Ep 109 Artists NFTs for Beginners Part 2

This is part 2 of our podcast about NFTs for Beginners. You can find Ep 108 Artist’s NFTs for beginners Part 1 here. We will go into more about what polygon is, promoting your NFT and some of the scams you need to be aware of in this podcast.

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SANDRA

So why would you choose Etherium then, if Polygon means it’s free to upload your art, whereas Etherium means an initialisation fee?

TARA

Polygon is supposed to be greener energy-wise I believe, but they are supposed to be working on making Ethereum greener. I had advice from a collector to use Ethereum. There are currently more buyers using Ethereum as they hold that currency. Also, I was told that collectors are a bit more cautious with Polygon as more scammers will use it as it’s free to put things up.

SANDRA

So as I mentioned earlier, I actually thought I’d made my first NFT sale just the other day, but in actual fact it turned out, someone was attempting to scam me. And the trouble is, because it was my first sale, my usual scam radar was just not on form so I very nearly fell for it… I mean, these people have no shame. They come across as so lovely, so complimentary and so genuine that it really is hard to tell.

What gave it away was when they said at the point of purchase that somehow they couldn’t get any further and… ‘never mind’ I’m very clued up with NFTs and there’s a very simple fix… Just click this link for simple instructions of how to resolve it and then I can go ahead with the purchase… THAT was when my alarm bell rang. What they were trying to do there, was get into my account and steal my media and most likely the money I have in my digital wallet!

BUT – you can also be scammed when buying NFTs. I mean, if you are going to sell, then after a few sales, you probably need to buy one or two yourself, to show support to other NFT artists.But you need to make sure what you are buying is genuine.

So, how do people scam and how can you tell what you should and shouldn’t buy?

TARA

There are different ways people can scam you. The ones I know are to send you a link in either an email or direct message. If you click the link and do what is asked somehow they access your digital wallet or NFTs.

Websites also pretend to be legitimate sites to try and get your money from you.

Scammers will also sometimes copy all your images and try and sell them themselves on an NFT Marketplace. You then have to report them and hope they get taken down. This happens with everything online. I have heard of big retail shops having clothing with a design very similar to an artist that they have stolen. With online courses and music there are also always ways of downloading them for free.

SANDRA

So what’s next?

TARA

You will need to add some money to your Metamask digital wallet to do this using a credit card. It will convert your money to Ethereum

To initialise Opensea upload a jpeg to create an NFT. You do this in 2 stages. First upload and add all details and description etc. Then once that is saved you can put it for sale. It’s at this point you will be asked to pay the transaction (initialisation gas) fee. Don’t worry it will tell you how much before you press – sign.

Once that’s done it’s not as complicated. You only have to pay once.

SANDRA

Words used related to NFTs

There are a few new words I have had to use now I’m selling NFTs…

Or example, If you ‘mint’ something, it means you are selling it. There are still a few other terms I don’t understand… What are some of the terms you’ve learned Tara and what does it mean if I say, ‘I’ve dropped one?’

TARA

That means you farted Sandra.

In NFT terms I think it means the time the NFT will be available to purchase.

SANDRA

Also, every time I post, I immediately get several accounts saying ‘promote on ~~~~ What’s that about?

TARA

It’s spam, it’s basically automated spam by people who want you to pay them to promote your NFT. It’s like you get on Instagram all the time with people wanting you to pay them to promote your art

SANDRA

Promoting NFTS

We’ll talk about promoting your NFTs now.

We are very new at this so our route has been through Twitter, which seems to be the main hangout for NFT artists.

I found using Twitter alone to be a bit confusing, but I have got the hang of it now. Sort of!

I have learned that it is really important to join in with the NFT talk and get to know the community. So there is a fair amount of investment of time when it comes to social media

And there seems to be a certain way of doing simple things, like saying good morning! So, you would say ‘GM’ instead. Everyone says GM to each other, which is quite unusual… It’s a bit like The Waltons meet Twitter!

Once you’ve said good morning, then you retweet artists’ work that you like and comment on it. In return some will start retweeting yours.

TARA

People also use Twitter Spaces for promotion which is where you can voice chat with a group on Twitter

Also post your NFTs to Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn

Many people use Discord to sell their NFTs. This looks like a very old fashioned Internet bulletin board and I haven’t really used it much. People take part in discussions and also start their own Discords around themselves and their art

People are also using Clubhouse for promotion – Clubhouse is an audio chat site where people can give speeches and form groups and talk about different topics. I haven’t explored this much yet

SANDRA

There are other platforms to sell NFTs on, but I have no experience with any of those. Tara, have you tried any?

TARA

NFT Platforms

Opensea is one of the biggest platforms and the only one we have used so far

• There are a lot of different platforms. A few I have heard of are Foundation, Rarible which also lets you use some different cryptocurrencies, Then there’s Known Origin.

• Another one that might be of interest is Voice.com which is a carbon-neutral NFT platform that I believe lets you buy and sell in dollars. I haven’t tried it yet.

SANDRA

So I have to say that I am quite pleased with myself for learning something new and for getting involved with something that’s quite new in the artist’s world and actually quite daunting.

I would say that my own experience has been mixed so far… There’s been confusion, and frustration but no doubt elation when it comes to selling your first piece. What did that feel like for you Tara?

TARA

I was surprised because I had such a small following on Twitter, but really excited.

SANDRA

Some people find it easier than others to understand the technical side, but even I can now upload an NFT, which is something that at first blew my mind.

TARA

Other NFT Learning Resources

There are a couple of podcasts I would recommend listening to if you want to learn more about NFTs they are NFTs4Newbies which is lighthearted but informative and The Crypto Business Podcast By Micheal Stelzner. A YouTube channel I found useful is NFT Times

SANDRA

And we have a brand new question for you, which is:

Q. What is the hardest thing you have found to learn along your art adventure?

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