownership and other legal issues are still unresolved. What rights do you actually get when buying NFT? Are they taxed? What about IP rights?
Minting NFTs
‘Minting’ stands for placing your piece of art on the blockchain. Here’re some examples and best types of NFT art according to Dribbble.
Once you’ve decided on the idea and created your art, choose a platform to mint a token. These are the most popular:
❗️ Read the terms and conditions carefully, as minting gas fees vary.
To learn more about the NFT artwork storing, standards, and minting process, check out this article. Need a newbie’s guide on minting your 1st NFT? It’s here.
I’m not an artist. How can I make money?
Well, you don’t necessarily have to be one. An Indonesian student became a millionaire selling his selfies as NFTs. Now you don’t even have to create your own tokens to earn.
📈 Flipping
Actually, it’s a buy low and sell high strategy. However, it’s not as easy as it seems since you have to decide on a promising project. You’ll find some hints here.
🤝 Renting out
Who would ever borrow your NFT? Gamers would — to access big leagues, unlock higher levels, or earn rewards. For example, Splinterlands’ users are allowed to rent out their cards.
💰 Investing in an NFT project in its infancy
There’s a bunch of startups to invest in and earn some perks. Investors consider some of them promising enough to help them raise millions, such as Arianee which raised $21 million in the Series A round. And over the past year, NFT-related startups collectively raised “$2.6 billion in seed, venture or growth funding,” according to Crunchbase.
🕹 Gaming
NFTs can be used to buy and trade items in blockchain-based games such as CryptoKitties, The Sandbox, or Splinterlands. Need some help to kick-start your play-to-earn experience? Learn more from our article about the top GameFi projects.
🗝 Staking
It’s one of the ways to get passive income. To get rewards or other perks, all you need to do is lock up your token on a protocol or platform (check out these top 5). The type and amount of reward depend on the platform and NFT type.
❗️ You can’t stake any token you want — review the terms before buying NFTs.
What you need to stake NFT:
- A wallet that supports your NFT. For instance, OneArt Wallet is a multichain one, i.e., you can access tokens regardless of the blockchain network.
- Connect the wallet to the platform.
A few more tips
✅ If you’re a creator, add some value to your token, e.g., tickets, exclusive access to events, services, and more.
✅ Buy items if you really like the piece of art and technology underlying NFTs or appreciate the community. These are relationships to be built on trust.
✅ Make sure to find out who’s the creator and what projects they are connected to. Check if the community is strong and active. Read the terms and policies carefully. Do your own market research.
✅ Contribute to the community.
✅ Zero in on your wallet security: enable 2FA, keep your seed phrase offline and completely private, watch out for scammers, and don’t click any suspicious links.
Closing thoughts
Can NFTs make you rich? There’s no unique answer. However, the industry has a long way to go and is opening scope for opportunities for artists and non-creators all over the world.
Most likely you won’t be able to repeat the success of CryptoPunks, but you never know when an idea will pop up. Don’t throw out the weird ones. Just recall NFT toilet paper (from $500 to $2,100), a digital twig for a dog (starting at $1,200), fart audio clips ($85)… Show will go on!
