Thread by @stellabelle

How to sell cryptoart without shilling

<A Thread> 🧵

When I first started my @cryptostellas satirical pfp project, I decided to invent many new components to make it fun mainly because im uncomfortable with selling. Much of this involved listening to my collectors and using my imagination.

When I started my project, I had a problem: I didn’t know how to price my NFTs. So I asked people who had already been liking my art on Twitter for answers.
One of my collectors said this: price some at .08 eth,have puzzles, contests and other ways for people to earn your art.

I started out pricing my 1/1 art at .08 ETH in the beginning. This year, I increased my base price to .15 ETH. This pricing scheme has resulted in my collectors making a tidy profit if they decide to sell. Many people are able to 10X their investment.

This strategy was taken directly from the PFP formula. I feel it’s important to make sure people are always in profit, so that is why I chose this route.

I have some of my art priced at $1M, and many other prices too for the future. I want to make sure that I have some of my original art (just in case, LOL). But I think for 1/1 artists, especially if you’re new, pricing your art lower if it’s in a collection is wise.

It makes your art more accessible to more people, and they will hopefully make a profit.

VIP list not a Fomo WL list: I didn’t have the typical WL (whitelist). I have a VIP list, which consisted of friends and those who retweeted my art and who were excited about it. I did this in secret because I wanted to reward those who were authentically interested in my art.

Make your art #CC0 (public domain), and encourage your friends, collectors and followers to create derivative work. This will result in organic marketing for you. Many people have already made derivative work of CryptoStellas, and it acts as viral marketing for me.

This is one of the most under-utilized mechanisms that artists are not aware of. Recent awesome derivative art:

https://twitter.com/kbometaverse/status/1494163995485696000

@nftland you might be interested in this.

Recently i sold art i never shilled: i created a reaction video to a tweet from @MuseumofCrypto

I never intended to sell this video, I made it because I felt moved by the lyrics of MOCA describing being hacked recently.

It was “pure art” without thought of selling it.

I shared my song/video in the replies section because I wanted to give MOCA a gift, I wanted them to know their lyrics inspired me. This is communication more than art:

https://twitter.com/MuseumofCrypto/status/1492983631530401797

An art collector saw my video on Twitter and asked to DM me. i learned the collector wanted to buy my song. I worked the better part of the day getting the details right, including asking the collector what thumbnail they wanted.

I haggled until I got to a price I was comfortable with: .2777 ETH (keep in mind I had told the collector I was splitting the profits with MOCA).

This part of the selling was more like customer service and less like art.

https://twitter.com/stellabelle/status/1494138731418292224?s=20&t=kHMCcZa304wpdBVI0QQGpw

I gave MOCA half the profits because after all, I didn’t write those lyrics, I merely sang them.

Share your art on Twitter before you mint. i do this because I want to get a feel if people like my art. This gives me an idea who’s is interested and sometimes, I end up selling my NFT to people who express the most enthusiasm for it.

I also share my process videos frequently to remind people that yes, I am working on art. I am an artist.

i created a cipher that was hidden inside one of my paintings: bit.ly/3s0O6do
The result of creating a cipher puzzle is that word got around in several discords besides my own that a puzzle was needing to be solved.

This resulted in a few serious puzzle solvers joining

joining my discord and then ultimately solving the cipher:

https://twitter.com/Chris_Mazzone/status/1460242212705472517

Creating new experiences for people is way better than giving your money to cheesy marketing shills.

Encourage people to do something crazy like put posters of your art on the side of their truck like Sean did:

https://twitter.com/SeanKGriffin/status/1470504763947159557?cxt=HHwWisC4-dWSpOgoAAAA

Sean Griffin earned a CryptoStella when he put posters of my art on his truck.

Basically this is reverse marketing, with the action of marketing being done first before any payment transpires. In this case, I used my art as the currency.

Have art auction party in the metaverse, namely @cryptovoxels . If you don’t yet have metaverse land, make friends with those who do or learn how to build in CV. Just look for the “sandbox” parcels, they are free for anyone to build on. Or build one in oncyber.io

Collecting the collectors: I chose a lot of my collectors because I wanted to create a group of interesting people.

No paid marketing: I don’t do any paid marketing (yet). I’m following the example of Tesla, who also doesn’t do any paid marketing. My art should speak for itself. So instead of paying cheesy marketers, I funnel that money back into my collectors by way of gifts.

i do things like manufacturing custom art chocolate and giving it to my holders. I spent around $1,500 on custom chocolate that was given to my collectors. This is the company I used and btw, the chocolate quality was superb: totallychocolate.com

In conclusion, I encourage artists to think more creatively instead of just tweeting “buy my art”. To be transparent, sometimes I do this too LOL……….but sometimes I do it as a joke, because I usually tweet “Buy This” for some of my NFT’s that I priced at $1 million USD.

Do your crazy ideas………it just might work! It certainly is in demand because hardly anyone is doing what I’m doing!

If you made it this far then join me today at 2 PM CST for a Spaces about this exact topic: twitter.com/i/spaces/1OyKA…