What is an NFT collection?
An NFT collection is a series of images which are sold to individuals, often through an NFT marketplace.
Collections range in size, but they're most often launched with a set, round number. You'll often see collections of 100, 1000, 10,000 NFTs or something like 3333.
As time goes by and collections become more popular, the creators will often add more NFTs to the collection so that more people can benefit from membership.
While you might think of NFT collections as the simple images many use on their profiles, the real value is in what owning that piece of digital real estate afford you. The best collections all enable you to leverage membership for something more tangible and beneficial for you.
How to create an NFT collection?
A lot of people think creating an NFT collection is as simple as coming up with a cool, often animal themed, art style, creating a few original designs, and spinning them up using an NFT minting platform.
Once you've minted the collection, you add it to a marketplace and hit Twitter for promotion.
Before long, you've got yourself an NFT collection that's printing money, right?
Wrong.
there are people who take that approach, however, they're the collections you see on marketplaces like Opensea witgh loads of NFTs and next to no sales.
If you want to create and launch a successful NFT collection, you need to delve deep and offer something of real value to your customers.
When researching this, we discovered that successful NFT collections all take serious action in at least the below areas.
- Market research - to identify who their NFT collection is set to help
- Design - to create a visually appealing and distinct brand
- Marketing - To get the right words in front of the right people
- Community management - to ensure you're actively helping your users
- Smart contract creation - to offer custom usage from the NFTs
All of this and more is needed to launch a successful NFT collection.
How much does it cost to create an NFT collection?
There's some terrible advice that ranks highly on Google right now regarding the cost of creating an NFT collection.
That advice says you can do it for as little as $150. Which is BS.
We dug into the numbers to find the real cost of creating an NFT collection and discovered that you'll need to spend at least $1150. That';s not including the cost of your time.
If you're hiring the best in class professionals to help your launch, you're looking at around $185,000 to launch a good NFT collection.
Just because most people think NFTs are little more than fun pictures, don't think they're easy to launch and profit from.
What are the kinds of NFT collections?
There are different kinds of NFT collections out there. Most people just think of the big collections we all know the names of. However, you should also know of the major categories in NFTs.
Artwork NFT collections
These are simple pieces of art, often organised in a collection by the artist.
It's much like going around an art gallery that has an event for an artist on. You take a look at all their work and buy the piece you find most impactful.
The artist I most often think about in this category is Beeple.
Beeple most notably sold a collage piece for $69MM in 2021.
Off the back of this, Beeple has now launched NFT collections you'll find on marketplaces like OpenSea.
These NFTs have no real utility beyond the artwork itself.
Community NFT collections
Community NFT collections are the most common right now.
You buy an NFT and, as a result, you get access to a community of peers.
A good example of this is the Leveling Up Heroes NFT collection.
It's aimed at entrepreneurs, and by buying into their collection, you get access to a community of other entrepreneurs along with a few other relevant benefits.
These are the collections I believe are currently most popular.
Collectible NFT collections
You also have collectible NFTs.
Much like old sports trading cards, some people are creating NFT collections that have some form of collectible elements.
These often manifest in the form of...
- Rare traits
- Single edition runs
A lot of the bigger NFT marketplaces now have a "trait breakdown" element within the NFT you're looking at.
People collect NFTs with rare traits, either for bragging rights or because they believe it will appreciate in value.
Hybrid NFT collections
And finally, there are hybrid NFT collections.
Those which offer some form of utility like access to a community, but also have rare traits.
How to choose the right NFT collection to invest in
This is a very individual thing.
What's a great fit for one buyer will not necessarily be a good fit for another.
You have to analyse each and every NFT collection on your own specific wants and needs.
If you want access to a community of entrepreneurs, an NFT collection that offers a discount on coffee goods isn't the right fit - regardless of how much you like the artwork.
Choose carefully as the prices of NFTs is very volatile and can cause significant loss to you if you make poor decisions.
