“Choosing a location is integral to the film: in essence, another character.”

~ Ridley Scott

Hello there! It’s Ivan, you know – “that NFT guy“. 😉

We’ve talked about how NFTs are made possible by smart contracts and blockchains and why people buy them. If you’re an NFT geek, you can write your own smart contracts and mint your own NFTs on a blockchain.

However, most artists don’t have these skills, and you are not going to learn how to program smart contracts in this book. So, you need some help getting your NFTs onto the market. This is where NFT marketplaces come in.

Selling Your NFTs Outside NFT Marketplaces

Before we talk about NFT marketplaces, we want to point out that you can make deals for your NFTs outside of the marketplace. In fact, you don’t even need to take cryptocurrency for NFTs. You can sell your NFTs for cold hard cash if you want.

You can trade NFTs for anything or even give them away as gifts and promotional items.

Moreover, you can also use an NFT platform such as OpenSea to mint your NFTs and then sell them on any other Ethereum-compatible marketplace.

Let’s say someone comes up to you at an art show or a gig. They tell you how much they enjoy your work. You mention to them that you’re also selling NFTs. If they show even a slight bit of curiosity, you whip out your mobile device and show them your work.

If they express an interest in buying one of your NFTs, you could just negotiate a cash price and then transfer the NFT to their wallet – done deal. (If they don’t have a crypto wallet, help them install one on their phone.)

PRO TIP: We do recommend that before you transfer an NFT, you ask the buyer to create an OpenSea account (or whatever platform you’re selling on) if they don’t already have one.

Then move the NFT over to the buyer’s wallet using the platform’s transfer feature. That keeps your work listed on the marketplace. Even if the buyer never lists the item for sale, shoppers will be able to make offers. Keep in mind that any future sales will pay out royalties.

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

~ Seth Godin

What are NFT Marketplaces?

Simply put, NFT marketplaces are platforms that utilize smart contracts to mint and sell NFTs on your behalf. For the most part, think of an NFT marketplace as being similar to a marketplace such as Etsy or DeviantArt.

You list your art, people buy it, they send you the money, and you send the art to the buyer. It’s the same with NFTs. Except, the marketplace collects cryptocurrency payments (some now take cash also) and then transfers the ownership of the art to the buyer on your behalf.

Just a year or two ago there were only a handful of NFT marketplaces.

Since the explosion of NFTs over the past few years, it seems now that a new NFT marketplace is launched every week. Moreover, several of the world’s biggest e-commerce platforms, including eBay and Amazon, are looking into NFTs. Many more are sure to follow.

Likely, companies such as Apple and Mircosoft are also looking at the possibility of getting into the NFT game. Don’t be surprised to see an Apple NFT Store within the next couple of years.

OpenSea

OpenSea is the whale of the NFT world with trading volume far above the rest of the pack. The marketplace currently has hundreds of thousands of users and has racked up billions of dollars in sales.

Blur

Blur is the biggest OpenSea competitor. It’s a new platform that even made more trading volume than OpenSea recently. Something we thought would never happen! They also have amazing airdrops, so be sure to check them out.

In our next article, we will dive deep into the importance of the NFT community. 😀

The article was written by: Ivan Markov, NFTartXpert