Be Successful in NFT creation like Beeple
The ordinary beginnings of Beeple might sound similar to an average person’s life. It brings rise to the question of whether anyone else can reach Beeple’s success.
“Beeple” became the third most valuable artist in Christie’s (the most traditional auction house) with works entirely digital. His works is a digital piece of artwork that made a sale of $69 million, the “Every day’s: The First 5000 Days.” It is a collage of a decade of creation, and people have called this an art time capsule. His works contained his style of a mixture of pop culture, post-apocalyptic terror, and technology.
Before Beeple became an NFT sensation on the market, he started his project “Everyday,” a collection of artworks he makes every day for the past ten years without fail.
Currently, he has an audience of 2M on Instagram, and his projects are still ongoing. However, his success in digital creation would not have been realized, if it were not for the current technology today.
Background of Digital Creation
For a long time, there is a history of people owning art. However, digital art needed technology to bridge the gap for art to make these pieces unique for ownership to exist. Digital Creation was nearly impossible to monetize. The reason for this is you cannot claim ownership of the piece of digital work. As most people would know, anything posted digitally can potentially be seen by millions of people around the world. For example, a picture of the Mona Lisa, but no one can say they own the Mona Lisa just by having its picture alone since the real Mona Lisa is in the Louvre in Paris, France, kept safe in a glass box.
The introduction of blockchain sparked a way to prove ownership of a digital item without needing a physical copy. The thing about the blockchain is that it is, a public ledger, meaning multiple people have a record of the purchase of the piece. It is well-protected from fraud. To manipulate one information, you have to change all those computers that have the record of the sale.
Through blockchain paved the way for NFT, Non-Fungible Tokens. The word non-fungible means it is unique and cannot be replaced, in short, a one-of-one kind of piece. It is a big moment for the creators, as you can validate and invest in digital art. With NFT, there is a digital signature created on the blockchain that proves the ownership of the piece and its uniqueness. This would mean that creators can make a digital signature on their work. Through the digital signature, it proves that they are the creator. The moment they sell it to others, there is proof of the owner because of the blockchain technology.
The cool thing is anyone can do this. Beeple has done this. He wanted to experiment with it by selling his work for a dollar, he used the auction system of NFT. One of his pieces reached 300,000 dollars, and if the piece gets a resell he gets 10% of the cut, and it shows there is a royalty structure. Moreover, there is a community that gives the audience a voice and consistency.
NFT Process
It is good to note that NFTs are an investment and not a one-time thing where you can cash out immediately as you would do in any ATM. There are three steps to set yourself up for success like Beeple. The first is to set up a cryptocurrency wallet. The second is to understand what gas fees are, which a reason why people end up spending too much. The last would be about NFT platforms. I would be discussing three platforms which are OpenSea, Rarible, and Foundation.app. If you will be able to read that far, there are bonus pieces of information.
Wallet Set Up
If you want to purchase something, you would need money to start. This is where you need to get your digital wallet. There are 2 platforms where you can sign in to get your wallet: Metamask or Rainbow. The wallet will have a unique code that allows your buyer to pay you. The wallet is used to authenticate everything you do and keep you secure.
The next step is to get money. You would need to research your country’s guidelines to get cryptocurrency, as some can pay in the bank or credit card or connect it to your bank account.
There are three easiest places to go to Coinbase, which is beginner-friendly and simplest to use. Make sure to do your research on where to buy coins. There is also Etoro, Coinmama, Robinhood, but these choices can depend on your country.
There is another way to get cryptocurrency, which is a crypto loan. You can ask a friend for cryptocurrency in the beginning. Just make sure to give them your wallet code. For them to send the money and make sure to decide how to return the loan.
Fees fees fees: Gas Fees
There are fees to take note of before getting started. These are the cost to mint your NFT and gas money. The cost of minting your NFT is how much you pay the NFT platform to post your NFT on their site. The reason for this is for the platform to create the digital signature for your NFT. This signature will place your art as part of the Ethereum blockchain.
Gas fees are what I like to call the silent killers, it is the most tricky concept to get your piece on an NFT platform. The gas fees are small, but they add up over time. The gas fees are similar to gasoline fees, as the price of these fees is not fixed and changes over periods. This is because for every transaction you make you have to pay. For example, you would want to get the money paid to you, Gas FEE!
If you want to transfer your cryptocurrency into your account, Gas FEE!
NFT Platforms
To formally start the journey, you must link your wallet to the NFT marketplace/ platform. It is important to choose which platform to start with because there are platforms on an invite basis, such as Foundation, and applications to some may take a long time. If ever, you would go to the application route have a portfolio ready or ask anyone there to invite you.
The Foundation. app have a 24-hour auction, and the auction begins when the first bid is placed. There is a fee for minting, a listing fee, a fee on commission on the platform (15%), and a transaction fee. Moreover, there are platforms for different niches such as photography, music, and writing.
The OpenSea allows its users to pay the minting fee for the first time they post, and they can mint the rest of their pieces for free. The downside of OpenSea is you cannot be seen until verified, so you should share on your social media link to share your works.
For Rarible, anybody can get in. However, the numerous supply of works that are great or junk makes it harder for people to be exposed to your works than in OpenSea. It doesn’t have the minting feature of OpenSea, so you have to pay a minting fee every time. I want to note that gas prices still apply for both.
The process to mint on Rarible is first you must click on create and select between two options of single and multiple. Single means only one image is sold and available, while multiple there is a mint of few copies. You can add unlock once purchased like you can add a behind the scenes or anything extra for the owner to enjoy once purchase. Next is to fill in the information. Afterward, you bid or place an instant price. If you chose to put a bid, you would have to pay for the gas fee, as for the instant price you choose the price. You can include the links to redeem the piece and you get to choose how you get paid. Next, is the description and you need to add something meaning about the picture to entice the collector to purchase it. Next, you can set your royalties and if ever someone plans to sell the photos later, you can get a percentage of the resell. Then say input the details of the work which would include the location, size, medium of the work, and minting date, once the item is created the wallet will pop up for the signature. That would be the last part to sign and pay the minting fee and gas.
Bonus: Take caution
As I promised here is some bonus information. First, it would be about gas prices. Just like, regular gas prices go up and down, so you may be unlucky, and when you make a transaction on the blockchain it’s very highly-priced. Some websites track the price of minting prices and would suggest time slots to mint your NFT. One of these websites is gasnow.org. The second would be when to accept the bid, you have to remember that any transaction always pays the gas fee so your revenue may end up decreasing. Third, if you choose the buy-out option you don’t need to pay for gas. Fourth, always leave some money in your wallet, most NFT artists suggest at least $250, to pay for the fees. Fifth is about pricing your piece, this is key that you shouldn’t sell yourself short and your work is worth more. Don’t price yourself too low or else you won’t be able to pay back your mint and gas fees. You may have heard Beeple selling their piece for $1 they were selling 50,000 pieces on the same day and the price of the resell helped him get the payback. Remember that you paid at least $60 for your piece to be shown do you want $1 back? No! It’s also best to do the transaction when you have enough money. Next is selling the piece, a good tip is to have a good following. It would be easier to sell and if you go for this path The ordinary beginnings of Beeple might sound similar to an average person’s life. It brings rise to the question of whether anyone else can reach Beeple’s success.
If you enjoyed the article, please leave a clap and comment on the parts that helped you. It would greatly help me understand what I can do better. Thank you very much for your time to read.
