This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Here's a tip for learning about a new technology, or any new topic, something that is new to you. The tip is to do it in small chunks. And just let things come to you. And if you don't understand everything right away, well, you just keep learning and maybe absorb from different sources. And so if you hear this episode, for example, and you don't understand what's going on, just keep it in the back of your mind.
And then the next time you hear about the topic, perhaps another part of it will make sense. And why do I mention that? Because today's episode is about NFTs. NFTs, non-fungible tokens, also known as digital art that is for sale to the highest bidder. And you might've heard elsewhere of how wild these markets are, but I think there's a great unanswered question.
The question is, how can an artist, a working artist out there, actually participate and benefit from them? So if you're an artist, or if you know somebody who makes art, today, rather than give you a listener question, I actually got several listener questions about this, but I'm gonna give you a listener answer instead. And this answer comes from Doris Y that we featured on episode 795. Doris is an artist in Toronto who has actually sold NFTs. That's why I asked her to help us out and answer this question.
I was like, Doris, please explain how this works. So we're gonna hear from Doris after the sponsor message, and then I'll say a couple of things at the end as well. So if something doesn't make sense, I will try to clarify at least a couple of points. [Music]
I heard about NFTs through a friend that was really in the cryptocurrency space. He reached out to me and mentioned that there was a new platform for artists that allowed them to create with blockchain technology.
The advantage of that was being able to prove where the art comes from and its authenticity, and the owner who minted the item on the blockchain. He also mentioned that when the artist creates and mints on blockchain, they can also set a royalty for each piece that they mint. And if that piece gets resold, the artist would get a percentage of the money forever and ever. He also mentioned that there was not very many calligraphers and hand letterers in the space so far. So I should explore it and be one of the first artists to take my type of art there.
At the time, I did notice another calligrapher friend talking about NFTs as well. And she actually minted a couple of pieces. So she kind of held my hand a little as I made my way into the metaverse and I took the plunge and minted something that would live on forever. I knew when I discovered NFTs, my first project would be the bottled feelings exhibit. In February of 2020, I had my first gallery exhibit called bottled feelings.
Hand lettered feelings on bottles from anonymous people. I wanted to share this exhibit with the world and with NFTs I could. It was another artistic way that allowed me to keep ownership of my real bottles as I wanted them to be on display again in the future. So I started transcribing the bottles and releasing them five each week and so far, I'm at 35 out of 54 bottles. There are many platforms that mint and sell NFTs, but I chose OpenSea because it seemed easy to navigate and provided a one-time gas fee.
And with that gas fee paid in the beginning, you can mint as many NFTs as you like. And since I had 54 bottles to mint, I figured it was the most cost-effective way to create my first NFT collection. There are other platforms such as SuperRare, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Higginunk, Origin, and Caliment, and there are more as well. Some need invitations, some require an extensive application process, some anyone can join like OpenSea. Some platforms are for the average art and token collector.
Some platforms sell art pieces in an auction format for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Before deciding where to mint, you should take a look at each one and think about the market that you want to enter and reflect on the type of artist you are as well. Do you wanna create one of a kind never to be recreated pieces? Or do you wanna create collectible cards that can be collected and traded? One thing is for sure, you as the artist must know the purpose behind your art and your pieces.
Simply put, I've sold three NFTs. I used OpenSea and at the time of the sale, they were about $330 each. All of my bottle feelings are priced at 0.09 ETH, so it fluctuates depending on the rate of the ETH on the day of purchase. If anyone wants to explore the NFT space, it's so important to know the marketing aspect of selling NFTs. And it's very important because it's based on the crypto and NFT communities and the artists and collectors, and they're all hanging out on Clubhouse.
Clubhouse and Twitter is currently where all the NFT action is happening. So it's important to listen, join rooms, and speak about your NFT art, which is no different than promoting and marketing your work business products in real life. My sales definitely came from speaking in rooms about my art and my vision for my work in real life and in the NFT space. The bottom line is NFTs are another platform for the artistic and the creative to share their work and make a mark as well in the blockchain for the future. - Thank you so much Doris, I really appreciate that.
Listeners, if you wanna check out Doris's website, lovelettering.ca, lovelettering.ca for Canada, you can see her art there, both physical and virtual. She does some amazing work. She's got a great Instagram account as well. And before we wrap up, just a couple of quick points here. As I said, learn these things in chunks.
If some of this stuff was really confusing, I get it. This is how I learned about blockchain and cryptocurrency is just by doing it in small pieces. Whenever I didn't understand something, I would go and look it up. So one of the things Doris mentioned was ETH, that's spelled ETH, that is Ether, the currency built on Ethereum, the blockchain network. And OpenSea is one of the companies where you can sell NFTs.
DAS fees, last but not least, DAS fees are transaction costs you pay when buying and selling. So does it all make sense? If so, you know more than 99% of people out there. And if not, as I said, that's okay. We're gonna include some links on the notes page, which is sidehustleschool.com/1666, especially a link to OpenSea.
It's one of the largest companies doing this, and they have some helpful documentation on their site as well. Okay, that's it for today. Come back tomorrow. We'll be talking about something much less low-tech, and of course, a range of stories, questions, tips, case studies to follow. Thank you so much for listening.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
