Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a burgeoning new asset class that has captured the imagination of content creators and collectors everywhere. Ranging from digital works of art to blockchain-based real estate, ‘phygital’ collectibles and more, NFTs are changing the way that people think about value.
As blockchain-based tokens, NFTs are scarce, verifiably genuine, and completely transparent — allowing their provenance and ownership to be confirmed at any time. These attributes lend NFTs to a huge variety of use cases, and creators are now beginning to explore how they can be used to enhance their online and real-life content.
How NFTs Are Empowering Creators
Prior to the advent of NFTs, content creators typically relied on at least one of a handful of platforms to host, distribute, and monetize content on their behalf — typically in return for a sizeable cut of the revenue (e.g. 45% to YouTube, 33% to Spotify, or 30% to Steam).
While some would argue that these platforms provide content creators with access to opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have, others believe that their revenue share models are predatory and that it’s just a matter of time before decentralized alternatives take center stage. Indeed, the platforms are the primary beneficiaries of the creator economy, whereas the creators and their audiences are often left wanting — particularly among platforms that hoard close to 100% of the revenue — like TikTok.
NFTs are beginning to change the paradigm by allowing creators to better monetize their content through true ownership and platform agnostic distribution. By providing a pipeline for talent to directly monetize, reward, and interact with their audience, NFTs are making centralized content delivery platforms obsolete.
As online content creation increasingly becomes a viable career path and revenue stream, NFTs will continue to grow in popularity as a key facilitator and a powerful medium for delivering new types of content. This potential is already being recognized by major brands, including Nike, Dolce & Gabanna, Gucci, Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Burberry — many of which are exploring how NFTs can be used to reach new demographics and expand their product lineup.
Likewise, a growing array of celebrities now use NFTs to grow their personal brand and stand out from the competition. This includes both Eminem and Snoop Dogg — who recently released a music video showcasing their Bored Ape avatars.
Given their extreme flexibility, NFTs can be used to represent a huge variety of content types, ranging from works of art to music, videos, and even entire interactive experiences. This makes them an essentially universal canvas for creativity, which provides artists and creators with free reign over what they create.
Indeed, NFTs are now being used to represent real-life wearable and fashion gear — including Gap’s ‘gap threads’ NFTs which can be redeemed for IRL merch. Some clever creators are also using NFTs to create exclusive membership experiences such as content subscriptions or access to NFT-gated events — providing additional ways to engage their community.
Since NFTs enable true content ownership, they allow creators to distribute ownership of their content with a variety of potential stakeholders — allowing investors and holders to share in the success of their favorite creators thanks to capabilities like on-chain royalty distributions and IP licensing. This could help to usher in a new era of sponsorships, partnerships, and creator-fan interactions.
Becoming a Successful NFT Creator
Like most things, the odds of becoming a successful NFT creator are largely under your control. By employing a few battle-tested strategies and going above and beyond the competition, you can dramatically increase your chances of launching the next hot NFT collection.
Though the pathway to launching and sustaining a successful NFT collection can vary considerably from case to case, there are a handful of best practices that can help make the journey easier. These include:
- Engage your community: A strong, vibrant community is crucial to the success of any NFT project. Prior to and after creating your NFT collection, you’ll need to begin building and engaging with your community. This will involve networking, engaging with well-known NFT aficionados, increasing exposure, and involving your community in your narrative.
- Be original: NFTs are commonly thought of as an expression of creativity, and some of the most successful NFT projects are ones that pushed the envelope when it comes to the wow factor. Though it can be tempting to simply clone an existing collection and put your spin on it, the NFT community can be a fickle bunch — originality is rewarded while unimaginative collections can become the laughing stock of the NFT sphere.
- Consider adding utility: Most bluechip NFTs are more than simple digital collectibles. They are a status symbol and can be used to unlock doors that people don’t even know exist. Though many NFT collections are desirable simply due to their rarity, prestige, and artwork, investors almost invariably prefer their NFTs to have utility. Whether this is access to exclusive events, guaranteed whitelisting for partner projects, revenue sharing, or inclusion as part of the NFT narrative, there are dozens of ways to give back to your community through utility.
- Leverage the latest technologies: The landscape of NFT tools and basic infrastructure is growing rapidly. Creators that leverage the latest tools and services have the opportunity to separate themselves from the competition and ensure their NFT is future-proof. This might include going carbon-neutral, using fractionalization tools, leveraging high-speed blockchain platforms like Substrate, or considering the latest synergistic DeFi solutions.
- Go exclusive: Anything easily accessible typically isn’t particularly desirable. The same goes for NFTs. By putting up some basic barriers to entry, you help to build a stronger, closer-knit community and help to separate yourself from the legions of low-effort cash grabs that pollute the market today.
- Don’t forget to network: Though the creativity and USPs of your NFT project will likely be the primary drivers of interest, don’t forget the importance of networking for improving exposure and forming synergistic partnerships. Take advantage of NFT newsletters, NFT social events, online meetups and presentations, and the myriad Telegram, Discord, and Reddit communities to help you find your niche and build awareness.
- Build your presence: Having a strong social media presence can make or break an NFT project. By taking part in trending conversations, demonstrating thought leadership and expertise, getting savvy with #hashtags, and engaging with other NFT creators, you help to grow your brand and influence — which can translate into improved sales and greater opportunities.
- Enter the metaverse: As an expansive, interconnected landscape of digital platforms and services, the metaverse is widely expected to become the next frontier for NFT growth and adoption. Consider exploring how the metaverse can be used to expand the scope of your NFT project and provide exposure to new audiences.
Moving Forward
The NFT landscape is still very much in its earliest days of development. Indeed, just a year ago, the most popular NFT marketplace (OpenSea) had less than 40,000 monthly active users — a figure which increased more than 15 fold within 6 months to reach over 546,000.
Moreover, according to data from Crypto Slam, there are now more than 5.5 million unique NFT buyers, which have traded an average of 15.8 times each since September 2017. To put this into perspective, the number of unique NFT buyers has increased by 20,000% in the last 2 years and 75% in the last year alone.
Image courtesy: Crypto Slam
As awareness of the potential of NFTs increases, alongside their utility and desirability, it is likely that they will become a part and parcel of interacting and engaging with popular creators. With a staggering 50+ million creators worldwide and billions of followers and viewers, it is clear that NFTs have not yet reached their full potential. Though the uptake, usage, and value of NFTs will likely fluctuate just with any other asset, their long-term growth is almost certain.
By building the infrastructure that both existing and future content creators can use to create and deploy their novel NFT products, GONFTY hopes to help make NFTs an integral part of the content landscape. For more on the GONFTY ecosystem and its potential, see the litepaper.
About GONFTY
GONFTY is an infrastructure project building a multi-chain Metaverse Engine, empowering anyone to create metaverses and blockchain-based games. It will be at the core of an industry-leading infrastructure platform, integrated with our very own on-chain gaming metaverse, and will house a suite of high-quality interoperable, independent blockchain games for end-users to navigate and play.
For more information about GONFTY, have a look at our links below.
🌐 Website: https://gonfty.network/
🌐Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/real_GONFTY
🌐 Telegram: https://t.me/Official_GONFTY (Announcements) | https://t.me/GONFTY_EN (Discussion Group)
🌐 Discord: https://t.co/QEtTZszGIZ
🌐Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gonfty_official/
🌐 Medium Link: https://gonfty.medium.com/
🌐 LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gonfty