So, you’ve decided you want to try your hand at being an NFT creator. That’s great news! NFTs have changed the lives of countless creators and there’s a chance they could change yours. The key is staying dedicated and paying attention to the details. 

One of the most important details is deciding the types of NFTs you’d like to create. There are three primary types of NFTs to choose from, each with its own source of value. Here are your options:

Art-Only NFTs

Art-only NFTs are where non-fungible tokens got their start. About a decade ago, a cryptocurrency enthusiast created a piece of digital art to see how storing its data on the blockchain would work out. 

To the artists’ surprise, everything worked perfectly. Even more surprising, the NFT fetched a small fortune in the market. 

However, you don’t have to be a digital artist to create a valuable art-only NFT. Photographers, painters, and even musicians are sharing their art with the help of the blockchain. So, if you’re an artist in any capacity, and you believe your art can resonate with a target audience, this may be the way to go. 

Computer-Generated Collections

Some of the most popular NFTs online today fall into the computer-generated category. These are collections of similar NFTs – usually featuring 10,000 but the size of your collection is completely up to you. 

The creators behind these collections create custom traits that are randomly generated and inserted into each NFT by an algorithm. 

In the end, you have thousands of NFTs that may be somewhat similar, but each has unique characteristics – some of which are rarer than others. Some of the most popular NFTs in this category include Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, but there are countless computer-generated collections online, many of which are seriously successful. 

Utility NFTs

Utility NFTs can be one-off pieces of art or computer-generated collections. The big feature of these is that they can be used as something other than a digital file to admire. These NFTs have uses built into them. For instance:

  • Event Tickets. Some NFTs act as tickets to events. Once the attendee has his ticket scanned, the blockchain records the attendance and the NFT acts as memorabilia for the event. 
  • Place Holders. One NFT that really caught my attention recently was a wine placeholder. You purchased a bottle of fine wine and were handed an NFT. The wine was stored in optimal conditions and when you wanted to drink the bottle, you simply traded your NFT for it. Several companies are beginning to use NFTs as a way to track high-value stored goods – digital placeholders if you will. 
  • Contracts. Some, including myself, believe the blockchain is the way of the future in legal contracts. Some lending companies are already giving loans via NFTs, there have even been NFT mortgages. While this kind of utility is a bit more cumbersome, finding a niche in NFT contracts can be big business. 

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that if you want to be successful as an NFT creator, you have to decide what type of NFT you’re going to create first. Carefully consider your options above and come back next Thursday to talk about which of these options is the easiest to create, which is the hardest, and which lies somewhere in the middle.