Last week I wrote an email to you talking about NFTs and if they have any purpose when it comes to selling your photography.

Just a few days after, I made ~$500USD on a Solana marketplace for one of my 1/1 composite photographs.

It was my first time minting on this chain and marketplace, and the piece sold within 3 days; it even had 3 individual collectors bidding on it.

Now, I'm going to be totally transparent with you, I haven't sold a 1/1 in a year or so.

Last one was back in December of last year, for about ~$2300USD on Ethereum.

The reason for this lack of sales, you ask?

The market overall has been quite slow, and honestly; I haven't been minting much of my work during this downtime in NFTs.

Just figured there wasn't much point in minting work just for it to sit there unsold, since less collectors were collecting new art this past year.

But lately, I've been noticing things picking up, especially on Solana.

So I thought I might as well hop back on the horse, so to speak.

Little did I know, my first 1/1 mint in nearly a year would sell so quickly.

You know how many $500 prints I've sold in the past year?

One, that's it.

Part of that is because I just never talk about my prints (here's my shop in case you're curious) and I am terrible at marketing, but still.

The majority of the art I have sold this year is through my wall decor clients that I license my work to.

Because they have audiences that want to buy art, and they have marketing budgets to help promote my work effectively.

Whereas myself and so many other artists don't have these budgets or audiences actively looking to buy wall decor, which is why selling prints is so hard and most photographers fail at it.

Now, with the right expertise and marketing, you can certainly sell prints.

But I think the barrier to entry of being effective at selling prints to the average joe, versus selling NFTs to the average big collector (in good market conditions that is), is vastly different.

Many of these exchanges where you can mint your work will actually promote your work for you, free of charge.

Just get the piece minted, share it on X (Twitter), and if you catch the attention of the exchange and they like the piece, they'll share it.

All that you need is for an avid collector to spot your piece, connect with it, and your chances of a sale go right up.

Overall, it's a very different space from that of selling prints, and a lot easier to engage with actual buyers compared to Instagram (in my experience anyway).

Like I said, if you're a professional or hobbyist photographer trying to make some money off your work, it's worth looking into.

Go where the liquidity is, that's the key.

And look, I'm going to be transparent with you here.

I don't personally benefit by you following this advice.

If anything, the more artists that start minting their work, the more competitive selling NFTs becomes and the more of a challenge it will be for me.

But I have spent thousands of hours over the years learning how to run my business and figure out ways to make a living off doing what I love.

And I don't want to gatekeep information from my followers just out of fear that it might take away opportunities from me.

Making a living from your art is a challenge, but it's not impossible.

So hopefully these emails can help you to do just that.

Keep pushing, keep creating, and never give up.

Thanks for reading,

Zach

P.S.

If you want to learn more about business, photography, or the NFT space; just ask by replying to this email. I'll be happy to share some brief answers to your questions.

If you need more time and would like to really dive in and learn just about everything I know on one of these topics, then consider booking a live training.

You can do so here.

Book Live Training

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